MovieChat Forums > Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Discussion > Did real sex cults ever exist?

Did real sex cults ever exist?


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Yes. Usually among the English upper classes. Here is a link to the wikipedia article on "The Hellfire Club". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfire_Club

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There was the creepy cult River and Jaoquin Phoenix used to belong to. I think there was one other celebrity that was brought up in that cult as well. It was called "Heaven's Children" or something like that and was shut down when the feds learned they were practicing pedophilia.

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Seriously?

In ancient times sex cults were all the rage. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians were especially big on them. Dionysian cults worshiped the Greek god of wine Dionysus and they had bacchanalia festivals, vast drunken orgies in tribute to the wine god.

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I cant help but feel sorry fro people like Corey who are put into terrible situations.

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They still exist. Everything you've ever seen in a movie exists. Bored rich people are up for anything.

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Absolutely

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They still exist, and not just among the bored rich.

Google the word "devadasi", for instance.

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Great point, and illustrative I believe of the tendency of sex cults to be staples of polytheistic societies where gods representing specific individual attributes can be divinely worshiped. So it figures they'd still be prevalent in Hindu India.

It's debatable whether the "sex cult" of Eyes Wide Shut was actually a cult or a secret society of wealthy that congregated for orgies. I usually attribute some religious/spiritual aspect to the term but I suppose it's not necessary.

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Yeah, I don't know if that was a cult or a club, or if the girls in masks were going through a ritual or putting on a performance. Or satisfying a fetish.

And if you have a theory of sex in religious practice, which shows you've actually thought about the issue, got any more modern-day real-life examples?

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You might have heard of OTO aka Order of Oriental Templars. It's more secret society with sex rituals but it could be legitimately called a "sex cult". It was made famous by Aleister Crowley and is modeled on Freemasonry including its own unique brand of teachings based in Gnostic mysticism. Much like the Freemasons there are different degrees of trained mastery but also includes sex magick rituals at the highest levels. When Crowley headed the order he expanded training that include masturbatory, hetero, and anal sex magick training as rites of passage in order to ascend to Grand Mastery. The central sex ritual is the Gnostic Mass authored by Crowley. It's kind of a troll on the Christian Eucharist, replete with a clothed priest and nude woman (priestess) laying flat on altar, and sex initiated by the priest on the priestess with the priestess reciprocating by giving the priest head. The mass was later adopted by the satanic church. During Crowley's time it surely attracted a ton of followers but these days it's pretty hard to say how big they are though they have chapters all over the world they remain shrouded in occult obscurity.

Tantric Buddhism is pretty interesting since sexual union is its core tenet where it's believed divine states of enlightenment can be attained through sexual ritual. The group rituals of "mainstream" Tantric Buddhism nowadays are purely symbolic and confined to mental visualization and meditation, but there still are schools of Tantric Buddhism where advanced students practice traditional tantric sex rituals. Orgasm is strictly discouraged since the whole idea behind Tantric sex is to prolong it into a mind blowing state of constant near-orgasm to attain nirvana. Orgasm itself is frowned upon since its seen as giving in to the carnal desires of the flesh that disregards the spiritual element.

Yoga actually originated from Tantric sex as it combined meditative states and physical contortions developed to improve blood flow to keep the body and mind in harmony to best achieve those prolonged states of perpetual arousal, so of course the adoption of tantric sex practices into new age religious cults here in the west became a HUGE thing.

I'd guess sex is a central feature of just about every modern new agey cult out there because it's just human nature. When you've got a cult leader treated as divine, believing he's a god, and wielding absolute power he (or she) is going to be fucking all the subjects and using sex as a means to wield power. Not much different than kings in the Middle Ages. Exception would be the Hale Bopp comet cult since their leader had himself surgically castrated.

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No more Bopping for him, I guess.

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[deleted]

One read of today's newspapers about a certain mansion in New York may be illuminating for the OP

This film wasn't based on fantasy only, Kubrick had a message.

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