ABC Information Studios’ ‘The Cult of NatureBoy’: Contained in the modern-day cult led by ‘the last word influencer’

They referred to as him their god, however behind that charismatic facade, he was a grasp manipulator.

In “The Cult of NatureBoy,” ABC Information Studios takes audiences into the case of Eligio Bishop, aka “NatureBoy,” who used social media to recruit followers to hitch what he described as a real-life utopia.

Ultimately, all of it become one thing extra sinister.

On The Purple Carpet spoke with director Benjamin Zand and investigator Chantelle Coleman concerning the four-part docuseries.

In 2016, Bishop started utilizing his social media platforms to evangelise about an idyllic way of life, particularly, “he was form of preaching a solution to form of most of the issues that form of younger People, particularly younger Black People are going through at that time, with a form of easy message of form of return to nature,” Zand explains.

Tall and handsome, Zand says Bishop was “like the last word influencer.”

He actually used that affect to his benefit.

“He has an ego the scale of Earth,” Coleman tells us.

“He is somebody that believes that he has a solution for every part and that each one data ought to come by way of him. He is someone who believes that, and he’s, charismatic. He is additionally manipulative. He is additionally egotistical. He is somebody who’s nice at manipulating. He is a grasp manipulator. He is very divisive. He’s somebody who could be very merciless. Vile. Evil nearly,” Coleman goes on to say. “I believe his angle was to grow to be… I will not go so far as to say Jim Jones, however I believe that he would have cherished to have- to have a neighborhood that giant. However in the end, Eligio’s finish aim was by no means based mostly in any kind of actuality.”

As Bishop gained increasingly management, “he is purposely attempting to push folks additional and additional and additional to get increasingly curiosity on-line, to get extra consideration (…), donations,” says Zand. “In some ways this was like a actuality TV present. They had been filming every part themselves. You had been seeing form of a lot motion, a lot drama. They had been form of orchestrating plenty of this insanity.”

Zand displays on the sequence.

“It felt like a very vital instance of how form of cults have advanced, you realize, form of social media has made a brand new kind of cult.”

Unravel the total story. “The Cult of NatureBoy” is streaming now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

The Walt Disney Firm is the father or mother firm of ABC Information Studios, Hulu, Disney+ and this ABC station.