Our History
The origin stories of so many religions seem to center around divine intervention in an inevitable cataclysm. Often, a mystical entity contacts a man in a forest, cave, or atop a mountain to warn of this horrible future. The messenger prophesies of a “savior,” a strongman, who will do what humanity is incapable of doing for itself – avoid disaster and return us to some version of a mythical arcane utopia by creating peace on Earth.
Unfortunately, for the vast majority of us, this only happens after the final battle of a holy war between “good and evil” (or some variation) is won by this prophesied hero and His followers. Despite mankind’s unwavering obsession with war, history never seems to produce a single one that qualifies as such – is it the man who incites or the utopia that follows that’s insufficient? Going forward, only the conversion and commitment of the masses to follow the messenger’s commandments has any chance to finally save mankind by igniting this final conflagration, thus triggering the savior’s long awaited arrival – it’s all very dramatic!
Since the Enlightenment’s Scientific Revolution changed the quality, quantity, and availability of information, for so many of us, these stories sound less and less persuasive. Here’s a radical notion: neither spaceships nor holy visitors are required to comprehend the meaning and purpose of the universe – we, together, can do it for ourselves! The seed for the Novel Universe Cult is this assumption that the truth can be sought through nothing more than an interest in valuable ideas, ideas such as the Tao’s linked opposites; Assembly Theory’s combined components; Buddha’s focus on suffering; Sheldrake’s morphic resonance; the Biblical afterlife; Wolfram's cellular automata; Levin’s bioelectrics; or the Greek’s development of panpsychism. On-and-on, humanity’s attempts to grasp reality continue to inspire our own.
After studying religion, philosophy, and science, our Founders had failed to find the meaning of life. So, we delved deeper, searching out theoretical physics, secret societies, past cults – even the conspiratorial theories of world history. Still, our attempts to understand metaphysics and mysticism left us with more questions than answers.
Our hinge point came when a pair of independent Near Death Experiencers each described the functionally identical afterlife of what we now call Complete Information within the Concert Hall. In light of the idea that everything in the universe can be deconstructed as data, we find a mathematical logic to the idea that all the information created on Earth returns to us, like balancing an equation – data created in life equals data received in death. We imagine this phenomenon as ripples on a pond’s surface, drawn back to the pebble that created them.
Common ideas such as sin or ascension played no part in the Experiencers’ stories. Instead, they told of information returning raw, without any preconceived notions of right or wrong. Without good and evil, there is no plan, no “enlightened” practices to be followed by the lucky few. A major, logical flaw with most religions is that too often their holy agenda only applies to humans, those created in the “image” of this very same entity who revealed the secrets in the first place. That circular-logic has a nice, tidy ring to it, but then, how is it that from all the things in the universe, only one thing on one planet are the only ones who matter? What about dogs, trees, the very Earth itself? Such narrow frameworks are better designed to manipulate human behavior than to be an honest attempt at unveiling the nature of the entire universe. If a religion is to be true, it must be true for everything, everywhere.
Our core principle of Complete Information evolved into such a solid model of reality, it changed our lives. Viewed through the novel lens of Love, our every interaction built a future from a framework steeped in equal consideration for all involved, as all points of view might be equally known in our beyond-life. Although we believe reincarnation is a choice free from constraint, we accept that this may not be true, and work to prepare ourselves for other outcomes such as samsara – the forced reincarnation of the “soul” based on karma. The Founders began a campaign to embody this model in various stories, artwork, and a set of philosophical texts, destined for our potentially reincarnated selves as a temporal “message in a bottle.” We understand that, even if our model isn’t correct, it still reduces suffering by finally describing a system – based as much on physics as metaphysics – centered by the Golden Rule, but with a vital twist: do unto others as they would have you do unto them. Living by this model means we act intentionally, knowing exactly why we treat others the way we do. We act, not out of some sense of morality or fear of punishment, but rather a preference of how we might experience in death the Ripples of our actions in life.
Creating a religion, especially a cult, was not considered until the founding members were struck by the idea that a religion would be the perfect “bottle” for our message, and calling ourselves a cult would not only stand out, but filter through the tedious pantheon of spiritual variants, and attract those special converts eager to participate in an avant-garde organization that so clearly cuts against the grain of established spirituality. Although we readily admit our Founders’ bias for Love, we strive for balance, and seek converts from both frameworks. So many religions, so much alike, always seem to focus on one thing: rewarding the faithful. The only guaranteed reward we offer is a companionship in search of clarity.
As an organization, the Novel Universe Cult has both the capacity to maintain the philosophy for future generations, but also build sustainable structures to develop our principles through its unique, neo-segregated institutions, including the practice of neural-democracy. The Cult embodies a spiritual conversation, within a foundation that forever responds to our current environment. Therefore, our tradition is no tradition at all, except the core idea of expressing novelty through the mixture of Love and Power.
NUC isn’t necessarily about answers, but instead, bringing to light the segregated frameworks of Love and Power. Unlike other religions, we do not believe anyone must understand or adopt our message, because, if the Novel Universe Model is correct, the world will not suffer our absence – there is no “salvation,” no test to be passed, only the choice of a beyond-life in line with one’s preferences. The universe is as intended, and the world does not need saving. Regardless of who or what we are in life, in death, we will decide, on our own, which “heaven” we want. And no worries, our planet’s going nowhere soon. It’ll eventually remedy the cancer of industry, whether we survive the cure or not.
Instead of finding and following some divine path, we propose the purpose of life is to expose ourselves to choices we might otherwise not make, allowing us unforeseen experiences we might otherwise not have – novelty. Thus, the Novel Universe places us in an intentional state of amnesia, cut off from the knowledge of our complete being, born into a body of Power, of silence, force, and consumption. With that in mind, we understand that these ideas may – even if true – be counterproductive for those whose ignorance of the Model creates value. For instance, those with the most open and conscientious frameworks have the most to learn from silence, force, and consumption – an education that might only be found by forgetting what’s most salient for them, Love.
We strongly feel that a truth, restricted to the few, would constitute a massive waste of space, not to mention the untold levels of pointless suffering. Therefore, it fundamentally cannot be the point of the universe, but instead, the point must be the experience of existence itself – something everything does, regardless of status or state of consciousness. Furthermore, the very search for the universe’s meaning and purpose ultimately does nothing for our eternal selves – this amnesia, once removed, will awaken us to “secret” knowledge we’ll discover we all already possess. The ultimate twist in our model is who religion and science actually benefits (see our TOE section: The Host), and it primarily isn’t the seekers themselves. So, instead of a thrilling, emotional origin story, filled with hidden treasures and spectacular miracles for the few, we tell of a sensible, academic discovery that applies to everyone, from particle to planet and everything in-between.
Prophets, aliens, even scientists? They show up with a sales pitch – some pot of gold at the end of their rainbow, albeit salvation, self-realization, immortality, or simply endless growth and prosperity. We do not place our trust in authorities claiming to have the answers. Instead, we collectively add our voice to a global conversion with our developing understanding of the Novel Universe.
First, read our philosophy to better understand our Creed.
