The Novel Universe Cult is both willing to go on record about the fact that we keep secrets, while also, providing the general nature of their content. Transparency, accountability, and security are top priorities for NUC’s membership. We see ourselves as good-faith actors in a complicated, dangerous world, and until that changes, we will not provide further information about our secrets beyond what’s discussed here.

The Novel Universe Cult, as an institution, does not keep secret any doctrine, tenet, practice, or position. There are no hidden truths, no secret levels of membership, no practices or networks of influence geared to infiltrate public or private institutions in order to secretly shape the world in our image through the collusion of our membership. Many religions and secret organizations wait until a convert proves their loyalty to the institution and ability to keep secrets before revealing the organization’s cryptic levels of membership. These levels are often only available to the member at great cost, for instance, their time, money, or some ritual / action that must be performed by the member. Additionally, the member is threatened with grave harm (physical / spiritual) should they reveal the institution’s secrets. In return, information, access, status, and other kinds of benefits are granted to the member. In NUC, as an institution, members are not brought into a cabal at any point, as NUC has no formal levels of authority that might be later revealed to the convert. The position of Sage is not one that might be earned, but instead, a job that’s performed. Within the River, there is no hierarchy or inner council, only the practice of our neural-democracy. In the Novel Universe Cult, there is no additional information about our practices and beliefs that is not publicly addressed on the website. However, we do ask our membership to keep what secrets we do have, and will likely remove any member who fails to do so.

For the Cult’s Power Bodies, secrecy is a foundational principle – forceful, silencing consumption. Although our Rock Bodies, through their Primary Organizing Pillar, may engage in such activities, the secrets they keep are not officially part of nor known to the wider Cult, as everything the Cult views as foundational knowledge (doctrines, creed, Novel Universe Model) is available on our public website. Any Rock Body may, through the River’s regulation, exist as a secret society / religion. From the Cult’s perspective, secrecy is an inherent vestige of Power, generally used for manipulation. Although, for those Rock Body members, their secrets undoubtedly have meaning, for the wider Cult, they do not, nor do they have any sway in our operations.

It is the duty of the Sages to balance all Cult Bodies, including those with powerful secrets. River Sages overseeing secretive Rock Bodies are privy to all their structural secrets for the purposes of both establishing the Bodies’ founding documents, and regulating those Bodies’ interactions with the Cult and wider world. It is not the Sages’ duty to necessarily evaluate or regulate any particular secret, but instead, to balance the potential impacts cryptic practices might have on those outside the Rock Body. Should those secrets be disclosed to the River, functionally spelled out in the founding documents, and their practice restricted to the Body itself, they are generally allowed to stand, with notable exceptions. For instance, a Rock Body that discovers a “black ball” technology (Nick Bostrom’s “The Vulnerable World Hypothesis”), akin to nuclear weapons, would not be allowed to keep such information secret, as having such tech would pose a potential threat to the Cult and wider world. On the other hand, a secret algorithm for buying and selling stocks, a ritual for mind-body empowerment, or social engineering techniques to succeed in negotiations would be examples of what the Sages would allow through the River’s regulations.

The framework of Love does not generally engage in secrecy, beyond what NUC refers to as “Frank Secrecy.” What does one say to a Nazi solider searching for the Frank family, if the family were hidden in one’s attic? What does one say to an elderly dementia patient who believes they’re a kindergartner, waiting after school for their mother to pick them up? The family poses no threat to the Third Reich, anymore than an accurate view of reality might assist the patient. In either case, the truth creates unnecessary suffering, whether directing the soldier to the family’s hiding place, or attempting to convince the patient of their situation, their mother’s current status, or the fact that no one’s coming to take them “home.” Lying to prevent or reduce suffering aligns with Love. Whether it be in an extreme case, like the serious ramifications for the Frank family, or the benign effects of a “frank” response to a dementia patient, there are circumstances where lies and secrecy have a limited place in Love’s intentional, vulnerable participation.

Beyond our primary message of Love and Power is our novel alternative to traditional institutional structures, based on neural-democracy and Neo-segregationism. Balance requires that Power not be allowed to rule in isolation, but that the needs of Love must also be accounted for. In doing so, we pose the question, is humanity capable of leading itself without formal leadership? We not only have faith that it can, but our mission is to evolve a viable example.

A primary reason we call ourselves a cult, and not a religion, is based on reductio ad absurdum, or the idea that taking an argument to its logical extreme will prove / disprove its point. The majority of faiths do not have a “Pope,” or other such supreme leadership. As practiced in a variety of religions – Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and many others – these organizations are generally not associated with autocracy – absolute rule by a single individual – whereas cults do – the “cult leader.” To have a unified social structure without central leadership is particularly unique among human organizations, but not nature’s. From cells to animals, emergent leadership is the norm, not the exception.

Our grand experiment is to challenge the notions of human-based leadership and social structures, exploring the paradigm of the extreme – if NUC can prove the capacity for a cult to operate effectively without a cult leader (something that should be impossible), then we have a blueprint for the wider world to consider. Maintaining an organization without a single leader, or cabal of leadership, requires more than simply an alternative leadership structure (neural-democracy), but that we maintain that structure’s integrity, and suppress any attempt to allow the emergence of an actual cult leader. Therefore, we keep secret those members who might potentially be held as one, those that might replace our alternative.

Our Founders are especially vulnerable to Power’s influence to be forced into or tempted to take on the position of cult leader, and thus, ending our experiment. For this reason, there are neither records, even internal to the Cult, that note any such persons as Founders, nor record of contributions made by individuals in the initial creation of the Cult, be them large or small. Any who might claim any such contributions are either lying, or, at the very least, not authorized by the Cult to make such claims, and will subsequently be denounced on the grounds that we neither possess nor do we formally concede to such information, whether as an organization or individual. For those who contributed, or those who wish to know of such contributions, we can only offer resolution in the beyond-life, as all such answers shall be known to any who might want to know, but only in Love’s Concert Hall, Power’s Marketplace, or one’s personal Spiral.

The Novel Universe Cult also keeps secret most forms of administrative information, including, but not limited to, the identities of our membership, including our clergy. Upon conversion, our members create for themselves an alternate Cult name that ideally does not reflect their legal name, like that of an online avatar. These names are approved by the Sages and used within the Cult’s digital workspace for the purpose of administration, but the members actual contact information is kept by the River offline, in a distributive form (hard-copies), the nature of which, of course, is secret, and available on a need-to-know basis, even by our clergy. No single member of the Cult, including our Founders, has access to this full list, and anyone claiming to have such access or information has not been given the authority to retain or distribute it. Even our River Sages are limited in their access. In fact, most administrative documents, such as our full membership list and Voter Guide’s contemporary details, fall under this category. We do this to protect our membership and the integrity of our information. Accurate, uncorrupted data is crucial to the function of our neural-democracy, while a sense of security among our membership, vital to our overall operations.

Should the need ever arise, we do hold in reserve the option to make available to the public any information that might be beneficial. For instance, NUC was originally created by curious, individual, unaffiliated humans, not alien(s), angel(s), government(s), or artificial intelligence(s). Should it be necessary, information may be made public to demonstrate this fact. Additionally, we may also make available any number of River Sages for the purposes of interviews or other such interactions with the public that might require an individual representative of the Cult. Although the Sage(s) cannot officially reveal their own identity, they may choose to personally reveal it. It is also reasonable to expect that in certain cases their identity might be discovered through investigation, but again, the Cult will not confirm or deny this directly, only that the Sage with the given Cult name is in fact a Sage of the Cult, and given the authority to speak on specific aspects of NUC.

Although any member might make publicly known their own membership status, the Cult will not confirm or deny said declaration. However, should a member reveal any other member’s status or protected administrative information, that member is subject to separation from the Cult, which of course, will remain secret. And again, these secrets are being held in a world of Power that requires them. Should that change – should the world become a place where the identities of our membership, clergy, or even Founders be possible – the Cult retains the right to change our stance, and, in such a novel world, reveal all information we see as beneficial.