Thread: How realistic is this plot, and how would someone get followers for a religion?

Well, I had this idea when I was looking up weird religions. The book is called "Religion inc: Exploiting Miracles for Profit". It's a satirical comedy and it revolves around a businessman who's life is going to hell as his business is declining, and his wife took half of his money during their divorce.
He encounters an old friend of his who has turned into a conman, who tells him that people are often willing to blindly throw their money at any religious group. They then start their own church\religion and somehow get enough followers to become a very dangerous organization.


The problem is, I don't know how realistic this plot sounds, how someone starts their own church, or how someone gets followers for said church.

"If you want to make money, go into business. If you want to get really rich, start a religion." - L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology.

Any book on cults will give you insight into how the leader exerted/gained influence over his followers.

Originally Posted by Gringoamericano

Well, I had this idea when I was looking up weird religions. The book is called "Religion inc: Exploiting Miracles for Profit". It's a satirical comedy and it revolves around a businessman who's life is going to hell as his business is declining, and his wife took half of his money during their divorce.
He encounters an old friend of his who has turned into a conman, who tells him that people are often willing to blindly throw their money at any religious group. They then start their own church\religion and somehow get enough followers to become a very dangerous organization.


The problem is, I don't know how realistic this plot sounds, how someone starts their own church, or how someone gets followers for said church.

Sounds to me like the basis of most of the 'modern' religions... go for it!

Basically the way you get any followers: tell people what they want to hear. Your problems aren't your fault. Someone/thing/deity will handle the problems that are your fault. I have the answer or can show you how to get the answer.

These days it might begin on the internet as a youTube video.

It's not whether your premise is sound--because any premise is sound when one contemplates writing fiction--but how you spin your tale that makes people want to read it or not. It sounds as though what you're really asking is: "Is this idea plausible? Would people fall for it?" This indicates that you don't really understand what charisma is, or how a con is run.

As someone noted above, a recent example of a hoax religion would be science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard's synthetic religion of Scientology. If you read about Scientology and how it started, that may give you some ideas to work with. (It's actually a pretty interesting story, but you'll find as you read that Hubbard is sort of anti-charismatic; he does not stand up well under scrutiny as a figure of truth and enlightenment, lol.)

The way a more typical religion starts is with a charismatic figure, not a con artist.

The average person is not so stupid--he really isn't--that he or she will gleefully buy into any con game. A con artist, religious or not, has to work on his game before he can expect to trap any suckers. This explains why most of today's con games do not center around religion, as the average person has learned to be chary of religious types; today's con games are more likely to center around that thing that everybody wants, which is of course money, i.e., pyramid marketing schemes, bogus businesses, "get rich quick" ploys, and so on.

The charismatic figure in every major religion is never the person bringing the message, either: The evangelical preacher is only borrowing charisma from the historical figure of Jesus Christ; the imam with thousands of followers is borrowing charisma from the prophet Muhammad, and so on. As popular as these figures may get, if they start to supplant the teachings of their respective charismatic originators, they are discredited and shouted down.

I know of one example that you may attempt to investigate, in which a modern-day religion/cult was (supposedly) created out of thin air, although I'll warn you right now the evidence for this is scanty, and even though I've been studying occultism for many years, I did not discover it until fairly recently.

The famous occultist Aleister Crowley and his pen pal, a man named Gerald Gardner (Gerald Gardner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) are rumored to have created the latter-day religion known as Wicca. Crowley, flush with fame at the time and attracting lots of followers, put a famous bug into Gardner's ear and the result was supposedly Wicca, or the "ancient craft of the wise" which as you probably know has grown to be an extremely popular religion with many followers and legal legitimacy.

Another example might include the Christian sect of Mormonism, which many claim was fabricated in a similar manner by the prophet Joseph Smith who was greatly influenced by Masonic teachings. Mormonism got very popular in a pretty short time.

A 20th-century cult that I've been fond of for a long time is of course the cult of Satanism, which has been around for quite awhile, but acquired a name, reputation, and legal legitimacy from "ex lion tamer" Anton LaVey. Satanism is not a discrete religion, but a sub-sect of Christianity; however, LaVey was the type of charismatic figure--part prophet, part sage, part con man--who brings along a flavor of the old prophets and their dire messages, delivered in a gripping, florid style, that stimulates new forms of belief among his followers. However, Satanism is probably NOT what you want to pattern your narrative on, as con games and trickery are of course encouraged among its members; in fact, "good satanists" can go around pretending to be Christians, Muslims, Jews, or whatever they like for all their worth and that just gets them extra credit.

I'll leave you to discover the rest by visiting your local library and searching around on the internet.

No insult against either Wicca or Mormonism is intended by me, by the way. The ideas above are widely held by many people, though as I said the info about Crowley and Gardner and Wicca is fairly scanty.

Well, there you go. I think your first mission, if you're really serious here, is a dual one: First, gain some understanding of charisma, which is what makes people want to believe a total stranger; secondly, do some reading about modern-day cults and sects and how they are started. At the very least, it is fascinating and fun research.

I hope this is helpful. Good luck!

I think your idea sounds promising and has potential to make a Steve Martin type comedy. One thought I had was that you could make your main character accidently become a religious leader. Perhaps hes an atheist and the thought of turning to religion never occurred to him. So it may be funnier if he becomes a religious leader against his plan. Perhaps he gains an online following?

Rather than make it his intention to con people via religion, make it happen by accident.

Other than that idea I agree with others, the man will need to have charisma, gift of the gab, be a natural leader etc.

Or another idea maybe like Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost, where she is conning people by saying she is a medium for the dead.