This Collector has curated the biggest (and strangest) selection of Religious Cults items from around the world
When I started writing about cult several years ago, I thought my obsession was so weird I was the only one to have it. So when it turned into a collection a weird object from cults, I feared that people would point the finger at me and maybe start throwing stones at my face. Happily, the internet being what it is, I found a community of like minded obsessive persons that shared the same curiosity. After meeting the amazing Heaven’s Gate collector Peyody, I met Cult Collectibles : for the past ten years, he has curated a large selection of unusual items, “Covering Cults, True Crime, Murderabilia, Curiosities and Oddities”. Even if I don’t share the murderabilia part of things, I was amazed by his collection and his skill at following leads to find lost object.
To tell you everything, when I found his Instagram account, he warned me that he and a fellow collector had discovered a very rare box of items that had belonged to a former Heaven’s Gate follower. I offered him to trade some of those item against a cultist robes and other rare stuff from the Aumist cult that I found during my research back in France. Yeah, true story — and he’s accepted to answer a few question about his passion.
How did you start collecting cult items?
I got very interested in learning about Jonestown after watching a documentary that just happened to be on tv one day. The deeper I dug into my research, the more I realized that there must be tons of items out there that are unaccounted for, or items people do not realize relate to a certain group or event. The idea came to me to try and collect a few things because I figured if I put the time in to find them I could purchase them for cheap. As I found a few items it expanded to bigger and more rare items, and its just grown ever since.
What was the first item you got ?
The first thing I ever bought that was an envelope from the Peoples Temple San Francisco office. When the church shut down, they auctioned off all of the assets. Somebody must have bought some boxes of stationary as there are quite a few of these envelopes out there! I love it because it was a return envelope for sending donations to the church, so it has the address of their location as well as Rev. Jim Jones in really nice bold letters.
What is so fascinating to you about cults ?
Originally I was only really interested in The Peoples Temple. I made a trip to San Francisco to visit notable locations from their history, and to visit a historical archive where I was able to see a lot of artifacts. Getting to go through all the original documents, photos, wooden toys made in Jonestown, it really got me interested if other cults had the same kind of trail of history through physical objects. The morbid aspect of Jonestown brought me in, but it soon became a dark treasure hunt and I haven’t gotten bored with it yet!
Why turn that into a collection ?
Honestly I just found the items interesting. I didn’t plan to collect a certain amount, or to obtain anything other than Peoples Temple. When I got to the point where it was hard, and extremely expensive, to find new Peoples Temple items I decided to look into other cults. That lead to a lot of research and the more I found out the more I wanted to look for new items.
Can you describe your collection now ? Notably things you will never sell ?
I don’t know if I could describe it as anything more than a collection of cult artifacts. It has so many different kind of items that it can’t be categorized as a collection such as coins or rare books could be. When it comes to items I would not sell, I never let go of one of a kind items, or things that I know will be very hard to find again. My copy of Light and Blue, a choir album directed by Marshall Applewhite of Heaven’s Gate, is one of four or five known to be out there. I’ve got a yearbook signed by Marshall Applewhite as well. I am sure I could find another yearbook, but a signed one would be a slim chance. So things like that will always stay with me.
What is your most prized item ?
Hard to say. There are items I have put a ton of money into getting, and others I have spent a ton of time to obtain. My favourite item for the last while has been a wanted poster for members of Aum Shinrikyo that perpetrated the Tokyo Subway Attacks. Aum published books, put out music, an anime, magaiznes. A lot of those items are surviving in collections. The poster however would have been hanging up in Japan in 1995, exposed to rain and sun. 26 years later to find a copy that someone had saved is incredibly lucky.
Is there a cult / or something, that are more interested in ? Many collector have one or two main obsession, you seem to have… many !
The Peoples Temple is number one, but it is has become hard to find new items from. Heaven’s Gate is a close second. I really like to find items other people don’t think to look for. For instance, Heaven’s Gate was around (although not under that name) from the 70’s. I have some newspapers and magazines relating to the early days, which people often overlook because of the notoriety being around the suicides.
Have you ever been contacted by cults ?
No. I haven’t ever had anyone reach out to me who was involved with any cult. I have reached out to people myself and never had a bad experience. I always am extremely polite and respectful when trying to get in touch with somebody who had a connection to one of the cults I am interested in.
Have you been in contact with cult survivors ?
Yes. In every case the people I have talked to were nice and understanding of my curiosity. Although it is not something I do too often. Usually it will be in regards to identifying an item or getting a lead as to where something may be found.
What is your weirdest anecdote surrounding your collection ?
A lot of people might not understand how I find some of these items. In the case of one album I have, I had to contact dozens of record stores and dealers local to the area where I was hunting (which was out of my country). Because a lot of people in that industry are not super tech savy, that was all hunting done via phone calls. When I finally tracked down what I was looking for, I had to help them with the process of shipping it to me as they didn’t have experience with selling online or shipping in any way. Although I did not pay a ton for the item, I had to make dozens of long distance phone calls, lots of online research. The time that went into tracking it down adds a ton of value to me personally.
If you want to support CultCollectibles and his unhealthy passion, he now as a patreon.
