ORIGINALLY WRITTEN: May 2023
DISCLAIMER:
I am not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, nor are the hosts of “Cults”. Extensive research has been done, yet there still may be inaccuracies.
CONTENT WARNINGS: Discussions of Cult Behavior and Abuse, as well as mentions of Abuse, Rape, Death and Violence, and similarly upsetting themes.
I’ve been having a discussion about the inspirations for the Project at Eden’s Gate (and how various other religious cults have done very similar things), and thought back to when I was binging a podcast by the name of “Cults”, produced by the Parcast Network. So here’s me resharing some thoughts about the Project at Eden’s Gate and the Seed Family.
Specifically, while listening to the episodes on David Koresh (leader of the Branch Davidians) I remembered that it has been assumed/confirmed that Joseph Seed’s characterization has drawn inspiration from the leader. The relevant episodes are embedded below:
So I wanted to talk about that by pointing out similarities between the two and exploring the psychological headcanons I developed for Joseph, as well as examining Koresh’s speculated psychological profile.
First, some background on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians:
David Koresh, born Vernon Wayne Howell, was an American cult leader who played a central role in the tragic Waco siege of 1993. As the head of the Branch Davidians, which was a sect of the Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Koresh claimed to be a ‘final prophet’ to the religion. Koresh was a disturbed individual with many crimes on his hands, including numerous alleged cases of child abuse and statutory rape that had failed to turn up evidence when under investigation. The Waco siege lasted from February 1993 to April 1993, and occured when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the cult’s compound at the Mount Carmel Center. 79 Branch Davidians, including Koresh, died during the siege after the compound caught on fire; 21 victims being under the age of 16.
David Koresh, born Vernon Wayne Howell, was an American cult leader who played a central role in the tragic Waco siege of 1993. As the head of the Branch Davidians, which was a sect of the Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Koresh claimed to be a ‘final prophet’ to the religion. Koresh was a disturbed individual with many crimes on his hands, including numerous alleged cases of child abuse and statutory rape that had failed to turn up evidence when under investigation.
The Waco siege lasted from February 1993 to April 1993, and occured when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the cult’s compound at the Mount Carmel Center. 79 Branch Davidians, including Koresh, died during the siege after the compound caught on fire; 21 victims being under the age of 16.
There are some surface level similarities between Koresh and Joseph, including but not limited to:
One thing in particular I want to focus on, though, is the hyperfixation on the Bible and “God’s Will”.
According to “Cults”, Koresh began displaying possible symptoms of neurological and/or psychological problems from an early age. They quote an interview from a March 14th, 1993 that Koresh had with the FBI, stating:
“ See, people have—They say God talks to them. Well, I had that problem too—you know—but my problem began as a child—you know—as a—as a—as a little child. ”
He then went on to describe an experience he had when he was approximately twelve, noting how:
“ One night, again, I was—I was confronted, praying towards—You know, the northern part of our universe. And there was a very beautiful, soft—It’s a, uh, it’s like [an] explosion in the universe. And the star, and this is just part of my growing up. I told my mom about it, and she says—she says—well—she says ‘Go to sleep and it will go away’. ”
Vanessa, one of the podcast’s hosts, notes that these experiences may be ecstatic hallucinations.
Ecstatic hallucinations can be the result of temporal lobe seizures, and are described by renowned neurologists as:
” A sudden sense of bliss or rapture, and feeling that one has been transported to Heaven. There is nearly always some mystical or religious or sexual bend to ecstatic hallucinations. “
There have been numerous instances of psychologists and other professionals tying this sensation to religion, and it has been speculated many prominent religious figures may have drawn their visions from these seizures.
Ironically, if we look into The Book of Joseph (Joseph Seed’s personal gospel) we can see how similar the descriptions of 'hearing the voice of God’ are. Joseph describes having these sudden, blinding moments of clarity, even quoting:
” Later, he [Jacob] would recount how my eyes shone feverishly in the dark and how my faith had stayed his hand. “
From what research I can gather, temporal lobe seizures are sometimes called 'focal seizures with impaired awareness’. During these seizures, some individuals remain aware of what’s happening around them, but more intense episodes may lead to individuals ”… looking awake but be[ing] unresponsive.“ Across the board, the causes are broad and unknown.
In Koresh’s case, there is no explanation as to what caused these potential episodes. In Joseph’s it would be reasonable to assume physical trauma due to the fact his father was physically abusive toward the siblings.
Putting this aside, the actual teachings of Koresh and Joseph are very similar. To illustrate this, I will show a quote of Koresh’s and a quote from The Book of Joseph side-by-side.
A direct quote from David Koresh to the FBI prior to the Waco incident:
” Unfortunately, when I get through writing this and they’re given to my attorney—and my attorney [unintelligible] and it’s shown they have a sensational interest in these things, you see, then I can [unintelligible] and people go and ask me—and you know they’re not going to ask me about [the seals] or anything—uh, uh, [Unintelligible] ‘Do you sacrifice people? Do you have underground automatic weapons? Do you have guns?’ That’s what they’re going to get answers to. [Unintelligible]. That’s why I need to complete it, because you see as well as I do—That people in this world, they want something dramatic and sensational! They don’t want to sit—Nobody’s going to sit there and let me sit there in front of a camera and read [unintelligible] to prove the first seal. “
NOTE: Due to the audio quality, this may not be entirely accurate. This quote is at the start of episode one.
A direct quote from The Book of Joseph:
” Man’s pride has made him so forgetful and ungrateful, that God intends to start over. For we have learned nothing. We have left our filth on everything, soiled it all. […] The greed of men destroys every hint: forests, oceans, their fellow man. […] Who else do the FBI and other government agencies persecute these days? Such pariahs are constantly harassed and subjected to the relentless zeal of federal authorities. They are subpoenaed, hunted down, kept tabs on, and humiliated. Sometimes they are dragged off to prison and driven to madness or suicide. “
Both Koresh and Joseph believe that the cause for rapture, or in a realistic sense the apocalypse, is due to the greed of man and society. Both, similarly, believe that they are the sole saviors of humanity, and that the breaking of the seals can be subverted—for a lack of better word—so long as people trust that they are the sole messenger of God.
This belief is known as the Messiah Complex, which is alternatively known as the Christ Complex or Savior Complex. Some research concludes that there is an association between the presence of a Messiah Complex and the presence of disorders such as Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. This article on the Messiah Complex goes more into depth on the general scope: [ LINK ]
Again, though, not a lot is known about Koresh’s psychological profile.
Nor is there a lot about Joseph’s. Personally, when it comes to Joseph, I have concluded that in addition to potential physical trauma and ecstatic seizures, the way that Joseph describes having visions and hearing God’s voice align with the symptoms of Acute and Transient Psychotic Disorder (ATPD). Being left untreated due to the circumstances of his upbringing, this developed into Paranoid Schizophrenia.
There’s no real conclusion to draw here, but I thought it was interesting seeing the inspiration the writers for Far Cry 5 took and how these similarities come to light.