Bentinho Massaro Sucks Part 1

Feb 21, 2022

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INSIGHT

Image Driven Spiritual Recruitment

Bentinho Massaro built an aspirational Instagram persona combining adventure, mysticism, and grand missions to attract followers.
He promised interdimensional tech, higher vibrations, and an enlightened society by 2035, which masked manipulative power dynamics.

ANECDOTE

Physical Contact Opened His Courting Phase

Jacqueline describes a private moment where Bentinho lay on her in a group setting and then immediately began intense courting.
That physical boundary crossing became the start of heavy love bombing and rapid declarations of destiny and marriage.

INSIGHT

Saving The World Justifies Abuse

High-stakes mission rhetoric (save humanity) creates willingness to accept abusive treatment as 'growth.'
Presenting the group's purpose as civilization-scale enlightenment normalizes hardship and obedience.

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A Little Bit Culty –

Imagine a narsty blend of an Instagram influencer, spiritual huxter, Winklevoss twin, and Hugh Hefner’s ghost. These are the vibes that Bentinho Massaro is serving. He’s got all the scary charisma and shiny trappings of a culty overachiever, like thousands of social media followers, a grandiose plan to build a fully enlightened society by 2035, and he even claims to vibrate at a higher frequency than other humans. He’s also already achieved a rite of passage that’s becoming all too common among culty fuckwads: His name in headlines concerning the suspicious death of one of his followers at a Sedona retreat.

Our trio of guests in this double episode whistleblower extravaganza are coming forward to call bullshit on Bentinho’s special brand of mindfuckery. Jade Alectra, Keilan McNeil, and Jacqueline Graham were pulled into his mad world, and got themselves out. But they aren’t going radio silent. Oh hell no. Because they want you to know that this so-called millennial spiritual guru is less of a messiah and more of a walking, talking human Fyre Festival. In part one, Jade, Keilan, and Jacqueline share what made Bentinho seem so alluring and transformational at first, and what happened when shit started getting real.

The views and opinions expressed on A Little Bit Culty do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast. Any content provided by our guests, bloggers, sponsors or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything.

A Little Bit Culty is proud to support the #IGOTOUT project, which empowers survivors of cultic abuse to share their stories online as a catalyst for education, prevention, and healing. Learn more at igotout.org

For more information on A Little Bit Culty and co-hosts Sarah Edmondson and Nippy “Anthony” Ames, visit our official website at alittlebitculty.com. Follow us on Instagram & Twitter @alittlebitculty

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sarah Edmondson & Anthony Ames

Production Partner: Citizens of Sound

Producer: Will Retherford

Associate Producer: Jess Tardy

Theme Song: “Cultivated” by Jon Bryant co-written with Nygel Asselin

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