Bonus Episode: How Charisma Becomes Control

AYANA (00:00.994)
I just spent two weeks watching this. Fascinating. And by fascinating, I mean it it was very well put together. The subject was also fascinating. Two weeks watching the rise and fall of Nature Boy and Carbonation on YouTube. A docuseries put on by Hood News. Shout out to Hood News because

They did an amazing job on this.

Put together by Hood Horrors. shout out to Hood Horrors because the the host, the producer, I don't know his name, but he did a fantastic job on this. My goodness. It's 46 parts, 46 parts with a couple of bonus episodes thrown in. And it's all about one cult, one, that spanned, I want to say it was.

Five years, maybe? Six years? It wasn't a long time that this cult was a thing. Things move pretty rapidly from start to finish, but my goodness. My gosh. the things that the human brain can be drawn to. It's totally fascinating. I've got some explaining to do. Let's get into it.

AYANA (01:38.84)
Hey everyone, welcome back for another episode of Ayana Explains It All The Podcast Bridging the Gap Between Current Events and Human Behavior. I am your host, Ayana Fakhir your Black Muslim lady lawyer. Yes, Ayana R. Fakhir That is my real name. Jared, if you're listening to this, I w I wanted to respond to your DM, Jared. Jared did not know, maybe a lot of you don't know, that I was born into Islam.

Yes, I was I was born Muslim. My parents were Muslim when I was born. so yeah, that is my real name. That is my my birth name. That is my real name. Yeah, that's my my my name. Also

AYANA (02:24.686)
Hey everybody, welcome back for another episode of Ayana Explains It All, the podcast bridging the gap between current events and human behavior. I am your host, your explainer-in-chief, Ayana R Fakhir your Black Muslim lady lawyer who has an opinion on everything, and I do mean everything, and you have probably figured that out by now. the podcast bridges the gap between current events and human behavior. I don't know why I say that twice, but I do.

And it can be found at www.iana explains it all dot com. That's a y-a-n-a.com. But you can also find the podcast every single episode on Spotify, which is the flagship host of the podcast. It is also on YouTube. We have our own YouTube channel. Check it out. Ayana Explains It All on YouTube. This is also on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, a host of others, including Good Pods.

You can go to the website and you can figure it out for yourself. No, I'm kidding. You can go to the website and the website will point you in the direction of whatever podcast player you want to use. You can even listen to the episode right from the website. Or you like I said, you can turn it on or you can turn it on YouTube. You can get YouTube on your TV, put in Ayana Explains It All, and there will appear every single episode of this show.

also when you go to the website, you can find ways to collaborate with me to support the podcast. I do this all by myself. I do this all by myself because it is a hobby. It is a labor of love. But I'd love to make a little bit of kiosh. I do have two kids in college. Two. Two. Don't ask me how I did it by the grace of God, by the grace and mercy and kindness of God.

On the wings of angels I don't know But yeah so go to the website www. ayanaexplains it all dot com you will find everything podcast, show notes, transcripts. Ooh, I feel like I need to update that stuff too. I haven't updated it in a while.

AYANA (04:37.5)
so yeah, I

Have this wonderful friend who is a nerd like me. And he had he was watching this docuseries on YouTube, and I was also it was at the time of the World Cup, and I was deep, deep, deep in the throes of love of the World Cup, the FIFA World Cup. And he does not like soccer, he thinks it's boring. I think that's boring.

but he was watching this docuseries. I was like, let me check this out and see what this is about. Because it I had heard of this person a couple years ago when he was sent to prison. So I knew what it I knew what the story was about. and there had been a documentary on Hulu. Hulu did a documentary about Nature Boy and

I thought that's the one he was talking about. And so I started watching that one, but that's not the one he was talking about. No, he was talking about this one on YouTube put on by Hood Horrors. Hood Horrors, don't be put off by the name, but Hood Horrors does stories. a lot of these docuseries, he talks about different figures in the black community. some cult leaders, some pimps, some, you know, rappers, etc. etc. The

The entire thing is very well put together. Like he uses all for the Nature Boy docuseries, he used all of the footage from their online adventures. Because Nature Boy, Elegio Bishop, during his time as cult leader, insisted on live streaming nearly every piece and part and bit of time he spent going from

AYANA (06:38.136)
Country to country with this band of idiots.

People are idiots. they live streamed everything. I forgot the name of the they didn't do TikTok. They did some other kind of of live streaming app, but they were on social media live streaming everything. Eligio Bishop, who was currently serving time for the rest of his life in the state of Georgia, life without parole for sex crimes, sex abuse, sexual assault, revenge porn.

Etc. etc. He is in fact right where he belongs. I don't want anybody feeling sorry for this person at all. I I feel like when people look at this man because he, I don't know, he he he looks like somebody who used to be good looking. but once you you learn about all of the things that he's done and all of the things that he's made other people do, his looks fade. You know how you can you see somebody, yeah, maybe he's but then you think about.

What they've done, and then whatever beauty they had just completely fades away, completely fades. And this man is is is a disgusting, deplorable person. And I don't know if it started in his childhood. He had a pretty rough child childhood. His father was significantly older than his mother when he was born. And he ended up

in foster care and he was abused in foster care he would go from home to home and he was living with his sister at a time at some point he needed to make money he he opened up his own barber shop but he was also doing gay porn and stripping he was a male stripper for other men he wouldn't say that he was gay he wouldn't say that he would say that he's bisexual

AYANA (08:43.906)
Which is fine. he was also sleeping with women. So yeah, bisexual. He had children, but he was he was making hip stripping and porn was how he made his money when he wasn't cutting hair.

But

I'm not gonna I you know sex work, whatever. It's an underground economy, it's part of the underground economy. I it's not I'm not a prude, but it's not safe, and I'll just leave it at that. as a Muslim, obviously, I'm not for that kind of work. I know that people do it, people make money from it. there's obviously people who pay for that.

So, whatever. That's not the problem. The problem is that this man decided that he wanted to live a very natural life, a natural lifestyle off in the woods. And he wanted to take other people with him. So if I remember correctly, they ended up in Costa Rica. They ended up in Mexico first.

And he's recruiting people to go with him. Not just any kind of people, young, impressionable people. People who really didn't have any direction, so to speak. They had attachments. Some of these people had children. Some of these people had spouses. But they would watch him online and they would be completely enamored with his his presence, his his.

AYANA (10:30.294)
His beauty, his, you know, his handsome face and the words that he was using. He was talking about doing things all natural. You know, going back to the earth, being in the woods, living off the grid, living off the land, growing your own food and eating all natural and and just drinking water and and eating fruit and and putting your hair in in locks and wearing loincloth out.

Out in the woods, living in a tent. And so he takes people with him. They end up in Mexico. these people are literally being manipulated from day one by this man.

At first, it's like, okay, they're they just they want they really want to connect, they really want to connect with the message, they really want to be a part of the whole back to nature thing. And then it becomes more of a he's he's using these people. He's using them, number one, for money, number two for sex. For sex. He's sleeping with the women, he's passing the women around.

He's he was probably sleeping with the men too. Again, he was bisexual.

he's got people living in in tents. He lives in a house. Some people live in tents in the backyard behind the house in Mexico. He's using these people. This one man gave him, I think he said he had a an inherent an inheritance. It was, I think it was $30,000 or was it $300,000? Some god-awful amount of money that began began with three and had a lot of zeros in it.

AYANA (12:26.624)
And this man just gave Mr. Bishop, who was calling himself Nature Boy, gave him all of the money so that these people could just live and not and not have to work. There were people who were veterans who were handing over their veterans or retirement, whatever pay they were receiving to this man, so that they could live, but they weren't really living. They would poop, poop in the yard. They weren't, they weren't allowed to use a toilet.

So they would urinate and poop in a yard and they would use their poop as fertilizer. If they ate some watermelon, they would poop out the seeds and then use that to grow new watermelon. they're bathing, you know, outside in the in the water, the the waterfalls or the river or whatever. They're walking around. mostly they had a little bit of clothes on.

But really they were just kind of barely clothed. Their hair was however the hell. They were only eating fruits and nuts. there were times when Elegio Bishop and his because eventually he would take a lot of the women as his wives. He would try to promote polygamy. But he would go out with his wives and eat.

At restaurants, and some of the people had to stay back, and they would have fruits and nuts and berries and shit for dinner. And he did this for several years. There were people in and out of this cult, and they would do whatever he told them to do. If he told somebody to kick another person, they would kick him. If he told one of the women to slap another woman, she would slap her. If he told a woman to have an abortion, she would have an abortion.

And I don't know, I I don't know how he did this, except that he had complete control over their mind. But they were willing to allow it. They were very open, very ripe, so to speak, to have this man control their thoughts and their beliefs. They were calling him God. He was calling himself God, calling himself the Messiah.

AYANA (14:54.038)
Eventually he started calling himself three God, and he was just walking around beating his chest, calling himself God and the Messiah, and he's the living embodiment of the Messiah, and da da da. And he, you know, they leave Mexico and they go to Costa Rica, and then they come back to the United States and they're in Georgia. And that's when things start to fall apart for him. But it also gets extremely weird. Like, not even like.

Quirky, cute, weird, like dangerous, crazy weird. And he starts, you know, having a bunch of different women as his wives. And women are in and out. They're leaving, they're coming back, they're leaving, they're coming back. They're marrying this guy and this guy and this guy. And they're all just, they're all living in a house together. And all of the money that he's getting is from his online stream at this point.

At that point, when he's in Georgia, that's where he's getting all his money from. But also the women in the group are co signing houses.

and all the money he's getting is from scams. PPP loan fraud, bank fraud. He's using his stream money. And that's how they're living. They're living on money they didn't make, or money they did make because people were giving them money. People were giving them money, not just.

money from watching not not just the money he was making from the stream, people would be cash apping this man and his disciples, his wives, money. And these people would be online begging, I can't I can't feed my kids. I can't we need help because he was also bishop was also getting arrested. He was getting arrested, their cars were breaking down, they were going hungry, they were they were made to travel

AYANA (16:56.706)
They had tried to get on a plane one time to come back to the US and they were told they smelled so bad. That was the other thing. They didn't bathe. Like they would go rinse themselves off in the river, but they didn't actually wash their human body. And I I

I'm watching this happen. I'm watching not not not in real time, but I'm watching all of the footage that Hood Horrors put out into these different parts. Remember, 46 parts. He included the trial, because the trial was televised as well.

But this man is on camera admitting that he sexually abused children, that he physically abused women, he shows himself physically abusing women, and sexually abusing women, admitting to sexually abusing women. Now he he'll he'll say, No, that's not what happened.

He's he's on the phone from the prison saying, no, they were all willing participants, et cetera, et cetera. But when you watch this, there's coercive control is a form of abuse. And it's also a way that sexual assault can happen. So even if a person seems like they are consenting, they're not really consenting because they've lost the ability to consent because they're being coerced into having sex with the person. He employed a lot of that.

But he was also very physically abusive with these women. And the men too. Part of the punishment was people had to stand in a corner. He would make people stand in the corner. My problem was that people were consenting. People were consenting to this. They were allowing this to happen.

AYANA (19:00.706)
Some people would get wise to it and be like, what am what am I doing? And then leave. One woman nearly died from sepsis because she did not want to leave to get medical treatment.

They called the out the the the outside of the cult, they called that Babylon. And so anytime you engaged outside of the cult, that was Babylon. And you couldn't speak to your Babylon family if you had children. He really disliked children because they were a tie to the outside world. And he didn't want anybody to have ties to the outside world. He wanted everybody to worship him, to be in service to him. And the things he made them do, my God.

my God. And the things that they did.

one of the videos, one of the comments on the video was if you don't use your brain, someone else will. And I said, That's damn right.

This man was using brains that had no desire to do the work themselves. These people were just, these were people who didn't really want to work, didn't really want to do anything. They had some of them had spent some time in college, but they just basically gave up on life and left their families and went to go live in the woods with Elegio Bishop.

AYANA (20:29.632)
It didn't bother them, or maybe it did bother them, that he was forcing them to do these rituals that endangered their lives and the lives of other people because they were violent. They were either physically, sexually violent, they were certainly emotionally disturbing, mentally disturbing.

And they were scamming. And they were giving up who walks away from their family, their children, except somebody who is

I don't know. They're they're somebody who is looking for some kind of not codependency. I can't remember what my friend called it, but it's not codependency. It's a it's a different type of of bond. It's it's gosh. Let me see. Let me see, let me see, let me see.

AYANA (21:36.46)
He used a lot of big words. He called it he he mentioned cognitive dissonance, godlike complex, complex trauma.

AYANA (21:48.83)
what was the word that he used?

AYANA (22:20.878)
Symbiotic dysfunction. That's what he called it. A symbiotic dysfunction. He said it's it's a total loss of individual identity compared compared to codependency. So you completely lose yourself in the person, and your emotions depend on their emotions. Symbiotic dysfunction. And that's what it was.

It's a symbiotic dysfunction. That's why people would leave and come back, leave and come back, leave and come. There was one person who left something like seven or eight times and would come back. But the symbiotic dysfunction describes a dysfunctional relationship or state where two entities, whether psychological, interpersonal, or biological, are locked in a mutually dependent yet harmful cycle.

Like the women who stayed in this cult, because there were women who stayed through the trial, through him being sentenced to life without parole, they're in that symbiotic dysfunction with him. There are still two women from the original group who are still, you know, pulling for him. You know, he's filed an appeal, he's gonna get out, he didn't rape anybody. She willingly had sex with him, etc., etc. etc.

And and saying that he's not guilty because the police or it's a malicious prosecution, is what she's arguing. She did her own little docuseries, can't remember which one it was Efru. She did her own little docuseries laying out her entire case. It makes absolutely no sense from a legal standpoint. But good luck, sis.

She's one of the ones who were participating in the physical abuse. And I'm watching the the the the footage of the trial and I'm listening to these women testify. The women who were still in the cult, still supporting him, still calling themselves his wives.

AYANA (24:28.962)
And they're lying under oath. They're lying under oath. Their statements don't match what actually happened. And you can see what happened because they live streamed everything. Everything is recorded. Everything. And these women lied. They lied for him. They lied about the they didn't call them their movement. Of course, they don't call it a cult. They call it a a lifestyle, a way of life, whatever the case.

They were abused, they were manipulated, and they were forced to abuse each other. They were forced to abuse each other.

It's one of the most fascinating things that I've seen in a long time. Not fascinating in a good way, fascinating that all of these humans just said, fuck it. I just want to be under the spell, under the control of this person. They didn't even know who he was. They didn't know who he was. They didn't know where he came from.

They didn't know that he had done gay porn and that he was a stripper and that he had, you know, there were accusations that he had STDs and apparently a lot of the people in the group had STDs and they're all passing the STDs around each other 'cause they're all having sex with each other.

But these people didn't know who this man was and they followed him into the woods. They didn't know who he was and they followed him into the woods. How many times do we see this from people on the internet? We don't know these people. Some of these people are just playing a role for content creation. But you will see other, you know, they'll have followers, quote, followers.

AYANA (26:24.728)
Who follow them, all of their posts, they comment on all of their posts. They'll even make, you know, their own posts about the person. They're commenting on everything that this person does. They're on every live stream. They're sending them gifts and money. You don't even know these people. You don't know them. You don't know them. But everything they say is yes, I totally agree.

Everything they do is something you just are completely on board with. They can do no wrong. And I've seen this a lot on TikTok. TikTok is is is one of the places where you will see this more than any other. And there are a lot of other social medias like TikTok. TikTok is not the only one where people can live stream. People are essentially live streaming or recording everything that they do with their families, everything they do from day to day, or they're getting on.

The internet and they're making videos where they're just being really deep. They're being very deep and and and thoughtful and insightful, and they're giving advice, and people are following them, hanging on their every word, unable to detach themselves from this and move back into reality. They think it's reality. They think people call this parasocial relationships, but it it's deeper than that.

It's deeper than that because sometimes these content creators, sometimes these personalities on the internet are actually leading people into these symbiotic relationships. And some of these relationships are stepping off of the internet and into real life, and people are meeting up. People are meeting up and doing things. But Elegio Bishop, he he, you know, he took whatever.

If you guys know Dr. Sebi, he took whatever Dr. Sebi was doing, or had done rather, because he's he's deceased, and he just, you know, changed it up a little bit. A little bit. Dr. Sebi wouldn't advise people to eat rice and beans because they cause inflammation. And so Legio Bishop said, Yes, we're gonna eat rice and beans, but we're not gonna eat meat. We're gonna eat fruit and seeds, but we're not gonna eat meat. We're gonna eat rice and beans.

AYANA (28:51.244)
It was just another form of whatever Dr. Sebi was talking about. So he didn't even do his own, he didn't even come up with his own thing, his own new movement. It was just some recycling of what somebody else had done. So he was a fraud from the beginning. And people didn't see that. They were following a fraud and committing fraud.

And my gosh, I'm I'm very surprised that I made it through 46 parts, but it's so it's fascinating. My gosh. These people exist. These people exist. These people are out there like aliens, like space aliens, like X Files.

Doom doom doom doom doom doom.

AYANA (29:48.757)
I I don't know, man. When I think about all of these young young people who entered this cult, because a lot of them were young, there were a couple of old people who did not survive.

The way that they were used and and then they brought children into like the women were giving birth but s but

AYANA (30:15.49)
They weren't it wasn't healthy. The pregnancies weren't healthy healthy. The deliveries weren't healthy. couple of children died. Couple of the babies died. it was it was just sad all around. Like everybody looked all malnourished all the time. Everybody looked like they, you know, were maybe five days from eating each other.

And they were willing participants, they were willing to do this. Not for God, for this man they called God. For this man who called himself God, called himself the Messiah. He even said one time, after he was arrested initially in Georgia, he said that he was Muslim. And he told all of his wives to start covering and praying.

usually happens when black people go to go to jail they usually join the they become muslim for protection they'll join a gang or they'll become muslim for protection which you know may maybe he did but there was no way he was muslim and then and and calling himself god and the messiah and saying I'm whatever three god six god whatever the hell he was calling himself there's no way no way

You can put whatever you want on your head and make however many prayers you want, but if you're calling yourself God, you're not Muslim. I'm sorry. Sorry to break it to you.

But watching these young people got me to thinking, you know.

AYANA (32:03.544)
People are online, chronically online, because that's this is how the people met up with Elegio Bishop. This is how they discovered him online through like Instagram. People are chronically online and they're absorbing so many messages from so many different sources. You know, you send your kid off to college and they come back and suddenly they're into all of these conspiracy theories and things because they've spent so much time watching all of those.

really dark videos on YouTube.

And they're all they they have nothing but time, time to think about a lot of stuff. And that's how they fall into these cults. Because their minds, their brains are still forming. Yes, we know this until about age 25. Those brains are still forming. And so they're like sponges at that point. They could be they could be drawn to absolutely anything and fall into anything. you know, they they come back and they don't.

They don't want to take medication because medication is bad and they they want to go worship the stars and they're selling their clothes and their shoes. I'm I'm laughing, but this is this is what happens. College is usually the place where people just completely fall apart and they fall into something else because they have freedom.

They don't have any boundaries. They don't make any boundaries with the world, but they also are living without the boundaries of their home life. And instead of just keeping their head in the books, they fall into these different groups. They fall into drugs. They fall into alcohol. They fall into partying. And instead of seeing it as the opportunity that it is, and a chance to just, you know, get yourself.

AYANA (34:09.11)
experience and and more learning before you go off into your career. A lot of them drop out of school. Some of them drop out of school and they're just out there. Or they graduate and they're just out there because their brain was so was was opened so wide. And they may have even developed a personality disorder. Or they may have experienced something like an assault or racism or some kind of sexism.

that left such an impression on that brain that now that's that's who that's that has shaped informed who they are.

And they develop some shame with that. They develop shame. They develop, you know, they want to hide. They they aren't able to cope. A lot of kids go to college and they develop anxiety disorders, depression, depressive disorders, eating disorders, and and the thought of having to compete with people who are just as talented or maybe even more talented than they are. It's it's insurmountable.

It's it's it's incredible for them. They can't do it, they can't cope. The thought of having to compete with other people, it just

It envelops them.

AYANA (35:32.972)
And they cannot cope.

And so, yeah, to a brain like that, absolutely. Hell, join a cult 100%. Go belong. They they're looking for somewhere to belong. So they go, they find somewhere to belong. They find somewhere to belong. They listen to somebody who makes them feel important or like they are a necessary part of something. Like Elegio Bishop made these people feel like he couldn't live without them. Like they're.

Little society, their carbon nation would fall apart if one of them left. Please don't leave, don't go, don't leave. We're nothing without you. We need you. You're you're the glue, you're the whatever. And people believed it. But also he would, you know, sometimes make them feel special.

And there are people who are out there who are looking to belong and feel special and have a family. And and that's what this cult gave gave these kids. There were some kids who were just, you know, they just woke up and left their family, left their house and just flew off. And that was that.

And and their families couldn't find them? This one girl, her father flew into Costa Rica to look for her.

AYANA (37:02.136)
These people were being isolated from their families. That's another trick of an abuser to distance the person from their loved ones, to convince them that their loved ones or the life that they left behind is bad for them.

AYANA (37:19.162)
And the fact that people would look at this man, Elegio Bishop, and still follow him, even though he's been accused and found guilty of some heinous crimes.

Does not surprise me. It doesn't surprise me.

There are some people who, you know, no matter what, there are some people for us who no matter what they do, they can do no wrong. No wrong. That's because a lot of us have lost the ability to be objective with things that we love. We can't see both sides. We don't see any side with the person we love. This is how people treat Donald Trump. This is all how you know, some men who follow the Tate brothers, that's how they treat the Tate brothers. They can do no wrong.

There were men protesting outside of the jail where the Tate brothers are being held in Miami-Dade County in Florida. Protesting, free the Tate brothers, free them ahead of their bail hearing. They're being held on charges of, I believe, sexual assault, sex trafficking. There are men protesting outside of this jail saying, free the Tate brothers. They've done nothing wrong. Free them, free them.

These are young people who are siding with sexual abusers, rapists. How does this happen? How does this happen?

AYANA (38:52.598)
Is it the case that these people are raised to believe that sexual assault is okay, that rape is okay, that coercive control is okay, that coercing a woman into having sex with a man is okay? That manipulating people is okay, that taking whatever you want from people is okay, that taking advantage of people is okay? Were they raised to be psychopaths? Were they raised to be sociopaths?

AYANA (39:22.862)
Were they abused as children? Like how do people turn evil? How do they turn into cult leaders who are abusing people? How do they turn into rapists and sex traffickers? People who think that kind of behavior is okay.

How does that happen? And how do they get people to follow them?

They're not giving these people money. It's not like Elegio Bishop paid these people to follow him. They paid him. They paid him.

AYANA (40:05.848)
Like what what you you're paying to be manipulated? You're paying you're paying to be mistreated.

Are these hearts sick? Are these brains sick? These people were, you know, I won't say they were in their right mind, but they they seemed competent. They certainly convinced police long enough. The police would would be called to the various homes when these people were in Mexico and Costa Rica and in Georgia. The police would come out. And the cult members were very good at convincing police that everything was okay. Everything's fine. Nobody's being abused here. Everything's okay. Everything's great. Look.

Look, come in, look around. Everybody's okay here. They could have had a big fight the night before, but when the police show up, everybody's like okay, be cool, be cool.

AYANA (40:58.156)
I don't I don't know, ma'am. I d this

You really don't know what what time people are on. You really don't know what time people are on. You don't know what people have been through. You don't know who people are. You don't know people. You don't know people. And when you find out who people are, why do you continue to follow them if you find out who they are is someone evil?

Like what drew people to watch these online streams of Nature Boy and Cult and Carbon Nation? What drew people to watch these streams every single day, all day, and send these people cash apps? Send this man money? What drew what what was the what was the draw?

Because not everybody who was doing this was trolling. Some of the people were they were enamored. They were in love. Right?

AYANA (42:02.86)
One of the the the TikTok panels I participate in, people literally come into the the TikTok live space because they're in love with the host.

They are enamored with the host. He could say anything. He could say, go jump off a bridge and take your children with you. They would do it. He's persuasive, he's intelligent, he's good looking.

Now me being who I am, I I'm I remain objective. My ability to be objective is what has saved me so many times from falling into the traps of charismatic people.

Charismatic people are very dangerous. They are very dangerous. And it doesn't matter what the message is. They could be, you know, they could be in my in my religion. They could be Islamic leaders. They could be Christian leaders. They could be, you know, a nature boy. Charismatic ideologues are very dangerous people because they can and will say anything because they know.

That there is no one who's going to challenge them, that people are just going to go along with it. I'm not one of those people. I am not. Very skeptical. Not because I don't trust people. It's because I know people like this exist. It's because I know I don't want to fall into a trap where I'm giving somebody my time, my money, my my body.

AYANA (43:44.099)
My energy and all they're doing is taking advantage of me. Really, I feel like God has been protecting me from these people by giving me this neurodivergent, keen sense of of suspicion of people, being able to read energy and see through just see through to who people really are, see the scammers and the liars and the fakes.

And the the disingenuous folks and the people who will say absolutely anything to get you on their side. They have a message one day and then the next day it's a completely different message because they have they have different needs. And the message they they gave yesterday doesn't serve their current needs of today.

AYANA (44:41.33)
Or they're grifting. You get a lot of grifters on social media, a lot of grifters, a lot of people who will appeal to you for money and time just to use you, just to see what they can get from you. They've always got a a story, a sad story, a sad tale, or you know, give me some money so I can help somebody, or I need new tires on my car.

Or I need this, I need that, and they'll put it, you know, they'll disguise it as mutual aid. This is a mutual aid request.

Or people will pretend to be for or against something political or social just to get people on their side so people will send them money and send them gifts. Like on TikTok, you can send people gifts on their live streams and on their posts. Some of the time people are just lying. They're just lying to get your money. They are lying, they are lying to get your money.

A lot of people go to TikTok to laugh and lie. As a matter of fact, that's the running joke. There's a lot of grifting, a lot of grifting, a lot of pretending, a lot of lying. And you have to be the wiser. You have to be skeptical. It's hard to spot the genuine egg among all of the bad eggs. It really is, because there are so many bad eggs.

A kind heart will always be the first to be taken advantage of. Because you want to help, you want to do what's right, you want to be charitable and giving, and you want to be seen as being giving and kind. And you want people to go, look at what she did for her community. Be discerning. Be discerning. Be discerning. Be for yourself what.

AYANA (46:46.462)
People in this nature boy cult were not. They were not discerning. They were not carrying it for themselves. They did not love themselves. They didn't respect themselves. Hell, some of them had kids and didn't respect or love their kids. They just left their kids to whomever to go live out in the woods and shit out watermelon seeds for an idiot who was raping women.

AYANA (47:15.672)
Be discerning. Care more about yourself than you do about some other person. I feel like people, the people really put this Elegio Bishop character before themselves all the time, before their own health. Why would you do that to yourself? Why would you put your own health in jeopardy for a human?

You're signing over your veterans' benefits and your inheritance and and your, you know, whatever you got in your bank account. You're cleaning it out and giving it to this person for what? You trying to buy your way into heaven? You trying to buy some heaven on earth? Let me tell you, you can't. You gotta suffer just like the rest of us.

AYANA (48:02.146)
And if you're on the internet and you're giving your money to somebody who already has money, stop.

Why are you giving your money to celebrities?

And if you're trying to impress somebody by handing out hundreds of dollars to them, stop.

AYANA (48:25.154)
Don't give your time, your money, your body, your brain power, your emotions, your energy to anyone who hasn't earned your trust and your respect.

And I mean that for real.

And you should be able to know who it is that you

And you should be able to tell look.

Who is worthy of your respect? Not everybody is. And certainly not somebody who has shown you that they're only going to abuse you and use you. That person is not worthy of your respect. Be discerning in who you trust. Be discerning in who you get. Be discerning in who you spend time with. Be discerning in who you let into your space.

AYANA (49:19.672)
People have squads, friendship group, be discerning in who you allow into your squad and your friendship group. Some people are not there for a good reason. Some people don't have good intentions. Those people shouldn't be nowhere near you.

AYANA (49:37.516)
Some people are only around to use you. Kick those people to the curb. Do it.

Who cares what they think about you? Who gives a damn?

In my life.

I'm only living to to I'm only pleasing God. That's it. That's it. Period point blank.

AYANA (50:04.984)
There was a time when I could have I could have seen myself, you know, falling into the trap of an abuser and I did.

Trying to please people, trying to please people, trying to please people, trying to be love, trying to buy love, earn love, earn time with this person. Because I didn't love myself, I didn't respect myself. I didn't treat myself the way I should have treated myself with the utmost respect.

That's how we should all be treating ourselves, our bodies.

AYANA (50:42.946)
I fell into traps. I spent time with men, married men who only took advantage of me and abused me, and believe me. I could have done something about it before it even happened. but I wanted so much to be accepted and loved.

Had low self esteem.

AYANA (51:07.852)
It was wild.

Not any fucking more.

Not no mo. No, sir. No. Mm-mm. No. And it took me far too long to figure out that the answer should be no. But I did, is the important thing. Some people never figure it out. Some people are are are still trapped in their manipulative manipulative and abusive situations, whether it's a cult, whether it's with a parent.

Whether it's in a marriage, some people are still trapped, and I feel very sorry for you. And I pray the best for everyone. stay away from these online grifters and and cultists, cult leaders. You know? Keep your money in your pocket.

AYANA (52:03.362)
Be wise, be discerning. This is a a speech that I would give to young people. Be discerning. Make good choices. I tell my kids all the time, make good choices.

I'm not convinced that kids, you know, young adults, I'm not convinced they know what a good choice is.

People want to feel good, they want to belong, they want to belong to something. They want to be made to feel like they are important or helpful or necessary.

Right. Nobody wants to be alone and lonely. Nobody wants to just kind of sit with themselves. Nobody wants to be the one that people treat as an outsider.

AYANA (52:53.612)
Sometimes you have to be an outsider to save yourself, to protect yourself. Sometimes you have to be alone to protect yourself. Sometimes that alone, that loneliness, that that's protection until you find the right people to spend time with, the w the right people to give your time to, the right people to form bonds with.

Until you find somebody who makes sense, not somebody who's going to use you and abuse you. Until you find that it's okay to be alone. It's okay to sit by yourself. Go read a book. Listen to a song on the radio. Write a poem. Go roller skating. Go pick some flowers. go pet some some dogs and cats at a pet store. Go write down different types of trees. Bird watching. Go to a movie.

Go for a drive. Go to a restaurant, have a meal. scrub your floors. Wash your clothes. Watch some watch something on the Hulu or the Netflix. Or even YouTube. It's a docuseries on there, forty six parts. you watch it, you'll never be the same again, I guarantee.

And this has been Ayana Explains It All, brought to you by Facts, Figures, and Enlightenment. Take care, y'all.