A letter to those still in the community
This website is called floraverseisacult.com because the Floraverse group headship as a whole have hurt and damaged peoples lives for so long using cult-like, manipulative and abusive tactics. There is unfortunately simply no possible way to tell these stories from all the people who managed to escape with the nuance and care deserved be confined to a blog or social media account.
While we do want to expose the awful individuals who have free reign to abuse vulnerable people they hold some kind of position of power over; we don’t want to shame those who are still in the community who may have started to have doubts about it. Even if in the past they have been militantly pro flora and have harmed others through that. A community like Floraverse brings out the worst in someone, and it would be unfair to judge someone harshly who is in a position like that.
We don’t want current and previous involvement with this toxic community to be an inescapable red letter for anyone. One of Glip’s main tactics is to pretend people who have been hurt by them are either wrong or bad people in it of themselves and that the pain they endured cannot possibly exist; or in some cases, was deserved. Nobody behind this project hates Floraverse or the people in it and nobody wants people who have been or are in Floraverse to be shamed and silenced, that persecution-fetish narrative only benefits Glip and the rest of Floraverse’s headship in order to keep people within the community in line.
If you have had painful experiences because of Floraverse or Glitchedpuppet’s inner circle; please know that it’s okay if you can’t leave right away, for any reason. Cults prey on people who are vulnerable and may not have many social outlets or other support groups to fall back upon.
But you deserve to know the risk you are in, written by people who used to be in the same lovestruck and starstruck position as you might be in, who also sank parts of themselves deeply into it in some way or another…and have to contend with quietly mourning the parts of it they really loved while realizing and accepting what they went through was horrible and unacceptable. At the end of the day, we really just do not want to see people go through this again and again and again.
Abuse thrives when the abused are made to feel shame over being abused into silence, when their experiences are diminished, discounted or fabricated into a narrative where they were the abusive party and they’re outright threatened with retaliation from a large community or isolation from one of the only social groups they might find themselves in should they speak up.
This site is a compilation of the real experiences of normal, everyday people from completely different walks of life whose lives were negatively affected in a completely unnecessary, unwanted way. Negatively affected by people who billed themselves as empathetic individuals who could understand us and help us work through traumatic vulnerability, or who said they had a space we could safely explore ourselves creatively. Who would then go on to take advantage of that trust traumatize or control people like us.
Nobody whose story was featured in this website or helped create it will deny they have previously acted foolishly, cruelly or indifferently in the past. However, the trauma experienced at the hands of GlitchedPuppet and their inner-circle remains an unjust, traumatizing and dangerous as it has always been because of the repetitive selfish actions of the perpetrators.
Introduction - what makes a cult?
Cults are typically understood to be a group of people with strong, dedicated beliefs that are harmful and dangerous to either its own members within the cult or to those outside the cult. With a clear leadership figure and hierarchy. While this is a correct definition, it is also an unhelpful one. There are many different types of cults that use different and even contradictory tactics amongst each other. While cults are typically associated with religion, this is not always the case. There are Spiritual cults, Business cults, Psychotherapy cults, and more. Because of this, dictionary definitions of the word tend to be rather unhelpfully broad. It’s better to look at the shared traits and patterns in how these groups are run to identify them. We have identified Floraverse as a Psychotherapy Cult.
It is important to note that cults do not use magic or take away free will. They sell their members on an idea of a new belief using marketing and manipulation tactics, and then the members control their own minds to act in according to the cults doctrine. Joining a cult does not make one stupid, or bad. Cults are able to exist and thrive because their tactics for attracting and keeping members are extremely effective. Nobody is ever completely immune to them.
A cult that is destructive. . .veers toward remolding the individual to conform to codes and needs of the cult, institutes new taboos that preclude doubt and criticism, and produces a kind of splitting where cult members see themselves as an elite surrounded by unenlightened, and even dangerous, outsiders.
– John Hochman (1984) Iatrogenic Symptoms Associated with a Therapy Cult: Examination of an Extinct “New Psychotherapy” with Respect to Psychiatric Deterioration and “Brainwashing”
How do we identify a Psychotherapy Cult?
We will be using an article featured in the Cultic Studies Journal Vol.9 titled ‘Psychotherapy Cults: An Ethical Analysis’, written by Kim Boland & Gordon Lindbloom and published by the American Family Foundation, now known as the International Cultic Studies Association or ICSA in 1992 as a guide for this page. Do not confuse ICSA’s former name ‘American Family Foundation’ with the conservative hate group ‘American Family Association’, these groups have no association with each other.
You can find the article we will be referencing frequently on this page in full here:
The first analysis of a group termed a “psychotherapy cult” was provided by Bainbridge (1978). In Satan’s Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult, he chronicled the evolution of a group that began by providing low-cost mental health services and evolved over 12 years into a fringe religious movement. Temerlin and Temerlin (1982, 1986) provided the first critical analysis of the practices of several groups. Their synthesis of characteristic practices and ethos was based on their clinical work with former members of five different groups that they described as psychotherapy cults. Hochman (1984) outlined the theory, practices, and casualties of a group in California that he referred to as a “therapy cult.” Ayella (1985) wrote a doctoral dissertation analyzing the practices of the same group and comparing them to other groups that she identified as psychotherapy cults.
The essential characteristics of these groups were described variously. Appel wrote that “therapeutic cults frame the salvation they offer in psychological terms, as personal liberation or cure” (1983, p. 19). The Temerlins summarized their analyses in the following way:
These cults were an iatrogenic perversion of therapy because the character problems their patients brought to therapy were not worked through, but were replaced in consciousness by a “true believing” acceptance of their therapists‟ theories, selfless devotion to their therapists‟ welfare, unrecognized depression, and paranoid attitudes toward nonbelieving professionals.
– Temerlin & Temerlin, 1982, p. 132
Based on the descriptions available, the central features of the groups whose practices are under scrutiny here can be defined in at least a minimal way. They include
- The use of psychotherapy language and concepts to offer help
- A predominant emphasis on working in a group
- The appearance and claim of competent professional leadership
- The elevation of a leader to charismatic status and idealization by members
- Self-sacrifice by members on behalf of the leader and group
- The development of a strong group identity that separates them from other associations, groups, and professionals
- The development of strong pressures for conformity and submission to the norms and practices of the group.
Existing studies of groups described by their observers as psychotherapy cults vary from ethnographic analyses to journalistic accounts. Their lack of a common framework of analysis limits comparisons and generalizations. For this study, we used eight categories of conduct in mental health practice that are cited in ethical codes or derive from them (American Psychological Association, 1989; Association for Specialists in Group Work, 1983; Corey, Corey, & Callahan, 1988; Keith-Spiegel & Koocher, 1985). These categories include confidentiality, dual relationships, informed consent, professional competency, dependency and autonomy, financial practices, professional development, and separation/termination. In each of these categories accepted standards of behavior are first compared with deviations frequently cited in the literature on individual and group therapy; then, practices reported in the literature on groups described as psychotherapy cults are identified and briefly discussed.
We will be going over each category outlined by Boland and Lindbloom and drawing comparisons with how Floraverse as a community operates.
Glip says scene's aren't therapy, so how can Floraverse be a psychotherapy cult?
Glip frequently refers to their practices within the community as distinctly ‘not therapy’, because they, and those that partake in the practice lack the knowledge, training and skills necessary to be a therapist. This is correct: No one in the Floraverse community is a properly licensed therapist.
That doesn’t mean that the practices that the group partake in are not meant to act as a treatment to help someone feel better or be better – which is essentially what the act of therapy is.
Let’s look at how Glip describes Scenes in their own words
Glip here is describing scenes as a form of conflict resolution – and how this practice helped them and Axi both feel better and be better. In the case of Boxley’s scene, he would describe the conflict being Boxley’s inability to communicate about problems with the scenes goal to examine why – so he could improve.
Boxley on why he and Glip held a scene.
Floraverse scenes act as a confrontation to a problem, real and fabricated, for conflict resolution. Floraverse as a whole loves to confront each others problems even outside of scenes. This confrontation is meant to acknowledge the emotions of the involved parties behind the problem to resolve them by getting everyone’s emotions out in the open. However, while confrontation of a problem is the first and arguably most important step of addressing the problem, Floraverse seems to just stop there, and just state that it helps. It’s self wallowing, with never any plan on how to move forward, and they are convinced this is helpful.
So despite Glip correctly claiming that their group does not practice therapy, they practice behavior that has the same goal as therapy; which is more then enough to entice people and to further our line of questioning on if Floraverse is a psychotherapy cult.
What really is a scene? How does it work? Surely it’s not an arms race.
Scenes, tests and unofficial scenes were conceptualized by Glitchedpuppet as a way to address negative behaviors within the group publicly, in a controlled space and with options to pause or suspend the session at the request of any of the participants. Scenes are held both in character for roleplays, and for actual members as themselves. In theory, this would allow a space for all users to resolve grievances within members of the discord, however, in practice, because scenes are more often than not started by a moderator, admin or other high ranking members of the Floraverse team against casual members or fans, this creates an inherent power imbalance, and because scenes are the only form of conflict resolution offered and framed as a way to address exclusively negative behavior, denying participation in a scene or suspending it is often taken as an outright denial to address negative behavior overall and usually results in expulsion from the server, putting extra pressure on the person to agree or lose whatever social connections they may have made.
What constitutes “negative behavior” worthy of a scene is left to the discretion of the person (usually someone in power) to decide. Scenes, tests and unofficial scenes have been started for reasons such as:
- A member wrote a poem that one of the moderators did not like
- A moderator and Glip did not like how a member roleplayed
- Glip was frustrated with a members inability to coherently communicate problems
There are no rules for how the scene moderators should behave towards the people they subject to scenes. Name-calling, demeaning and abusive language, emotional manipulation, dogpiling and ridicule are all hallmarks observed in scenes. Scene holders will often bully and provoke the subject into lashing out, then reel back and use it as proof of the subject’s “inherent toxicity” and doubling down until provoking further reactions or a total emotional breakdown.
There are also no rules for how long the scenes should last, with scenes often taking hours in which the subject is expected to maintain composure and cordiality through the entire ordeal while the Scene holders very much are not. There are no special provisions for breaks or checking-in times regardless of the time or personal circumstances the subject might be beholden to. There are also no limits to how many Scene holders may attack a single or a couple of members, leading to them being dogpiled and swamped over a barrage of abuse they may struggle to even keep up with, and be ridiculed for not keeping up with it (Hare’s 6ish hour scene is a good example showcasing all of this.)
As a result, scenes operate as nothing more than a form of control and punishment leveled against members considered to be deserving of it. More insidiously, a feature of scenes is to include a channel for other uninvolved members to spectate the ordeal, ostensibly for “transparency” but functionally serving as a way to turn scene subjects into a public show of example-making to the other members to further reinforce the consequences of “stepping out of line”.
Lack of Confidentiality
In proper therapy, confidentiality is one of the most important tenants of the practice – with practitioners who fail to adhere to it facing legal consequences. As Floraverse engages in practices similar to therapy with the same goals as therapy; it should take confidentiality just as seriously.
Related but distinct issues arise regarding the extent of personal disclosure encouraged or demanded in individual and group therapy. In group therapy the risks of embarrassment, rejection, and vulnerability to severe pressures are much greater though they can also exist in individual psychotherapy. An excessive emphasis on openness can increase this vulnerability. Therapists, especially those working with groups, are expected to maintain a balance between encouraging client self-disclosure and providing protection against pressures or tendencies to engage in too much revelation of personal secrets (Lakin, 1986).
Here is the instruction manual that is provided by the bot whenever a scene is initiated
Floraverse has no care for the concept of confidentiality. Every time a scene or test is initiated with the bot everyone gets a reminder that the topic will be discussed thoroughly and that you can ‘manipulate others when you do not give full context for your actions’. You don’t want to manipulate and further hurt your friend, right? If so, you must tell them why you acted a certain way, even if that reason is deeply personal and not something you would want to otherwise share.
Group dynamics are utilized to ensure that the private is made public (Ayella, 1985). The leader and other group members expect total “openness” or access into all parts of clients‟ lives, and sometimes those of leaders as well (Boland, 1989; Ofshe, 1976; Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986). This openness then leads to efforts to exert wide areas of control over the attitudes and behavior of members. Behavior that is not compliant is often viewed as resistance or a sign of character flaws (Ayella, 1985; Ofshe, 1976; Temerlin & Temerlin, 1982). These behaviors are then targets of “therapy,” with the goal being that the member would surrender the identified deviance and adhere to group norms (Ofshe, 1976).
Scenes are often a public spectacle. There are channels that the ‘test subject’ of a scene cannot access that exist for the onlookers in the group to watch and discuss what happens within a Scene in real time. You can see this in the scene where Pepper role-played an intention to commit suicide based on actual feelings he had, and people onlooking in #the-assembly had no idea if the suicide note that Pepper produced for the scene was real or not.
Everybody is friends, a lot of people are dating, and we're all each others counselors
Ethical codes in mental health professions urge that business, professional, social, or sexual relationships with clients be avoided (APA, 1989; ASGW, 1983). Clients are to be protected from having other aspects of their lives affected by the private knowledge gained by a therapist or therapy group. Therapists are to avoid such conditions so that they do not develop personal interests that would compromise their commitment to their clients‟ therapeutic welfare.
More complications arise in avoiding harmful dual relationships among group therapy clients than is characteristic among individual therapy clients. Outside contacts between group members that provide emotional and practical support can be very beneficial. They can also lead to coalitions, subgrouping, and romances that confound the privacy and central emphases of therapeutic involvement (Lakin, 1986). Therapists sometimes have clients in both individual and group therapy at the same time, raising questions of which information disclosed in each setting will be used in the other.
In the groups under study, by contrast, relationships with multiple dimensions are not only tolerated but sanctioned and pursued. The group is viewed as a new family, providing for all the clients‟ social and personal needs (Boland, 1989; Hart, 1972; Singer, 1979; Span, 1988; Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986). This intensified involvement is often perpetuated by ensuring that when clients finish therapy or “graduate,” they are promoted into staff or therapist positions within the group (Conason & McGarrahan, 1986; Hassan, 1988; Mithers, 1988). In some groups, therapists and staff are not excluded from the requirement that they continue to receive therapy (Ayella, 1985; Boland, 1989; Conason & McGarrahan, 1986; Hennican, 1988).
It’s important to remember that Floraverse isn’t just a group focused on the improvement on the members, it is also a fandom for a web comic. As with any fan community, friendships form, relationships – both sexual and nonsexual are made and anyone and everyone can scene with someone else. After-all, the pretense of having a scene is for conflict resolution, and you can’t ignore the hurt you caused upon others. It is not uncommon for leadership figures to be dating each other and still scene (Glip and Axi) or for regular members to scene with their partners (Bea, Sunbe), (Final, kasran, wraith). This also creates an extremely out of balance power dynamic should someone like Glip pull you into a scene, as if it goes poorly and you get kicked or need to leave for your own mental well being, well, there goes the fan community and friends you sunk a lot of time into.
In these groups, clients are typically encouraged to take on a new identity (Ayella, 1985; Hochman, 1984; Temerlin & Temerlin, 1982). Ayella (1985) describes the emphasis in one group on open expression of feelings that became taxing and disruptive of members‟ outside relationships. This commonly leads to what Bainbridge (1978) described as a transition to a “culture of narcissism” and a concomitant alienation from previous relationships. This collapse of the client‟s social network and outside relationships is facilitated indirectly by the intensity of the new relationships and the new standards clients are encouraged to impose on themselves and on all of their relationships.
Roleplaying in Flora is extremely important. The Eastar server even forbids you from participating in most channels should you not make a floraverse OC and roleplay. (Owel, however appears to be more open – but this is a recent development as previously you would have to establish yourself in Eastar through roleplay to get invited into Owel.) Scenes occur also in roleplay, and are carried out while in character. This process ensures that the people who join the community for the webcomic, will also engage in the therapeutic practices of the community, as unrelated parts of the community are closed off if you do not participate.
Pengo you dipshit the question isn’t random because the kid is ‘focused’ on getting the entity role, the question isn’t random because the kid was just told the only only place to share pictures of animals is only accessible with the entity role.
While it’s reasonable to expect one to make a full on character sheet to join a roleplay community- it is not reasonable to expect one to make a full on character sheet and roleplay to join a web comic fandom community. Eastar is not advertised as a roleplay server, it is simply stated to be a Floraverse server.
Rina, who was in the community for years would talk about the intensity of these roleplays in her zine “Short Straw – A Zine about being unlucky”.
The level of personal work Glip’s asking others to do is super involved and intensive even in comparison to a tabletop roleplaying game because they’re asking their members to be emotionally invested in something that’s actually beyond a mere Role Play server. It’s presented as roleplay, but it isn’t. The roles, the personas, they’re all intended to reflect the people they belong to. Whether it’s someone as a whole or a facet of themselves they wish to explore.
"Consent"
Therapists are now expected to provide prospective clients with accurate information about the goals, content, procedures, and risks of therapy so they can decide freely whether to become involved (APA, 1989; ASGW, 1983; NASW, 1990).
Barriers that can impair the clarity and freedom of this judgment include the urgency clients normally feel to get on with doing something about their problems (Lakin, 1986) and the prevalence of psychotherapy jargon that clients do not understand (Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986). Careless or unethical group therapists can violate this standard by failing to provide adequate information and unbiased opportunities for clients to ask questions and weigh their alternatives. They can continue the violation by treating initial consent to involvement as consent to all future events and activities in the group and by pressuring members to participate in these regardless of their reservations (Corey, Corey, Callahan, & Russell, 1982).
Like The Instruction Manual, The Safeguard manual is posted by the bot every time a scene or test is initiated. At a glance of reading it, you might assume that consent is actually taken seriously within the Floraverse community. Procedures, Risks, Content and Goals are stated clearly in both manuals.
However, Floraverse on a structural level has substantial barriers that allow for anyone in the group to give full, honest consent. These structural barriers are so significant, that it can be argued that consent to partake in scenes is largely just coercion. To explain, specific phrases in the instruction manual and safeguard manual both instill the use of guilt tripping:
‘It is not possible to ignore if you are hurting someone else, and it will be discussed thoroughly.’
If you don’t ‘agree’ to participate, then that means you simply just don’t care about the others you’re hurting in your community. After all, it’s not possible to ignore the hurt you cause upon someone else – right? You just don’t want to improve, and you’re fine with causing harm onto others. These are your friends, remember all of those hours you spent roleplaying with them? Don’t you care that you hurt them?
‘Remember that TESTs are voluntary, but that being empathetic towards your fellow entities is not.’
Tests might be voluntary, but are you realllllly being empathetic towards your fellow entities if you do not address the harm you caused by refusing to participate?
Group pressure is used with increasing directness to overcome any reluctance to submit to the therapy process, its ideology, and the group‟s standards of conduct (Hochman, 1984).
Sometimes confrontation-based-self-improvement interactions similar to scenes spontaneously happen within the channel without utilizing the bot, with the subject on the defense. Naturally, the subject is not asked to consent in these instances due to the spontaneous nature of it. This is intentional and is often takes the form of a moderator lashing out for some perceived wrong done upon them. You can see the group even encourage its members to jump a spontaneous scene onto people who ‘make them uncomfortable’.
Hey, where’s the step to ask for the other persons consent?
Flora moderators will argue that these aren’t scenes, they’re conflict resolution. But scenes are how the Floraverse community resolves conflict. Just like scenes, they are encouraged to confront the person publicly in the server for others to watch, just like Proper Scenes created with the bot, Spontaneous Scenes involve psychoanalyzing the target and being viciously cruel to them for the sake of ‘improvement’. It’s walking like a duck, its quacking like a duck, we might not have seen it float like a duck, but we still think it’s a duck.
The lack of confidentiality and massive amounts of dual relationships discussed in previous sections also play a role in coercion. If you reject to scene: people will know, and it will impact your other friendships and relationships. The power-imbalance dynamic of the community being a fandom for a webcomic and the webcomics creator and contributors being admin also comes into play when Glip, Opa, Pengo, or any other moderator asks to Scene.
You might be fine if you reject one scene, but if you’re uncomfortable with the idea on a whole and reject most, people will notice, judge you for it, and the refusal to confront problems on these specific terms will, in their eyes, make you a bad person who is not wanted in the community.
No one is properly trained for this
Mental health professionals are responsible under their codes of ethics to be cognizant of the limitations of their individual competence and of the therapeutic techniques they employ (APA, 1989; ASGW, 1983; NASW, 1990). Common violations of these assumptions involve accepting clients for which one is not prepared, using techniques in which one is not proficient, and not recognizing the extent to which some clients will benefit from a particular approach while others may not.
Scenes in practice, are similar to a real and controversial form of therapy known as attack therapy. Attack Therapy is defined as a highly confrontational interaction between patient and therapist, or between patient and fellow patients within group therapy. In which the patient is verbally abused, denounced, or humiliated by the therapist or others within the group. The intent is to break a person down, so they can be built back up again. It is a type of therapy that has its benefits contested, as it can easily cause substantial psychological damage to the patient. Like all forms of therapy, it attack therapy needs to be performed by a professional, but attack therapy, due to its nature needs to be done by someone who knows what they are doing.
People who have been through scenes often make comparisons to how another psychotherapy cult known as Élan School facilitated their use of attack therapy ‘Hair Cuts’ and ‘General Meetings’. Élan School was an abusive therapeutic boarding school for troubled teens. Though not one to one, we show this video of how Élan School was ran to how this stuff works in a different environmental context.
In discussing the formation of groups, Yalom (1985) acknowledges the reality that the difficulty of finding enough participants often overrides considerations of appropriate fit. Safeguards intended to limit potential harm to clients in such situations include pregroup screening interviews, informed consent to the purposes and procedures of the group, therapist protection of clients from excessive group pressures, and protection of the freedom of the client to exit from the group at any time (Lakin, 1986).
Groups under study here are described as taking very different approaches to these questions. Accounts of their recruitment practices imply that they commonly take all comers. Their conduct suggests that they believe that their brand of treatment can be practiced without consideration of the individual characteristics and needs of clients. They appear to believe that the treatment itself is so powerful that any limitations are ignored (Ayella, 1985; Kottler, 1982). The therapy is standardized and applied to all clients, who are expected to fit into a very restrictive treatment framework (Ayella, 1985; Boland, 1989). Clients are encouraged to blame themselves for lack of progress. Such failure is cited as proof of the need for further therapy (Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986). This uniformity is reinforced by the reported common practice of promoting clients to positions as staff members or therapists based on their work in therapy (Boland, 1989; Ofshe, 1976), often without regard for their educational or professional qualifications (Ayella, 1985; Black, 1975; Conason & McGarrahan, 1986; Mithers, 1988).
Glip has also been known to run mass meditation events over Discord Voice Calls
We have mirrored the recording of this group meditation session so you can hear it for yourself:
Transcription Provided by idkimjustadude on tumblr. Original Doc
“Ensure you will not be disturbed during the next hour or so. Take a moment to get comfortable and close your eyes. Whether lying down, or sitting in your chair, allow yourself the most comfortable position for your body.”
“As you start to settle in, your mind will start to clear itself. There may still be thoughts running around. This is okay, because the more relaxed you get, the more clarity and direction these thoughts and feelings will have.”
“Now that you’ve taken the time to become comfortable, take a moment to imagine a time where you have felt relaxed. It’s okay if nothing comes to mind immediately, because as you become more comfortable, your body will remember for you. Your body is very intelligent and knows how to communicate quite a lot to you.”
“As you become more comfortable, your body will slowly open up more and more to you. We will take a moment to focus on becoming very comfortable, even more than you’re normally used to. While your body is remembering the sensation of relaxing, will help in along”
Transcriber’s Comment: The last part is too muffled for me to make out clearly.
“Tense your fingers…”
“1…2…3…4…5”
“Now relax them.”
“1…2…3…4…5”
“Feel the contrast.”
“Breath in.”
“1…2…3…4…5”
“Breath Out.”
“1…2…3…4…5”
“Tense your toes. …2…3…4…5 Relax them….2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your fingers. …2…3…4…5 Relax them….2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your toes….2…3…4…5 Relax them. …2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your fingers….2…3…4…5 Relax them….2…3…4…5 Breathe in. …2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your toes. …2…3…4…5 Relax them….2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your fingers….2…3…4…5 Relax them…2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your toes….2…3…4…5 Relax them….2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your fingers….2…3…4…5 Relax them….2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5 Tense your toes….2…3…4…5 Relax them….2…3…4…5 Breathe in….2…3…4…5 Breathe out….2…3…4…5”
“Your body will enjoy being recognized by you, and to show this, it will bring you deeper, and deeper into relaxation. As you become more relaxed, your body will be opening up more and more of your deepest feelings and thoughts to you. Your body is directly connected to your subconscious, and it wants to share everything you listen to. It wants you to listen to it.”
“Tense your hands…..2…3…4…5 Relax them…..2…3…4…5 Breathe in…..2…3…4…5 Breathe out…..2…3…4…5 Tense your feet…..2…3…4…5 Relax them.”
Transcriber’s Comment: This is repeated a few times.
“As your body enjoys this attention, it slowly opens up more and more to you. You will notice that as you tense your body and relax it again, you get detached from your body. Your fingers will go numb, your hands will go numb. As you relax them more and more, the rest of your body will go numb as well.”
“As you feel the relaxation setting in, your body is preparing itself to allow you to feel completely different sensations. Your body knows that it can show you things you have forgotten. By allowing you to remember how these things felt, your body is preparing to bring in all sorts of complicated and helpful feelings for your benefit and growth. Your body will not bring in anything you cannot handle.”
“Tense your arms…..2…3…4…5 Relax them…..2…3…4…5 Breathe in……2…3…4…5 Breathe out……2…3…4…5 Tense your legs…..2…3…4…5 Relax them.”
“Your body enjoys being able to help you with your growth. And as you relax, this enjoyment will flood your body with a warm glow. As you feel this warm glow, you will start to find yourself at a closed door to a labyrinth with huge, towering, sleek black walls. On the walls, you can see engravings of-of various aw-ings and shapes.”
Transcriber’s Comment: I have no idea what “aw-wings” is supposed to be. I thought it’d be awnings, but I don’t think it fits in the context.
“Everyone has a unique entry point to this labyrinth. As you relax further and further with every breath, you will find that you automatically start heading towards the door to the labyrinth. “
“The labyrinth door recognizes you and opens. As soon as you head inside the labyrinth, you find that you remember the feeling of pathing out this labyrinth many times before. Your subconscious is supplying you with exactly what you need to navigate this labyrinth, and you understand that you cannot get lost while it leads you.”
Transcriber’s Comment: The “you” got absorbed by the ASMR deities, but I was able to make it out.
“While you wander the maze-like hallways, you body, in perfect harmony with your subconscious, takes the lead. Your subconscious knows exactly where to go. You find that on these sleek, black, engraved walls, there are occasionally levers and switches of varying shapes, sizes, and colors. Simply observe these levers in passing.”
Transcriber’s Comment: It sounds like “aulnings” and thought they were trying to say “all of these”.
“As you make your way through the maze, observing these levers, you will notice that you are completely relaxed. You know that every and any choice your subconscious makes about where to take you is the correct choice. A-As you head further and further into the maze, you’ll become more and more relaxed about this journey. Your subconscious is taking you exactly where it needs to be. And as you travel, this fills you with a peaceful warmth of knowing everything is as it should be. You know you are looking for a hallway with two levers at the very end of it. In perfect relaxation, you know that you will find it soon.”
“You continue to travel along the maze. And as you do, you observe all the beautiful levers that line the walls of the labyrinth. Every one of them is different. Your subconscious perfectly knows what every single one of these levers does. It knows that it will be able to return to this place anytime it needs to.”
“As you travel, you notice how deeply relaxing it is to have such perfect knowledge of accessible to you. Your subconscious is joyful at being allowed to show you this place, and is happy to lead you to the two levers you’re looking for. Knowing you’re here for personal knowledge and betterment, your subconscious carries you further into the maze, in perfect harmony with the maze itself.”
Transcriber’s Comment: That error was in the audio file. I didn’t make it up.
“Eventually, you feel that you are close to the hallway with the two levers you are seeking. You allow yourself to sense where the two levels are and you head in that direction. You know that there will be a switch to the left and a switch to the right. Everyone’s levers are going to reflect what these levers mean for them. You should have a perfect knowing of what each of these two levers do, even if it’s not accessible to your conscious mind.”
“As you make your way to these levers, a deep relaxation will allow that perfect knowledge to fill every cell of your body. Your body will be happy to share this knowledge with you, and your subconscious will make sure that you only feel what you can handle.”
“As you continue to travel deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, you notice the turn ahead, and you know that two levers you are looking for will be around this corner, at the very end. You are filled with purpose”
“As you head deeper and deeper, making your way to the two levers, you find yourself almost there, and you take in every single detail of these two levers. You stop in front of them and you observe every shape, every color, and all of the meaning behind these two levers, which will become apparent to you. You know you’ll be asked to make a decision about these levers, and your subconscious will help you make that decision.”
“It has perfect knowledge about what it means to flip every single switch in the entire labyrinth, and these levers are no different.”
“Observe the levers in great detail.”
“Observe the left lever.”
“Now observe the right lever.”
“Allow the knowledge of these levers to fill every aspect of your being. You do not have to think about this knowledge. You can merely feel it.”
“You will be making a choice. You may flip the left switch, or the right switch, or neither.”
“As you observe the levers, you will find that the choice makes itself obvious and apparent to you. You do not need to think about it. Your subconscious freely shares with you which choice will serve you the best. It has the best intentions in mind for you, when you find that you know you can trust it to guide you into making the decision that will serve your highest purpose.”
Transcriber’s Comment: I keep hearing “of lying to you”.
“As you continue to observe the levers, your choice has been made. You know that whether you do nothing or flip a switch, you will be making the correct choice for yourself.”
“As you carry out your choice and complete it, you will notice that the labyrinth fills with a deep tone. You recognize that this tone means your choice has been made, and you will be leaving this place shortly.”
“You turn around and start to head elsewhere in the labyrinth, the deep tone filling you with the knowing that you have acted in complete harmony with your subconscious.”
“You know that you will be heading to the library next and you know that you are looking for a glowing orb of colored light.”
“As you start to make your way back through the labyrinth, you know that you’ll want to take this deep peace and knowing back with you. Your subconscious is overjoyed that you want to make this choice for yourself, because your subconscious knows it will be much, much easier to guide you while you are feeling peaceful and relaxed.”
“As you travel along the maze, you can feel the warmth from the glowing orb of light you seek. You know that, as you turn the corner, you will find the orb, and that it will guide you back into the library.”
“As you turn the corner, you regard the orb and you observe whichever of the colors that it may be. The light fills you with a deep sense of knowing and understanding, your purpose for being in this labyrinth.”
“Regard the orb, know that as soon as you touch it, you will end up in the library.”
“The orb reads deep feelings, that you absorb with perfect knowledge and in perfect harmony, and your subconscious is there to help you understand and translate each and every one of these feelings for you.”
“You know that as you touch the orb, you will be pulled to recall all of this knowledge and everything you did in this labyrinth with perfect clarity, and now this perfect recall will continue even after you touch the orb.”
“You reach out to touch the orb, and as you touch it, you find yourself in the library. You will slowly allow your body to stretch and move after such deep relaxation. You will slowly open your eyes, and you will notice that you feel at ease and peaceful around everyone else at the library.”
“You will slowly return to full awareness of your surroundings and physical space. You will return to full alertness…”
There is not a single professional capable of facilitating these safely and ethically within Glip’s community, and yet Scenes, in terms of how they are facilitated and managed are frequently very comparable to attack therapy. They are often long and drawn out, spanning hours. The tedium of it wears an individual down. What’s worse: Glip goes further then other psychotherapy cults in that they allow anyone in their community to facilitate a scene.
Floraverse encourages people to depend on it
In group therapies, the desire to be accepted as a member and the power of group pressures to conform add risks that appear different from those associated with individual psychotherapies. Ethical group leaders are expected to take care to protect individuals from excessive pressures (Corey, Corey, Callahan, & Russell, 1982) and to promote the independence of participants (Keith-Spiegel & Koocher, 1985; Lakin, 1986) by helping clients define and adhere to their own goals (ASGW, 1983).
Unethical therapists minimize individuals‟ competence to make decisions and encourage dependency on the therapy and the group (Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986). It is common for clients to idealize and inflate the wisdom and skills of the therapist.
As shown before, the importance of Scenes culturally in the Floraverse community is in it of itself a massive, unrelenting pressure put onto the community members to partake – which is far from the ethical standard practices like these need. Additionally: Glip has been known to give out assignments to community members to give the appearance of improvement.
Glip gives Boxley an Assignment
Glip gives Jolly a set of tasks to do for self improvement in exchange for a character adopt after Jolly asks.
The use of giving an assignment is to try and legitimize the scene process and give the idea that performing these tasks will help the person be better. The use of allowing Glip, specifically, to give these ‘self improvement’ assignments is to further expand the power imbalance between Glip and normal members and to encourage more idealization towards them. Sometimes the advice is useful, but a lot of the times it’s irrelevant to problem confronted and boils down to simply ‘tell me how you feel’ or ‘draw how you feel’. Glip has shown a pattern of giving out assignments with the idea that doing these things will improve the assignee. This behavior was so common that at times people will ask for an assignment for a reward, further pushing the idea that a members improvement is a goal for the leadership that deserves reward.
Whereas ethical group counselors are expected to exercise control over inordinate peer pressure and client self-esteem (Corey, Corey, Callahan, & Russell, 1982; Lakin, 1986), reports from the groups under study indicate that they often foster feelings of humiliation (Ayella, 1985; Hochman, 1984), failure (Ayella, 1985), and punishment (Ayella, 1985; Ofshe, 1976). Ayella (1985) also noted a constant striving for a “perfect” standard of mental health as defined by the group. The result of these forces is that psychotherapy cults evolve into enmeshed groups of dependent clients who are rarely referred elsewhere for help (Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986).
In these groups independence is not a goal. Instead, the measure of success is more commonly whether the individual develops a new identity (Ayella, 1985; Hochman, 1984). This is verified by “true-believing” acceptance of the therapy and the therapist (Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986). In these groups, submission to the group is Acharacterized as the height of personal liberation and transcendence@ (Appel, 1983, p. 20). Retaining successful members as therapists perpetuates the dependency and reinforces pressures for conformity (Ayella, 1985; Bainbridge, 1978; Black, 1975; Conason & McGarrahan, 1986; Mithers, 1988).
Floraverse’s pressure for members to roleplay in these emotional roleplay sessions with a Floraverse OC is their way of encouraging members to take on a new Floraverse-focused identity. Because of Floraverse’s unique Creative Commons Attributed Share Alike 3.0 copyright license, any character made for Floraverse can be used in Floraverse, without the creators permission. The way anyone can start a scene with you for any reason creates an environment of pins and needles for the members of the community. With how often people get mocked, publicly humiliated in the server over perceived wrong doing, it instills fear that you could be next. What if you don’t respond fast enough and that ‘hurts’ your roleplay partner? What if someone thinks you’re ignoring them when you’re simply busy? What if you phrase something ever-so-slightly off putting because English not your first language? To bad. Maybe the person who started a spontaneous scene with you will acknowledge that English not being your first language may have had something to do with how you ‘hurt’ them after they’re finished screaming at you.
The emotional attention the Floraverse community demands (Remember: scenes and roleplays can go on for hours.) means any other non-ingroup relationships you have will be neglected. It’s particularly cruel for Glip to set up a social hub for a queer furry comic, of which fans will tend towards being queer, furry and tend towards neurodivergence only to be thrust into an environment where they are expected to have frequent interactions in order to retain access but risk having their new social support structure snatched away from them should they cross a moderator, especially if they’re brought into a scene, official or impromptu, where they can look forward to being questioned and badgered by an unsympathetic moderator while their friends spectate the ordeal from another channel.
Financial Practices & Reliance
Now, admittedly for this section, the types of exploitative financial practices described by Boland and Lindbloom are not reflective in the Floraverse community. However, there are trends we had noticed within the community that are financially exploitative in nature.
The Floraverse discords serve as the main hub of communication between members, and because of the Floraverse community being centered around the webcomic, the discord server is set up to attract both artists and art fans willing to pay for art pieces revolving around Glip’s characters and the original characters created by members make for Glip’s Universe, creating a commercial hub for these types of works.
Because of the insular nature of the Floraverse fanbase, artists who receive commissions from other Floraverse members often struggle to branch out to other forms of income outside of the Floraverse group and may therefore become dependent on staying in the group’s good graces in order to continue working, as making a mistake or butting heads with Floraverse headship enough tends to not only banish the artists from what may be their only customer base, but the community’s tendency to hold public shaming sessions of anyone who leaves, pressuring the members into cutting contact with someone the group has decided is “toxic”, lest they become “toxic” too and be subject to punishment/exclusion. We aware of people are in the community right now and were formerly in the community who relied on Floraverse commissions as their only form of income.
Rina, as an example a few months before leaving the community was told to not write in the chats by Glip until she wrote an apology to W0z – you know, the individual who wrote a rape fantasy visual novel about her. This caused Rina to lose all forms of income from the group.
Glitchedpuppet’s main income is also derived from a combination of commissions for the Floraverse fanbase and the Floraverse patreon, which members are incentivized into joining due to the extra social spaces the patreon membership allows access to within Glip’s circles as well as exclusive art not available to non-patrons. While this is fairly typical for any artist-focused discord server what is atypical is advertising specific art commissions as being “a way to process negative emotions” or otherwise conducive to general mental health wellbeing.
The “Dom Comms”
The Dom Comms are an example of this, a domm comm offered art of Glip’s characters verbally, emotionally and physically assaulting and subjugating the commissioners’ character (with specific traumatic content tailored to the commissioner), under the assumption that this image would somehow “validate” the commissioners abuse or trauma. It is unclear why a person would need a drawing of their character being assaulted by Glip’s to validate their trauma, or why this validation has to be bought from Glip specifically, but it helped reinforce the idea that being abused by Glip is a good thing to the Floraverse community members. Here is how Glip talks about the commissions when challenged on them by KF.
The first step to getting a dom comm would be to pick which version of Papaya you want your character to be abused by.
Then, you’d get your art.
Then, Glip would ask you to write about how the artwork made you feel.
We feel this is comparable to selling snake oil.
Professional development is fine, if the professionals don't criticize us
To remain cognizant of changing knowledge and to maintain or acquire new competencies, members of most professions are expected to engage in continuing learning (APA, 1989; NASW, 1990). In these groups, however, the open exchange of ideas and skills with the community of mental health professionals is largely cut off.
Floraverse doesn’t, from what we can see typically oppose more authentic mental health institutions, they simply do not care. However, when the therapist has an issue with how the the Floraverse community treats its members – they try to shut it down and make whatever the professional said to their client be about Glips feelings.
Group leaders commonly claim that they have found “the way” to mental health and healing. They are likely to use hostility and condescension to minimize what other professionals have to offer, and they commonly cultivate a paranoia towards outside professionals (Temerlin & Temerlin, 1982, 1986).
Forever Therapy
Professional standards for psychotherapists assume that in nearly all cases clients will become independent of therapy and therapists and that competent practice includes moving clients to termination (APA, 1989; NASW, 1990). Incompetent or passively unethical practice involves the failure to encourage the development of insights, skills, and external supports that will foster clients‟ independence and self-confidence.
[…] the groups under review here are described as taking a very different approach to ending therapy. The concepts of achieving a healthy level of personal functioning or of graduation from a group are commonly replaced with the concept of a permanent therapeutic community. Separation and termination are not accepted. Therapy is considered a way of life (Ayella, 1985; Conason & McGarrahan, 1986; Hochman, 1984; Mithers, 1988; Ofshe, 1976).
[…] After the intensive and all-encompassing nature of such group participation, separation poses major adjustments for departing members. Members‟ identities, social support, sources of information, and personal identity all become dependent on the group (Black, 1975; Temerlin & Temerlin, 1986). Outside relationships and interests diminish. As a result, group members who leave experience major psychological and practical losses and typically experience significant adjustment problems (Singer & Ofshe, 1990).
There is simply not a discussion of not engaging in the practice of scenes within Floraverse. If you are a fan of the webcomic, and want to partake in the community, then you must at some point, scene. It is up to to others to decide when you need a scene; it is a permanent therapeutic community.
Conclusion - "Bro it's just a discord server like just leave"
Taken individually, they may develop from minor to more extensive deviations from established norms; but combined, they appear to create a new gestalt of influences and ties that contain much greater potential for harm to clients than is present in conventional individual and group therapy.
Floraverse’s practices are on a fundamental level: exploitative and abusive. These people are not brainwashed, but they are being tricked. This is not the fault of those that are being tricked, but upon the group itself. Glitchedpuppet and those within their inner-circle are responsible for building this system, and the trauma to the members that partake that comes from it.
Of course we are in no position to effectively diagnose anything but given the extant damage that has been done to ex-members already closely mirroring the negative effects of cults, we feel it is important enough to highlight this in a collective effort by the survivors to warn of how these dynamics can infiltrate any benign group and the very real danger anyone close to this group is likely to suffer as a preventative measure.
It is often that people are able to break free of their cult’s psychological hold by connecting with loved ones outside of the group- limiting the individuals social reliance on the cult and hearing facts and ideas that the cult would rather keep a member away from. It is also common for those that have left the cult to try and help those who are still in the cult gain awareness of what is happening and find the courage and resources to leave.
This site was built by former Floraverse community members and former fans of GlitchedPuppet, and this is our effort to do that.