WTF is on my Mind?!
Author, Speaker, Whistleblower and award-winning Director Mark Vicente was behind the sleeper hit “What The Bleep Do We Know?!” Several books have been written about the film’s remarkable grassroots marketing campaign, which led to its unprecedented success.
Mark was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1965. Taking his first photograph at age four, he quickly discovered his passion for being behind the camera. After attending film and drama school in South Africa, he began working his way up the ranks of the camera department, from Assistant to Operator to Cinematographer. His first big break came as Director of Photography on the musical “SARAFINA,” starring Whoopi Goldberg. In 1992, he set his sights on Hollywood and relocated to Los Angeles to shoot his first studio picture for Disney; “FATHERHOOD,” starring Patrick Swayze and Halle Berry. At the age of 26, he became one of the youngest cinematographers to shoot a big-budget studio picture.
Over the next few decades, he went on to shoot an additional 14 feature films and numerous documentaries, music videos and commercials. Mark soon found there were in him, untold stories he desperately wanted to express as a Director. He was driven by the conviction that tales of greatness, nobility and introspection could be exciting and financially successful.
Perhaps because of the very obvious race and class iniquities in South Africa, he found himself propelled to question certain fundamental assumptions at a very young age. Beliefs about human behavior, cosmology, religion, existentialism and mysticism. Along the way, he stumbled into a few situations where leaders with malignant pathologies (masquerading as saintly philosophers) spoke the talk of self-improvement but did untold damage to their followers... and him.
Looking back, he can now say he has been in at least two cults. His last foray into personal growth and his defection from NXIVM was chronicled in the HBO series “The Vow”. Mark and a few plucky whistleblowers exposed the criminal activities of the organization, resulting in multiple arrests and indictments. He doesn’t consider himself a cult expert, but by his own admission, “I’m an expert in being screwed over, waking up, and knowing how to spot them.” He’s got a pretty salty approach to most things and is fascinated by the myriad patterns in the human psychodynamic that create the best and the worst in civilization.
Join Mark as he unpacks a whole range of topics to do with: Psychology, Consciousness, Morality, Narcissistic Abuse, Spirituality, Cults, Propaganda, Science, Filmmaking, and Philosophy.You never quite know what you’re going to get, as it really does depend on… WTF is on his mind?!
WTF is on my Mind?!
Inst@Guru: Bentinho Massaro Ep 8 - Aaron Abke "Behind the Mask"
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One of the recurring defenses from people still inside Bentinho Massaro's circle is that the people who have spoken out, Jacqueline, Keilan, and Jade, simply didn't understand the Law of One teachings. That they weren't advanced enough. That if they had truly grasped what was being offered, they would have seen things differently.
So we spoke to someone who knows the teachings well.
Aaron Abke grew up as a pastor's son, earned a degree in Music and Theology, spent a year as a full-time worship pastor before walking away from religion at 23, and eventually found his way to the Law of One and A Course in Miracles. He is someone who loves these texts, has built his work around them, and knows them in depth.
He also met Bentinho Massaro in person. What he encountered bore almost no resemblance to the figure on YouTube: crude, sexually predatory, emotionally unhinged, and deeply insecure. It had been sitting with him for years. Then he watched the Inst@Guru interviews, and pieces started falling into place that hadn't made sense since 2019. He reached out to Jacqueline, Keilan, and Jade. And that's how we ended up here.
In this conversation, Aaron breaks down what the Law of One actually teaches about the service-to-self polarity, how negative beings operate according to the Ra material, and how precisely that description maps onto what defectors have described. He also addresses Bentinho's claim to be Ra, a sixth-density being, the weaponization of STS attack rhetoric to silence dissent, and what genuine transformation actually requires, especially in light of Bentinho's recent letter from the Himalayas.
This is not a debate about the Law of One. Aaron loves these teachings. What he couldn't stay silent about was watching them be used as a weapon.
https://www.aaronabke.com/
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The views and opinions expressed on WTF is on my Mind?! do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the podcast or Mark Vicente. Any content provided by guests are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, group, club, organization, business individual, anyone or anything.
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