I spend a lot of time reading and thinking about hermits. I always read stories about people who have encountered one and I am always very interested in what psychologists have to say about why certain people are drawn to a life of seclusion. I am also addicted to any and everything to do with cults. When The History Channel or A&E run an hour long special about Jonestown or Aum Shinrikyo I am a 7 year old with candy. I have no idea why I am so captivated by stuff like this, I am super squeamish with no desire to live in the forest (they don't have video games there) and to boot I am utterly devoid of religion or any sense of a higher power whatsoever. So why am I so eager to learn about people who either devote their entire lives to a dude with nice teeth who thinks he might be Jesus's dad or completely remove themselves from society completely?
I read an article on Gizmodo today that I think every person who is even remotely interested in modern cults should read. Here is the link to the article itself written by Ashley Feinberg, where she reveals that the infamous Heaven's Gate cult still has a website that is STILL maintained to this day. This was the cult that believed a spaceship was behind the Hale-Bopp Comet and the only way to board it was to put on Nikes and drink some arsenic. You can email the two people who are still alive and still members who run the site, and they will actually respond to all inquiries. The article is overstuffed with things I never knew about Heaven's Gate including responses to Feinberg's questions from actual Heaven's Gate members.
Michael Finkel wrote a story in GQ this month about the Maine hermit that was captured just a couple years ago. He had been living in the forests of Maine for 27 years without any human contact whatsoever. During the harsh winter he stole supplies he needed to survive from the surrounding recreational campsites and homes. The community was aware he existed, every citizen of the town of North Pond had been robbed by the hermit, but nobody could catch in the act or find him. The short summary of the article;
"For nearly thirty years, a phantom haunted the woods of Central Maine. Unseen and unknown, he lived in secret, creeping into homes in the dead of night and surviving on what he could steal. To the spooked locals, he became a legend—or maybe a myth. They wondered how he could possibly be real. Until one day last year, the hermit came out of the forest"
They found him. He was arrested on a bazillion counts of burglary and put in jail to await trial. A man who hasn't spoken a word to another human in 27 years was now being housed in a jail among dozens of other inmates. The article is about Michael Finkel interviewing this man in jail, and about just how odd a conversation can be when your interviewee says that Chernobyl is the most recent world event he knows of. You also get to witness the hermit fall into a sad depression as his wilderness life is taken away from him. He truly was happy out there, alone. Here's the link;
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