The Church of the Collective is a new religious movement that tries to recruit members to spread their word. The church was founded by Alastair Adana's grandfather and was led by Alastair himself before his death.
At first glance they appear to only want to guide and help those who feel lost, however beneath this veil of kindness lies a religious cult which is very manipulative and abusive of its members.
History[]
The Church of the Collective was founded in the 1950s by Alastair Adana's grandfather as a self-help group. It quickly attracted a large following throughout the world, including many prominent figures and celebrities, who embraced its "New Science of Self-Renewal" as "an exploration of the human mind". Liberty, the first supe in the world, was one of the first of the Church's followers. The Church of the Collective was found exclusively as a white only organization, but at some point, they abandoned their segregationist policies and started allowing people of various races to join the Church. This was done so that the church could stay in business and "keep up with the times".
Following his grandfather's death, Alastair himself took over the Church of the Collective and continued to gain more followers. The Church's recruits were either emotionally vulnerable people, influential and/or wealthy individuals, or a mixture of both. To facilitate the recruiting process, they also do charity events for the homeless, where attendees receive religious propaganda. Besides that, Church continues to spread its message by making commercials and distributing books such as Destinations: The New Science of Self Renewal to further their agenda.
In recent years, the church has been described as a cult and has been criticized for its abusive practices. In 2017, a documentary called Inner Lights Out: Escaping the Church of the Collective was released to critical acclaim, exposing the Church's harmful practices to the public. In response, the Church of the Collective filed 400 separate lawsuits against the documentary's filmmaker, and the litigation continues to be ongoing.
Much like his grandfather, Alastair would continue to recruit superheroes such as Eagle the Archer and the Deep into the Church with the promise of returning them to their past glory days.
Following Alistair's death by Victoria Neuman, the Church of the Collective had it covered up and claimed that he disappeared unexpectedly.
Beliefs and Practices[]
Despite being a form of religion, not a lot is known about the beliefs of the Church of the Collective. From what is seen in the movie Not Without My Dolphin, the Church seems to worship the Space Spores, a race of extraterrestrial beings who have built an Ark (most likely a form of spaceship) and travelled a trillion light years before arriving at planet Earth. After that, the Space Spores would then have started to spread their teaching among humanity. However, all of the previous information comes from a movie that criticizes the church and is more likely a negative or exaggerated version of their beliefs.
The Church is very controlling of its members, demanding absolute loyalty from its believers. Members of the Church who try to rebel or refuse to follow orders are expelled from the Church and have their public reputation ruined. Due to their desire to control their believers, they also do an extensive gathering of information about their members, managing to even find their darkest secrets (Stormfront's past as a Nazi being a good example).
Members are also required to switch their beliefs to whatever is needed of them on a dime. This makes it easy to cut them off from outsiders as they can go from being your friend to hating your guts in less than a second. They're also required to pay for their courses and sign over control over their finances, furthering the dependency on them. They also control their members personal lives, such as choosing a wife for them, not caring for the opinion of their members.
According to Stormfront, the Church at some point did not allow people of color to join, however this rule was removed likely so that the Church could maintain relevancy and "keep up with the times".
All members of the Church also seem to have an obsession with Fresca, constantly drinking or offering the drink. This unexplained fascination with this specific brand of soda even extends to high ranking members of the Church, who use the drink as fine dining during meetings.
Members[]
Current[]
- Carol Mannheim (Spokeswoman)
Formerly[]
- Alastair Adana's Grandfather † (Founder; Deceased)
- Alastair Adana † (Chairman; Murdered)
- Eagle the Archer (Excommunicated)
- Stormfront † (Quit; Deceased)
- The Deep (Quit; Returned to the Seven)
- A-Train (Quit; Returned to the Seven)
- Cassandra Schwartz (Quit)
Trivia[]
- The Church of the Collective is primarily a parody of the real-world Church of Scientology, a cult and new age religion which is known for blackmailing celebrities into joining their ranks with promises of career comebacks or the threat of releasing sensitive private information of theirs to the public. Scientology exists in the show's universe, since the Deep (after he leaves the cult and becomes a cult survival activist) calls himself "the next Leah Remini", insinuating that the famous cult she's a prominent whistleblower of exists alongside its expy.
- The Church of the Collective keeps an extensive data archive of the personal information and history of its members since its founding. As seen where they had extensive folders regarding Stormfront's past during her time as a member during the Group's early days that was later used by A-Train to leak her true identity to the press to ruin her.
- Fresca is a running gag in the series. Many Church of the Collective members are seen drinking Fresca or offering it to prospective members. There is no Fresca product placement, but rather just an inside joke between the showrunner, Eric Kripke, and the writers, who thought that Fresca seems like the "drink of cult members".
- "Then Fresca just came from...honestly, I wish there was a deeper thought than it just became this running joke. We were laughing because we were thinking about like, 'Okay, what does Eagle the Archer serve him to drink? Was it alcohol? No, no, he's in this cult, and they don't drink alcohol. What do they drink?' And I don't know who said it, but someone was like, 'Fresca! They drink Fresca!' And we just started laughing, because for some reason, it seems like the drink of cult members, which I think is going to be their new advertising slogan next year: The Drink of Cult Members. It just seemed like something they drink, and so we just started putting it in more and more. You'll see once you see the whole season, we keep that joke rolling all season long. That Fresca joke does not stop. It is right up until the very, very end of the show, we had Church of the Collective members drinking Fresca."[1]
- —Eric Kripke
- The Church of the Collective was created specifically for the show and doesn't originate in the comics.
- With Alastair Adana dead, it is unknown who is currently running the Church now.