Model Cult Doc Exposes Arcturus-Possessed Guru
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- Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult is a documentary about Frederick von Mierers, a Manhattan socialite who in the 1980s ran Eternal Values, a spiritual enlightenment society that lured in male models
- Von Mierers claimed that after a 1978 ear infection, his body became a vessel for a being from the red giant star Arcturus, and he spread this message via a public-access TV show
- The cult used ruthlessly recriminatory 'slamming sessions' to punish dissenters and purchased a North Carolina mountain base to survive a predicted realignment of Earth's magnetic poles, earthquakes, and tsunamis
- John Hoyt (performing as Hoyt Richards), one of the highest-paid male models of the late 1980s and 90s who shot with Cindy Crawford, is the main witness; he slept on Von Mierers' apartment floor and handed over his earnings in exchange for 'gemstones' that may have been costume jewelry
- Von Mierers died of an Aids-related illness, after which Hoyt eventually realized he had abandoned his family and friends for nothing
- Hoyt now works as an exit counsellor, trying to help cult members recognize they are in one
Why it matters: Von Mierers specifically targeted models because he understood they were insecure people worried their careers and relationships were 'superficial and meaningless,' per the documentary. The series' lingering gap — it never asks acolytes why they actually believed the Arcturus alien possession — leaves the central cult-recruitment question unanswered for viewers trying to understand the appeal.
