Cult of Natureboy

Benjamin Zand

2026

Hulu, Disney+

My goal was to go through this and bring up questions as they came up in episode to episode but after having taken time to fully digest what I watched, I feel it’s more important I address the lingering questions and my theories from the series. 

I saw the trailer while watching a different show and became curious so I put it on for my roommates one Sunday afternoon to enjoy for our rot. The first thing that struck me was how largely this affected people and how little any of us had heard of it. None of us had even heard mentions of the group or events before I put it on. Like plenty of things do, it made me to look at general media consumption. Although the vastness of the internet is widely understood, there will always be specific events that reinforce this understanding in me.

At the time that the cult started (2016), the internet did feel smaller. The deep-diving nature that thrives on TikTok hadn’t struck popularity for most the way it has now. Even within news outlets, many did not report events unless they were completely local or at the federal level of popularity. Influencers were making their mark, but there was still quite the separation between celebrity and Joe-Smhoe. Even with topics that should have had more coverage, there was a disconnect on what was broadcasted, which was sparking frustration and devastation within communities. Namely, events that highlighted race and racism were not having the light shed on them that they should have, which was causing an uproar of upset and disappointment from the black community and people of color. 

Since this was pre-pandemic, the world was a different place. This was the beginning of the calling for justice that took place during the covid years, but it didn’t have the level of credibility that later movements came to have. It was difficult to be a Black in America. Dishearteningly, that’s the pain point he chose to focus on for his manipulation. 

While we were watching the series, we found ourselves continuing to ask, “how are people falling for this?” It was hard at first to not judge the people who joined Eligio Bishop, or “NatureBoy”, on these trips because I couldn’t comprehend how so many people were believing what he was preaching. Mind you, none of us could have had any understanding of what it meant to be Black in America in 2016, so there was an obvious disconnect there. There was no way that was the only disconnect. It felt like there was still a depth to the situation that wasn’t being addressed. There were plenty of other people who clearly didn’t fall for his antics. 

My roommates boyfriend equated the situation to Jamestown, which made me question if my lack of empathy was because the introduction of the manipulation was done through social media. When thinking back to Jamestown and other cults, I remembered that most cult-style brainwashing doesn’t necessarily start with a one-on-one relationship but instead with speeches, readings, and personal chemistry.

The truth was, people were falling for it in the same way that anybody has joined any cult. They want more out of life and decide to trust someone who wasn’t trust worthy. They became too deep in to turn back, and their choice to stay or engage ended up having significant consequences. When it comes to social media being the vehicle for his stories and beliefs, it made me think about any other media trend. From trad-wives to furry, you are what you eat. This includes the media you consume. What made Carbon Nation different was there was no delay before his followers could see the payoff from his ideology. 

Once Eligio was able to see what worked to get people to believe him and come to Puerto Rico with him, the only thing left to do was start the process of escalating his control tactics. This happened immediately with the finances of people who joined his cult site, being forced to hand over any cash and cards they had. He also took peoples passports, which would make it difficult for anyone to leave. On top of that, he would give everyone a new name which gave him control over who they were as a person, and how they would be seen by the group. Last but not least, he alienated them from family and friends causing him and his followers to be the only available support system. 

Disagreeing was no longer an option, which then increased his ability to manipulate. The severity of the situation was understood for the first time when he and his followers refused to get out of a van to get their passports stamped, with the whole thing on video. The video showed the police trying to be accommodating while he aggravated the situation by saying things like “I would die for this.” You can hear the hunger for power in his voice - he was furious that someone would seem to have more control of his followers than he did. The most sane person in the Docuseries decides to leave after this because it was not what he had hoped it to be.

One thing that separates these series of events from previous cults it everything is on video clear as day. So much abuse is documented, and all of the victims who were in the cult are lucky that there were strangers on the internet who felt responsible to keep the incidences documented. The one thing that I don’t particularly like feel like going into detail about is the abuse that partook. It was disgusting, and horrible and there’s not much else to say. 

Years later, when action was finally able to be taken in a federal manner, all the documentation that strangers kept from Instagram/TikTok lives or other media posts were used in court and were able to help find Eligio Bishop guilty for rape, false imprisonment, and three counts of sharing sexually explicit videos without consent. 

During the trial, one of the first concerns I had were the parallels I saw with the Diddy trial. Believe it or not, there were people that still believed Eligio had done nothing wrong. Since we just saw it happen in a much more public case, I did unfortunately see the possibility that he would get off scot-free. Thankfully, he acted as obnoxiously and pompously as he did in all the media “lives” that were submitted. It was not difficult for the judge to view him as the person that the victims described him to be. With all this being said, people were still outside the courtroom, cheering him on throughout the process, and advocating for his freedom. This made me especially sick as the abuse was palpable while watching the DocuSeries. 

The last large takeaway that I had was actually the details that they chose not to include in the DocuSeries. My roommates boyfriend was looking up facts about the cult throughout our time watching the series and found an article that detailed major points that were left out. It almost took away the credibility of the docuseries as a whole. They interviewed people that later tried to contact him, restart the cult, or others that had escaped and come back frequently. It was disappointing that the narrative created wasn’t the full story. In some aspects, the abuse was actually worse than what was included. With this being said, I do understand there was brainwashing that took place. There were detailed in the article of abuse that wasn’t even touched on in the Documentary as well. I can only imagine the dissonance this would cause would be extreme, and that the recovery would be the last thing from linear. 

There is so much unlearning that would need to take place just to be able to be a somewhat regular member of society. I do try to give them grace, and it’s something that’s thankfully so far from what I can understand. I wish the documentary was able to cover everything and maintain structure and point of view or storyline. Although these details aren’t necessary to understand that Eligio is a bad person, they are important in understanding the severity of his moral inaptitude. 

Overall, I’m shocked I didn’t know a thing about it previously and I understand there’s only so much that can be covered in a short series. It was interesting that a large underlying theme was the concept of media influencing thought processes and decision making and discussing hidden pieces of information when the docuseries itself left out important situations from the cult.