Demystified

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide. For those who don't know what it is, a Helter Skelter is a theme-park ride, a massive tower where you go up, and then slide down, then climb back up again ad infinitum. It also has a far darker connotation, though the repeating nature of things has a way of creeping up on you; time is, as they say, a flat circle. Settle in for Season 3 of Demystified, where the theme of the season is: Cults.

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Gord Downie really did say it best, didn’t he? "No dress rehearsal - this is our life". Apt words from an inspiring man, but that’s been the proverbial rub for most humans throughout all of time - we don’t get a dress rehearsal, and opening night starts before we’re even aware that the curtain has come up. But what if we could peek at the script, see the plot twists of our stories coming? Many have claimed this ability, but have any of them proven it? Is there such a thing as... a Secret Path?

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You are what you eat - or so they say. And everyone has their own preferences... some might even give an odd look to those who actually *enjoy* Marmite or Vodka (heaven forfend both at once)! But how should we look upon those whose tastes are a little less... conventional? Those who literally can’t stop eating... When an Old Fashioned isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps you’ll enjoy Turpentine and Methanol?

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People love to share things - and most things are better shared! You go out for a meal and get the sharing platter, a round of drinks, and the bread - to share. You watch a film, read a book, or see a tv show you love and say to your friends “You’ve *got* to try it”! We share things because we want other people to see what we’re seeing. But what if the things we’re seeing aren’t really there... and our friends start seeing them too? Stare into the mirror too long, and you may end up seeing double.

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Fire - to destroy all you’ve done. Fire - to end all you’ve become. Morbid words in a rather jaunty tune, but it’s true; fire has that capacity. It’s been with us from the dawn of time, and has been so central to basically all of human existence since that time that how we came to possess it has been the subject of myths and legends from all over the world and across history. Some say that we stole it from the gods - others that some higher being gifted it to us. But what if the fire was inside us, all along...

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Things are changing at Demystified, and Ashleigh Stiles gives you a sense of what's to come.

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Way down deep in the jungle, there lies a city of such unimaginable splendour that to even conceive of it is to dream one’s wildest dreams. There also lies a wealth of danger, tropical diseases, wild animals, and an endless sea of rainforest. Would you brave the latter to find the former? Or, dream and speculate about what treasures might be hiding away? How about both?

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Imagine an event so devastating, so terrifying, so utterly world shaking that not only does it help to hasten the decline of your civilisation, but thousands of years later the association people may draw from it would be your depiction in popular culture as a people who live underwater. Perhaps it’s not all bad though; it’s better, down where it’s wetter...

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The great outdoors - there's nothing like it, is there? Everyone’s got a bit of that exploratory spirit in them, that drives you to the very edges of what you know and what you don’t. We’ve talked before about people that go off the edge of the map, but what happens in those strange incidents where people thought they were in control of their situation, but soon found themselves going downhill very quickly..?

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