Online Vampire Cult - Pt1: "Armand Has Entered The Chat"

Was I in a Cult?

Liz Iacuzzi

True Crime, Comedy

4.5 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At 16, Celeste Mott was alone, grieving, and searching - for meaning, for connection, for something that felt bigger than her small, suburban life.

And then she found them.

An online world inspired by Anne Rice.

Dark. Seductive. Intelligent.

A place where vampires weren't just characters… they were real.

Or at least—that's what they lead her to believe.

This was the early 2000s internet— before social media, before real names, before anyone was asking who's actually behind the screen.

Message boards. Chat rooms. Total anonymity. The perfect environment for something to take hold… unnoticed.

What begins as a message board for Anne Rice fans, transforms into something far darker. Something that on the surface, sounds completely unbelievable. Except not when you know how cults operate.

Because this wasn't just fandom.

This was belonging.

This was identity.

This was… a promise.

And like every good cult—it knew exactly what she needed to hear.

This is Part 1 of 2.

______

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The views, information, or opinions expressed by the guest appearing in this episode solely
0:04.4	belong to the guest and do not represent or reflect the views or positions of the hosts,
0:09.4	the show, podcast one, this network, or any of their respective affiliates.
0:16.4	When you look at the way that the dynamics operated, it's very cult tactics.
0:22.3	You strip away the vampire costume, the trappings, and it's pretty standard stuff.
0:28.7	It's telling you that if you believe hard enough, if you invest enough time, enough energy,
0:35.0	you have the promise of immortality.
0:37.3	I mean, you look at a lot of cults, whether it's Scientology or evangelical Christian
0:41.7	cults, there's this promise of an afterlife that's going to be so much better than the
0:46.0	shit you're having to deal with in your boring mundane 9 to 5 life.
0:51.5	And so suddenly feeling like maybe this is all real was, it was my life plan.
0:58.4	You know, I was like, okay, well, I'm going to be a vampire then. Let's go. This is my objective.
1:14.0	Every cult has a promise.
1:15.3	A better life.
1:16.5	A new identity.
1:20.8	An escape from whatever it is you are hoping to escape from. And for Celeste Mott, that promise was in mortality.
1:26.7	This is Was I an occult.
1:28.2	I'm Liz Iakousy.
1:29.7	And I'm Tyler Meesam.
1:31.3	And today.
1:32.8	Vampires.
1:33.9	Real vampires, Tyler?
	...

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