The Conscious Community is Dead, Or Should Be
On March 1, 2024, Eligio Bishop, known to his followers as ‘Nature Boy,’ was convicted of rape, false imprisonment, and three counts of electronically transmitting nude and sexually explicit material. Nature Boy was arrested in April of 2022 and indicted by a grand jury in July. It took only one day in a three-week-long trial for the jury to return a guilty verdict.[1] News coverage of the event across the country revealed how pathetic Nature Boy and his “Carbon Nation” (his commune) were. Bishop was a sideshow freak with no contributions to counter-weight his bad press. Black America was not conflicted. There were no pleas to not throw out the good with the bad. Many didn’t even know who he was.
Nature Boy’s verdict signaled that the conscious community is dead. The meteoric downfall of this social media niche that garnered attention from 2014-2018 with its penchant for discredited theories and fondness for words like “spirituality,” “energy,” and “Kemet.” Brother Polight, Sara Suten Seti, and Umar Johnson became the faces of this ‘movement’ although it was never clear just what they were moving towards. They never produced a single institution, politician, or grassroots activist, or agenda. They always had nebulous intentions expressed through opaque verbiage. All that could be gathered is that they believed they had answers to life’s questions that the rest of black America did not. Yet, as they grew in popularity it became apparent that the conscious community’s claims of enlightenment merely obscured its conceptual and moral bankruptcies marked by pseudo-intellectualism and sexual deviance. What are their core ideas? How did they end up in their present state of decline? These questions will be examined as we take a look at what is the conscious community and how they got here.
The demise of the conscious community was inevitable. They lacked every metric of sustainability. They were inchoate, defined only by online personalities who dole out specious content on black identity-history, religion, etymology, and gender. Their subject matter was so diverse and disparate that it seemed impossible to point to one thing and say ‘This is what they all believe.’ However, as it turned out they were not as diverse as they initially appeared nor original. The more they lectured, argued, and attacked one another the more obvious it was that they were repeating the same cliches. Chief among them was their rejection of ‘organized’ religion as “mentally and spiritually enslaving.”
The rejection of religion in place of something they call ‘spirituality’ is the community’s linchpin because it distinguishes them from the more time-honored black institiutions and movements. Positioning themselves as the alternative to traditional black American communities like the Black Church and the Muslims the conscious community claimed to offer freedom from the dogmas of European and Arab (or as they like to say “A-Rab”) religion. In their version of history Africans never practiced “religion” but “spirituality.” Correction: “AfriKan Spirituality” and this “Afrikan Spirituality” is categorically different from religion. Designating religion as racially foreign is how the conscious community sets itself up as having made a breakthrough in the progress of black people.
From inception this idea was conceptually flawed. I wrote a book titled Afrocentrism: A Black Muslim Critique where I show how the origins of this Spiritual-and-not-religious mantra is not African but was concieved by a Russian woman named Helena Blavatsky and her partner Henry Olcott. Blavatsky and Olcott launched the Theosophical Society in New York in 1876 (During the same time as the ‘scramble for Africa’ and a decade before the Berlin Conference which divided Africa into territories for European colonialism). Credited with bringing the occult to America, Blavatsky and Olcott claimed that religion restricted spiritual growth and advocated it be replaced with individual spiritual self-discovery.[2] They taught that religious traditions contained kernels of truth that needed extricating from the “lie” that is religion. Only then will the individual obtain spiritual wisdom.[3] Sound familiar?
It was decisive proof: That the conscious community derives its core idea second-hand from two Europeans whose innovations were associated with colonization and the occult is not only ironic but also hypocritical. The conscious community can not claim that Christianity and Islam are foreign while its own ideas are foreign also. After all, the conceit of the conscious community is that its ideas are racially authentic.
European esotericism would exert a huge influence on a host of self-proclaimed metaphysicists who arrogated the title ‘Doctror.’ Malachi Z. York, affectionately known as Dr. York, born Dwight York, exploited the identity vacuum of some black Americans by giving them a crypto-history where they descended from a defunct civilization and spoke a lost language. York did this many times over and of course his core teaching was that “religion has deceived you.”
The grift become less sophisticated as the generations passed. The entropy was reached with the conscious community which has no organizations or codified beliefs, just an amorphous concept of spirituality. Their self-styling spirituality is fertile ground for charlatans to hoodwink the lowest-hanging fruit of today’s black Americans. During the zenith of the conscious community, these online personalities amassed significant honorariums, often reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet failed to demonstrate any tangible outcomes apart from flaunting their wealth on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. Instead of achieving the harmony and enlightenment they promised, their presence only led to increased confusion, internal conflicts, and reports of abuse.
The conscious community loves to rail against organized religion, particularly the black church, for being a money racket, yet it has shown itself to be the worst version of its accusations. Even more audacious is that when Umar Johnson recently spoke with Nick Cannon’s podcast, “Counsel Culture,” he wasted no time disparaging the Black Sunni Muslim communities making the baseless claim that they are taking money from congregants while not giving anything in return. This is patently false. No one has ever accused black sunni mosques of being money sucks. Johnson should know, as I suspect he does, that Black American masajid are in the inner city and often in dilapidated conditions where the Imam has a second job or does not get paid at all for his clerical duties. To insinuate that black American Imams move the same way as jackleg preachers can be immediately disproven with a trip to your local masjid in the hood. There are no mega-mosques or Creflo Dollar Imams who preach prosperity khutbahs.
If one of these individuals were to become homeless, they would likely resort to a church-run shelter or seek sadaqah (charity) from the masjid. The money collected in black American masajid becomes part of a ‘shoe-string budget’ that goes toward maintaining the building and financially assisting members in dire need. For Johnson to imply that these struggle urban masajid are fleecing the people without substantiation is duplicity, malicious slander, and calls into question his familiarity with the black community in general and the black Muslim community in particular.
The irony is glaring: seven years after soliciting donations for his ‘Fredrick Douglass Marcus Garvey Academy,’ Umar Johnson asserts that his ambitious plans are set to materialize on September 1, 2024. However, the reality falls far short of boastful promises, as the school would only accommodate grades 1-4. This is a far cry from the state-of-the-art academy originally envisioned to encompass a wide range of educational endeavors, from training black pilots to revolutionizing the hospitality industry.
Despite positioning himself as an international black leader (He calls himself ‘Intercontinental Ifatunde’) Johnson has fundraised for close to a decade, only to offer us an elementary school. Meanwhile, various Black Muslim, Christian, and even Afrocentric organizations have long been operating private and charter schools, offering education from elementary through high school, with commendable graduation and college admission rates.[4]
While Johnson criticizes black religious institutions for allegedly not giving back to the community, the reality contradicts this claim. These institutions have a history of community engagement and service, a fact often overshadowed by Johnson’s cynicism. Despite possible noble intentions, an elementary school is an ignoble outcome, considering Johnson’s hypercritical stance towards black religious institutions that are much further ahead.
The adage “When you point a finger, there are three fingers pointing back at you” serves as a poignant reminder that criticizing others who have been doing the work draws unwanted attention to one’s own shortcomings. It is evident that black religious communities have made greater strides than the conscious community in terms of community empowerment and educational initiatives.
Umar Johnson’s trials and tribulations with his project underscores a very crucial fact about the conscious community writ large: The conscious community is where people go who do not want to work towards anything. It has been a haven for those who do not want to put their time and money where their mouth is. They are intellectual masturbators whose output does not produce anything. The fact that it took Umar Johnson with his profile seven years to only raise enough money for a private elementary school indicates that the low quality of people in conscious community.
Brother Polight was more transparent and unap logetic about his motives. His Instagram page featured a post of him inside of a hotel kneeling bedside praying to a stack of dollar bills. The visage seemed like an homage to the pioneer of the prosperity gospel, Reverend Ike. Conscious community podcaster Sa Neter of Sa Neter TV made a video calling Polight “a liar and a thief.”[5] A man reportedly lost his entire $20,000 inheritance after giving it all to one of Brother Polight’s many schemes.
Essentially, Brother Polight was the prosperity preacher of the conscious community variety, a Creflo-Kemetic. The fact that he (and his mentor, Dr. York) still has die-hard supporters with everything coming to the surface proves hypocrisy. The so-called ‘conscious’ who mock their relatives for giving their money to the pastor, seeing that it is used to keep him wearing tailored suits and driving expensive cars while they themselves are poor are really no different.
In addition to financial manipulation, the conscious community is rife with sexual exploitation. Critics frequently cite scandals of adultery and pedophilia among clergy as evidence that religion breeds moral imposters. However, sexual deviance has long been a prominent aspect of the conscious community. Its online memes frequently depict voluptuous black women or muscular black men, often scantily clad and adorned with African headdress and cloth. A cursory search on platforms like YouTube turns up lectures by figures with colorful names that include “Goddess,” expounding on topics such as the power of the yoni—a term denoting the vaginal canal. Dr. Ben Jochanan famously stated that “Heaven is between the black woman’s legs.” Polight carried this to the extreme in referring to the Black woman as God because of her “sexual powers.” Their hyper-sexual content reflects the hedonism of the conscious community and explains why they are no strangers to scandal.
Polight was a proponent and practitioner of unethical polygyny. He collected “wives” many of whom looked like he met inside of a night club. He has even been known to philander with white women. In fact, one picture circulating on the internet and posted to his Instagram showed him sensually embracing a white female dressed in a dashiki minidress
Polight’s antics were well known and so it came as no surprise to anyone when changes of sexual battery were levied against him. Many so this coming. Brother Poligth, born Michael Noake Jr., accepted a plea deal for sexual assault and battery of minor. He was convicted for drugging and having sex with a 14-year old girl whos mother he had a romantic relationship with. According to police reports Polight, Noake’s semen was found on the victims clothes.
Polight was a student of Dr. Malachi Z. York. York would go on to form several conscious cults until himself receiving a 135-year sentence in 2004 for child sexual abuse, transporting minors across state lines to engage in sexual activity, racketeering, and financial reporting violations.[6]
Although lite in comparison, even Umar Johnson was involved in a scandal where a woman who calls herself “The conscious stripper” told of their torrid sexual relationship. There was nothing particularly alarming about the news and it certainly pales when placed next to Polight and Nature Boy. However, it is significant because Umar alleges that her going public cost him and his school the FDMG Academy a huge donation from a “prominent sports figure.” This seems off-brand for a society that still supported Polight or still listens to R. Kelly’s music. Johnson’s donation struggles did not start with stripper nor was that incident responsible for his GoFundMe account being temporarily suspended in 2018 or the cease and desist letter from the State of Pennsylvania to stop building his school in 2022.[7][8]
Nature Boy’s Carbon Nation stands as the most extreme example of sexual abuse by a megalomaniac in the conscious community. The criminal charges started when a woman said: “she had joined a sex cult in which her boyfriend is the leader” and that “she did live together with Mr. Bishop and he has posted sexually explicit videos of her and him without her consent on Twitter.” She added, had directed “other women/girlfriends to hit her, which led her to escape.” Her contact with police, on March 30, led to an investigation that resulted in Bishop’s arrest on April 14.[9]
In the often tumultuous realm of the conscious community, the term “naturalism” serves as a thinly veiled trope for hedonism—a philosophy synonymous with the pursuit of self-gratification and pleasure. What made con possible was that the theme already had currency in the conscious community. Dr. York nefariously pioneered this motif, setting up the template for others. Nature Boy, or Mr. Bishop cunningly exploited this ideological undercurrent to erect a cult around its dubious principles. That is what is most disconcerting how deeply planted this seed has been in the minds of everyday black folk. All it ever needs is watering to sprout. Cloaked in empty themes of sexual liberation and a return to nature, Bishop’s cult attracted the naive, often young women. His messianic persona ensured boundless sexual access to cult members. Tying all of this to ‘Black liberation’ exposes the malleability of ideologies within the conscious community.
Financial and sexual abuse have indeed been problems in religious communities but the conscious community has not risen above these. They exhibit all of the negatives found in religious communities and black America without any of the positives. Why does the conscious community replicate the pathologies but have not produced the organizational structure of religion? The answer is in the nature of the conscious community itself.
The very thing that the conscious community prides itself with which is not having a doctrine or code of conduct has actually kept it stagnant. Their pseudo-spirituality (which they acquired from Blavatsky and Olcott) teaches them to not be stagnated by religious doctrine but wonder if its the other way around. Wonder if their rejection of doctrine and moral laws, the very things that discipline a group and enable that group to mobilize, is what arrested their development? Wonder if their characterization of religion-versus-spirituality is fundamentally wrong? That the ‘spiritual truths’ which they claimed to be ‘trapped’ inside of religious dogma are not trapped after all but that religion has been the contraption in which these spiritual truths have been able to materialize in the real world?
The conscious community prides itself on not having a doctrine or code of conduct, but this very stance has kept it stagnant. Their pseudo-spirituality teaches them to reject religion to avoid stagnation. However, one might question if the opposite is true. Could it be that their rejection of doctrine and moral laws—the very elements essential for discipline and group mobilization—is what has hindered their development? Is it possible that their characterization of religion versus spirituality is fundamentally flawed? That, perhaps the ‘spiritual truths’ they believe are ‘trapped’ within religious dogma are not actually trapped, but rather religion has historically served as the vehicle through which these truths manifest in the tangible world.
There are personal, or highly subjective, reasons that people eschew the institution of religion such as the disappointment or betrayal of those trusted to model its ethics but there are egomaniacal motives as well. Nature Boy told his followers that he was ‘God.’ Brother Polight proclaimed that the ‘Black Woman is God’ even though he used typical misogynistic language to attack and curse out a black woman Dr. Maat who disagreed with him. Young Pharoah also ascribed to this silly idea and taught that religion was mental enslavement and he was recorded on Facebook Live committing domestic violence against his baby’s mother. Virtually everyone in the conscious community preaches that ‘God lives within’ and have not produced a single paragon.
Brother Polight used these same ploys. He fabricated a grandiose persona where he created an organization in name only called NuCovenant, supposedly versed in Egyptology, authored over 90 books, was fluent in seven languages, and even invented a new language called Nuwaubian. None of these things are true but to his supporters Polight is an example of what you can achieve once you accept that God is within. The need and ability to connect to a dead civilization, appropriate legacies, and fabricate accomplishments is now a pedestrian con. There is no representative from these long-gone ancient societies who can authenticate the teachings of these conscious community leaders. This gives people like Dr. York, Polight, Nature Boy, and others complete control over the narrative.
What is consistent in all of these examples is their abusive or ‘less than ideal’ upbringing. Polight’s father left him and his mother. Young Pharoah grew up in the system. Nature Boy did not know his father and was sexually abused, and Umar Johnson’s father converted to Islam but then married a white woman. The people who purport to have ‘the answers’ are not fountains of enlightenment but are suffering from abandonment issues. When you observe that most of the people in the conscious community descend from traumatic home life, then you realize that these same people who are obsessed with ‘learning who we are’ only to come up with crackpot theories about black people being aboriginal Indians, ancient Kemet, Sumerians, ISUPK Hebrew Israelites, Moors, etc., are compensating for their defective pedigrees.
The problem is that despite their claims that religion hinders progress, the facts of history show that all of our progress was made using the vehicle of religious organizations. Every ancient African civilization had a religious superstructure and virtually every modern black leader of substance was Christian or Muslim and those who were not never subscribed to the pseudo-spiritualism that the conscious community promotes. There was not a single ‘Hotep’, ‘Queen Goddess’, or ‘Grand Rising Emperor-King Anunaki’ behind a single slave revolt, at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement, or targeted by J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO.
Black religious institutions Islam and the Black Church have been sources of enlightenment, hope, social reform, and political agitation since the late nineteenth century. Marcus Garvey, whom Umar Johnson fashions himself his heir, subscribed to a pan-African orientation of Christianity called ‘Ethiopianism.’ Ethiopianism was a broad movement encompassing religion, culture, and philosophy. Beginning in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries Ethiopianism was inspired by the idea that Ethiopia should serve as a symbol of black identity, pride, and spiritual heritage. The movement drew upon Psalm 68:31: “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God,” and became a sacred and central element in early pan-African movements like the U.N.I.A.
Malcolm X was the son of a Garveyite preacher and would spend his final days constructing an Islamically-based pan-Africanism. From Malcolm to before Edward Blydon pan-Africanism was tied to either Christianity, Islam, and later, Marxism but never Kemet, traditional African religion and culture, or the pseudo-spiritualism of the conscious community.
Black leadership, organizations, artists, authors, and revolutions, including slave revolts, have long been intertwined with black religion. The emergence of pseudo-spiritualist ideologies has had a visibly positive impact on the black community. No one is reported to have turned their life around after a life of drugs and crime. There are no stories of men becoming responsible husbands and fathers because of its teachings. Indeed, one could argue convincingly that the conscious community is not the cure but another symptom. Although, purportedly aiming to heal black social ills it merely reflects divisions within black culture, exacerbating rather than resolving underlying issues. This escalation of problems has led to internal strife and animosity perpetuated by prominent figures within the conscious community, both towards broader black America and within their circles.
Criticism often levied against religion for fostering division overlooks the multifaceted nature of human discord. Black communities have always encompassed diverse perspectives and beliefs, irrespective of religious affiliations. What, then, did the conscious community offer to unify black America? Rather than fostering cohesion, its charismatic figures—often resembling WWE personas with their flamboyant names and YouTube diatribes—have perpetuated division. The spectacle reached its peak with Umar Johnson’s 45-minute tirade likening Sara Suten Seti to Macho Man Randy Savage, an emblematic WWF character of the 1980s.[10] This episode exemplifies the conscious community’s transformation into little more than vaudevillian entertainment, characterized by operatic personality clashes that mimic reality show theatrics.
Today, black America is less religious than at any point in history, yet it finds itself more divided than ever. Disputes once centered around religion have now shifted towards debates over gender, sexuality, and even what terminology to use for self-identification. These modern divisions, exacerbated by the omnipresence of social media, have become increasingly difficult to resolve or manage. At any given moment, individuals from any corner of the world can inject a new contentious issue, derailing discussions and hindering progress toward actionable goals. Perhaps the solution lies in black America setting its agenda offline, away from the constant scrutiny of the digital world. However, such a move would likely spell the demise of the conscious community, which currently thrives on the low standards set by social media platforms.
The conscious community is dead. It has been on life support since 2020, but recent debacles involving its stars have revealed just how hollow and misguided it was all along. Eligio Bishop, also known as Nature Boy, is the latest casualty, yet he epitomizes the excesses of the conscious community. Polight is in prison for sexual misconduct, Sara Suten Seti has faded into obscurity, along with a host of others, and while Umar Johnson remains active, he is ‘a man without a country,’ as they say. Listeners are not followers, and Johnson has found it challenging to compete for the limelight with a new cast of characters like Charleston White. Furthermore, he has struggled to develop a base amidst the mounting popularity of the anti-Pan-Africanism movement of ADOS.
Today, new factions are pulling black America in different directions, and the conscious community has neither the ideas, organizational structure, or personalities to address this challenge. Once internet celebrities that captivated popular subculture they have all waned now. Their talk of chakras and ‘opening your third eye’ was never a sustainable program. Organized religion has moved beyond mere preaching. Masajid (mosques), NOI temples, churches, and civic organizations now have a track record of service in the black community dating back to the late 1800s. This history ensures ongoing support from the people who view them as sources of enlightenment, hope, social reform, and political agitation.
In contrast, the conscious community lacks such a track record. They exploit people’s disillusionment with traditional black institutions without making themselves into a viable alternative. Most of its anonymous supporters have morphed into small stranger niches while the few still hanging on are consumed by meaningless debates.
While black religion certainly has its problems, they are separate from the problems of the conscious community. Black American religious institutions are achieving less with more, while the conscious community is achieving nothing at all because they have nothing at all. Laboring under the hope of realizing your potential is different from having no potential.
[1] “Accused cult leader ‘Nature Boy’ found guilty on all counts, including rape in DeKalb County.” WSB Atlanta, www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/rape-case-of-accused-cult-leader-nature-boy-now-in-jury-s-hands/ar-BB1j8HL7. Accessed March 1, 2024..
[2] Brecknell, Margaret. “Madame Blavatsky, the Woman Who Brought the Occult to America.” Mental Floss, Oct 24, 2022. https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/madame-blavatsky-theosophical-society
[3] Blavatsky, Helena (1889). “The Future of the Theosophical Society” Archived 2019-05-08 at the Wayback Machine. The Key to Theosophy. London: The Theosophical Publishing Company. pp. 304–307.
New Black Media. “The Current Status of Dr. Umar’s FDMG Academy.” Submitted by Staff. Published date: February 25, 2023. Available at: https://www.6zeros.net/articles/the-current-status-of-dr-umars-fdmg-academy.81/
Ausar Mann TV. “Brother Polight is a Thief and Liar According to Saneter.” Jan 9, 2017. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccW-iMA1hf8
[6] Bower, Baden. “They never considered talking to us: The unheard voices of people involved with controversial leader Dr. York.” Digital Journal, May 27, 2022, https://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/they-never-considered-talking-to-us-the-unheard-voices-of-people-involved-with-controversial-leader-dr-york.
[7] Newhouse, Sam. “‘Divisive’ Dr. Umar Johnson accused of misrepresentation by state psychology board.” Metro Philadelphia, January 5, 2018. URL: https://metrophiladelphia.com/divisive-dr-umar-johnson-accused-of-misrepresentation-by-state-psychology-board/
[8] Cease and Desist Letter. “Frederic Douglass and Marcus Garvey Rbg Leadership CD.” Pennsylvania Department of State. March 4, 2022. URL: https://www.dos.pa.gov/BusinessCharities/Charities/Resources/Documents/Cease%20and%20Desist%20Orders/Frederic%20Douglass%20and%20Marcus%20Garvey%20Rbg%20Leadership%20CD%203-4-22.pdf
[9] Raymond, Jonathan. “Police reports offer new details on arrest of alleged DeKalb cult leader ‘Nature Boy’ Eligio Bishop faces five charges, including rape, in DeKalb County.” 11Alive, 6:34 PM EDT, April 20, 2022.
[10] Chaune Rose. “DR UMAR JOHNSON GOES OFF ON GENERAL SETI – HOOD STYLE! EXPLICIT CONTENT!” Dec 28, 2016. YouTube, DR UMAR JOHNSON GOES OFF ON GENERAL SETI – HOOD STYLE! EXPLICIT CONTENT!
