The Cult of Andrew "ThanFiction" Blake

fan fiction communities by nature require its members to immerse themselves in a pre-existing fictional worlds mentally and emotionally in extreme cases members may even believe to inhabit them spiritually and physically many have heard about the descent into madness that happened at the final fantasy house a cult in which individuals lived in squalor some believing themselves to be living manifestations of characters from a video game the case I'd like to talk about is similar but arguably more sinister it involves delusion brainwashing blind devotion and even death it's a case I will refer to as the cult of Andrew Blake Andrew Blake aka van fiction is a fandom author although he's become notorious for different reasons he's been described by many who have known him as a manipulator a scam artist a brain washer and a cult leader and if you've spent a significant amount of time on fan fiction websites you've likely been warned about him so how did he go from being an author of fan fiction to the infamous figure he's become today Blake's descent can be traced back to the early 2000s with a nonprofit organization called bit of Earth and a failed festival called tent moot the goal of bit of Earth as it was presented to the public was to raise money for reading gardens for children and it was run by an individual named Victoria bitter in 2003 bit of Earth was slated to sponsor a Lord of the Rings themed convention in Portland Oregon called tent moon stars of the event included several actors from the film adaptation of Lord of the Rings the convention was being organized and managed by an individual named Jordan wood a series of mismanagement sand poor coordination on the part of Jordan wood such as failure to book airline tickets or lodging for incoming actors led to tenth mood failing and raising many questions about the funding arrangements of the Convention upon investigation it was revealed that Victoria bitter the nonprofit director and Jordan would the tenth mood coordinator were the same person that person was Andrew Blake this invited a slew of legal investigations which revealed the entire foundation of both organizations to have been built on a string of lies to avoid blame Andrew Blake feigned a suicide attempt hospitalizing himself and leaving a friend to clean up the mess of 10 mood during the following years Blake focused his attention on gaining notoriety in the field of fan fiction he believed himself to have a special link to the pre-existing fictional worlds in which he wrote he believed the world's themselves were real and authors such as j.r.r tolkien and CS lewis were mere conduits who were able to channel them blake of course was also a conduit although of a more powerful variety as he was able to embody the spirits of these characters such as Frodo and Mary from Lord of the Rings and not only could he embodied them he could also recognize when others have this potential however untapped it may be at the time blake used this gift to lure impressionable fantasy minded individuals into his orbit andrew along with select fans began putting together an infamy Paquette to give out to new recruits the packet meant to orient those willing to take Andrews journey and disqualify those who weren't offered guidance for something called the mind hole a method of interdimensional time travel in the late 2000s when he released the popular Dumbledore's Army in the Europe darkness his orbit began to grow exponentially Andrew under a new identity pivoted from channeling frodo baggins to channeling harry potter even claiming to have the same lightning shaped scar as the heroic character many people first became aware of his hunger for power in December of 2008 when he ordered his fans to go three days without food having adequately positioned himself as something of a guru to these people many followed his direction in the following year Andrew convinced his fans into believing he had a terminal heart disease and conned them into financing a trip around the world he asked his fans to begin referring to him by titles such as fearless leader and supreme commander and bestowing upon them titles such as house lieutenant Andrew what channel has fans favourite fictional characters and urged them to converse with them through him this was powerfully seductive to many who retreated into fantasy worlds as an escape from an uncomfortable home life when confronted with skeptics who accused him of exploitation he would defer it by saying it was simply a role-playing exercise to help with fiction writing but asked for his adoring fans he allowed them to believe it was real at the end of 2009 Andrew and his fans began to consolidate they met at a hotel in Washington DC then traveled across the country to New York ending up in California where Andrew experienced a psychic attack and was forced to fight a battle inside a metaphysical astral plane as a shaman wizard at this time I'd like to note that during my research for this video I've been in contact with the previous victim of Andrew Blake's a woman named Abby just to rule out the possibility of delusions stemming from mental illness I asked Abby if Andrew truly believed he was experiencing these things and Abby assured me that I was all a ruse meant to lure susceptible fans into his cult the manipulation Abby experienced at the hand of Andrew Blake was so severe that he convinced her to sever ties with her mother due to a sudden revelation of past abuse abuse that Abby now admits never happened similar to a Scientology audit Blake would pressure those within his circle to reveal personal and traumatic memories both real and existing only inside andrew's imagination andrew has been known to perform exorcisms on his fans through knowledge only he possessed he identified their fatal personality flaws and presented his own insights as the only solution due to the devotion these people felt toward Andrew their own methods of skepticism were quickly replaced by gratitude Abby and her personal blog stated that she felt like she owed him my life during their time together Andrew and Abby lived in Los Angeles panhandling and cosplaying where Andrew became increasingly paranoid of local authorities due to his psychic connection with the metaphysical world he convinced Abby to abandon their home and set out for Canada to escape while traversing on foot the two nearly froze to death after being rescued by a border officer Abby called her mother who brought her home by 2010 Andrew was essentially living with fan Brittany Quinn during this time Andrew convinced Brittany to sever ties with family claiming secret knowledge which he obtained through channeling that Brittany's father abused her a similar gas lighting technique which he had previously inflicted upon Abby at Andrews behest Brittany made a social media post publicly disowning her father as a parent his response was heartbreak according to Brittany Quinn's father during this period of indoctrination Andrew coerced Brittany Quinn and to extorting money from her ex-husband Jason who lived downstairs from Andrew and Brittany Andrew was planning a hiking excursion in New Zealand for him and his fans and needed money the next part of the story is tragic Brittany's ex-husband Jason murdered Brittany Quinn before committing suicide he attempted to murder Andrew as well but only managed to shoot him in the leg roughly one week after Brittany's death Andrew Blake addressed his fan base via Facebook he also assured them that the hike should continue in her honor but due to insufficient funding the location of the hike was changed from New Zealand to the Southeast United States Andrew presented the excursion as a memorial hike which for those willing to donate would help fund a domestic abuse charity something Blake's detractors believe to be another scam reminiscent a bit of Earth when the hike finally happened in July of 2011 it was a fiasco reminiscent of Tent mood as they were underprepared quickly running out of essential supplies such as water at a certain point a member of the group needed medical attention and instead of calling for help Andrew Blake channeled a healer from an astral plane and concocted bogus medicine from whatever he had lying around luckily they managed to receive food water and even proper medical attention from various good Samaritans passing by after the hike Andrew continued staying with fans rent-free using his astral channeling abilities and other social manipulation tactics to form alliances and avoid financial responsibilities although his fans would indulge him at first his presence would eventually grow intolerable and Andrew soon found himself without a couch to surf with no other options Andrew Blake ended up moving back in with his parents who forced him into therapy although the cult of Andrew Blake has somewhat diminished in recent years andrew is still protective of his online reputation and has been known to dispatch a small coalition of loyal fans to take up arms against those who wish to publicly speak ill of him despite this there are many who feel it was their duty to warn about the dangers of getting involved with him and if one browses fanfiction websites enough they're likely to run across cautionary tales of Andrew Blake and his unique access to these fantastical fictional universes and his willingness to take the fans of his writing along with him [Music] a special thanks to Abby Wilson for answering all of my questions during my research for this video I couldn't have done it without you if you'd like to learn more about this topic please check out Abby wilson's blog and the T blogger both linked in the description below if you enjoyed this video and look forward to similar content please consider subscribing and if you have any suggestions for future videos please leave them in the comments [Music]

Channel: Atrocity Guide

Views: 473,154

Rating: 4.9227891 out of 5

Keywords: Andrew Blake, ThanFiction, Andrew Blake Cult, Cult, Horror, Weird, Atrocity Guide, Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness, DAYDIANS, Tentmoot, Final Fantasy House, Final Fantasy 7 House, Victoria Bitter, Jordan Wood, Creepy, Scary, Youtube, Brittany Quinn, Cult survivor, Fanfiction, Lord of the Rings, Fan Fiction, Harry Potter, Bit of Earth, Mind Hole, Mindhole, Otherkin, Cosplay

Id: btp7oPP2AwI

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 06 2018