Ep.8 The Nuwaubian Nation

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:24):
Welcome to Hidden Cults, the podcast that shines a light
into the shadows. Here we explore the strange, the secretive,
and the spiritually seductive. From fringe religions to doomsday prophets,
from communes to corporate empires. These are the movements that
promised meaning and sometimes delivered something far more dangerous. I'm
your host, and in each episode, we uncover the true
stories behind the world's most controversial cults, the leaders who

(00:47):
led them, the followers who followed, and the echoes they
left behind. If you or someone you care about has
been impacted by a cult, you're not alone. There is help.
Whether you're still inside a cult or trying to process
what you've been through, support is out there. You can
find organizations and hotlines in the description of this episode.
You deserve freedom, healing, and a life that's truly your own.

(01:10):
Reach out. The first step is often the hardest, but
it's also the most powerful. If you'd like to share
your story and experiences with a cult, you can email
it to me and I will read it on a
future Listener Stories episode. Your anonymity is guaranteed always today's episode,
let's begin the New Wellbean Nation Part one the profit

(01:31):
in the projects. The early years of Dwight York, the
man who would one day claim to be a time
traveling extraterrestrial from the planet Risk, was born in the
more ordinary surroundings of the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. On
June twenty sixth, nineteen forty five, Dwight D. York entered
a world marked by inequality, upheaval, and change. His birth
certificate listed him simply without grandeur, no royal bloodline, no prophecy,

(01:56):
just another black child born into a segregated America. Yet
York would spend the rest of his life rejecting that
ordinary beginning, replacing it with increasingly elaborate myths, first as
a spiritual teacher, then a prophet, then something stranger entirely.
York's early life is murky. He claimed many things over
the years, that he was Sudanese royalty, that he was

(02:18):
of Yoruba descent, that he was the son of an
African ambassador, that he had studied under sheikhs in Egypt,
but independent records show that he grew up in Massachusetts
and New Jersey. His father, according to public documents, was
a merchant seaman. His mother, Mary York worked various jobs.
There was no evidence of nobility, no early followers, but

(02:40):
there was even then a powerful imagination and a thirst
for reinvention. As a teenager in New Jersey during the
nineteen fifties and early sixties, York found himself drawn to
the vibrant, complex world of black consciousness movements. The Nation
of Islam was growing in influence. The teachings of Elijah
Muhammad were spreading through urban neighborhoods, offering black men a

(03:02):
version of themselves as chosen, powerful, and divine. This was
a time when mainstream American culture still treated blackness as
something to overcome. Groups like the Nation gave it a
sacred dimension. York listened and he learned, but he didn't
follow any single path. He moved between identities, borrowed what
suited him, and discarded the rest. He was a spiritual scavenger.

(03:25):
He studied Islam, dabbled in Moorish science, absorbed the rhetoric
of Pan Africanism. He admired the militancy of the Black Panthers,
but preferred the certainty of spiritual hierarchies. He liked theology
more than politics. Power through enlightenment, not protest and above all,
he liked to be in charge. In nineteen sixty four,
at the age of nineteen, York was arrested for a

(03:46):
series of petty crimes, including assault and resisting arrest. It
was a pattern that would repeat charisma followed by chaos, influence,
shadowed by illegality. Over the years, he would be arrested
for veryous offenses possession of fake identification, obstruction of justice,
and later far more serious charges. But in those early days,

(04:07):
prison didn't break him. It gave him time to study,
to plan. According to his later followers, it was during
a stint in jail that York received his first divine revelation.
He would later describe it as a moment of awakening,
a download of truth that would form the basis of
everything he taught in reality. It was likely during this
time that York began constructing his earliest theology, stitching together

(04:29):
pieces of Islam, Freemasonry, Ufo lore, Egyptian mythology, and American
conspiracy culture. The result would not be a doctrine, it
would be a performance. By the early nineteen seventies, York
emerged in New York City with a new name and
a new mission. He called himself imam Isa and founded
a group called Ansar Pure Sufi. The name would change

(04:51):
many times over the years, Bansaro La Community, Holy Tabernacle Ministries,
United Nuobian Nation of Moors, but the corps remained the same.
York at the center, followers beneath and a worldview that
positioned black people as cosmic royalty, hidden from themselves by
centuries of oppression and lies. He set up shop in
Brooklyn in the Bushwick neighborhood and began building what looked

(05:14):
on the outside like a traditional Muslim community. Men in
white robes, women in hijabs, Arabic phrases painted on the walls,
five daily prayers, a storefront mosque. But inside York's teachings
diverged quickly from Orthodox Islam. He claimed that Black Americans
were descendants of the ancient Nubians, that they were the
true children of Allah, and that salvation could only be

(05:37):
achieved by returning to this lost identity. He took the
title as Sa'yd alimam Is al Hadi al Mahdi, a
long name meant to evoke both prophecy and prestige. He
claimed to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad
through the lineage of Billal, the Ethiopian companion of the prophet.
He told his followers that he alone held the keys

(05:59):
to their spiritual awakening, that all other moms were impostors,
that he was the Mahdi, the final redeemer. York's sermons
were electrifying. He spoke with authority, mixing sacred text with
street language, reciting Arabic one minute and breaking down American
racism the next. He promised answers to every question. Why
is the black man's suffering? Why is America collapsing? Why

(06:21):
do Christians worship white Jesus? York had answers, and they
came wrapped in a tapestry of ancient names, lost civilizations,
and cosmic warnings. The Onsar community grew quickly, mostly poor
and working class Black families, drawn to York's fiery rhetoric
and the sense of purpose he offered. He provided housing, childcare, education,

(06:42):
and food. There were schools, health clinics, and businesses, all
operated under the community's umbrella. It was, on the surface,
a utopian model. Self sufficient, moral, disciplined children were raised communally,
Women were taught obedience, men were given roles and duties,
but York controlled everything. He was the spiritual leader, the landlord,

(07:03):
the educator, and the law. Dissent was not tolerated. Members
were encouraged to cut ties with their families, to surrender
their wages, to report those who questioned the teachings. York's
word was treated as divine instruction. If he said Allah
had changed his name to Yahweh, it was accepted. If
he said they were no longer Muslim but Hebrew Israelites,

(07:25):
it was embraced. If he announced that humanity had been
genetically engineered by ancient aliens, it was absorbed into the
doctrine without pause, because to question York was to risk
your place in the only family that seemed to care.
Throughout the nineteen eighties, York's theology shifted dramatically. He began
incorporating ideas from the Nation of Islam, Moorish science, and

(07:48):
the Five percenters. He claimed that the original man was
from the planet risk, that Earth was under the control
of a race of reptilian beings, that the US government
had hidden the truth about extra terrestrials, that the ancient
Egyptians were black astronauts. He taught that white people were
not human but a race of artificial beings created by

(08:09):
a mad scientist named Yakub that nine to eleven aides
and the crack epidemic were all part of a global
plot to suppress the truth. Each new doctrine was absorbed
without contradiction. Yorke taught that truth was progressive, that what
was true yesterday might be outdated today. This allowed him
to contradict himself without losing control. His followers learned not

(08:30):
to question, but to adapt to obey. In the early
nineteen nineties, York claimed to receive a final revelation. He
announced that he was no longer just imam Issa, or
a teacher or even a prophet. He was a being
from the Eighth Galaxy, sent to Earth to guide the
chosen back to their rightful place in the universe. He
began referring to himself as Malachi Zi York and described

(08:54):
himself as a master teacher from a planet called Risk.
He wore golden robes, he built pyramids, and his community
transformed into something closer to a space age theocracy. They
needed more space. In nineteen ninety three, York and his
followers purchased over four hundred acres of land in Eton
and Georgial town, about halfway between Atlanta and Augusta. There

(09:16):
in the pine forests of Putnam County, they began building
their new home, Toma Ray, a compound modeled after ancient
Egyptian architecture, complete with obelisks, sphinxes, and golden pyramids. York
called it the Egypt of the West. It was a
statement of separation, a declaration that the Newabbians were no
longer just a religious group. They were a nation with

(09:38):
their own land, their own language, their own laws. Locals
didn't know what to make of it. At first, it
seemed like an elaborate tourist attraction. But as more followers
arrived and as York's rhetoric became more militant, tensions rose.
York declared that his land was sovereign territory beyond the
jurisdiction of American courts. He began publishing materials denouncing the IRAS,

(10:00):
the FBI, and local authorities. He warned of government plots.
He claimed that he was being surveilled by helicopters, that
agents were trying to poison him. Inside Toma Ray, York's
control was total. Followers wore uniforms. They referred to themselves
as citizens of a sovereign nation. They patrolled the grounds,
They studied his books, which by now numbered in the hundreds.

(10:23):
Some were spiritual, others were science fiction. Many were indistinguishable
from each other. York's voice permeated everything on cassette tapes,
in radio broadcasts, in thick self published tracts filled with
diagrams of UFOs, ancient maps, and distorted biblical interpretations. Toma
Ray was both a sanctuary and a stage set. To outsiders,

(10:44):
it looked like cosplay, a fringe movement with too much
land and too little oversight, But inside it was real.
York's world was the only world, and his followers were loyal, disciplined,
and increasingly isolated. In Part two, we moved deeper into
Tom Ray, the rituals, the surveillance, the construction of a
nation within a nation, and the dark allegations that would

(11:05):
finally bring the Newabbian dream crashing down. Part two, Kingdom
and the Pines Life inside Tom Ray. By the mid
nineteen nineties, the transformation was complete. What had started decades
earlier as a spiritual movement in a Brooklyn storefront had
now materialized quite literally in the backwoods of Georgia. Toma
Ray was more than a compound. It was a declaration

(11:27):
of sovereignty, a surreal construction project, and the physical embodiment
of Dwight York's evolving mythology. For his followers, it was
sacred ground. For locals in Putnam County, it was a
curiosity that quickly became a concern. The land York purchased
in Eatonton spanned more than four hundred acres of rural,
pine forested terrain. What he and his followers built there

(11:49):
was unlike anything else in the American South. A complex
of pyramids, obelisks, and temples rose from the red clay,
modeled after ancient Egyptian designs but rendered in wood, sheet metal,
and concrete. Golden paint shimmered in the Georgia heat. Statues
of pharaohs and sphinxes dotted the grounds. Visitors arrived to
find men in turbans and women in long robes, all

(12:11):
referring to themselves as New Wabbians and describing the land
as a sovereign territory called Tama Ray Egypt of the West.
But Tama Ray was never just about the structures. It
was a system a closed loop. Once inside, followers were
immersed in a world where York's voice governed every detail
of life. He had by this time declared himself a
divine being from another galaxy, not a metaphor, not a

(12:34):
poetic flourish. He insisted he was literally extraterrestrial and onunaki
from the planet risk, sent to Earth to guide the
chosen few, and the chosen were those who believed in
him completely. York's teachings were no longer confined to Islamic
or even Afrocentric ideologies. He had moved beyond religion entirely
and into what he called right knowledge. It was a sprawling,

(12:58):
ever shifting set of beliefs, laid out in hundreds of
pamphlets and books, all written by York and sold exclusively
through Newabbian channels. Followers studied these texts daily. They memorized
his new cosmology, his critiques of American history, and his
explanations of the true nature of human DNA, which he
claimed had been corrupted by interdimensional beings. The community at

(13:20):
tom Ray operated with military precision. Members had jobs, schedules, uniforms.
There were builders, teachers, guards, cooks. Children were educated in
Newabian doctrine from the time they could speak. Women were
expected to remain obedient and modest, often veiled, and sometimes
referred to York as their spiritual husband. Men were taught

(13:40):
to revere York as the ultimate authority. Families were secondary
to the mission. The structure was strict, and so was
the surveillance. Dissent was not tolerated. York controlled nearly every
aspect of his followers' lives. He dictated what they wore,
what they read, when they slept, how they addressed one
another and in silence during certain rituals. He assigned sleeping arrangements.

(14:04):
He encouraged members to sever ties with outside family and friends.
The compound became an echo chamber, one in which York's
ideology circulated without interruption or contradiction. He built a faux
Egyptian style courtroom, a school of metaphysics, a museum of
ancient wonders. There were plans for a hotel, a university,

(14:24):
and even a spaceport, and while some of these ambitions
were fantastical, they were treated as real. York didn't talk
about the future in abstract terms. He insisted that the
end of days was imminent, that only the Newabbians would
be saved, that they would be lifted into the skies
while the rest of the world burned beneath their feet.

(14:44):
The rhetoric became increasingly militant. York and his senior disciples
published newsletters warning of government attacks, global conspiracies, and spiritual warfare.
They declared tom Ray a sovereign state and began filing
legal paperwork their independence from US authority. Some members carried
identification cards issued by the Newabian nation. They claimed diplomatic immunity.

(15:08):
They mailed affidavits to local and federal courts insisting that
the US Constitution did not apply to them. Law enforcement
took notice. Putnam County officials, initially bewildered by the compound,
began to track the group more closely. The county sheriff
received regular complaints from neighbors, reports of unusual activity, armed
guards on the property, loud music, and unexplained roadblocks. York's

(15:32):
people dismissed the concerns as racism and harassment. They pointed
to their religious freedom, insisting that Tomaree was protected under
the First Amendment. But the deeper authorities looked the more troubling.
The situation appeared. There were rumors, quiet at first and
hard to verify about what was happening inside tom Ray

(15:53):
Allegations that children were being kept isolated, that women were
being exploited, that followers were being pressured into silence. Former
members who had managed to leave the compound began coming forward,
first anonymously, then publicly. Their stories shared common threads intense indoctrination,
psychological control, and more disturbing still, accusations of abuse. In

(16:17):
nineteen ninety eight, the FBI opened an investigation into the
New Wabbian Nation. They began monitoring financial transactions, interviewing former members,
and quietly building a case. The IRS was also watching.
York had been moving large amounts of money through shell
businesses and tax exempt religious organizations. Investigators suspected money laundering,
wire fraud, and tax evasion, but the federal authorities didn't

(16:41):
move in right away. They watched, They waited, and the
walls began to close in. By two thousand, the compound
was under near constant scrutiny. York responded by ramping up
his paranoia. He told his followers that the government was
coming for them, that helicopters were surveilling the land that
they were at war. He encouraged them to arm themselves.

(17:03):
He built defensive perimeters. He insisted that the land was sacred,
that anyone who entered uninvited was an agent of the enemy.
For the followers who had already given their lives to him,
this was not delusion, it was doctrine. The public image
of the New Wobians began to fracture. To outsiders, Toma
Ray looked like a failed amusement park, dressed up in

(17:24):
religious iconography. The Golden Pyramids, the Egyptian animal statues, the
towering obelisks. It all seemed theatrical. But those who had
lived inside the compound described a very different reality, not
one of fantasy, but of fear. York's charisma had turned
to menace. His teachings, once wrapped in mysticism and mythology,

(17:45):
now carried the edge of coercion. He had stopped pretending
to be a teacher. He now demanded to be treated
as a god. And still the community held Toma Ray
remained a functioning society. Dozens of families lived there full time.
Children played in the courtyards, women worked in the kitchens
and clinics. Men patrolled the perimeter at night York in

(18:07):
the Central Temple, speaking for hours on cosmic history, quantum spirituality,
the coming planetary alignment, and the betrayal of the gods.
His sermons were dense, circular, and delivered with absolute certainty.
He told his followers that he had lived many lifetimes,
that he had walked among the Egyptians as though, that
he had taught the Sumerians the secret science of sound,

(18:30):
that he had fought against the Nephelum in a war
waged across dimensions, that the American government was using black
helicopters and underground bases to prevent him from liberating his people.
It would be easy to dismiss all of this as fantasy,
and many did, but the impact was real. Children were
growing up inside this world, believing every word. Adults had

(18:53):
mortgaged their futures, abandoned their families, and surrendered their identities.
No one joined the New Abbia nation casual. They joined
to escape something, to find something, and once they were inside,
leaving became almost unthinkable. But cracks were forming. More defectors
began to speak out. Some wrote letters to law enforcement,
others gave interviews to journalists. Their stories painted a picture

(19:16):
of psychological manipulation, forced isolation, and abuse disguised as ritual.
They spoke of strange ceremonies, sleep deprivation, and children who
were separated from their parents and placed under York's personal supervision.
In Part three, the allegations become undeniable, the federal investigation
goes public, and the strange kingdom in the Pines begins

(19:38):
to fall under the weight of its own secrets. Part
three Cracks in the Pyramid, the Fall of Tamaree. By
the early two thousands, Toma Ray no longer stood as
a mystery. It stood as a monument under watch. What
had once looked like a surreal Backwood's oddity, a strange
fusion of ancient Egypt and Ufo prophecy nestled in the

(19:58):
Georgia Pines, had become a target of mounting suspicion. The
outside world had taken notice. Law enforcement agencies were now
deeply involved, and inside the walls of the compound some
members were beginning to question what they had once accepted
without hesitation. For years, Dwight York had managed to deflect scrutiny.
He framed every challenge as persecution, every question as a

(20:21):
test of loyalty. Local authorities, frustrated by the group's legal
maneuvers and insulated culture, often found themselves blocked. But York
wasn't just paranoid. He had reason to worry because by
this point his secrets were no longer safely buried beneath
layers of metaphysics. Former members had begun to speak, and
what they were describing could not be explained away with

(20:43):
claims of religious harassment. The first credible allegations came in whispers,
then letters, then sworn affidavits. They came from young men
and women who had grown up inside the Nuwabian nation,
who had lived at Toma Ray as children. They described
a place operated on fear and silence. They spoke of
rituals that blurred into abuse, of long hours isolated from

(21:07):
their families, of manipulation disguised as devotion, and increasingly, the
stories centered on York himself. Several individuals alleged that York
had sexually abused miners for years, that he had used
his position as a spiritual leader to gain absolute access
to the most vulnerable members of the community, that he
had created a culture where questioning his actions even quietly

(21:30):
meant spiritual death and social exile. Some survivors described being
told they were chosen. Others said they had been threatened.
The details were harrowing, consistent, and damning. The FBI, already
monitoring York for financial crimes, shifted its focus. Now the
investigation was deeper. Personal agents interviewed former members, gathered testimonies,

(21:52):
and began building a case that would eventually center on
York's alleged exploitation of his follower's children. And still tom
Array operated as if nothing had changed. York continued his lectures,
his followers maintained their daily routines, and the compound remained
closed to outsiders. Inside the group, rumours spread. Some heard

(22:13):
the allegations and refused to believe them. Others believed but
were too afraid to speak. York's control was psychological as
much as physical. He had convinced many that he was
beyond human, that he could see into their thoughts, that
disloyalty would bring divine retribution. He had crafted a theology
in which he alone held the keys to salvation, and

(22:34):
in which suffering was a necessary step towards spiritual purity.
For those who had spent their entire lives in the
new Wabbian system. There was no outside world, no escape plan.
They had been born inside the myth, but law enforcement
was no longer relying on faith or rumors. The federal
case against York intensified surveillance, increased evidence mounted, and in

(22:56):
the spring of two thousand and two, the line between
suspicion and action was finally crossed. On May eighth, two
thousand and two, federal and local authorities executed a coordinated
raid on Toma. Ray agents from the FBI atf Irs
and Putnam County Sheriff's Office descended on the compound with
search warrants and a list of specific charges. York was

(23:17):
arrested that day at a nearby fast food restaurant while
en route to the compound. He was calm, confident, still
dressed in his ceremonial garments, still acting like the teacher.
Back at tom Array officers searched every building, seizing documents, videotapes, computers,
and a cache of firearms. The scene was tense, but
controlled followers watched from the sidelines, some weeping, others in shock.

(23:41):
The compound, once so carefully sealed off from outside scrutiny,
was now the site of one of the largest cult
related law enforcement actions in recent American history. York was
charged with more than one hundred counts, including child molestation,
sexual exploitation, racketeering, and transporting miners across state lines for
illegal purposes. The scale of the accusations was staggering. Prosecutors

(24:04):
described a systematic pattern of abuse spanning over a decade,
involving numerous victims, many of whom had been raised from
birth to believe York was a divine figure. The legal
process began slowly. York's attorneys argued that the charges were false,
the product of a government vendetta against a black religious leader.
They claimed the children had been coached, that the raids

(24:27):
were unconstitutional, that York was a target because of his race,
his teachings, and his community's independence. But the evidence was overwhelming.
Federal prosecutors introduced testimony from over a dozen victims, all
of whom told remarkably similar stories of being groomed, isolated,
and abused under the guise of spiritual enlightenment. Some testified

(24:50):
in open court, others provided sealed affidavits. They described rituals
involving secrecy, threats, and manipulation. They spoke of York's private quarters,
of voded language, of rituals that were never about religion,
but about control. The trial took place in two thousand
and four in Brunswick, Georgia. It was one of the
most closely watched trials in the state's recent history. Reporters

(25:13):
filled the courtroom. Former followers watched in silence. Supporters still
loyal to York protested outside, insisting on his innocence, but inside,
the case unfolded with grim precision. York was found guilty
on all major counts. He was sentenced to one hundred
and thirty five years in federal prison. The verdict sent
a shockwave through the remaining Newabian community. Some left the

(25:36):
group immediately. Others refused to accept the outcome. They believed
and continue to believe, that York was framed, that the
government fabricated the evidence, that their teacher remains unjustly imprisoned,
and in some circles, the myth of York only grew stronger.
But Tama Ray was done. The compound was seized and dismantled.
The pyramids were demolished, the statues removed. The land, once

(26:00):
buzzing with ritual and music, and construction fell silent. What
had once been painted gold was now bulldozed into dust.
There would be no revival, no return. The Egypt of
the West had collapsed under the weight of its own deception.
For law enforcement, the case was a success. A dangerous
man had been brought to justice, a network of abuse
had been stopped. But for many who had grown up

(26:21):
inside the Nuwaubian nation, the end of Tom Ray brought
no easy resolution. The trauma did not disappear with the buildings.
The questions lingered. What had they really believed, who had
they really followed, and how could they rebuild their lives
in a world they had been taught to distrust. Some
former members went into therapy, others tried to reconnect with family,

(26:44):
a few gave interviews, hoping to warn others, and a
small number clung to the ruins, continuing to circulate Yorke's books,
to gather quietly, to remember the days when everything seemed ordered,
even if that order had come at a terrible price.
In Part four, we follow the aftermath, the survivors, the lawsuits,
the strange persistence of Newabbian ideology in the corners of

(27:05):
the Internet, and how the teachings of Dwight York, even
in disgrace, never quite disappeared. Part four. Ashes of Empire,
Aftermath and Echoes. In the summer of two thousand and four,
after Dwight York was convicted and sentenced to one hundred

(27:27):
and thirty five years in federal prison, the gates of
tom Ray no longer held back the outside world. The
compound had been stripped of its power, no more rituals,
no more lectures. The golden statues were removed, the temples emptied,
and the pyramids slowly reduced to rubble. But for many
who had lived behind those gates, the collapse of their
world did not bring closure. It brought confusion, disorientation, grief,

(27:54):
because for years, the Newabian nation had given its members
not only a belief system, but an identity. That identity
was in pieces. Some of York's followers had left before
the trial. A handful had escaped the compound years earlier,
broken and afraid, but slowly reconnecting with families and lives
they thought they had lost. Others walked away after the conviction,
hearts cracked open by the testimony, by the shock of

(28:16):
watching their spiritual leader exposed as something monstrous, but not
all left. A core group remained loyal, insisting that York
had been framed. They said the victims had lied. They
believed the trial was a political takedown of a black
leader who had dared to build something of his own.
In interviews, in chat rooms and on makeshift websites, they

(28:37):
repeated the same mantra, York is innocent. This loyalty wasn't surprising.
It was baked into the belief system. York had told
his followers to expect persecution, that the government would come
for him, that they would try to destroy what they
didn't understand. So when the arrests came, and when the
charges became public, it didn't shake everyone's faith. For some,

(28:58):
it confirmed it. He had warned them, and now it
was happening. To these followers, the arrest wasn't proof of wrongdoing.
It was prophecy fulfilled. In the years that followed, the
movement didn't vanish. It splintered. Toma Ray was gone, but
online forums and small gatherings kept the teachings alive. York
had published hundreds of booklets, over four hundred and fifty

(29:20):
by some estimates, ranging from esoteric theology to alien cosmology
to conspiracies about world governments. These texts were copied, digitized,
and passed hand to hand. Some were sold through obscure channels.
Others appeared on websites built by surviving members who refused
to let the doctrine die. They held onto the language
right knowledge overstanding extra terrestriology. They kept the symbols, the ankh,

(29:43):
the pyramid, the seven pointed star. They kept the stories too,
about risk, about ancient aliens, about the Sumerian gods, and
the Atlantean bloodlines. And they kept the name, though even
that would splinter into variations. The Yamassee, the Holy Tabernacle Ministry,
the Egyptian s of Karrast, the United Nuwabian Nation of Moors.

(30:03):
These groups existed on the fringes quietly in basements and
chat rooms. They shared PDFs and hosted video calls. They
held on to hope that York would be released, that
the sentence would be overturned, that justice would not from
the courts but from divine intervention. York himself continued to
file appeals from prison. None were successful, but that didn't

(30:24):
matter to the loyalists. His physical imprisonment only deepened their
sense of cosmic war. For former members who had escaped
and survived the abuse, healing was harder. Some went silent,
Others found therapists who specialized in religious trauma. A few
went public, giving interviews to journalists and researchers, telling their

(30:45):
stories and voices still brittle with shame. They described childhoods
shaped entirely by York's presence. Their parents had believed, their teachers,
had believed. Their entire world had been built around a
man who, behind closed doors, manipulated and molested, and when
it all came crashing down, there was no map for
what came next. Many of these survivors didn't know how

(31:06):
to live outside the doctrine. They had to learn how
to navigate the world from scratch, how to trust, how
to exist without the constant hum of ritual and fear,
and that kind of rebuilding slow private messi is not
something that makes headlines, but it's where the real story lived.
Long after the courtrooms were empty, Academics and cult researchers

(31:27):
took notice too. The Nuwabian Nation became a case study
one of the most complex and bizarre examples of a
modern American cult. It combined elements of black nationalism, UFO theology,
sovereign citizen ideology, Egyptian revivalism, and pseudoscientific mysticism. It defied
easy categorization. York didn't fit the mold of a classic
cult leader, at least not at first. He was a chameleon,

(31:50):
a shape shifter. He moved from a mom to pharaoh,
to alien to profit with ease, and that adaptability made
the group harder to contain, harder to define. Dollars noted
how York exploited gaps in trust between black communities and
government institutions. He used legitimate grievances, racism, surveillance, historical trauma
as fuel for his larger mythos. He positioned himself as

(32:12):
a protector, a liberator, a teacher who would free his
people not just from oppression, but from ignorance, from DNA tampering,
from spiritual blindness, and in doing so, he attracted people
who weren't stupid or gullible. They were searching, and he
gave them an answer that fit. The lessons from the
Nwabbian story became warnings for the future that charisma doesn't

(32:34):
always come in extremes, that cults can look like self
help that manipulation often hides behind righteousness, and that belief,
once rooted, can outlive even its creator. Because York, now
in his late seventies, remains behind bars. His name has
faded from major headlines, but his teachings still echo. His words,
scanned and shared and reprinted, continue to circulate in places

(32:58):
the mainstream rarely looks. New followers find them, sometimes by accident,
sometimes on purpose. They start reading, they find a community,
They begin to speak in the same coded language, and
the cycle begins again, not with a compound in Georgia,
but in a browser tab, in a chat, in a
PDF full of diagrams that look just plausible enough to

(33:18):
pull someone in. The New Wabian Nation didn't end in
two thousand four. It transformed from geography to ideology, from
a physical space to a digital echo, and that echo
continues to resonate in the kinds of spaces where fantasy
and identity blur, where people are still asking the questions
Yorke once pretended to answer, Who are we, where do
we come from? Who's lying to us? And what hidden

(33:40):
truths might finally set us free. In Part five, we
examine the modern offshoots of Nwabian belief, the Internet Age
of cult recruitment, and how the mythos of Dwight York
laid the groundwork for the next generation of high control movements.
The Pyramid may be gone, but the story is not over.
Part five, The Digital Resurrection York's time Teachings in the
Internet Age. When the physical structures of Tama Ray were

(34:03):
torn down, it was easy to believe the New Abbian
nation had ended. The pyramids were demolished, The temples, painted
gold and wrapped in layers of cosmic symbolism, were leveled.
The statues were hauled away. York, the man who had
declared himself a pharaoh, a prophet, and a space being
from the planet Risk, was locked in a federal prison cell.
But even as the compound disappeared from the Georgia landscape,

(34:26):
a strange thing happened. The belief system did not vanish.
It shifted. It found new ground, and that ground was digital.
In the years immediately following York's conviction, the Internet was
undergoing a quiet revolution. Social media platforms were still in
their infancy, but forums, blogs, and personal websites were blooming
across the Web. Suddenly, anyone with a computer and a

(34:49):
dial up connection could build a following, share files, post scans,
upload videos, and in the shadows of mainstream conversations, small
pockets of Newabbian ideology began to take root, not in
neighborhoods or cities, but in servers, in message boards, in
late night Google searches that started with questions and ended
with dot pdf files of York's writings. The first wave

(35:12):
of digital revival came from York's most loyal followers, individuals
who refused to believe the trial had been fair, who
insisted that the charges had been fabricated. They built rudimentary website,
often hosted on free platforms, where they archived York's texts,
sometimes in full. They included scanned pages, diagrams, audio clips
of his teachings. Some pages resembled religious study hubs, others

(35:36):
looked more like conspiracy sites. All were steeped in the
same language. York had used, phrases like rite, knowledge, divine,
susseptology overstanding. The content ranged from metaphysical ramblings to radical
reinterpretations of American history to UFO based origin stories. These
sites didn't reach huge audiences, but they didn't need to.

(35:57):
They were there for the curious for the dissillusion, for
the person scrolling alone at night, stumbling into a world
that felt secretive and strange and full of certainty. Over time,
the material spread. Forums like Reddit, early versions of YouTube,
and obscure Facebook groups began to pick up fragments of
York's work. Sometimes it was shared earnestly, other times it

(36:20):
appeared stripped of context, as though it had come from
a forgotten esoteric library. But the ideas traveled his teachings
were now part of the wider digital mythos, alongside flat
earth theory, ancient aliens, and rewritten histories of Atlantis. Some
of York's followers rebranded. They adopted names like the Yamaseee
Native American Mores of the Creek Nation, the Egyptian Church

(36:43):
of Carrost, and the Newabbian Grand Lodge. Each offshoot claimed legitimacy,
each claimed a piece of the founder's spiritual legacy, and
each framed York not as a convicted criminal, but as
a political prisoner targeted by the government for daring to
awaken his people. In these circles, Yorke was often portrayed
not just as a religious leader, but as a scholar,

(37:03):
a misunderstood genius. They cited his prolific output hundreds of
booklets spanning theology, science, fiction, race theory, and metaphysics. They
pointed to his knowledge of ancient languages, his use of symbols,
his syncretic fusion of Islam, Christianity, Egyptian mythology, and Ufo lore.
They treated his writings as sacred texts, reading them the

(37:26):
way some study scripture, not linearly but intuitively, looking for meaning,
looking for revelation. The danger, of course, was not just
in what York had written, but in how those teachings
were being used Online. They could be picked apart, reassembled,
and applied to whatever agenda. A group wanted to promote.
Sovereign citizen movements adopted pieces of Newabbian ideology, particularly the

(37:49):
rejection of US governmental authority and the idea of creating
personal legal systems. Some offshoots began issuing their own identification cards,
property deeds, even currency, echoing the strategies York had used
decades earlier to assert the group's independence from the state.
York's rhetoric around race, too, found new life online. His

(38:11):
teachings often included extreme pseudoscientific claims that white people were
genetically engineered by a renegade scientist, that melanin was a
source of divine power. That black Americans were not African,
but extraterrestrial in origin. These ideas, repackaged and stripped of attribution,
floated into other black nationalists spaces and fringe afrocentric discussions.

(38:35):
Not all who engaged with these theories knew they came
from York, but the language bore his fingerprints. What made
York's legacy uniquely durable in digital form was its flexibility.
His teachings didn't follow a single rigid doctrine. They weren't
meant to. York shifted his identity so often from Muslim
imam to Hebrew patriarch, to Egyptian god to alien ambassador

(38:56):
that followers learned to move with him. Contradiction fans weren't
seen as flaws. They were seen as upgrades, new downloads
of truth. So when fragments of his ideas landed in
other ideological communities, be they sovereign citizens, conspiracy theorists, or
black separatists, they were easy to graft on. They were
built to adapt. Meanwhile, Yorke continued to influence from behind bars,

(39:19):
though incarcerated at ADX Florence, the federal supermax prison in Colorado.
York remained in contact with some followers through letters. Occasionally,
supporters would post messages online, claiming they came from York himself.
These messages were often cryptic warnings about planetary alignments, reminders
of past prophecies, or legal rants insisting on his innocence.

(39:40):
They were treated as sacred communications, coded signals from a
man imprisoned not by justice but by fear of his enlightenment.
In a particularly strange twist, some modern conspiracy communities, ones
that had no connection to Nuwabbian history, began quoting York unknowingly.
His diagrams of pyramids, his reinterpretations of the Anon, his
maps of lost civilizations. All resurfaced in YouTube videos about

(40:04):
ancient aliens or forbidden archaeology. The origins of the content
were obscured, but York's esthetic had been absorbed into the
digital bloodstream of fringe thought. By the twenty ten some
former members began speaking out again, not in courtrooms this time,
but in blogs and documentaries. They described their journeys out
of the movement, the long process of re entering the world.

(40:27):
The difficulty of shedding a belief system that had once
shaped every aspect of life. Some remained traumatized. Others tried
to reclaim aspects of their identity without embracing York's legacy.
A few even found new faith communities and worked to
support others recovering from cult involvement. But the movement didn't vanish,
its simply changed form. Today, Nwabian influence still exists, though

(40:50):
it's harder to trace. It doesn't wear uniforms, It doesn't
build pyramids in Georgia. It appears in usernames, in instagram pages,
decoration with cometic imagery, and galactic prophecy. It appears in
debates about race and history, where facts blur with myth,
and where York's texts, now digitized and floating free from attribution,
continue to shape fringe ideologies. It survives in whispered admiration,

(41:16):
in the belief that York was silenced not because of
what he did, but because of what he knew. In
Part six, we close this story. We look at what
the New Abbian Nation teaches us about power, belief, identity,
and the fine line between spirituality and exploitation. We explore
how Dwight York's empire, born in the streets, raised in pyramids,
and buried in prison, still lingers in the corners of culture.

(41:38):
The cult may have lost its land, but its story
is far from over. Part six Reflections in the Ruins, Power, Prophecy,
and the Echo that remains. In the end, Dwight York's
story did not close with a final sermon, a dramatic departure,
or an apocalyptic climax. It ended quietly in a prison cell.
A man who once stood atop his self built pyramid

(42:00):
in gold, surrounded by followers who believed he was from
another planet, was reduced to a number in a federal
supermax facility. But the myth never died. York left behind
more than ruins in Georgia. He left behind a framework,
a formula, a system of belief that continued to survive him.
It's tempting to frame the collapse of the Newabbian Nation
as a cautionary tale neatly resolved, a cult leader caught,

(42:23):
a compound, dismantled, a movement dispersed, But that framing ignores
what cults really are, living shifting organisms. They don't end
when their leaders fall, They adapt. They splinter, They echo
in places no one expects, and York's teachings, once broadcast
from a podium in the Georgia Pines, now lived in
browser histories, hashtags, PDFs, and the private lives of people

(42:47):
still reckoning with what they believed. After York's one hundred
and thirty five year sentence was handed down, public interest
in the story waned tom Ray was sold. Bulldozers came,
the land was repurposed. The bizarre gold and structures were
torn apart by machines and weather. Local officials moved on.
Reporters looked elsewhere, but for those who had been inside,

(43:08):
there was no moving on. They had to figure out
who they were without York. Some former members tried to
rebuild lives outside the faith. They changed their names, they
erased photos, They stopped speaking about their past. Others spoke out.
They went on record. They explained how a man who
promised knowledge had created a world of fear. They described

(43:28):
the shame, the disorientation, the isolation that came with waking
up from a long held delusion. They didn't always agree
on the details, but they agreed on one thing. York's
power didn't come from the supernatural. It came from control.
That control was total, not just over actions, but over
reality itself. York had mastered the art of redefining truth.

(43:50):
What he said one day could become doctrine. What he
contradicted the next became a test of loyalty. He claimed
to be everything, a Muslim, a Christian, a Hebrew, a more,
a pharaoh, an alien, a divine being a prisoner of prophecy.
He taught his followers that certainty was weakness, that questions
were traps, that truth evolved because he said it did,

(44:12):
and it worked. He used mysticism as a mask, science
fiction as scripture, sovereign citizen ideology as armor. And he
wrapped it all in a promise that sounded like salvation.
That Black Americans were special, that their history had been erased,
that he and only he could restore their rightful place
in the universe. It was seductive, especially for people who

(44:33):
had been told their whole lives they were less than.
York offered them cosmic elevation, and for a time it
felt real. But the core of the movement was never
really knowledge. It was obedience. That obedience made the abuse possible,
Its silenced victims, it protected the abuser it rapped horror
in holiness, and even now decades later, that is what

(44:54):
many survivors are still unlearning, not just what happened, but
how it was justified, how they came to believe it
was normal, that it was sacred, that it was love.
In the years since Tom Ray fell, the conversation about
cults has changed. The Internet has made recruitment easier, echo
chambers form quickly, charisma scales fast, and York's legacy lives

(45:16):
on not because people remember his name, but because the
tactics he used have become common playbooks. Control the narrative,
create a special language, build a fortress, physical or ideological.
Declare yourself the only source of truth. That's what made
York dangerous, not just the abuse, but the way he
built a system to support it. Today, there are still

(45:38):
people who consider themselves new Wobbian. Some have rebranded, some
deny the crimes. Others separate the man from the teachings.
They say York's spiritual knowledge was real even if he
failed morally. But the line between those two things is
hard to walk because his teachings weren't abstract. They were personal.
He didn't just claim to explain the universe inserted himself

(46:00):
into it as its center. And when your salvation is
a man, there's no doctrine to fall back on when
that man fails. What's left then are ruins, emotional ones,
dozens of children who were robbed of safety, adults who
gave away their identities, families that fractured, and a culture
that still struggles to understand how someone like York could

(46:21):
have existed, thrived, and built an empire of delusion that
looked for a time like Paradise. The story of the
New Abbien Nation is not just about a cult. It's
about belief, about power, about how people searching for answers
can become vulnerable to someone who offers all the wrong
ones with enough certainty, And in that way, it's not over.

(46:42):
In our next episode, we move across the ocean into
a different mythology, one of peace, pleasure, and cloning, a
movement that claimed the elohem an alien race seeded life
on earth, that prophets like Jesus and Buddha were alien messengers,
and that immortality would come through science, not faith. Join
us on Hidden Cults as we explore the strange, seductive

(47:06):
promises of the Raelian movement that's next time,

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Ep.8 The Nuwaubian Nation

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal