'The Cult of NatureBoy': Inside the modern-day cult led by 'the ultimate influencer'

They called him their god, but behind that charismatic facade, he was a master manipulator.

In "The Cult of NatureBoy," ABC News Studios takes audiences into the case of Eligio Bishop, aka "NatureBoy," who used social media to recruit followers to join what he described as a real-life utopia.

Eventually, it all turned into something more sinister.

On The Red Carpet spoke with director Benjamin Zand and investigator Chantelle Coleman about the four-part docuseries.

In 2016, Bishop began using his social media platforms to preach about an idyllic lifestyle, specifically, "he was kind of preaching an answer to kind of many of the problems that kind of young Americans, specifically young Black Americans are facing at that point, with a kind of simple message of kind of return to nature," Zand explains.

Tall and good-looking, Zand says Bishop was "like the ultimate influencer."

He certainly used that influence to his advantage.

"He has an ego the size of Earth," Coleman tells us.

"He's someone that believes that he has an answer for everything and that all knowledge should come through him. He's somebody who believes that, and he is, charismatic. He's also manipulative. He's also egotistical. He's someone who is great at manipulating. He's a master manipulator. He's very divisive. He is someone who can be very cruel. Vile. Evil almost," Coleman goes on to say. "I think his angle was to become... I won't go as far as to say Jim Jones, but I think that he would have loved to have- to have a community that large. But ultimately, Eligio's end goal was never based in any type of reality."

As Bishop gained more and more control, "he's purposely trying to push people further and further and further to get more and more interest online, to get more attention (...), donations," says Zand. "In many ways this was like a reality TV show. They were filming everything themselves. You were seeing kind of so much action, so much drama. They were kind of orchestrating a lot of this madness."

Zand reflects on the series.

"It felt like a really important example of how kind of cults have evolved, you know, kind of social media has made a new type of cult."

Unravel the full story. "The Cult of NatureBoy" is streaming now on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+.

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