Former Cult Leader Tells How Followers Worshipped Her Seven Deadly Sins 'Sermons'

"A cult is seen negatively, but it's just a group of people worshipping an idea, a leader, they all believe in the same ideology or idea or person," she told the Daily Star.

The model, who was born in Canada, just had one rule: no face-to-face meetings.

(Image: thealiceirving / Instagram)

Instead, the guys would pay Alice for the privilege of participating in virtual chat rooms or "clubs," each of which was themed around one of the seven deadly sins.

"There were different levels", she explained.

(Image: thealiceirving / Instagram)

"People would donate every month and it would start at $10 (£7.6), then $100 (£76), $1,000 (£760), $10,000 (£7,600) and $100,000 (£76,000) per month."

The sinners would have increased levels of access to Alice's knowledge, starting with access to her social media profiles and progressing to video messaging and one-hour FaceTime conversations.

(Image: thealiceirving / Instagram)

Surprisingly, the $100,000 was paid by two distinct persons. They'd get a "special" request agreed upon in a private conversation with Alice - "but never meeting in person whatsoever."

The cult also had a built-in marketing strategy, with members using Alice's name in their online identities.

(Image: thealiceirving / Instagram)

"Hundreds and hundreds of people would have Alice-underscore-their names. Everywhere they would go they would represent me," she said.

"Let's say you go to another space. Other people would be like: 'Why are there so many people called Alice-something?'." Then they would find me.

(Image: thealiceirving / Instagram)

"It would grow and grow and grow. At one point - and I didn't even know - I had a subreddit with 13,000 people. I was like: 'Oh my God - that's a lot of people."

Although the cult provided Alice with a feeling of "meaning," it also provided her with pecuniary rewards. 

(Image: thealiceirving / Instagram)

These were especially lucrative during an "anniversary" period when members would shower their cult leader with presents to commemorate what was effectively her second birthday.

Alice said: "Someone gave me a $20,000 (£15,300) tip one time. Another gave, accumulatively over one month, over $100,000."

The presents weren't all monetary though, with one of the more unusual "anniversary" gifts being an "industrial package" holding hundreds of Kinder Bueno chocolate bars.

Despite calling it quits as a cult leader, Alice stated that the primary goal of her organization was to "make the world better," and she still maintains touch with some of her members.

"It was only meant for good. I'm not the one saying what's good or bad but I was just helping people," she said.

"I know every cult leader says that, but it was only voluntary."