This reminds me of anyone who went from normal life with normal funds to extreme wealth at a young age, not surprising, this is just the nerd version of rappers / ball players / young actors etc going through their own rendition of this.

It’s a cult, or at least, the leadership is trying to turn it into one. Cults have done weirder stuff, up to and including actual suicide.

39 members of Heaven’s Gate drank phenobarbital and died, believing this would allow them to escape Earth on the Hale-Bopp comet.

900 members of the People’s Temple (Jim Jones) drank cyanide-laced koolaid (actually FlavorAid) and died. That’s where the phrase “drink the koolaid” came from.