That time I maybe joined a cult...

A friend handed me a blank, white credit card and said, "I don't want to say anything else about this except that its... well, it's just cool. You'll get an email in a couple of days.".

A few days later I received a cryptic email saying I'd been sponsored for the Latitude Society. It asked me to input a time and date I'd be available to be at a specific address. Once I input them, it played a short video of scanning the card I'd just received through a card reader outside some ornate, unmarked doors. A few weeks later I found myself outside those same ornate, unmarked doors located somewhere in the heart of San Francisco's mission District. I slid the blank credit card through the nearby card reader and the doors unlocked. I opened them and walked inside, through dark curtains. I was confronted by a classic Alice and wonderland rabbit hole:

It was a narrow room with pulsating lights and a droning soundscape. In front of me was an ornate fireplace with a polished hardwood slide instead of a firepit. The slide went into complete darkness. This was the point of no return. I took a deep breath then slid in, getting knocked from left to right as the slide descended in the dark.

I was unceremoniously chucked out into a dark blue room. There was a ticket taker sitting unmoving behind frosted glass and three doors on my left. I stood up and tried the doors but they were locked. Suddenly, a secret panel opened in the wall. I was presented with a box where I had to place my phone, wallet and any other personal items. Unable to go back or proceed, I had no choice, so I placed what I had in the box and closed the door. When the panel locked shut, I heard a noise and the first of the three doors unlocked. I opened it to be confronted again with darkness. I walked into the dark a few yards before I felt the roof closing in on me. I could only navigate by touch, so I put my hands on the ceiling as it lowered while I walked forward.  Eventually I was crawling on my hands and knees through a space roughly 2.5 feet square. The tunnel turned and climbed hills and valleys till I finally tumbled out into the next space.

 ...A sacred library. 

This library contained an incredible, self-reading one-page book that narrated it's story to me. Once the book had completed it's story, it directed me onward. 

The next hour or so was incredible. Here are a few of the highlights:

-Secret speakeasy with creepy holographic imagery

-mystery bellhop

-tracking locations by ornate copper plates secretly embedded into San Francisco city streets

-a wordless handoff with a stranger in a local bar for a silver coin.

-a hidden arcade where a sentient IA tested my worth.

I came out of the experience baffled. What just happened to me, and who the hell is running something so expensive and extravagant in complete secrecy? 

Well, early this week, the mystery came to an end. Like most amazing ideas that come out of San Francisco, it died once it failed to turn a profit. Apparently such an ornate secret organization takes about 3 thousand dollars a day to maintain, and the inherent problem with a secret society: it can't make cash by advertising. 

The genius and ultimate failure was in the execution. Once someone completed the experience, they were given the option of joining the organization and buying credit cards to give to others. It allowed people, for 30 bucks, to gift someone a singularly unique experience rather than, say, a giftcard that'll probably get used for groceries and instantly forgotten.

So, hat's off to you Latitude Society. You made me feel like a kid again, imagining crazy adventures and exploring secret worlds hidden just under mundane skin of everyday life. You crazy knuckleheads created something truly amazing.

Though very little info about this is available, it being a secret society and all, you can read a bit about it HERE.