Florida Woman Matches With a Person on Bumble Bff After Moving to Arizona, Then Goes on a Hike With Her and Other Girls: ‘Join a cult by accident’
Cult-status
On April 30, 2025, TikTok user @saraphinestanier uploaded an approximately 5-minute video that has still people saying, “What the hell?” In the video, she talks about an experience she had when she had just moved to Arizona and was looking to make friends, especially women.
Describing a specific incident involving her efforts to make female friends, Saraphine shares how she nearly got indoctrinated into a cult while on a hike with a group of girls. Don’t worry, in the end, things worked out for her. As she reveals in her video, she realized what was happening and escaped at the last minute.
TikTok user @saraphinestanier almost joined a cult
As previously mentioned, on April 30, 2025, @saraphinestanier posted a video on her TikTok account in which she shared her experience of almost joining a cult. However, thanks to her situational awareness, she was able to escape before things got worse.
In her video, Saraphine explained that when she moved to Arizona, she only knew two people. She said she wanted to make more friends, especially female friends. To do that, she mentioned that she switched on the BFF mode on her Bumble app and started matching with local interests.
Saraphine said she matched with a woman on Bumble BFF, whom she calls Bella (not her real name). She said they got along well, and Bella invited Saraphine to go hiking. Saraphine admitted in the video that, in hindsight, meeting Bella wasn’t the smartest choice since she hardly knew this person.
Nonetheless, she went. Saraphine mentioned that when she arrived, she met several other girls also joining the hike with Bella. She said she was surprised to see they all wore white linen outfits, while she was in active wear, which she believed was the implied dress code for their hike. She said in her video that she also found it odd that, while walking uphill, no one talked, and there was no music, which she usually enjoys.
Another strange thing, she said, was that when they reached the top, the other girls sat in a circle and started humming at sunrise. She initially thought they might be practicing yoga or were very spiritual. She then claimed a barefoot man walked toward the group, sat in the center of the circle, and began reciting what she described as a “weird” passage about the sunrise.
At this point, Saraphine explains that despite feeling uneasy, she wondered if maybe they were just messing with her. However, she remembers she became especially alarmed when Bella handed her a grapefruit and told her to “infuse” it with her “intentions.” Saraphine explained in her video that she immediately dropped the grapefruit and “bolted.” Looking back on the event, she said, “I may be pretty dumb for going on a hike with people I didn’t know, but I’m not dumb enough to join a cult by accident.”
People have a lot of opinions about @saraphinestanier’s story
People are bound to have opinions about a story as unique as @saraphinestanier’s. In the comments section of her video, where she talks about almost joining a cult through a friend she made over Bumble, many people have shared their thoughts on the incident. User @bozwaldthefirst wrote, “ohhh noo not the linen…the way I would run so fast to my car.” User @al3elisa remarked, “This is definitely a unique experience in AZ.”
Many people who live in Arizona or have lived there in the past also weighed in on the story. User @amylynn6062 wrote, “I’m an AZ native girly, & this story had my howling! You must have found some of the Sedona hippies. I’ve literally never encountered this. Side note, hats off to you for tacking Camelback!” User @sorapikafox said, “As an AZ witchy person, I can say that none of the witchy pagan community I know does stuff like that. That is freaky and weird. A GRAPEFRUIT? what? I’m glad I haven’t run into this group. Eek…”
How many active cults are there in the US?
An article published by Svnova Ink Publishing on October 25, 2025, states that experts estimate that, as of the publication date, there are roughly 10,000 active cults in the United States, most of which operate under the guise of religion, community, and self-improvement.
The article also mentions that specialists in the field estimate that between 3 and 10 million Americans have been involved with or associated with cults at some point in their lives. Surveys indicate that about 1% of the U.S. population, roughly 3 million people, are or have been members of groups that function like cults. The source estimates that approximately 50,000 to 100,000 individuals join or leave cults each year.
One of the more startling points in the article is that cult involvement isn’t limited to adults. Children are also affected. The source highlights studies showing that 2 to 3% of high school students report having been part of a cult, and about 3% have been recruited at least once.
(featured image: TikTok/@saraphinestanier)
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