The 42- year-old is locked in his cell nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
His only company, he says, are rats and roaches that sometimes bite him while he sleeps.
If there was hell on Earth, Bishop says, this is it.
Most people who joined Carbon Nation at the height of its popularity were creative, young, and looking for a change.Courtesy of Carbon Nation
Bishops cell is small and austere.
The one indulgence hes permitted are phone calls, in 20-minute increments, every few days.
For someone who loves talking as much as Bishop, its a lifeline.
He claims hes innocent.
Since 2016, Bishop has led an itinerant eco-cult known for most of those years asCarbon Nation.
What I stand for is very simple, he says.
The human race needs to stop living the way were living for our own survival.
I promote living in tune with nature.
His role evolved from master teacher to tribal chieftain to God himself.
Im going to tell you this right on the phone, he says during our July Fourth call.
I am the king of the Earth.
Bishop says things like this a lot.
Its part of what makes talking to him so disorienting.
Its less a conversation than a long, winding monologue.
My efforts to steer it with questions arent ignored but rather incorporated into Bishops stream of consciousness.
A didactic lesson about the biblical creation story (In the beginning, God said what?
Let there be light, yes.
So, God thinks us into existence.)
incorporates references to Kanye West and the Christopher Nolan filmInception.
He flatters (You smart, bro.
), then insists Im fated to help exonerate him (Dave, thats why were on the phone!
Youre gonna help me.
I already seen it!
As such, Carbon Nation produced lots of music mostly hip-hop, some of it surprisingly listenable.
Many members, christened with catchy names like Musa, Zoca, and Soular, became micro-celebrities.
Dozens of YouTube channels and TikTok and Instagram accounts comment on the group.
Theyve rarely been starved for content.
Theres been lots of sex in pairs, in groups but make no mistake, this isnt free love.
One member died under murky circumstances in Mexico.
Another was murdered in Canada.
Multiple followers have accused Bishop of rape and domestic violence.
Bishop contends the government is targeting Black men that are teaching spirituality.
But this has only strengthened his self-belief.
I cant regret anything because this is happening the way its supposed to happen.
It has to be this way.
Launching a Movement
Carbon Nations story begins in another small room nearly a decade earlier.
The room isnt much to look at.
There is no bed, just some blankets and pillows lying directly on the beige carpet.
Five minutes in, he turns the camera on himself.
Hes tall, handsome, with patches of wispy stubble framing his face.
People talk about the injustices, white supremacy, and what are we doing about it, he says.
Ive decided to be the change that the planet needs….
This is my transition before I go into nature and move out of the country.
This is the most efficient way to shut the system down.
We dont need to be violent…. All we need to do is go into nature.
That video garnered about 40,000 views, but in the Carbon Nation universe, its the Big Bang.
Bishop continued making videos, expanding on his ideas, and laying out plans.
He urged viewers to leave America this year before youre not even able to fucking leave at all.
Erikka Carroll remembers that video.
Carroll, 38, had been working as an engineer and studio manager for rapper T.I.
in Atlanta, but felt disenchanted: I had everything I wanted, but I felt empty.
Shed just quit her job when Bishops video appeared in her Facebook feed.
He hadnt yet left the U.S. but told her to stay in touch.
In late July, Bishop took the plunge, and traveled to Honduras.
Among the small crew that joined him, one had access to a house there.
One thing about Natureboy, I dont like bugs and nasty, creepy shit.
I was like, Im not staying here.
They settled instead at a rental property near Trujillo.
It was beautiful, Carroll says.
Behind the house, a trail led to a waterfall.
Wed get up, watch videos on certain things like melanin.
Then wed go for lunch, go to the waterfall.
Bishop didnt invent the idea of Black people quitting America.
In fact, the urge is as old as the country itself.
An early video from Honduras feels like a tourist-board commercial, with Bishop and followers frolicking in the river.
This isnt a vacation, Bishop says.
This is where we live.
Youre more than welcome to stay.
it’s possible for you to camp out with us.
I just had so much anger towards America.
They said all you gotta do is get a flight and well provide housing and food.
I saw that video on Facebook, and two weeks later, I was on a plane.
But he chose his flock carefully.
The group ate one meal a day, all together, at lunchtime.
Xi recalls someone who resisted.
This person was like, I want to eat at night.
Hed make his own meal.
He ended up getting kicked out.
When another member disagreed, they got booted, too.
That was the beginning of his ego taking control.
Life on the Inside
Bishop soured on Honduras after he and several others were robbed at gunpoint.
We live away from everything, he says.
We are a cult.
I am a cult leader.
We were out there balling, says Carroll.
(Goss didnt respond to interview requests.)
Goss began to handle the groups finances.
When Alex Raposo arrived in Costa Rica in 2017, he handed over his debit card to Goss.
They used my card and bought a ping-pong table for $800.
Among the major purchases in Costa Rica was a bevy of musical instruments and recording equipment.
I told him everything he needed for the studio, says Carroll, the former studio manager.
One night, Carroll says, Bishop was recording, and it wasnt going well.
He wanted to rap and was thinking he can do everything perfect.
It wasnt coming out like that.
Carroll told him she was going to sleep.
He was like, If T.I.
said he wanted to record, you wouldve!
Im like, Bro, I dont work for you!
He stepped to me, and I was on my tippy-toes, like, I aint scared of you!
Carroll left the group not long after.
The story of his upbringing he lays out in his social media videos is troubled.
Efforts to get in touch with family members were unsuccessful.
When he was about 11, both brothers were adopted by a couple in New Jersey.
Initially, the new home, in a bucolic suburb, felt like a dream.
It was beautiful nature out there, Bishop said.
But after the adoption was finalized, life there changed.
As a teenager, Bishop repeatedly ran away from home.
I was in the streets, smoking weed.
Soon, he had a rap sheet for doing a lot of crimes.
After an evaluation, he spent time in the prisons psych ward.
After his release, he enrolled in the military.
He has said he completed basic training but was discharged when the Army learned of his psychiatric treatment.
Around this period, Bishop worked as a barber with his own shop in an Atlanta suburb.
He had the gift of gab and would hold court there for hours.
He kept a chessboard handy and promised that anyone who could beat him would get a free cut.
Nobody beat me, he said.
A cop pulls me off her because Im trying to fucking murder her.
(Evans did not respond to requests for comment by press time.)
Bishop was charged with aggravated battery.
She wrote the judge a letter in his favor.
Bishop took a plea deal that included probation and a $1,000 fine, but no prison time.
They were driven to the police station in the nearby city of Limon.
He livestreamed on his phone, getting increasingly worked up.
We live on Facebook right now!
Everybody bring their cameras out, double-check they record this, yo!
Because if we gonna die, were gonna die just like this is going down!
An immigration officer boarded the bus and offered to let everyone go once they signed some paperwork.
We not signing nothing!
Were standing up for humanity!
If you dont stand for something, youre going to fall for anything.
Bishop insisted they wouldnt get off the bus.
Youre going to have to use violence.
Moments later, police did.
They all got beat up.
I got released the next day because I didnt fight back.
I had my passport.
They stayed for two weeks in a hotel prison.
Most of the group was subsequently deported, but the livestreamed melee generated views.
People were like, Oh, my God!
Thats what got him a lot of attention.
Before the group left Costa Rica, Bishop had posted a shocking video.
I take baths with my kids.
Im naked with my kids.
I have sex in front of my kids!
My son be breastfeeding, I be making love to his mom!
Thats how I get down around kids!
He goes on like this for a minute or so.
I have sex with his mom.
After Im done, Im laying there, chilling.
He grabs my penis.
Hes playing with my penis.
I let that happen!
I promised the universe I would never hit another woman, Bishop Said.
Later that day, neighbors accused him of being a pedophile.
The following day, the cult fled Belize.
Thats OK because they do this to Black leaders, to anybody trying to organize anything.
He mentions Martin Luther King Jr. getting stabbed by a mentally-ill woman in 1958.
Anytime youre a leader and youre making an impact, there will be people that hate you.
By this time, thered been considerable turnover within the group, which now went by Carbon Nation.
Most of the new members were in their twenties and thirties, and many felt disillusioned with American society.
Several had struggled with depression.
But one didnt fit this profile.
Shes a gentle presence, a heavyset woman with a soft voice and short, graying black hair.
It was definitely a shock, Sevilla-Bazan says.
After an interlude in southern Mexico, Carbon Nation returned to Belize.
Sevilla-Bazan struggled to keep in touch with her mother, who went by Mama Dia in the cult.
Were not sure it was even her responding, Sevilla-Bazan says.
She watched Carbon Nations livestreams hoping to spot her mom.
When she did, the rhythm of her speaking was changing.
She looked not very healthy.
Most members pitched their tents on a soft, green lawn near the foot of a long stone staircase.
In the mornings, theyd typically wake up then make their way inside the house.
Sevilla was an early riser, but one morning, as everyone gathered, she was missing.
Goss found her in her tent, unresponsive.
Another member of the group joined him and noticed her color had changed.
The medical examiner in Palenque determined the cause as heart failure.
Sevilla had preexisting heart issues, but theyd been successfully managed for years with medication.
In videos filmed before her death, Sevilla says shed stopped taking her medicine.
Many online blamed Bishop, whod long preached that nearly any malady could be healed naturally, without pharmaceuticals.
He has repeatedly denied counseling Sevilla against taking medication.
Marquez recommended she tell Bishop she needed to go to the hospital.
She isnt sure Sevilla ever did, but blames Bishop regardless.
He does not allow people to have medical attention, Marquez said in 2020.
This is why Mama Dia passed away.
Sevilla-Bazan believes her mother would still be alive if she never joined Carbon Nation.
I just want to get answers, she says.
His passion, though, was music.
Despite all of this, Musa felt a gnawing emptiness in his life.
I wasnt as big on all the spiritual concepts, Musa says.
I was more so on the system collapsing and really wanting to be self-sustainable.
At the time, Musa was helping raise two kids.
The more he watched Carbon Nations content, though, the more he was drawn in.
He reached out, letting them know he made music.
I was trying to show I could contribute, he says.
Musa had seen a video laying out the protocol for prospective new members to join.
Hed teach you to reprogram your subconscious mind, he says.
So, I stopped taking showers, Musa says.
I was pooping in the woods.
At the time, I was in Maryland, and it was winter.
So, I left in the middle of the night and didnt tell anybody.
This was just after Bishop and his followers had been deported from Costa Rica.
Musa got in his car, left his life behind, and drove to meet the group in Texas.
Musa slid into Carrolls former role as engineer and producer of the groups music.
Caliber, the groups musical output accelerated.
The message was a product, like cocaine, Musa says.
We were there to package it and get it out.
Bishop often wasnt directly involved in writing and recording, but his presence always loomed.
Songs that werent on message didnt see the light of day.
Carbon Nation flooded the internet with content music, lectures, cooking shows, livestreams.
By this time, the groups YouTube videos had a more professional sheen.
Behind the scenes, though, things were shifting.
In Palenque, shit started getting more militant, Musa says.
Dixon had first discovered Carbon Nation during his final year in the Army, in South Korea.
His job was administrative, which left him with hours to fill.
I was on Facebook and YouTube a lot, he says.
His mother died when he was 15.
After that, he bounced between living with relatives, couch surfing, and occasionally sleeping in his car.
The military had given him stability, but he was discharged after being diagnosed with a major depression disorder.
Dixon searched for something or someone to connect to, and he found Bishop online.
When he arrived in Belize, though, he was taken aback by what he saw.
Something happened between Eligio and Velvet Marquez, and he slapped her.
It was almost as if it was normal.
Marquez was in Carbon Nation for nearly four years and has a daughter with Bishop.
Shes said she endured years of his abuse.
During his rape trial, she testified about an incident on July 4, 2020.
He picked me up and kept slamming me on the ground.
(Marquez declined to comment for this story.)
One member who witnessed it was shocked.
When she passes out, he starts kicking her in the stomach.
Then he puts his knees on her shoulders and starts punching her all over her chest and face.
Shes crawling, trying to get herself up.
He beat her to a pulp.
Then he buys Chinese food afterwards, and everyone eats like nothing happened.
Other women also allege they suffered violent treatment from Bishop.
Courtney Townsend, who goes by Soular and joined up in Palenque, says Bishop constantly abused the women.
The women will respect him, and hes the guy slapping these girls, locking them in rooms.
Because I was upset with her, Bishop says.
She made you bust her in her face, her nose bleeding profusely everywhere?
Im going to tell you this, Pops, Bishop responds.
When it comes to me, Im a man.
The groups online viewers have consistently reported suspected abuse within the cult to local authorities.
In March 2019, Mexican police visited the property in Palenque.
As Musa recalls, The next day, we literally left and drove to Nicaragua.
Not much changed in Nicaragua.
In late June, police raided their house there and arrested Bishop.
He was held for three weeks, then deported.
He returned to Central America, this time to Panama, where the pattern repeated: Arrested.
When Covid hit in the spring of 2020, the group relocated to the Big Island of Hawaii.
It seemed perfect tropical but without the threat of deportation.
But soon after arriving, Bishop and 20 followers were arrested for violating the states quarantine rules.
After a stint in jail, Bishop pleaded no contest and wassentenced to 90 days.
The sentence was suspended as long as he and his followers agreed to leave Hawaii.
So, we basically got deported from Hawaii, Dixon says, which is hard to do.
The group was all over the internet, battling it out with its critics on social media.
But according to Steve Hassan, a psychotherapist and cult expert, theyre part of a new wave.
Cultshave gone online, he says.
Thats where theyre principally recruiting and indoctrinating.
Janja Lalich, a sociologist who specializes in cults and extremism, has seen the same trend.
Internet-based cults got a big boost during the pandemic, she says.
People can initially get indoctrinated quietly, staring at their phone or laptop, safe from others judgment.
Many go no further, content to remain on the outer ring of followers, as so-called fringe members.
At its height, Carbon Nation likely had hundreds if not thousands who fell into this category.
According to Lalich, theres one consistent trait among those who join cults, online or otherwise: idealism.
Bishop is capturing an audience thats starving for this bang out of spirituality.
New Age spirituality was on the rise.
Carbon Nations message was a huge draw online.
Coleman began following their exploits in 2018.
Many of the communitys prominent figures have built sizable platforms.
Umar Johnson, an outspoken Pan-Africanist and psychologist, has more than a million Instagram followers.
Rappers like Arcaze, Daylyt, and Fr33Sol have amassed hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
They dont like niggas that do that….
The only thing Im guilty of is freeing the minds of my people and speaking out against this system.
During my first call with Bishop, he lights up at the mention of Jamal.
Stop the rise of a Black messiah.
Look at what I was doing: I had influence over people.
COINTELPRO was, in fact, real.
The powers that be designed a whole system to stop the rise of a Black messiah.
Coleman says she understands the impulse to draw these parallels, but they dont hold up to scrutiny.
But the government didnt set them up to commit these crimes.
Thats their own doing.
Bishop would berate followers or stoke conflict on livestreams tagged as Real Nigga Moments.
He explains away some of the drama as part of a psycho-spiritual healing process.
What youre watching is shadow work, he says during one of our calls.
Much of the rest, he claims, is a strategic bait and switch.
I utilized that to get peoples attention.
Behind the scenes, the guys knew we were acting.
There were financial incentives, too.
The $300,000 Goss had donated years earlier was long gone, as was Goss.
Money came in from other members.
Dixon received a monthly disability check from the VA, which he gave to Carbon Nation.
Another ex-military member also regularly donated disability pay.
Others received Social Security or unemployment that went into the pot.
Members also applied for food stamps and donated Covid stimulus payments.
They solicited donations from online supporters, too.
According to Townsend, many of the men regularly hit up women outside of the group for money.
Say we need to go somewhere and were short $200.
Ill hit up one of my girls and be like, You got space for 600 this month?
Just send me 200 right now.
This is their way of proving their loyalty from a distance.
The Singapore-based social media app Bigo Live paid members to stream over their platform.
Thats how we were eating off the internet and donations, says Shaka Calvin, a.k.a.
Shaka Zulu, who spent several months in Carbon Nation.
Thats when it would really get bad because [Bishop] started becoming a celebrity.
They were all having to do things to get attention, to get money.
The line between reality and fiction blurred.
That stuff was happening off camera, too.
These women were actually getting abused.
At a certain point, it was no longer acting.
The cult had recently relocated to the Atlanta area, and Newell connected with members at Tassilis.
I loved them, she says.
Over time, their relationship evolved.
Bishop told Newell to leave.
She packed her bags and when she walked out to her Uber, Bishop called to her from upstairs.
She returned and joined him, alone, in a bedroom.
She repeatedly said she didnt want to.
At one point he said, Im not going to rape you.
I didnt want to be raped….
I said, OK. Im going to do this one last time.
Early the next morning, Newell quietly left the house and never returned.
After her departure, Bishop reposted videos on social media of himself and Newell having sex.
Newell reported this to the police as revenge porn, but made no mention of rape.
Newell tells me she thinks about that night differently now.
When I heard the rape charge, I was like, What?
He never raped me, she says.
But then they explained, Jenae, this is what rape is.
I never thought that power dynamic was rape.
After researching cults and cult leaders, I was able to understand that all he did was rape us.
It was a culture of rape in Carbon Nation.
Bishop denies the allegations.
He obviously didnt think he raped me, Newell says.
But he has been doing that for years.
Thats what makes him dangerous.
He doesnt know the wrongs hes doing and doesnt admit to them.
He thought because I said yes one time after a million nos, it was OK.
He was denied bond and remained incarcerated until his trial began last February.
During that time, Carbon Nation began to crumble.
Townsend, Musa, and Palmer left within a week of his arrest.
Ive had to unlearn a lot of habits and belief systems Id adopted, he says.
Thats been true for many former members.
Some have joined other groups, becoming what Lalich calls cult hoppers.
Many still believe in Bishops teachings, even if theyve lost faith in Bishop himself.
Townsend and Marquez attempted at one point to relaunch Carbon Nation with themselves as leaders.
Why should we let one guy ruin what was changing the world?
The project didnt take.
The way I look at it, Im not any different than him.
I dont see anybody in the group thats different or better than him.
The day I spoke with Newell, shed just returned from applying for a job as a restaurant server.
Im trying to get my life together, she says.
For others, the path out has been darker.
Jawaid was a Canadian whose father had died when he was young.
Hed spent much of his life searching for belonging and had joined Carbon Nation at 18.
He looked at Eligio as a father figure, Townsend says.
The death was ruled a homicide.
Three people have been charged with second-degree murder.
I watched this kid go from a neutral guy to thinking hes a gangsta, Townsend says.
This is what ended up getting him killed.
Several Carbon Nation die-hards testified in Bishops defense, but didnt seem to help his cause.
One of his wives, Iyah, admitted under oath to posting revenge porn.
The verdict came in on March 1, after a six-day trial: guilty on all counts.
I see what yall are doing, and I want you to know I forgive you, he said.
And I still love you.
She sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole, plus 10 years.
Bishop claims he was maliciously prosecuted, and insists, at the very least, he was oversentenced.
Thats been happening to Black men for a long time, he tells me.
Our office asked the judge for a sentence of life without parole.
We believe thats appropriate.
As Newell sees it, They put him away for the totality of everything.
It wasnt just for me.
What about the other victims, the people that never came forward?
In August, Bishop was transferred to Macon State Prison.
On his first full day there, he was stabbed.
He was briefly hospitalized then returned to his cell.
Prison officials described his injuries as non-life-threatening, but Iyah tells me Bishop suffered a collapsed lung.
(Georgia Department of Corrections officials didnt respond to multiple requests for information.)
Macon State curtailed Bishops phone access, and since then, hes been largely incommunicado.
During a previous conversation, Bishop told me he has no money to mount an appeal.
I know Im going to be exonerated, but I dont know how.
God isnt going to let me sit in here.
Im too valuable to humanity.
As Dixon puts it, Carbon Nation is over.
Were just waiting for them to realize that.
The disillusionment Bishop tapped into remains very real.
Because I didnt feel like America was giving me anything.
They take, take, take, take, and take.
He and many others bought in.
