This Malaysian “cult” believes that the Sun can cure ANYTHING. Here’s why.

Cults don’t exactly have the best reputation, and we all know why. In fact, they’ve been viewed so negatively that many of them had to go underground with their activities.

And if you’re not someone who’s active on social media, you might not know about this online community in Malaysia that calls themselves ‘Kultus Matahari Sinanjung Suria’ (KMSS) which directly translates to ‘the cult of the Sun’, because they’ve not really been reported by any mainstream news. But when we first heard about them, we couldn’t help but wonder; what kind of cult would openly call themselves a cult? And more importantly, are they anything like the Moonies… but with a founder named Sun?

And with a million different questions in our heads that needed answers, we decided to dive a little deeper into the origins of this “cult” to see what they’re even about. But to our surprise (and disappointment), we found that…

 

They’re not actually a cult, but they do have a cult-following on Twitter.

Yep. Despite their interesting name choice, Kultus Matahari might not be an actual cult. Now we aren’t sure where and when they came about, though we do kinda suspect that it might have something to do with the “butthole sunning” trend that went viral as a joke a couple years back.

But from what we’ve found on Twitter where the group is most active, they might actually just be a community of health enthusiasts who think they’ve found the next biggest thing in health and wellness… the sun.

And though most of us would agree that the Sun is indeed a necessary part of our survival, these heliophiles have taken it to the next level; they think that sitting under the sun (an activity commonly known as ‘sunning’) would not only keep you healthy, but could even help you lose weight, reverse your disease, and even help remedy your emotional troubles.

We won’t go too in-depth into all the things that KMSS believes that sunning can do, but here’s a few of them:

And the main reason why KMSS believes in the sun so much is pretty simple; it’s because of the sun’s UVB (Ultraviolet B) rays which makes Vitamin D from our cholesterol and can prevent us from getting things like osteoporosis. But while this belief is actively backed by science, KMSS’s method of soaking up the sunlight goes beyond the average midday sun.

In fact, their official-unofficial sunning guide notes that advanced users should try to get as much UVB as humanly possible between the times of 9am and 5pm– which, we don’t know about you, sounds like ‘Skin Cancer 101’.

Though many of us might think that it’s probably just a small group of trolls trying to buat hal, their cult-like following on Twitter seems to prove otherwise. In reality, their numbers have grown so exponentially that they have dedicated hashtags to share different hacks, tips, and guides on how someone can get started on this lifestyle.

But okay lah. Looks like they’re just a group of overly-eager health enthusiasts who are just really into sunbathing. Nothing wrong with that, right? Though, KMSS isn’t exactly well-liked by many members of the Malaysian online community, and it’s all because…

 

They’ve been called out multiple times for their controversial opinions.

Now we aren’t experts on the subject or anything, so we won’t be delving too deep into whether any of Kultus Matahari’s claims are true or false. But some of their members have received quite an amount of online backlash for some of the more controversial things they’ve publicly said/tweeted, including things like:

Claim 1: Sunscreen causes skin cancer

While most people think that sitting in the sun would cause skin cancer and that putting on sunscreen is supposed to prevent that, KMSS thinks that it’s the other way around. In fact, they believe that sitting in the sun builds immunity, and that sunscreen contains chemicals that could harm your skin and even cause skin cancer, instead of preventing it.

Several doctors and dermatologists have come out to debunk these claims, however members of the KMSS community have also come forward with their own evidence, citing a few research papers and even using our soldiers and construction workers as basis for sunlight-exposure not being linked to skin cancer.

Though, we did hear that our soldiers could be wearing sunscreen anyways; not to mention, with our mostly-foreign construction workers, there are also studies suggesting that people with darker skin tones have more melanin which makes them a little less at risk of getting skin cancer– but it still isn’t entirely impossible and wearing sunscreen is definitely still encouraged.

 

Claim 2: Sunlight exposure can help with curing/preventing C-19.

Hoo boy. Let’s hope this doesn’t get us z-worded (again).

Like we mentioned earlier, Kultus Matahari tends to make pretty outrageous claims. However, the one that they’ve gotten the most backlash for was when some of their members started talking about how following the KMSS beliefs could be able to reduce the risk of getting C-19, thus eliminating the need to kena cucuk.

Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re anti-cucuk because many of them have come forward to say that they’ve gotten all their shots. However, they’ve also highlighted that sunning might be able to help in the C-19 recovery process, with one KMSS mother even bringing her +ve child out into the public to get their fair share of sun… and let’s just say that it got a lot of people riled up.

There are many more opinions out there, but we won’t be including them all for length reasons. But before we end this point, we just wanna make it clear that a lot of these opinions aren’t shared by all members of the KMSS community. However, it’s still unfortunate that a few of these bad apples have spoilt the entire bunch, because…

 

The Kultus Matahari community has been (metaphorically) left out to dry.

‘Cause at the end of the day, as weird as it may seem to the rest of us, KMSS at their core seems to just be a community of people who’re trying to live a healthy lifestyle by leveraging on the benefits of the sun (as extraordinary as it may be). And here in Malaysia, where health supplements and ‘slimming pills’ have reached insane popularity, with wellness trends becoming the subject of common debate… are we really that surprised?

And though we can’t exactly verify whether or not their beliefs are inherently true (cause we’re not experts on the subject or anything), it seems pretty harmless for now– Though we can’t really discount the extremists who might be taking this a little bit too seriously. ‘Cause the truth is that general exposure to the Sun is good for you and your bones, but when it’s twisted to an extreme (just like how some people have gone on “miracle diets” to “cure cancer”), that’s where the belief becomes potentially harmful.

Anyways, just like how it is with many communities out there, there might always be those few who have different perspectives and beliefs, since most things out there are pretty open for interpretation. And honestly, if you look hard enough for something, you’ll probably find it- even if it’s not exactly accurate; like how we just found out that our moon might actually be made of cheese.