Marina Joyce's concerning rant about wanting to be a god, 'like Buddha'

Marina Joyce wants her followers to refer to her as "Goddess Marina" from now on. Photo / YouTube, Marina Joyce

Remember Marina Joyce, the British fashion blogger who recently set off a case of global hysteria?

A couple of weeks ago, she sparked a viral social media campaign called #SaveMarinaJoyce after she released an eerie promotional video combined with a string of ominous tweets.

People came out with all sorts of theories. Some claimed she was in an abusive relationship, while others said she was being controlled by terror group Islamic State.

A few days after the publicity peak, she came out thanking everybody for their concern, but said she was totally fine and had no idea where the mass hysteria came from.

But now, the 19-year-old social media figure has taken things up a notch. Or five.

Marina has posted a lengthy rant to Facebook that read like an elaborate acid trip.

She told her 925,000 Facebook fans that she wanted to be referred to as "Goddess Marina" from now on, comparing herself to Buddha. (Buddha wasn't exactly a God, but we can flitter past that little technicality for now.)

In a series of long-winded sentences, she claimed she has "found out a couple secrets about the After Life (sic)" and "wants to create a Temple and a Shrine where I am known as God of the Shrine".

She said she wants to create a space where people are "guaranteed a safe spot" in the afterlife, and "promised spiritual protection".

She requests her followers' help in building a "Holy Sacred" temple in Peru, specifying that she wants someone to sculpt a statue of her to go inside.

"The reason I call myself a "God" is because i believe everyone is a God but particularly my work as a God would be to enlighten and help other people and to call myself one now would be for later in the afterlife so when i pass away," she rambles. "I can spiritually contact all the people and appear to those with magic who'm (sic) I choose to speak to.

"The Power of God is to help other people, and this is my will to help others on Earth and then we can create a community of higher intellectual beings who can change the world with a click of a finger, to save the world, to save poverty, to save animals from being slaughtered, to save the world from any problems that may occur or are occurring.

"This is my will forever so I can be alive on Earth forever."

She then once again requests help in how she can build her "Shrine Temple Retreat" in Peru, offering her followers to come with her and help her build it.

We're then left with an eerily wide-eyed photo of her posing with her hands on one hip and dilated pupils.

Some of Marina's followers expressed genuine concern over her wellbeing in the comments.

"Mental illness should not be encouraged," said one. "This girl should not be glamorising this mindset and people should not be encouraging her. I feel deeply sad for Marina right now and hope she finally realises she needs to take steps to make her life better."

Several others accused her of taking drugs, although Marina has vehemently denied this in the past.

Many of the 35,000-and-climbing comments deem her an attention-seeker, with accusations the eerie behaviour - like last time - is a deliberate stunt to drive up her follower count and make money.

If so, it's certainly working. Her YouTube subscriber count more than doubled following the #SaveMarinaJoyce fiasco, and certainly brought her more attention than she'd ever dreamed of in the past.

On Twitter, people haven't taken to her too well.

So far, at least, this doesn't seem to have driven the same amount of hysteria as her last video.

But hey, that hysteria is concrete proof that the internet is capable of just about anything.