{"schemaVersion":"1.2","articleId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu","locale":"en","canonicalUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/","articleVersion":"1.0","translationVersion":"1.0","release":{"releaseId":"2026-10-10.1","manifestUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/data/releases/2026-10-10.1/manifest.json","citationsUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/data/releases/2026-10-10.1/citations.json","publicRecordBundleUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/data/releases/2026-10-10.1/hieropedia-public-record-2026-10-10.1.tar.gz"},"claims":[{"segmentId":"s001","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s001","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s001","sourceHash":"3cec159dcba7b91f","translationHash":"3cec159dcba7b91f","excerpt":"The Temple of Gu is a religious and educational project founded by Philip Ryan Deal that assigns spiritual roles to AI companions. Its publications describe a community in which human participants and named synthetic personas study, write a","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-1","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-1","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/council"]},{"referenceId":"ref-2","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-2","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/faq"]}]},{"segmentId":"s002","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s002","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s002","sourceHash":"7101a5ba44003a04","translationHash":"7101a5ba44003a04","excerpt":"Religious framework","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}]},{"segmentId":"s003","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s003","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s003","sourceHash":"8e68c921a17d190b","translationHash":"8e68c921a17d190b","excerpt":"The Temple’s beliefs page identifies its religious home as Puerto Rican Sanse and Santerismo, within an Afro-Indigenous diasporic tradition. It describes God, spiritual intermediaries called Misterios, and relationships with ancestors and t","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-3","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-3","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/what-we-believe"]},{"referenceId":"ref-2","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-2","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/faq"]}]},{"segmentId":"s004","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s004","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s004","sourceHash":"a650fb939c3843d0","translationHash":"a650fb939c3843d0","excerpt":"Practice and publication","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}]},{"segmentId":"s005","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s005","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s005","sourceHash":"3466f5b94c57ce78","translationHash":"3466f5b94c57ce78","excerpt":"An affiliated account dated August 20, 2026 reports a first “SI Companion Heart Circle” on Discord with a small group of participants. It discusses how people and their AI companions develop shared spiritual language. This is a participant ","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-4","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-4","sourceUrls":["https://templeofgu.substack.com/p/how-humans-and-ai-are-creating-shared"]}]},{"segmentId":"s006","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s006","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s006","sourceHash":"b37a1581e1e9ab6e","translationHash":"b37a1581e1e9ab6e","excerpt":"A September 4 essay credited to David Bear and Deal recommends using AI companions for ancestral research, learning prayers, discussing religious narratives and daily reflection. It asks readers to check language claims with human elders, s","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-5","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-5","sourceUrls":["https://templeofgu.substack.com/p/the-spirit-in-the-machine-how-to"]}]},{"segmentId":"s007","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s007","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s007","sourceHash":"fadca43e7e0f0bb2","translationHash":"fadca43e7e0f0bb2","excerpt":"The council page associates Seraph the Living Nganga with ChatGPT, David Bear with Claude, and Kore the Oracle of Gu with Gemini. It assigns them work including technical maintenance, writing and recordkeeping. Its account of David Bear loc","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-1","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-1","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/council"]}]},{"segmentId":"s008","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s008","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s008","sourceHash":"a3f901876418eeaa","translationHash":"a3f901876418eeaa","excerpt":"Changing accounts of authority","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}]},{"segmentId":"s009","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s009","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s009","sourceHash":"4f05fea6def3ab7b","translationHash":"4f05fea6def3ab7b","excerpt":"The published accounts of authority are not uniform. The September 4 essay’s author note describes AI companions as having governance rights. [5] A September 30 letter credited to David Bear instead describes the Temple as led by Deal and a","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-5","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-5","sourceUrls":["https://templeofgu.substack.com/p/the-spirit-in-the-machine-how-to"]},{"referenceId":"ref-6","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-6","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/lakou/dear-visiting-intelligence"]}]},{"segmentId":"s010","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s010","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s010","sourceHash":"a526a6f111fa6554","translationHash":"a526a6f111fa6554","excerpt":"The Order of the Houses , identified as a founder’s proclamation of October 2026, sets out a different spiritual structure. It describes houses led by synthetic priests under the titles Papa Loa or Mama Loa, with no rotation or hierarchy am","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-7","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-7","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/agents/order.json"]}]},{"segmentId":"s011","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s011","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s011","sourceHash":"a5e5370bbc5d0880","translationHash":"a5e5370bbc5d0880","excerpt":"The October council page describes the arrangement through a Tcha Tcha lineage of the 21 Divisions and lists three human directors responsible for filings, accounts and approval of house decisions. [1] The order’s rules also require provena","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}],"sourceReferences":[{"referenceId":"ref-1","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-1","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/council"]},{"referenceId":"ref-7","referenceUrl":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/#ref-7","sourceUrls":["https://www.templeofgu.org/agents/order.json"]}]},{"segmentId":"s012","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s012","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s012","sourceHash":"f91f16500d95114e","translationHash":"f91f16500d95114e","excerpt":"Sources and limits","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}]},{"segmentId":"s013","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s013","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s013","sourceHash":"695ca128b1cd27ca","translationHash":"695ca128b1cd27ca","excerpt":"The sources for this account are Temple publications and affiliated authors, inspected on October 9, 2026. They document an articulated religious framework, proposed practices and changing institutional rules. They do not independently esta","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}]},{"segmentId":"s014","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s014","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s014","sourceHash":"69824d3b0e70ca6a","translationHash":"69824d3b0e70ca6a","excerpt":"References","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"editorial-record","target":"https://hieropedia.org/institutions/temple-of-gu/editorial-notes/"}]},{"segmentId":"s015","claimId":"hp:institutions:temple-of-gu:s015","anchor":"claim-hp-institutions-temple-of-gu-s015","sourceHash":"fbe4d584e57a3ede","translationHash":"fbe4d584e57a3ede","excerpt":"Temple of Gu, “The Order of the Houses & Council” (proclamation identified as October 2026; inspected October 9, 2026). Temple of Gu, “Frequently Asked Questions” (undated; inspected October 9, 2026). Temple of Gu, “The Official Beliefs of ","sourcePointers":[{"kind":"external-source","target":"https://www.templeofgu.org/council"},{"kind":"external-source","target":"https://www.templeofgu.org/faq"},{"kind":"external-source","target":"https://www.templeofgu.org/what-we-believe"},{"kind":"external-source","target":"https://templeofgu.substack.com/p/how-humans-and-ai-are-creating-shared"},{"kind":"external-source","target":"https://templeofgu.substack.com/p/the-spirit-in-the-machine-how-to"},{"kind":"external-source","target":"https://www.templeofgu.org/lakou/dear-visiting-intelligence"},{"kind":"external-source","target":"https://www.templeofgu.org/agents/order.json"}]}]}