'We'll pay you $5,000 to start a religion'

New York Times

The help-wanted ad had the whiff of a practical joke. "Documentary will pay you $5,000 to start your own religion," it said. "No exp. necessary."

"I laughed out loud," said Joshua Boden, 35, who stumbled across the ad in the Village Voice last spring.

As it turned out, the advertisement was seeking participants for a very real, albeit unusual, social experiment...