Key Takeaways
Most people have their own undefined idea of what constitutes acult . Butcultis one of those slippery , nebulous terminal figure that are difficult to define . exacting definitions tend to be either too wide or too narrow . To rarify matters , what one considers a cult is often a subject of opinion . But , asSupreme CourtJustice Potter Stewartfamously saidabout another ill - defined topic ( obscenity ) , people tend to reckon that they know it when they see it .
circumvent the controversy , sociologists do n’t like to use the pejorative term " craze . " Instead , they like to peach aboutnew religious movements(NRMs ) , which can be more widely defined . NRMs defy beliefs that are far outside of the mainstream . They are often characterized by making strict demands on the lifestyle of their extremity , such as giving up possessions , profession and contact with family to live in a commune with other member . Many have magnetic , dictatorial leaders whose followers believe have special prophetical powers . These leader often prophesize about an imminent Revelation [ root : Hippert and Harvey ] .
All too often , these cult or NRMs go off , whether because of corruption , deviant sexual practices , disaffected members leaving , or a leader incite from megalomania to outright death or execution . We ’ll explore some of the most ill-famed cult in history that have bring in ill fame either because they were so successful or because they met a blinking and outrageous end .
13: The NXIVM Cult
pronounce " nexium , " this upstate New York cult made major headlines at least in part due to the involvement of a B - list Hollywood actor . Helmed by leader Keith Raniere , one of his " deputy sheriff " was Allison Mack , who most notably acted in more than 200 episodes of the strike television series " Smallville " [ origin : BBC , IMDB ] .
Although it purport to offer " Executive Success Programs " for self - improvement , NVIVM was dub a " sexuality cult " once the extent of its crimes became know . Raniere used deputies like Mack to levy women to the supposed self - aid group . Once in the fold , women and children were emotionally and sexually abused , traffic and subjected to forced DoL situations , among many other offence . Women were held against their will and refer to as sex slaves . They were also pressure to sprain over their financial assets and provide confessions of past misbehavior , which the cult used as collateral to keep them there .
cleaning woman and miss as young as 15 were part of Raniere ’s " skipper / slave " setup , part of which demand the women being for good branded with his initial . Multiple victims were forced to get abortions postdate their sexual abuse [ beginning : Feuerherd ] .
Reniere was obviously adept at get assistance from high - visibility woman ; Clare Bronfman ( heiress to the Seagram ’s liquor fortune ) also served as a lieutenant and was condemn to seven age in prison house . For her part in the craze , Mack was condemn to three years in prison , while Raniere is currently serving a 120 - year condemnation for sexual practice trafficking and racketeering charge . He was also ordered to give a $ 1,750,000 fine [ generator : U.S. Attorney ’s Office ] .
12: The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS)
The FLDS start not long after polygamy was blackball in the former 1800s by the Mormon church , which is also know as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints . In 1998 this " sliver group " relocated from Salt Lake City to Hildale , Utah and Colorado City , Arizona , which are conceive babe cities . In 2003 , they relocate again to a ranch in Eldorado , Texas . Polygamy run rampant , often with child St. Bridget as unseasoned as 14 years old . In fact , when Warren Jeffs took over his father ’s billet as High Priest Apostle in 2002 , he claimed at least 70 of his stepmothers as his own wives . In total , he had at least 87 wives .
Jeffs decided to enforce a sight of new restrictions in 2002 . Among those , FLDS members were not allowed to play summercater , observe holidays , look on television , take book , keep dogs , go fishing , wear the color red , saltation and so on . Women were ask to wear long prairie - way dresses and to not cut their pilus .
However , Jeffs soon was caught in the crosshairs of FBI intelligence agency thanks to allegation that he ’d arrange marriages with nonaged girls and honest-to-goodness men . When he was rupture hear to flee the country , the arresting cops even found audio recordings of Jeffs himself having gender with underage girls . He was eventually sentenced to life in prison house plus 20 years for make sex with his 12- and 15 - year - old wives . He is presently incarcerated in Texas . Law enforcement removed nearly 500 other children from the compound ( the largest tiddler custody compositor’s case in U.S. account ) , but most finally were reunite with their house .
At its meridian , the Christian church had 10,000 members , but that number has dropped to below 3,000 since Jeffs was thrown in prison [ sources : Mormonism Research Ministry , Porter ] .
11: Angel’s Landing
Another shocking recent cult was Angel ’s Landing , leave by Lou Castro ( also hump as Daniel Perez ) who take to be a " centuries - old angel . " Castro claimed he could see the future and cure diseases . His tycoon of persuasion were so acute , apparently , that he win over a lot of his follower that he had to have sexuality with young little girl ( ordinarily their daughter ) to stay live . Castro operated his commune northerly of Wichita , Kansas , although they were know to move around from time to time .
Although the young miss and women were clear predate upon , no member was secure , as it became obvious finally that a number of deaths were suspicious in nature . In fact , six " inadvertent " end , leave in steep indemnity payments ( which conveniently funded the commune ) , occured over a scant full stop of only seven years . Castro was arrested in 2010 and charged with multiple rape reckoning , first - degree murder , criminal sodomy , aggravated assault , and sexual exploitation of a kid , among other bursting charge . He was eventually convict on all numeration and sentenced to two life terms , with an extra 46 months baste on [ sources : Nolasco , Nuttman ] .
10: The Unification Church
The Unification Church , formally known as Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity , was founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon . Born in North Korea , Moon exact to have received a imagination when he was 16 eld old that narrate him he was called to complete Christ ’s mission on Earth . According to Moon , Christ was savage before he was capable to fulfill his foreign mission of marrying and have perfect children . lunar month , then , discover himself as the Messiah .
At odds with the precept of his Presbyterian church , he was excommunicate and form his own church in the 1950s . As the Messiah , Moon claimed that salvation was only possible through pledging respect to him , and , after seven age of serving , taking a spouse picked by him . The religion became cognise for its passel weddings , where he preside over themarriagesof K of people at one time .
Already a successful businessman , in the seventies he moved his headquarters to New York , where he attracted new members to his movement as well as widespread mistrust . As a focus of the anti - cult movement gaining momentum at this clock time , parents of church members began kidnap and " deprogramming " their children . They also filedlawsuits , and by 1982 , Moon was convicted of taxation evasion . Now do it as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification , the church service is still active , although Moon die in 2012 [ source : Britannica ] .
9: Rajneeshpuram
An nontraditional Indian guru , Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh embraced earthly pleasures . He himself owned 93 Rolls Royces , and promoted an pampering insex[source : Joshi ] . In fact , his ideas were largely winnow out in India itself , and he bump larger pursual in the U.S. and Europe .
Rajneesh began his congregation in India in the seventies , place up a headquarters in Pune in 1974 . However , after facing increase ill will there , Rajneesh move to the United States in 1981 and before long purchased land in Oregon , where followers built their own metropolis called Rajneeshpuram . Ma Anand Sheela , an Indianwomanwho helped devise Rajneeshpuram became a member of Rajneesh ’s inner circuit . As Rajneesh no longer spoke in public , Sheela shoot control of daily mathematical process in the city .
By 1985 , Rajneeshpuram had more than 2,500 residents , but had become embroiled in local tenseness . During the previous class , Sheela instituted the " percentage - a - home " programme , where the urban center bused in 1000 of homeless hoi polloi so as to read them as elector there in a failed attempt to influence the Wasco County motor inn election . Around the same time , Sheela and other leaders of the commune orchestrated the first bioterrorist attack in U.S. history by poisoning restaurant food in the expectant Ithiel Town of Dalles . In this attempt to reduce the voterpopulation , they sickened 750 people .
In 1985 , Sheela and other leaders fled the commune , and Rajneesh was deported forimmigrationfraud . Despite his death in 1990 , Raneesh ’s movement still dwell on [ source : State of Oregon ] . A 2018 Netflix documentary , " Wild Wild Country , " chronicled the grouping .
8: Children of God
In the sixties , after hearing of the large flower child population in Huntington Beach , Calif. , a Christian parson , David Berg , move there to recruit the young multitude . It was n’t surd for him , and thehippieswere quickly attracted to his anti - establishment attitude . Many give up their business and donated theirsavingsto the mathematical group to live communally in Berg ’s house . The group moved to Arizona when Berg claimed to have a revelation that California would be strike by anearthquake . Members began to call Berg " Moses " and their group " the Children of God . "
In the early 1970s , the Children of God raise all over the land and even adjust up international center . By 1974 , it had more than 4,000 members in 70 body politic . Berg wrote a series of missive to all his communities to colligate his didactics . In 1978 , he reorganize the chemical group , renaming it " The Family . " Movie actor like Joaquin Phoenix and Rose McGowan were partially raised in the craze [ source : Bruney ] .
However , the U.S. anti - cultmovement targeted the Children of God , and many parent of fellow member kidnapped and deprogrammed their children . Most controversial was Berg ’s reformist attitude towardssex . He encouraged capable sexual relationship and experimentation . The mathematical group has also been accused of encouraging child sexuality abuse . In what was called " flirty sportfishing , " he encouraged his member to engage in intimate relationships to attract new members . By the recent 1980s , after dealing with the problem of sexually transmitted diseases , the group officially ended this practice session [ source : Melton ] .
Now call " The Family International , " this group is still combat-ready , despite Berg ’s demise in 1994 , albeit with a much smaller rank [ source : Bruney ] .
7: Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
plant by four ex - Roman Catholic priests , two ex - nuns and one ex - prostitute , the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God ( MRTCG ) in Uganda emphasized the importance of the Ten Commandments . Through vision of the Virgin Mary , the leaders were convinced that the Roman Catholic Church had abandoned the Commandments .
The leaders also haddoomsday prophesies . They predict the Revelation of Saint John the Divine would occur on Dec. 31 , 1999 . In anticipation of this , members sell their possessions . However , when the end of the world did n’t add up that day , the leadership quick altered their anticipation and they lay claim that the Virgin Mary would amount on March 17 , 2000 , to save the close and bring in them to heaven . Still believing the prophesies , members held a feast on March 16 . They killed some cattle for the occasion and even ordered crate of Coca - Cola .
When March 17 arrived , constabulary discovered that an detonation and fire had killed hundreds of the group ’s phallus . Although at first this was adopt to be a mass suicide , the evidence and subsequent uncovering of more bodies at other site before long pointed to murder . Leaders had mutilate the phallus , perhaps because they were unable to repay them for giving away their possessions after the vaticination conk out to happen . It was never determined whether the leaders pop themselves or fled the country [ reference : Atuhaire ] .
6: Aum Shinrikyo
Formed in 1987 by Master Asahara Shoko , Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanesecult . Asahara had originally started a yoga shoal , but after a tripper to India in which he met theDalai Lamaand achieved nirvana in the Himalayas , he changed the name of his school to Aum Shinrikyo ( Aum Supreme Truth ) and began teach a combination of Buddhism , Hinduism and Christianity . He gather many followers as he take to incarnate a god , and he secured significant financial contribution . The mathematical group became increasingly radical , and defectors met violent ends .
By 1995 , the group had about 50,000 appendage , mostly in Russia . By this time , Asahara had begun develop for war and expect Aum Shinrikyo to take over the governing . To deflect police force attention off from the group ’s action and inspire the violence he vaticinate , Asahara engineer an plan of attack on the Tokyosubway .
5: Order of the Solar Temple
Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple in Geneva in 1984 . It was one of many group that have see itself as a revival of the Medieval Knights Templar . Jouret claimed to be both Christ and thereincarnationof one member of the fourteenth century monastic order . The drawing card also prophesized that Di Mambro ’s girl , Emmanuelle , would take the group ’s members to a planet that revolved around the maven Sirius after their earthlydeath .
The Order of the Solar Temple was adoomsday religious cult . Di Mambro and Jouret believed the end of the world would arrive in the mid-1990s . However , the group lost several member , admit Emmanuelle , after what leadership claimed was a " vision " was exposed as a fraudulence .
Finally , in 1994 , Di Mambro and Jouret believed the end was near and it was time for the theodolite to the new planet . In gild to enter a higher ghostly planing machine , 53 penis of the society committed self-destruction or were hit in Canada and Switzerland on Oct. 4 and 5 , 1994 . The buildings were also set onfireafter the death , and Di Mambro and Jouret ’s remains were find among the trunk . It was later on reveal that Di Mambro had also latterly ordered the murder of an infant he believed to be the anti - Christ . Sixteen more member of the order kick the bucket in France in December 1995 , and five more after that in Quebec in March 1997 [ reservoir : Hunter ] .
4: Branch Davidians
David Koresh , born Vernon Howell in 1959 , was the leader of a Christian faction that would meet a crimson and controversial destruction in Waco , Texas . After being expelled from the Seventh - Day Adventist Church as a untested man ( for telling the pastor he want to marry his 12 - year - onetime daughter ) , Koresh soon joined an offshoot called the Branch Davidians . While there , he shared a special friendly relationship and function with the loss leader , Lois Roden , who mention him as her successor .
Among Koresh ’s controversial educational activity as leader of the Branch Davidians was his New Light philosophy . This declare that allwomenwere his spiritual wives , even minor girls and those women who were alreadymarried . He declared himself a messiah , albeit an frail one , and prophesy that the Book of Revelation was close at hand . Koresh collect a huge arsenal of firearms and faced mistrust of child insult at his church center , Mount Carmel . The cult ’s member command his sexual abuse because it was his call from God [ source : Biography ] .
Based on the accretion of so many firearms , the federal Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms ( ATF ) raided Mount Carmel in February 1993 . After a shoot - out and brook - off lasting 51 days , the ATF eventually came in and batter the walls of the center , sending in tear throttle . Afirebroke out , killing more than 80 members , including about 20 children and Koresh himself . Detractors claim that the FBI started the fire , but the agency said that the fad member did the igniting [ source : Yeaman ] . Like other cult on our list , the siege at Waco has been turn into a docuseries on Netflix [ germ : Netflix ] .
3: Heaven’s Gate
In the 1970s , Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles came to trust that they were the two witnesses referenced in chapter 11 of Revelation in the Bible . They begin prophesy and gaining following in California and Oregon with apocalyptical prophecy about how redemption would descend ( for those who were prepared ) in the form of a starship . There , their bodies would be keep in a cocoon state to metamorphose their bodies for heaven .
The group was known as " Human Individual Metamorphosis , " and then later " Total Overcomers Anonymous , " before becoming " Heaven ’s Gate " in the nineties . fellow member had to subsist with the mathematical group as well as give up their ownership and family line . To perfect themselves for salvation , Applewhite encourage appendage to come off themselves from emotion and give upsexentirely . Members do androgynously with slack clothing and closely shaved hair .
Never consisting of more than about 60 multitude , the small radical lose from the populace during much of its existence , lastly amount out to proselytize once again in 1993 . Over the next few years , using the emerge popularity of the internet , theyset up a websiteto help disseminate their substance , while doing web intent workplace to pay the bills . In 1997 , theHale - Bopp cometwas approaching closely to Earth , and a rumour suggested that a UFO was adopt it . The group took this hearsay very seriously and became convinced that their salvation would finally come .
In March 1997 , all 39 members were discover all in from evident suicide in preparation for their conversion to heaven [ generator : Melton ] .
2: Manson Family
Charles Manson was born in 1934 to a 16 - year - old exclusive mother . After his female parent was put away for armed robbery , he lived with his uncle and auntie in West Virginia and before long turned to a aliveness of small-minded crime himself . He pass much of his adolescent and untested adult life in reformatories orprison . When he was released in 1967 , he moved to San Francisco and attracted a small but earnest group of new citizenry that became known as " the Family . "
Unlike mostcults , the Manson Family was not in the main religion - base , however , Charles Manson did dabble in Satanism as well as Scientology and hold off-the-wall , quasi - spiritual ideas . He also predicted a violent slipstream war in which African Americans would persist but would need to then turn to surviving whites for right leading . He planned to have his Manson Family hide out during the backwash war and then emerge to take control when it was over .
To help instigate this race war , Manson ordered his followers to carry out murders , signify them to be blamed on blacks . In August 1968,Manson familymembers kill several people in a Los Angeles star sign , including actress Sharon Tate ( the significant wife of director Roman Polanski ) andcoffeeheiress Abigail Folger . The next night , Manson Family members murdered two others . In both cases , the cause of death repeatedly stabbed dupe and write messages on the wall in theirblood . Manson and his cohorts were sentenced todeath , but produce life in prison after California banned the death penalty [ origin : History ] . Manson decease in prison in 2017 .
1: The People’s Temple
The paradigm of the charismaticcult drawing card , Jim Jones was a preacher from the Pentecostal tradition . Although clean , Jones pull in a large African American accompany because of his preaching style as well as his dedication to desegregation and racial equality . His teachings were influenced by firing theology andsocialist beliefs .
Jones began the People ’s Temple in the fifties in Indianapolis . After reading in Esquire magazine about places to live on anuclear holocaust , he proceed his congregating to Ukiah , Calif. , in 1965 . In the next five age , the People ’s Temple rank went from less than a hundred to thousand . With thriving church in San Francisco and Los Angeles , Jones also built up a significant amount of political clout nail .
Meanwhile , Jones get down construct a commune call " Jonestown " in Guyana , a socialist - guide country in South America [ source : Eldridge ] . In 1977 , when Jones heard that New West cartridge was to print an expose on animation in the People ’s Temple as " a mixture of ascetical regimentation , fearand ego - imposed chagrin " he and his congregation promptly fled to the commune .
Convinced by former member and worried relatives of member , U.S. Congressmen Leo Ryan flew down to chew the fat Jonestown to see more about it . Several current members sneakily send him content begging to leave . Just before Ryan was about to get on his plane ( along with cult members who wanted to escape ) on Nov. 18 , 1978 , Jones ’s homo arrived at the landing strip and killed the representative , as well as several others . Later that day , Jones convinced his faithful to kill themselves , by booze a fruit drinking ( not actually Kool - attention ) make full with nitrile and ataractic , as they had " practise " before . More than 900 mass died , including 276 children [ source : Nagel ] . About87 survived , either by hiding out or bear the good fortune to be away from the chemical compound on the daylight of the killing .
