Cults are not unique to the United States , but there is a recollective history ofcults in America . " Compared to other highly-developed Carry Amelia Moore Nation , the U.S. does have this consistent kinship with cultus , " Amanda Montell , source of " Cultish : The Language of Fanaticism , " tellsLitHub . " Whenever I babble to my friends who are not American and I tell them I ’m writing this Good Book about cults , their eyes do not light up the same way that Americans ’ eyes do .
" And that ’s because , across the populace , levels of religiousism lean to be the lowest in state with the highest standard of livelihood , meaning strong education degree , long animation anticipation , that sort of thing . But the U.S. is an exception in that it ’s both extremely developed and full of believers . "
While there is interest in cults in the U.S. , we do not have enough information on them — and that ’s by conception . Psychologist Steve Eichel , president of the International Cultic Studies Association , figure there are as many as 10,000 religious cult today , but , as he told " 48 60 minutes " , they " very deliberately attempt to stay under the radiolocation . Unless they commit a crime , unless they do something that draw aid to them — negative attention and literary criticism to them — we generally do n’t know about them . "
Some of the most notable cults have become news cannon fodder and the focusing of documentary , giving us penetration into how they operate , their belief systems and how they dissemble members . Read on to con more about U.S.-based cults .
What Is A Cult?
A cult is unmanageable to delimitate , but they typically have magnetic , authoritarian leader who draw in follower with their belief system or reckon prophetical powers . Cult leaders tend to isolate members from family and other loved single .
Some consider the term " cult " a dislogistic and favor to use " new religious movements " to delimitate these administration that fall outside of mainstream organized religion — though some of these NRMs do not have a religious component .
7. Manson Family
The following of Charles Manson , known as the Manson Family , were a mathematical group of mostly vernal women who helped recruit young member . The mathematical group began in San Francisco before Manson and his followers move to Los Angeles , so he could pursue a career in medicine . Some postulate that after he failed to break through , he turned toviolence .
Manson predicted a wash warfare and to help instigate it , he ordered his followers to carry out murders during a two - Nox violent death spree .
On Aug. 8 , 1969 , they arrived at 10050 Cielo Drive , where music manufacturer Terry Melcher and Candice Bergen once lived . At the time , Sharon Tate and husband Roman Polanski , who was away filming a movie , charter the habitation . The Family killed a pregnant Tate , Jay Sebring , Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski . They toss off two more citizenry the next dark .
Though Manson did not pour down anyone during those two nights , he went to prison for life . primitively , it was a death condemnation for Manson and his followers , but California banned the last penalisation . Manson and other members died in prison house .
6. Peoples Temple
Led by Jim Jones , the Peoples Temple attracted followers who attempt economical and racial equality . The furor began in Indiana before relocate to California . From there , Jones and his followers moved to Guayana , where the leader became more erratic .
A implicated Leo Ryan , a California representative , point to the South American state in November 1978 to find out more . " The allegations were serious : Jonestown sounded more like a slave camp than a religious center,“according totheFBI . " There was talk of beatings , forced labor and imprisonment , the use of drugs to control behavior , mistrustful Death , and even rehearsal for a mass self-annihilation . "
Ryan undertake to help member break loose , but armed men open up ardour , stamp out the representative and several others . Back at Jonestown , Jones ordered the following to drink a cyanide - interlace drink , killing more than 900 . Jones died of a gunfire wound .
5. Love Has Won
Former appendage call Love Has Won a cultus . Founder Amy Carlson began to pull in a following through the cyberspace . Carlson , also known as Mother God , claimed she could heal people , which help her pull those struggling with addiction and other ills .
Carlson talk out against traditional healthcare , and when she became gruesome , it wreak against her . She finally ask her followers to take her to the hospital , but they reject . " There ’s been moment when Mom has asked us to take her to a 3D infirmary , and we were like , ' Nope ! ' " one follower said onvideo .
Carlson died in April 2021 , and her followers assume her body from Oregon to Colorado . Police found her body in a sleep bag at a campground . An autopsy revealed the cause of demise as " alcohol abuse , anorexia and chronic colloidal silver ingestion . "
4. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
In 1890 , theMormonchurch stopped practicingpolygamy . However , a group formed the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - Day Saints to continue with the praxis . The group has faced accusations of sexual vilification , welfare role player and other crime , as well as homophobia and racial discrimination .
Leader Warren Jeffs , whose father Rulon Jeffs antecedently led the group , went on the run in2005"after a warrant for his arrest was supply on charge of conspiracy to invest rape and sexual conduct with a child . " By 2011 , he was sentence to life story in prison house .
The Southern Poverty Law Center designated the Christian church a hatred radical .
3. Sullivanians
Unlike other cult , The Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis — which formally got its start in 1957 — did not hide .
The Upper West Side cult , name after Harry Stack Sullivan , one of the founders , were against the nuclear family . And beginner Jane Pearce and Saul Newton encouraged their following to drop their ties to their own families . They lived in group apartments and take on multiple sexual pardner . The group connive painter Jackson Pollock and source Richard Price .
Newton , who lead the group , finally " adopted an increasingly high-and-mighty leadership style , " accord to Alexander Stille , generator of " The Sullivans : Sex , Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune . " The group in effect came to an end when Newton perish in 1991 .
2. The Family International
Formerly known as The Children of God , The Family International still exists . David Brandt Berg establish the cult in 1968 . Members got free of their willpower and isolated themselves from the remainder of the human race .
Former member Michael Young state that while he did n’t experience any intimate abuse as a child , he knew it befall . " It decidedly was n’t a safe place to grow up specially if you were a girl,“he say .
Though Berg died in 1994 , the group continues to operate .
1. Heaven’s Gate
Heaven ’s Gatemembers , lead by Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr. , believed that leaving their bodies behind on Earth would transfer their consciousness into an extraterrestrial being . The group started in 1975 . In 1997 , nearly 40 members go bad by mass suicide .
