This article was originally published on avocadoposts.com and has been republished here with permission.
Most people usually use the word “Cult” to refer to a sort of unconventional religion that worships demonic deities. In truth, a cult (or sect in some countries) is defined as a group of people who pay homage to someone, this being the leader, a thing, or an ideology. Although it is important to mention that not all cults are necessarily always bad, in this article we have selected a list of some of the most frightening cults that have ever existed, either because of the ideas they preached or because of the damage they caused in society. You’ve probably heard of the Manson family or UFO believers, well, here we will get to know a little more about them.
The Sullivanians
The cult was founded in 1957 by Saul B. Newton and his wife, Dr. Jane Pearce in New York. The members of this cult were highly encouraged to have relationships with each other and discarded monogamy as obsolete. In addition, they were advised to cut all kinds of ties with relatives who were not adept since they thought that Western family values were a cause for mental illness.
Both Newton and his wife exercised complete control of the members of the sect, including their professions, how to spend their free time and what type of education to provide their children.
The Order of the Solar Temple
All the philosophy under which this organization is preached has its origins in the ideology of the Knights Templar, a military order that converted people to Catholicism during the crusades. Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro were the ones who founded it in the 1980s with the aim of forcing its members to contribute large sums of money under the promise that they would go to heaven.
In addition to this, its members were convinced that ascension to the kingdom of heaven could only be achieved by burning to death, thus causing many followers to inflict self-harm.
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This sect became quite well known because it involved people from the entertainment industry in Hollywood. The actress Allison Mack, who had worked on the series “Smallville” worked with the leader of the sect to recruit women for trafficking and white slavery. Keith Raniere, the leader of the cult, founded the organization in 1984 in New York. He was in charge of attracting women through blackmail or threatening techniques.
After being found guilty, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison. Mack, on her part, was sentenced to only three years in prison as a reward for working with the authorities.
Osho
His real name was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, but he became known as Osho in the spiritual community. His main goal was to teach adepts about philosophy, religion, and free love while promising them paradise in return. The orange robes worn by this group of followers made them immediately identifiable. Due to a severe disagreement with the government, the group was forced to leave India and relocate to Oregon, USA, giving rise to the Rajneeshpuram community.
Citizens and leaders from Rajneeshpuram were behind the Rajneeshee bioterrorist attacks and the Rajneeshee assassination plot during the 80’s, in which they planned to assassinate US Attorney Charles Turner.
Church of Euthanasia
This church was founded in the early 1990s by Chris Korda, a transgender activist whose main goal was to raise awareness about global warming and its impact on our planet. The basic idea on which this group was founded could be summed up with the slogan “You will not procreate”; this is because its members believed that most of the problems in the world were caused by overpopulation and that as it rose, even worse problems would come, mainly due scarcity of water and food.
In fact, Korda launched himself as a musician sometime later and came to write the controversial song called “Save the Planet, Kill Yourself”.
Fayzrakhman Sattarov
Fayzrakhman Sattarov was the leader of the cult that bore his name. The Fayzrakhman movement, which had its basis in Islamic ideas and was based in Tatarstan, Russia, had about 70 members. It included almost 40 adults and more than 25 children, who believed that Sattarov was Allah’s emissary on earth. They group became known as the “Catacomb Cult” as they lived underground.
When discovered by accident while conducting an usual check on Muslim communities, members of the cult were willing to throw themselves under bulldozers if the police tried to destroy their homes.
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
The religious organization known as Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was founded by Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibweteere. Its leaders dictated to its members to strictly abide by the 10 commandments of the Christian Bible. It was formed in the 1980s and its members claimed to have visions of the Virgin Mary.
They followed the 10 commandments very rigorously since they were taught that God and the Virgin were permanently observing them and that the only way to avoid the apocalypse was to obey. Unfortunately, about 1000 members died in a fire whose cause could not be clarified.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
This Church emerged in the early 20th century, but it wasn’t until the 2000s that it gained public notoriety after Warren Jeffs assumed leadership. Polygamy was within the group common practices, but what was truly terrifying was that Jeffs had two underaged girls as his wives. The girls were forced under the doctrine of this leader since he frightened them by telling them that if they rejected him, God would reject them.
Warren Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence for assaulting these girls, however, of the almost 15,000 members, it is not known with certainty how many of the children suffered similar consequences.
The True Russian Orthodox Church
The cult was formed by Pyotr Kuznetsov, a Russian Orthodox religious. In 2007 about 30 members of the sect decided to hide in an underground bunker anticipating the end of the world in May 2008. Kuznetsov, on the other hand, did not remain in the cave with his followers.
The group intimidated the police authorities not to interfere, but several of them were forced to leave the cave after it partially collapsed owing to melting snow. After the cult’s remaining members departed the cave, it was determined to demolish it to keep them from returning.
Matamoros Human Sacrifice Cult
The cult was formed by Adolfo Constanzo, a Cuban American assassin and drug dealer. Constanzo was raised in a Satanist household as a child. He migrated to Mexico as an adult and began recruiting followers by teaching them how to perform sacrificial rituals on both animals and people.
Constanzo assured them that they would be able to make themselves invisible and bulletproof with his rituals, preventing the police from detecting them. The cult had around 20 victims, and it is believed that it performed its rituals in the hope that they would protect its smuggling ring.
Honohana Sanpogyo
Honohana Sanpogyo was a religious movement that originated in the 1980s. Its leader, Hogen Fukunaga, took advantage of the desperation of sick people, recruiting them into his cult in exchange for the promise that he could cure them. He proclaimed himself the final savior and among the skills that this leader self-assigned, he claimed to be able to read the past and guess the future by looking at people’s feet.
The cult grew to have nearly 30,000 members. After being discovered, Fukunaga was sentenced to 12 years in prison for committing the criminal act of fraud.
Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese terrorist cult that predicted the end of the world. It was founded in the 1980s and it is considered responsible for the attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. The premise of its faithful was that the world was coming to an end and that only death could save them from a sentence in hell.
Shoko Asahara, the leader of the group, together with other followers, were executed after being found guilty of various criminal acts. The group continues to operate to this day under the name of Aleph and is under the scrutiny of several countries due to its dangerousness.
Branch Davidians
This religious cult was originally founded by Benjamin Roden, although by the mid-1980s, David Koresh took over leadership. The members were certain that the coming of Christ was near, so they spent long hours a day reading and studying the book of revelations in the bible.
The confrontation known as the Siege of Waco occurred when one of the headquarters of this apocalyptic movement was targeted by the FBI for alleged arms sales. This caused approximately 80 faithfuls to be killed as a result of the shots and flames that took place in the area due to explosions.
The Children of God
This cult was founded in the 1960s under the name of Family International and to this day hides a truly incredible history of abuse and terror. David Berg formed the cult in order to propagate the doctrines of the First Century Church, which he believed were the only real principles.
For Berg, love and intimate relationships were the same thing and should not be limited by the age or marital status of the individuals who practiced them. This cult’s customary methods included mistreatment of minors, which led to “The Children of God” being denounced to the authorities on multiple occasions.
Jonestown
This sect was the cause of one of the largest cult massacres in history. The organization dates back to the 1950s when its leader Jim Jones installed a Christian socialist movement in the United States. Around 1974, he and his followers moved to Guyana, where they established the “People’s Temple Agricultural Project”, also known as Jonestown, where his followers lived in inhumane and violent conditions.
It was in this place where after members of the group murdered Congressman Leo Ryan, Jones forced them to ingest poison, thus causing the death of more than 900 followers.
Heaven’s Gate
This is one of the religious movements that included the possibility of extraterrestrial life within its doctrine. It was founded in 1974 by Bonnie Nettles and jumped into the media in 1997 when 39 people were found dead in a house in California. The deaths were quickly linked to the cult since on their website they warned about the arrival of the Hale-Bopp comet, which was supposed to end their learning and life on earth.
The believers of this cult thought that the human body was a container that kept them on Earth and did not allow them to ascend and pass to the “Next Level”.
The Manson Family
This cult became world famous for involving celebrity victims. In addition, several adaptations in documentaries, series and films recount the events that occurred in 1969 when members of the cult took the life of actress Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanski. Its leader, Charles Manson, founded the sect which would later become known as “The Manson Family”. They operated under the premise of “Helter Skelter” preaching racist hatred.
He recruited mostly teenagers, whom he manipulated to commit crimes by promoting a social uprising trying to accuse Afro-American people of having committed such crimes. Manson was convicted in 1971 and died in prison in 2017.
Synanon
This cult originated in the 1950s and initially operated as a rehabilitation center for all kinds of addicts. Charles Dederich, its founder, soon saw the benefits of manipulating the families that attended the center and ended up turning it into a kind of church where he took advantage of the people and their money. They developed a therapeutic technique known as “The Game”, where a person talked about their traumas and was exposed to all kinds of criticism from their peers.
Dederich was eventually arrested and due to multiple charges, the Synanon center had to close its doors in 1991.
The Family
The Family was formed by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, her husband Raynor Johnson, and their 28 adopted children, all of whom were taken from their biological parents through manipulation and document forgery techniques. Byrne defined herself as the reincarnation of Jesuscrist and her plan was to create a kind of superior race that would survive the end of the world.
Children were abused and exposed to all kinds of mistreatment. Although many reports of children who managed to escape drew the attention of the authorities who launched an investigation, Byrne was never found guilty of child abuse, and she died at the age of 98.
The Ant Hill Kids
The Ant Hill Kids got its name because its leader, named Roch Thériault, encouraged his followers to start a new life in the mountains and to work like ants to build a new city. He called himself “Moses” and preached that the end of the world would soon come. After multiple coercion techniques, little by little Thériault started taking advantage of his followers, mistreating them physically and psychologically.
He tortured his victims and forced them to obey him in everything. After a series of investigations due to the multiple deaths that involved him, Thériault was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
The Kirtland Cult
This cult was led by Jeffrey Lundgren, who originally started as a guide from the RLDS church. He was a self-proclaimed prophet who lived with his followers on a large farm in Ohio. The Avery family was one of the families that had joined as followers, but they did not know that Lundgren’s plan was to use them as a sacrifice in a blood ritual that, according to him, would lead the faithful to reach Zion.
As a result, the Avery’s were murdered in 1989 by various cult members. Lundgren is found fleeing near the Mexican border and found guilty of murder.
Angel’s Landing
The story of Angels Landing dates back to the 2000s. Around that time, Lou Castro convinced a group of followers to believe that he was an angel and a clairvoyant. He used this method of recruitment to control his faithful, to the point that he managed to get them to take out expensive life insurance policies so that he could later collect them when someone “died accidentally.”
Unfortunately, Castro’s actions got increasingly heinous, since he even took advantage of minors who lived in his community. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Church of the Lamb of God
The cult started by Ervil LeBaron was located in Chihuahua, Mexico. Under the motto of “blood atonement” he got his followers to commit dozens of murders in the name of their leader to achieve forgiveness for their sins. LeBaron had more than 50 children with 13 different wives.
The victims of this sect had targeted people who failed to obey the leader, even President Carter was even blacklisted by LeBaron. After several investigations, the police finally arrested LeBaron in 1979 and although he died only 2 years later, the cult continued to operate and kill in his name.
Love Has Won
Love Has Won was a religious movement led by Amy Carlson. She preached a combination of spirituality techniques with conspiracy theories and made her followers believe that she had reincarnated more than 500 times, including being Jesus and Marilyn Monroe herself in past lives. Her followers knew her by the nickname “Mother God” and believed that she possessed abilities to cure serious illnesses like Cancer. Her mummified body was found in Colorado in 2021.
It is believed that the reason for her death at only 45 years old was due to incorrect self-medication of unapproved medicine that she and her followers believed would treat COVID-19.
School of Prophets
School of Prophets was born as a religious fundamentalist school based on Mormon teachings derived from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When Ron Lafferty and his brother Dan were excommunicated from the church, they decided to form their own cult. They were the ones who led the sect and exposed their followers to radical practices, forcing them to practice polygamy, for example.
Both brothers were found guilty and sentenced for the murder of his sister-in-law and his niece in 1984. There is a literary adaptation written by John Krakauer about the events called “Under the Banner of Heaven”.
Aetherius Society
This society was founded in the 1950s by George King. It is based on a combination of New Age notions and the belief in extraterrestrial life. Its members follow the premise that there is a cosmic master who controls the destiny of all humanity and that the cult leaders possess the ability to communicate with these extraterrestrial beings.
They anticipate the arrival of a savior who will come to earth in an alien ship. The arrival of this being is linked to the level of evolution that we achieve as a society. This evolution is often associated with learning through karma.
Chen Tao
Chen Tao is one of the so-called UFO religions. Also known as the “True Way Cult” it was created by Hon-Ming Chen who proclaimed the idea that each person had 3 souls and that each one of them possessed a special energy that allowed transmigration. He told the members of the cult that the world was saved on five different occasions throughout history by a god who descended from a flying saucer.
The best-known failed prophecy of this group occurred when they predicted the appearance of a prophet on national television in 1998, however this never happened.
Freedomites
This movement had its origins in Russia and emerged as a fraction of the Doukhobors. They left Russia in order to avoid persecution and eventually ended up consolidating in Canada under the name of “Freedomites”. The three main rules by which they are governed are: community life, nudity, and anarchy.
They use nudity as a method of rebellion to show themselves in public acts and as a sign of rejection of capitalism and materialistic consumerism. In the 1920s and 1930s, they even burned and bombed several of the city areas (while nude) to demonstrate their disdain for the government.
The Creativity Movement
This movement emerged in the 70’s in the state of Illinois. It was founded by Ben Klassen under the name “Church of the Creator” and over time it became known as The Creativity Movement. Due to the ideologies of white race supremacy that it preaches, this movement is considered neo-fascist and neo-Nazi.
Their motto is based on the belief that what is good for white people is the greater good. The “W” in its logo is in fact the initials of the word White, considered the most precious race on earth. The Crown represents the symbol of the royal and the elitist.
John Frum
The John Frum cult began in the 1940s on Tanna Island, which is now known as the Republic of Vanuatu. Here, a group of indigenous people associated the idea of prosperity with the image of an American soldier who was believed would bring them wealth. This was because the troops that were there at that time had a large number of supplies with them and this particularity made them known as the “cargo cult”.
For many years the natives formed a cult in the belief that this man would one day return to fill them with food, clothing, and other products.
Raëlism
Raëlism falls under the category of UFO religion. It was created in France in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon. The teachings they preach maintain that humans were created by a group of extraterrestrial beings and that important characters in history such as Jesus or Buddah were actually aliens.
Although it may seem that their ideas are harmless at first glance, since they claim to seek democracy and freedom for all; some ethically questionable notions have come to transcend, such as their position on achieving immortality through human cloning. Raëlism is believed to have approximately 100,000 followers globally.