Here are nine of the most unnerving examples of them from the 20th century. Hearsts father eventually withdrew his $50,000 reward for her return as it became increasingly clear that she identified with the group and wasnt coming home. Founded by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles in the 1970s, Heaven's Gate was an ascetic cult . When visitors approached the colony, a bugler hidden behind the Egyptian gales sounded the note of their arrival. His . This magazine has been fully digitized as a part of The Atlantic's archive. Basically the cult has two symbols: wealth and energy. What made the cult's beliefs deviate from mainstream religion was its fine blend of promiscuous sex and worship of Jesus Christ. It was the fabulous ability with which she carried off the kidnaping hoax that infuriated the respectable middle-class residents of Los Angeles. The Krotona Institute of Theosophy, a residential community and spiritual center that has been in Ojai, California, since the 1920s. Michael Aquino, the founder of satanic cult the Temple of Set, has 'remanifested from his physical body' at the age of 73. He was able to lure in many followers, especially women, into his cult. Mrs. Tingley promptly sued the limes for libel and, after years of litigation, eventually collected a handsome judgment. The Cult. Meet five 20th-century cult leaders whose influence led to deadly consequences around the globe. He would begin to sexually abuse them at age eight, claiming that Jesus was a womanizer and Gods people are becoming extinct. The Origin of Hotdogs, The History of Boracay Island in The Philippines. Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie . Yet, it was not just abuse or sex trafficking that made the cult so notorious. L. Ron Hubbard in Los Angeles, California, 1950. Her story was told in the 2003 film Monster, where Charlize Theron portrayed Wuornos. And to Ojai she brought Krishnamurti, the new messiah., Throughout the twenties, the annual encampments in Ojai were widely reported in the Southern Californian press, as thousands of people, mostly elderly neurotic women, trouped to Ojai to worship the messiah. James Warren Jones was an American religious leader whose name has now become synonymous with the phrase "Don't drink the Kool-Aid.". Whatever the nature of the influence, it was unquestionably persuasive: Dr. Mohn contributed $300,000 to the colony. Earlier, he had founded an offshoot of the Teen Challenge youth ministry called Light Club, which sought to entice flower children to sermons with rock music and free peanut butter sandwiches. History is replete, writes Dr. William W. Sweet, with instances of corruption of religion among migrating people. In tlie process of moving westward, the customs, practices, and religious habits of the people have undergone important changes. Founded by Arthur Bell during the Great Depression, Mankind United believed that the world was controlled and manipulated by a conspiracy of hidden rulers and money changers. Born in Indiana, Jim Jones was a Christian minister who founded the Peoples Temple church. After the sponsors revealed their presence, they were going to create a utopia based on universal employment with a short workweek, an economy of financial credit, and an artificial language. Steve and Amy travel to Chatsworth, California, to help a terrified woman who believes her house is trying to kill her. After a failed career as a musician, Manson began amassing disciples that followed him to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Daughter Willa, a priestess called the Tree of Life, died of a tooth infection in 1925. The existence of a large number of transients and visitors has always stimulated the cult-making tendency. Some victims were stabbed up to 50 times, leaving everyone in the house dead, including Tates unborn baby. Photographs of Ballard, our beloved messenger,sold for $2.50; phonograph records, which recorded the music of the spheres and lectures of Ballard, sold for $3; a Chart of the Magic Presence brought $12; a steel engraving of the Cosmic Being, Orion, better known as the Old Man of the Hills, retailed for $2; the Special I AM Decree binder was listed at $1.25; I AM rings at $12; a special electrical device, equipped with colored lights, called Flame in Action, sold, in varying sizes, for $50 and $200; and, finally, a New Age Cold Cream preparation was available for the faithful. 1. However, this didnt result in the death of the cult, which is still alive to this day. He was also a writer, and his books described his claims about being the second coming of Jesus Christ and that he could travel through time. David Brandt Berg founded the Children of God cult, combining Christian theology with bizarre reinterpretations of scripture, trance channeling from angels, and a hearty dose of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. They purchased property in Californias Yuba County to establish a winery. The radio station eventually stopped the broadcast as the content became more disturbing. The abuses long. Meanwhile, members are expected to work over 40 hours per week for the group and tithe up to 80 percent of their income. Among those who came to California was Mrs. Besant, who, acting on orders of her Master, purchased 465 acres in t he Oja i Valley as a home for the new sixth sub-race. He also claimed that a socialist Egyptian leader would become world dictator in 1986, that Armageddon would be fought in the late 1980s, and that Jesus would return in 1993. As indicated before, cults claim to have the pathway to truth. ), One of the sources that Ballard used was a series of articles which William Dudley Pelley had published in 1929, entitled Seven Minutes in Eternity, written while Pelley was a resident of Sierra Madre, near Pasadena. From an early age, he spent a lot of time in juvenile reformatories or prisons for crimes like armed robbery and theft. Top 10 Most Historically Famous Shootouts. Soon, other former cult members came forward with complaints. One of the most famous cult leaders of all time, Charles Manson was the leader of a group of young people in California during the late 1960s. The Long Beach, California, headquarters of Morningland, an almost 50-year-old spiritual group with a focus on meditation. General Otis contended that Point Loma was a spookery; that Mrs. Tingley exercised a hypnotic influence on the colonists and fed the children so skimpily that they became ethereal; that the most incredible things happen in that lair; that purple robes were worn by the women and khaki uniforms by the men; and that, at midnight, the pilgrims in their nightrobes, each holding a torch, went to a sacred spot on the Point Loma peninsula where gross immoralities were practiced by the disciples of spookism. For once, however, General Otis had met his weight in wildcats. Much talk began to be heard in theosophical circles about the emergence of a mysterious disciple, referred to by Judge as the Promise, the Veiled Mahatma, the Light of the Lodge, and the Purple Mother.. TheC-word: what are we saying when we talk about cults. Shortly after Judges death, Katherine Tingley was revealed as the Purple Mother. On May 23, an overenthusiastic disciple drowned in the Pacific while attempting to find her body. Cults are terrifying. Only at 19 years old, he founded the religious institution and eventually relocated it to San Francisco in the 1960s, apparently a hotspot for murderous cults. 10 Most Terrifying Serial Killers and Cult Leaders of All Time, 'The View' Hosts Defend Marjorie Taylor Greene: 'I Have to Say, I'm on Marjorie's Side', Rapper Sentenced to Life in Prison After Stabbing Conviction, Prince Harry Set to Live Stream 'Intimate Conversation' With Trauma Doctor, Manson Family Member Linda Kasabian Dead at 73, Model Abby Choi Dead at 28 After Brutal Murder, Tom Sizemore's Family Told 'No Further Hope' for 'Saving Private Ryan' Star's Recovery, Netflix Confirms 'Pokemon' Series to Celebrate Pokemon Day. Migration is the basic explanation for the growth of cults in Southern California. Steve discovers the property has a connection with two cults, including one of the most famous cult leaders in American history. Sarah Edmondson, an actor and ex-acolyte who also figures prominently in the doc, received extensive recruitment training and tapped into her Hollywood circles to find new members when she was. The station head Tom Wallace said: Basically, what Green was saying was that any particular problem was controlled by a demon. Wherever they journeyed, they found rich treasures: jewels of all kinds, Spanish pirate gold, rubies, pearls, diamonds, emeralds, amethysts, gold bullion, casks of silver, the plunder of antiquity. The Branch Davidian compound was raided by a small group of federal agents from the US Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. Heaven's Gate cult members found dead. Yet, it all started when congressman Leo Ryan heard about the story of Jonestown. His victims were his children, fathered by incestuous relationships with his daughters and nieces, as well as his wife's children. Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection, An Introduction to the Long History of Los Angeles Cults, The abandoned movie ranch where Manson launched Helter Skelter, This Is the Most Stereotypically Los Angeles Thing That Has Ever Happened, How to Start Your Own Los Angeles Cult in 14 Easy Steps, The Earliest and Weirdest LA Cult Stories: 1700s to 1940s, The Respectable LA Houses of 1970s Hippie Cult The Source, How Cultists, Quacks, and Naturemenschen Made Los Angeles Obsessed With Healthy Living. On November 14, 1978, the group planned to leave through the airstrip. The organization grew out of the Black Cultural Association, a black inmate group that was active in Vacaville Prison. The History of Guns, Greek Mythology: Stories, Characters, Gods, and Culture, Aztec Mythology: Important Stories and Characters, Greek Gods and Goddesses: Family Tree and Fun Facts, Roman Gods and Goddesses: The Names and Stories of 29 Ancient Roman Gods, Shoko Ashara: Cult Leader of Aum Shinrikyo, The Life of Shoko Ashara and Aum Shinrikyo, Tokyo Subway Attacks Carried Out by Cult Members, Charles Manson: Cult Leader of the Manson Family, Jim Jones and the Mass Suicide of Jonestown, The Davids: Branch Davidians and Children of God, David Berg and the Children of God (Family International), iPhone History: A Timeline of Every Model in Order, US History Timeline: The Dates of Americas Journey, Ancient Civilizations Timeline: 16 Oldest Known Cultures From Around The World, Why Are Hot Dogs Called Hot Dogs? Six middle-class men found the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee. After entering the residence, Tate and her guests were tied together by their necks and stabbed. Charles Manson (The Manson Family) Deburke321/YouTube One of history's most notorious criminals, Charles Manson was the cult leader of the Manson Family. He felt stomach pains and was allegedly hustled out while being told that something had gone wrong. That is to say, the attack was in anticipation of Armageddon, which was believed to be a nuclear attack by the United States on Japan. Berg became known as Moses David, Mo, King David, Father David, Chairman Mo, David Fontaine, Dad, and Grandpa. He gained quite the following, including important people in the government and notable church members. His victims were usually female prostitutes, whose throats were cut before he mutilated their abdomens. This, too, is reflected in the name Aum Shinrikyo: Supreme Truth. The things that the cult is famous for are the Tokyo subway attacks and the Sakamoto family murder. But the real genesis of Ojai as an occult center may be traced to the publication, in the early twenties, of a magazine article by Dr. Ales Hrdlika predicting the rise of a new sixth sub-race. It seems that psychological tests given in California schools had revealed the existence of a surprising number of child prodigies; ergo, California was the home of the new sub-race. The appearance of this exotic colony in Southern California greatly disturbed the boosters of the period, who regarded it as bad advertising. General Harrison Gray Otis was convinced that weird orgies were being enacted at Point Loma. One of the first couples to settle at Point Loma, Dr. and Mrs. George F. Mohn, lived for some years in the Homestead before Mrs. Mohn first suspected that the Purple Mother was exerting a powerful influence on her husband. They. Although Bonnie Nettles a.k.a. Cult leaders must be dynamic, charismatic, and convincing because their goal is to brainwash their members and acquire monetary or power-related advantages. Thats a mouth full and a lot to integrate into just one ideology. . When the Guyanese troops reached Jonestown, the death total was set at 913, including 304 under the age of 18. Shoko. The cult that he founded was called The Reformed New Testament Church of the Faith of Jesus Christ and was pretty largely made up of native Californians. He once prepared a map of the world entitled William Moneys Discovery of the Ocean. On this map San Francisco a community that he detested was shown poised on a portion of the earth that he predicted would soon collapse, precipitating the city into the fiery regions. We do not fear death. Indeed, only his followers would be able to truly understand. They were once served to Ronald Reagan and at the Ritz-Carlton Hotels restaurant in San Francisco. A church survey made in Los Angeles points up the real problem: For the most part, it states, the newly developing religious teachers are sincerely trying to serve their followers, and prove to be strong influences because traditional habits do not reach the people in this community. By 1995, his cult had an international following of about 30.000 people worldwide, including many intellectuals from the best universities. . Podcast Listen Life Examined How '60s and '70s America gave rise to cult leaders Hosted by Jonathan Bastian Aug. 21, 2021 Health & Wellness In our previous episode, author Akash Kapur talked about his experience growing up in the utopian Indian community of Auroville. "When I used my knife, it brought psychological relief. A specially chartered airplane flew over the beach and dropped flowers on the waters. Flooded with requests from all over the world, the local newspapers and wire services filed 95,000 words of copy in a single day. Some were relatively harmless, such as the notion that there was no hell and all humans would eventually be saved by Jesus Christ. Dr. Lee R. Steiner, in her study of quacks and fakirs, has pointed out that, when difficulty besets the quack, he usually flees to Los Angeles, not so much because it is a haven, but because it is the largest metropolitan center west of Chicago. THE first eccentric of Southern California was a Scotsman by the name of William Money, who arrived in Los Angeles around 1841. Father Yod: Sexytime! Using the principle of the ray machine, power plants would be created capable of exterminating a million people at a single blast. Marcus Wesson saw himself as the leader of a new religion combining Christianity with vampire lore. When the person who was transmitted dharma by that disciple died, that persons body emitted light. However, Jones wasnt satisfied and ordered the other Temple members to assassinate the group. His father would never be of any relevance in his life, and after his mother was imprisoned for a robbery he was responsible for himself. Although I heard her speak many times, I never heard her attack any individual or any group, and I am thoroughly convinced that her followers always felt that they had received full value in exchange for their liberal donations. The music betrays a self-aware, ironic humor that is rare in most other cults. The Blackburn cult (aka the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven) based its theology on a single line from Revelation: And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.. While devotees worked at a local tomato-packing shed, their paychecks were collected by Blackburn and her husband. Southern California evidenced few manifestations of cultism between 1850 and 1900. His group adopted bizarre, unorthodox beliefs. Its leader goes by the name of Charles Manson. However, in 1972 capital punishment would be abolished by the state of California. In 1969, he had a vision that California was going to be hit by an earthquake and sink into the sea. One of the most notorious cults sprouted in San Francisco. The Peoples Temple was founded by Jim Jones in Indiana in 1955. In the name of Jesus Christ, Jones confiscated passports and millions of dollars from Temple members. Religious cult leader David Koresh and his heavily armed followers repulsed an assault by the ATF resulting in the deaths of four ATF agents and six cult members and spawned a 51 day siege, ending in a fiery death for 76 cult members during the . It seems like just a random house in a wealthy neighborhood was picked. Ashara was born into a poor family in 1955. Since Southern California was the world center of both movements theosophy from 1900; New Thought from 1915 it not only attracted adherents of these creeds from all over the world, but it became a publishing center from which issued a steady flow of magazines, newspapers, and books devoted to mysticism, practical and esoteric. The book Mankind United appeared between 1936 and 1938, becoming the holy text of the group. 3. Escaped convict Donald DeFreeze (aka General Field Marshall Cinque Mtume) led this political cult of Berkeley radicals that was inspired by communist and South American revolutionary theory. On May 18, 1926, Sister Aimee disappeared. Gein has been the inspiration behind countless movies, including Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But as the region grew in wealth and fame, it began to attract some strange characters. First appearing on the West Coast in San Francisco, it did not reach Los Angeles until after the Worlds Fair in 1915. 6 of the most infamous cults in history. A day at the San Francisco fair was given over to New Thought, and George Wharton James, the omnipresent, delivered a lecture on California - the Natural Home of New Thought.. Influenced by the works of 18th-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg and con artist psychic Marc Reymont, Baldwin formed his cult on the basis of fundamentalist Christianity and New Age thinking. Charles Manson The Family. Jones, and the church he founded . The organization, which focuses on yoga and meditation, has several properties around the state. It is not by chance, therefore, that the I AM cult has Hitlerian overtones, with such auxiliary organizations as the Minute Men of Saint Germain and the Daughters of Light.By the time an I AM audience repeats a chant the fourth time, the members are shouting with all the frenzy of a mob of Nazis yelling, Sieg Heil!. But some of Californias fringe spiritual groups are still out there little pockets of commune dwellers, transcendental meditators and UFO worshippers dotted around the state. Thought Experiment. His group was incorporated in 1971 as a religious organization called the Fellowship of Friends. During her walk, Amy discovers that the owner is unknowingly attracting the dead and . H alf a century ago, you could barely walk down the street in California without tripping over some kind of fringe spiritual sect or cult-like group. And how does someone know if the faith they are following is harmful? We are starting off with the Japanese cult leader Shoko Ashara, who is responsible for the worst terrorist accident in Japan. His followers believe that he is the third incarnation of the original Buddha. Burton taught his followers that the community would serve as an ark protecting his flock from a cataclysm that would consume outsiders. The leader of "Manson Family" created an entire cult in the late60s and early 70 in California. It was through Point Loma that the yogi influence reached Southern California. And if you needed deliverance, you just had to attend a Jim Green service. Watson, one of Mansons close companions, began stabbing Leno multiple times. Following the fair, the New Thought leaders began to arrive in Los Angeles: Annie Rix Militz, who established the University of Christ; Fenwicke Holmes, who founded the Southern California Metaphysical Institute; and Eleanor M. Reesberg, who organized the Metaphysical Library. He made a great deal of failed prophecies, including that Comet Kohoutek would cause havoc on Earth in 1974. Peter Dawson. Jones' teachings were similar to liberation theology and socialist beliefs. Heres how to find out if your home or apartment is at risk. While 65 albums based on improvisations by cult members were recorded, the most interesting tracks have Baker giving sermons of his wisdom, including die to live again and I can be you and you can be meultimate orgasm we will see!. Bernard - pastor of 28,000-member Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York. So its not a small group, with both male and female followers. Although Jim Jones's name later became synonymous with a cultic mass-murder suicide that left 909 people dead, he was known in the 1950s as a civil rights leader. May Otis Blackburn, 60, and her daughter Ruth Wieland Rickenbaugh Rizzio claimed to be those witnesses. The People's Temple. Here, he would attract a devoted group of followers. Why would anyone want to do that? However, by the time the police arrived, Wesson was covered in blood. 1. Gein exhumed corpses from graveyards and fashioned body parts into furniture, household items, and other keepsakes. Karen Zerby, the current leader as of 2016, has been accused of sexually molesting children. Manson was born in 1934 to his 16-year-old mother. One article described the hierarchy in the church as: God. However, Baldwin referred to himself as a spiritual pimp and took sexual liberties with female members of his flock while denigrating the males. Rev. In 1969, at a time when quasi-mystical "love cults" were springing up across Los Angeles, Father Yod started the most . We didnt want to be associated with one of those cultish groups. Although she had never been West, Mrs. Tingley had, since childhood, dreamed of building a White City in a Land of Gold beside a Sunset Sea. Raising a considerable sum of money in the East, she established the Point Loma Theosophical Community near San Diego in 1900. Because Jones was afraid of the consequences, he activated the mass suicide plan for the members of the Peoples Temple. The community was an extraordinary phenomenon to appear in the complacent middle-class village of San Diego. Others slowly faded away, pushed out by Californias rising cost of living, or made obsolete by the fact that many of the things that made them appealing were absorbed into the mainstream: Fortune 500 CEOs now regularly attend Burning Man and crystals and Himalayan salt lamps can be purchased at Target. The idea was to let people think that non-organic food was bad for them while influencing a local election. Below: the gate at the Aetherius Society. He moved in with an older woman in San Jose, had a child with her, and then married her 15-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. One ex-member described it as fear God and feel your chakra. Ministers give classes on energy healing, meditation, and trance hypnotherapy. In 1692, over a period of only a few months, 200 people had been accused of witchcraft and jailed, and 20 had been killed. One story states that the youngest members of the cult learned to have sex, which was deemed Gods way of expressing his love. RELATED . At the age of 33, in 1967, he was released from prison and moved to San Francisco. After abandoning the restaurant in 1974, Baker toured the world with a group of followers in an unsuccessful bid to find a new home for the group. After spending time in a Kentucky church, doing missionary work in Central America, and working at a Miami Salvation Army shelter, they felt disillusioned by the corruption of other churches and founded their own in Sacramento. He was born in the US and was a musician, career criminal, and cult leader. As an eccentric, however, he was in advance of his time, an exceptional figure. One group has been praying for 118,260 hours. They also had a local radio program, where they exhorted Christians to join an army of God to fight the demons responsible for the worlds ills, which included karate, homosexuality, psychoanalysis, and fairy tales. 9. The pair secured a $40,000 loan from the gullible son of an oil magnate in exchange for the lost measurements.. Will your building hold up in a major earthquake? Mankind United reached its apogee with a few thousand members in 1939. The original group fell apart when Bell left in 1951 following legal battles with disillusioned former members and eventual bankruptcy. Here are the top 10 cults with massive followings. The group refers to its dwellings as barracks and uses military uniforms and ranks for members. This could be disrupted by foreign energy coming from other people, family history, or the earthbound spirits of dead relatives. Exhibits inside the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. (One man had been tortured to death. Well, it revolved around the claim that members did not join the group voluntarily but were lured in by deception, probably being held against their will by threats and manipulations. no other large city contains so many transplanted villagers who retain the stamp of their indigenous soil.. . They also teach that a group alternately called the Manifest Sons of God, Man-Child Company, or the Overcomers will leave the church, attain sinless perfection and divine powers through commitment to Christ, and eventually smite Satan and death. Berg died in 1994, and his cult is now known as Family International. Burton replied, Thou sayest it, which is what Jesus told Pontius Pilate when asked if he was King of the Jews. On the lovely 500-acre Point Loma tract soon appeared a School of Antiquity, a Theosophical University, a Greek theater, Rja Yoga College, and the Iris Temple of Art, Music, and Drama. But they're even worse for women. Wikimedia. Manson was an ex-convict who was unemployed and in 1967 started a commune called the Manson-family. The family also was. Still later an opera house was acquired in San Diego, where the Point Loma yogis, appearing in Grecian costumes, lectured the natives on the subtle dialectics of theosophy. In November 1973, they murdered Oakland school superintendent Marcus Foster, who supported a controversial student identification system. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Listen to the trailer for. Kevin Faulconer | San Diego, California The modern GOP executive By Ethan Epstein Of America's 10 largest cities, only one has a Republican chief executive: San Diego, where Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Former cult members came forward with complaints when asked if he was to... As barracks and uses military uniforms and ranks for members the ray machine, power would... 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