The most chilling cults you've never heard of… and why YOU could be the next unwitting member

What makes a idiosyncratic articulation a cult?

It’s casual to ideate that those lured into pursuing deluded narcissists who request unquestioning devotion to their chaotic beliefs - aliens, incest, the extremity of the world, adjacent wide termination - are someway anemic oregon stupid.

But, says JW Ocker successful his caller publication Cult Following, joining a cult is really 1 of the astir quality things a idiosyncratic tin do.

‘Cult members are often unfairly derided arsenic naïve, brainwashed followers when, successful fact, the probe shows this couldn’t beryllium further from the truth,’ helium writes.

‘Religious student Lorne L Dawson’s publication The Sociology of New Religious Movements shows that the mean cult follower is mediate to precocious class, highly educated, intelligent, ambitious, curious, and idealistic.’

He adds: ‘Cults tin connection a morganatic consciousness of assemblage and each the benefits that travel with it - friendship, dedication to a cause, stability, shelter. At slightest astatine first...’

Thanks to documentaries similar Wild Wild Country, we present person vivid images of groups similar the Rajneeshpuram cult, which carried retired the archetypal known bioterrorism onslaught successful US history.

And the chilling photographs successful the aftermath of the Heaven's Gate termination pact horrified anyone who saw them, aft 39 radical were persuaded to instrumentality a premix of barbiturates, vodka and applesauce successful a bid for interstellar immortality. They believed their spirits would articulation a spaceship that was hiding successful the Hale-Bopp Comet. 

We're besides all-too acquainted with the Branch Davidians, whose 51-day stand-off with instrumentality enforcement successful Waco ended with much than 80 dormant successful 1993, and, adjacent much recently, NXIVM, whose followers included Smallville histrion Allison Mack and whose person is present serving a beingness condemnation for quality trafficking, enactment offenses and fraud.

But what astir the galore different cults that ne'er made it connected to Netflix oregon into our corporate imagination?

Ant Hill Kids

‘On an isolated mountainside successful eastbound Canada, a tiny radical of radical successful matching tunics - mostly women - physique a commune. The lone 1 not pitching successful is the group’s leader, Roch Thériault.’

This engaged activity, writes Ocker, inspired Thériault to sanction his radical the Ant Hill Kids. ‘But what sounds similar the sanction of a children’s tv amusement hides a level of brutality that is beyond shocking.'

Thériault had managed to transportation his tiny set of followers that the satellite would extremity successful February 1979, and that their lone accidental of endurance would beryllium to question with him to a distant portion of Quebec.

The archetypal reddish emblem should person travel astir then, when he happened to rename himself Moses.

Of course, the expected day of demolition came and went. But this self-styled Messiah managed to speech his mode retired of it.

And, Ocker writes: ‘Once his followers were successful his thrall - exhausted from work, undernourished, and acold from household and friends - helium started beating, torturing, and sexually abusing them, maiming them via bizarre “medical operations,” and subjecting them to outrageous indignities, each successful the expected work of their spiritual purification.’

These atrocities included nailing a kid to a histrion and allowing the different children to propulsion stones astatine them, removing 8 of his wife’s teeth with pliers, commanding men to interruption their ain legs with sledgehammers, and cutting disconnected people’s toes for punishment. And much, overmuch worse.

Incredibly, his pursuing grew - not due to the fact that his connection was truthful convincing, but due to the fact that helium insisted connected getting each pistillate successful the campy pregnant.

The horrific maltreatment yet came to the attraction of the authorities, and Thériault was sentenced to beingness successful situation - but adjacent that was not capable to dissuade his followers.

Some were truthful dedicated, writes Ocker, that they rented apartments adjacent to the prison, and adjacent joined him for conjugal visits. 

'At slightest 1 kid was calved to him during his beingness sentence.'

His reign of panic and coercion yet ended successful February 2011, erstwhile a chap inmate took large pleasance successful stabbing him successful the cervix with a shiv. 

Raëlism

A expected brushwood with a short, greenish alien atop a volcano successful cardinal France successful 1973 was Claude Vorilhon’s ‘Moses moment.’

This alien - named Yahweh - reframed the Bible arsenic a sci-fi epic, with humans arsenic alien clones, the flood caused by a atomic weaponry (Noah was saved by a spaceship), and Jonah being swallowed by an alien submarine.

Vorilhon was renamed Raël and dispersed this caller gospel acold and wide - and was seemingly rewarded for each his hard enactment with a travel to the alien motherland, wherever helium had enactment with robots, learned astir sensual meditation, the ‘Cosmic Orgasm’, and telepathy.

Raël acceptable up his caller religion successful Montreal - with an HQ called UFOland - teaching modular worldly similar not smoking, doing drugs, oregon consuming caffeine. Followers were instructed to tithe 10 percent of everything they earned to the church, and to person enactment with whoever they wanted.

Raëlism deed the headlines astir precocious erstwhile Kanye West utilized its awesome - a swastika wrong the prima of David - to travel his antisemitic rants connected Twitter.

But, arsenic Ocker writes: ‘Today, much than 50 years aft that fateful gathering connected a French volcano, Raëlism is inactive 1 of the much palmy UFO cults.

‘There person been nary wide fatalities. Its person is not successful jail. And, according to the Religion and Media Centre, it has grown to much 65,000 members, with astir 50,000 of those successful Canada and the remainder dispersed crossed much than 80 countries.’

Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven

‘May Otis Blackburn baked a pistillate to death, helped fell a dormant teen nether the floorboards of a house, and apt murdered her son-in-law,’ writes Ocker. ‘But, successful the end, she went to jailhouse due to the fact that she missed a penning deadline.

'That’s astir apt a bully thing,' helium adds, 'because the publication she failed to decorativeness would person triggered the extremity of the world.’

Single ma May and her girl Ruth claimed to person been visited by the Archangel Gabriel successful 1920s Hollywood, and had received a bid of revelations astir the Bible.

The angels had also, apparently, disclosed to them the determination of a hoard of priceless golden and jewels.

All was to beryllium revealed successful their upcoming blockbuster, The Great Sixth Seal, the work of which, they believed, would bring astir the apocalypse.

On Christ’s return, they said, helium ‘would take 11 queens to reign implicit the world… 2 of whom would beryllium Blackburn and Ruth.

‘Each of the Great Eleven would person a palace successful Hollywood from which to reign and would beryllium paired with kings.’

That - on with the temptation of each that treasure - was capable to pull a committed following, arsenic good arsenic a important magnitude of funding, and unneurotic they packed up and moved to Simi Valley, California.

‘By day, the cult followers made wealth moving astatine a tomato-packing institution and gave their paychecks to Blackburn and Ruth. At night, they would behaviour séances, beryllium successful magic circles, deterioration agelong purple robes, sacrifice mules (which they called the “Jaws of Death”), and past decorativeness it each up by dancing naked,' writes Ocker.

This blissful beingness was brought to an abrupt halt erstwhile the faithful started dying. First, Ruth’s hubby disappeared, thought to person been poisoned. Another victim, besides believed poisoned, was buried beneath her parents’ location (alongside 7 mummified dogs who would seemingly support the miss institution successful death).

And a 3rd - a partially paralyzed pistillate - was baked successful a ceramic oven for 2 days successful an effort to dainty her ailment. Unsurprisingly, she excessively died.

In the end, Blackburn was disgraced but unrepentant. Her followers drifted distant - disillusioned by the information that the promised Sixth Seal ne'er made an appearance. They sued her for expansive theft and - mostly acknowledgment to these lurid tales - she was convicted successful 1930.

However, she was exonerated connected appeal, and she lived different 21 unremarkable years.

No 1 ever did find retired wherever those jewels were buried.

People’s Temple

Before Jim Jones orchestrated the largest American civilian decease lawsuit anterior to 9/11, helium really did a batch of good, writes Ocker.

The Peoples Temple was progressive successful Indianapolis’ poorest communities, giving nutrient to those who had none, providing homes for the elderly, jobs for the unemployed, and scholarships for those who couldn’t spend school.

All of these things helped his congregation grow. That - and his assertion helium could cure cancer.

At its height, the religion had a rank nearing 3,000 and Jones was wielding expanding powerfulness successful politics.

But, arsenic stories of intersexual maltreatment and Jones' ‘healing’ scams progressively drew antagonistic property attention, it became wide that they had to permission the USA.

Their destination: 4,000 acres of jungle successful the erstwhile British colony of Guyana, known to the 1,000 faithful who made the travel arsenic Jonestown.

Conditions were acold from paradise - and Jones’ followers were subjected to twisted carnal and intelligence torture successful their caller 'utopia'.

‘They toiled successful the commune for agelong hours during the day,’ writes Ocker, ‘and spent their nights listening to Jones’s anti-capitalist and anti-US sermons for hours.

‘Jones started what helium called White Nights, signifier drills successful which helium would rouse residents from their slumber to stitchery successful the main pavilion and archer them they were nether onslaught from authorities forces. He acceptable up radical successful the surrounding jungle to sprout rubber bullets astatine them to implicit the effect.

‘During astatine slightest 1 of these White Nights, helium had his followers portion a reddish punch that helium claimed was laced with poison. He waited until the astir melodramatic infinitesimal to uncover that the drinks weren’t poisoned aft all, and past congratulated his followers connected passing this trial of loyalty.’

His last enactment - arsenic helium realized the authorities were closing successful and his days arsenic a messiah were up - was merciless.

‘He called everybody to the main pavilion and incited them to portion cups of Flavor Aid laced with cyanide. He called it “revolutionary suicide,” but it’s amended described arsenic murder,’ writes Ocker.

‘A 3rd of the residents of Jonestown were children. Many members were injected with syringes afloat of cyanide.

‘The finale to the horrific communicative was the slug Jim Jones fired into his ain head.

‘Audio of the full massacre, including Jones’s scattered, confusing, insane exhortations, was recorded. It’s casual to find online, but hard to get implicit erstwhile heard.’

The fig of dormant reached 918.

In 2011, subsister Teri Buford O’Shea summed up what had drawn truthful galore to travel a murderous megalomaniac.

‘What was bully astir Jonestown was not Jim Jones,’ Teri said. ‘It was the radical helium attracted. They came from each locomotion of life, from the precise well-educated to the wholly uneducated. Some had tons of money, immoderate were surviving disconnected of Social Security, and some didn’t adjacent person that.

‘It could person been you. It was me.’

Cult Following: The Extreme Sects That Capture Our Imaginations — and Take Over Our Lives by JW Ocker is published by Quirk Books