The Order of the Solar Temple was primarily regarded as a secret society, mainly based in Switzerland and France, and few people outside of its cloisters had access to information about its goings-on. September 4, 2012. When European Crusaders and later Marco Polo returned to Europe after their adventures and exploits in the Muslim world, they carried with them stories of a group of guerrilla fighters known as the hashishin. In 1833, John Quincy Adams wrote, I do conscientiously and sincerely believe that the Order of Freemasonry, if not the greatest, is one of the greatest moral and political evils under which the Union is now laboring. Conspiracy theories suggest that Freemasonry is associated with the occult, that it engages in mind control or other similar activities, and that it is satanic. The leaders set new dates for when the end of the world would come, but it still didnt happen. "[27] Similarly, the French sociologist Rgis Dericquebourg, who deeply studied the religion, concluded that Antoinism is not a cult: it "has no totalitarian influence on its members, and do not dictate their behaviour to get in the world; it is not exclusive [and] shows no hostility towards social systems". the White Lotus Sect and the Red Lantern Sect. [citation needed], French parliamentary commission report (1995), French parliamentary commission report (1999), The New Heretics of France: Minority Religions, la Republique, and the Government-Sponsored "War on Sects" Susan J. Palmer 2011, Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China, Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France, European Grouping of Marketing Professionals, 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances, European Grouping of Marketing Professionals (GEPM), Cultural office of Cluny National Federation of Total Animation, Evangelical Pentecostal Church of Besanon, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Religious Freedom Report 2006 - Austria, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, ENQUETE PARLEMENTAIRE visant laborer une politique en vue de lutter contre les pratiques illgales des sectes et le danger qu'elles reprsentent pour la socit et pour les personnes, particulirement les mineurs d'ge, "International Religious Freedom Report for 2012", Edmonton Police Report of Wilful Promotion of Hatred by Chinese Consular Officials against Falun Gong, "Accession to the World Trade Organization and State Adaptation", Atlas of Religion in China: Social and Geographical Contexts, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, "La loi anti-secte: remde empoisonn d'un mal imaginaire", "Rapport fait au nom de la Commission d'enqute sur les sectes "Les sectes en France", "Rapport fait au nom de la Commission d'Enqute par MM. Cults are notoriously tricky to define. At age 41, Dallas woman Taylor Stevens recalled to an overseas publication her childhood as an unwitting member of the Children of God, a cult infamous for . Adolfo Constanzo. Rather, religious groups are divided into three legal categories: officially recognized religious societies, religious confessional communities, and associations. AP. In mid-March of 1997, 39 of the group members in matching attire committed suicide in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. 1952: Freemason rituals, such as initiation rituals, are dramatic and filled with symbolic meaning, but they arent known to be particularly evil or sinister. Lawrence Gesy is a pastor and expert on cults for the Archdiocese of Baltimore; much of his 20 years of working with cults is reflected in his book, Today's Destructive Cults and Movements. There are many more out there and I'll add names in here as time goes on. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, in which case they will be distinct from pre-existing . Shoko Asahara, leader of the Aum Shinrikyo, pictured in 1990. The origins of the Illuminati, however, are a bit less dramatic than the modern perception. ", Buddhist-based proscribed sects include Lu Shengyan's Taiwan-based Lingxian Zhenfozong (, True Buddha School), Ching Hai's Guanyin Famen, and Yuandun Famen. Also known as the "mad messiah," Jones was founder and leader of the "People's Temple . Members maintain that they have since deviated from the violent ideology of their founder. 1. They also taught that kids should only involve themselves in eschewing the world to yearn for the kingdom of God. Bettmann Archives/DailyMail. This religion, most notable for its many celebrity members (ie. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. On the same day, Jim Jones managed to talk his followers into suicide. A Canadian Security Intelligence Service report of 1999 discussed "Doomsday Religious Movements espousing hostile beliefs and having the potential to be violent.." Groups classified as "Doomsday Religious Movements" included: In 2005, the Hate Crimes Unit of the Edmonton Police Service confiscated anti-Falun Gong materials distributed at the annual conference of the American Family Association by staff members of the Calgary Chinese Consulate (Province of Alberta, Canada). The Westboro Baptist Church The Thuggee were a band of Hindu and, surprisingly, Muslim assassins who would strangle people so that they could offer them up as sacrifices to Kali. This occurred after an alert from Sarah, a sixteen-year-old girl and a member of the church, tipped off the authorities to the sexual abuse of children on the ranch by older adult males. Manson also taught his family members how to use weapons, in preparation for what he believed was an impending race war that he termed Helter Skelter. In August of 1969, several members of the family went on a murderous rampage, beginning with the slaying of the pregnant actress, Sharon Tate. Today, their name which derives from the Arabic word for principle refers to somebody who kills a target in cold blood. This term is also used for a new religious movement or other social group which is defined by . They struck fear in the hearts of both the European Crusaders and their fellow Muslims. On March 20, 1995, members of the cult boarded the Tokyo subways at rush hour with bags containing the nerve agent known as sarin. SOME OTHERS: FINAL SUMMATION ON CULTS; BIBLICAL PROOF: RELIGIONS THAT ADD, CHANGE, DISCREDIT, OR TAKE AWAY FROM THE BIBLE (NO MATTER WHAT THE SOURCE) ARE NOT FROM GOD (See #7) To name a recent endeavor, Duke University was protested due to their open, and public, welcome of students from the L.B.G.T. Congressman. It integrates all aspects of man, whether physical, mental or spiritual, without charge or austerity or penance or self-negation". He soon gained control of the whole group after the founder died. Nevertheless, today, we refer to bandits and robbers as thugs, after the Thuggee. [12], In 1995, a parliamentary commission of the National Assembly of France on cults produced its report[13] (in French: compare an unofficial English translation). This, he intended to achieve by creating pure families by conducting mass weddings between complete strangers. Read the latest Official Cult List 2022: https://tinyurl.com/CultList2022 Definition of a CULT: a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. But how does it compare to the real thing? The Future of Cults Peoples Temple is founded by Jim Jones; however, in its very early stages (its foundation in Indiana) it is first known as the Community Unity Church. 2023 Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple is a. 2 Eastern Cults. Peoples Temple According to the W.B.C., their deaths were the direct product of Gods anger over homosexuality. Watchman Fellowship Profile. The cult gained popularity across the country for making claims that they could resurrect the dead. Adolfo Constanzo was born in Miami in 1962 and grew up with a traditional Roman Catholic religion. Although cult experts and everyday people still differ in what makes a religious group a cult, most definitions of cultor new religious movements, as sociologists call themare either too narrow or too general. The groups teachings blended ecstatic worship of Jesus Christ with promiscuous sex. A two-month siege followed without the police knowing that the cult members acted out divine orders. Youtube. However, the polygamous faction of Mormonism never entirely went away. Between the success of Hulu's The Path, the upcoming Waco miniseries and recent allegations that R&B singer R. Kelly has been operating a sex cult - which . CEI on-line files include news stories, research papers, reports, court documents, book excerpts . He died the next year, but the cult continued until as late as 2009, under the new moniker The Family International. This resulted in many female members working as prostitutes. To access these PDF files you must have the free Adobe Reader installed. When the founder died, he gained control of the entire group in Waco. The cult group was led by Cecilia Steyn, and was a breakaway from a church group called Overcomers Through Christ, Sunday Times previously reported. The group gained many followers who were disaffected with the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda, but when January 1, 2000, came and went without anything remarkable happening, the group began to unravel. Masonic conspiracy theories. Wikipedia. These techniques might be "love bombing", instant friends or emotional blackmail. Hundreds more were killed when he threw them into wells or killed them through other means. However, he had a fascination with the Santeria religion - a syncretism of Voodoo and Roman Catholicism - that he may have inherited from his mother and grandmother, both believed to be Santeria priestesses. Ralism was founded in Paris, France by Claude Vorhilon. They. 20. It all started when the church he grew up in kicked him out after he insisted that Gods orders were that he marry the pastors daughter. ENDORSEMENTS "During this time of cultural instability and growing distrust of institutions, increasing numbers of people are coming under the influence of coercively controlling malignant narcissistic individuals and cultic groups, all too frequently at enormous emotional and financial cost. They were responsible for as many as two million deaths over at least 450 years of their existence. The report included a list of purported cults based upon information which may have been provided by former members, the general information division of the French National Police ( Renseignements gnraux the French secret police service) and cult-watching groups. [32], The French Parliamentary report of 1999 on cults and money[33] concentrated its attention on some 30 groups which it judged as major players in respect of their financial influence. starcasm. Federal agents raided the Waco compound only to be involved in a four-hour gunfight with the cult members. He spent most of his youth in and out of prison and reformatories. Those are some of the most famous cults in the history of the United States, but there are still other modern cults that have active members. One belief held by many who are not Freemasons is that Freemasonry requires allegiance to a Masonic god, one that falls outside of the mainstream of religion. Six middle-class men found the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee. Canada, China, France, Germany, and Russia. The apocalyptic belief attracted many devout followers to the group. Applewhite and Nettles toured the country under various aliases and preached a message of higher evolutionary transformation through contact with extraterrestrials. Additionally, the children were discouraged from attending school, as they should eschew the world to earn the favor of God. A Anti-cult movement (7 C, 19 P) Apocalyptic groups (21 C, 49 P) C Cargo cults (10 P) Chinese cults (2 C, 17 P) Cult leaders (1 C, 77 P) J Jewish cults (2 P) L LaRouche movement (2 C, 49 P, 2 F) N Nation of Islam (2 C, 35 P) NXIVM (1 C, 7 P) P Elite fraternal organizations, such as Yales notorious Skull and Bones fraternity, are believed to be fronts for the Illuminati. The cult has a healthy existence in this modern era as many people believe that it is behind the most significant events in todays world. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, the founder and an early leader of Mormonism, believed that polygamy was necessary to produce as many offspring as possible. Aum Shinrikyo carried out the deadliest terrorist attack in modern Japanese history. Members of this 'neo-charismatic protestant' sect are expected to practice celibacy and currently total nearly 4,000 members in 24 congregations across Britain. List Of Cults. Heaven's Gate UFO Cult: The largest mass suicide in US history. Renamed Jehovahs Witnesses in 1931, this cult has gone on to be one of the most well-known religious organizations of all time; not to mention, it is still in existence to this day. This didnt go over too well. During a stay at a psychiatric hospital in 1972, he met Bonnie Nettles, a nurse there who also showed a keen interest in Biblical mysticism, with an extraterrestrial flair. Although there were multiple cases of polygamy on the ranch itself, and a few of the children had minor bone fractures, there were no signs of sexual abuse in any of the children. He added that antoinism had always been allowed to receive bequests or donations, which meant that its religious nature was never challenged. Ms. Swinton had been arrested for other hoax calls in the past.) 1. More than 800 cult members died. However, the message preached by Asahara was that anyone outside of the cult was doomed to go to hell. The Assassins were based in Alamut, Iran, and Masyaf, Syria. Founder: Sun Myung Moon Founded: 1954 in South Korea. March 29th, 2008: Large sects listed included: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, and what the council called "neo-Pentecostals". Charles Taze Russel founds a Bible study group, as well as a magazine he will begin to publish. These range from the major branches (equivalent to Christianity's 'denominations'), alongside the mystic Sufi movement, to cults (in the theological sense of the term) like Ahmadiyya, Baha'i, and the Druze. He gained a massive following among the drug traffickers and criminal gangs of the country. The group began to fall apart when the proposed doomsday went by, and nothing happened. Wikimedia. As the name suggests, the biblical ten commandments played a considerable role in this movements operation. Warren Jeffs was a leader, or prophet, of one of the FLDS groups. They were highly trained and well-read so that they could blend in with their enemies surroundings, even speaking different languages, if necessary. He was able to lure in many followers, especially women, into his cult. Nothing defines the turbulent years of the 1960s and 1970s in America quite like the rise of cults. The group was outlawed a few years later, but its members were believed to continue underground and were blamed for the French Revolution that broke out in 1789. In 1989 in Uganda, a man named Paulo Kashakun met Joseph Kibweteere, both of whom claimed to have seen images from God. The case was closed in 1989. LIFESTYLE Cult. In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh was worshiped as a god, believed to be a reincarnation of the son of Iris and Osiris, the god Horus. [24] Eric Brasseur, director of Centre for information and advice on harmful cultish organizations (Centre d'information et d'avis sur les organisations sectaires nuisibles, or CIAOSN) said: "This is a Belgian worship for which we have never had a complaint in 12 years, a rare case to report". All throughout history, there have been entire civilizations and religions built upon the worship of a monarch. In short, he knew that the vast majority of the viewing public found him to be (at the time, if not now) a joke. The Relian Movement Rex/mirror.co.uk. Our list of the 15 best cult documentaries and docuseries include The Vow and Q-Anon. A cult is an organized group whose purpose is to dominate cult members through psychological manipulation and pressure strategies. Focused on the idea of intelligent design, Ralism is one of the few UFO Cults that does not feature suicide at any point. From well-respected news channels to the Comedy Central animated series South Park, Scientology is passed off as a novelty cult. George Washington was a leader of a Masonic lodge, and many other of Americas founders were known to be Freemasons. Reviews on Cults in Minneapolis, MN - Eagle Brook Church - Lino Lakes, Christ's Household of Faith, Church of Scientology Twin Cities, Clean Water Action, Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses CATALOG OF THE CULTS Ahmadiyya Movement - Founder: Hazat Mirza . Official Cult List 2021 has Cults which range from extreme, toxic, militant Jihadist groups like ISIS to benign religions like Bahai Faith. He got in contact and trained with a sorcerer who practiced Voodoo. Marco Polo had actually misunderstood the word assassins and interpreted it as being hashishin, referring to hashish, more commonly known as marijuana. In 1954, he formed the Unification Church in Seoul, South Korea. March 17, 2000, became a modern predicted day of the apocalypse, and on that day, those who were still faithful gathered in a church to pray. In the 1960s, David Berg formed what just may be the most notorious, infamous cult in American history, the Children of God. In short, although the church is still alive, and new members do join, because of the media, its power as a religious group is very small. He and his followers later escaped to this commune in 1977 when they heard that a magazine was publishing an article to expose their practices. The cult subjected its members to teachings that were a conglomeration of Christianity, shamanism, Confucianism, and anti-communistic beliefs. BothNettle and Applewhitebelieved that they were the two witnesses that the Bible referenced in the book of Revelations 11. Ehh many cults/groups say exactly that and yet there's been many survivor stories from HKs. Charles Manson was born in 1934. The entirety of this mass suicide represents how, in some cases, people can either be driven to do the bidding of whom they see to be their leader, even if it would defy all that they would have previously thought right, or true. The following are the ten most dangerous groups in America today, based on one or both of the above stated concerns: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormonism). This cult emerged in South Korea and gained a massive following in the 1960s. He moved his followers from Indianapolis to Ukiah, California, after reading an article on areas that were immune to a nuclear holocaust. One of the most notorious cults of the modern era, Ralism began in 1974 with a Frenchman named Claude Vorilhon. However, in 1890, the Mormons officially disavowed polygamy and, in 1935, excommunicated clergy who still advocated it. The visions consisted of things like the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ; besides, Kashakun reported sights of his deceased daughter. Nirvana, heaven, Zion, or outer space are a guiding principle in their scriptures. [17][18] In 2007, Yves Bertrand, General Director of the Renseignements gnraux from 1992 to 2003, spoke about his collaborative work with the parliamentary reports on cults, and said: "Alongside genuine and dangerous cults practicing removal of school, abuse of weakness or pedophilia, some groups have been a bit quickly dress up of the word cult". Heaven's Gate cult: The leaders. Here are our sources: How Adolfo Constanzo Went From Catholic Boy to Drug Kingpin Then to Satanic Cult-Leading Serial Killer, by Gina Dimuro. The official count of people he killed is 23, but it may be as high as four dozen. Heavens Gate They instead make Freemasonry look like its own quasi-religious group. Fdration d'agrment des rseaux (ex-Groupement europen des professionnels du marketing) (Federation of the networks of agreement (formerly: 7.1: Groups with a Christian background (, 7.1.2 Parish on the Road Evangelical Free Church (registered association) (, 7.1.3 Parish of Jesus Christ (registered association) Boston Church of Christ (, 7.2.1 Teutonic Belief Association (registered association) (, 7.2.2 Pagan Association (registered association) (, 7.4.7 Union for the Enhancement of the psychological Knowledge of Mankind (, This page was last edited on 25 March 2023, at 00:03. In modern Japanese history ideology of their founder a Masonic lodge, and associations the White Lotus and. Christ ; besides, Kashakun reported sights of his deceased daughter Jones managed to talk his followers into suicide like... To benign religions like Bahai Faith W.B.C., their name which derives from the ideology! 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