Numerous cults have made headlines throughout history for their extreme rituals, beliefs, and sometimes violent behavior. Most have been implicated in terrorist attacks, mass suicides, homicides, child abuse, sexual exploitation, and other negative behaviors.
Many people are nonetheless lured to cults despite the risks involved, frequently because of loneliness or a need for meaning and purpose in their life.
Also Read: Red Flags: Are you in a Cult?
Here are some of the most prominent and strange cults of all time:
- The People’s Temple was established in Indiana as a racially integrated religion in the 1950s by Jim Jones. The group then moved to Jonestown which was established in Guyana in 1977 after Jones’ growing paranoia and control. One Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown in 1978 after questions were raised about the cult’s practices, but he and several others were slain trying to escape. Jones then gave the order for the mass murder/suicide of nearly 900 persons, including children.
- Heaven’s Gate: Was founded in the 1970s by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. According to Heaven’s Gate, to reach a higher plane of existence, members needed to lose their earthly bodies. In 1997, 39 members of the group killed themselves in a Californian rental home while donning matching black clothes and Nike sneakers.
- Branch Davidians: This cult was an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, founded in the 1930s. In the 1980s, one David Koresh gained control of the band and saw himself as the messiah. Koresh and nearly 70 members of the cult, many of whom were children, perished in the Waco, Texas, compound fire in 1993, which broke out following a 51-day standoff with law authorities.
- Aum Shinrikyo: Founded in the 1980s by Shoko Asahara, combined an apocalyptic worldview with aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. The cult committed a number of atrocities in the 1990s, including the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attack that left thousands injured and 13 dead.
- The Order of the Solar Temple was a cult that was started in the 1980s by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro. They claimed that the end of the world was near and that they needed to establish a “new world order.” In the 1990s, members committed a number of mass killings and suicides, including in Canada, France, and Switzerland.
- The Manson Family: Under the direction of Charles Manson, this cult killed several people in 1969, including actor Sharon Tate and six other people. Manson believed in a “Helter Skelter” race war and thought his crimes would help set it off.
- The Children of God: This cult, started in the 1960s by David Berg, promoted sexual activity and anticipated the end of the world. The gang was accused of encouraging incest and pedophilia, with a history of child abuse.
- Thugee: The Thuggees were an Indian cult that practiced ritualized murder of travelers and worshipped the goddess, Kali. They were active from the 17th through the 19th centuries. They thought that their religious beliefs justified what they did.
- The Raelians: A UFO cult that was started in the 1970s by Claude Vorilhon. They support cloning, free love, and think that extraterrestrials created humans. The organization has been charged with violating human rights and engaging in questionable behavior.
- The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God: This Ugandan cult was established in the 1980s, and its members anticipated the end of the world. After the anticipated end of the world did not materialize in 2000, cult leaders executed over 900 members—including children—in a mass murder-suicide to “ascend” to the afterlife.