The word “cult” most often conjures up images of brainwashed followers, charismatic leaders, and most often tragedy. History has been strewn with stories about cults which gained in power, loyalty and finally destruction starting with the Manson Family down to Jonestown. These groups lived in the shadows, manipulating people and coaxing many to latch on to radical ideologies-even to such an extreme length as to perform unspeakable acts. But what could have driven these cults, and why did so many fall in their spells? This chilling expose takes us through some of the most hideous cults in history, unraveling this twist of ideologies in them that made them hazardous.
The Manson Family: Murder Under the Spell of the Charismatic
Arguably, one of the most notorious cults ever to be etched into American history would definitely have to involve the one helmed by currently convicted criminal and highly manipulative guru Charles Manson. Manson had risen to become this sort of guru in his prime, which occurred in the rise in the 1960s of the era for which the given era is marked-culture shock in an uproar, taking with it the winds of a countercultural movement-and, via Manson’s personal tutelage, eventually fashioned an excuse of sorts into a full-blown Manson-inspired cult mostly for Manson alone.
Generally, the wide-ranged philosophy that Manson hinted at became deadly in real life since his manipulations-innocent, racist, and apocalyptic in overtones-told his followers that they become part of the opening salvo when a colossal racial war seemed implied by him under denomination “Helthers Skelter “. Thus, in this respect he insisted on such a point – the very way to make the war inflame is murdering popular people. And so, the year 1969 Manson had ordered some followers to kill Sharon Tate, pregnant an eight month actress, with four others who were present there. Her death occurred in the Los Angeles’ home.
Amazingly, it was possible for Manson to manipulate and control his followers. Employing all three of the psychological methods of recruitment-isolation, playing with minds, and drugs-he offered a refuge in which his followers would believe his doomsday premonition. His charm and eloquence to the dissolution of the post-hippie generation youth was truly the key to his cult’s success. Manson was arrested in 1969; his subsequent conviction for a host of murders ended the Manson Family’s rule of terror.
Jonestown: Where a “Perfect” Utopia Went Bad
Arguably, no cult epitomizes the definition of mass suicide better than Jonestown , which housed one of the largest non-natural mass deaths in modern times. Under the tutelage of Jim Jones, the People’s Temple developed from a socially conscientious religion to the stuff nightmares were made of in a cult, which would drive its members eventually to commit suicide.
Jim Jones was a charismatic preacher who, in the mid-1950s, founded what he called the Peoples Temple. He promised racial equality, social justice, and utopian living. He preached to anyone that he was some sort of messianic figure who happened to be the new Christ. He led his followers during the early 1970s into the countryside in Guyana-a small South American nation-where he named his utopia after himself: Jonestown.
While it had seemed as if Jonestown was some sort of haven from the start, the actual happenings in Jonestown were founded on fear, paranoia, and coercion. He used physical and emotional abuse; he was always watching them, too. Among a few of the ways he kept tight control with his followers in the community to keep them under his service included indoctrination, threats, and the use of mind-altering drugs.
By 1978, the ironlike hold that Jones had on his followers was loosening. The world was now waking up to the violations of human rights in Jonestown, and a U.S. Congressman, Leo Ryan, arrived in the compound with a probe mandate. Fearful of the repercussions that their exposure might incur, Jones’s followers killed him and his delegation as they sought to leave the compound.
That night, Jones ordered the mass suicide of over 900 men, women, and children with cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Since then, it has become an icon of blind faith and utter manipulation. The ” Don’t drink the Kool-Aid ” expression has since then become synonymous with mindless devotion and blind loyalty to a dangerous leader.
Heaven’s Gate: The Alien Apocalypse Cult
In 1997, the world was to be shaken with the discovery of 39 dead bodies in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The members of this flying-saucer cult, Heaven’s Gate, had driven themselves to mass suicide because their belief said so, for the purpose of the ascension of their souls to an extraterrestrial spaceship in the wake of the Hale-Bopp comet. The otherworldly vision of the New Age apocalyptic ideology of science fiction founded by Marshall Applewhite combined to appeal to the spiritually vulnerable.
Heaven’s Gate was founded in the 1970s by Applewhite and his partner, Bonnie Nettles, pulling together elements of Christianity, the presence of aliens, and the East. Applewhite introduced himself as a sort of prophet and maintained that he was the “heavenly” figure these people had been waiting for. He preached that the Earth was going to be “recycled,” and only those who joined his group and transcended their earthly bodies would be spared from destruction.
He had the total control of the disciples in every sense of the word. He had made them to relinquish all attachments to the world, including family ties. His disciples went as far as voluntarily undergoing the surgical removal of genital organs and were given promises that it is merely a hindrance in spiritual ascension. Believers promised themselves that “their souls would be taken aboard the spaceship” said to be trailed behind Hale-Bopp Comet for consignment in another life plan.
This tragic, sad end happened in 1997 with mass suicide in the movement known as Heaven’s Gate. In 1997, while a comet passed nearby, 39 people drank vodka and phenobarbital with one addition: each wore a plastic bag on the head to expedite the effect. It all ended in some tableau, in order to shock the world and a deeply immersed and manipulated-desperate belief in a chase for meaning.
The Branch Davidians: The Vision of David Koresh’s End-Time
The Branch Davidians were a religious sect which emanated from the Davidian movement, itself a splinter group of the Seventh-day Adventists. Its most notorious chapter under the leadership of David Koresh (born Vernon Wayne Howell) introduced an apocalyptic teaching and charisma that brought about a violent confrontation with the U.S. government.
The Koresh came to prominence and took over as the leader in the 1980s; he was regarded as the last self-proclaimed prophet-the “Lamb of God,” uniquely able to unlock the secrets of the Book of Revelation of the Bible. It was the place wherein their flock was resided by his followers at a compound in Waco, Texas. True, thus leading them through to the end of the world in salvation.
Koresh was an autocrat-exacting absolute obedience from his followers, most of whom he had hoodwinked into believing they were to fight a final battle against the forces of evil. The group strenuously trained with arms and stockpiled guns, turning federal authorities wary.
In 1993, the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) raided the compound on suspicion that Koresh was in violation of federal laws by possessing firearms illegally and on grounds of child abuse. The resulting standoff lasted for 51 days and ended tragically and violently. On April 19, 1993, the FBI attacked the compound for the last time. A shootout ensued, and the subsequent fire claimed the lives of 76 people, including his own.
The Waco siege is probably among the most debated and controversial cases in American history; many debate to what extent these events were allowed to unfold as they did, and in which ways this was influenced by the ideology behind Koresh.
Aum Shinrikyo: The Cult Responsible for the Tokyo Subway Attack
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese apocalyptic cult formed in the 1980s by Shoko Asahara. The cult combined elements of apocalyptic Christianity, Buddhist doctrine, New Age spiritualism, and a sort of “end-of-the-world-ism.” Asahara considered himself Christ and the first “Enlightened One”; he preached that his followers would be the only survivors of the coming apocalypse.
Other crimes include the manufacture of many goods; even the production of chemical weapons was part of the activities that Aum followers manufactured. Probably one of the most notorious acts by Aum was when, on March 20, 1995, its members released deadly sarin gas into the Tokyo subway system, killing 13 people and injuring over a thousand people. This was done to bring down the Japanese government and spark an apocalyptic war.
The mass destruction they caused did little to shake the belief of Aum’s leaders that they were doing the will of heaven. Over several years after that, the Japanese arrested and convicted Asahara and hundreds of members of the group. Aum Shinrikyo is one of the deadliest cults in modern history because of the violent ideology of the group and the horrific attack against innocent civilians.
The Power of Cults Continues
These are those infamous cult stories that all lead to one clear message: where the human factor of blind faith crosses over with a manipulative leader, disastrous consequences follow. Charismatic personalities have applied various modus operandi-psychological games, ideological indoctrination, and emotional manipulations-that finally plunged their adepts into violence, tragedy, and death.
In each case, the power of the cult leader was based on exploitation in order to instill fear and hope with desperate questions about the meaning of life in an uncertain world. These tragedies outlined grim outcomes at the hands of people who would take advantage of vulnerable individuals in search of meaning. The terror of these cults does not necessarily come from the catastrophes created but from how surreptitiously the whole leadership was allowed to deceive and manipulate the ranks into doing its biddings, even thought of by members as necessities or divine action.