driven by a need for power
many a man have started a cult
Most of which are quite interesting
So from a man claiming to be god
to a man claiming to be Jesus
these are the 10 Most Scary Cults Ever
the order of the solar temple was formed as a modern-day Knights Templar
They believed in the second coming of Jesus and we're actively preparing for it
the cult had lodges in Canada, Australia, Switzerland, and many other countries
they borrowed much of its tradition from Freemasonry and sci-fi culture
and they believed death was just an illusion that allows us to enter another planet
in 1994, they believed the Second Coming was approaching
So they just went completely mental
they began by murdering a baby with a wooden stake,
claiming it to be the anti-christ
Soon after
53 members commit suicide in Canada and Switzerland
the members continue killing themselves and others from many years after
the number of deaths eventually reached 74
and it is unclear how many members are alive today
Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese cult founded by a half blinds yoga instructor
highly-educated doctors, lawyers, and scientists were among its members
these professionals were used to help produce weapons for their cult leader
asahara
a man who suffered from serious delusions while meditating
He hallucinated about a forthcoming apocalypse and using videos
He convinced thousands that he was a god
he told his followers to wear masks of his face and to act as if they were him
asahara was collecting sarin gas for a massive attack on japanese civilians
1995 they released the gas into a subway
killing 12 and injuring one thousand
asahara was sent to prison
his only regret being that he didn't kill more
The ant hill kids was a savagely secretive cult founded and led by Roch Thériault
Roch Thériault claimed to be in direct contact with god
To his followers
was the messiah
he was a new age guru who gathered his following by organizing holistic detox seminars
but he soon turned his spiritual community into a dark messianic cult
he had complete control of its members
denying food to anyone who didn't do as he told them
The women of the cult would bare his children
and then allow him to physically abuse them
Thériault was sent to prison for such abuse but when he was released from prison the cult reorganized
the members willingly went back to their former leader
and that really speaks of the power of his charisma
Australian Jesus is just an Aussie bloke who claims to be Jesus Christ
he is Alan John Miller
a former I T worker who claims to be the second coming of Jesus
and his wife claims to be Mary Magdalene
They have an isolated compound
where they brainwash people into thinking they were also there with Jesus 2000 years ago
Aussie Jesus was a Jehovah's Witness
until he was banned from the church due to a mysterious incident with a prostitute
Don't be so quick as to call him a con man though
his own mother once tried to put him in a mental institution
he is the first cult leader have a catch phrase
"I'm Jesus get over it"
the people's temple was led by Jim Jones
And to be honest it was one of the strangest groups ever to gain public attention
to fund his first church
Jones started selling monkeys door to door so he was a fun guy from the start
he was a charismatic leader with the goal of creating a utopia
in 1974 he started renting land in the South American country of Guyana where he founded a farming compound
the compound was given the name Jamestown
In 1978
US congressman leo ryan visited the commune
During his visit
Several members requested he take them back to America
But Jim Jones wouldn't allow it
the cult members killed the congressman with a machine gun
Jim Jones then ordered for cult members to kill themselves of cyanide
Over 9 hundred people died
making it the biggest deliberate mass murder of American citizens until 9 11
Gwen Shamblin is one of the few female cult leaders
originally
she was just a weight loss guru
but in 1999 she combined her weight loss programs with Christianity in the most cultish way possible
she founded the remnant fellowship church
and gained total control of her followers
She has a history of banning her followers from accessing the internet
Telling them it was created by the devil
and anyone who says something like that deserves a spot on this list
the Manson family was a small cult led by the self-proclaimed messiah
Charles Manson
it is undoubtedly the most notorious cult of all time
Partly due to the nature of their crimes
but mostly due to the media frenzy surrounding Charles Manson
Manson was crazy from the get-go
in August 1969 he ordered his followers to enter the house of a stranger and prove their loyalty him
the group entered the home of the hollywood actress Sharon Tate who was
Who was 8 months pregnant at the time
they chased Tate down and stabbed her to death
to this day Charles Manson is still in prison and recently won the right to marry a woman
the movement for the restoration of the ten commandments of God was a doomsday cult from Uganda
it was formed after a banana beer maker started hallucinating
and having visions of the Virgin Mary
The founding members of the cult were 4 priests
2 nuns
and a prostitute who believe the apocalypse would happen in the year 2000
when the apocalypse didn't happen they moved the event to march 17th
On march 17th, police arrived at their compound to find that
hundreds of people had died in an explosion
it was assumed to be a mass suicide
but some bodies were found to be poisoned or strangled
to this day no one knows exactly what happened in that compound
david koresh took over the branch davidians in 1987 after killing their previous leader in a gun fight
he taught his followers that all women were his spiritual wives
he then declared himself the Messiah
which is the basic entry requirement for cult leader
the branch davidians gained infamy due to the Waco siege
this was a siege on their compound done by the FBI
When they attempted raid the compound for talks began a fierce gunfight
after a 51 day siege, the FBI burns down the compound
76 were killed inside including david koresh
heavens gate was a cult that believe humans could not survive climate change on Earth
their solution to this would be their souls boarding a spaceship that would follow a comet to a new planet
members were brainwashed
only being allowed to read and watch certain material
For most of the cults life, they taught that suicide was wrong
but in 1997 when the hale-bob comet was in visible range of Earth
the cult members commit mass suicide
They took the comet as a sign that their spaceship was ready
and killed themselves so that their souls could shed their bodies and enter the ship
some still believe the cult leader was telling the truth
and that he is now living in a far-away galaxy
This is a genuine tape of him speaking to his followers
your only chance to survive or evacuate is to leave with us now that's pretty
major statement pretty bold in terms of religion in terms of anybody's
intelligent thinking to most people who would consider themselves intelligent
beings at six oh that's that's absurd what's all this doomsday stuff what's
all this prophetic 7 you know intelligent human beings should realize
that everything has their cycle they have their season they have very
beginning they have their end they have cycles we're not saying that planet
Earth is coming to an end we're saying that planet Earth is about to be
refurbished stated under and have another chance to serve as a garden for
another human civilization now the reason this is such an interesting time
is not only because we're on the threshold of the end of this
civilization because it's about to be recycled
but because of where that finds us where that finds you wear that finds those who
would judge us how we would speak of them and how they would speak of us now
you say you keep saying us who do you think you are well in all honesty must
acknowledge my father my father is not a human father my father is a member of
the evolutionary levels above human the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven
my father gave me long before this civilization gave me birth into that
kingdom level above human that kingdom of heaven that kingdom of God now you
can say well I can't believe that well it's up to you by the you believe that
or not that's not important to me even know I wish that you could believe it
for your sake for those who do believe it stand a possibility of a future
beyond this recycling time now you say well according to religious literature I
thought there was someone else that was going to come and be our savior here at
these days that that was going to be Christ's return well the name of Christ
might be a little confusing or the name Jesus because the name jesus of course
of course was the name given to the body that that mind that was indeed from the
Kingdom of Heaven came and mind was here two thousand years ago and that mind
came for the express purpose of teaching humans how they could be saved how they
would not be plowed under at the end of the age where we're at the end of the
age so the one or the mind that was in Jesus what that mind is in me you would
have to decide that for yourself I must admit that I am here again that I'm here
saying exactly the same thing that I said then trying to say it in today's
language trying to hope that for your sakes you can see what we have to offer
you for our father offers you life
not talking about human life at planet is about to be recycled and we see the
planet as a stepping stone planet Earth a stepping stone that just as with any
civilization a civilization evolves upward that each segment of civilization
becomes more civilized less barbaric and some ways it's supposed to not that it
necessarily does sometimes it seems to appear to be more civilized when in fact
it becomes more barbaric more quick to condemn the rest of the world more quick
to be quick to kill the rest of the world that does not think as it thinks
well I know what I just said I said that I am the return of the son of my father
I'll tell you something that's even more remarkable my father came with just time
came in the early seventies took on a human form an adult human form helped me
get an adult human form in the early seventies and we together help to those
who came with us there were also here two thousand years ago
get in the bodies that they were wearing