Hello everyone! And welcome back to Top 10 Trends.
Today, all throughout the world people subscribe to different belief systems,
and it's probably a lot more common than you think for people to be lured into a cult.
Often times it can be very difficult to tell a New Age or up-and-coming religion from a cult.
And so we've dedicated this list to five specifically religious cults.
And I'm well aware we're called "Top 10 Trends",
But these entries are pretty long, and I want them to be fairly detailed, so you guys get a true feeling of all the crazy that went down in these places.
While not all are incredibly dangerous, they are all crazy, and all in the Name of God.
In fact, you might be a cultist, and not even realize it!
These are 5 of the most insane religious cults throughout all of history.
Number 5 The Children of God
The Children of God, now called "The Family International",
is a new religious movement that started in 1968 in California.
It was originally called "Teens for Christ", and then gained notoriety as "The Children of God".
It was then reorganized as "The Family of Love", and then eventually "The Family", and now it's "The Family International".
So, they've got a strong marketing team.
The Family International initially spread a message of salvation, apocalypse, spiritual revolution and happiness, and distrust of the outside world,
Which members called "The System".
In 1976, it began with a method of evangelism, called "Flirty Fishing"
that used sex to show God's love and mercy, and to win converts resulting in a lot of controversy.
The founder and leader David Berg, who was called "Moses David", gave himself the title of "King" and "The Last End-Time Prophet".
He communicated with his followers via "Mo Letters": letters of instruction and counsel on spiritual practices, until his death in 1994.
After his death, his widow became the leader of The Family International, taking the title of "Queen".
The members of The Children of God founded communes first called "colonies" in various cities.
They would prosthelytize in the streets and distribute pamphlets.
By 1972, The Children of God had 130 communities around the world.
Children of God members had printed and distributed approximately 42 million pamphlets.
The Children of God was then abolished in February of 1978.
In 1971, an organization called FREECOG was founded by concerned parents and others, including deprogrammer Ted Patrick, to free members of the COG from their involvement in the group.
Number 4 Aum Shinrikyo: The Supreme Truth
Aum Shinrikyo is a Japanese doomsday cult, founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984.
It gained international notoriety when it carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin gas attack in 1995. And was found to have been responsible for another smaller sarin gas attack the previous year.
The group never confessed to these crimes.
Those who carried out the attacks did it secretly without it being known to the ordinary believers.
Asahara would broadcast his singing, insisting on his innocence through a radio broadcast on a signal they purchased in Russia and directed towards Japan.
It has been designated a terrorist organization by several countries including Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan, and the United States.
Japan's Public Security Examination Commission considers the two branches that it had split off into to be dangerous religions,
and announced in January 2015 that they would remain under surveillance for three more years.
Its founder, Chizuo Matsumoto, claimed that he sought to restore original Buddhism.
In 1992, Matumoto, who changed his name to Shoko Asahara, published a foundational book, and declared himself Christ, Japan's only fully-enlightened master, and identified with the Lamb of God.
His purported mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world, and he claimed he could transfer spiritual energy to his followers, and take away their sins and bad deeds.
Asahara also outlined a Doomsday Prophecy, which included World War III instigated by the United States.
He might have that right.
At their compound they found explosives, chemical weapons, and a Russian military helicopter.
There were enough stockpiles of sarin gas that could kill 4 million people.
Number 3 The Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan, commonly called the "KKK" is the name of three distinct movements in the United States that have advocated extremist reactionary positions
such as white supremacy, white nationalism, anti- immigration and especially anti-Semitism
Historically the KKK used terrorism, both physical assault and murder against groups or individuals whom they oppose.
All three movements have called for the purification of American society, and all are considered right-wing extremist organizations.
The first Klan flourished in the southern United States in the late 1860's and died out by the 1870's.
It sought to overthrow the Republican state governments in the South during the Reconstruction Era, especially by using violence against African-American community leaders.
With numerous chapters across the South, it was suppressed around 1871, through federal law enforcement.
Members made their own, often colorful costumes, robes, and masks, designed to be terrifying and hide their identities.
The second group was founded in 1915 and it flourished nationwide in the early and mid-1920s, particularly in urban areas of the midwest.
It was rooted in local Protestant communities and opposed Catholics and Jews, and stressed it's oppostion of the Catholic Church at a time of high immigration from mostly Catholic nations of southern and eastern Europe.
The second organization adopted the standard white costume you're familiar with, while adding cross-burnings and mass parades to intimidate others.
The third and current manifestation of the KKK emerged after 1950 in the form of localized and isolated groups that used the KKK name.
They have focused on opposition to the civil rights movement, often using violence and murder to suppress activists.
It is classified as a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League.
As of 2016, the Anti-Defamation League puts the total Klan membership nationwide at about 3,000.
Number 2 The Order of the Solar Temple
The Order of the Solar Temple is a secret society that claims to be based upon the ideals of the Knight's Templar.
It was started by Joseph di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 in Geneva.
The aims of The Order of the Solar Temple include establishing "correct notions of authority and power in the world.";
an affirmation of the primacy of the spiritual over the temporal;
assisting humanity through a great "transition";
and preparing for the second coming of Christ, as a Solar God-King.
Praise the Sun to be grossly incandescent!
They also want to unify all Christian churches and Islam, which seems very stupid.
In October of 1994, an infant was killed at the group center in Morin-Heights, Quebec.
The baby had been stabbed repeatedly with a wooden stake.
It was believed that di Mambro ordered the murder because he identified the baby as the anti-Christ described in the Bible.
He believed that the anti-Christ was born into the Order to prevent di Mambro from succeeding in his spiritual aim.
A few days later, di Mambro and twelve followers performed a ritual Last Supper.
A few days after that, apparent mass suicides and murders were conducted at Cheiry and Salvan, two villages in western Switzerland.
15 inner circle members committed suicide with poison, 30 were killed by bullets or smothering, and 8 others were killed by other causes.
In Switzerland, many of the victims were found in a secret underground chapel lined with mirrors and other items of Templar symbolism.
The bodies were dressed in the order's ceremonial robes and were in a circle, feet together, heads outward, most with plastic bags tied over their heads; they had each been shot in the head.
It is believed that the plastic bags were a symbol of the ecological disaster that would befall the human race after the OTS members moved on to Sirius.
A mayor, a journalist, and civil servant, were all found among the dead in Switzerland.
Some members had personally donated over $1 million to Di Mambro.
More mass suicides were to come.
One was thwarted on December 16th in 1995, but on the 23rd, 16 bodies were discovered in a star-formation in France.
And in 1997, five members of the OTS took their own lives in Quebec.
And Number One: The Branch
The Branch are a religious group that originated in 1955
David Koresh's arrival on the Waco compound in 1981 was well received by everyone at the Davidian commune.
Koresh had an affair with then-prophetess of the Branch Davidians Lois Roden.
When she died, her son George Roden inherited the position of prophet and leader of the commune.
However, George Roden and Koresh began to clash.
Koresh soon enjoyed the loyalty of the majority of the Branch community.
As an attempt to regain support, George Roden challenged Koresh to raise the dead, going so far as to exhume a corpse to demonstrate his spiritual supremacy.
This illegal activity gave Koresh an opportunity to attempt to file charges against Roden, however he didn't have any evidence.
This led to the November 3rd, 1987 raid on the Mount Carmel Center by Koresh and 7 of his followers equipped with seven rifles, two shotguns and nearly 400 rounds of ammunition.
Their objective was to retake the land that Koresh had left three years earlier although they claim to have been trying to obtain evidence of Roden's illegal activity, yet they did not come equipped with a camera.
On February 28, 1993 the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,
the cool bureau,
attempted to execute a search warrant relating to alleged sexual abuse charges and illegal weapons violations at the Waco compound.
The ATF, already prepared for a gun battle, attempted to raid the compound for approximately two hours until their ammo supplies began to run low.
Four ATF agents were killed during the raid, and another sixteen were wounded.
There were five Branch Davidians killed in the raid.
Almost six hours after the ceasefire, Michael Schroeder was shot dead by ATF agents who alleged that he fired a pistol at agents as he attempted to re-enter the compound.
After the raid, ATF agents established contact with Koresh and others inside of the compound.
The FBI took command after the deaths of the federal agents, and managed to facilitate the release of 19 children relatively early into the negotiations.
Allegedly, the children had been physically and sexually abused long before the raid.
On April 19, 1993, almost two months later, the FBI moved for a final siege of the compound using large weaponry
such as .50 caliber rifles and armored Combat Engineering Vehicles to combat the heavily armed Branch Davidians.
The FBI attempted to use tear gas to flush out the Branch without bloodshed.
Once the Branch opened fire, the FBI's response was to increase the amount of gas being used.
Around noon, three fires fires broke out in the compound in seperate parts.
The government maintains the fires were deliberately started by the Branch.
Some Branch survivors maintain the fires were started by the FBI.
76 Branch Davidians died on April 19, with only nine surviving, killed by rubble, suffocating effects of the fire, or by gunshot wound from fellow Branch Davidians.
That whole siege was a mess, and went down in notoriety in U.S. history.
Well guys, I'd like to thank you for watching this video.
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Which is your favorite New-Age cult?
Mine might be Scientology.
I hope you guys are having a great day!
Bub-bye!