It may be a rant against rock music. It may be convincing a bunch of teenagers you're a
vampire. Throughout modern history, we've had our fair share of cults.
Keep watching to hear the creepiest things the more infamous ones have said!
Church Universal and Triumphant is one of several groups that believe in the
"I AM," which is the god-like, higher aspect of all people.
Religious teachings from all around the world are incorporated into their beliefs,
but the main goal for their members is to purify themselves for what they call ascension.
The church was founded by Mark Prophet, but it was his wife and successor Elizabeth Clare
Prophet who reorganized it into what it is today. She claimed to be able to receive
messages from the Masters – past humans who spiritually transformed into non-corporeal
beings – and prophesied major disasters throughout the 1980s. These prophecies
prompted members of the church to build bomb shelters in preparation for doomsday.
Although the church persists to this day, they may be best known for a recording released in 1984
called "Dedication To The Tackling Of The Beast And The Dragon." As detailed by Vice,
the track was included in a collection called The Sounds of American Doomsday Cults and has
since been sampled by many musicians. In this rapid, almost incomprehensible rant,
Elizabeth Clare Prophet calls upon the I AM presence, and references the god flame,
Jesus, and Buddha. She then ends the recording with an odd condemnation, saying,
"I have come to you this evening to begin a spiral, ongoing,
of challenging the cause and core of rock music. The great anti-freedom force of the planet."
One of the most infamous events in the history of cults is the
Jonestown Massacre. As noted by Rolling Stone, Jonestown was the largest number
of American civilian deaths in a non-natural event before 9/11.
The Peoples Temple was a popular radical religious congregation in the 1970s with
political sway and thousands of members. However, faith healer Jim Jones perverted
these popular ideals for his own ends, and as his power grew, so did his paranoia. By 1977,
he had moved his most devout followers to Jonestown, an agricultural settlement in Guyana,
South America. Essentially ruling as the commune's dictator, everything came to a head for Jones when
U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan attempted to check in on Jonestown. Ryan was murdered at the airstrip
when some of the Temple members attempted to return with him to the United States.
Jones then ordered the forced suicide of everyone in his organization. Over 900 individuals of all
ages were killed — some by drinking cyanide on Jones' command, others by shooting.
Jones's final speech to his followers was recorded. In the speech, he persuades the
crowd that they had been betrayed, and their children were going to be
taken. Rather than accept their fate, he tells them they should all die together.
"We didn't commit suicide. We committed an act of revolutionary suicide, protesting
the conditions of an inhumane world."
While it is often referred to as a mass suicide, it can also be considered long-premeditated
murder. According to People magazine, Jones required everyone to participate in late-night
mock suicide drills – called White Nights – in which Jones would make members drink from a
mixture they thought contained poison. During the mass killing, armed guards prevented members from
leaving, and evidence was later collected that some members were poisoned by force.
One of the turning points in how the public views the controversial religious organization
Scientology came in 2008 when a recruitment video surfaced, starring actor and devout follower Tom
Cruise. In the bizarre footage, Cruise whispers intensely and laughs maniacally while talking
about a future where everyone on the planet is a Scientologist. He speaks in typical Scientology
jargon – referring to Scientology founder and pulp sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard as
"LRH." He also talks about how to confront and defeat "SPs," or suppressive persons, who don't
believe in Scientology. The Mission: Impossible theme loops behind the entire interview.
"We can rehabilitate criminals. Way to happiness. We can bring peace and unite cultures."
The footage was shown in Scientology churches for believers, but it was never supposed to reach the
public. As noted on Tony Ortega's authoritative website about all things Scientology, the leaked
video was disastrous for Tom Cruise. From his wild claims about the abilities of Scientologists,
to his dream that non-Scientologists would someday only exist in history books,
Cruise's statements only served to make himself and Scientology look out of touch with reality.
The Church of Scientology did everything it could to have the footage removed from
the internet, which also backfired, leading to its ongoing feud with
internet anti-censorship activists. The video of Cruise remains online.
The Heaven's Gate initiation tapes were titled "Planet Earth About to be Recycled," and it
showcased leader Marshall Applewhite explaining how our current civilization was about to end,
and that a new humanity would emerge to replace us.
Applewhite, making intense, direct eye contact with the camera,
made numerous bold claims – including that his father was not human – and
that science and religion may have had more in common than we may have thought,
"We see fallen angels and space aliens as synonymous."
Applewhite would further claim that he himself had been born in heaven,
implying that the mind of Jesus Christ might be inside him at that very moment. In an elaborate
doomsday prophecy, Applewhite explained that the only people who would survive must evacuate
with his group. The real meaning of the word evacuation would be discovered on March 26,
1997. Applewhite convinced 38 of his followers to join him in drinking a lethal substance.
They were told that this would allow them to leave their bodies behind and go through
Heaven's Gate, where they believed a spaceship was waiting for them.
This spaceship was believed to be hiding behind the newly discovered Hale-Bopp comet.
The doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo— or Aum Supreme Truth — was based originally on practicing yoga.
Its leader Shoko Asahara preached a doctrine based on Buddhist and Hindu beliefs,
but he also was an admirer of Adolf Hitler, claimed he could levitate,
and believed he was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. An advertisement of his 1989 book,
Secrets of Developing Your Supernatural Powers, claims,
"Training that doesn’t lead to supernatural powers is hogwash!
The Venerable Master will show you the secrets of his amazing mystic powers.
Seeing the future, reading people’s minds, making your wishes come true, X-ray vision,
levitation, trips on the fourth dimension, hearing the voice of God, etc. It will change your life!"
Asahara preached that the end times were coming, and that it would come
in the form of chemical attacks by the United States on the rest of the world. The group
believed that — other than members of the cult — only 10% of the world population would survive.
Aum Shinrikyo is most famous for their deadly sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995.
As reported on by Time magazine, members released the nerve gas during morning rush hour,
resulting in 12 deaths and thousands of injuries.
As reported by The Guardian, leader David Berg preached an ideology that was part evangelical
Christian, and part '60s free love. This took shape as the group called Children of God,
which was later rebranded as Family International. While they were known for
their many idiosyncrasies, a practice referred to as flirty fishing made the group notorious.
Female members were expected to flirt with potential new members as a means of recruitment,
but it was only a small part of the culture of nonconsent promoted within the group.
Former members have since reported on the child abuse and sexual abuse within the cult.
Along with flirty fishing, Berg's beliefs were published in many writings that he
sent out to his followers, referred to as "Mo Letters." Many of these have been
collected on a website maintained by former Children of God members.
One publication by Berg stated his belief that the kingdom of heaven was hidden inside the moon.
Many members of the public first became aware of Children of God through their bizarre,
but catchy songs and music videos. One of these is "Cathy Don't Go," in which
the singer urges Cathy not to go to the supermarket despite the sale on rice,
because they will use their barcodes and price scanners to lead to total computer control.
In an interview for 60 Minutes Australia, leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh boasted of the lack of any
crime at his commune, Rajneeshpuram. As detailed by a report in People magazine,
the group began as a kind of free love commune in Oregon and grew to a small private city just for
believers. Rajneesh often taught nude meditation practices to his followers, which, according to
the Los Angeles Times, included hyperventilating, jumping, and something called primal-scream
catharsis. However former members have revealed that there were hundreds of attempted murders.
In response to conflicts with local government officials over attempts to expand further,
several of the most devout members of the cult used salmonella from their lab to poison local
salad bars. They believed that the resulting deaths would mean less voters in the upcoming
election. According to the 2000 book, Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health,
hundreds of individuals suffered from acute gastroenteritis due to the poisoning. Thankfully,
no one was killed. But this attack was just one link in a chain of events that
led to Rajneeshpuram being closed down, and Rajneesh being forced to return to India.
When a former member accused Ranjeesh of exploitation,
he agreed, but with one slight caveat,
"Exploitation is not necessarily evil, and I am a genius in exploitation."
Charles Manson may be the most famous American cult leader. In the 1960s,
Manson took advantage of the hippie youth culture in San Francisco to create a commune
based around his own beliefs — which were derived from fringe psychology, the occult,
and science-fiction. The group would become known as the Family, and the core of its beliefs was
Manson's doomsday prophecy known as Helter Skelter — a race war was coming,
and had apparently been predicted by the Beatles. But when it didn't happen,
Manson manipulated his followers into committing a series of murders in an attempt to start it.
"If you're going to do something, do it well.
And leave something witchy. Leave a sign to let the world know that you were there."
Even after his conviction, Manson continued to deny that he had ordered the murders,
or that he had any control over the Family. In a 1993 interview,
Manson — who now had a tattoo of a swastika on his forehead — argued
with Diane Sawyer about his involvement in the murder of actress Sharon Tate, saying,
"If you are me and I am you, everything you do is for you is for me, too,"
Manson then devolved into singing, "I Am the Walrus."
Warren Jeffs was the prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. He assumed complete control over the lives of the families in his
sect — forcing the men out, taking the women as his spiritual wives, and forbidding any
interaction with the outside world. As reported by the Guardian, when Jeffs began his life sentence
for sexual assault in 2011, he had at least 80 "spiritual wives," some of whom were children.
One of the pieces of evidence that was used to convict Jeffs was an
audio recording of him speaking to women and girls within his
group about their duty to become his wives, as he interpreted the Bible.
"If the Lord doesn't name you to be with me, in the heavenly session,
then you will fall under a greater condemnation and not be used."
As reported by Houston Press, the recording made at least one member of the jury cry.
Sixteen-year-old Rod Ferrell was the leader of a small cult of teenagers referred to as the
Vampire Clan. Ferrell himself claimed that he was not a teenager, but a 500-year-old vampire called
Vesago. As explained in a report from Spectrum News 13, Ferrell committed two murders in 1996 —
beating to death the parents of a friend who he had encouraged to run away and join his group.
Ferrell has gone on to state that his group would engage in feedings,
which would typically involve biting, cutting, and using syringes to take blood. This would
reportedly be done between members of the cult, or donors, as an act of trust or love.
During an interview he gave while in prison, serving a life sentence, Ferrell claimed,
"You want to know what it is to be a vampire? It equates to the life,
it equates to power. It equates to the very foundation of existence.
It's the communion. It's the holy wafer of the tongue, and that is what blood is
to a sanguinary vampire. That's what a sanguinary vampire is: a blood feeder."
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