Creepy Cults That Were Busy Brainwashing Right In Your Backyard
The 1970's was a wild time. Between the Vietnam War, Watergate, and the end of flower power, a lot of people barely had time to notice all the cults that had begun to pop up around them. But while everyone was distracted, some people began to break off from traditional religious groups and form different sects and cults.
Many of these cults are well known and well documented, but it is surprising how many cults go unnoticed and are still active today. While cults come and go, what they do have in common is an end goal, a charismatic leader, and a controlling atmosphere. Aliens, doomsday, and terrorism are just a few of the driving factors behind these crazy cults. One founder even encourages his followers to dumpster dive for survival. It's hard to believe they were all operating in our backyard.
Heaven's Gate
The Heaven's Gate cult became a household name in 1997 after the cult's leader, Marshall Applewhite, led himself and 38 others to commit suicide. The Heaven's Gate cult believed that by committing suicide, they would all be saved by a UFO that was following the Hale-Bopp comet.
The cult operated in California from 1974-1997 and believed that Applewhite and his nurse, Bonnie Nettles, were the "two witnesses" from the Book of Revelation. They somehow attached this to aliens, because Applewhite and Nettles believed that when they died they would be picked up by a UFO and saved.
The Branch Davidians
Cult leader David Karesh created The Branch Davidians after being exiled from the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists. Karesh believed that he was a religious messiah and that he would lead the cult because God told him the end of the world was coming.
The Branch Davidians went down in infamy after 53 died during an FBI standoff on their property in Waco, Taxas, in 1993. The standoff began because of gun violations since the Branch Davidians were known to be hoarding guns and ammunition. The Branch Davidians still exist today under the leadership of a high ranking follower, Charles Pace.
The Family International
The Family International cult was founded in 1968 by its leader, David Berg, and has survived multiple rebrandings and still exists today. The cult began as The Children Of God in 1968 and seemed pretty normal on the outside, until members of the group began to speak out, claiming the group would sexually and physically abuse the children.
The Family International was so widespread that even a few notable celebrities grew up in the group. Rose McGowan, River Pheonix, and Joaquin Pheonix all grew up in The Family International and none of them were fans. Before his death, River told a magazine that the cult was "ruining people's lives."
The Ant Hill Kids
Founded in 1977, The Ant Hill Kids was a small doomsday cult in Ontario, Canada led by Roch Theriault who believed the world would end in 1979. Well, he got that prediction wrong, so he turned to becoming a sadistic cult leader.
The cult got their name because they worked so hard under Theriault's orders, just like a colony of ants. Theriault became increasingly sadistic over the years, forcing members to break their own legs if they didn't work hard enough, nailing children to trees, and even forcing members to eat their own feces. Despite the abuse, most of the followers still believed Theriault's prophecies. Thankfully, Theriault was stopped after one member managed to escape and call for help.
The Order Of The Solar Temple
Based on the Knight's Templar, The Order of the Solar Temple was a new-age cult that believed the second coming of Christ would happen in a solar form. The cult was started by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 and had international reach, with followers in Canada, France, Switzerland, and the United States.
Their religious preaching took a morbid turn when Di Mambro ordered the killing of a newborn that he believed to be the antichrist. The sect in Quebec followed his orders, killing the child with a wooden stake. Over the next three years, members of the cult began to take their lives in multiple mass suicides.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
This cult became an invasive species when 10,000 members picked up and moved to a ranch outside Antelope, Oregon in 1981. There, they legally founded and began a town called Rajneeshpuram. The cult was originally founded in India around the beliefs of its leader, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Rajneesh preached free love, creating a 'New Man' and believed in capitalism and personal wealth. Rajneesh even owned the largest collection of Rolls Royce's in the world.
The cult was creepy already because everyone in it only wore red, but it fell apart after they attempted a bioterror attack in Oregon in 1984. The cult tried to infect an Oregon town with salmonella in an attempt to win a local election.
The Manson Family
Charles Manson and his Manson Family cult were the first to bring mainstream attention to cults and their place in American society. Before the Manson Family, cults were not well known or understood, but after the highly publicized murder of Sharon Tate and the attempt to start a race war, American's started to notice cults.
Manson himself was a rejected musician who believed in everything from free love to Scientology to Satanism. What was most scary about Manson was that he only gave the orders, and never did any of the killing himself. It was the many young, female followers of his that went out to commit the murders.
Nuwaubian Nation
The Nuwaubian Nation is basically what you get when you combine nearly every possible religious belief and mash them together. The founder, Dwight York, combined Islam, Freemasons, Moors, black nationalism, Christianity, Egyptian religion and more to create this cult. He advertised his beliefs on the streets of Harlem in the 1970s and grew a massive following by the 1980s.
The cult picked up and moved to Georgia in 1993 and built their own cult compound outfitted with a fake pyramid and sphynx. Despite the impressive sight, the cult engaged in sexual and physical abuse and York was arrested in 2002 and charged with child molestation and rape.
Sullivanians
This cult never officially had a name, but many people on the outside looking in called them the Sullivanians. The cult was named after it's supposed leader, Saul B. Newton, who was a psychologist. Newton and his wife believed that the traditional nuclear family was at the root of stress and anxiety and wanted to build an untraditional commune.
They began their work in 1957 when they opened The Sullivan Institute. They hid the cult commune by saying it was a therapy center. Anyone at the Institute wasn't allowed to have monogamous relationships, was encouraged to have sex with their therapists, and had to cut ties with friends and family.
Scientology
Scientology might be one of the most controversial religious groups today because many people can't decide whether they are a cult or not. The religion was created by L. Ron Hubbard, a washed up science-fiction writer. Scientology is very secretive, and its core teachings are known only to those highest up in the levels of the religion.
People who were Scientologists and who left the religion have claimed it to be cult-like and the church has tried to aggressively silence those who speak out. Scientology falls under the category of a cult depending on where you are. In America, it is classified as a religious group (and gets the tax exemptions because of it) but in France, it is classified as a dangerous cult.
Nation Of Yahweh
The Nation of Yahweh is a sect of the Black Hebrew Israelites who believe that African Americans are the original Israelites and that they have the proper claim to Israel. The cult began in 1979 when Hulon Mitchell Jr., who is now known as Yahweh Ben Yahweh, began to preach his beliefs in Miami.
The group gained followers and they had to completely cut off ties with their family and adopt new Hebrew names. Soon after, Mitchell Jr. began to order his followers to randomly attack white people because of their history of slavery, and attack black people for not joining the cult. The cult is still alive and well with one member recently in the news for holding a "Blacks for Trump" sign at a 2016 Trump rally.
The Peoples Temple
The Peoples Temple is better known by their infamous leader, revered Jim Jones, and their mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana in 1978. The Peoples Temple combines Christianity, communism, socialism, and racial equality, which attracted a lot of minority members of America.
Jones's cult grew throughout the 1970s until he decided to move the cult to a commune in Guayana in case there was a nuclear war. Congressman Leo Ryan went to the commune to investigate child abuse charges. He was shot and killed by some followers and, knowing the U.S. would retaliate, Jones ordered all 918 of his followers to drink cyanide-laced grape Kool-aid.
Raëlism
Raëlism is a UFO religion that is surprisingly popular all around the world today. It was founded by Claude Vorilhon, and according to him, a UFO appeared in southern France and gave him a Bible, then the aliens explained they were actually humans from the future and that they would return one day.
For some reason, this cult became super popular, probably for being anti-violence and pro-free love. They are said to have over 20,000 members around the world today. The cult was brought into the limelight in 2002 when a company they owned claimed to have successfully cloned a human, aptly named Eve.
FLDS
FLDS, better known by their wordy name, Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is a polygamous cult and break off of the Mormon church. It was founded in 1921 because the Mormon church had outlawed polygamy and functioned quietly behind the scenes until 2002, when Warren Jeffs became the church's leader.
In 2006, the FLDS was in the mainstream media after Jeffs was put on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list for counts of incest and sexual misconduct with children. After Jeff's arrest, the cult continued to make news when multiple raids on their properties resulted in hundreds of children being taken away from their parents.
Westboro Baptist Church
Most American's know about the controversial Westboro Baptist Church, but for those who don't, they are a Baptist sect who holds many controversial beliefs. They have made their presence known at many public funerals and protests with signs that include aggressive hate speech.
It has been widely debated whether or not the Westboro Baptist Church is a cult, but over the years more than 20 members have left the church and testified to abusive, controlling, and "brainwashing" behavior by the founder, Fred Phelps.
The Vampire King
Marcus Wesson was born in Kansas and was part of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church before he split and combined Christianity with vampirism. In 1971, Wesson began to marry and indoctrinate his children into believing that Armageddon was coming and that they needed to prepare for the end of the world.
Wesson spent 30 years creating his own cult through incest and controlling tactics. Any of his daughters were told they would become his wives one day, and any sons had to call him Lord or Master. On March 12, 2004, 9 of his children and wives died after Wesson convinced them into a suicide pact. Wesson survived and was sentenced to death in 2005.
Eckankar
While most cults start off as a sect of an already-established religion, Eckankar claims to be unaffiliated to any other religious group. Eckankar was founded in San Diego, California in 1969 by Paul Twitchell. Twitchell combined a bunch of philosophies to create the cult where members make up new names, talk to each other in an imaginary language, and claim to have relatives 10,000 years old.
Eckankar is registered as a non-profit organization but sells Twitchell's books for profit, which many claim to have been plagiarized. Hey, there are worse things a cult can do than sell books for profit.
Twelve Tribes
The Twelve Tribes is a cult that was founded in 1972 by Gene Spriggs and still exists today. Spriggs formed the cult to be an offset of Christianity, and while they weren't popular, they avoided criticism until the child abuse allegations came to light.
On June 22, 1984, the Vermont State Police, in repose to allegations of abuse, seized 112 children from the Twelve Tribes commune. They were released that same day, but the raid brought attention to Sprigg's authoritarian and abusive leadership style. The cult has more than 3000 members worldwide, even today.
The Garbage Eaters
The Brethren are better known by the name given to them by the media, The Garbage Eaters, because followers of the cult often dumpster dive for their food. The Brethren was formed in 1971 by ex-marine Jim Roberts who believed America was sinful and an apocalypse was coming soon. Roberts convinced his followers that he would save their lives like Noah saved humanity.
Roberts was extremely authoritarian in the group, with all orders from him being absolute. His followers had to live a nomadic lifestyle and give up all contact with friends and family.
Aetherius Society
Yet another widely popular UFO cult, the Aetherius Society was founded in 1955 by George King. The Society's goal is to come in contact with their "Cosmic Masters" a.k.a. aliens, who will show humanity how to solve all the world's problems.
The Aetherius Society is largely into organic health remedies and Eastern philosophies of balancing the mind, body, and soul in order to make contact with the Cosmic Masters. The Aetherius Society has been well documented as being a cult but has never received the backlash other cults have, likely because many see them as pretty harmless.
