Cults sound like a relic of medieval times, but a 1980 survey of 1,000 San Francisco Bay students by psychologists Zimbardo and Hartley found that over half of them had been approached at least once by a cult recruiter. These organizations can be harmless, but they can also become an extremely dangerous influence on the behavior of adherents. Let's take a look at...
- What Defines a Cult?
- Glorious Leaders and Comforting Fictions
- Aum Shinrikyo
- Harold Camping
- The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors
- Pana Wave Laboratory
- The Prince Philip Movement
- Heaven's Gate
- The Zizians
People often look for something "more" to believe in - and cults can exploit that... (Pexels)
What Defines a Cult?
Deborah Layton once said "People do not knowingly join "cults"" and as a former member of the Peoples Temple behind the Jonestown mass suicide, she should know. It's hard to pinpoint when a group becomes a cult, but the Cult Education Institute suggests a number of warning signs including:
- An authoritarian leader that is beyond the reproach of cultists.
- Hounding former members, claiming that there was no legitimate reason to leave.
- Strange and unreasonable fears of the wider world.
- Zero tolerance for doubts and criticism.
As you can see, these signs can often be applied to groups that would be considered mainstream - several major religions can tick all of those boxes - so the demands may not seem unreasonable to a prospective cultist.
Glorious Leaders and Comforting Fictions
Most cults have one or more charismatic individuals as their lynchpin, typically skilled manipulators that break down the will of cultists with techniques like "love-bombing" and public humiliation, or being forced to provide blackmail material to be used against them if they fail to toe the line. The Hollywood NXIVM cult is a textbook example of this,
Sometimes a leader will attempt to claim moral authority, taking on the mantle of a prophet or reincarnation of another religious figure. Doing so allows them to prey on the religious beliefs and expectations of the cult, and blame any failing on "the forces of evil" or whatever other bogeyman is in vogue.
Many cults instill an us vs. them world view, and that the cultists are in some way "superior" to the common man. People with low self esteem are particularly vulnerable - the false sense of worth instilled by belonging to a cult can certainly make one feel good. This attitude can even foster a a self-fulfilling prophecy as friends and family are aggravated and driven away by the newly espoused beliefs
Other cults function by offering unrealistic rewards (power, riches & influence) or salvation from an apocalyptic event. Some groups attempt to start the aforementioned apocalyptic event as a doomsday cult, usually at the behest of a leader with pretensions of divinity. When the predictions and efforts of these cults fail to produce the world-ending event they predict, cult members often stick with their leader. Psychologist L. Festinger noted that members often rationalized these failings away, claiming that their actions had prevented them.
Aum Shinrikyo
The Japanese doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo hit the news in 1995 when they attacked a Tokyo subway with sarin gas, a lethal neurotoxin. The resulting poisoning injured over 5500 people and left 13 dead. This wasn't the first attack carried out by the group, but it has become the best known - in fact, it's considered the most deadly act of domestic terrorism that has ever happened in Japan.
The cult itself began as something of a yoga and meditation club. The leader, a man calling himself Shoko Asahara, began introducing the idea of an upcoming apocalypse, potentially involving a war between the USA and Japan. It should be noted that Asahara suffered from a number of mental health issues, beginning with anxiety and suicidal thoughts that eventually developed into full blown paranoia. He also thought of himself as a messianic figure. Eventually the cult would adopt the idea that all non-cultists would go to hell during the apocalypse, but could be "spared" if killed by a member of Aum Shinrikyo.
They initially attempted to gain power through legitimate means, entering candidates in Japanese elections and conducting a political campaign. These democratic attempts to trigger the apocalypse failed, and the cult obtained a tiny fraction of the vote. Now convinced that dark forces were conspiring to keep them out of power, the cult began attempting to produce chemical and biological weapons to force the issue.
Aum Shinrikyo attempted to produce a number of weapons, including botulism, anthrax, cyanide and eventually, sarin. Their early attempts were generally met with failure (often more deadly to the cultists than their intended target) but with the expertise of Masami Tsuchiya (who had previously studied chemistry at university) they were able to produce viable sarin, a deadly neurotoxin. The cult was even able to build and maintain a chemical weapons plant right under the nose of the authorities, using shell companies to buy land and the various ingredients required to synthesize their weapons.
In 1994 the cult attacked the Matsumoto residential district, using a modified van to pump out sarin without being detected. The objective was to kill some judges that seemed likely to rule against the Aum Shinrikyo in a land dispute. The 8 fatalities from this attack and the mounting evidence of the cult's activities led to the police planning a raid, scheduled for March 22nd, but a mole tipped off the cult prompting them to attack the Tokyo subway on March 20th.
Cult members carried bags of liquid sarin onto the trains, dropped them and popped them with sharpened umbrella tips. The sarin rapidly evaporated, becoming a gas that poisoned anyone nearby. Meanwhile the cultists exited the trains and met with accomplices that drove them away. In the aftermath, a police raid led to the capture of over 200 members of the cult, and 13 leaders were sentenced to death and executed.
Could mathematics predict the end of days? (TimHill)
Harold Camping
Evangelist, modern day prophet and co-owner of the American "Family Radio" Harold Camping convinced many of his followers that the end of times was coming, and spearheaded a campaign to let the rest of the world know with billboards and broadcasts.
Camping predicted the end of the world would occur on 21/5/2011 (he'd actually made the same prediction in 1994 as well.) He came to this conclusion due to mathematics performed on the bible, attempting to puzzle out some secret "code" hidden within the story and ignoring the fact that Christians believe the rapture -cannot- be predicted.
Many of his devout followers quit their jobs and sold their material property, so they could fund billboards and proselytize about the upcoming "judgment." Skeptics were motivated as well, planning "fake raptures" by leaving piles of empty clothing on the street to simulate people being taken directly to heaven, and even releasing blow-up dolls filled with helium.
When the rapture failed to materialize, Camping edited his prediction, claiming that a spiritual rapture had occurred, but the real thing wouldn't happen until 21/10/2011. Since you are sitting here reading this now, you may be able to guess how that turned out. In the aftermath of the "rapture" Camping was ridiculed and largely abandoned by his betrayed followers. He actually apologized for his mistakes, and seemed genuine in his confusion about the event.
The United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors
The Nuwaubians are a splinter group from the Nation of Islam movement, created by one Dwight York. It seems the Nation of Islam viewed York as a dangerous heretic in the wake of this schism - he was forced to move his temple (Tama-Re) to Georgia, where he set up twin pyramids, fake palm trees and statues of Egyptian gods. All the while, concealed speakers would play a droning "uuum" sound.
The religion itself used Islam as a baseline but added the worship of UFOs and Egyptian mythology. To better emulate Egypt, York and his followers accessorized their compound in Georgia with as many statues as possible. They even tried to make the mobile homes that acted as housing look like sections of temple.
The cult eventually ran afoul of the law when they attempted to declare themselves a sovereign nation and open their own nightclub-bar. Investigation by local authorities also turned up evidence that York was preying on the younger members of his cult. An unresisted raid on the compound led to York being arrested and convicted in 2004. The compound was bulldozed in 2005, with the paraphernalia collapsing at the slightest touch - a poor comparison to its Egyptian inspiration.
Pana Wave Laboratory
The Pana Wave Laboratory movement of Japan is a doomsday cult that predicted the end of the world in 2003. As well as being deeply interested in the uses of electromagnetic waves (as both a power source and weaponry) they suspected that an undiscovered 10th planet would swing past Earth and invert the magnetic poles, leading to massive tidal waves and geological upheaval.
Members of the group dressed in white, hung white sheets over their camps and drove white vans around the countryside in an attempt to find an area free of electromagnetic waves. They believed that their garb could shield them from the waves, which they believed were being used by communists in an attempt to kill their leader Yuko Chino.
Interestingly they attempted to capture (and claimed to be feeding) Tama-chan, a lost bearded seal that had been making a home in Tokyo river. The cult seems to have believed that the seal (native to the Arctic) was a harbinger of Earth's magnetic poles inverting - and that it might hold the key to forestalling the apocalypse. On a less cheery note, the cult is known to have beaten members to death in an attempt to remove electromagnetic waves from their body, meaning that they are not as harmless as they might initially sound.
Behold the harbinger of the end times! (Pexels)
The Prince Philip Movement
Vanuatu legend speaks of an ancestor that left the islands, intending to seek out a powerful wife and bring peace to the world. It's not exactly known how the islanders settled on Prince Phillip as an incarnation of this figure, but he was married to a powerful woman from overseas (Queen Elizabeth II) and he didn't come from Britain, meaning that he "travelled" to find his wife. The fact that Britain and France controlled the islands at the time would put him in a position of power as well, and he fitted neatly the prophecy.
Since at least 1970, the islanders have viewed Prince Phillip as a peaceful influence over Britain and Europe as a whole, and he did little to dissuade them of that opinion. He came to visit the islands, participated in their culture and made an effort to be gracious when the islanders sent him gifts.
The islanders have always assumed that Prince Philip would return to them when his work was done and peace had spread across the outside world. With his death, many of the islanders see his imminent return to the island of Tanna in spiritual form, to be with his people.
Heaven's Gate
Founded by Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite in 1974, the Heaven's Gate cult believed that benevolent aliens would take them away on a grand journey of discovery, allowing them to ascend and exist on a higher level. The catch being that they had to reject their humanity, a view that would eventually lead to a mass suicide.
Nettles and Applewhite believed that they were the "two witnesses" mentioned in the Christian Book of Revelation... and that they would eventually die, be resurrected and be taken up to a waiting spaceship. They though that this would act as a demonstration of the truth of their faith, allowing them to lead the faithful to a higher plane of existence. They toured and preached, eventually obtaining a following of a few hundred individuals.
The cult blended religion with science fiction, referring to their followers as "the crew" as they meandered through America. They lived off the grid, meaning that authorities were unable to keep a close eye on them. Eventually they changed their living style into one resembling a holy order, eschewing drugs, alcohol and sex in preparation for their ascension - some members even underwent castration to help them stay "pure." The group also managed to set up a website to spread their message on the nascent internet. It still runs to this day.
The close passage of the comet Hale-Bopp in 1997 was seen as an omen by the cult. They theorized that the promised spaceship would be following the comet, hidden inside the trail of ice it left behind. Anxious to "board" the craft, Applewhite and 38 other members of his "crew" taped farewell messages, ingested phenobarbital and sealed bags over their heads to asphyxiate. The cultists committed suicide in waves, with each group arranging the previous bodies before killing themselves.
The Zizians
One of the more current cults that has been operating in the USA are the Zizians. Their leaders were arrested in 2025 on charges of trespass and obstruction, but the group are thought to be linked to the killings of at least six people.
Their founder Jack Lasota (using the handle "Ziz") began blogging about topics including the anarchism, rationalist movement (a philosophy that holds reason up as the ultimate source and arbiter of knowledge) and veganism.
Becoming dissatisfied with other rationalists, the blogger and a few companions were arrested while protesting a rationalist event. This seemed to put things into a spiral - Lasota didn't show up for a court date and had a warrant issued... that was cancelled after Lasota was (falsely) declared dead.
Lasota and a group of followers next emerged in California, living in a makeshift commune. They were renting land for their vehicles from Curtis Lind - but after they stopped handing over money and were subsequently threatened with eviction, the "Zizians" attacked Lind and stabbed him 50 times. It seems to take a lot to put down an old rancher though, with a partially blinded Lind fighting off his would-be murderers and even killed one with a gunshot.
The Zizians have been associated with a number of other attacks and murders, with the law eventually catching up with them in 2025. Though it's unclear if they meet the technical definition of a cult, their strange behavior, disregard for society and central leadership figure certainly make them look like one!
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