What is a cult?
And how does someone know if the faith they are following is harmful?
…Cults differ from traditional religions as they tend to be closed off from the world
and run by a single charismatic leader.
In a cult, everything depends on the personal relationship with this leader, and followers
are often required to separate themselves from the rest of the world and adhere to strange
belief systems and ritualistic behavior.
Which cults are the biggest and baddest?
That's what we'll be looking at today, in this episode of The Infographics Show:
Top 10 Deadliest Cults.
In 2012, archaeologists may have discovered the oldest cult when they unearthed objects
that shed light on how one was operating in Judah at the time of King David.
The archaeological excavation was of the 3,000-year-old fortified city Khirbet Qeiyafa, located about
19 miles southwest of Jerusalem.
Researchers uncovered rich assemblages of pottery, stone, and metal tools, and many
art and cult objects.
The archaeologists also uncovered shrines from the time of the early Biblical kings
in the Holy Land, providing the earliest evidence of a cult.
"This suggests that the population of Khirbet Qeiyafa observed two Biblical bans of pork
and graven images, and thus practiced a different cult than that of the Canaanites or the Philistines,"
Garfinkel said in a press release issued by the university.
The discoveries also offer support for the Biblical depiction of King David, he said.
But the claims were also met with skepticism by other scientists and it's not easy trying
to verify exactly what was going on 3,000 years ago from digging a hole in the ground.
So what about cults of recent times?
Well, here's our list of the 10 deadliest ones.
10.
Ho No Hana or Yorokobi Kazoku no Wa – that's quite a mouthful, as well as a very dangerous
Japanese cult.
The 30,000-member Japanese organization was led by Hogen Fukunaga who claims he can see
someone's past and future by looking at their feet, according to the Japan Times.
Presiding Judge Tsutomu Aoyagi accused Fukunaga of exploiting people's fears.
"He used shocking words to fuel their concern, falsely claimed their diseases can be cured
through training in his cult, and swindled exorbitant amounts of money from them,"
the judge said as he denounced Fukunaga's acts as a vicious crime.
Fukunaga extorted $1.3 million from 30 followers by diagnosing them with serious illnesses
with his fake foot therapy.
Thankfully this quack was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
He should be out by now, but we couldn't find out if he has a new line of work.
9.
Church of Euthanasia – From spinning records to cult leader!
The Church of Euthanasia was founded in 1992 by software developer and DJ Chris Korda.
Korda was inspired by Dadaism, an artistic movement that emerged during World War I with
a mission to "to destroy the hoaxes of reason and to discover an unreasoned order."
In 1995, Korda created a "Suicide Assistance Hot-Line" to help Americans kill themselves.
The number was displayed on a billboard along with the message: "Helping you every step
of the way!
Thousands helped!
How about you?"
The idea was to play callers pre-recorded instructions on how to end their life.
Thankfully the phone company wouldn't activate the line.
During the 1990s the church even appeared on the Jerry Springer Show.
The church still has a website, though it's hard to tell how dangerous the organization
is today, and Korda seems to have moved on to 3D printing.
8.
Order of the Solar Temple – In Geneva in 1984, The Solar Temple was founded by Luc
Jouret, a homeopathic physician, and New Age lecturer Joseph De Mambro.
The central teaching of The Solar Temple was that the Earth would face some sort of apocalyptic
event in the mid 1990s, and to prepare for this event, members believed it was necessary
to enter a higher spiritual plane.
As part of this process, 53 members of the Solar Temple were murdered or committed suicide
in Canada and Switzerland on October 4 and 5, 1994, and the buildings in which they died
were set on fire.
The following year, another 16 bodies were found in the French Alps, also burned in a
similar ritual.
According to the LA Times, each body had at least one bullet wound, and at the crime scene,
investigators found vials of toxic drugs and sedatives.
7.
Rajneesh or Osho cult - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as Osho, began a spiritual movement
in 1970, which was an odd mix of capitalism, meditation, and open sexuality.
Osho arrived in America from India and set up a commune in Oregon.
His followers tried to take over the Wasco county government by poisoning the entire
town, contaminating salad bars in local restaurants.
Over 750 people fell ill and 45 were hospitalized.
Though Osho was the supposed spiritual guru behind the cult, the lady in the driver's
seat was Ma Anand Sheela, an Indian-born American–Swiss spokesperson of the Rajneesh movement, who
was eventually convicted of multiple attempted murders.
The crazy story was aired on Netflix recently in a six-part documentary called Wild Wild
Country, that shocked viewers with tales of poison and paranoia.
6.
The Children of God - In 1968, David Berg started The Children of God, a cult that was
described in an article for the Guardian as "devoting themselves to the worship of Jesus
Christ and promiscuous sex."
Berg announced that female members should have sex with men so as to convert them.
He named this practice "flirty fishing."
In his 1979 annual report, he stated that his FFers, or flirty fishers, had "witnessed
to over a quarter of a million souls, loved over 25,000 of them, and won about 19,000
to the Lord."
This promiscuous practice was eventually stopped due to AIDS-related concerns.
"It was religious prostitution," Berg's daughter Deborah said.
"I had to quit looking at the man as my father but as the leader of a worldwide movement
that was destroying lives".
David Berg, who is also known as Moses David, is now living in seclusion, but still communicates
to his converts through letter writing.
5.
The Manson family – Charles Manson is best known for being a serial killer, but when
you look at cults online, his name consistently comes up.
This is because in 1967, he organized a group of followers under the name the Manson Family.
Though not exactly a religious cult, the so called Manson Family incorporated ideas from
Scientology, Satanism, and various new age ideologies.
Manson preached to his devotees that the United States was on the brink of an apocalyptic
race war known as Helter Skelter, named after The Beatles' song.
On August 1969, Manson ordered his followers to carry out a twin set of killings including
that of film director Roman Polanski's pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, and supermarket executive
Leno LaBianca.
Manson's followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August
1969.
In 1971, he was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for
the deaths of seven people.
Manson served out his life sentence at California State Prison in Corcoran and died at age 83
in 2017.
4.
The Faizrakhmanist movement - A self-proclaimed prophet had a vision from God.
He would build an Islamic caliphate under the Russian city of Kazan.
The digging began in the early 2,000's and 70 followers soon moved into an eight-level
subterranean labyrinth of cramped cells with no light, heat, or ventilation.
It wasn't until 2012 that Russian police discovered the underground Islamic sect.
According to British newspaper The Guardian, the leader, Fayzrakhman Sattarov, who at the
time was 83-years-old, had his followers living in "a series of dirty, damp cells on eight
different levels underneath a shabby house."
Aged between one and 17, the children rarely saw the light of day and had never left the
property, been to school, or seen a doctor.
Sattarov, who declared himself a prophet in contradiction to the principles of Islam,
was charged with negligence, said Irina Petrova, deputy prosecutor in the provincial capital
of Kazan.
3.
The Branch Davidians - In 1981, David Koresh, born Vernon Wayne Howell, went to Waco, Texas,
to join the Branch Davidians, and by 1990, had become their leader.
The 1993 standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidians outside Waco, Texas,
is one of the most well known cult stories, and it dominated news headlines for months.
The FBI was attempting to arrest leader David Koresh and so raided the group's 77-acre
complex, when they began to exchange heavy gunfire at the site.
Four agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and six Branch Davidians were
killed in the firefight.
What happened next was one of the most televised cult standoffs in history.
For 51-days, Koresh and most of his followers refused to leave the compound.
FBI negotiators tried to reason with Koresh but to no avail.
The standoff ended when agents and armored vehicles raided the building, but a fire-
which witnesses claim Koresh set himself- broke out and engulfed the complex.
Only nine people inside survived.
Critics called what happened at Waco a massacre.
The siege left 75 people dead, many of whom were children.
2.
Heaven's Gate - Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religious cult based in San Diego, California.
It was founded in the early 1970s by Marshall Applewhite, a Texas music teacher, and Bonnie
Nettles, a nurse.
They met during a stay in a psychiatric institution, and renamed themselves Bo and Peep.
Heaven's Gate was the first well-known cult of the Internet era, using this new technology
to share their beliefs and recruit followers online.
In March 1997, 39 members, including Applewhite, wearing black track suits and sneakers, ate
apple sauce laced with barbiturates, and washed it down with vodka.
They then lay down with bags over their heads; wearing purple shrouds.
They died believing their bodies would be transported to a UFO travelling in the tail
of the Hale-Bopp comet.
A strange and dangerous story, Heaven's Gate is still one of the most notorious cults
of the 20th century.
So where do we go from here?
Number 1 is where we go…to The People's Temple Agricultural Project, better known
as "Jonestown", a remote settlement established by the Peoples Temple, an American cult under
the leadership of reverend Jim Jones, in north Guyana.
His former followers report that the leader encouraged physical fighting, spying, and
the use of fear.
At its peak, the Temple had connections with many left-wing political figures and boasted
20,000 members, though it's hard to verify the actual numbers.
There's a great deal to be said about this cult, but it's without doubt best known
for the events of November 18, 1978, when 918 people died in a mass murder & suicide
pact.
The mass suicide and killings at Jonestown resulted in the greatest single loss of American
civilian life in a deliberate act prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Of the nearly 1,000 church members who began the day in Jonestown, only 33 survived to
see the next day.
Without a doubt, this makes The People's Temple Agricultural Project the deadliest
cult on our list.
So, can you think of other deadly cults not mentioned here?
Have you ever come into contact with a real cult?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to watch our other video called Why Was Jack The Ripper Never Found?
Thanks for watching, and as always, don't forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time!
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét