Four notorious cults in the united states

1. PEOPLES TEMPLE

The "Peoples Temple" was the brainchild of preacher Jim Jones, born in Indiana, USA. Outwardly a Christian, he was, at his core, a passionate Marxist and atheist who used religion to spread his political beliefs. When he founded the new religious group called the "Peoples Temple" in the mid-1950s, Jones gained recognition as a fierce advocate for civil rights and racial integration. He packaged progressive politics in religious terms and once said, "If you were born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."

In the 1970s, the Peoples Temple relocated its headquarters to California, where Jim Jones connected with other radical activists and prominent political figures, including Governor Jerry Brown and First Lady Rosalynn Carter. However, he faced accusations of faith healing practices, corruption, and abuse of temple members, prompting him to move the group to the jungles of Guyana.

Billed as a utopian commune, Jonestown turned out to be a place of grueling labor and endless sermons from the increasingly paranoid Jones. Relatives of followers expressed concern about what was happening there. In November 1978, US Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.

The trip ended in a massacre, with Ryan and members of his party being killed. Jones shot himself on the same day, but not before coercing the bewildered and exhausted Jonestown community to drink a fruit punch laced with cyanide, which he called an act of "revolutionary suicide." In total, 918 people, including children, died because of Jim Jones.

2. HEAVEN'S GATE

The deadly cult known as "Heaven's Gate" was founded in the early 1970s by Marshall Applewhite and nurse Bonnie Nettles. They formed a close bond based on a mishmash of "esoteric secrets," as Applewhite later put it. Their belief system drew on Christian apocalyptic thinking, science fiction, and ufology, with the couple convinced that their destiny involved ascending to the "next level" by literally transforming into extraterrestrials and boarding a spaceship to depart.

They led a nomadic existence across America, spreading their message and attracting more followers. Their bond was close but platonic. Applewhite had previously divorced after an affair with a male student was exposed. His tortured relationship with his own sexuality seeped into the sect's beliefs: The group explicitly banned sex, and Applewhite himself underwent surgical castration.

Bonnie Nettles' death from cancer in 1985 forced Applewhite to rethink the group's belief system. He taught that ascension didn't necessarily have to be physical; it could also mean the spirit leaving behind the vessel of the body, as was the case with Nettles.

This shift in Applewhite's ideology had harrowing consequences for the group in 1997. Believing that an alien spacecraft was trailing the Hale-Bopp comet passing by Earth, the cult members decided to take their own lives so that their souls could board the spaceship.

A total of 39 people, including Applewhite, died at the cult's headquarters in San Diego by ingesting a mixture of drugs and alcohol. They wore identical black uniforms and Nike sneakers, along with wristbands bearing the inscription "Heaven's Gate Away Team."

This "Star Trek" reference had a particularly grim resonance because one of the deceased was the brother of Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the original series.

3. NXIVM

One particularly surreal news story in recent years

was the arrest of Allison Mack, a former star of the successful superhero drama "Smallville," in 2018 for sex trafficking. The scandal emerged in connection with the NXIVM cult (pronounced "nex-ium").

The cult was founded in 1998 by Keith Raniere, who had previously run into trouble for operating a pyramid scheme, and his associate Nancy Salzman. Based in New York state, NXIVM presented itself as a personal development company and offered "Executive Success Programs" for an elite clientele. Prominent figures from business, politics, and show business came into contact with Raniere and his organization, including Allison Mack.

Behind its glossy corporate facade and apparent interest in wellness and empowerment, NXIVM harbored a dark secret sect called Dominus Obsequious Sororium (approximately "Master of the Obedient Female Companions"). Allegations surfaced that women in this "sorority" were effectively held as sex slaves, with some reportedly branded with Raniere's initials.

Raniere was arrested while attempting to evade scrutiny in Mexico and was eventually found guilty of numerous charges, including sex trafficking and extortion, receiving a 120-year prison sentence. Allison Mack, who was said to have been a high-ranking figure in the secret sorority, pleaded guilty to extortion and was sentenced to three years in prison.

4. THE MANSON FAMILY

At first glance, Charles Manson appeared to be the archetypal 1960s hippie—a musician with unkempt hair, a fan of the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and a devoted follower of San Francisco's bohemian subculture. However, when he started to form his infamous "family" of free-spirited hippies, he was already a habitually violent criminal with convictions for armed robbery.

For Manson, the zeitgeist of the 1960s provided the perfect cover to manipulate the impressionable dreamers and dropouts around him. He established himself as a guru, harnessing the countercultural ethos of the time to maintain messianic control. He encouraged his "family" to take hallucinogenic drugs and preached about an impending race war in America, which he called "Helter Skelter" (after the eponymous Beatles song).

It was speculated that these apocalyptic ideas motivated the Manson Family's most infamous crime: the massacre of film star Sharon Tate and her friends in August 1969.

Although Manson wasn't present at the Tate residence during the murders, he was eventually convicted for his involvement in that and other atrocities. Throughout his decades behind bars, he remained an American bogeyman, endlessly mythologized in popular culture until his death in 2017.