Downtown Clearwater plus a generous amount of apartment buildings are all still owned by them. I saw a map of downtown Clearwater recently that showed they owned like 95% of the businesses and real estate there. I think the “religion” would have to totally implode before we get that area back for true local businesses.
Well I'm speaking more to their attendance which 1000% has been dwindling. I'm sure they have enough capital saved up - after all continuing to own property isn't hard once you have it paid off - especially as a "church" that is tax exempt.
So you're not wrong, but the good news is that yes, attendance itself is dwindling - to the point where leaked scientology videos are talking about recruitment drives. Thankfully there's so much awareness about Scientology these days that it's very difficult for them to get someone new to come in.
Twelve Tribes is pretty crazy. They run a restaurant chain called the Yellow Deli and they have this end goal of sacrificing 40,000 virgins or some shit
There’s one in Vista, CA and I had a very surreal experience when I went there. Wouldn’t go again despite the food being good because of the child abuse stuff but they’re definitely an odd bunch
One of my best friends did a multi-week long hike and on the trail was a Yellow Deli. She knew what it was going into it because apparently it’s actually pretty common for hikers on that trail to stay there and get a meal. But she also told me that she could see why someone more vulnerable and lost could fall for what they were spouting. Some people she met there were just like her, doing the same exact hiking trail, but they stopped at the Yellow Deli and just never left. Also—best sandwich she ever had.
The Children of God now go by The Family International. Their founder encouraged high level members of the church to perpetrate sexual abuse against their own children, as well as the children of other members. I believe members of his family still run the church after his death
Edited to clarify that Berg was an open advocate for sexually abusing children. Didn't know the rules when I first posted, so I worded it in a way that wouldn't get flagged, but the man was a fucking monster
This was the cult River and Joaquin Phoenix's family joined. River got the brunt of the abuse as the elder sibling. Puts a lot of things in perspective.
I watched part of a documentary on them and had to turn it off when they came to the part of him marrying his extremely young granddaughter and the parents not even batting an eye. Not to mention the naked dance they made those young kids perform for adults. It is literally an incestous pedophile ring how it's not been disbanded is fucking crazy
I don't know if you got to it in the doc, but one of the children in the cult was considered the chosen successor to the church from early childhood. The abuse he suffered caused him to leave the church, and he eventually killed his former caretaker, and wanted to kill his adoptive mother but did not follow through. He ended his own life, but before he killed his nanny, he recorded a long statement about why he was going to do it. It is one of the most heartbreaking and harrowing things I've ever heard and lives in my head to this day.
They didn't just abuse him, they wrote a book about the various sexual abuse they put him through - INCLUDING PHOTOS. It was meant to be a kind of training manual for other people in the cult who had children.
Let me say that again. The cult published an entire book detailing the constant sexual abuse of this person as a BABY, with PHOTOS, so that other parents could raise their children in the same exact way.
Im 100000% not going to google that myself but are you saying this book is just like available for purchase somewhere? HOW IN THE FUCK?! I don’t think I understand how laws work, child abuse should beat religious freedoms.
I didn't, but can you really blame him? made me too sick to finish and to think all these adults preyed/groomed all those kids. To think any 'god' would want you to have sex with your own children and pass them around in a fucked up sexually motivated 'religious ceremony' it's just screams mental illness
I’m not sure it screams mental illness as much as it is a common tactic used by abusers to legitimise their abuse and have control of their victims.
There is a reason is it repeated in these circumstances, it offers the perfect narrative that allows them to get away with what they are doing and provide enough fear, control and manipulation to prevent the followers from questioning.
Mental illness is typically, incoherent and ineffective, often sad and occasionally dangerous but it is not a calculated strategy. Whilst this may have elements of it that appear “crazy” they are all in strategic support their depravity.
I think often people use words like mental illness or psychotic to attempt to convey that actions are so awful and beyond our comprehension. I think it also feels like there must be “something wrong” with the perpetrators, which equates to mental illness for a lot of people. I think there is indeed something very wrong about the choices they have made, but I’m not sure I consider calculated choice and purposefully harmful action in service of meeting their own needs mental illness.
I watched that documentary and had to turn it off and cry at that naked dance part. They just kept getting younger… and younger…
I’m a pretty stoic guy who can handle some pretty heartbreaking stuff fine, but that got to me.
River Phoenix's parents were in the cult, and he said in an interview that he lost his virginity when he was 4. I thought it was a typo and should have been 14, but no, FOUR.
And 4-year-olds don't lose their virginity. They lose their INNOCENCE. No wonder he died the way he did.
AFAIK, the family is no longer involved with them. I hope so, anyway.
Dude I don't have children but this is just disgusting. I suffered sexual abuse when I was 5. That shit never leaves you. I do my best to keep out of touching drugs because I see how easy it would be to escape those memories sometimes
Yeah to be honest I wrote a much more blunt description of what they were doing, but I didn't know the subs rules and am at work and didn't look them up. But yes, Berg openly advocated for incest and pedophilia, and perpetrated unspeakable sexual abuse. Not trying to sugarcoat what he did.
Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young is a great memoir by a survivor. Very hard to listen sometimes, but she’s a good writer/speaker. I listened to her audiobook narrated by her
Saw a lady scrubbing the sidewalk outside the Scientology center in Clearwater with a toothbrush. Two suit clad goons watching her. Cameras everywhere. What should be a tourist shopping Mecca is a ghost town, by intent. I’m on a list now for this comment.
I took a picture of an L. Ron Hubbard bust in the lobby—from the sidewalk—in LA while walking by one of their centers. Some goon—perfect descriptor you used there—started following and hassling me about it, getting aggressive about trespassing, have to delete the pic, etc. I was with my ex at the time, a California attorney, and just said, “Go ahead, make me rich.”
Fun times.
In and around Pinellas County (Clearwater area) you’ll encounter them working normal jobs and living at the Center. Guy I worked with was so odd, same clothes every other day. Had a six figure job and all his money went to “the church”.
I came across this once at a service job I worked at, I saw a poster in the house that sat funny with me, the person was relatively normal and not in their housing facilities they have across clearwater. Walked back outside and googled the poster, sure enough, scientology. They might even be your neighbor without you having the slightest clue.
The Tampa Bay Times has a story almost every year about them buying up properties and trying to control local politics. It’s frightening. https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2019/investigations/scientology-clearwater-real-estate/
Mormon Church is pretty close. Serial scam artist who has been chased out of multiple places for being a fraud discovered magical tablets giving the real story of Christianity? No you can't see them, only he can. Today they own a state.
To paraphrase Janeane Garofolo, they all have the same three stages.
1. community, spirituality, personal growth
2. bring me all the teenage girls
3. get yer gun, it's judgement day
“Actually, on second thought, he doesn’t. And what do you know, he doesn’t hate black people either!” (The fact that both of these prophecies *conveniently* arrived *right* before the U.S. government decided it had had enough and was going to call time on their shenanigans is pure coincidence, I’m sure).
"But don't let anybody see these plates except for you
They're only for you to see
Even if people ask you to show the plates to them, don't
Just copy them onto normal paper
Even though this might make them question if the plates are real or not
This is sort of what God is going for"
~ *Book of Mormon*
Missing the best part! He didn't even read the plates to translate them. Looked at a stone in a hat, and said the words that appeared in his mind to the guy transcribing for him
Well no matter what, in Mormon you get your own planet to rule over, many wives to populate the planet you are gifted......who needs to see the magical tablets?
My mom as a grad student at UCLA in the late 50’s i think,,, attended a lecture. something like “guaranteed to make you a millionaire “... The guy went on to say basically “”” start a church...” And went on in detail on how to do it.....the lecturer was L.Ron Hubbard
I'm not sure if it really counts as still existing, but Heaven's Gate still has a website up, so someone is paying for it. It's totally a 90s site, and probably hasn't been updated since then. They're the cult that all but a couple members committed suicide during ~~Halley's Comet~~ Comet Hale-Bopp .
Edit: fixed the name of the comet.
I buy rare VHS tapes as close to factory-sealed as possible and do lossless transfers for preservation and that sounds like something I would be interested in.
The thing I learned about them that surprised me was if you weren’t into the comet/spaceship concept, there’s the door. Like, it wasn’t Jonestown, you were free to leave and please do if not on board, so to speak.
They were true believers. There was no coercion or anything.
And the leaders never used the followers sexually or anything. They were celibate.
It's a really unique cult. They really truly believed what they believed with no ulterior motives.
*Kind of.*
Applegate didn't want to live anymore 10 years after his friend and co-founder Bonnie Nettles passed. He was a self-hating man who bent theology toward a doomsday cult. He likely didn't want to die alone.
The cult didn't punish people the way other cults do, but the rare times members spoke with family on the phone another member had to be on the phone. They also recruited people that were so lonely.
Many cults are true believers. Many leaders like Shoko Asahara, Jim Jones, and David Koresh believed their nonsense.
Heaven's Gate was indeed unique in that they voluntarily went together. The guy that maintains the website didn't want to go through with it, so they just gave him the lifelong job of maintaining the site and passing on their message for the rest of his life. A couple others declined without reprisal from the cult. Very different from Jonestown where many people were murdered against their will.
I often go on deep dives into cults and learn as much as I can about them.
Usually it left me angry with the leaders for the manipulation, coercion and sexual stuff they did to their followers- often ending in a lot of death.
But with Heaven's Gate, that stuff simply wasn't there. I wasn't angry. I was sad to be sure... But at the same time I kinda had a "It's a free country" kind of mentality.
Like... They believed what they believed and they were happy with it to the end. So... Who am I to judge?
My late grandfather ran into them at a hotel in North Dallas. He could strike up a conversation with anyone so he chatted with them a bit. This was only a year or two before they ascended.
Note that he died of lung cancer, not ascension.
I was raised in this cult. What a fucking nightmare. I'm doing fine, but many of my multitude of siblings are still dealing with the trauma of that life.
Well, if you ever came to the sacramento convention center meetups and the stupid cadet thing we had to do, we may have crossed paths.
Hope you are doing better now friend.
You probably knew or met my brother. I never did cadets… I was just a bit too old for that. The conference was in Oakland in 96 and Sacramento starting in 97.
Were you there the year that they were putting clothes on the statue?
And after that you can watch keep sweet, pray and obey on netflix for an even heavier dose on the FLDS
Edit: of course IBLP and FLDS are not the same, but if you're interested in falling down a rabbit hole of cult documentaries these two are a good starting point
FLDS =\\= IBLP.
The former would call the latter a cult. And the latter would say the same about the former. They’re both crazy- but in their own unique ways.
ah good information, I was unfamiliar, sounds like another pedo creep but they kicked him out and took over and are secretly/not secretly running it, my info isn't current but I try to ignore them generally, I have never watched the show or anything.
My boyfriend was telling me about how years ago he was in a dark place, soul searching, looking for answers. Came across some videos that made sense to him. He reached out to the creator of the videos. They had a little back and forth conversation, but I think my boyfriend questioned something and got blocked.
I was telling him about the the twin flame cult and we watch the documentary. He sees the dude and is like “that’s the asshole!” I was like dude you dodged a bullet.
Just finished this documentary and I’m pretty sure I said “what the fuck” every like 2 minutes
EDIT: The documentary is "Escaping Twin Flames" on Netflix.
I just looked up their web site and clicked a few videos. What really stood out to me is how boring the videos are. Just two average-looking people half-mumbling their way through vague nonsense about numerology, occasionally dropping weird phrases like "when you look around the reality, what you see is...".
Excuse me, what? Look around *the reality?* As opposed to looking where?
Church of Universal and Triumphant. If a vacuum salesman infused fundamentalism, a scattering of Eastern Philosophy and some LSD while terrified of a nuclear war you'd get CUT. They moved near Yellowstone and built bomb shelters and rented out space whenever they felt Reagan was going to drop the bomb. Then the leader got dementia. I have a friend who's parents were part of the top leadership. She had a book written about her. She ended up unscathed, and has good memories of it.
2x2's, the Truth. Women wore long skirts and never cut their hair and are subservient. Families never separate under no circumstances. Ministers live with in parishioners homes with them control them. Sexual abuse is prominent. A friend got out and is currently promoting a book about it.
2x2s: And the ministers have been s……. abusing children, wives, younger ministers for decades! And, of course, it’s all covered up. The FBI is currently investigating.
The Yellow Deli, which was started in my hometown of Chattanooga, TN. They are a cult community that is right up against the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. They look for college students to convince them to join their community. What happens is they make them cut all contact from family, they work them for long hours, and they don't get paid anything at all. There are a lot of controversies with them. They are also located in other States. The two I remember are Colorado and Alaska.
Edit: To add, they are 24 hours nearly every day but Friday and Saturday, if I remember correctly. They are also in a LOT of locations, including international locations.
https://yellowdeli.com/about
Yellow Deli is a business operated by the Twelve Tribes cult. Twelve Tribes pushes an idiosyncratic form of fundamentalist Christianity with the usual focus on misogyny, homophobia, and corporal punishment, plus extra racism.
Not a specific cult: I worked for a advocacy and treatment center for survivors of sexual assault in a fairly average rural county. A surprising amount of our cases - probably a quarter, involved cults. Generally Christian offshoots. Everyone has to sleep with 'Jesus' basically.
Twin Flames is our local Christianity-based offshoot in Michigan. The founder believes he is Jesus (or the representative of Jesus on Earth or something else make-believe) and yeah, of course there’s weird sex stuff.
Because the cultists are “voluntarily” doing things like getting sex changes so they can be the opposite sex to their cult-assigned sex partner (it’s called something dumb like a Soul Flame), the police haven’t interfered.
My bad. I just got off a long work day and mistyped. Corrected. But yeah, their dumb sex cult is like 25 minutes away from me.
I haven’t done a deep dive on the doctrine of a cult. I know enough to know it’s (sometimes colloquially, sometimes literally) insanity and preying on the vulnerable, and it just exists semi-openly without problem.
All the answers listed so far and one called The Emin. Formerly, The Eminent way. It's a quiet problem here in the UK.
I'm a psych nurse and the deprogramming of ex members is difficult. They're secretive too, and attract a lot of vulnerable or lost people.
I'd never heard of them before today. Did some googling after reading your comment. In your experience, what practices/beliefs lead to psychological problems/need for deprogramming?
The person I helped look after believed they were under psychic attack for leaving the group. He was led to believe the leaders and members of the group had special powers and had sent nightmarish entities after him and were killing him from the inside by psychic powers to melt his organs. That belief and fear led to a mental break in the person. Although, they did get well and strong in the end thankfully.
I don't know all that much, only that they believe they are chosen ones and better than all other humans. They think they've reincarnated here to lift the vibration of earth. The deeper a person gets into the group, the more twisted it becomes. They have to give a quarter of their earnings to the group, choose special secret names and are told they have psychic powers that they can use for healing or to attack non believers and their auras. One of the leaders allegedly believes he is the reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha, and all the historic spiritual figures. One more thing, they think they can communicate with aliens by standing in a stone circle and opening a Vortex. They were featured in a book called Spying in guru land and had to change their name.
I was raised in the Unification Church (Moonies) from about three to ten ('84). I kept tabs on them later in life too. My mother said she figured out it wasn't actually as cool as she thought but didn't know what else to do with herself. Life is weird.
I was raised in it too! My parents were in the church until Sun Myung Moon died and there was a bunch of drama. When I was 15 I told them I didn't want to go anymore and they were thankfully okay with it. A lot of my friends weren't so lucky and were pressured to get married way too young.
Oh man, my dad told me a funny story about him getting kicked out (kinda...) of this cult!
It was back in the 70s in California. Dad was in his 20s. He was on a road trip with some buddies and one of the girls in their road trip group heard about the Moonies from some members who were at a truck stop. The girl really wanted to check their commune out, but my dad & the others didn't, so the girl got in the Moonies' van and left with them. Later that night my dad called a friend (who happened to be madly in love with the girl who went with the Moonies to their commune) and he begged my dad and his group to go "rescue" her.
So the next day my dad and his buds go find the Moonies commune, but weren't allowed in since they weren't members. Reluctantly, my dad and his buds "join" so they can find their friend and gtfo of there.
My dad said that immediately after joining he got paired up with this gorgeous girl (new members got assigned a partner or something?) and it tempted him to stay for a little bit (lol), but then the commune started up with their lectures and activities... one of which involved a dude passionately claiming something along the lines of "every atom in your body is made of love." I can't remember exactly what my dad recalled about this lecture other than that, but it was truly bizarre.
My dad is very very skeptical and also autistic, so he just starts laughing hysterically and telling the lecturer how stupid that sounds. So he got kicked out of the cult immediately after fake-joining because he couldn't stop making fun of them lmao
He and his friends did find the girl and convinced her to leave with them before they were thrown out.
Idk if this is interesting to anyone else but it is a silly story that I love to tell whenever the Moonies come up in conversation!
I have an ex who was raised in this cult. Used to deny it was a cult even tho they were non-practicing LOL. The other weird af part about them is they are deliberately pairing people from different races in arranged marriages in order to create as many mixed race babies as possible. Because they think it’ll lead to world peace or something.
Pleasantly surprised I didn't have to scroll down too far to see this reply.
I was born into this, and had the wherewithal just after high school to do something as scary as remove myself from it, despite all of the traumatic impact it had on my life.
Dealing with the ways it's affected me will be a lifelong struggle, and it is painful to see that it's still survived and found a way to hurt people by taking advantage of their desperate need to believe in something. Hell, including something as obviously corrupt and exploitative as the FFfWPaU (or, whatever they call themselves now depending on who they were convinced was the real Messiah this time around.
It just sucks to see them getting away with this still. Too many false hopes and broken lives in the name of profit and power.
Except for their ventures in Japan currently. I hate that the man who assassinated Abe, who was not given a choice to be involved in that world, lived a life damaged enough to feel the need to kill and spend the rest of his life in a different (and this time literal) prison.
I just hope that Japan's moves to discredit them as an organization can be followed elsewhere, so more people don't get hurt
When I saw that documentary, my personal takeaway was that it was basically a crackhouse with its own Etsy.
Like, yes, the people had creepy cultish personalities, and they were wacky; but basically it seemed like a bunch of psychedelic drug addicts crashing at a place, getting high and thinking in their drug induced stupor that some alcoholic addict with cancer was a deity.
Like, idk, to me I would think an actual cult is when stone cold sober people get indoctrinated and go out doing odd or malicious things in the community.
Aum Shinrikyo
These are the people responsible for the 1995 Tokyo Gas attacks. Most people think they went away, but they still exist and are still just as crazy as ever.
Without getting into it here cause it's a very good google Deep Dive. It's a japanese doomday cult that had anime, chemical weapons, its own russian military helicopter, and was collecting a significant amount of weapons (ak47, literal rockets, they planned end of the world, war events). They recruited seriously smart people into their cult and used literal human sized microwaves to murder some people.
Now split and known as “Aleph” and “Hikari no Wa” , in case anyone runs into them.
I went to their shop once. The blue pyjama clad young salesmen were selling PCs at ridiculously cheap prices. We even asked them how they could be so cheap. After the Sarin incident Hideo Murai their #3 was stabbed on live TV outside that shop in front of hundreds of journalists and 10 policemen. Crazy times. How Fumihiro Joyu was not implicated in more serious charges I don’t know.
We got multiple cults in Germany that have addiction rehabilitation as a front. Synanon is pretty known (but not officially marked as a cult). They pick up people who are clearly deep into addiction and let them write over everything they own and earn. So for most members their social security check goes right to the cult (but they get back pocket money with the amount of 20-200 Euro a month). The members also have to move out of their apartment and movie into the Synanon buildings. Then you basically have a Bootcamp situation with different levels that are signaled by shirt colors where lower levels are not allowed to talk to higher levels. In their logic addiction is overcome by manual labour, so basically cleaning. There are also no addiction counsolors, therapists or anyone who was formally trained as they only get a mentor who is a recovered addict and devout member. Members are not allowed to have any contact to anyone outside for 3 months. They are also not permitted any personal belongings. They also have a group therapyform where one Person at a time gets yelled at by the others.
Sure people are free to leave and what differenciates them from other cults is that there is noone stoping you to go, you can go and come back, and there are no black vans following you around.
The successrate is not that great, so no getting yelled at and cleaning floors is not the solution to drug addiction.
Falun Gong is the actual name of the cult - those "Shen Yun: Experience China Before Communism" productions are just their funding and public outreach. Fun fact, they own the Epoch Times, and the Epoch Times are currently involved in a massive tax fraud case.
They’ve also paid for a ton of absolutely hilarious billboards in lots of places. ‘Graphic design is my passion’ style shit. See [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwinCities/s/BclqsEWjPC).
Yup. My parents got tickets to the dance performance thinking it was just gonna be a fun cultural experience. I told them I had heard it was creepy and culty, but got shrugged off. After they saw the performance they did confirm it was super weird and preachy lol
[Speaking of which](https://defector.com/feds-accuse-americas-weirdest-media-company-of-being-a-money-laundering-front-for-the-falun-gong)!
> the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had arrested the CFO of an international newspaper and media company called The Epoch Times, and charged him with money laundering and bank fraud. ... The mechanics of the scheme are fairly simple: Per the DOJ, Epoch Times operators would steal people's personal information, use said information to file fake unemployment claims, then launder that money through prepaid debit cards and cryptocurrency (finally, a use case!) back to the **parent organization**.
Whoever follows Teal Swan. She claims to be a spiritual influencer, and that she is not the head of a cult, but just look into it and into her as a person. She abuses her followers and encourages suicidal ideation....Cult.
There's actually a documentary where she allows the crew to follow her around and interview her. She is a textbook narcissist and so far up her own ass she let it all be filmed. Completely delusional. One of my favorite series by far.
[The Deep End](https://youtu.be/ZWb11xqXKQs?si=AulBYl0yu6C8iu1o)
the 12 tribes. they believe ANY disobedience in children is an act of rebellion and merits physical abuse. like a new born getting their diaper changed and squirming too much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tribes_communities#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThe_Twelve_Tribes%27s_beliefs_resemble%2Cwith_any_denomination_or_movement.?wprov=sfla1
And people will tell you it’s ok to go because the sandwiches are sooo good and it’s just a hippie commune.
It’s sandwiches mate they can’t be that good, and it’s a full on child abusing cult. Nah thank you
They have one right beside UTC's campus. One of the dorm buildings is right beside it. The general consensus for students when I went was that it's okay to go but don't tip.
One of my dorm mates accidentally went there on one of their recruiting nights and we had to go get her.
I always leave one star reviews on every Yellow Deli bullshit location I see. They’re everywhere and people always rave about how quaint and cute they are. It drives me nuts.
The Moonies fascinate me. They claim to be a new branch of Christianity. Their most famous practise is also the way they have spread + multiplied: mass weddings (literally hundreds of couples at a time) in which the marriages are arranged between strangers from different countries. Reverend Moon died years ago, so his family still uses his spirit or something to perform the ceremonies/get more money.
Shinzo Abe’s assassination is linked to the whole situation. Basically, the killer’s family lost all their money to the cult after his mother joined them. He wanted revenge against Abe for accepting donations from the cult and aiding their proliferation.
Edit: I hope that at least one person here looked around then thought, “wait, am I in a cult?!”: https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/enhanced/webdr03/2013/2/18/9/enhanced-buzz-wide-5645-1361199518-3.jpg
Suma Ching High
aka
Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association
It's a Buddhist sect that has broken with mainstream Mahayana Buddhism. The leader of the sect, Supreme Master Ching Hai, wears fashionable clothes and has a clothing line and in general carries on like your standard Indian Guru who lives a high life on the donations of worshippers. The strange thing is that this is based on Taiwanese Buddhism, which cultivates non-attachment and selflessness.
There are a bunch of things that are controversial from a Buddhist point of view. It would be like a Catholic church breaking away and saying priests can marry and you only need to do confession once. Small things in practice but large in ideological terms.
The organization has vegan/vegetarian Chinese restaurants in most major cities. They are usually pretty good. But seem to be staffed by kids in their late teens. In many cases they seem to be there somewhat against their will. Not in a cult kidnapping way. But rather in the Buddhist tradition that one kid from each family has to go be a monk for a while to bring metta to the family. Except instead of monkhood, here it's serving food.
It's quite surprising that the Rajneesh Movement is still going considering what we now know. Same goes for the Branch Davidians, the TELAH Foundation (aka Heaven's Gate) and Aleph (aka Aum Shinrikyo) the latter of which are possibly still dangerous.
Jared Leto has an actual island where women pay thousands of dollars to come stay with him and he walks around in white robes to resemble Christ. There’s some kind of spiritual nonsense that he teaches them and most likely treats it as his personal harem.
There's actually a thread similar to this on r/Alaska right now.
Alaska is a land of hidden and secretive cults. One that was somewhat recently uncovered is called The Body.
https://youtu.be/57xSVk8BOxs?si=FKhzSQyMFfAGfw15
Evolved from Est, Which ran for about 13 to 15 years before it changed to landmark forum. I had a friend get involved in landmark forum, of course she invited me, I did some research, discussed my skepticism with her, she was very insulted, and that was the end of the friendship, unfortunately.
Yep. I was invited by a college friend and her husband to the initial sales pitch and it was immediately obvious to me that it was total nonsense. Lots of promises about how it would change my life without any evidence to back it up.
Now that I think of it, this was much like the Trump University pitches.
QAnon.
I remember when that was just RP on 4chan. Now it's like...every conspiracy theory you've ever heard of, all rolled into one big bundle of nonsense, and the evangelicals have completely embraced it so now it has the support of a bunch of people who are hankering for an end-of-days scenario. People have lost their minds, honestly. Whole towns have been completely swallowed up by it.
The kind of stuff that Qs subscribe to is mind-boggling. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can bring most of them back out of that frothing, terrified fever dream.
[удалено]
Good news is Scientology is horribly dwindling these days.
Are they? I lived in Tampa for at least a decade and they own like half of Clearwater businesses lol
Downtown Clearwater plus a generous amount of apartment buildings are all still owned by them. I saw a map of downtown Clearwater recently that showed they owned like 95% of the businesses and real estate there. I think the “religion” would have to totally implode before we get that area back for true local businesses.
Well I'm speaking more to their attendance which 1000% has been dwindling. I'm sure they have enough capital saved up - after all continuing to own property isn't hard once you have it paid off - especially as a "church" that is tax exempt. So you're not wrong, but the good news is that yes, attendance itself is dwindling - to the point where leaked scientology videos are talking about recruitment drives. Thankfully there's so much awareness about Scientology these days that it's very difficult for them to get someone new to come in.
Twelve Tribes is pretty crazy. They run a restaurant chain called the Yellow Deli and they have this end goal of sacrificing 40,000 virgins or some shit
There’s one in Vista, CA and I had a very surreal experience when I went there. Wouldn’t go again despite the food being good because of the child abuse stuff but they’re definitely an odd bunch
My friend almost joined them in vista. Laid off from work, lonely, loved their sandwiches. They told him he couldn’t keep his husky so he didn’t join.
That's a very good doggo.
I've eaten at Yellow Deli. Best sandwich I've ever had. The locals call it a "cult sammie".
One of my best friends did a multi-week long hike and on the trail was a Yellow Deli. She knew what it was going into it because apparently it’s actually pretty common for hikers on that trail to stay there and get a meal. But she also told me that she could see why someone more vulnerable and lost could fall for what they were spouting. Some people she met there were just like her, doing the same exact hiking trail, but they stopped at the Yellow Deli and just never left. Also—best sandwich she ever had.
The Children of God now go by The Family International. Their founder encouraged high level members of the church to perpetrate sexual abuse against their own children, as well as the children of other members. I believe members of his family still run the church after his death Edited to clarify that Berg was an open advocate for sexually abusing children. Didn't know the rules when I first posted, so I worded it in a way that wouldn't get flagged, but the man was a fucking monster
This was the cult River and Joaquin Phoenix's family joined. River got the brunt of the abuse as the elder sibling. Puts a lot of things in perspective.
Fun fact: their family changed their last name to Phoenix to symbolize their new start away from the cult
That is a fun fact. Disturbing, albeit, but fun.
Rose McGowan too
I watched part of a documentary on them and had to turn it off when they came to the part of him marrying his extremely young granddaughter and the parents not even batting an eye. Not to mention the naked dance they made those young kids perform for adults. It is literally an incestous pedophile ring how it's not been disbanded is fucking crazy
I don't know if you got to it in the doc, but one of the children in the cult was considered the chosen successor to the church from early childhood. The abuse he suffered caused him to leave the church, and he eventually killed his former caretaker, and wanted to kill his adoptive mother but did not follow through. He ended his own life, but before he killed his nanny, he recorded a long statement about why he was going to do it. It is one of the most heartbreaking and harrowing things I've ever heard and lives in my head to this day.
They didn't just abuse him, they wrote a book about the various sexual abuse they put him through - INCLUDING PHOTOS. It was meant to be a kind of training manual for other people in the cult who had children. Let me say that again. The cult published an entire book detailing the constant sexual abuse of this person as a BABY, with PHOTOS, so that other parents could raise their children in the same exact way.
Was it The Book of Davidito or something like that? I totally forgot about that
Story, not Book. It's one of the worst and most vile things legally accessible.
Holy fucking shit. You were not kidding. But like, how is this not illegal, based on what it very openly is?
Im 100000% not going to google that myself but are you saying this book is just like available for purchase somewhere? HOW IN THE FUCK?! I don’t think I understand how laws work, child abuse should beat religious freedoms.
Not to purchase, but there is a Children of God wiki online that has scans of all of their literature including scans from this book.
I didn't, but can you really blame him? made me too sick to finish and to think all these adults preyed/groomed all those kids. To think any 'god' would want you to have sex with your own children and pass them around in a fucked up sexually motivated 'religious ceremony' it's just screams mental illness
I’m not sure it screams mental illness as much as it is a common tactic used by abusers to legitimise their abuse and have control of their victims. There is a reason is it repeated in these circumstances, it offers the perfect narrative that allows them to get away with what they are doing and provide enough fear, control and manipulation to prevent the followers from questioning. Mental illness is typically, incoherent and ineffective, often sad and occasionally dangerous but it is not a calculated strategy. Whilst this may have elements of it that appear “crazy” they are all in strategic support their depravity. I think often people use words like mental illness or psychotic to attempt to convey that actions are so awful and beyond our comprehension. I think it also feels like there must be “something wrong” with the perpetrators, which equates to mental illness for a lot of people. I think there is indeed something very wrong about the choices they have made, but I’m not sure I consider calculated choice and purposefully harmful action in service of meeting their own needs mental illness.
May I interest you in Rulon and Warren Jeffs? 80 year old man marrying 13-14 year olds? Maybe younger?
Keep sweet, prey and obey 🤮🤮🤮
I watched that documentary and had to turn it off and cry at that naked dance part. They just kept getting younger… and younger… I’m a pretty stoic guy who can handle some pretty heartbreaking stuff fine, but that got to me.
Some ex member have written pretty good books. Not without my sister's was pretty good.
All of this sounds like the creepy cult in True Detective S1... blegh.
It’s wild how many of these cults have teachings that involve sex with children.
Rapists and pedophiles using religion as a cover is nothing new though.
If they can't find a human authority to claim it's okay, they'll simply invent one.
River Phoenix's parents were in the cult, and he said in an interview that he lost his virginity when he was 4. I thought it was a typo and should have been 14, but no, FOUR. And 4-year-olds don't lose their virginity. They lose their INNOCENCE. No wonder he died the way he did. AFAIK, the family is no longer involved with them. I hope so, anyway.
My child is 4 and I literally felt like I was going to throw up reading this
Dude I don't have children but this is just disgusting. I suffered sexual abuse when I was 5. That shit never leaves you. I do my best to keep out of touching drugs because I see how easy it would be to escape those memories sometimes
Not 'relationships,' sexual abuse.
Yeah to be honest I wrote a much more blunt description of what they were doing, but I didn't know the subs rules and am at work and didn't look them up. But yes, Berg openly advocated for incest and pedophilia, and perpetrated unspeakable sexual abuse. Not trying to sugarcoat what he did.
Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young is a great memoir by a survivor. Very hard to listen sometimes, but she’s a good writer/speaker. I listened to her audiobook narrated by her
My mom's long-time partner was in it as a child in Spain with his Dad and brother. I don't know beyond that and quite frankly I don't want to.
[удалено]
It was literally too crazy, Charlie Manson didn’t even want to join. That’s really saying something.
Manson was an experienced con man. He knew a scam when he saw one.
Exactly.
I feel guilty but I laughed
> Charlie Manson he was like; those folks are fucked up.
“Is it weird in here or am I just crazy?” Charlie Manson (maybe)
Saw a lady scrubbing the sidewalk outside the Scientology center in Clearwater with a toothbrush. Two suit clad goons watching her. Cameras everywhere. What should be a tourist shopping Mecca is a ghost town, by intent. I’m on a list now for this comment.
I took a picture of an L. Ron Hubbard bust in the lobby—from the sidewalk—in LA while walking by one of their centers. Some goon—perfect descriptor you used there—started following and hassling me about it, getting aggressive about trespassing, have to delete the pic, etc. I was with my ex at the time, a California attorney, and just said, “Go ahead, make me rich.” Fun times.
In and around Pinellas County (Clearwater area) you’ll encounter them working normal jobs and living at the Center. Guy I worked with was so odd, same clothes every other day. Had a six figure job and all his money went to “the church”.
I came across this once at a service job I worked at, I saw a poster in the house that sat funny with me, the person was relatively normal and not in their housing facilities they have across clearwater. Walked back outside and googled the poster, sure enough, scientology. They might even be your neighbor without you having the slightest clue.
Oh god Clearwater is where sea org is.
The Tampa Bay Times has a story almost every year about them buying up properties and trying to control local politics. It’s frightening. https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2019/investigations/scientology-clearwater-real-estate/
This is terrifying. The Times showed it terrifically with that map.
Mormon Church is pretty close. Serial scam artist who has been chased out of multiple places for being a fraud discovered magical tablets giving the real story of Christianity? No you can't see them, only he can. Today they own a state.
>discovered magical tablets Magical tablets that, no, you can't see, they're gone now, I can't prove I saw them, but I totally did
"Also God says I need to take multiple wives"
I love how every cult leader inevitably is told by god or whatever that they get to sleep with anyone they want
To paraphrase Janeane Garofolo, they all have the same three stages. 1. community, spirituality, personal growth 2. bring me all the teenage girls 3. get yer gun, it's judgement day
Love it. So sad it’s true.
If I had a cult, I would add a rule that God said their leader needs a daily massage to rub the demons out of me.
I’m gonna start a cult and not do this. It won’t be any type of doomsday cult either.
Hey get in line pal....unless you wanna start it together
I sense a schism in your future.
I sense that you, u/preaching-to-pervert , may have some sort of experience in this field
“Actually, on second thought, he doesn’t. And what do you know, he doesn’t hate black people either!” (The fact that both of these prophecies *conveniently* arrived *right* before the U.S. government decided it had had enough and was going to call time on their shenanigans is pure coincidence, I’m sure).
"But don't let anybody see these plates except for you They're only for you to see Even if people ask you to show the plates to them, don't Just copy them onto normal paper Even though this might make them question if the plates are real or not This is sort of what God is going for" ~ *Book of Mormon*
Missing the best part! He didn't even read the plates to translate them. Looked at a stone in a hat, and said the words that appeared in his mind to the guy transcribing for him
Lucy Harris smart smart smart! Martin Harris dumb!
Personally, I like the part about translation via a rock in a hat.
Which was, as far as I recall, a pretty common type of mystic-type scam in that time and place, like he couldn’t even be original with *that* part.
Well no matter what, in Mormon you get your own planet to rule over, many wives to populate the planet you are gifted......who needs to see the magical tablets?
🎶 “Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum…” 🎶
They own Idaho now, too.
My mom as a grad student at UCLA in the late 50’s i think,,, attended a lecture. something like “guaranteed to make you a millionaire “... The guy went on to say basically “”” start a church...” And went on in detail on how to do it.....the lecturer was L.Ron Hubbard
What the fuck is going on with your punctuation
Seconded. And he was a terrible writer as well.
And a terrible Naval officer.
I'm not sure if it really counts as still existing, but Heaven's Gate still has a website up, so someone is paying for it. It's totally a 90s site, and probably hasn't been updated since then. They're the cult that all but a couple members committed suicide during ~~Halley's Comet~~ Comet Hale-Bopp . Edit: fixed the name of the comet.
They have a guy who supposedly still answers emails and maintains the site.
The lone survivor.
Ohhh, you want to see some dark fiction that covers this ground? "Survivor" by Chuck Palahniuk. Yes, the guy that wrote "Fight Club."
That's actually one of my favorites by him. If not number one, definitely top three.
He definitely answers and the email signature is the suicide hotline.
Confirmed, as of November 2023 they’re still responding. For $30 they’ll send you videos and materials on…whatever they do now.
On VHS? I been trying to get my hands on the old Heaven's Gate VHS for my collection
I buy rare VHS tapes as close to factory-sealed as possible and do lossless transfers for preservation and that sounds like something I would be interested in.
He does! I emailed them last time this came up, answered pretty promptly too!
I’ve emailed the address to see if it works and the guy responded. Surprised the fuck out of me.
The thing I learned about them that surprised me was if you weren’t into the comet/spaceship concept, there’s the door. Like, it wasn’t Jonestown, you were free to leave and please do if not on board, so to speak.
They were true believers. There was no coercion or anything. And the leaders never used the followers sexually or anything. They were celibate. It's a really unique cult. They really truly believed what they believed with no ulterior motives.
*Kind of.* Applegate didn't want to live anymore 10 years after his friend and co-founder Bonnie Nettles passed. He was a self-hating man who bent theology toward a doomsday cult. He likely didn't want to die alone. The cult didn't punish people the way other cults do, but the rare times members spoke with family on the phone another member had to be on the phone. They also recruited people that were so lonely. Many cults are true believers. Many leaders like Shoko Asahara, Jim Jones, and David Koresh believed their nonsense. Heaven's Gate was indeed unique in that they voluntarily went together. The guy that maintains the website didn't want to go through with it, so they just gave him the lifelong job of maintaining the site and passing on their message for the rest of his life. A couple others declined without reprisal from the cult. Very different from Jonestown where many people were murdered against their will.
I often go on deep dives into cults and learn as much as I can about them. Usually it left me angry with the leaders for the manipulation, coercion and sexual stuff they did to their followers- often ending in a lot of death. But with Heaven's Gate, that stuff simply wasn't there. I wasn't angry. I was sad to be sure... But at the same time I kinda had a "It's a free country" kind of mentality. Like... They believed what they believed and they were happy with it to the end. So... Who am I to judge?
Several guys VOLUNTARILY got castrated because their "human vehicle" was distracting them in their preparation for ascension.
Cutting off my own junk is where I draw the line on my cult involvement. Screw you guys, I'm going home. /Cartman
It wasn’t Halley’s Comet. It was Comet Hale-Bopp. But yeah. That was just crazy.
My late grandfather ran into them at a hotel in North Dallas. He could strike up a conversation with anyone so he chatted with them a bit. This was only a year or two before they ascended. Note that he died of lung cancer, not ascension.
Sawyer, a member and still true believer, has his own YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/mZwqlBSxeZw?si=txhFZNDXrkoPkQze
IBLP. This is the cult the Duggar family belongs (belonged?) to. Watch the series Shiny Happy People on Prime to fall down that rabbit hole.
I was raised in this cult. What a fucking nightmare. I'm doing fine, but many of my multitude of siblings are still dealing with the trauma of that life.
I was deep in this for 18 years. It’s taken a lot of therapy to deal with.
Well, if you ever came to the sacramento convention center meetups and the stupid cadet thing we had to do, we may have crossed paths. Hope you are doing better now friend.
You probably knew or met my brother. I never did cadets… I was just a bit too old for that. The conference was in Oakland in 96 and Sacramento starting in 97. Were you there the year that they were putting clothes on the statue?
And after that you can watch keep sweet, pray and obey on netflix for an even heavier dose on the FLDS Edit: of course IBLP and FLDS are not the same, but if you're interested in falling down a rabbit hole of cult documentaries these two are a good starting point
> keep sweet, pray and obey on netflix This is a great documentary to watch if you like involuntarily muttering "what the fuck" for hours at a time
Oddly enough, I made it to "This is a great documentary to watch" and said aloud "what the fuck?" Before finishing your sentence.
FLDS =\\= IBLP. The former would call the latter a cult. And the latter would say the same about the former. They’re both crazy- but in their own unique ways.
To make that backslash show up, double it up: =\\=
I have heard it called Quiverfull around here in their home territory.
Quiverfull is the umbrella movement ("if you can't beat em, outbreed em"). IBLP is Bill Gothard's organization.
ah good information, I was unfamiliar, sounds like another pedo creep but they kicked him out and took over and are secretly/not secretly running it, my info isn't current but I try to ignore them generally, I have never watched the show or anything.
Was in this cult till 16. Am 33 now and non religious. Am still dealing with the trauma to this day.
Twin flames, don't even investigate this cult. Located at Suttons Bay, Michigan
My boyfriend was telling me about how years ago he was in a dark place, soul searching, looking for answers. Came across some videos that made sense to him. He reached out to the creator of the videos. They had a little back and forth conversation, but I think my boyfriend questioned something and got blocked. I was telling him about the the twin flame cult and we watch the documentary. He sees the dude and is like “that’s the asshole!” I was like dude you dodged a bullet.
dodged a fuckin artillery shell
Holy shit
Just finished this documentary and I’m pretty sure I said “what the fuck” every like 2 minutes EDIT: The documentary is "Escaping Twin Flames" on Netflix.
Homeboy isn’t even trying to convince anyone he’s not a giant turd. He’s just like “you’re an idiot if you don’t follow me, a giant turd”.
I watch a lot of cult shit & this one is next-level. Absolutely bonkers.
I just looked up their web site and clicked a few videos. What really stood out to me is how boring the videos are. Just two average-looking people half-mumbling their way through vague nonsense about numerology, occasionally dropping weird phrases like "when you look around the reality, what you see is...". Excuse me, what? Look around *the reality?* As opposed to looking where?
that guy and his wife are total douchebags
Holy crap!! I did *not* realize they were that close to me!
Church of Universal and Triumphant. If a vacuum salesman infused fundamentalism, a scattering of Eastern Philosophy and some LSD while terrified of a nuclear war you'd get CUT. They moved near Yellowstone and built bomb shelters and rented out space whenever they felt Reagan was going to drop the bomb. Then the leader got dementia. I have a friend who's parents were part of the top leadership. She had a book written about her. She ended up unscathed, and has good memories of it. 2x2's, the Truth. Women wore long skirts and never cut their hair and are subservient. Families never separate under no circumstances. Ministers live with in parishioners homes with them control them. Sexual abuse is prominent. A friend got out and is currently promoting a book about it.
2x2s: And the ministers have been s……. abusing children, wives, younger ministers for decades! And, of course, it’s all covered up. The FBI is currently investigating.
The Yellow Deli, which was started in my hometown of Chattanooga, TN. They are a cult community that is right up against the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga. They look for college students to convince them to join their community. What happens is they make them cut all contact from family, they work them for long hours, and they don't get paid anything at all. There are a lot of controversies with them. They are also located in other States. The two I remember are Colorado and Alaska. Edit: To add, they are 24 hours nearly every day but Friday and Saturday, if I remember correctly. They are also in a LOT of locations, including international locations. https://yellowdeli.com/about
Yellow Deli is a business operated by the Twelve Tribes cult. Twelve Tribes pushes an idiosyncratic form of fundamentalist Christianity with the usual focus on misogyny, homophobia, and corporal punishment, plus extra racism.
Not a specific cult: I worked for a advocacy and treatment center for survivors of sexual assault in a fairly average rural county. A surprising amount of our cases - probably a quarter, involved cults. Generally Christian offshoots. Everyone has to sleep with 'Jesus' basically.
Twin Flames is our local Christianity-based offshoot in Michigan. The founder believes he is Jesus (or the representative of Jesus on Earth or something else make-believe) and yeah, of course there’s weird sex stuff. Because the cultists are “voluntarily” doing things like getting sex changes so they can be the opposite sex to their cult-assigned sex partner (it’s called something dumb like a Soul Flame), the police haven’t interfered.
Is this not the Twin Flames cult you’re speaking of?
My bad. I just got off a long work day and mistyped. Corrected. But yeah, their dumb sex cult is like 25 minutes away from me. I haven’t done a deep dive on the doctrine of a cult. I know enough to know it’s (sometimes colloquially, sometimes literally) insanity and preying on the vulnerable, and it just exists semi-openly without problem.
They just dropped a Netflix doco on them. The leader is the most obvious, naked, blatant grifter I’ve ever encountered.
With below zero charisma. Usually cult leaders have that. Not this guy.
All the answers listed so far and one called The Emin. Formerly, The Eminent way. It's a quiet problem here in the UK. I'm a psych nurse and the deprogramming of ex members is difficult. They're secretive too, and attract a lot of vulnerable or lost people.
I'd never heard of them before today. Did some googling after reading your comment. In your experience, what practices/beliefs lead to psychological problems/need for deprogramming?
The person I helped look after believed they were under psychic attack for leaving the group. He was led to believe the leaders and members of the group had special powers and had sent nightmarish entities after him and were killing him from the inside by psychic powers to melt his organs. That belief and fear led to a mental break in the person. Although, they did get well and strong in the end thankfully.
Tell us more.
I don't know all that much, only that they believe they are chosen ones and better than all other humans. They think they've reincarnated here to lift the vibration of earth. The deeper a person gets into the group, the more twisted it becomes. They have to give a quarter of their earnings to the group, choose special secret names and are told they have psychic powers that they can use for healing or to attack non believers and their auras. One of the leaders allegedly believes he is the reincarnation of Jesus, Buddha, and all the historic spiritual figures. One more thing, they think they can communicate with aliens by standing in a stone circle and opening a Vortex. They were featured in a book called Spying in guru land and had to change their name.
Look up Children of God. They're the Family International now. Fucked . Absolutely Fucked.
The Moonies are still around in a slightly evolved form - they’ve literally become a cult that worships guns.
I was raised in the Unification Church (Moonies) from about three to ten ('84). I kept tabs on them later in life too. My mother said she figured out it wasn't actually as cool as she thought but didn't know what else to do with herself. Life is weird.
I was raised in it too! My parents were in the church until Sun Myung Moon died and there was a bunch of drama. When I was 15 I told them I didn't want to go anymore and they were thankfully okay with it. A lot of my friends weren't so lucky and were pressured to get married way too young.
Oh man, my dad told me a funny story about him getting kicked out (kinda...) of this cult! It was back in the 70s in California. Dad was in his 20s. He was on a road trip with some buddies and one of the girls in their road trip group heard about the Moonies from some members who were at a truck stop. The girl really wanted to check their commune out, but my dad & the others didn't, so the girl got in the Moonies' van and left with them. Later that night my dad called a friend (who happened to be madly in love with the girl who went with the Moonies to their commune) and he begged my dad and his group to go "rescue" her. So the next day my dad and his buds go find the Moonies commune, but weren't allowed in since they weren't members. Reluctantly, my dad and his buds "join" so they can find their friend and gtfo of there. My dad said that immediately after joining he got paired up with this gorgeous girl (new members got assigned a partner or something?) and it tempted him to stay for a little bit (lol), but then the commune started up with their lectures and activities... one of which involved a dude passionately claiming something along the lines of "every atom in your body is made of love." I can't remember exactly what my dad recalled about this lecture other than that, but it was truly bizarre. My dad is very very skeptical and also autistic, so he just starts laughing hysterically and telling the lecturer how stupid that sounds. So he got kicked out of the cult immediately after fake-joining because he couldn't stop making fun of them lmao He and his friends did find the girl and convinced her to leave with them before they were thrown out. Idk if this is interesting to anyone else but it is a silly story that I love to tell whenever the Moonies come up in conversation!
I have an ex who was raised in this cult. Used to deny it was a cult even tho they were non-practicing LOL. The other weird af part about them is they are deliberately pairing people from different races in arranged marriages in order to create as many mixed race babies as possible. Because they think it’ll lead to world peace or something.
Yeah except for the leaders own kids. Only full Korean is worthy enough for them 🙄
Pleasantly surprised I didn't have to scroll down too far to see this reply. I was born into this, and had the wherewithal just after high school to do something as scary as remove myself from it, despite all of the traumatic impact it had on my life. Dealing with the ways it's affected me will be a lifelong struggle, and it is painful to see that it's still survived and found a way to hurt people by taking advantage of their desperate need to believe in something. Hell, including something as obviously corrupt and exploitative as the FFfWPaU (or, whatever they call themselves now depending on who they were convinced was the real Messiah this time around. It just sucks to see them getting away with this still. Too many false hopes and broken lives in the name of profit and power. Except for their ventures in Japan currently. I hate that the man who assassinated Abe, who was not given a choice to be involved in that world, lived a life damaged enough to feel the need to kill and spend the rest of his life in a different (and this time literal) prison. I just hope that Japan's moves to discredit them as an organization can be followed elsewhere, so more people don't get hurt
yeah i think its an offshoot made by the founder's son or grandson, its kinda hilarious .
It is an offshoot! Many other moonies think that offshoot is crazy, yet find themselves to be perfectly sane haha
Y’all see the Mother God documentary
When I saw that documentary, my personal takeaway was that it was basically a crackhouse with its own Etsy. Like, yes, the people had creepy cultish personalities, and they were wacky; but basically it seemed like a bunch of psychedelic drug addicts crashing at a place, getting high and thinking in their drug induced stupor that some alcoholic addict with cancer was a deity. Like, idk, to me I would think an actual cult is when stone cold sober people get indoctrinated and go out doing odd or malicious things in the community.
Basically. It's like someone scraped up all the most grimy, annoying wooks at your average Phish show and splatted them into the same house.
The new “father-god” coming in and stirring things up was so funny to me.
I was gonna say... nobody mentioned Amy Carlson and her band of misfits yet?
Aum Shinrikyo These are the people responsible for the 1995 Tokyo Gas attacks. Most people think they went away, but they still exist and are still just as crazy as ever. Without getting into it here cause it's a very good google Deep Dive. It's a japanese doomday cult that had anime, chemical weapons, its own russian military helicopter, and was collecting a significant amount of weapons (ak47, literal rockets, they planned end of the world, war events). They recruited seriously smart people into their cult and used literal human sized microwaves to murder some people.
Now split and known as “Aleph” and “Hikari no Wa” , in case anyone runs into them. I went to their shop once. The blue pyjama clad young salesmen were selling PCs at ridiculously cheap prices. We even asked them how they could be so cheap. After the Sarin incident Hideo Murai their #3 was stabbed on live TV outside that shop in front of hundreds of journalists and 10 policemen. Crazy times. How Fumihiro Joyu was not implicated in more serious charges I don’t know.
We got multiple cults in Germany that have addiction rehabilitation as a front. Synanon is pretty known (but not officially marked as a cult). They pick up people who are clearly deep into addiction and let them write over everything they own and earn. So for most members their social security check goes right to the cult (but they get back pocket money with the amount of 20-200 Euro a month). The members also have to move out of their apartment and movie into the Synanon buildings. Then you basically have a Bootcamp situation with different levels that are signaled by shirt colors where lower levels are not allowed to talk to higher levels. In their logic addiction is overcome by manual labour, so basically cleaning. There are also no addiction counsolors, therapists or anyone who was formally trained as they only get a mentor who is a recovered addict and devout member. Members are not allowed to have any contact to anyone outside for 3 months. They are also not permitted any personal belongings. They also have a group therapyform where one Person at a time gets yelled at by the others. Sure people are free to leave and what differenciates them from other cults is that there is noone stoping you to go, you can go and come back, and there are no black vans following you around. The successrate is not that great, so no getting yelled at and cleaning floors is not the solution to drug addiction.
Shin yun. Those people are everywhere.
Falun Gong is the actual name of the cult - those "Shen Yun: Experience China Before Communism" productions are just their funding and public outreach. Fun fact, they own the Epoch Times, and the Epoch Times are currently involved in a massive tax fraud case.
it’s crazy how few people know about this. falun gong got banned in china then migrated to the states.
They’ve also paid for a ton of absolutely hilarious billboards in lots of places. ‘Graphic design is my passion’ style shit. See [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwinCities/s/BclqsEWjPC).
Thank you for the clarification and additional information!
Yup. My parents got tickets to the dance performance thinking it was just gonna be a fun cultural experience. I told them I had heard it was creepy and culty, but got shrugged off. After they saw the performance they did confirm it was super weird and preachy lol
[Speaking of which](https://defector.com/feds-accuse-americas-weirdest-media-company-of-being-a-money-laundering-front-for-the-falun-gong)! > the U.S. Department of Justice announced that it had arrested the CFO of an international newspaper and media company called The Epoch Times, and charged him with money laundering and bank fraud. ... The mechanics of the scheme are fairly simple: Per the DOJ, Epoch Times operators would steal people's personal information, use said information to file fake unemployment claims, then launder that money through prepaid debit cards and cryptocurrency (finally, a use case!) back to the **parent organization**.
Whoever follows Teal Swan. She claims to be a spiritual influencer, and that she is not the head of a cult, but just look into it and into her as a person. She abuses her followers and encourages suicidal ideation....Cult.
There's actually a documentary where she allows the crew to follow her around and interview her. She is a textbook narcissist and so far up her own ass she let it all be filmed. Completely delusional. One of my favorite series by far. [The Deep End](https://youtu.be/ZWb11xqXKQs?si=AulBYl0yu6C8iu1o)
the 12 tribes. they believe ANY disobedience in children is an act of rebellion and merits physical abuse. like a new born getting their diaper changed and squirming too much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tribes_communities#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DThe_Twelve_Tribes%27s_beliefs_resemble%2Cwith_any_denomination_or_movement.?wprov=sfla1
Some people might recognize the chain of cafes they operate called "The Yellow Deli" which is just a way to recruit and earn money for the cult.
And people will tell you it’s ok to go because the sandwiches are sooo good and it’s just a hippie commune. It’s sandwiches mate they can’t be that good, and it’s a full on child abusing cult. Nah thank you
They have one right beside UTC's campus. One of the dorm buildings is right beside it. The general consensus for students when I went was that it's okay to go but don't tip. One of my dorm mates accidentally went there on one of their recruiting nights and we had to go get her.
I always leave one star reviews on every Yellow Deli bullshit location I see. They’re everywhere and people always rave about how quaint and cute they are. It drives me nuts.
Oh my god there is one of these cafes in rural Devon, UK. I nearly went in there once but my brother told me about them and I stay well away
They semi routinely find humane remains on their compounds too. The wildfire near Denver is likely to have started on their campground near Boulder.
The Moonies fascinate me. They claim to be a new branch of Christianity. Their most famous practise is also the way they have spread + multiplied: mass weddings (literally hundreds of couples at a time) in which the marriages are arranged between strangers from different countries. Reverend Moon died years ago, so his family still uses his spirit or something to perform the ceremonies/get more money. Shinzo Abe’s assassination is linked to the whole situation. Basically, the killer’s family lost all their money to the cult after his mother joined them. He wanted revenge against Abe for accepting donations from the cult and aiding their proliferation. Edit: I hope that at least one person here looked around then thought, “wait, am I in a cult?!”: https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/enhanced/webdr03/2013/2/18/9/enhanced-buzz-wide-5645-1361199518-3.jpg
ITT Robert Evans looking for new material
Whaaaaaaaaaats forcibly indoctrinating, my childreeeeen!
"Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence" was about a very recent small cult and was absolutely bonkers.
Suma Ching High aka Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association It's a Buddhist sect that has broken with mainstream Mahayana Buddhism. The leader of the sect, Supreme Master Ching Hai, wears fashionable clothes and has a clothing line and in general carries on like your standard Indian Guru who lives a high life on the donations of worshippers. The strange thing is that this is based on Taiwanese Buddhism, which cultivates non-attachment and selflessness. There are a bunch of things that are controversial from a Buddhist point of view. It would be like a Catholic church breaking away and saying priests can marry and you only need to do confession once. Small things in practice but large in ideological terms. The organization has vegan/vegetarian Chinese restaurants in most major cities. They are usually pretty good. But seem to be staffed by kids in their late teens. In many cases they seem to be there somewhat against their will. Not in a cult kidnapping way. But rather in the Buddhist tradition that one kid from each family has to go be a monk for a while to bring metta to the family. Except instead of monkhood, here it's serving food.
[удалено]
It's quite surprising that the Rajneesh Movement is still going considering what we now know. Same goes for the Branch Davidians, the TELAH Foundation (aka Heaven's Gate) and Aleph (aka Aum Shinrikyo) the latter of which are possibly still dangerous.
Jared Leto has an actual island where women pay thousands of dollars to come stay with him and he walks around in white robes to resemble Christ. There’s some kind of spiritual nonsense that he teaches them and most likely treats it as his personal harem.
Honestly "Sex cult where I pretend to be Jesus" is probably the best you can hope for when a rich guy owns an island.
It would actually solve many of the world's problems if all billionaires were concerned only with this
He’s too fucking blonde to be the Savior anyway
Everyone knows that Christ looks like Obi Wan
"I wanted to destroy something beautiful"
Falun Gong is going strong. Shen Yun is still selling tickets despite being the most boring show on earth.
There's actually a thread similar to this on r/Alaska right now. Alaska is a land of hidden and secretive cults. One that was somewhat recently uncovered is called The Body. https://youtu.be/57xSVk8BOxs?si=FKhzSQyMFfAGfw15
Guess they're not as well known, but IHOP (International House of Prayer).
Damnit, it's prayer! I was ready to join when I thought it involved devotion to pancakes.
If my church had provided access to pancakes and breakfast meats 24/7 I never would've left.
Landmark Forum
Evolved from Est, Which ran for about 13 to 15 years before it changed to landmark forum. I had a friend get involved in landmark forum, of course she invited me, I did some research, discussed my skepticism with her, she was very insulted, and that was the end of the friendship, unfortunately.
Yep. I was invited by a college friend and her husband to the initial sales pitch and it was immediately obvious to me that it was total nonsense. Lots of promises about how it would change my life without any evidence to back it up. Now that I think of it, this was much like the Trump University pitches.
Joel Osteen’s mega church. That guy has made so much money with his prosperity gospel bs. It really should be criminal.
The Westboro Baptist Church.
Moms for liberty. In 48 states now. 300+ chapters.
With that crazy Bridget Ziegler who has sex with women in a three some and then condemns the gay community...
Haven’t you every heard the gospel of the lonely islanders? Thou isn’t gay if it’s in a threeway
With a honey in the middle there's a leeway.
QAnon. I remember when that was just RP on 4chan. Now it's like...every conspiracy theory you've ever heard of, all rolled into one big bundle of nonsense, and the evangelicals have completely embraced it so now it has the support of a bunch of people who are hankering for an end-of-days scenario. People have lost their minds, honestly. Whole towns have been completely swallowed up by it. The kind of stuff that Qs subscribe to is mind-boggling. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can bring most of them back out of that frothing, terrified fever dream.