Source: Getty Images. Heaven's Gate. And how does someone know if the faith they are following is harmful? Cults Week [Curbed LA], [Left photo via The Source: The Untold Story of Father Yod, Ya Ho Wa 13, and The Source Family; right by Megan Koester], 11 Los Angeles renters rights everyone should know. Baker was an ex-Marine and jujitsu expert who moved to LA to audition for the role of Tarzan. Although mass suicide was practiced many times, there was no set date for it to be conducted. Watch on. A professional medium, his wife had edited a spiritualist magazine. This was likely to associate Berg with Jesus (aka the Lion of the Tribe of Judah) and possibly to obscure the fact that Berg was aging. Known to local residents as Professor Money, Doctor Money,and Bishop Money, he had been born, so he contended, with four teeth and the likeness of a rainbow in the eye.. The pair secured a $40,000 loan from the gullible son of an oil magnate in exchange for the lost measurements.. It seems like just a random house in a wealthy neighborhood was picked. On May 18, 1926, Sister Aimee disappeared. Women's abilities to control their own reproductive choices are often determined by cult leaders. And if you needed deliverance, you just had to attend a Jim Green service. Another weird psychic cult in the area is the Spiritual Rights Foundation, founded by William Baldwin (aka Reverend Bill). she came to know the theosophist William Quan Judge, over whom she soon acquired an extraordinary influence. He felt stomach pains and was allegedly hustled out while being told that something had gone wrong. 10 The Children of God David Berg formed one of history's most infamous cults, The Children of God, in the 1960s. The center existed from 2014 to 2017 but was forced to close as the result of rising rent. But the real genesis of Ojai as an occult center may be traced to the publication, in the early twenties, of a magazine article by Dr. Ales Hrdlika predicting the rise of a new sixth sub-race. It seems that psychological tests given in California schools had revealed the existence of a surprising number of child prodigies; ergo, California was the home of the new sub-race. He died in 2017 after. Here are nine of the most unnerving examples of them from the 20th century. A small Christian group that believes its leader is the reincarnation of Jesus almost certainly would. He lost his vision due to an illness, which changed his outlook on the world. In late March of 1995, members began releasing a poisonous nerve gas called sarin on five crowded subway trains. Religious cult leader David Koresh and his heavily armed followers repulsed an assault by the ATF resulting in the deaths of four ATF agents and six cult members and spawned a 51 day siege, ending in a fiery death for 76 cult members during the . Marcus Delon Wesson (born August 22, 1946) is an American criminal convicted of nine counts of first-degree murder and 14 sex crimes, including the rape and molestation of his underage daughters. Jones was a churchgoer from an early age. They also had a local radio program, where they exhorted Christians to join an army of God to fight the demons responsible for the worlds ills, which included karate, homosexuality, psychoanalysis, and fairy tales. With the aid of these supermen, The Sponsors propose to eradicate war and poverty from the earth. This magazine has been fully digitized as a part of The Atlantic's archive. The appearance of this exotic colony in Southern California greatly disturbed the boosters of the period, who regarded it as bad advertising. General Harrison Gray Otis was convinced that weird orgies were being enacted at Point Loma. By 1995, his cult had an international following of about 30.000 people worldwide, including many intellectuals from the best universities. Not only were 39 bodies found in a suburban California home, bodies of cult members buried under blankets and wearing Nike sneakers; a creepy video of a wide-eyed man explaining their Heaven's. In 2012, some cult locations were raided by the DEA on suspicions that cult members were selling marijuana and using the proceeds to help the church, which the Fellowship of Friends strongly denied. However, the murders only came to light with the investigation surrounding the subway attacks. In exchange for these promised luxuries, members were asked to surrender their worldly possessions on joining the secret order. The Branch Davidians protected their compound, killing four agents from the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Actor River Phoenix, who died of a drug overdose on October 31, 1993, and his famous siblings were also raised for a time in The Children of God. Her cause of death hasn't been revealed but TMZ reported the former Manson Family member passed away age 73. no other large city contains so many transplanted villagers who retain the stamp of their indigenous soil.. . A lengthy standoff would follow, which resulted in the burning of the compound. That is to say, the attack was in anticipation of Armageddon, which was believed to be a nuclear attack by the United States on Japan. however, do not get along well with those of Point Loma. Such is the basic revelation of Mankind United, a cult movement launched by Arthur Bell in 1934. The building is one of several properties the group is renting out through Airbnb. It was located in the middle of the jungle of Guyana, and inhabitants were expected to work long days without a lot of pay. The group began as an organization that brought white Berkeley students to lecture inmates on political science, black sociology, and African heritage. Sentient beings, non-sentient things, birds, aquatic animals, land animals, flowers, grass, trees, tiles, and stones have all expressed respect for His Holinesss dharma discourses either verbally or through physical actions. Cult leader David Koresh led the Branch Davidians in a deadly 51-day standoff against the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Robert Burton was an elementary school teacher who sought enlightenment through the Quakers and philosophy when he became enamored of the Fourth Way teachings of early 20th-century Russian mystics George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky. But perhaps the best example of the pervasiveness of cults in pop culture came last week with the premiere of American Horror Story: Cult in which we can expect to see versions of cult. Using the principle of the ray machine, power plants would be created capable of exterminating a million people at a single blast. No one bothered to inquire what crime, if any, she had committed. RELATED . The Jonestown massacre is known as one of the largest mass deaths in . The love gifts poured in so rapidly that they took over a large, rambling tabernacle, from the top of which a blazing neon light flashed word to all Los Angeles of the Mighty I AM Presence. I was a mistake of nature," he once said. The Rhodeses were devotees of the Blackburn cult. However, everything would change in 1995. In Los Angeles, I have attended the services of the Agabeg Occult Church, where the woman pastor who presided had violet hair (to match her name) and green-painted eyelids (to emphasize their mystical insight); of the Great White Brotherhood, whose yellow-robed followers celebrate the full moon of May with a special ritual; of the Ancient Mystical Order of Melchizedek; of the Temple of the Jewelled Cross; of Sanford Church, food scientist, psychologist, and health lecturer; of the Bahai World Faith Center; of the Crusade of the New Civilization; of the Self-Realization Fellowship of America, which proposes to construct a Golden Lotus Yoga Dream Hermitage near Encinitas at a cost of $400,000. The museum is run by members of the Rosicrucian order, a spiritual movement that dates back to 1600s Germany and thrived in the US in the early 20th century. Joness intentions and his interpretation of a religious organization were questionable from the very beginning. Bell claimed that he could be in multiple places at once and had access to ray guns that could knock out peoples eyeballs from miles away. On meeting in Southern California, strangers are supposed to inquire, tirst, Where are you fromt" and second, How do you feel? Invalidism and transiency have certainly been important factors stimulating cultism in the region. Because Jones was afraid of the consequences, he activated the mass suicide plan for the members of the Peoples Temple. In 1894 a visitor reported that two thousand Easterners were spending their winters in Pasadena; that they were all regular church communicants; and that there was not a grog shop in town.. Ti passed away a decade before . During these years, New Thought studio-lecture rooms sprang up throughout the city and the Metaphysicians May Day Festival became an annual civic event. There might have been even more people since the cult often hid how many members there actually were. Shamans enjoyed a status somewhat similar to that of chief. The former headquarters of Full Circle, a a guru-free, sacred space in Venice, Los Angeles, that was led by the actor Andrew Keegan of 10 Things I Hate About You fame. They purchased property in Californias Yuba County to establish a winery. The Bohemian Club's all-male membership includes . It also encouraged the notorious flirty fishing and love bombing means of recruitment. In the early thirties, there were over a thousand practicing nudists in Los Angeles, and three large nudist camps: Fraternity Elysia; the Land of Moo, over the entrance to which appeared the saucy slogan, In All the World, No St rip LikeThis; and, in the hills of Calabasas, a mysterious retreat called Shangri-la. At first, the cult was in India. Founded by Arthur Bell during the Great Depression, Mankind United believed that the world was controlled and manipulated by a conspiracy of hidden rulers and money changers. In March 1997, 39 members of Heaven's Gate, a cult started in the early '70s, put on matching dark clothes, swallowed barbiturates, and placed plastic bags around their heads. Supposedly, they were in contact with the angels Gabriel and Michael, who told the women to shut themselves off from the world for three years and write a book called The Great Sixth Seal explaining the worlds mysteries. Only Ryan and four others were killed in the attack, with nine others fleeing the scene. Mrs. Mohn thereupon sued Mrs. Tingley for alienation of affections, and a jury returned a verdict in her favor for $75,000. This is where the attacks from the Family come into play. Shoko continued preaching his worldviews and grew his cult significantly. After the sponsors revealed their presence, they were going to create a utopia based on universal employment with a short workweek, an economy of financial credit, and an artificial language. But, after some trouble with the Indian government, the group lived in Oregon for quite some time. Aimee, who was not so much a woman as a scintillant assault, first appeared in California at San Diego in 1918. From Ed Gein, who is the inspiration behind horror classics like Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre to Jack the Ripper, whose identity to this day still eludes police, the world has been marred by a nasty past. Berg died in 1994, and his cult is now known as Family International. Although sex is taboo in the I AM creed it tends to divert divine energy it would be difficult to imagine a ritual in which sexual symbolism figured as prominently as it does in Master Saint Germains revelation. Their name was derived from the word symbiosis, which referred to a union of classes and races in this case. Charles Manson The Family. THE first eccentric of Southern California was a Scotsman by the name of William Money, who arrived in Los Angeles around 1841. Although she had never been West, Mrs. Tingley had, since childhood, dreamed of building a White City in a Land of Gold beside a Sunset Sea. Raising a considerable sum of money in the East, she established the Point Loma Theosophical Community near San Diego in 1900. Following an anonymous tip, police enter a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive suburb of San Diego, California, and discover 39 victims of a mass . Cults are terrifying. After founding the church and moving to the city of San Francisco, Jones adopted the name the Prophet and became obsessed with demonstrating power. Fifty years after a golden age for the spiritual groups, many have disbanded. The Fourth Way states that most human beings are spiritually asleep and can only regain true consciousness through a process of self-remembering and refraining from expressing negative emotions. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. To link to this article in the text of an online publication, please use this URL: https://historycooperative.org/six-of-the-most-famous-cult-leaders/. What was the lawsuit about? These are the most notorious serial killers and cult leaders in history. Leaders of the orthodox faiths have repeatedly complained, with the exception of the Catholic Church, that established church practices and procedures have undergone various mutations in Southern California. The existence of a large number of transients and visitors has always stimulated the cult-making tendency. From changing the milk-bottles of the newest baby to laying the last shingle on a bungalow, wrote one observer, her desire equals a Czars edict.. He called his cult "The Family." It is believed that at least 7000 people were living on the ranch in Oregon at some point. The group departed for Lake Tahoe and was never heard from again. He called himself Je Vam Marc Sus Pire and named one of his sons Jeva, a portmanteau of Jesus and vampire. The cult broke up when two nieces returned with relatives to retrieve their children. The cult believed that a race war known as "Helter Skelter" was coming, and they needed to be prepared. This list does not include the mass suicide cases of 1906 Bali, AD 73 Masada, 1963 Vietnam, 1803 Igbo slaves, Jauhar, etc, which were committed by people to escape slavery and/or being captured by the enemy in a war. Others slowly faded away, pushed out by Californias rising cost of living, or made obsolete by the fact that many of the things that made them appealing were absorbed into the mainstream: Fortune 500 CEOs now regularly attend Burning Man and crystals and Himalayan salt lamps can be purchased at Target. California Cult's Quadruple Murder Was A 'True Nightmare On Elm Street' Trailer park cult leader Gerald Cruz led his followers in a brutal rampage that killed four in Salida. The group started as what appeared to be a progressive organization that advocated for civil rights. Although not entirely false about the merit of organic food, the mechanisms of spreading the message are very troublesome. Great emphasis is placed on words such as energy, wealth,jewels, riches, and power. The faithful are promised power by which they can acquire wealth, gold, radios, hotels, automobiles, jewels, and innumerable luxuries. Like Point Loma, the architecture was Moorish-Egypt ian. Three days later, the mysterious Aimee reappeared at Agua Prieta in Mexico, across the border from Douglas, Arizona. For example, they would leave the wallets of the victims in areas that were highly populated by African-American residents. It was not long before some three hundred bizarre devotees, representing twenty-five different nationalities, had taken up residence in the colony. Words and pictures by Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, alf a century ago, you could barely walk down the street in, Guardian journalist helped me see a way out, ex-cult member recalls, Faith review knockout doc on a sinister Catholic kung-fu cult, Cult leader who claims to be reincarnation of Jesus arrested in Russia, Experience: my yoga class turned out to be a cult, Cult of Beyonc: how the star inspired a new wave of Christian worship. Since Southern California was the world center of both movements theosophy from 1900; New Thought from 1915 it not only attracted adherents of these creeds from all over the world, but it became a publishing center from which issued a steady flow of magazines, newspapers, and books devoted to mysticism, practical and esoteric. As the leader of the cult, he can be traced back to ample cases of child pornography, child abuse, and much more. Meanwhile, members are expected to work over 40 hours per week for the group and tithe up to 80 percent of their income. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gods of Death But like all metaphysical and religious movements, New Thought traveled westward. Arthur Bell claimed to have possession of a ray machine so powerful that its beams, once released, would knock out the eye sockets of people thousands of miles distant (a notion based upon an article which Dr. R. M. Langer, of the California Institute of Technology had contributed to Colliers in 1940). It is the home of Edgar Holloway, the Man from Lcmuria, who claims to have flown to Ojai some years ago in a great flying fish. Wikimedia Commons. Read on to find out about some of the most notorious, infamous cults in history. The Manson Family can be seen as a communal religious cult dedicated to studying and implementing religious teachings drawn from science fiction. A hundred thousand people cheered while she paraded through the streets of the city, accompanied by a white-robed silver band, an escort of twenty cowboys, and squads of policemen. Yet, violence was also a mechanism, meaning that people were not just sexually abused but physically as well. While Los Angeles went wild with excitement, thousands of her followers gathered on the beach to pray for her deliverance and return. Throughout a network of affiliated organizations the Universal Service Corporation, the International Institute of Universal Research, and the International Legion of Vigilantes the leaders of Mankind United received $97,500 in 1930 from the sale of Arthur Bells revelation. At one time, Warrington rented a hall on Hollywood Boulevard where courses were given in Esperanto, the Esoteric Interpretation of Music and Drama, and the Human Aura. But, one has to wait quite a long for the ending of a war that hasnt even started yet. The remaining members were arrested and convicted of various charges of armed robbery and kidnapping. According to a spokesperson from the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC: From 1984 onward, Yi and his accomplices committed fraud by means of deception, causing losses of CNY 60.8 million ($7.32 million).. Heaven's Gate is one of the more well-known cults thanks to its eccentric leaders, known as Ti and Do (yes, like in "Do-Re-Mi"), as well as its unique philosophy that combined religion and new-age UFO "science.". Supposedly, this was to cure her blood malady, but she died two days later. The People's Temple. Los Angeles is the home of the Philosophical Research Society, Incorporated, of Manly Palmer Hall, Americas Greatest Philosopher; the center of Zoroastrianism in America; the headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. After abandoning the restaurant in 1974, Baker toured the world with a group of followers in an unsuccessful bid to find a new home for the group. A Listing of Cults in America. Top 10 Most Historically Famous Shootouts. His . Well, it revolved around the claim that members did not join the group voluntarily but were lured in by deception, probably being held against their will by threats and manipulations. Both humans and nonhumans have prostrated to H.H. Money was the leading Los Angeles eccentric from 1841 until his death in 1880. How old is the United States of America? By 1968 he had become the leader of what is now known as the Manson Family. Ojai is, today, the center of all esoteric influences in the region. From an early age, he spent a lot of time in juvenile reformatories or prisons for crimes like armed robbery and theft. Afterward, in the bedroom, his wife Rosemary died after receiving 41 stabs. With the right mix of flattery, otherworldly teachings, and control over finances, these leaders create an environment where followers feel they have no choice but to obey. A keyword in the affirmations, chants, and adorations is blasted by the dynamic energy of Saint Germains purple light and the, atomic accelerator. A talented appropriator, Ballard had lifted ideas at random from a dozen sources in putting this strange creed together. It was the fabulous ability with which she carried off the kidnaping hoax that infuriated the respectable middle-class residents of Los Angeles. One story states that the youngest members of the cult learned to have sex, which was deemed Gods way of expressing his love. Of course, these attacks never took place, but it is unthinkable that this was due to the subway attack. Over time, they became more politically militant. Although Bonnie Nettles a.k.a. These include Richard Nixon, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Kevin McCarthy, Dianne Feinstein and others. Why would anyone want to do that? Born in New England in 1847, three times married, Mrs. Tingley lived in almost total obscurity for the first forty years of her life. One group has been praying for 118,260 hours. Buxom middle-aged usherettes, clad in flowing evening gowns, with handsome corsages of orchids and gardenias, bustled around at the morning services in a tabernacle that literally steamed with perfume. The world has known countless killers and criminals, but few whose vile acts are so devastating and inhumane that they still haunt the public to this day. Influenced by the works of 18th-century mystic Emanuel Swedenborg and con artist psychic Marc Reymont, Baldwin formed his cult on the basis of fundamentalist Christianity and New Age thinking. 9. . Yet, the target wasnt picked beforehand. These characteristics are crucial. Several allegations were aimed at demolishing Joness power, but none of them resulted in anything significant that caused his downfall. The Cult. L. Ron Hubbard in Los Angeles, California, 1950. After a failed career as a musician, Manson began amassing disciples that followed him to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley. . In San Diego she unquestionably heard of Katherine Tingley, from whom she probably got the idea of founding a new religious movement on the coast and from whom she certainly got many of her ideas about uniforms, pageantry, and showmanship. A church survey made in Los Angeles points up the real problem: For the most part, it states, the newly developing religious teachers are sincerely trying to serve their followers, and prove to be strong influences because traditional habits do not reach the people in this community. Members of the Manson Family. They also built a brick oven to bake a disciple named Florence Turner. After spending time in a Kentucky church, doing missionary work in Central America, and working at a Miami Salvation Army shelter, they felt disillusioned by the corruption of other churches and founded their own in Sacramento. In 1969, at a time when quasi-mystical "love cults" were springing up across Los Angeles, Father Yod started the most . Some victims were stabbed up to 50 times, leaving everyone in the house dead, including Tates unborn baby. (One man had been tortured to death. He gave each girl a marital necklace and gold band. They sought to create a network of homelands for minority groups in the US. A window display at the Unarius Academy of Science in El Cajon, California. Some of the most notorious California cults include Heavens Gate, the Peoples Temple of David Koresh, and the infamous Manson Family. Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. December 24th, 1865: The Ku Klux Klan. Dogs. The Temple has an auditorium with 5000 seats; a $75,000 broadcasting station; the classrooms of a university which once graduated 500 young evangelists a year; and, as Morrow Mayo pointed out, a brass band bigger and louder than Sousas, an organ worthy of any movie cathedral, a female choir bigger and more beautiful than the Metropolitan chorus, and a costume wardrobe comparable to Ziegfelds., Mrs. McPherson founded a magazine, The Bridal Call, and established 240 lighthouses, or local churches, affiliated with Angelus Temple. Hearsts father eventually withdrew his $50,000 reward for her return as it became increasingly clear that she identified with the group and wasnt coming home. IN 1875 a group of men, whose names must be forever unknown, succeeded in establishing contact with a superhuman race of little men with metallic heads who dwell in the center of the earth. Below: the gate at the Aetherius Society. The story of Krotona has been well told, in novel form, by Jane Levington Comfort (From These Beginnings, 1937). The first major prophetess of the region was unquestionably Katherine Tingley. The unknown serial killer operated in Northern California from 1968 to the early 1970s. Enveloped in the flame, he and Saint Germain set forth on a trip around the world in the stratosphere, visiting the buried cities of the Amazon, France, Egypt, Karnak, Luxor, the fabled Inca cities of antiquity, the Royal Tetons, and Yellowstone National Park. However, their religious history has made it difficult to promote these wines and has led to tax disputes with county officials. 16. 1. Wesson was calm during the confrontation, although some of his daughters verbally defended him. On state occasions, she always appeared in the costume of an admiral of the fleet while the lay members of her entourage wore natty nautical uniforms. Attracting thousands of visitors to the region, some of whom purchased real estate, the colony soon ceased to be regarded as heretical. In both movements there is a marked emphasis upon energy and power, symbolized by the ray machine in Mankind United and by the mystic purple light of the I AM cult. Charles Manson's . Stealing from older philosophies like Theosophy, Bell claimed that a hidden order of sponsors worked against the conspiracy of the worldwide slave state. David Brandt Berg founded the Children of God cult, combining Christian theology with bizarre reinterpretations of scripture, trance channeling from angels, and a hearty dose of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. These two imported movements theosophy and New Thought constitute the stuff from which most of the later creeds and cults have been evolved. Cult movements have moved westward in America, and Los Angeles is the last stop. 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