Rating of the ten most dangerous sects. First on the list is a sect recognized as the most terrible in the world:
1. "Temple of the Nations"
A sect formed in Guyana. Preacher Jim Jones organized a sect whose members, once there, lost their freedom. It was reported that the Reverend Jones achieved unquestioning obedience with threats, beatings, and insults.
As eyewitnesses recalled, his sermons were more reminiscent of political meetings. During one service, Jones turned to the American flag that hung behind him, threatened him with his fist, and said, “Oh wait, a nation of fanatics, racists, imperialists, and Klans! Your hour of reckoning will come for the atrocities you have committed. I have this book in my hands. The Bible, see? For almost two thousand years it has been distracting people from their real work, preventing us from fighting injustice! So I throw her on the floor, see? So I spit on her!"
Jones was building "cooperative socialism" in a single village. In official documents they called their commune “Agricultural and Medical Cooperative“Temple of the Nations”.
One of the streets of the village bore the name of Lenin, and in the morning as a wake-up call over Johnstown, the anthem of the Soviet Union was heard from the speakers.
On November 18, 1978, in the jungles of Guyana, about 1,000 US citizens committed suicide. Until now, there is no reliable data on the cause of death of the inhabitants of the village.
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According to some sources, during an attempt to disperse the cooperative, all its inhabitants consumed potassium cyanide. However, Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote in 1998 that it was a massacre organized by the US special services.
2. Aum Shinrikyo
A sect based in Japan. In many countries, her activities are prohibited. The teachings of Aum Shinrikyo, at first glance based on the texts of Buddhism, in fact unites a misunderstanding of the views of Buddhism, as well as yoga.
Aum Shinrikyo prepared and carried out several terrorist attacks in Japan, in particular in the Tokyo subway, as a result of which 12 people died. The court found the leader of the sect Asahara guilty on 13 of 17 counts and in 2004 sentenced him to death.
3. "Gate of Paradise"
Formed in the United States in 1975 by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Knattles. In 1997, Applewhite managed to persuade 39 followers of his sect to commit suicide due to the imminent collision of the Earth with the comet Gale-Bopp.
He promised the adepts that they would leave their earthly bodies and go on a journey in a spaceship. Members of the sect dressed in hoods and gloves so as not to accidentally touch and not succumb to sinful desire, obeyed thousands of rules, and studied the Bible intensively.
They had periods when they could communicate with each other only in writing. The family was to be forgotten once and for all. Each had an “observer partner” and was also watching someone.
After the Internet became widely available, a corresponding sect site called "The Gate of Paradise" appeared on it.
Preparing for suicide, members of the sect drank lemon juice, thus ritually cleansing their bodies. They also believed that their mass suicide would contribute to the popularity of the Internet (many members of the sect worked as web designers).
The bodies of 39 people were found on March 26, 1997 at their villa in Rancho Santa Fe (near San Diego, California). 18 men and 21 women euthanized themselves with phenobarbital mixed with pudding or fruit jelly.
All this was washed down with vodka; then they pulled plastic bags over their heads in order to suffocate in their sleep. The face and upper bodies of the "monks" (as they called themselves) were neatly covered with a square purple veil.
All 39 people were dressed the same - black shirts, black pants, and black sneakers.
4. "The Manson family"
He is considered a perverted maniac, a madman who presented himself as a prophet. Others try to justify it - there is a site to support it.
He declared war between the black and white races. The war, which he called Helter Skelter, and which will forever cleanse the earth and open the way for him to dominate the world, over the entire planet.
Charles Manson tried to make a career as a musician, was familiar with musicians and producers, recorded an album of his own songs.
At the end of the 60s, he founded the "Family", into which he invited "children", whom society threw out to the pomade, like him.
Manson was charged in 1969 with several murders, in particular, the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski, actress Sharon Tate.
According to the court's verdict, the criminal was supposed to be executed in a gas chamber, but in 1977 the California Supreme Court ruled the execution unconstitutional. The execution was changed to life imprisonment. Manson was denied early release last year. Manson is currently in California State Prison in Corcoran.
Menson is fond of interviewing journalists; he acts like a real rock star. His songs are covered by avant-garde rock bands; some - like Marilyn Manson - are named after him.
5. Seventh-day Adventists
The Seventh-day Adventist Church originated in 1844 in the United States.
In the reference book Contemporary Heresies and Sects in Russia, Seventh-day Adventists are defined as a sect of American origin that is affiliated with the Baptists and has a special attraction to the Old Testament.
The founder of Adventism was the ordinary farmer William Miller. By studying the Bible, he came to the conclusion that the world would end soon. In 1818 he determined the year of the death of the world: according to Miller's calculations, it should have been 1843. At the same time, the founder of the Adventist sect was not at all embarrassed when he was reminded of Christ's words that no one can know either the day or the hour of His Second Coming.
In the 90s, a tragedy occurred in the United States, when about a hundred Adventist sectarians were killed.
The drama took place in 1993 in Waco, Texas, where the Branch of David leader David Koresh settled down with a group of his followers.
For too long he prophesied the imminent end of the world, and the prophecy “had to come true” … But the failed messiah, naturally, did not want to leave himself, so he blew himself up with his flock. When the fire ended, about a hundred corpses were found under the ruins, including at least 25 children.
6. Sect of Bhagavan Shri Rajneesh (Osho)
Rajneesh despised humanity and did not hide his aspirations; perhaps even more than in the stories of other sects, here the reasons that motivated the new-born guru are exposed with undisguised cynicism - greed, lust, vanity and lust for power.
It should be added that the cult of Rajneesh can hardly be attributed even to pseudo-Hindu neoplasms - it is an absolutely “author's creation” that operates in the area of the Newage movement.
In 1966, Rajneesh left the university and began to preach his own doctrine, which was a paradoxical mixture of stubs of Jainism, Tantrism, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Sufism, Hasidism, Nietzscheanism, psychoanalysis, popular "psycho-spiritual" therapies and the teachings of Krishnamurti and Gurdjieff …
Having no initiation into any of the mystical traditions, he twisted everything in his own way, adapting to his own needs. The main postulate of the "one religion" of Rajneesh can be expressed as follows: "Love God and do what you want."
The sect was especially widespread in the United States. Apparently, it was the "prophet" who poisoned hundreds of people in Dallas in 1984 with the salmonella bacteria.
After deportation from the United States, Rajneesh tried to stay in any country where his followers were, but 21 states either banned him from entering, or expelled him without any explanation (such as Greece).
Currently, there are about 200 Osho meditation centers in the world. On the territory of the former Soviet Union, there are Osho centers in St. Petersburg, Voronezh (operating since 1996 under the name “Tantra Yoga”), Odessa, Krasnodar, Minsk, Tbilisi, Riga and Moscow.
7. "Order of the Temple of the Sun"
Founded in 1984 by neo-Nazi Belgian Luc Jure. The teachings of the "Order of the Temple of the Sun" comes from the mystical order of the Templars and some groups of Rosicrucians and is a mixture of astrology, alchemy, mysticism, yoga and kabbalism.
In accordance with the teachings of the sect, the Earth is inevitably approaching the apocalypse. At the same time, death does not exist, it is only an illusion. Adepts believe that they will be reborn in the afterlife.
On December 22, 1995, in the French Alps, near Grenoble, on a forest edge, a mass ritual self-immolation of 16 adherents of the Order of the Temple of the Sun took place, including one girl and two boys from 2 to 6 years old. The father of one child was a police officer. Some of the victims were shot in the head and then burned.
8. Sect in Russia "Church of Christ", "Church of the Covenant", "Chapel on Calvary", "Tree of Life", "Russian Christian Church"
In other countries it is known under the name "Church of the Body of Christ" or "Word of Life". In accordance with the teachings of this movement, a true Christian must necessarily be successful and prosper in mortality. This is seen as confirmation of his salvation. God, according to the sectarians, simply does not have the right to refuse a person who has "strong faith."
Local organizations support each other, exchange "pastors", help newly created cells. Each “worship” begins with the “glorification” of Christ by repeating one simple phrase like “I sing you, Christ” to the loud accompaniment of rhythmic music.
The followers of the sect are in an information vacuum, because television, radio and the press allegedly carry a demonic charge. Many of them leave their relatives, as an attitude is formed: whoever did not accept the teachings of the sect is a tool in the hands of the devil.
Adepts regularly contribute tithes (one tenth of the income) to the local community and its leadership. In addition, numerous other “ongoing” meetings are foreseen. There is a practice of conducting mass “religious” meetings with healing, which are sometimes organized in stadiums and resemble similar events of healers and psychics. Treatment with traditional methods is discarded, which often leads to death.
9. Raelians
The Raeliano sect originated in France in the 70s of the last century. The founder is Claude Vorillon, better known as Rael (formerly a sports columnist). He stated that on December 13, 1973, in the crater of an extinct volcano in the center of France, he met with aliens. One of them called himself God (Elohim, one of the words that in the Torah means God).
Elohim told him that life on Earth was created by aliens through genetic engineering and cloning. Rael attracts people to his sect, promising them eternal life, the secret of which he allegedly owns.
"The teacher" preaches sexual freedom. In 2003, one of the followers of the "church" released a statement in the media that she was the world's first clone. The sensation was soon refuted by scientists.
The life of the sect was described in his novel "The Possibility of the Island" by Michel Houellebecq.
10. "Ho-no-Hana"
Japanese neo-Buddhist sect. In translation it means "Teaching of the Flower". Founded in 1987. It was rumored among the followers of the sect that the "teacher" - Hogen Fukunaga is endowed with magical powers and can read the past or future of people by their feet.
In its best times, the number of supporters of the sect reached 30 thousand people. In reality, the top of the sect was engaged in extortion, prophesying cancer or other deadly diseases, thus forcing people to take part in special cleansing rituals, which were very expensive ($ 900 per session).
After being accused of fraud, Fukunaga resigned as a "teacher", was prosecuted and paid a fine of about a million dollars. However, the sect continues to recruit supporters, albeit under a different name - "Yorokobi Kazoku no Wa".