The phrase "Religion is opium for the people", uttered by the English writer Charles Kingsley and replicated by Karl Marx, does not lose its relevance even one and a half hundred years later. Instead of just going to a psychoanalyst or a bathhouse with friends, people still prefer to join religious communities in search of comfort. However, for one kind and glorious Church of the flying macaroni monster, there are about a dozen analogues of Aum Shinrikyo and the Temple of the Nations - destructive sects that harm not only their members, but also those around them.
Heaven's Gate
Nettles and Applewhite meet with followers
The story of this pseudo-religious movement began in 1972, when nurse Bonnie Nettles met music teacher Marshall Applewhite. The couple shared common interests: both were fond of mysticism and believed that they were divine messengers (Nettles even believed that the spirit of a monk who died in the 19th century was talking to her).
In 1973, Bonnie and Marshall left their families and went to travel around the United States, trying to tell everyone around about their destiny. By 1975, a joint passion for astrology, UFOs, spiritualism and reading books by Helena Blavatsky, mixed with the lives of Christian saints, had formed into a kind of religion. Briefly, their teaching can be described as follows: Applewhite is the reincarnation of Jesus, Nettles is an immortal entity, which, however, can be killed, after which they will together ascend to heaven on a spaceship.
Surprisingly, Marshall and Bonnie did have followers. The adherents of the sect, called the "Gates of Paradise", remained with Applewhite even after 1985, when Nettles died of cancer (despite the assurances of immortality).
In 1997, Applewhite considered that Hale-Bopp's comet flying past the Earth was nothing more than a sign that it was time to "ascend." By the time there were also amateur ufologists, who argued that in the pictures of the comet it was possible to distinguish the alien ship following it. In general, the chance could not be missed. Along with 38 followers who gathered at a ranch in Santa Fe, California, he committed mass suicide by mixing phenobarbital with vodka.
Promotional video:
Order of the Sun Temple (Ordre du Temple Solaire)
Ritual of the Order
The history of the order began with the fact that the Belgian doctor Luc Jure became interested in homeopathy and other types of alternative medicine. In the early 1980s, Juret moved from Brussels to French Annemasse, where he began giving lectures on non-standard methods of treatment, generously seasoned with paranormalism and spiritualism.
In 1981, in Geneva, Jure met Joseph Di Mambro, a member of several new age movements. The men immediately found a common language and decided to organize a secret religious society - the Order of the Sun Temple. The main idea of the new religion was the expectation of the second coming of Jesus as the Sun God-King, as well as preparation for death and the subsequent ascension to Sirius.
Thanks to the excellent oratory skills of Jure, the order gained a mass of followers not only in France and Switzerland, but also in Canada and even in English-speaking Australia. The sect's adepts happily parted with their personal property and savings in favor of Jure and Di Mambro. In return, they were given the opportunity to participate in rituals, which were a mixture of meditation practices, kabbalism, seances, and Templar symbolism.
By the early 1990s, the order's popularity began to decline, which made Jure and Di Mambro depressive. In October 1994, the founders of the sect staged an analogue of the Last Supper, gathering around themselves the most devoted followers. A few days later, a number of mass suicides of the sect's followers were recorded - in the Swiss villages of Cherie and Salvan and the Canadian Quebec. Until 1997, former members of the order continued to voluntarily take their own lives. In total, 74 people became victims of the sect, including Di Mambro and Jure themselves.
Branch Davidians
Assault on Mount Carmel
After several splits in the ranks of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1959, a separate church was formed, called the "Branch of David." For thirty years, the religious movement practically did not differ from the ordinary Christian church, until it was led by the young preacher Vernon Howell, who changed his name to David Koresh on this occasion.
Together with the parishioners, Koresh, who considered himself a prophet and preached the imminent approach of the end of the world, settled on the closed Mount Carmel ranch in Texas. Koresh tightly controlled the activities of all residents of the community: he forbade them to get enough sleep and eat well, forced them to say hours-long prayers and report on every step outside the ranch. Among other things, the preacher said that a revelation had descended on him and from now on, only he could have sex with women living in Mount Carmel. True, he used this right most often in relation to teenage girls.
In 1992, the FBI received information that members of the "Branch of David" were illegally selling firearms. The investigation also revealed that Koresh is engaged in child molestation. In February 1993, a search warrant was obtained for Mount Carmel. Due to information leakage, the cultists prepared for the arrival of the FBI and met them with active resistance, during which 9 people were killed and 16 agents were injured. After a failed search, the ranch siege began, which lasted almost two months. During the storming of the building, David Koresh, who refused to surrender to the authorities, set off a fire that claimed the lives of 82 sectarians and four agents.
The Movement for the Revival of God's Ten Commandments
In the center - Mverinda and Kataribabo
The founder of the movement is the former Ugandan prostitute Credonia Mverinde, who in 1989 confessed that she had communicated with the Virgin Mary herself and that she appointed her a prophet. Almost immediately after this statement, Credonia had its first followers: the priest Dominic Kataribabo and the wealthy landowner Joseph Kibvetere, who by that time had experience of treatment in a psychiatric hospital. Thanks to the efforts of Kataribabo and Kibvetera, Mverinda quickly formed a large flock that believed in the coming end of the world.
For almost ten years, Mverinda kept postponing the date of the apocalypse, and this inconstancy began to irritate the followers of the sect. In addition, the believers were upset by the fact that they managed to give all their savings to Mverinda and Kibvetera. Finally, after the celebration of the Millennium, the prophetess decided on the exact date: March 17, 2000.
On the appointed day, the parishioners gathered in the church, which bore the name "House of the Virgin Mary", after which the most loyal followers of the movement boarded up all exits from the building and blew it up. The fire killed 530 people. As a result of the ensuing investigation, another two hundred bodies were found - in the official residence of the sect and in the infield of Dominic Cataribabo.
According to some witnesses, Credonia Mverinda managed to escape before the explosion itself.