Rev. Her entrance into Los Angeles was a major triumph. 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 of Rajneesh is known as Rajneeshpuram, a wildly creative community with thousands of cult members. Fifty years after a golden age for the spiritual groups, many have disbanded. The museum mostly holds works of art created by Dorge Chang Buddha, complete with idolizing descriptions. Earlier, he had founded an offshoot of the Teen Challenge youth ministry called Light Club, which sought to entice flower children to sermons with rock music and free peanut butter sandwiches. He fell under the mystical guidance of the Philosophical Research Society as well as the proto-hippie lifestyle. Shamans enjoyed a status somewhat similar to that of chief. TheC-word: what are we saying when we talk about cults. He married several of his daughters and nieces in home ceremonies, forcing each girl to read wedding vows with her hand on the Bible in the bedroom. THE outstanding cult movement in Southern California in the twenties, the Four Square Gospel was succeeded by still fancier cults in the thirties, By any standard the I AM cult is the weirdest mystical concoction that has ever issued from the region It is a witchs caldron of the inconceivable, the incredible, and the fantastic. Their unorthodox belief system is almost Gnostic, teaching that God and Satan battle by filling up the empty vessels of humanity with their respective wills. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon were both members. Not only that, he conducted widespread child abuse and even rehearsed a mass suicide with the whole group. The Long Beach, California, headquarters of Morningland, an almost 50-year-old spiritual group with a focus on meditation. Female disciples said Castaneda subjected them to cult tactics; the movement outlives its founder, who died in 1998. . One of the most high-profile former cult members is actor Joaquin Phoenix, whose family traveled with the cult around South America. Children. Basically the cult has two symbols: wealth and energy. This could be disrupted by foreign energy coming from other people, family history, or the earthbound spirits of dead relatives. The Hashishin He ordered his followers to drink a punch that was induced with cyanide. Certain basic themes appear in the I AM and Alankind United cults. 3. 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. They believe that they alone have the answers to lifes problems or that they alone can save others from their struggles and misery. 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. Representative Leo Ryan, together with reporters and concerned relatives of members of the Peoples Temple, traveled to Guyana to investigate the situation. Between 1934 and 1941, more than 14,000 Californians joined the cult, most of whom were either elderly persons or individuals who had suffered severe economic losses.. As the leader of the cult, he can be traced back to ample cases of child pornography, child abuse, and much more. 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).. His exact victim count is not known, but he confessed to murdering 40 of his patients while working as a nurse at various hospitals. 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Sired by Buck Rogers and Superman, they are nevertheless profoundly symptomatic of the unrest, the suppressed fury, and the preoccupation with violence and power of certain classes in our society. Expert advice on how to deal with slow repairs and weird move-out notices. Southern California, wrote Michael Williams, is a vertiginous confusion of modern idolatry and sorcery and superstition, which is finding philosophical justification as a new paganism, made up of Theosophists, Rosicrucians, Christian Mysticism, Hermeticism, and New Thought. Most of the movements described here represent cultic phenomena that is, they are not sects which have split off from some established faith; they are new cults. Heaven's Gate. Here are nine of the most unnerving examples of them from the 20th century. While most residents of Hollywood have never heard of the place, Krotona left a definite cultural imprint on Southern California. Former members of the cult claim that their leader enforced sexual participation, which would also result in sexual abuse. Both cults reflect a psychoneurotic preoccupation with the symbols of material wealth, luxury, and ease of living. Krotona. 20. The reasons for this may include the lack of an obviously dominant Protestant establishment, an economy based on get-rich-quick schemes and frequently failing businesses, a diverse population of rootless people in a cultural blank slate, or even the heady effects of California weather. Over time, they became more politically militant. The old enthusiasm was gone; the old fervor had vanished. Source: Getty Images. THE first eccentric of Southern California was a Scotsman by the name of William Money, who arrived in Los Angeles around 1841. 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. They. One of the first known hate groups, this cult was (and still is) focused on the advancement of the white race as a whole. After settling down in a safe house in Concord, their culture was characterized by political indoctrination, military drills, and free sex. Their name was derived from the word symbiosis, which referred to a union of classes and races in this case. The Greens began as colonels, later becoming brigadier generals of Aggressive Christianity. 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. 10 The Children of God David Berg formed one of history's most infamous cults, The Children of God, in the 1960s. Ashara had long hair and a long beard, wore bright robes, and practiced meditation while sitting on satin pillows. Below: statues of Buddha at Morningland monastery. By Allison Schonter Cult leaders must be dynamic, charismatic, and convincing because their goal is to brainwash their members and acquire monetary or power-related advantages. 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. Cult leaders are so charismatic, they have the ability to brainwash people into doing almost anything. The women used the cash to build the Santa Susana Knolls community in Simi Valley, which included a dozen cabins and a temple that was sealed off in anticipation of Christs return. Father Yod: Sexytime! Charles Manson (November 12, 1934-November 19, 2017) was a mass murderer who founded a desert cult known as "The Family" in the 1960s and manipulated its members into brutally killing people on his behalf, including the pregnant actress Sharon Tate and other Hollywood residents. H alf a century ago, you could barely walk down the street in California without tripping over some kind of fringe spiritual sect or cult-like group. The murders were conducted in Beverly Hills on August 9, 1969. By 1978, the population of "Jonestown" had grown to nearly 1,000 people. Berg became known as Moses David, Mo, King David, Father David, Chairman Mo, David Fontaine, Dad, and Grandpa. Marcus Wesson saw himself as the leader of a new religion combining Christianity with vampire lore. While working as a prostitute between 1989 and 1990, Aileen Wuornos murdered seven men in Florida by shooting them at point-blank range. The book also promised to reveal lost measurements leading to all of the worlds gold and oil deposits, which were apparently stolen from Noah by his son Ham. Only at 19 years old, he founded the religious institution and eventually relocated it to San Francisco in the 1960s, apparently a hotspot for murderous cults. 4) Jim "Father Yod" Baker: The Source Family. A core membership of around 100 people survived and settled in Palomarin Ranch near Bolinas in Marin County. Hes always been charismatic, which made him believe that he even had psychic powers. History is replete, writes Dr. William W. Sweet, with instances of corruption of religion among migrating people. In tlie process of moving westward, the customs, practices, and religious habits of the people have undergone important changes. Stated in objective terms, the tenets of the cult constitute a hideous phantasm. It was through Point Loma that the yogi influence reached Southern California. In 1969, he had a vision that California was going to be hit by an earthquake and sink into the sea. Like Point Loma, the architecture was Moorish-Egypt ian. He was able to lure in many followers, especially women, into his cult. Only one day later, the Family committed another series of murders. They also teach that a group alternately called the Manifest Sons of God, Man-Child Company, or the Overcomers will leave the church, attain sinless perfection and divine powers through commitment to Christ, and eventually smite Satan and death. She adopted fourteen children and raised them on. After graduation, he entered the ministry. It was the fabulous ability with which she carried off the kidnaping hoax that infuriated the respectable middle-class residents of Los Angeles. 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. The Branch Davidians protected their compound, killing four agents from the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Even the older-type churches have been adopting measures unsanctioned in other parts of the country for a more effective hold upon their people.. produces the seed of perfection of ones self.. They purchased property in Californias Yuba County to establish a winery. One group has been praying for 118,260 hours. A sanctuary in downtown Los Angeles for students of the I Am movement, a religious organization that has been around since the 1930s. The deity of the cult, it seems, is the Ascended Master Saint Germain. There are villains in both cults: hidden rulers, destructive forces, static elements that must be blasted into eternity. Cults are terrifying. That is to say, the Manson Family preached the coming of an apocalyptic race war that would devastate the United States, opening the way for the Family to be in a position of power. Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection, An Introduction to the Long History of Los Angeles Cults, The abandoned movie ranch where Manson launched Helter Skelter, This Is the Most Stereotypically Los Angeles Thing That Has Ever Happened, How to Start Your Own Los Angeles Cult in 14 Easy Steps, The Earliest and Weirdest LA Cult Stories: 1700s to 1940s, The Respectable LA Houses of 1970s Hippie Cult The Source, How Cultists, Quacks, and Naturemenschen Made Los Angeles Obsessed With Healthy Living. Last seen in a bathing suit on the beach near Ocean Park, she had apparently drowned in the Pacific. Below: the gate at the Aetherius Society. Read on to find out about some of the most notorious, infamous cults in history. Podcast Listen Life Examined How '60s and '70s America gave rise to cult leaders Hosted by Jonathan Bastian Aug. 21, 2021 Health & Wellness In our previous episode, author Akash Kapur talked about his experience growing up in the utopian Indian community of Auroville. Married to a Mexican woman, Money was a quack doctor, an economic theorist, and the founder of the first cult in the region. The music betrays a self-aware, ironic humor that is rare in most other cults. However, everything would change in 1995. Peter Dawson. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. 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. Therefore, he would spend his life in prison to eventually die of illness at the age of 83. Indeed, one mechanism for the sex cult to enforce participation was psychological pressure. Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie . How old is the United States of America? Joness intentions and his interpretation of a religious organization were questionable from the very beginning. Mrs. Mohn thereupon sued Mrs. Tingley for alienation of affections, and a jury returned a verdict in her favor for $75,000. In a single office building in the heart of Los Angeles, Thomas Sugrue found the following listed as tenants: Spiritual Mystic Astrologer: Spiritual Psychic Science Church, number 450, Service Daily, Message Circles, Trumpets Thursday; Circle of Truth Church; Spiritual Psychic Science Church; First Church of Divine Love and Wisdom; Reverend Eva Coram, Giving Her Wonderful Cosmic Readings, Divine Healing Daily; Spiritual Science Church of the Master, Special Rose Light Circle, Nothing Impossible.. General Otis contended that Point Loma was a spookery; that Mrs. Tingley exercised a hypnotic influence on the colonists and fed the children so skimpily that they became ethereal; that the most incredible things happen in that lair; that purple robes were worn by the women and khaki uniforms by the men; and that, at midnight, the pilgrims in their nightrobes, each holding a torch, went to a sacred spot on the Point Loma peninsula where gross immoralities were practiced by the disciples of spookism. For once, however, General Otis had met his weight in wildcats. From Boston it moved to Hartford, then to New York, and finally spread to Chieago, Kansas City, and St. Louis. Heres how to find out if your home or apartment is at risk. It seems like just a random house in a wealthy neighborhood was picked. Working hard on the case, the newspapers soon proved that the kidnaping story, which she had told on her return, was highly fictitious, In sensational stories, they proceeded to trace her movements from the time she disappeared, through a love cottage interlude at Carmel with a former radio operator of the Temple, to her reappearance in Mexico. Another weird psychic cult in the area is the Spiritual Rights Foundation, founded by William Baldwin (aka Reverend Bill). Their creed includes the following: We of the church believe in limitless space, timeless endurance, never-ending acceptance, everlasting patience, and continuous comprehension.. A.R. Founded by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles in the 1970s, Heaven's Gate was an ascetic cult . One of the most notorious cults sprouted in San Francisco. One acolyte said, I know this sounds insane, but I saw lightning bolts coming out of his ears.. 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