Influence

Part 6 of 12  ·  Evidence

Charisma and Control

How coercive movements recruit, bind and keep people, documented from the inside of a dozen of them.

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1 The Chicken Liver Miracle: Jim Jones Builds a Congregation on Staged HealingsJim Jones founded the organisation that became Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in 1955 after observing faith-healing services; he…
2 White Nights: Rehearsing Death in the Guyanese JunglePeoples Temple ‘White Nights’ at Jonestown, Guyana, 1977-1978: emergency alerts and loyalty tests in which members, at times,…
3 18 November 1978: The Arithmetic of JonestownOn 18 November 1978, 918 people died in a coordinated mass murder-suicide at Jonestown, the Port Kaituma airstrip — where…
4 Helter Skelter: Charles Manson and the Family’s Manufactured ApocalypseCharles Manson and the Manson Family, Spahn Ranch, California; members Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie…
5 Vanguard’s Curriculum: Keith Raniere, NXIVM and the Branded CollateralKeith Raniere, founder of NXIVM and its secret sub-group DOS, convicted in Brooklyn federal court in June 2019 of racketeering,…
6 Seven Seals: David Koresh and the Prophecy That Closed the GateDavid Koresh (born Vernon Wayne Howell, 1959-1993), leader of the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel near Waco, Texas; the ATF raid…
7 The Healer at Tsarskoye Selo: Rasputin and the Hostage of HopeGrigori Rasputin (1869-1916), Siberian peasant mystic who gained influence over Tsarina Alexandra and Nicholas II from 1905…
8 Poa in the Subway: Shoko Asahara and Aum Shinrikyo’s Doctrine of KillingShoko Asahara (born Chizuo Matsumoto, 1955-2018), founder of Aum Shinrikyo, whose members released sarin on the Tokyo subway on…
9 Exit Velocity: Marshall Applewhite, Heaven’s Gate and the Vehicle to Be ShedMarshall Applewhite (1931-1997) and Bonnie Nettles founded Heaven’s Gate; on 22-23 March 1997, 39 members died by phenobarbital…
10 The Free Personality Test: Scientology’s Recruitment FunnelL. Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology and the Oxford Capacity Analysis, the ‘free personality test’ used from the 1950s onward…
11 Flirty Fishing: David Berg and the Children of God’s Weaponised IntimacyDavid Berg’s Children of God (later The Family International) practised ‘Flirty Fishing’ from roughly 1974 to 1987, directing…
12 Love Bombing at Boonville: Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church WorkshopsSun Myung Moon’s Unification Church and its Oakland/Boonville, California recruitment operation of the 1970s under Mose and Onni…
13 Salad Bars in The Dalles: Rajneeshpuram, Ma Anand Sheela and Bioterror as PoliticsThe Rajneesh movement’s Oregon commune Rajneeshpuram and its leadership under Ma Anand Sheela; in 1984, 751 people were sickened…
14 Transit to Sirius: Di Mambro, Jouret and the Order of the Solar TempleThe Order of the Solar Temple, founded by Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret; from 30 September to 5 October 1994, 53 members and…
15 Spirit Orders: Joseph Kony, the Lord’s Resistance Army and Sacralised TerrorJoseph Kony (b. 1961), Acholi Ugandan warlord who founded the Lord’s Resistance Army, claiming to channel spirits; the LRA…
16 Keep Sweet: Warren Jeffs and the Prophet’s Monopoly on SalvationWarren Jeffs (b. 1955), president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, sentenced in Texas in August…
17 Kanungu, 17 March 2000: Credonia Mwerinde’s Silent DoomsdayThe Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, founded by Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibweteere in Uganda; on…
18 The Game: Charles Dederich, Synanon and Attack Therapy as GovernanceSynanon, founded in 1958 in Santa Monica by Charles E. ‘Chuck’ Dederich as a drug rehabilitation community; its confrontational…
19 Blood Atonement: Ervil LeBaron and the Church of the Lamb of GodErvil LeBaron (1925-1981), leader of the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God, who used ‘blood atonement’ doctrine to…
20 The Ant Hill Kids: Roch Theriault’s Commune of MutilationRoch Theriault (1947-2011), Canadian self-proclaimed prophet who led the ‘Ant Hill Kids’ commune in Quebec and Ontario from 1977;…
21 The Family in Melbourne: Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s Acquired ChildrenAnne Hamilton-Byrne’s group The Family (Santiniketan Park Association), formed in Victoria, Australia in the 1960s; children…
22 Kirtland’s Prophet: Jeffrey Lundgren and the Sacrifice of the AverysJeffrey Lundgren (1950-2006), self-proclaimed prophet who split from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints…
23 Island Pond: The Twelve Tribes and Discipline as DoctrineThe Twelve Tribes, founded by Elbert Eugene Spriggs in Chattanooga, Tennessee in the 1970s; the group’s communities, including…
24 God of the Universe: Yahweh ben Yahweh and the Nation of Yahweh’s EnforcersYahweh ben Yahweh (born Hulon Mitchell Jr., 1935-2007), founder of the Miami-based Nation of Yahweh; he and six followers were…
25 The Elohim’s Ambassador: Rael and the Cloning ProphecyRael (born Claude Vorilhon, 1946), French former motor-racing journalist who founded the Raelian Movement in 1973 after claiming…
26 Harvest Workers: Lee Man-hee, Shincheonji and Recruitment by DeceptionLee Man-hee’s Shincheonji Church of Jesus, South Korea, which uses ‘harvest workers’ who conceal affiliation while infiltrating…
27 God Will Appear on Channel 18: Hon-Ming Chen and the Failed Garland ProphecyHon-Ming Chen, leader of Chen Tao (God’s Salvation Church), who announced in Garland, Texas that God would appear on US…
28 Mother God: Amy Carlson, Love Has Won and the Livestreamed CultAmy Carlson (1975-2021), ‘Mother God’ of Love Has Won, whose mummified remains wrapped in Christmas lights were found in Moffat,…
29 Sarah Lawrence: Larry Ray and a Cult Built Inside a DormitoryLawrence ‘Larry’ Ray, convicted in April 2022 in the Southern District of New York of extortion, sex trafficking and forced…
30 The Hot Room: Bikram Choudhury and Guru Authority in a FranchiseBikram Choudhury (b. 1944), founder of Bikram Yoga, who ran teacher-training courses of hundreds of students in heated rooms and…