A Different View

1
A Different View?

• The Rise of Cults
• When you meet the friendliest people you have
  ever known, who introduce you to the most loving
  group of people youve ever encountered, you
  find the leader to be the most inspired, caring,
  compassionate understanding person youve ever
  met, then you find the cause of the group is
  something you never dared hope could be
  accomplished, all of this sounds too good to be
  true it probably is too good to be true! Dont
  give up your education, your hopes and ambitions
  to follow a rainbow.
• (Jeannie Mills, Ex member of the Peoples Temple,
  later found murdered)

2
What Will We Be Looking At?

• Cults in the millennium An Introduction
• Definition of cults and how they operate
• Aum Shinri kyo Death on the Subway
• Children of God Hookers for Christ
• The Peoples Temple Suicide in the Jungle
• Heavens Gate Cult on the Internet
• Solar Temple Knights of Death

3
Cults in the Millennium An Introduction

• During the past 20 years there has been a
  dramatic increase in the number of cults.
  Estimates suggest that there are more than 100
  000 of them in Japan alone, with a further 80 000
  in America
• Several of these are known as Doomsday cults
  because they foretell the ending of the world.
  Many think that the millennium heralds this event

4
What is a Cult?

• There are many definitions of the word cult.
  For this talk I will be using the following
  
• A group or movement exhibiting a great or
  excessive devotion to some person, idea or thing
  and using unethically manipulative techniques of
  persuasion and control, designed to advance the
  goals of the groups leaders, to the detriment of
  members, their families or the community.

5
Characteristics of a Cult

• Every cult can be defined as a group having all
  of the following 5 characteristics
  
• It uses psychological coercion to recruit,
  indoctrinate and retain members
  
• It forms an elitist society
• Its leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, not
  accountable and charismatic
  
• It believes the end justifies the means
• Its wealth does not benefit its members or
  society
  

6
Common Factors Found In Doomsday Cults

• Apocalyptic Beliefs Leader teaches about the
  end of the world, or preaches that through group
  suicide the group will be transported to a better
  place
• Charismatic leadership
• Social Encapsulation small, isolated group
  which often demonstrates paranoia
  
• The leadership assembles an impressive array of
  weapons
  

7
How Do Cults Operate?

• Sleep deprivation
• Dress codes
• Chanting singing
• Confession
• Financial commitment
• Isolation
• Controlled approval
• Guilt
• Replacement of relationships

• By using hypnosis
• By peer group pressure
• Love Bombing
• Rejection of old values
• Removal of privacy
• Time sense deprivation
• Uncompromising rules
• Verbal abuse
• Fear

8
Aum Shinri Kyo - Supreme Truth
9
Aum Shinri Kyo

• A destructive Doomsday cult in Japan Russia.
  Started in 1987 it has 20 000 members
  
• It is based on Buddhist Christian beliefs the
  teachings of Nostradamus
  
• Its leader is Shoko Asahara a 44 year old, blind
  man
  
• He claims to be the Living incarnation of God
• It predicts the end of the year before the
  millennium

10
Aum Shinri Kyo

• It promises its members supernatural powers
• It has strict rules of behaviour and hierarchy
• It emphasises a siege mentality
• Members rely on the group for their livelihood,
  identity and salvation
  
• Asahara taught that it is only possible to save
  your soul by killing others
  

11
Aum Shinri Kyo

• Asahara believes that he travelled forward in
  time and spoke to survivors of WW3
  
• They established chemical factories
  manufactured the fatal lethal chemical Sarin,
  barbiturates and truth serum
  
• They had 1000 automatic rifles 1 million
  bullets
  
• In 1995 the cult was worth at least 20 mill

12
Aum Shinri Kyo

• Members paid to drink the bath water of Asahara
  believing it would cleanse their souls
  
• Asahara sold snippets of his hair and vials of
  his blood to cult members for 8000 each
  
• In March 1995 the group spread nerve gas
  throughout Tokyos subway system. 11 died 5000
  were injured. It is believed they had carried out
  up to 8 similar attacks
• Most of the cult leaders are on trial for their
  crimes

13
Children of God Hookers for Christ
14
Children of God

• Founded by David Berg (1919-1994)
• Emphasis on universal salvation, contacts with
  spirits, communal living free love
  
• In 1969 Berg received revelations from God,
  identifying him as the End Time Prophet. He
  also contacted spirit guides and the dead
  
• He prophesised that the USA would be destroyed by
  a comet his group dispersed throughout various
  countries

15
Children of God

• Members were encouraged to sever all links with
  their family, to donate all their possessions to
  the group and become full time evangelists
  
• In the 1970s Berg introduced Flirty Fishing -
  this was when female members were told to seduce
  potential male converts. By 1979 Berg said that
  his flirty fishers had Witnessed to over ¼
  million souls, loved over 25 000 of them won
  about 19 000 to the Lord

16
Children of God

• The cult has become infamous for its attitudes to
  sex. Ex members have said Masturbation, sexual
  intercourse, adultery, lesbianism and incest were
  not just permitted, but encouraged This was seen
  by some as allowing child abuse
• In 1977 Berg said I hope all our young kids have
  plenty of sex why did the Lord make you able to
  have children at the age of 11, 12, 13 if you
  werent supposed to have sex then?

17
The Peoples Temple Death in the Jungle
18
The Peoples Temple

• Founded by Rev. Jim Jones (1931-1978)
• Originally the Peoples Temple was set up as an
  inter-racial mission for the poor
  
• After leaving Indianapolis in the 50s he moved to
  Ukiah in N. California, where he preached the end
  of the world in a nuclear war
  
• In San Francisco he received humanitarian awards
• By the mid 1970s he was suspected of illegal
  activities moved to Jonestown in Guyana

19
The Peoples Temple

• The group had a belief in Translation all
  followers to die together and they would arrive
  at another planet for a life of bliss
  
• By this time Jones was addicted to drugs, and was
  increasingly paranoid
  
• The group practiced group suicides where they
  would pretend to drink poison and die

20
The Peoples Temple

• During the late 1970s rumours grew about human
  right abuses and mind control so Leo Ryan, a
  Congressman, visited in 1978
  
• 18 people decided to leave Jonestown with Leo
  Ryan
  
• At the airport Jones men shot at them killing
  Ryan 4 others and wounding 11 others
  

21
The Peoples Temple

• After the shootings at the airport Jones ordered
  everyone to commit suicide
  
• 638 adults 276 children died
• The children were fed poison through a syringe.
  Adults drank cyanide laced Kool-aid. Some others
  were shot
  
• Some survived because they were not there at the
  time. Of these some committed suicide in the
  ensuing months. One mother slit the throats of
  her toddlers before killing herself

22
Solar Temple (International Chivalric Order Solar
Tradition)

• Luc Jouret

23
Solar Temple

• Founded by Luc Jouret in 1977. He believed that
  in a previous life he had been a member of the
  14th Century Christian Order of the Knights
  Templar
• He claimed to be Christ said his daughter
  Emmanuelle was the cosmic child
  
• He claimed death is an illusion said he would
  lead his followers to life on a planet near
  Sirius
  
• Branches have been found in France, Australia,
  Canada and Switzerland

24
Solar Temple

• In Canada Jouret was found guilty of possessing
  illegal arms. He thought he was being persecuted
  
• They believe the end of the world would be caused
  by an environmental disaster
  
• An important part of their belief was the idea
  that to transit to another world they must die
  in fire

25
Solar Temple

• In 1994 a 3 month old baby was killed after a
  wooden stake was driven through its heart
  
• A few days later mass suicides and murder were
  conducted at 2 villages in Switzerland and
  Canada. 54 died
  
• Christmas 1995 a further 12 committed suicide and
  4 were murdered
  
• By 1997 others had committed suicide. It is
  believed that the remaining 500 members are
  likely to kill themselves

26
Heavens Gate - Cult on the Internet
27
Heavens Gate Cult on the Internet

• Known as the first internet cult it ran an
  internet design company and used a web site to
  advertise its message to post the intention to
  commit mass suicide
• Started in 1975 by Marshall Applewhite a blend
  of Christianity and New Age philosophy
  
• They believed that they would have a rendezvous
  with a space craft in the tail end of the Hale
  Bopp comet
  
• They were paranoid and had little contact with
  the outside world

28
Heavens Gate

• They believed that the Earth was visited by
  aliens 2000 yrs ago one of these was Jesus
  
• They lived celibate lives in communities 8 men
  were castrated
  
• In March 1997 39 cult members committed suicide
  over 3 days
  
• They lay neatly on their backs, dressed in black,
  with new black trainers and covered by a purple
  cloth. All had a suitcase, id and 5s
  
• They called it shedding containers

29
Heavens Gate

• Those who committed suicide videoed exit notes.
  They appeared happy excited
  
• They believed suicide was wrong for
  non-believers, but acceptable for members to
  transcend to a higher level of life
  
• May 1997 another 2 members committed suicide
• The Site is still being updated even now

30
Conclusions

• Cult investigators believe that the Millennium
  will see an increase in Doomsday cults
  
• As main stream religion declines are we more
  likely to see an increase in cult activity?
  
• What do you think?