Anthony north: Cults come in all shapes and sizes. They can be of any form of spirituality, from Christianity to the Occult, to Flying Saucer cults. They can appear strange and insular, while many do a great deal of charity work. Then we have the more sinister form of cult. Some of these make the headlines through mass suicide, but perhaps the most dangerous is the cult that ends up using extreme violence or intimidation. Rajneesh foundation: Typical was the Rajneesh Foundation of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Born in India in 1931, he experienced a spiritual death and rebirth in 1953, going on to found his cult in Poona, near Bombay, in 1974. A mixture of humanistic psychology, meditation and sex, in 1981 he bought a 64,000 acre ranch in Oregon, living a life-style which included 93 Rolls Royces, surrounded by his four thosand followers. However, he was soon outgrowing his ranch and decided to take over the near by town of Antelope, wanting to call it Rajneeshpuran. This involved various conspiracies with his lieutenant Ma Anand Sheela, including an attempt to assassinate a prosecutor (two British women were eventually jailed for this). Money was also ploughed in to buy up the businesses, even opening an airport to bring in his regular seven thousand festival visitors. However, his cult collapsed in 1985 amid faction fights and he left America following immigration and fraud trials. Believing that you could only be spiritual if you were rich, Rajneesh died in 1990, his ideas continuing with Osho, an organisation that runs hundreds of small centres through the world.

Aum shinrikyo: Undoubtedly the most violent modern cult was Aum Shinrikyo, or ‘supreme truth', the ten thousand strong cult headquartered on the slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan, and headed by Shoko Asahara. Determined to bring about Armageddon so that he could rule everyone, Aum Shinrikyo became a mixture of Buddhism, occultism and fascism. Fat, bearded and partially sighted, Asahara was born poor and was a bully, building up a huge stockpile of weapons and chemicals for his war.

View: Full Article | Source: Beyond the Blog

Another dangerous cult...AMERICAN IDOL

There have been many people in hisory who were able to talk to people and do great things, like Gandhi. But when a man is able to create a cult, luring people into his way of thinking, we should define them as cases of psychic vampirism and folie a plusieurs (madness of many).

The human mind is more dangerous than we think...

How can we trust sites that don't even have proper grammar?

Ahh.. but then we couldn't trust the forums... at least half the posters use way too many elipses.

As to OP, many of these cults strangely resemble Woodstock. Odd, isn't it? If I remember my history right (I wasn't there) that did get a little bit violent too...

JS

Wait..
What's wrong with Flying Saucer cults?
Besides the ones that order mass suicide.

My cult enforces surgery scars & beauty marks. [botox amusement parks!]

Cults, it's what's for dinner.
For those opposed to improper grammar.
Cults, it is what is for dinner.

xo,
Miss A.C.

you know that Christianity was once considered a cult of crazy people. thats how all organized religions start out. jesus, buddha, mohammed, some guy comes along spouting stuff about this and that and people believe it. the human mind is so dangerous because people don't like to think for them selfs. they just let other people string them along like a bunch of suckers

Agreed.
Deresponsibilitation is the cause of suffering.
As is desire, whether it's a desire for divine acceptance or divine intervention. xo

Desire may be dangerous, but it's also the impetus behind anything significant...

Can't have the good without the bad in this world.

JS

It's amazing how people could be so gullable exspecially when it comes to religion. Shouldn't these people know better with there beleifs that harming people is wrong? Or do they just mix in releigion with their own twisted stories of suicide and mass destruction? Brainwashing is what they are doing and using religion as a way to reel them in. That's just crazy! Is there alot of cults still going on today?

When you're in a religion/cult/faction that is encouraging/accepting of violence in any form, it's time to take a look around at what's really going on....

Oh man, I remember Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I don't live too terribly far from Antelope (a few hours) he was on the news every night here for years and all the atrocities he commited. The man was certifiably crazy. Then there was his contemporary nutcase JZ Knight and the Ramtha cult about an hour from where I live.

I'd say, historically speaking, Jim Jones was the worst of the lot.

A cult isn't just a group of crazy people, it goes much deeper than that.

1. Cults demand that devoutees cut all ties from their familes.
2. The rules of the Cult rarely if ever apply to their charismatic leader.
3. Cult leaders separate devoutees from their bank accounts taking all their money.
4. Cults rarely allow their doctrine and dogma to be studied by anyone not in the group.
5. Revenge is often carried out against people who leave cults.

These are classic tell-tale signs of a modern day cult. A cult isn't just a group of people with a nutty idea, there are sure signs of a cult, and they are often dangrous groups.

That's so true. The good and the bad is a balance of choice and conscience.