Cult Following
The Extreme Sects That Capture Our Imaginations—and Take Over Our Lives
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“A must-read.”—Publishers Weekly
From weird history expert J. W. Ocker, an eye-popping compendium of the 30 most infamous, audacious, and dangerous cults in history.
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about history’s most notorious cults—and the psychology of the people who join them—is packed into this accessible, engaging volume. Walk in the footsteps of those who were lured into sinister groups from Heaven’s Gate to NXIVM. Contents also include:
Los Narcosatánicos: This group of drug traffickers in 1980s Mexico committed human sacrifice and believed their leader had magic powers.Breatharianism: Breatharians believe that humans can live on air alone, and their founder claimed to have gone without food for seventeen years.Ordo Templi Orientis: Members of this mystical cult attempted to conceive and give birth to the Antichrist through sexual rituals.Rajneesh Movement: This spiritual commune committed the largest bioterrorism attack in American history when they contaminated local salad bars with salmonella.
Ocker brings his trademark curiosity and wonder to the subject of cults and the terrifying way they attract followers, demonstrating the elasticity of belief, the desperateness of belonging, and the tragedy of trust.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Joining a cult is one of the most human things a person can do," according to this lively survey. In 30 short, easily digestible chapters, travel writer Ocker (Cursed Objects) emphasizes that "nobody actually joins a cult." Instead, they join what feels to them like a "community," making the hallmark of a cult—its slowly building isolation and control—difficult for adherents to detect. He groups his chapters in sections classifying each cult by the human needs they fulfilled for members. These include "protection" (like that offered to the runaway youths of the Manson Family) and "purpose" (such as that promised by Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult—whose followers perpetrated the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attacks—which offered burned-out young professionals a sense of spiritual well-being that was later channeled into a desire to bring about the end of the society that had overworked them and repressed them spiritually). Punchily written ("Always be suspicious when an organization rebrands" is one of Ocker's quippy but also salient pieces of advice), this survey is nevertheless quite rigorous, going surprisingly in-depth and avoiding prurient rubbernecking. Ocker provides lots of fascinating historical detail, like how the idea of "cognitive dissonance" was first named in the 1950s by sociologists studying the Seekers, the first UFO cult. It's a must-read for those with a taste for cult narratives.
