Whether it’s groups that started in the 1800s, or those that came from the UFO and self-help waves of the ‘60s, some cults are much older than many people actually realize.
A split that kept going
The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church is a cult you probably haven’t heard of, even though the group traces its origins way back to the 1820s. It began as part of the Plymouth Brethren movement in Dublin, which included small Christian meetings, standard stuff.
In 1848, the group split into the Open Brethren and Exclusive Brethren. It was mostly down to the leading figure, John Nelson Darby, and the group currently has over 55,000 members. Members are taught not to have any relationships or interactions outside of the cult.
Scientology
Scientology. It’s probably one of the most famous cults on this list, and it actually began in 1950 with L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics. However, the Church of Scientology itself was set up in Los Angeles in 1954, and many celebrities, like John Travolta and Tom Cruise, are now members.
The group has a lot of odd practices, and one of its biggest ones is called auditing, where a trained auditor asks a member questions to find out about their past lives. Ironically, for a group named Scientology, one of their core beliefs includes rejecting psychiatry and psychology.
Unification Church / Family Federation
The Unification Church has a bunch of different names. It started in 1954 as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, and later became the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, or the Unification Church. What do they believe?
A lot of it comes from their founder, Sun Myung Moon, and his reading of things like Christianity and Original Sin. Moon claimed he himself was the Second Coming of Christ, so it’s no wonder that the group has been controversial around the world.Â
Aetherius Society
In 1955, yoga teacher George King claimed he started receiving messages from aliens, known as Cosmic Masters, who were apparently trying to help the Earth. He started the Aetherius Society to understand them.
The cult actually uses a lot of language from other religions, like Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism, but that’s not the strangest part. They believe in something called Operation Prayer Power. What is it? Just the belief that you can store prayer energy in a battery. Yes, really.
Church Universal and Triumphant / Summit Lighthouse
Mark Prophet had a similar idea in 1958 when he started the Summit Lighthouse, believing that Ascended Masters, aka enlightened non-humans, were trying to contact certain messengers on Earth. Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Mark’s wife, then created the Church Universal and Triumphant.
The cult rose to fame in 1990 because they believed a Soviet nuclear strike would hit America and cause ‘karmic increase,’ so they created shelters near Yellowstone. The strike never came. Elizabeth claimed the group’s prayers had managed to stop the disaster.
LaRouche movement
Not all cults are religious, and Lyndon LaRouche’s movement is a great example of that. He created a political movement during the 1960s and ran for president eight times, failing every single time. Some of their big beliefs include rejecting free trade and globalization.
The group has spread many anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and has also been accused of being fascist, with some even claiming that LaRouche was a neo-Nazi.
A town line in the desert
You’ll find the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ (FLDS) main communities in Utah and Arizona. The cult began when the Mormon Church started to move away from polygamy in 1890, and some members didn’t like it, so they made their own group.
The truth is, they see plural marriage as their religious duty and, weirdly enough, they’re more fundamentalist than regular Mormons. Warren Jeffs became the FLDS’s leader in 2002, and he was actually convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting two minors. He is currently in prison.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
The 10 most dangerous cults in modern history
If one thing’s true about cults, it’s that they’re all dangerous—but some more than others. And here are 10 of the deadliest ones! The most persuasive (and terrifying) people led these organizations. They convinced their followers to do the unthinkable — we should all learn from their stories to never fall for something similar in our lives.Â
