The human mind is what makes our species so unique, our ability to feel emotion, to think,
deduce, derive all comes down to the complexity of the brain's labyrinth of synapses.
But often times, what our brain tells us might not even reflect the reality.
In this video we delve into the darker sides of beliefs and gathered just a few of the
most notorious cults in history.
Of note, this is only the tip of the iceberg, cults are social gatherings where members
share a common belief, and often these beliefs can be quite out there.
Number Five
Aum Shinrikyo
Which means the 'Supreme Truth'.
It was a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 2007.
This cult is a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu beliefs, where apocalyptic Christian prophesies
were also incorporated into their teachings.
Their leader Asahara claimed to be both Christ and the first 'enlightened one' since Buddha.
Aum Shinrikyo is perhaps most infamous for its deadly attack carried out on the morning
of March the 20th in 1995.
Currently, 192 Aum members have been charged with the Sarin attack carried out during rush
hour in Tokyo, which killed 13 people and injured over a thousand commuters.
For those who don't know, Sarin is a colourless and odourless chemical weapon which attacks
the nervous system.
Today, a number of victims still suffer the aftermath of the attack.
From complications like PTSD, blurred vision and impaired speech.
Asahara and 12 other Aum leaders have been sentenced to death.
When Aum was demolished, former members reorganised into smaller spin-off groups.
These smaller groups have attempted to change the cults violent past into a more spiritual one.
Number Four
Order of the Solar Temple
Founded in 1984 by Luc Jouret, a doctor, and Joseph Di Mambro, a jeweller by trade.
Jouret was a lecturer who frequently went on tours giving lectures as a method of recruitment.
This divided the group into three levels of memberships: 'Amanta' which consisted
of people who were recruited by his lectures.
'The Archedia Clubs' which are those who wants to take the teachings and beliefs further
and lastly 'The International Chivalric Organisation of the Solar Tradition' otherwise
known as the Order of the Solar Temple.
His lectures seemed pure and honest.
Titled 'Luc Jouret, Physician.
Love and Biology' but the content of the lectures were spiritual and actually discussed
the apocalypse.
The reason behind this was the group wanted to find more people strong enough to survive
the ecological apocalypse which they believe was impending.
Membership of the cult continued to rise in the late 1980s to around 500 members.
There had been trouble brewing in the turn of the decade with members as they attempted
to stockpile weapons causing the Order to receive bad press.
As a result, members started to distance themselves from the group both in attendance of meetings
and financial contributions.
When Tony Dutoit, a member of the Solar Temple, publicly spoke out against them, he, his wife
and child were murdered in their home.
The two founders, Jouret and Mambro had disagreements over the direction of the Solar Temple
but one thing they both acknowledged was that they had to start preparing for the transit
to another world which resulted in a mass suicide including the two leaders.
On the 4th October 1994, the remains of 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple were
found, as the Swiss towns of Cheiry and Granges-sur-Salvan noticed fires burning.
Although termed as mass suicide, autopsy reports showed some victims had died of suffocation
while some others were given hypnotics then shot to death.
Some had plastic bags over their heads, and some had shown signs of struggle.
Very far from suicide.
Also, the victims in Cheiry where found lying in a star formation and some had their hands
clasped in prayer.
Number Three
Matamoros human sacrifice
Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a.k.a 'El Padrino' which translates to 'The Godfather', was the
creator of this bloody cult.
He was raised in a religious environment with his mother, two brothers and a sister in West Miami.
Constanzo's mother, Delia Aurora Gonzalez del Valle was married at least three times
which essentially meant she raised her family alone.
She practised Santeria, a religion that formed when African Slaves combined the worship of
gods and spirits of ancestors with Catholicism.
Santeria has over 100 million practitioners worldwide however Constanzo's mother practiced
it in a malicious way where her neighbours reported that she would settle grudges by
leaving headless animals on doorsteps.
Whilst Constanzo had been practicing Santeria, he became engrossed in the rituals of Palo
Mayombe, an Afro-Caribbean cult that stresses 'evil for evil's sake' whose leaders
tend to be powerful drug lords using occult as a means of discipline.
Costanzo's practises included aspects of voodoo, Satanism and santismo, but human sacrifice
was a crucial part of his cult.
How this cult was uncovered was from the capture of a 21 year old pre-med student, Mark Kilroy
from the University of Texas.
On the early morning of March 14th, 1989, Kilroy and his three friends were walking
towards the bridge to the other side of the US border after a vacation in the Mexican
Town of Matamoros.
Kilroy disappeared when his friend took a break from the walking, four weeks later the
first part of him was found - his brain boiled in blood over an open fire with a turtle shell,
horseshoe, spinal column and other human bones.
The police had no lead to follow from the findings but one of the gang members were
caught when he ran a narcotics-interception roadblock.
They pursued him until he reached a ranch and found a revolver and some marijuana in
the vehicle.
The police showed the picture of Kilroy to the ranch owner and asked if he had seen anything.
Sure enough he was able to give the names of the other three gang members, thus the
ranch owner was not charged of any crimes.
The four men were interrogated for 36 hours until they finally talked.
They were apparently ordered by Constanzo to pick up an Anglo spring-breaker.
They also revealed they lured drunken college students into their truck, tortured them,
then ultimately sheared off the top of their head with a machete and boiled their brains.
One of them said "It was our religion, our voodoo.
We did it for success.
We did it for protection".
The police found evidence of a cauldron for black magic potions and bloody relics of ritual slayings.
The rest of Kilroy's body was also found in a shallow grave with his heart ripped out.
Dozens of lost bodies where also uncovered in graves around the ranch.
The extent of the sacrificial killings are still unknown, there may be more in other
sites but speculations remains as speculations.
Number Two
The Family
Established by Charles Manson, who was raised by his single mother and had a turbulent childhood.
Manson was in and out of detention for different crimes including stealing cars and hustling.
When he was released at the age of 32, he had spent half of his life behind bars.
In San Francisco he had established himself as a messianic figure in the hippie culture.
He eventually moved in with a Berkeley graduate student called Mary Brunner and soon after
had 18 women living in the house with them.
Here he shared his philosophies to this group, who soon became known as the Manson Family.
Dennis Wilson, the drummer of Beach Boys often picked up hitchhiking members of the Manson
Family and brought them back to his house.
After some time, Manson and his followers had taken over his house, where his followers
acted like his servants whilst Manson taught them his philosophies.
The Family moved into the Spahn Ranch in August 1968 after Wilson's manager had edited them.
Here Manson preached about the race war in the US which would destroy the power structures
of the country, leaving the Family to rebuild it in their own philosophy.
This apocalyptic war was known by the Family as Helter Skelter.
He also referred to the book of Revelation of the New Testament.
The ranch was eventually turned into an armed camp when Manson shot a black drug dealer
to steal money because he was afraid that the man was part of a gang called the Black Panthers.
So he transformed the ranch with night patrols and armed guards.
On July 25th, 1969, Manson ordered Brunner and two other Family members to go to the
house of Gary Hinman, an acquaintance of his, to demand the $21 000 he had inherited.
They did this by holding him hostage for two days before Manson arrived and ordered them
to kill him.
They drew the slogans of the Black Panthers to hide their identity.
One of the Family members was arrested when he was caught driving Hinman's car.
Two days later, Manson declared the time for the Helter Skelter race war.
Manson ordered four members of the Family to go the the house of Terry Melcher and to
destroy everyone in it as gruesomely as possible.
Four people, including Sharon Tate who was 8 months pregnant were slaughtered.
Disturbingly, they used Tate's blood to write the word 'PIG' on the front door of the house.
They also murdered a young boy who was driving along the road as they approached the house.
The night after, Manson, the same four members, plus two other Members went out to another
round of killings.
Their next target was supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary in Los Angeles.
Both were stabbed multiple times and they scrawled the words 'Helter Skelter' on
the wall in blood.
Manson and the members of the Family were arrested in December 1969.
Trials began in June 1970 and received much attention from the media as the other Manson
Family members protested outside the courthouse
with shaven heads marked with an 'X' on their foreheads.
Manson and four others were actually sentenced to death but this was eventually changed to
life in prison when the US Supreme Court abolished capital punishment.
Number One
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
This Doomsday cult was formed as a sect that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church
in Uganda.
Members had claimed to join the Movement as a way to challenge the Catholic church.
The Church at the time was ridden with scandals, and the terror of AIDS was causing believers'
faith to waver.
The cult focused on the word of Jesus Christ.
The Ten Commandments formed the crux of their teachings.
They strongly believed the apocalypse was coming in the coming of the new millennium.
The cult began in the late 1980s as Ugandan Paulo Kashakun claimed to have visions of
his deceased daughter who told him he would have visions of Heaven.
Although he did not have visions of Heaven, he reported to have visions of Jesus Christ,
the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph.
Kashakun's other daughter, Credonia Mwerinde, a former prostitute, also reported seeing
visions of the Virgin Mary.
Although she failed to convince the Vatican, Kashakun instructed her to spread the word
across the country.
Joseph Kibweteere, a failed politician, believed Mwerinde fanatically and together they formed
the cult called the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.
Kibwerteere claimed to also have visions of the Virgin Mary so the two set off to spread
the word of the upcoming apocalypse.
A new member, Dominic Kataribabo, an esteemed priest armed with a PhD from a US university,
helped drew in new members to the group.
The group soon expanded into a prosperous community in the early 1990s.
Villagers described the believers to be disciplined, amiable and not cause any trouble.
The members were told to sell their property, including Kibweteere himself, who sold his
property to buy a pineapple and banana plantation.
The followers lived on this and until 1992 when the village elders forced them to move
to the Kanungu District where they built homes, churches, and a primary school.
Since the main teachings were from the bible, particularly the Ten Commandments, members
took this very seriously.
They were discouraged to speak so that they don't break the ninth commandment which
is 'Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour'.
So on some days, communication was by sign language.
They also fasted regularly, with one meal eaten on Mondays and Fridays.
Sex and the use of soap were also forbidden.
Members had to rise at 3 a.m and pray for three hours before beginning work in the fields.
A follower of the group reported that the followers had been dying of malnutrition and
many were ill.
In 1997, the group had approximately 5000 members.
As the new millennium closed in, the group leaders encouraged members to repent their
sins and prepare for the inevitable apocalypse.
All work stopped and members were instructed to sell their belongings cheaply.
But as the year 2000 came and went with no signs of the end, members began questioning
their leaders, ceased payment to the church and some even demanded their money back.
Mwerinde and Kibweteere then set a new date for the apocalypse as the 17th March 2000
where they planned a huge celebration for the coming end.
Because of the revision of the predicted date, it lead to some members doubting the leaders.
This classed them as 'traitors' who were then killed in waves before the 17th of March.
Their bodies have been found in several mass graves.
Those who were deemed too weak were also killed but without being classed as a 'traitor'.
Now, on the night of the 15th, there was a party held in the new church where they reported
to have consumed three bulls and an ample amount of Coca Cola.
The remaining members gathered the next night and prayed until the early morning.
March 17th, 10.30 am.
A huge explosion was heard by local villagers and a fire engulfed the newly built church
with all the members of the Movement still inside.
530 people including children and allegedly the leaders all perished in the flames.
The windows and doors had been sealed.
At the time, it is unknown whether this was a cult suicide or mass murder.
Many other bodies emerged as the Ugandan police force searched the properties of those involved
in the Movement.
On the 24th of March, 153 bodies were discovered in mass graves.
Two days later another 155 bodies were uncovered.
Weeks later, the police determined that this was a mass murder committed by the group leaders.
When the doomsday prediction failed to come true, they murdered their followers while
probably still making it seemed like its the end of the world.
Thus the police was led to believe that both Kibweteere and Mwerinde could still be alive
resulting in an international warrant for their arrest.
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