Religious Cults

An unusual woman with no personal identification steps from the woods near John Walker’s cabin by a stream and warns him that he has no right to fish on her husband’s property. After John points to his cabin and insists that this is his property, the bewildered woman retreats back into the trees. Throughout this fictional mystery novel, the actual identity of the woman who claims to be Rebecca Johnson remains in question. She gives various stories regarding her past, and John’s attorney/friend advises him to stay away from her. The wealthy Atlanta businessman, John, finds that he ...

At the heart of being human is the desire to belong. It can make us unspeakably vulnerable to the manipulations of others. Cult leaders prey on this desire, but so do many unscrupulous operators hiding in plain sight. Sarah Steel, the creator of the popular 'Let's Talk About Sects' podcast, has researched the cults you've heard of—and dozens you haven't. What strikes her most are not the differences between bizarre cult behaviour and 'normal' behaviour but the depressing similarities. Her work reveals that we are all susceptible to the power of cult dynamics.

The goal of some cult leaders was wealth and power, while others were after comfort or sex. The darkest and most notorious cults and their leaders sought to spread their evil messages through violence and mass murder, through war and genocidal acts. From the Thuggee cult that inspired the term "thug" to the brown shirts of Germany who would become the most destructive cult of all time, the Nazis.

The extraordinary memoir of a childhood spent in the 'Children of God' cult. Rebel tells the story of Faith, a woman who grew up in the Children of God cult (known latterly as The Family). Now in her 40s with two teenage children of her own, Faith's first-person narrative alternates between her childhood adventures and traumas within the cult and her post-cult life following her escape at the age of 19.

Antonio Perez is a former conspiracy theorist plagued with mental health issues. He managed to escape Alex Jones' grip in 2008. In Converting Conspiracy Theorists, Antonio reveals a few powerful techniques you can use to rescue your loved one from dangerous and destructive conspiracy theories such as Qanon. Converting Conspiracy Theorists is a sneak peek into the psychology of conspiracy theories and the tools that can be used to rescue people from them.

Despite their centuries-old history and traditions, witchcraft and magic are still very much a part of modern Anglo-American culture. In Lucifer Ascending, Bill Ellis looks at modern practices that are universally defined as "occult," from commonplace habits such as carrying a rabbit's foot for good luck or using a Ouija board, to more esoteric traditions, such as the use of spell books. In particular, Ellis shows how the occult has been a common element in youth culture for hundreds of years.

Documenting the life of wandering spirits and their impact on vulnerable human targets, Susan Martinez offers a radical departure from the standard psychological explanations for a host of pathological behaviors - including multiple personality, autism, epilepsy, migraines, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, PTSD, self-destructive urges, and strange outbursts - and reveals that hallucinations are often true impressions of spirit input.

What happens when a prophet dies and forgets to leave a forwarding address? After the Prophet Fell is a blistering, unapologetic, and darkly hilarious dive into the holy mess that followed the death of Joseph Smith—the founder of the Mormon Church, self-declared prophet, and the man who left behind a movement with no plan, no instructions, and way too many people claiming to be his successor. Told with biting wit and backed by historical receipts, this book pulls back the sacramental curtain to expose the succession crisis that tore the Latter-day Saints apart. From Brigham Young’s ...

It’s the late 1960s, and two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East-Coast American family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have come to build a new world - Auroville, an international utopian community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the future bright. So how do John and Diane end up dying two decades later, on the same day, on a cracked concrete floor in a thatch hut by a remote canyon? This is the mystery Akash Kapur sets out to solve in Better to Have Gone.

After seven years of faithfully following her spiritual teacher, Renee Linnell finally realized she was in a cult and had been severely brainwashed. But how did that happen to someone like her? She had graduated magna cum laude with a double degree. She had started five different companies and had an MBA from NYU. The Burn Zone is an exploration of how we give up our power - how what started out as a need to heal from the loss of her parents and to understand the big questions in life could leave a young woman fighting for her sanity and her sense of self.

After a five-year cultic misadventure in a secret "school," Friedman wrote her cautionary tale. Memoir led to research on narcissistic abuse and a recovery template for empaths. With humor and compassion, Friedman describes how the cult exploited her empathy. She interviews former members from other cults and includes research from leading experts. We learn that all cults and cons market false hope by leveraging human nature to profit from the vulnerable.

Selling Salvation: The Fine Line Between Faith and Fraud Unmask the lucrative underworld where faith and exploitation collide in Selling Salvation. This eye-opening exposé delves deep into the shadowy practices of religious fraud, unraveling the schemes that prey on trust and devotion. From high-profile televangelists to local cult-like operations, this book unveils the tactics used to manipulate the faithful for financial gain. You will get a thorough run-down on the likes of Benny Hinn, Tony Alamo, L. Ron Hubbard, and Herbert W. Armstrong to Paula White, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland, ...

Martin Luther was a controversial figure during his lifetime, eliciting strong emotions in friends and enemies alike, and his outsized persona has left an indelible mark on the world today. Living I Was Your Plague explores how Luther carefully crafted his own image and how he has been portrayed in his own times and ours, painting a unique portrait of the man who set in motion a revolution that sundered Western Christendom.

Sir David the Bard, or David, was an ex-temple worker for the Mormon church. Being an active member for 50 years, he married six times and bore 13 children while completing nearly two masters' degrees at BYU. This is a compilation of his rants, raves, funny stories, and crazy experiences being an ex-Mormon in a totally dominant Mormon society. His views may seem unbelievable, but they are actually true and really happened to him.

Cassie True dreams of the day she can resume her music career. Only one thing stands in her way, a court-ordered rehab program sponsored by a religious cult determined to steal her soul. Singer/songwriter Cassie True enters a rehab program that promises to change her life. And it does…in ways she never expected. Caught in a religious cult’s ever-constricting web, she fights not only for her sanity but for the freedom to form real friendships. She longs to put alcoholism behind her, finish the program and return to her career. But when her friend is forcibly separated from her husband by...

The United States has never had a shortage of cults based on religious teachings and charismatic leaders, but perhaps none are as infamous as Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, which remain notorious for the mass murder-suicide event in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978, during which nearly 900 people drank cyanide-laced Flavor Aid, including nearly 300 children.

Tracy King was raised in a house of contradictions-her family was happy and creative, yet shadowed by debt, phobias, her father's alcoholism, and the illusory promises of a born-again Christian church. The uneasy balance of the King household was irrevocably upended on a rainy spring night in 1988, when her father was killed by teenagers just blocks from their public housing estate.

The strange and sinister world of cults is a source of endless fascination. Their secrets, rituals and shadowy hierarchies make for some of the most disturbing and shocking revelations in history. Most chilling of all is the fact that many of their followers forfeit all independence in order to carry out the often sadistic bidding of a mysterious master manipulator - and continue to defend their leader to this day.

Daniel Allen Cox grew up with firm lines around what his religion considered unacceptable: celebrating birthdays and holidays, voting in elections, pursuing higher education, and other forays into independent thought. Their opposition to blood transfusions would have consequences for his mother, just as their stance on homosexuality would for him. But even years after whispers of his sexual orientation reached his congregation’s presiding elder, catalyzing his disassociation, the distinction between “in” and “out” isn’t always clear.

Based primarily upon the personal testimony of disciples of John-Roger about his hidden life, a scandal of devastating proportions has begun to rock the Movement's international membership. This article, the first of its kind, will take a close look at the present controversy, addressing the larger issue of how new religious groups should be studied in light of legitimacy and authenticity.