Religious Cults

What if the founding of America’s strangest religion didn’t start with divine revelation—but with a teenager, a magic rock, and some very suspicious dirt holes? Before the Revelation is the book your bishop hoped you’d never read: a blisteringly funny, unapologetically irreverent deep dive into the early life of Joseph Smith—the man who went from failed treasure hunter to prophet of the Restoration, one vision, one disappearing set of gold plates, and one highly choreographed angel encounter at a time. 🔥 Inside you’ll find: Seer stones in hats (yes, really) Family dreams that...

This audiobook compares Christianity with the false religions of the world today that are based on the accuracy of fulfilled Bible prophecy. No other religion has used prophecy fulfilled in our lifetime to prove its authority, except the Bible. With more than 50 prophecies fulfilled since AD 1948 and Jesus’ teaching that he is the only way to salvation, we can conclude that we must be a Christian to gain eternal life. Jesus declares you must follow his teachings in order to obtain eternal life.

At the age of six, Tim Guest was taken by his mother to a commune modeled on the teachings of the notorious Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Tim and his mother were given Sanskrit names, dressed entirely in orange, and encouraged to surrender themselves into their new family. In 1985, the movement collapsed amid allegations of mass poisonings, attempted murder, and tax evasion, and Yogesh was once again Tim. In this extraordinary memoir, Tim Guest chronicles the heartbreaking experience of being left alone on earth while his mother hunted heaven.

やさしく、やわらかく、面白く日本経済に警鐘を鳴らす本。ザイム真理教はいかにして生まれ、どう国民生活を破壊してきたのか？

It’s 1970, and Jerry Walker is six years old. His consciousness revolves around being a member of a church whose beliefs he finds not only confusing but terrifying. Composed of a hodgepodge of requirements and restrictions—including a prohibition against doctors and hospitals—the underpinning tenet of Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God was that its members were divinely chosen and all others would soon perish in rivers of flames.

One of the most fascinating talks by Osho on meditation. We gain a deeper understanding and an actual experience about meditation by listening to this talk which brings us into a space of meditation. "Meditation is the very center of my whole effort. It is the very womb out of which you are going to be re-born. But it is very difficult to verbalize it. To say something about meditation is a contradiction in terms. It is something which you can have, which you can be, but by its very nature you cannot say what it is."

A fresh new approach to the topics of witchcraft and sorcery! This unique book deals with these issues from a religious perspective. Traditional church and Biblical teachings are emphasized rather than a source book for dabbling with witchcraft or sorcery. An informative eye-opener for both Christians and non-Christians!

Discover a story of healing and personal transformation. Marlena’s childhood was full of contradictions. Her father was both a heroic doctor for people with leprosy and an abusive parent. Her Mennonite missionary community was both a devoted tribe and a controlling society. And Marlena longed to both be accepted in Paraguay and escape to somewhere new. In Nothing Bad Between Us, follow Marlena’s journey as she takes control of her life and learns to be her authentic self, scars and imperfections included.

Randall Balmer's Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory is an insightful and engaging journey into the world of conservative Christians in America. Originally published 25 years ago and the basis for an award-winning PBS documentary, this timely new edition arrives just as recent elections have left an ever-growing number of secular Americans wondering exactly how the other half thinks.

How did Charles Manson inspire his "family" to launch a campaign of murder? What twisted ideology lay behind horrific events like the Waco Siege, Aum Shinrikyo's poison-gas attack on the Tokyo metro, and the mass suicides and murders of Jonestown? Why did the suicidal adherents of Heaven's Gate believe doomsday was at hand? How did the idealistic commune of Rajneeshpuram collapse into shocking controversies, involving biological terrorism and attempted murder? The shocking truth about some of the most disturbing criminal cults that have ever existed are discussed in this audiobook.

I am Lex Gracie: but they call me Girl A. I grew up with my family on the moors. I escaped when I was 15 years old. Now something is pulling me back....

Osho responds here to a question relating to meditation, a space of "no-mind": "...meditation covers a very long pilgrimage. When I say 'meditation is witnessing', it is the beginning of meditation. And when I say 'meditation is no-mind', it is the completion of the pilgrimage. Witnessing is the beginning, and no-mind is the fulfillment. Witnessing is the method to reach the no-mind. Naturally you will feel witnessing is easier. It is close to you. But witnessing is only like seeds, and then is the long waiting period."

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow.

What do you get when you mix divine visions, secret wives, homemade money, and a printing press smashed by order of God’s self-declared mouthpiece? A body on the jailhouse floor and a story too wild for Sunday School. In this blisteringly funny, historically ruthless follow-up to Before the Revelation, Argor Barpha drags you through the final years of Joseph Smith—the American mystic who wasn’t content just starting a church. He wanted a kingdom. Maybe even a crown. From the ruins of Kirtland to the blood-soaked cornfields of Missouri, from the swamp city of Nauvoo to the Carthage ...

As an adult, Lauren Hough has had many identities: an airman in the U.S. Air Force, a cable guy, a bouncer at a gay club. As a child, however, she had none. Growing up as a member of the infamous cult The Children of God, Hough had her own self robbed from her. The cult took her all over the globe - to Germany, Japan, Texas, Chile - but it wasn't until she finally left for good that Lauren understood she could have a life beyond 'The Family'. Along the way, she's loaded up her car and started over, trading one life for the next.

At a new age festival in Byron Bay, journalist Anke Richter is finding her spiritual awakening when she meets a woman - a survivor of the Auckland cult Centrepoint - who will change the course of her life and career. Over the next ten years, Anke pursues a labyrinthine investigation into how and why cults attract, entrap and destroy otherwise ordinary people, asking what the line is between tribe and cult, participant and perpetrator, seduction and sexual abuse.

Raised by powerful women in a restrictive, sheltered Christian community in New England, Ryan Dostie never imagined herself on the front lines of a war halfway around the world. But then a conversation with an Army recruiter in high school changes the course of her life. Hired as a linguist, she quickly has to find a space for herself in the testosterone-filled world of the Army barracks, and has been holding her own until the unthinkable happens: she is raped by a fellow soldier. Struggling with PTSD and commanders who don't trust her story, Dostie finds herself....

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.

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.

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 ...