Religious Cults

Masons are members of one of the oldest fraternities in the world. In order to attain full membership, an applicant must receive a series of degrees, which are given separately as a part of an...

Tammuz refers to the fourth month of the Hebrew calendar. The name Tammuz derives from the ancient Mesopotamian god of agriculture and fertility, who descended to the underworld and returned to...

One person's alternative religious belief is another person's cult. However, dangers and snares abound for people seeking to enlighten themselves spiritually. Nearly all cults strive to present a...

Spiritual celebrations are an important part of Orthodox religion, and one of the most important is the baptism. It uses holy water to initiate a person into the Christian church and to cleanse...

Cult leader Jim Jones created Jonestown in the South American country of Guyana for the members of the People's Temple. In November 1978, Jones and more than 900 of his followers committed mass...

Many religious groups try to spread the word by door-to-door proselytism. In the US, certain evangelical Christian groups and other religions are among the most aggressive and persistent...

The differences between a recognized religion and a cult can be very subtle. Author Michael Shermer lists basic qualities that define a religious cult, as well as the reasons they are so dangerous.

Voodoo has been much abused by Hollywood to the point where many people have a complete misunderstanding of it. For one thing, voodoo is actually a mixture of West African rituals with Roman...

So, you're a young man or woman, perhaps just out of high school. You tried and tried, but you just couldn't accept that the Jehovah's Witnesses were the TRUTH. Your parents are both fully active,...

The Waco siege and the Branch Davidian mass suicide of 1993 have entered the realm of myth and conspiracy theory. Some believe that there was no mass suicide, and that the deaths of the followers...

It's generally believed that when Jesus was crucified, he was nailed to the cross. Nail crosses are catching on among Christians because they provide a stylish, modern way to show your faith and...

"To me, death is not a fearful thing. It's living that's cursed." These are the words of religious leader Jim Jones, who encouraged hundreds of his followers to drink poison in a tragic mass...

College cults prey on students who are lonely and homesick, or who have problems adjusting to life on campus. These groups exist in larger cities where they have more opportunities to lure in...

A cult is known as a particular set of system of religious worship. Many people believe in different cults all over the world. Learn how you can being a cult.

When people hear about mind control techniques, they either think of dangerous ideas such as cult brainwashing or lesser known and usually more innocuous efforts such as NLP hypnosis. Mind control...

Cult psychology refers to an area of social psychology that examines the behavior and interaction of cohesive groups that share beliefs or practices differing from mainstream groups. Cults are...

The term "blood cult" evokes many images, concepts and theories in the human mind. Blood is the liquid substance that keeps all humans alive, and a cult is a group of people devoted to beliefs and...

What happens in a cult with "sisters"? A better term would be sister-wife. Right now, the largest group that uses that classification would be the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, an extremist...

Animal shelters are where people take pets that they can no longer care for. They also take in homeless animals that are found wandering in the streets. For cute little puppies and kittens, an...

Cults are religious groups that have not received approval by the state or other official organs as recognized religions. In modern times, the word "cult" has come to mean any religious group that...

Many of us have seen stories of people joining cults, and we think that could never be us. But many cult members have probably said the same thing. Most cults have a religious affiliation, but...

Watchman Nee was a self-proclaimed Christian visionary who authored many books and formed churches in China during the early 1900s. For the last two decades of his life, he was imprisoned for his...

Developing a solid chronology of various cults can be challenging, because much of the information is secret or convoluted. In early eras, cults consisted of people who worshipped the same god or...

Heaven's Gate was a religious cult which committed group suicide in 1997. A total of 39 members were found dead on March 26, and two other members killed themselves within the next year. The...

The Unification Church is a religious group founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954. The church's belief system is based on three main sources: the Bible, Asian tradition and Sun Myung Moon's...

One of the key functions of a destructive cult is to prey upon people who believe they are beyond being lured. Thus, it is essential to understand the qualities that make a group a cult and the...

When the Branch Davidian religious group was attacked by United States federal agents in 1993, they put up a blue and white flag with a Star of David on it. From their original beginnings as a...

The Branch Davidian religious group which was attacked by United States federal agents in 1993 flew a flag that does not survive today, either materially or in photos. The only descriptions and...

What do faith-based researchers say about the psychic world? Most see it as a form of self-gratification. For example, individuals, unable to deal with the loss of a loved one, want to reconnect...

History books document the Greek contribution to present-day Western civilization. Literature, architecture, parts of our legal system--these are all well-known gifts from the Greeks. But might...

Cults are groups of people that follow an often messianic leader. The followers often give up individual rights in order to conform to the leader's policies and dictates. One of the common traits...

Modern-day cults normally involve radical beliefs, dominating leadership and obedient followers. However, cults did not always take this form. Cults trace their beginnings to mythology, religious...

Cults are popular among those who feel as if they do not belong to anything and have no place in society. Leaders search for lost, lonely and many times quite vulnerable members. Korea has a high...

The Branch Davidians and other religious cults begin by targeting people that are most likely to join their ranks. Often this means individuals that are vulnerable due to weak social support...

The polytheistic, multi-national Roman Empire was filled with religious practices that were thought both strange and foreign by contemporaries. However, in the context of the ancient world, the...

Cult life can affect genders in significantly adverse ways. Women can see cults for the freedoms they seem to pose but quite frequently don't deliver. Many of these cults prey on women because of...

The Branch Davidians are a faction of the Seventh Day Adventist church, originally breaking from the traditional church over allegations that the teachings were too lax. Branch Davidian teachings...

The Branch Davidians were a Christian group that split from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They had a long history that ultimately led to the splinter group in Waco, Texas, led by David...

A Cult is any Charismatic Group (see "Tips" below) that favors recruitment over training causing rapid expansion without proper growth--just like cancer, but make no mistake: they play...

Are there cults that wear long black robes, either on an everyday basis or in their ceremonies? A look into the world of cults shows that the vast majority of these organizations do not wear long...

Cults are groups which usually center around a single leader who determines the theology of the group. The phenomenon of cults isn't new, but cult life continues to thrive today. Cults will...

Death cults, also known as destructive cults, are becoming more prevalent in the world today, but many aren't aware of the dangers they pose. While the media has reported on many of them, very...

Cults can be scary, mind-numbing places and you probably want to go out of your way not to associate with them. But they can also be tricky. Cult members will sweet talk and manipulate to bring in...

Few people plan to fall victim to coercion tactics used by cults. However, we are all sometimes prone to make a mistake in judgment. If you or someone close to you has been mislead by an immoral...

Not all suspicious religious groups fall under the dictionary description given below. Many are much more subtle and hard to readily detect. 6. a religion or sect considered to be false,...

It is surprisingly easy for people to become involved in religious cults. There are a variety of scenarios that can account for the additions in memberships in these groups. One can be born into...

Are you or someone you know and love easily influenced? Maybe you are worried that someone you know has joined a cult. Although you might feel that perhaps you are overreacting to a group, you...

Close to 200,000 Americans join cults each year. For years, it was thought that cults primarily attracted young people; but in recent years, more senior citizens have been lured to them as they...

Cargo cults are the ultimate in materialism, even though members of these cults generally have very little in the way of the possessions they so covet. Typically, cargo cult members belong to...

Cults have a bad name. Often justifiably. All too often people involved in cults believe they’ve not only found their souls but saved them as well. History is written by the victors, it is said,...