A running, sourced timeline of cults and high-control groups — from the ancient world to groups operating today. Search or filter to explore.
16 entries
Aum Shinrikyo was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984, blending elements of Buddhism, Hinduism, and apocalyptic prophecy, and grew to claim tens…
The Branch Davidians descended from a 1950s split within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. David Koresh took over leadership in the late 1980s,…
L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1954, building on ideas from his earlier book Dianetics. The organization teaches a…
The FLDS traces back to Mormon fundamentalists who continued practicing polygamy after the mainstream LDS Church officially renounced it in 1890. The…
Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles founded what became Heaven’s Gate in the early 1970s, teaching that Earth was about to be “recycled”…
Amy Carlson began building an online following in the 2010s, eventually declaring herself a divine being — “Mother God” — at the…
Keith Raniere founded NXIVM in 1998 as a personal- and professional-development company offering seminars (“Executive Success Programs”) that attracted a wealthy and…
John Humphrey Noyes founded the Oneida Community in upstate New York in 1848, built on his religious belief in “Perfectionism” — that…
Peoples Temple was founded by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955, initially presenting itself as a progressive Christian congregation committed to…
Followers of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh purchased the 64,000-acre Big Muddy Ranch in Oregon in 1981, incorporating it the following year…
Samuel Rappylee Bateman was a member of the FLDS community in the Short Creek area — Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah…
Lee Man-hee founded Shincheonji Church of Jesus in South Korea in 1984, teaching that he is a messianic figure and that the…
Worship of Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans) centered on ecstatic ritual — wine, music, dance, and altered states of consciousness — practiced…
David Berg founded the Children of God in Huntington Beach, California, in 1968 as an offshoot of the Jesus movement. The group…
Charles Manson assembled a group of mostly young followers in California in the late 1960s, drawing on a mix of Scientology-derived ideas,…
Jeff and Shaleia Ayan (also known as Jeff and Shaleia Divine) built Twin Flames Universe into an online coaching business around 2016,…
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