The second annual National Go Topless Protest Day will be held this Sunday, August 23, in various American cities. It happens to be run by Raelians, members of a UFO religion founded by Rael, a former French sports-car journalist and test driver born Claude Vorilhon. (Coverage of last year's protest in New York City, which is, as one might suspect, NSFW.) Though the current "Go Topless!" site talks more about women's rights than Raelism, in 2004, Raelian women were marching topless not for the legalization of bare breastedness, but against "the repressive Myth of God." Don't remember the Raelians? This is just the most recent stunt by the publicity-hungry group that capitalizes on media-friendly controversy: in 2002, during the slow news week between Christmas and New Year's Day, they announced the creation of the first human clone, gaining what Rael estimated at over $500 million of free media coverage. In an interview, Rael unabashedly discusses his passion for publicity. [more inside]
posted by ocherdraco on Aug 21, 2009 - 63 comments

The End of the World Cult is a 2007 documentary about the Lord Our Righteousness Church, aka the Strong City Cult, as they count down the days before the end of the world on October 31st 2007. The film features unusually good access and especially focuses on the creepy sexual relationship cult leader Wayne Bent has with his mostly female followers. If you watch the film and are hankering after justice, you'll be pleased to know that yesterday Bent was sentenced to eighteen years prison for sexual relations with minors. Oh, he also has a blog.
posted by dydecker on Jan 1, 2009 - 38 comments

Adi Da (one of the most extreme of the 20th century God-men) died on Thanksgiving. This may be a little late, and of little interest to most of you. (He had many names: Da Free John is probably the most recognizable to many of us.) He lived in luxury in Fiji, with many beautiful "consorts." There is a very extensive discussion about him and his work here. Info about his "cult" here.
posted by kozad on Dec 29, 2008 - 45 comments

The town of Shawano, WI claims a local group with a history of controversy called the Samanta Roy Institute of Science & Technology (SIST) profiled in this WSAW TV investigative series (part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4) is a murderous cult that tried to hire a hitman to assassinate 60 prominent citizens including the mayor, city administrator, city treasurer, city attorney, police chief, judges, investigators & fire commissioners. SIST returns the favor & claims it's the mayor who's running a cult (part 1, part 2 & more), calling her the Minister of Propaganda. As a CBS investigative team found out, things are tense in this sleepy town. The FBI says it's keeping an eye on the situation.
posted by scalefree on Dec 18, 2008 - 28 comments

Life isn't always easy if your father or grandfather was Jim Jones, the legendary founder of the People's Temple. Jones and wife Marcelline adopted seven children of varying ethnicities. Son Jim Jones Jr. lives an upstanding existence as a pharmaceutical sales rep and volunteer basketball coach, but has been hounded by his past throughout his life. Meanwhile, grandson Rob Jones is San Francisco's top high school basketball player. But sometimes the legacy just follows you. (Video)
posted by huskerdont on Jan 1, 2008 - 22 comments

Reading the January edition of Harper's, about Brasilia, I was struck by a bit about what is apparently one of many cults in around the capital city: the Valley of the Dawn. A Jewish UFO cult? The ultimate in syncretic religions? Book your flight now.They're a lot more open to foreigners than Macumba
posted by kozad on Dec 27, 2007 - 9 comments

When Ron Paul email spam started hitting inboxes in late October, UAB Computer Forensics Directory Gary Warner published findings on the spam's textual patterns and the illicit botnet used to spread it -- findings which were picked up by media outlets and tech websites like Salon, Ars Technica, and Wired Magazine's "Threat Level" blog, the latter in a set of followup posts by writer Sarah Stirland: 1, 2, 3. [more inside]
posted by brownpau on Nov 5, 2007 - 306 comments

"The time is right, and the time is now! The Lord has spoken to you. He has commanded you to create the New Jerusalem, to prepare for His arrival, to gather the flock, bring together the faithful, spread the Word. Blinded like Paul on his way to Damascus, you are now set to follow His Way. But how do you start such an ambitious project?" Dr. Emeril Lazarus has all the answers.
posted by Kattullus on Jun 16, 2007 - 16 comments

Why waste time on playing roleplaying games or writing pastiches when you can actually worship Cthulhu? Join an existing Cthulhu cult or form your own!. They've got a book and everything! (though it may contain big chunks of wiki-plagarism). As ever, the ability to rock a traditionalist shaved-head-and-goatee satanist look considered a plus.
posted by Artw on Apr 29, 2007 - 32 comments

"Thank God I Was Raped!" Thank God for creepily masochistic self-help concepts! Thank God for network marketing publishing stunts that prey on the deranged! Thank God I was scammed out of real money by an advocate of rape therapy! But most of all, thank God there's an affiliate program!
posted by MaxVonCretin on Mar 27, 2007 - 77 comments

The Thirteen Towers of Chankillo in Peru may be the Western Hemisphere's oldest known full-service solar observatory, showing evidence of early, sophisticated Sun cults, according to archaeoastronomy professor Clive Ruggles. The 2,300-year-old complex featured 13 towers running north to south along a ridge and spread across 980 feet to form a toothed horizon that spans the solar arc. Last year, another ancient observatory was discovered in Peru by Robert Benfer. The Temple of the Fox is 4,200 years old, making it 1,900 years older than the Chankillo site, but wasn't a complete calendar.
posted by homunculus on Mar 3, 2007 - 8 comments

Everything you know about Pythagoras is wrong (except the bit about the beans). Less the golden-thighed Einstein of the Ancient World and more the L. Ron Hubbard of Magna Graecia. [Last link has some rude words]
posted by Kattullus on Feb 22, 2007 - 41 comments

Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda believes he is the Apostle Paul. Or Jesus. Or maybe the antichrist. Many disagree, but he and his purported thousands of followers continue to present their case.
posted by saraswati on Feb 19, 2007 - 37 comments

The Tax Man Cometh:

"They believe, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, that their citizen's understanding of the written law should, and in some Platonic sense does, trump the realities of dealing with the government. This makes them uniquely American rebels--more true, they maintain, to the nation's core values than those of us who follow the pragmatic advice . . . "You mess with that shit, you are going to jail."

Brian Doherty analyzes the tax resistance movement (from 2004). Meanwhile, another ugly confrontation is brewing in New Hampshire, and violence is in the air. Mr. Brown, of course, has his views.
posted by fourcheesemac on Jan 21, 2007 - 112 comments

Did Isaac Hayes really quit South Park? Last night's show roasted Hayes for his irate departure following the now-infamous Scientology episode (banned from the air in Tom Cruise's litigious wake, full episode here). In the latest episode, masters of subtlety Trey Parker and Matt Stone depict Chef as having fallen prey to an insidious cult, the "Super Adventure Club", subsequently killing him off in a manner that would make Kenny jealous. But today FoxNews reports that Isaac Hayes has been in the hospital since Jan. 17th, following a stroke, and never issued a statement. Apparently, the Scientology Center issued it "for" him. [via] [previously discussed here here and here]
posted by mowglisambo on Mar 23, 2006 - 81 comments

The Mercy Seat. Described in the book of Exodus, the throne of mercy has quite a variety of meanings. Some contemporary Christians are interested in "reconstructing" an image based on Egyptian and Phoenician culture. In Judaism, the kisei rachamim is part of the narrative of Yom Kippur, as God moves from the seat of justice to the seat of compassion. In medieval Europe, and especially in Germany, the Gnadenstuhl was a perfect representation of the trinity, combining the cruxification, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit (usually a bird), into one image of mournful compassion. Nick Cave used the idea of the mercy seat as the frame for a song about murder, sin, capital punishment, and atonement/redemption, which was later covered by Johnny Cash (mp3 clip). The chair of mercy is even visually alluded to Jodorowsky's Montana Sacra, aka Holy Mountain. (Which have been inspired in part by the Ascended Masters of Mount Shasta, but that's technically another story - the bizarro California cultists story.)
posted by jann on Mar 3, 2006 - 25 comments

Penthouse Interview with L. Ron Hubbard Jr Chilling interview with the son of Scientology's founder.
posted by konolia on Nov 18, 2005 - 109 comments

The Process Church of the Final Judgement, is quoted on two Funkadelic album covers. In his book The Family, Ed Sanders claimed that Charles Manson took his inspiration from The Process, leading to a lawsuit that resulted in the excision from subsequent editions of the material describing the cult's influence. Here is the redacted material. Whatever the truth about Manson and The Process Chuch, it was a time of cults.
posted by OmieWise on Oct 24, 2005 - 11 comments

RealSuicideGirl. Probably one of the few members that has her visage at the center of an art exhibit. Taking the 'fashion goth' to heightened levels of realism.
posted by gsb on Oct 17, 2005 - 29 comments

Here's an account of conditions and abuse in a Scientology prison camp. Considering Scientology's philosophy, the use of prisons and slave labor (often used for the benefit of celebrities) shouldn't be surprising. (for these links, you may need a good dictionary)
posted by pandaharma on Jun 24, 2005 - 55 comments

The Temple of Hayah: a religion that renders its followers immune to the any laws other than the Ten Commandments. Followers need not pay taxes. But TOH is mad at Wikipedia because Wikipedia hate-crimed TOH. So TOH suggests that you tip off the FBI.
posted by ba on Jan 21, 2005 - 22 comments

The Orange Papers. A deconstruction of the 12 Steps of AA and their smilarity to cult practices.
posted by pieoverdone on Jul 31, 2004 - 66 comments

Cargo cultists versus Christians. Two religions enter, one religion leaves! Differences have led to murder on an island near Oceania. Many of us learned about cargo cults from Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. However, it seems that there's more to the story, including a Lyndon Johnson connection.
posted by Mayor Curley on May 21, 2004 - 15 comments

Bankrollers of ideology. George Soros vs. Rev. Moon.
posted by skallas on Nov 24, 2003 - 11 comments

ScientologyWatch.org - a blog that's sure to bug Norwegian fishermen, Brazilian soccer players, Japanese businessmen, Greek artists and Italian educators. [Link via Politech]
posted by boost ventilator on Mar 3, 2003 - 23 comments

Cult says it has first human clone, and it's a girl. Clearly this is an incredible achievement for science, but what consequences will this have on the near and distant future? Is cloning technology being utilized by the wrong people? Some consider the fear of human cloning to be superstitious. But what if somebody taught the clones karate?
posted by luckyclone on Dec 26, 2002 - 33 comments

Sinister cult hijacks Weblogs.com? While working on an application that finds patterns in the data supplied by Weblogs.com, Mo Morgan found some disturbing patterns:

"[...] between midnight and five there had been over 60 pings to Weblogs.com from sites that contained the string "srichinmoy" in their URI."

At first it just looks like some idiot abusing the ping system. Or could this be something altogether more sinister?
posted by dutchbint on Aug 30, 2002 - 30 comments

Was Enron a cult?
posted by neilkod on Jan 24, 2002 - 12 comments

Anthrax, its been done before. It just doesn't do the job: "the cult attempted to release anthrax spores from its mid-rise Tokyo office building laboratory. At that time, police and media reported foul smells, brown steam, some pet deaths, and stains on cars and sidewalks." 2, 3. "Many view the cult Aum Shinrikyo as a group seeking to bring on the end of the world." and "an estimated $1.5 billion in assets" (thats more than Usama). me=alarmist, today.
posted by tomplus2 on Oct 17, 2001 - 5 comments

Buddhism is a cult! ...says Representative Arlon Lindner, a member of the Minnesota Legislature. He's mad that the Dalai Lama is going to speak before that august body.
posted by norm on May 1, 2001 - 50 comments