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"Ranking the Top Ten Most Toxic Cults" episode is a stalker-only podcast you can get the FULL VERSION here: https://www.patreon.com/upcpodcast It's almost 2 and a half hours long and covers cult-logic, and the specific stories and qualifying factors of ten unique cults. Some known, some lesser-known, Justin Krause (@brobrainscience), Michael Drane (@upcmd) and Corey Stewart (@corstew91) rank these cults on a scale of 1-10, from most to least __________. For each person, the criteria is different,making this event  turbulent and interesting AF. Michael's criteria is highest body count and most bizarre ideology. Justin's criteria is damage to internal members and damage to outside public. Corey's criteria is how charismatic the cult leader is (shocker). So looking at these cults from every angle! 

PLEASE POST YOUR OWN RANKING of these cults, or maybe even cults that you would love to have seen on the list in the comments below (or in the FB group!) Hope you enjoy this Stalker-ONLY Episode—thank you for your support! Thank you for supporting us! It truly means everything to us!
—Michael, Corey & Justin

Raw Show-Notes (& Spoilers)

1. Heaven's Gate Cult (1:45:00)

(1997) San Diego 

 Cult Leader:

 Marshall Applewhite, Sexy. Bald, frail, wide-eyed man. I love that rhythmic voice. Also, strong aesthetics, truly believing in the power of purple. Gets alotta brownie points in my book! Bizarre ideology in general is just phenomenal, his creepy video. Inspiring. Doesn't seem to believe he is the chosen prophet though?

 "And If you want to go there, then you have to follow me cause I'm the guy who's got the key, at the moment." 

 Heavensgate.com still exists, reminds me of Xanga

 I'll just read you their brief mission statement: 

 "Whether Hale-Bopp has a "companion" or not is irrelevant from our perspective. However, its arrival is joyously very significant to us at "Heaven's Gate." The joy is that our Older Member in the Evolutionary Level Above Human (the "Kingdom of Heaven") has made it clear to us that Hale-Bopp's approach is the "marker" we've been waiting for -- the time for the arrival of the spacecraft from the Level Above Human to take us home to "Their World" -- in the literal Heavens. Our 22 years of classroom here on planet Earth is finally coming to conclusion -- "graduation" from the Human Evolutionary Level. We are happily prepared to leave "this world". If you study the material on this website you will hopefully understand our joy and what our purpose here on Earth has been. You may even find your "boarding pass" to leave with us during this brief "window." We are so very thankful that we have been recipients of this opportunity to prepare for membership in Their Kingdom, and to experience Their boundless Caring and Nurturing."

 WE WENT THERE: 4757 E. Greenway Rd. Ste. 103-178,Phoenix, AZ 85032 

2. Scientology (1:27:00)

 Cult Leader:

 David Miscavige is cute like a plastic elf. He is the person I chose to judge for looks, though L. Ron Hubbard is the original creator of Scientology, originally. 

 Lots of money to buy eyesore of a building.

 Jim Carrey’s girlfriend Cathronia White committed suicide and it's thought to be contributed to the scientology church. I know he was depressed for a long time.

 In what are known as "Scientology-Assisted Suicides" - strange deaths have occurred in relation to the Scientology Church over the past several decades. The most notable being Patrice Vic: France in 1996. A colorful article on cizar.org explains that the Church of Scientology is a cult of "soul-robbers" and call their practices psycho-terrorism because of the number of cases similar to that of Patrice Vic. "In what was to be his last night on earth, Patrice Vic, 31, tossed and turned in his bed, recalls his wife Nelly. About five in the morning he rose from his slumber and, with the words "the only solution", he jumped from his twelfth-story balcony to the abyss below. The reason the once happy man from Lyon was in a state of depression was that this father of two could not scrape together the 30,000 franks he needed for an inner "purification." The purification company that lost a customer was France's Scientology cult. His young widow filed a criminal complaint, but it was seven and a half years before the people who first turned the industrial designer into an unapproachable loner with their constantly increasing demands for money and then drove him to suicide with their psycho-terrorism were brought to court. The criminal court hearing took place last week against 22 Scientologists charged with collective fraud and illegally practicing medicine, and against Jean-Jacques Mazier, cult chief at the time, who was also charged with homicide."

3. KKK

 Nathan Bedford Forrest, First known grand wizard. Points for a cool title. AND points because in 1869, he tried to disband it after he grew critical of the Klan’s excessive violence. Soon after lost power.

 Not one specific founder.

 Founded in 1860s in Tennessee, Scary.

 Extremely bizarre ritual. Not religious? 

Social fraternity of confederate veterans Specifically targeting people just for being black, dedicated to murdering and taking rights away from black americans.

4. Aum Shinrikyo (1:09:50) in English is "Supreme Truth" 

 Leader:

 Shoko Asahara, lots of hair, seems cuddly even though I know he's not, sits criss-cross applesauce a lot. Horrific and Violent. Claimed he could miraculously cure human illness.

 AUDIO used in episode: NBC Flashback 

 A branch of buddhism that took on modern ideas, commonly known as Japanese Buddism, also a self-appointed prophet. Published a foundational book, and declared himself "Christ" He would call hallucinagens, LSD, being hung upside down and even Shock therapy as "Yoga"

 Believed World War III would be started by the United States

 Aum Shinrikyo still exists in 2007 was formally designated a terrorist organization.

5. ISIS: (1:02:45)

 Cult Leader:

 started the ISIS cult in 2004 by Jordanian Islamist Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

 Michael's Body Count he found was about 1200, but he estimates that this very low, and Justin argues that the damage to internal members (suicide bombers) and damage to outsiders (kidnapping, beheadings, etc.) and impact on society is unbelievably high.

 Recency Bias on this cult. Unintentionally things that landed at the end of my list are more recent. History/Time heals wounds and maybe some rose-colored glasses for me.

6. Branch Davidians Cult (51:15)

 1993 Waco, Texas

 Cult Leader:

 David Kuresh, not attractive or interesting 

 Suspected of sexual abuse of many of the children in the church: Hard Gross & those 70's glasses: no thanks. Polygamist - 19 wives. 

 AUDIO used in episode

: ABC News

 The Branch Davidians were a religious branch of a church gone wrong in Waco Texas in the early 90's. 1930, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 1955, The Davidian-Seventh Day Adventist Church. David Kuresh, was a white man who believed he was the chosen prophet, meant to save people from an impending apocalypse (Common). Fallout in 1993 when they were suspected by the FBI of having a bunch of weapons, they did. Resulted in a 51-day standoff in which a raid of tear gas ensued and several of the buildings were set on fire. That day in 1993, almost 80 people died in the fire, with gunshot wounds from apparent mutual suicides, David Kuresh was killed by gunshot to the head. 21 children died. Several FBI agents died. BUT, its interesting because to this most will argue over who was at fault or responsible for the deaths. A recent NPR podcast said "Either way, the agency's actions are indefensible, says Catherine Wessinger, a religious historian at Loyola University in New Orleans, an authority on apocalyptic groups and an expert on the Davidian episode. If the FBI believed they were dealing with members of a cult who were not in their right minds, then why would the FBI put so much pressure on them and then ultimately carry out an assault which just confirmed David Koresh's prophecies?" Wessinger says."

7. Restoration of the Ten Commandments Cult (42:40)

 Cult Leader

: Joseph Kibweteere, one of five. Sharply dressed. 

 1989 in Rwanda

 AUDIO used in episode: Cult Education Institute

 NYT referred to it as the doomsday cult

In early 2000, followers of the religious movement perished in a devastating fire and a series of poisonings and killings that were either a group suicide or an orchestrated mass murder by group leaders after their predictions of the apocalypse failed to come about.

8. Vampire Clan (29:30)

 Cult LeaderRod Ferrell, Vampire, He had quite a bit of style. Dark hair, scary looks. First of all he was a vampire, which as a concept I think is sexy. Maybe just bites though, you know not full blown murder. Remorseful after his murders, tried to go down for his team.

 AUDIO used in episode

: MSNBC.com 

 Small Cult of "Vampires"

 Rod Ferrel and Heather Wendorf, couple who united over mutual distress and dealing with childhood sexual abuse by family members. They believed blood was the elixir of life and love. He ind icted her into his new "Vampire Clan" in a ceremony he called "crossing over" They were on their way from Daytona Beach, north. They needed Heathers Car, so they went to the home and Rod, apparently sees red and murders the couple horifically, brutally. They leave and are pulled over by the cops 5 times. How could they be pulled over 5 times and not arrested? "They were expecting a teenage cult-leading psychopath, and instead I was speaking to them with every courtesy, quiet, I already had my story set up," said Rod. "I had already told the others we're college students from Texas or Iowa or wherever." He claims to describe the murders in a gruesome way so the other members of the cult would not also be in trouble.

 But the police got everyone to confess except for Heather, the daughter of the murdered couple. CrimeWatch says: "Heather denies hating or being mistreated by her parents and is ultimately exonerated by a grand jury, which finds she was not aware of the plan to murder her mom and dad. She was never charged."

 There's always someone who gets off on "I was just brainwashed" charge.

UPC I was just brainwashed t-shirt should be a thing.

9. Superior Universal Alignment (25:00)

 Cult Leader:

 Valentina de Andrade, the only woman on the list. Melasandra GoT?

 Brazil, 1980

 A 2003 article by the Cult Education Institute states, "Valentina de Andrade, the suspected leader of a sect known as Superior Universal Alignment, two doctors, two security guards and the son of a businessman in the town of Altamira are charged with murder, attempted murder and torture. According to the families of the victims, Andrade is said to have been contacted by a medium who told her that boys born after 1981 were possessed by the devil. A group representing the families says there were many more victims -- 19 poor young boys in total aged between 8 and 13 who were horribly tortured or killed between 1989 and 1993. Some had eyes gouged out, wrists slit and sexual organs cut out. Of the 19 victims, six died, five were never found and the rest escaped, some after being drugged, bound and mutilated.

10.  Jehovah's Witness Cult (13:10)

 Cult Leader

: Charles Taze Russell Credited with being one of the first of a small group of people who broke away from the main church to eventually become specifically JW. He was old. Those eyebrows though.

 I once had a friend in school who was Jehovah's Witness and I told her Happy Birthday but she said she doesn't celebrate birthdays. Through the grapevine, in my old Southern Baptist upbringing, I was explicitly taught that Jehovah's Witness believed there are only 1,444 people on the planet that were going to live through the rapture. Apocalypse type scenario again. Interesting though.

 Bad because: Exclusive, Condemning, power to spread a LOT.

 Accusations of Mind-Control and Abuse

 Shortlist of Jehovah's Witness Beliefs:

 They believe that Jesus did not rise from the dead. Russell says His body either dissolved into gases or is still preserved somewhere. 

 They believe that there is no such thing as a hell of everlasting torment. Hell is just the grave. The wicked are simply annihilated. 

 They believe that man has no spirit. 

 They believe that only the 144,000 mentioned in the book of Revelation will live in heaven with God.

 They believe all dead people will have a second chance for eternal life at the millennium. If you do not prove worthiness at this time, you'll be destroyed.

 The believe the blood of Christ does not forgive sins, it gives us a "chance" to live again. They have NO assurance of salvation as Jehovah's Witnesses who supposedly know the truth.

Resources:

 10 Terrifyingly Evil Killer Cults 

 Full police interviews of Scientology 

 Restoration of the Ten Commandments Cult 

 More expensive than being Catholic 

 Strange Deaths Connected to the Church of Scientology

 Leah Remini Anti-Scientology Tape

 Heaven's Gate Cult Found Dead 

 Superior Universal Alignment Cult 

 David Kuresh: NPR Article 

 Jehovas Witness Cult 

 CrimeWatch Daily about Vampire Cult

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ABOUT UPC

Unpopular Culture Podcast is a psychology podcast hosted by Professor & Psychotherapist Michael Drane. With help from professionals in different fields, he seeks to shine light into the broken underbelly of society.

Listen as he takes on the psychology behind subjects like:

True Crime: serial killers, murders, stalkers, cults, forensic analysis

Psychology: mental illness, social phenomenon, mob mentality, psychoanalysis, etc. 

Culture: Sexuality, Satanic Panic, love, Tv analysis, movie analysis. 

We are an independent psychology podcast. Help us keep UPC free of ads and on the air. Please consider supporting the show and get access to our "Stalkers Only" archive, and help be a part of the creative process.

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