40 Shocking Cults From Around the World

At the turn of the 19th century, there was a Christian “love (sex) cult” named Holly Rollers which existed in Oregon. The cult ended in a series of assassinations, counter-assassinations, and an assassin suicide in Seattle.

The atheistic Cult of Reason was sponsored by the French revolutionary government to replace Catholicism. Notre Dame's altar was dismantled, and provocatively dressed women posed inside representing virtues like Reason. Cemetery gates in France had to bear the inscription "Death is an eternal sleep."

The Israelite Cult, ‘House of David’ had a barnstorming baseball team from 1920s onwards. Its players wore long hair and beards while they played exhibition games against major league teams. They spawned the “Black House of David” who played against Negro League teams.

Order of the Solar Temple was a religious cult which its folowers claimed was based upon the ideals of the Knights Templar. In October of 1994, when they began their mass suicide plot, they started with murdering of a 3-Month-Old boy, who they believed to be the Anti-Christ. They stabbed him repeatedly with a wooden stake.

‘Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God’ was a Ugandan doomsday cult, whose followers surrendered their wealth to the church. After the prophesied date passed many disgruntled followers demanded their money back.

When the leaders of ‘The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God,’ an Ugandan doomsday cult, failed in their prediction of the end of the world, leaders of the cult predicted a second date of March 17, 2000 and organized a celebration during which they poisoned, stabbed, and blew up 778 of their followers. Their leader escaped authorities and is believed to still be alive.

In 1978, a dangerous cult called Synanon tried to murder an opponent by placing a de-rattled rattlesnake in his mailbox. The snake did bite Attorney Paul Morantz, but he survived and went on to prosecute Synanon, as well as the Church of Scientology, Hare Krishnas, and more.

Japan has a cult called ‘Happy Science’ whose leader claims “to channel the spirits of Muhammad, Christ, Buddha and Confucius” (among many other beings) and claims to be the incarnation of the supreme spiritual being called El Cantare.

Magdalena Solís also known as ‘The High Priestess of Blood’, was a Mexican serial killer and cult leader who was responsible for orchestrating several murders which involved drinking of the victims’ blood. She proclaimed that blood is the only food the gods can ingest and that their goddess needed to drink it to preserve her eternal youth.

The Skoptsy was a Russian religious sect who believed that human genitals were a mark of original sin and the removal of sexual organs restored followers to a pristine state. Male followers were originally castrated and emasculated with a red-hot iron, called the 'fiery baptism.'