Cults

 

 I received a copy of this release from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Cults: Inside the World's Most Notorious Groups and Understanding the People Who Joined Them

Author: Max Cutler

Publisher: Gallery Books

Release Date: 7.12.22

Publisher’s Summary 

Mystery. Manipulation. Murder. Cults are associated with all of these. But what really goes on inside them? More specifically, what goes on inside the minds of cult leaders and the people who join them? Based on the hit podcast Cults, this is essential reading for any true crime fan.

Cults prey on the very attributes that make us human: our desire to belong; to find a deeper meaning in life; to live everyday with divine purpose. Their existence creates a sense that any one of us, at any time, could step off the cliff’s edge and fall into that daunting abyss of manipulation and unhinged dedication to a misplaced cause. Perhaps it’s this mindset that keeps us so utterly obsessed and desperate to learn more, or it’s that the stories are so bizarre and unsettling that we are simply in awe of the mechanics that make these infamous groups tick.

The premier storytelling podcast studio Parcast has been focusing on unearthing these mechanics—the cult leaders and followers, and the world and culture that gave birth to both. Parcast’s work in analyzing dozens of case studies has revealed patterns: distinct ways that cult leaders from different generations resemble one another. What links the ten notorious figures profiled in Cults are as disturbing as they are stunning—from Manson to Applewhite, Koresh to Raël, the stories woven here are both spellbinding and disturbing.

Cults is more than just a compilation of grisly biographies, however. In these pages, Parcast’s founder Max Cutler and national bestselling author Kevin Conley look closely at the lives of some of the most disreputable cult figures and tell the stories of their rise to power and fall from grace, sanity, and decency. Beyond that, it is a study of humanity, an unflinching look at what happens when the most vulnerable recesses of the mind are manipulated and how the things we hold most sacred can be twisted into the lowest form of malevolence.

My Review

In recent years I've become more and more interested in cults and religions, mainly the psychology of their followers. I like dissecting how followers and leaders arrive at their ways of thinking through personal histories, rituals, and group validation. Max Cutler has written something of a "top ten" compilation and I absolutely devoured every word. Each chapter focuses on a different cult:

1. Charles Manson and The Family
2. Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo and The Narcosatanists
3. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
4. Jim Jones and The People's Temple
5. Claude Vorilhon and Raëlism
6. Roch Thériault and The Ant Hill Kids
7. David Koresh and The Branch Davidians
8. Keith Raniere and NXIVM
9. Credonia Mwerinde and The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
10. Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate

I was pretty familiar with Marshall Applewhite and Heaven's Gate because their mass suicide (the largest mass suicide in US history) occurred on March 26, 1997. My daughter was born 2 months prior so I was awake at all hours watching TV while the news ran this all on a loop. I also knew quite a bit about Charles Manson and The Family, Jim Jones and The People's Temple, David Koresh and The Branch Davidians, and Keith Raniere and NXIVM, but I still learned a lot from each chapter. The others I had never even heard of so I was definitely shocked by all of their contents. A couple of super interesting facts regarding Credonia Mwerinde and The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, are:

1. She has a higher death toll than the mass suicide/deaths at Jonestown (which was 914 members) but because there were so many unverified killings and mass graves that her total death toll is unknown.

2. She took a bus out of town after one of her mass killings and has never been found!