The Penguin Book of Cults
A chilling history of the most notorious cults of the past two thousand years
The word ācultā conjures images of people in thrall to a charismatic leader who extracts obedience through lies and threats, and of apocalyptic prophecies, sexual perversion, and mass suicide. From the Celtic druids, whose ritual sacrifices inspired the folk horror filmĀ The Wicker Man, all the way up to the Peoples Temple and Heavenās Gate,Ā The Penguin Book of CultsĀ charts the history of our fear of the religious other.
Bringing to light little-known sources such as a ādeath tapeā of Jonestownās final hour, when Jim Jones led more than 900 of his followers to drink poison, and a minute-by-minute log of the FBIās final assault on the Branch Davidian headquarters, and including accounts of drinking the blood of sacrificed cats, theories that we are living inside a hollow earth, and reports that space brothers from Venus are coming to redeem us from the threat of nuclear war, this volume opens a fascinating window into cults and why some of them have ended in spectacular violence.
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A chilling history of the most notorious cults of the past two thousand years
The word ācultā conjures images of people in thrall to a charismatic leader who extracts obedience through lies and threats, and of apocalyptic prophecies, sexual perversion, and mass suicide. From the Celtic druids, whose ritual sacrifices inspired the folk horror filmĀ The Wicker Man, all the way up to the Peoples Temple and Heavenās Gate,Ā The Penguin Book of CultsĀ charts the history of our fear of the religious other.
Bringing to light little-known sources such as a ādeath tapeā of Jonestownās final hour, when Jim Jones led more than 900 of his followers to drink poison, and a minute-by-minute log of the FBIās final assault on the Branch Davidian headquarters, and including accounts of drinking the blood of sacrificed cats, theories that we are living inside a hollow earth, and reports that space brothers from Venus are coming to redeem us from the threat of nuclear war, this volume opens a fascinating window into cults and why some of them have ended in spectacular violence.
