# The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · Atlas dossier · language: en The same words a person sees on this page, nothing more and nothing hidden. Our own words are free to use under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), naming the Congregation of Tomorrow. Words of others keep their own terms. Every page of the site, listed: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/ai/pages.json · the whole site in one file: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/llms-full.txt The Cult Dossier 182 groups, and the people in them. Who led them, what they taught, how they ended, and who got out and told. 182 groups, from the mystery cults of antiquity to this century, with the people who led them, the people who opposed them and the people who got out and told. Being here is the house's study of a group's record, not a verdict on any member. Kept at home: 7 entries whose subject is a child or a collective file of the dead, and the health of anyone living. Most entries were checked in September 2026; the date is on each person. The entries do not yet list their sources one by one: treat each claim as the house's reading until it is, and correct us with a source. ### I. ANTIQUITY — THE MYSTERY CULTS ### Cult of Osiris c.2400 BCE – 4th c. CE ### Atenism c.1353 – c.1332 BCE ### Eleusinian Mysteries c.1600 BCE – 392 CE ### Orphic Mysteries c.6th c. BCE – 4th c. CE ### Pythagorean Brotherhood c.530 – c.450 BCE (revivals to 3rd c. CE) ### Bacchanalia c.600 BCE – 186 BCE (suppression) ### Cult of Cybele and Attis c.7th c. BCE – 4th c. CE ### Mysteries of Mithras c.80 – c.400 CE ### The Roman Imperial Cult 42 BCE – 4th c. CE ### The Sicarii c.6 – 73 CE ### Gnostic Sects (composite entry) c.80 – c.400 CE; Mandaeans survive ### Montanism c.157 – 6th c. CE ### Manichaeism c.240 – 14th c. CE in China ### II. MEDIEVAL — HERESY, DUALISM AND THE MILLENNIUM ### Paulicians c.650 – 12th c. ### Bogomilism c.927 – 15th c. ### Catharism c.1140 – c.1330 ### Order of Assassins 1090 – 1256/1273 ### The Flagellants 1260; 1348–1349; sporadic to 15th c. ### Brethren of the Free Spirit c.1200 – 15th c. ### Taborites and the Bohemian Adamites 1419 – 1434 ### Münster Anabaptist Kingdom February 1534 – June 1535 ### Khlysty c.1645 – 1930s ### Skoptsy c.1770 – c.1970s ### Thuggee disputed; alleged 13th c. – 1830s ### III. THE LONG NINETEENTH CENTURY ### The Shakers 1747 – present (2 members) ### The Bavarian Illuminati 1 May 1776 – 1785 (formally) ### Harmony Society 1785/1805 – 1905 ### The Millerites 1831 – 1845 ### Oneida Community 1848 – 1881 ### Taiping Heavenly Kingdom 1843 – 1864 ### Theosophical Society 17 November 1875 – present ### Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn 1888 – 1903 (successors continue) ### IV. THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY ### Thelema and the Abbey of Thelema 1904 – 1947 (OTO continues) ### Thule Society and Ariosophy 1907 – 1935 ### Cargo Cults (composite entry) c.1919 – present ### International Peace Mission Movement c.1907 – present (much reduced) ### I AM Activity 1930 – present ### Nation of Islam 4 July 1930 – present ### Doukhobors — Sons of Freedom 1902 – 1970s ### Ōmoto and the Japanese New Religions 1892 – present ### Mankind United 1934 – 1951 ### V. THE POSTWAR ERA 1945–1969 ### Colonia Dignidad 1961 – 1997 (as a closed colony) ### Unification Church 1 May 1954 – present ### Church of Scientology 1950/1953 – present ### Aetherius Society 1955 – present ### Unarius Academy of Science 1954 – present ### Synanon 1958 – 1991 ### Church of Satan 30 April 1966 – present ### Process Church of the Final Judgment 1963 – 1974 ### The Manson Family 1967 – 1971 ### VI. THE 1970s — THE GREAT PROLIFERATION ### Children of God 1968 – present ### Peoples Temple 1955 – 18 November 1978 ### Divine Light Mission 1960 – present (transformed) ### Transcendental Meditation movement 1955/1957 – present ### ISKCON — Hare Krishna 13 July 1966 – present ### est / The Forum / Landmark 1971 – present ### The Source Family 1969 – 1975 ### Symbionese Liberation Army 1973 – 1975 ### Ant Hill Kids 1977 – 1989 ### The Family 1963 – 1987 ### VII. THE 1980s — SIEGE AND SCANDAL ### Church Universal and Triumphant 1958 – present ### Fellowship of Friends 1970 – present ### Twelve Tribes 1972 – present ### MOVE 1972 – present ### Rajneesh movement 1970 – present (as Osho International) ### Nation of Yahweh 1979 – present (much reduced) ### Raëlism 1974 – present ### Aum Shinrikyo 1984 – present (as successors, under surveillance) ### Branch Davidians 1955 (from 1929 roots) – 19 April 1993 ### Order of the Solar Temple 1984 – 1997 ### VIII. THE 1990s — THE MILLENNIUM APPROACHES ### Heaven's Gate 1974 – 26 March 1997 ### Chen Tao 1996 – 2001 (Chen teaching from 1992) ### Concerned Christians c.1980 – 1999 ### Falun Gong May 1992 – present ### Church of Almighty God 1991 – present ### Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God 1989 – 17 March 2000 ### Lord's Resistance Army 1987 – present (much reduced) ### Adolfo Constanzo group c.1984 – 1989 ### IX. THE FUNDAMENTALIST AND POLYGAMOUS GROUPS ### Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 1930s – present ### The Lafferty brothers 1983 – 1984 ### Kingston Clan 1935 – present ### Nuwaubian Nation c.1967 – 2002 ### X. RUSSIA, KOREA AND SOUTH ASIA ### Church of the Last Testament 1991 – 2020 ### Great White Brotherhood 1990 – 1993 (revived small) ### Aleph and the Aum successors 2000 – present ### Providence 1980 – present ### Shincheonji Church of Jesus 14 March 1984 – present ### Salvation Sect 1962 – present ### Dera Sacha Sauda 1948 – present ### Asaram Bapu's ashrams 1972 – present ### 3HO and Sikh Dharma 1969 – present (restructured) ### Rigpa and Shambhala International 1970s – present ### XI. THERAPY, POLITICS AND THE SMALL GROUPS ### Sullivan Institute 1957 – 1991 ### The Newman Tendency 1968 – present (much reduced) ### Buddhafield c.1985 – present ### Word of Faith Fellowship 1979 – present ### Remnant Fellowship 1986/1999 – present ### Lev Tahor 1988 – present ### Order of Nine Angles claims 1960s origins; texts from the 1970s – present ### NXIVM 1998 – 2018 ### OneTaste 2004 – 2018 (as OneTaste) ### Love Has Won 2007 – 2021 ### Twin Flames Universe 2017 – present ### Good News International Ministries 2003 – 2023 ### QAnon October 2017 – present ### XII. THE WIDER FIELD — CONCISE ENTRIES ### Palmarian Catholic Church 1975 – present ### Ho No Hana Sanpogyo 1987 – 2001 ### Pana Wave Laboratory 1977 – c.2011 (effectively dissolved) ### Superior Universal Alignment 1980s – 1993 ### Church of Bible Understanding 1971 – present ### House of Yahweh 1980 – present ### Church of Wells 2011 – present ### Adidam 1972 – present ### Sahaja Yoga 1970 – present ### Ananda Church of Self-Realization 1968 – present ### Lyman Family 1966 – present ### Love Israel Family 1968 – 2016 ### Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps 1981 – present ### Ashram Shambala 1989 – present ### LaRouche movement 1968 – present ### Mungiki late 1980s – present (banned) ### Juhayman al-Otaybi's group 1970s – 1979 ### Universal Medicine 1999 – present ### Dahn Yoga 1985 – present ### Kenja Communication 1982 – present ### Sri Chinmoy Centre 1964 – present ### Zendik Farm 1969 – 2013 ### Bogorodichny Tsentr 1984 – present ### Smaller lethal groups various ### Jehovah's Witnesses 1870s – present ### Samuel Bateman's FLDS splinter c.2019 – 2022 ### XIII. FILLING THE GAPS — ASIA, AFRICA AND LATIN AMERICA ### Way of the Five Pecks of Rice 142 – 215 CE (lineage continues) ### Way of Great Peace c.170 – 205 CE ### White Lotus c.12th c. – 19th c. ### Eight Trigrams c.1800 – 1813 ### Boxers 1898 – 1901 ### Yiguandao 1930s – present ### Tenrikyo 1838 – present ### The Mahdist State 1881 – 1898 ### Caodaism 1926 – present ### Ananda Marga 1955 – present ### Kingdom of Jesus Christ 1985 – present ### La Luz del Mundo 1926 – present ### Casa de Dom Inácio 1970s – 2018 ### Israelites of the New Universal Covenant 1968 – present ### Synagogue Church of All Nations 1987 – present ### Seven Angels Ministry c.2010 – 2018 ### Gafatar 2011 – 2016 ### Buenos Aires Yoga School c.1980s – 2022 ### XIV. THE OPPOSITION — WHAT WAS BUILT TO FIGHT THEM ### The Anti-Cult Movement and the Cult Awareness Network 1974 – 1996 (successor bodies continue) ### Coercive Control Law and the Regulation of High-Control Groups 2015 – present ### The Satanic Panic 1980 – c.1995 (echoes continue) ### XV. THE ASYLUM — WHEN MEDICINE DECIDED WHOSE MIND WAS WRONG ### Bethlem Royal Hospital 1247 – present ### The York Retreat and Moral Treatment 1796 – 2018 (as an inpatient hospital) ### Dorothea Dix and the American Asylum Movement 1841 – 1887 ### Nellie Bly and the Blackwell's Island Asylum 1887 ### The Somatic Treatments 1917 – c.1960 ### The Lobotomy 1935 – 1967 ### Willowbrook State School 1947 – 1987 ### MKULTRA and the Allan Memorial Institute 1948 – 1964 (litigation continuing) ### Soviet Punitive Psychiatry c.1950s – 1980s ### The Rosenhan Experiment 1973 (challenged from 2019) ### Deinstitutionalisation 1955 – present ### XVI. CONTAGION — SYMPTOMS THAT SPREAD WITHOUT A PATHOGEN ### The Dancing Plagues 1374 – 1518 ### Salem and the Ergotism Hypothesis 1692 (the explanation disputed from 1976) ### The Mad Gasser and the Windshield Pitting Epidemic 1944 and 1954 ### The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic 1962 – 1963 ### Koro, Amok and the Cultural Shaping of Symptoms Long-standing; the Singapore epidemic October–November 1967 ### Le Roy and the Social Media Tic Outbreaks 2011 – present ### Havana Syndrome 2016 – present ### XVII. SHARED PSYCHOSIS AND THE MANDATE TO KILL ### Folie à Deux 1877 – present ### The Papin Sisters 1933 ### Parker and Hulme 1954 ### The Eriksson Twins 2008 ### Herbert Mullin 1972-1973 ### Andrea Yates 2001-2006 ### XVIII. THE SECOND GENERATION — THE ONES WHO NEVER CHOSE ### The Second Generation Wherever a group lasts twenty years ### The Davidito Protocol 1975 – 2005 ### Child Marriage as Doctrine 1998 – 2011 ### The Manufactured Family 1968 – 1987 ### Prince and Yoder 1944 – present ### Leaving Without a Before Continuous ### The people - A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada · Founder, ISKCON - Adam Weishaupt · Founder, the Bavarian Illuminati - Adi Da Samraj · Founder, Adidam - Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo · Leader, the Matamoros group - Akhenaten · Pharaoh; founder of Atenism - Aleister Crowley · Prophet of Thelema; founder of the A∴A∴; head of the OTO - Alice Auma · Founder, the Holy Spirit Movement - Allison Mack · DOS master, NXIVM - Amy Carlson · Leader, Love Has Won - Andrea Winn · Shambhala survivor and investigator - Andrea Yates · Found not guilty by reason of insanity; committed since 2006 - Andrei Snezhnevsky · Architect of sluggish schizophrenia; director, Institute of Psychiatry, USSR - Ann Lee · Founder, the Shakers - Anne Hamilton-Byrne · Leader, The Family (Santiniketan Park Association) - Annie Besant · President, Theosophical Society - Anton Szandor LaVey · Founder, the Church of Satan - António Egas Moniz · Originator of the prefrontal leucotomy; Nobel laureate 1949 - Asaram Bapu · Founder, Sant Shri Asaramji Ashram - Barry Meier · New York Times reporter who broke the NXIVM branding story - Basil the Physician · Bogomil leader in Constantinople - Bernard Carabello · Willowbrook resident; disability rights advocate - Bernhard Knipperdolling · Mayor and executioner, Münster Anabaptist Kingdom - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh · Founder, the Rajneesh movement - Bobby Beausoleil · Manson Family; first killer - Bonnie Lu Nettles · Co-founder, Heaven's Gate - Bonnie Piesse · NXIVM whistleblower - Boris Weisfeiler · Mathematician who vanished near Colonia Dignidad - Brenda Wright Lafferty and Erica Lafferty · Killed by the Lafferty brothers - Carolyn Jessop · FLDS escapee; first woman to win full custody from the group - Carolyn Layton · Jones's principal partner and de facto chief of staff - Catherine Oxenberg · Campaigner who forced the NXIVM prosecution - Celeste Jones, Kristina Jones and Juliana Buhring · Children of God second-generation survivors and authors - Charles 'Tex' Watson · Principal killer, the Manson Family - Charles E. Dederich Sr. · Founder, Synanon - Charles Lasègue · French physician; co-named folie à deux - Charles Milles Manson · Leader, the Manson Family - Charles Taze Russell · Founder, the Bible Student movement (later Jehovah's Witnesses) - Charles Webster Leadbeater · Bishop and leading theorist, Theosophical Society - Christine Miller · The one person who argued back at Jonestown - Christine Papin · Maid; the primary in the Le Mans killings - Chögyam Trungpa · Founder, Shambhala International and Naropa Institute - Clare Bronfman · Operations director and financier, NXIVM - Clemente Domínguez y Gómez · Antipope, Palmarian Catholic Church - Congressman Leo J. Ryan · US Congressman killed at Port Kaituma - Credonia Mwerinde · Co-founder and principal visionary, Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God - Danila Filippovich · Founder, the Khlysty - Dave and Cathy Mitchell · Editors of the Point Reyes Light; Pulitzer Prize for exposing Synanon - David Brandt Berg · Founder, the Children of God - David Koresh · Leader, the Branch Davidians - David Miscavige · Chairman of the Board, Religious Technology Center; effective leader of Scientology - David Myatt · Attributed founder, Order of Nine Angles - David Rosenhan · Author of On Being Sane in Insane Places - David Thibodeau · Branch Davidian survivor of the fire - Deborah Davis · Children of God defector; David Berg's eldest daughter - Deborah Green · Co-leader, Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps - Deborah Layton · Peoples Temple defector who filed the warning affidavit - Detective Sergeant Lex de Man · Victoria Police officer who ran Operation Forest - Divara van Haarlem · Queen of Münster - Dominic Kataribabo · Theologian, Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God - Dominic Ongwen · LRA brigade commander — abducted as a child - Donald DeFreeze · Leader, Symbionese Liberation Army - Donald Ewen Cameron · Director, Allan Memorial Institute; MKULTRA Subproject 68 - Donald Lunde · Forensic psychiatrist; examined Mullin and wrote the standard account - Dorothea Dix · Asylum reformer and lobbyist - Dwight York · Founder, the Nuwaubian Nation - Edna Anne Ballard · Co-founder and leader, the I AM Activity - Edward Francis · Business manager and fourth husband of Elizabeth Clare Prophet, CUT - Eileen Barker · Sociologist of religion; founder of INFORM - Elbert Eugene Spriggs · Founder, Twelve Tribes - Elijah Muhammad · Leader, Nation of Islam - Elisabeth Wandscherer · Queen of Münster beheaded by John of Leiden - Elissa Wall · FLDS survivor whose testimony convicted Warren Jeffs - Elizabeth Clare Prophet · Leader, Church Universal and Triumphant - Ellen G. White · Co-founder and prophet, Seventh-day Adventist Church - Ellen Huet · Bloomberg Businessweek reporter, the OneTaste investigation - Erica Duggan · Campaigner; mother of Jeremiah Duggan - Ernest L. Norman · Co-founder, Unarius Academy of Science - Esther Rockett · Universal Medicine whistleblower - Father Divine · Founder, the International Peace Mission Movement - Father Yod · Founder, the Source Family - Florence Houteff · Leader, Davidian Seventh-day Adventists - Fran and Dan Keller · Day-care operators wrongfully convicted of ritual abuse - Fred Newman · Founder, Social Therapy / the Newman Tendency - Fumihiro Joyu · Spokesman, Aum Shinrikyo; founder, Hikari no Wa - Gabrielle Lavallée · Ant Hill Kids survivor whose escape ended the group - George King · Founder, the Aetherius Society - George Rapp · Founder, the Harmony Society - George Roden · Rival claimant, Branch Davidians - Geraldo Rivera · Reporter; made Willowbrook: The Last Disgrace - Ginés Jesús Hernández · Third antipope, Palmarian Catholic Church — who renounced it - Guillaume Bélibaste · The last known Cathar perfect - Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh · Head, Dera Sacha Sauda - Guy Warren Ballard · Co-founder, the I AM Activity - Gwen Shamblin Lara · Founder, Weigh Down Workshop and Remnant Fellowship - Hak Ja Han · Co-founder and leader, Unification Church / Family Federation - Hartmut Hopp · Physician and second-in-command, Colonia Dignidad - Hasan-i Sabbah · Founder, the Nizari Ismaili state at Alamut - Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Co-founder, the Theosophical Society - Henry Steel Olcott · Co-founder and first President, Theosophical Society - Herbert Mullin · Killed thirteen people to prevent an earthquake - Hideo Murai · Head of Aum's weapons programme - Hiram Edson · Author of the doctrine that saved Adventism - Hogen Fukunaga · Founder, Ho No Hana Sanpogyo - Hon-Ming Chen · Founder, Chen Tao (God's Salvation Church) - Honeypreet Insan · Adopted daughter and closest aide, Dera Sacha Sauda - Hong Xiuquan · Founder and monarch, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom - Howard Dully · Lobotomised at twelve; later recovered and published his own records - Ilchi Lee · Founder, Dahn Yoga / Body and Brain - Jaime Gomez · Leader, Buddhafield - James Warren Jones · Founder, Peoples Temple - Jan Matthys · Prophet, Münster Anabaptist Kingdom - Jane Whaley · Founder, Word of Faith Fellowship - Jason Castillo · Consort and enforcer, Love Has Won - Jeff Divine · Co-founder, Twin Flames Universe - Jenna Miscavige Hill · Scientology whistleblower; niece of David Miscavige - Jeremiah Duggan · British student who died after fleeing a LaRouche conference - Jiddu Krishnamurti · Designated messiah, Order of the Star in the East — who walked away - John Africa · Founder, MOVE - John Danforth · Special Counsel, the Waco investigation - John Humphrey Noyes · Founder, the Oneida Community - John of Leiden · King, Münster Anabaptist Kingdom - John Waller · Historian of the dancing plagues - Joseph Di Mambro · Co-founder and financial controller, Order of the Solar Temple - Joseph Franklin Rutherford · Second President, Watch Tower Society; architect of Jehovah's Witnesses - Joseph Kibweteere · Co-founder, Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God - Joseph Kony · Commander, Lord's Resistance Army - Joshua Vaughan Himes · Publisher and organiser, the Millerite movement - João Teixeira de Faria · Founder, Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola - Judge Frank Mahady · Vermont judge who halted the Island Pond raid - Judge Jorge Zepeda · Chilean judge who closed the Weisfeiler investigation - Judge Nicholas Garaufis · US District Judge, Eastern District of New York; presided over NXIVM - Juhayman al-Otaybi · Leader, the Grand Mosque seizure - Jules Falret · French psychiatrist; co-named folie à deux - Julia Siverls · Died during a Dahn Yoga training exercise - Julie Tanny · Representative plaintiff, Allan Memorial class action - Juliet Hulme · Convicted with Pauline Parker; later a crime novelist - Jung Myung-seok · Founder, Providence (Jesus Morning Star) - Justice Diana Kavedza · Kenyan High Court judge presiding over the Shakahola murder trial - Karen Zerby · Leader, The Family International - Kathleen Soliah · Symbionese Liberation Army - Kazumasa Takahashi · Tokyo subway station attendant killed in the sarin attack - Keith Raniere · Founder, NXIVM and DOS - Kenneth V. Lanning · FBI Supervisory Special Agent; author of the 1992 Satanic ritual abuse report - Kirsten Müller-Vahl · Neuropsychiatrist; described mass social media induced illness - Kirtanananda Swami · Founder, New Vrindaban - Kiyohide Hayakawa · Procurement chief, Aum Shinrikyo - Kondraty Selivanov · Founder, the Skoptsy - Konstantin Rudnev · Founder, Ashram Shambala - L. Ron Hubbard · Founder, Dianetics and the Church of Scientology - Lance Kenton · Imperial Marine, Synanon - Larry Layton · Peoples Temple gunman at the Port Kaituma airstrip - Lauren Salzman · DOS first-line master, NXIVM - Lawrence Pazder · Psychiatrist; co-author of Michelle Remembers - Lawrence Wright · Author of Going Clear - Leah Remini · Scientology whistleblower - Lee Man-hee · Founder, Shincheonji Church of Jesus - Leslie Van Houten · Killer, the Manson Family - Li Hongzhi · Founder, Falun Gong - Linnda Caporael · Proposed the ergotism explanation for Salem - Lisa McPherson · Died in Scientology's care at Clearwater - Lois Roden · Prophetess, Branch Davidians - Louis Farrakhan · Leader, the reconstituted Nation of Islam - Luc Jouret · Co-founder and public face, Order of the Solar Temple - Lyndon LaRouche · Founder, the LaRouche movement - Lynette Fromme · Manson Family; would-be presidential assassin - Léa Papin · Maid; the secondary in the Le Mans killings - Ma Anand Puja · Head of the Rajneeshpuram medical corporation and poison laboratory - Ma Anand Sheela · Personal secretary and effective operational head, Rajneeshpuram - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi · Founder, Transcendental Meditation - Mani · Founder, Manichaeism - Marc Breault · Branch Davidian defector who first warned authorities - Marceline Jones · Wife of Jim Jones; nurse and administrator, Peoples Temple - Marcus Foster · Oakland school superintendent assassinated by the SLA - Margaret Singer · Clinical psychologist; theorist of coercive persuasion - Maria Katsaris · Inner circle; custodian of Temple assets - Marina Tsvigun · Co-leader, the Great White Brotherhood - Mark Kilroy · Killed by the Constanzo group at Matamoros - Mark L. Prophet · Founder, Summit Lighthouse - Mark Vicente · NXIVM whistleblower - Marshall Herff Applewhite · Co-founder, Heaven's Gate - Marshall Kilduff · Journalist whose exposé forced Jim Jones out of the United States - Mary Ann MacLean · Co-founder and ultimate authority, the Process Church - Mary Sue Hubbard · Controller of the Guardian's Office, Church of Scientology - Masami Tsuchiya · Chief chemist, Aum Shinrikyo - Massimo Introvigne · Sociologist; founder of CESNUR; editor of Bitter Winter - Mel Lyman · Founder, the Lyman Family - Merril Jessop · Senior FLDS leader; overseer of the YFZ Ranch - Michael Woroniecki · Itinerant preacher whose teaching the Yates family followed - Michel Tabachnik · Alleged senior figure, Order of the Solar Temple — twice acquitted - Mike Rinder · Scientology whistleblower; former head of the Office of Special Affairs - Mipham Mukpo · Leader, Shambhala International - Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr · Associated Press reporters, the Word of Faith Fellowship investigation - Montanus · Founder, the New Prophecy - Myrna Opsahl · Killed during the SLA's Crocker Bank robbery - Nachman Helbrans · Leader, Lev Tahor - Nancy Ling Perry · Symbionese Liberation Army - Nancy Salzman · Co-founder and President, NXIVM - Nansook Hong · Unification Church defector; former daughter-in-law of Sun Myung Moon - Nao Deguchi · Founder and original visionary, Ōmoto - Nefertiti · Great Royal Wife; co-officiant of the Aten cult - Nellie Bly · Investigative reporter; feigned insanity to enter Blackwell's Island - Nicholas Spanos · Psychologist; co-author of the rebuttal to the Salem ergotism hypothesis - Nicole Daedone · Founder and CEO, OneTaste - Nirmala Srivastava · Founder, Sahaja Yoga - Onisaburō Deguchi · Co-leader, Ōmoto - Pamela Dyson · 3HO whistleblower - Park Dietz · Forensic psychiatrist; his false testimony overturned the first Yates verdict - Patricia Krenwinkel · Killer, the Manson Family - Paul Morantz · Attorney who survived Synanon's rattlesnake attack - Paul Nthenge Mackenzie · Founder, Good News International Ministries - Paul Schäfer · Founder and absolute ruler, Colonia Dignidad - Paulette Cooper · Journalist and target of Operation Freakout - Pauline Parker · Convicted with Juliet Hulme of the Christchurch murder - Philip Alston · UN Special Rapporteur who documented the Mungiki killings - Prem Rawat · Leader, Divine Light Mission / Words of Peace Global - Pyotr Grigorenko · Soviet major general declared insane for dissent - Pythagoras of Samos · Founder, the Pythagorean Brotherhood - Ram Chander Chhatrapati · Journalist murdered for publishing the Dera rape letter - Ramona Africa · Sole adult survivor of the MOVE bombing - Raoul Loveday · Died at Crowley's Abbey of Thelema - Rashid ad-Din Sinan · Syrian chief of the Nizari Ismailis - Ray Buckey · Principal defendant, McMartin preschool trial - Raël · Founder, the International Raëlian Movement - Rebecca Musser · FLDS escapee and prosecution witness - Reginald Medlicott · New Zealand psychiatrist; diagnosed folie à deux for the defence - Richard Hodgson · Society for Psychical Research investigator who exposed Blavatsky - Ricky Rodriguez · Children of God second-generation survivor - Rio DiAngelo · Heaven's Gate member who left weeks before the exit - Robert Earl Burton · Founder, the Fellowship of Friends - Robert Jay Lifton · Psychiatrist; author of the eight criteria of thought reform - Robert Rozier · Enforcer, Nation of Yahweh - Roch Thériault · Leader, the Ant Hill Kids - Ron Lafferty · Co-perpetrator, the School of the Prophets killings - Rosemary Kennedy · Lobotomy patient; sister of President John F. Kennedy - Rulon Timpson Jeffs · President and Prophet, FLDS Church - Ruth Norman · Leader, Unarius Academy of Science - Sabina Eriksson · Convicted of the manslaughter of Glenn Hollinshead - Sam Brower · Private investigator, the FLDS cases - Samuel Bateman · Self-proclaimed prophet, FLDS splinter group - Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers · Co-founder and chief, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - Samuel S. Snow · Author of the 22 October 1844 date - Sara María Aldrete · Second in command, the Matamoros group - Sarah Edmondson · NXIVM whistleblower - Sarah Moore Hamilton-Byrne · Survivor of The Family (Australia) whose defection ended it - Saul Krugman · Directed the Willowbrook hepatitis studies - Saul Newton · Co-founder, the Sullivan Institute - Seiichi Endo · Head of Aum's biological weapons programme - Serge Benhayon · Founder, Universal Medicine - Shaleia Divine · Co-founder, Twin Flames Universe - Sharon Tate · Killed by the Manson Family - Sheriff Howard Sills · Putnam County Sheriff who pursued Dwight York - Shi Dakai · Wing King, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom - Shlomo Helbrans · Founder, Lev Tahor - Shoko Asahara · Founder, Aum Shinrikyo - Sir Geoffrey Nice KC · Chair, the China Tribunal - Sister Rachele Fassera · Italian nun who followed the LRA to recover abducted schoolgirls - Sogyal Rinpoche · Founder, Rigpa - Sri Chinmoy · Founder, the Sri Chinmoy Centre - Steve Kelly · Co-leader, The Family International - Steve Schneider · Second in command, Branch Davidians - Steven Bryant · ISKCON dissident murdered for exposing New Vrindaban - Steven Hassan · Unification Church defector; author of the BITE model - Stewart Traill · Founder, Church of Bible Understanding - Sun Myung Moon · Founder, the Unification Church - Susan Atkins · Killer, the Manson Family - Susannah Cahalan · Journalist; author of The Great Pretender - The Dutoit family · Murdered by the Order of the Solar Temple - The Sakamoto family · Murdered by Aum Shinrikyo - Thomas Drescher · Enforcer, New Vrindaban - Tim and Grace Stoen · Peoples Temple defectors; the custody case that triggered Jonestown - Tony Ortega · Journalist; two decades of Scientology reporting - Ursula Eriksson · Named by the defence as the primary; never charged with anything - Victor Houteff · Founder, the Shepherd's Rod (Davidian Seventh-day Adventists) - Vincent Bugliosi · Prosecutor, the Manson trial - Vissarion · Founder, Church of the Last Testament - Vladimir Bukovsky · Dissident; smuggled the Soviet psychiatric records to the West - Wallace Fard Muhammad · Founder, Nation of Islam; later declared Allah incarnate - Walter Freeman · Populariser of the lobotomy; deviser of the transorbital procedure - Warith Deen Mohammed · Successor who dissolved the Nation of Islam's theology - Warren Steed Jeffs · President and Prophet, FLDS Church - Werner Erhard · Founder, est / The Forum - Will Allen · Buddhafield defector and documentarian - William and Emily Harris · Symbionese Liberation Army - William Henry Sleeman · British officer who suppressed — and largely defined — Thuggee - William Miller · Founder, the Millerite movement - William Tuke · Founder, The York Retreat - William Wynn Westcott · Co-founder, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - Wolfgang Müller · First escapee from Colonia Dignidad to testify - Wu Shuoyan · Killed in the Zhaoyuan McDonald's attack - Yahweh ben Yahweh · Founder, Nation of Yahweh - Yang Xiangbin · Object of worship, Church of Almighty God - Yang Xiuqing · East King and effective military commander, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom - Yisrayl Hawkins · Founder, House of Yahweh - Yogi Bhajan · Founder, 3HO and Sikh Dharma in the West - Zhao Weishan · Organisational founder, Church of Almighty God - Ösel Tendzin · Vajra Regent, Shambhala The Atlas The Door