Showing titles in Cults

What do we really know about modern practicing polygamists - not fictional ones like the Henrickson family on HBO’s Big Love? We’ve seen the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the news, the underage brides in pioneer dresses on a Texas ranch. But the FLDS is just one of many groups that have broken with mainstream Mormonism to follow those parts of Joseph Smith’s doctrine disavowed by the LDS Church. Gaining unprecedented access to these communities, journalist Sanjiv Bhattacharya reveals a shadow country....

🏆 Award-Winning Memoir Winner, 2024 PenCraft Best Book Award – Memoir Finalist, 2024 National Indie Excellence Awards – Relationships Finalist, 2024 IAN Best Book Awards – True Story Honorable Mention, 2024 Readers’ Favorite Awards – Religion/Philosophy He promised spiritual freedom. Instead, she lost herself—until she broke the cycle. The Secret Practice is the gripping, true story of Joelle Tamraz’s 18-year entanglement with a master manipulator cloaked in the robes of a spiritual teacher. Fans of Educated, Unfollow, and Netflix’s Bikram will find this memoir impossible...

In 1981, ambitious young Ma Anand Sheela transported the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to the United States to fulfill his dream of creating a utopia for his thousands of disciples. Four years later, the incendiary Rajneeshpuram commune in Oregon collapsed under the weight of audacious criminal conspiracies hatched in its inner sanctum, including the largest bioterrorism attack in US history, an unprecedented election fraud scheme, and multiple attempted murders. Rajneeshpuram explores how this extraordinary spiritual community went so wrong.

The world is ruled by very different forces than what is commonly imagined. Political leaders who parade themselves in front of us each have their own position in the public political hierarchy. Business leaders have a similar public corporate hierarchy. However, behind the curtains, there is an international and highly organized network to which many of these leaders belong.

William Branham was an influential Pentecostal minister of the mid-20th century who began a cult following known as The Message. This ground breaking book examines the history of The Message movement in the years after Branham's death.

Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere to do his bidding and pay millions of dollars to participate in his self-improvement methodology. But where did Keith Raniere begin? Enter Toni Natalie, Keith's Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere's methodology and the first one to escape.

In Cult Following, Ocker sheds light on the terrifying attraction of cults, demonstrating the elasticity of belief, the desperateness of belonging, and the tragedy of trust.

Three decades after leaving the Mormon faith, Latayne Colvett Scott looks back to her original journey out of Mormonism and the reasons why she left. Revised and updated, this third edition of The Mormon Mirage presents both a fascinating inside look at Mormonism and new and formidable evidence against its claims and teachings.

Many young African Americans are disinterested in Christianity and others are leaving the church in search of what these false religious ideas appear to offer, a spirituality more indigenous to their history and ethnicity. Edited by Dr. Eric Mason and featuring a top-notch lineup of contributors, Urban Apologetics is the first book focused entirely on cults, religious groups, and ethnocentric ideologies prevalent in the black community.

Wage War Against Spiritual Foes Do you constantly feel like you can’t catch a break? Are you tired of feeling defeated? Do you get the sense that you’re always facing spiritual attacks?It’s exhausting, and you’re probably one of the many thousands of people who have a deep desire to start living a free and victorious life. Damien K. H. Nash offers a compelling look into spiritual warfare and the concept of deliverance by merging the mindsets of athletes and spiritual warriors. As a former collegiate basketball player, Nash demonstrates lessons learned from coaches during pregame; ...

In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property - complete with boathouse and swimming pool - and the price were too good to pass up. This is the shocking true story of an American dream that turned into a nightmare beyond imagining for the Lutz family, who were forced to flee their new home in terror.

Urban Apologetics: Cults and Cultural Ideologies equips pastors, churches, and everyday believers to engage the most common ethical, biblical, and theological challenges faced by Black Christians and the Black Church today.

It is hard for Veena Dinavahi to live while her classmates keep dying. The high-achieving daughter of loving Indian immigrants, Veena lives in a typical white American suburb—except for its unusually high suicide rate. For years, she tries to manage her mental health in all the right ways, but nothing seems to work. Until, on a late-night Google search, Veena’s mom discovers Bob Lyon—a sixty-year-old white man in the backwoods of Georgia who claims he can make her want to live again. He calls himself “The True Happiness Company” and, as their relationship progresses, “Daddy.”

Banished is an eye-opening, deeply personal account of life inside the cult known as the Westboro Baptist Church, as well as a fascinating story of adaptation and perseverance. Since no organized religion will claim affiliation with the WBC, it's perhaps more accurate to think of them as a cult. Lauren Drain was thrust into that cult at the age of 15, and then spat back out again seven years later. Banished is the story of Lauren's fight to find herself amidst dramatic changes in a world of extremists and a life in exile.

Known for deep dives into true crime, extremist ideologies and fringe subcultures, journalist Leah Sottile turns her investigative eye toward American New Age culture. Today, tarot cards, astrology and crystals are everywhere—from Instagram and TikTok, to upscale boutiques and pricey wellness retreats. Sottile investigates how the recent surge of interest in New Age ideas speaks to a culture that is woven into the very fabric of America, and how self-professed gurus like Love Has Won's Mother God and the mysterious channeler Ramtha have built devout followings because of it.

The shocking and subversive memoir of a 12-year-NXIVM-member-turned-whistleblower, and her inspiring true story of abuse, escape, and redemption. "Master, would you brand me? It would be an honor." Scarred follows actress Sarah Edmondson's account of her recruitment into the NXIVM cult, founded by Keith Raniere. It narrates in detail the 12 years she spent within the organization, during which she enrolled over 2,000 members, chronicling her breaking point and her harrowing fight to get out, help others, and heal.

Cyrus Teed was a charismatic and controversial guru who at the age of thirty had been "illuminated" by an angel in his electro-alchemical laboratory. At the turn of the 20th century, surrounded by the marvels of the Second Industrial Revolution, he proclaimed himself a prophet and led 200 people out of Chicago and into a new age. Or so he promised.

In 1971 Paulette Cooper wrote a scathing book about the Church of Scientology. Desperate to shut the book down, Scientology unleashed on her one of the most sinister personal campaigns the free world has ever known. The onslaught, which lasted years, ruined her life and drove her to the brink of suicide. The story of Paulette's terrifying ordeal is told in full for the first time in The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.

In the obscurity of my voluminous studies, I have encountered countless demonic entities, each with their distinct origins and attributes, yet none as compelling and enigmatic as Lilith. Her name is murmured in hushed tones, her legend intertwined with the very fabric of human mythology and arcane lore. Allow me to impart what I have gleaned about this creature whose presence looms like a spectral shadow over both historical text and whispered legend. Lilith emerges from the dawn of human existence, often associated with the primordial night. Some scriptures and ancient tales suggest she ...

In this poignant and disturbing memoir of lost innocence, coercion, survival, and healing, Dianne Lake chronicles her years with Charles Manson, revealing for the first time how she became the youngest member of his Family and offering new insights into one of the 20th century's most notorious criminals and life as one of his "girls". While much has been written about Charles Manson, this riveting account from an actual Family member is a chilling portrait that recreates in vivid detail one of the most horrifying chapters in modern American history.