Religious Cults

The year is 1970. The horror soap opera Dark Shadows is all the rage, the Vietnam War is raging and nine-year-old Katie, an imaginative and independent latch-key kid, comes home from school to discover her mother’s suicide. Taken in by her older sister who has recently become a Jehovah’s Witness, Katie is shown an illustration from a bible picture book featuring wild animals peacefully lounging by a pool of water, surrounded by happy people picking fruit. An enticing offer is made: “Katie, this is Paradise. Do you want to see Mom again, happy and living forever?

Imagine a place where you are accepted and loved, where there is complete honesty and transparency, where you can be yourself and no longer have to strive to be someone else. Envision a safe haven where you could live in perfect peace and have everything you needed and wanted. That was the dream - the hope - that Trinity Foundation offered and that we naively believed. I Can’t Hear God Anymore is an inspiring and instructive example of how normal people caught in the skillful manipulations of an abusive cult can find their way back to spiritual and psychological health.

The extraordinary memoir of a childhood spent in the 'Children of God' cult. Rebel tells the story of Faith, a woman who grew up in the Children of God cult (known latterly as The Family). Now in her 40s with two teenage children of her own, Faith's first-person narrative alternates between her childhood adventures and traumas within the cult and her post-cult life following her escape at the age of 19.

Peter Macdonald Blachly takes us on an amazing adventure, documenting the 17 years he spent in a spiritual cult, while providing candid insights into the circumstances and conditions that made him vulnerable to manipulation by a charismatic sociopath. His understanding of psychology and human weaknesses, and the lessons he draws from his own experiences are universal, making his memoir highly relevant today. The book provides a riveting account of Blachly’s introduction to yoga, his arranged marriage, and a thrilling and entertaining view of India during the 1970s and 1980s.

Despite their centuries-old history and traditions, witchcraft and magic are still very much a part of modern Anglo-American culture. In Lucifer Ascending, Bill Ellis looks at modern practices that are universally defined as "occult," from commonplace habits such as carrying a rabbit's foot for good luck or using a Ouija board, to more esoteric traditions, such as the use of spell books. In particular, Ellis shows how the occult has been a common element in youth culture for hundreds of years.

Investigators and Central Florida residents were horrified when 16-year-old vampire cult leader Rod Ferrell was arrested and charged with bludgeoning a cult member's parents. When they realized the slain couple's 15-year-old daughter was missing, they feared she was a victim, too. Detectives and journalists swarming over three states soon uncovered a web of blood-drinking occult rituals, illicit sex, wildly dysfunctional families, and spiritual warfare.

While belief in religious supernatural claims is waning throughout the West, evidence suggests belief in nonreligious supernatural claims is on the rise. What explains this contradiction? How can a society with a falling belief in God have a rising belief in ghosts, psychic powers, ancient astronauts, and other supernatural or pseudo-scientific phenomena? Taking the same anthropological approach he employed in his notable studies of religion, atheist author and activist David G. McAfee turns his attention to nonreligious faith-based claims.

Evil in Our Midst provides a chilling glimpse of 50 dark angels, each of which represents a culture’s greatest fears. Every section opens with a story that shares the legend of a demon, and then offers fascinating information on the culture that, in many cases, perpetuates this belief. For those who believe in these creatures, this audiobook gives reason to fear the unknown. For those who do not believe in demons, it provides terrifying listen for a stormy night.

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow.

The Twelve Tribes: Inside America’s Hidden Cult is a chilling, boots-on-the-ground exposé of one of the country’s most elusive religious movements. What began as a humble café in Chattanooga became a network of communal homes, businesses, and self-contained belief systems stretching across continents. Rooted in a theology of submission, purity, and divine order, the Twelve Tribes has quietly shaped the lives of thousands — often behind smiling deli counters and charming farmhouse aesthetics.

Ohio housewife Sherry Shriner grew to prominence as a social media cult leader, flourishing in the era of conspiracy theories and the 9/11 Truther movement. She preached the virtues of mysterious orgone energy and Christian prayer as defensive shields against the forces of darkness, including Lucifer and his demons; reptilian shape-shifters masquerading as human elites; the New World Order; cell phone towers; even hostile UFOs that flamed out over her home, visible only as shooting stars.

These gruesome stories have peppered the pages of newspapers and history books over the centuries. Some are well-known. Some aren’t. They rest in that murky place between true crime and horror. All will make your blood run cold.

Understandably, most people struggle with irrational fear at the mere mention of supernatural beings and concepts, including witches and ghosts based on what is portrayed about them in folklore, movies, scientific journals, fiction books, classical and contemporary art, and TV programs. But you’d be surprised by how much people’s minds are changed when they actually study the world of ghosts, witches and supernatural beings in general and gain insight.

Misery loves company and the Magus is miserable. His demise, compromises all those around him or attached to him. He drags them all down by his own death sentence. It's his alone; yet, but by the sheer weight of his height held in the Order, all below will end beyond mend. His sentence fences in all who stray his way. He makes you sign your soul away. Back in the day, every member of that cult come Order is initiated in almost the same way. Upon completion of the initiation ceremony, the initiate is surprised by the sudden presentation of a black book: crooked like a nook on whoever partook.

This audiobook compares Christianity with the false religions of the world today that are based on the accuracy of fulfilled Bible prophecy. No other religion has used prophecy fulfilled in our lifetime to prove its authority, except the Bible. With more than 50 prophecies fulfilled since AD 1948 and Jesus’ teaching that he is the only way to salvation, we can conclude that we must be a Christian to gain eternal life. Jesus declares you must follow his teachings in order to obtain eternal life.

All that Pearl knows can be encapsulated in one word: seed. It is the isolated community that she was born into. It is the land that she sows and reaps. It is the center of her family and everything that means home. And it is all kept under the watchful eye of Papa S.

Stephen Mansfield, the acclaimed New York Times best-selling author, has highlighted the growing popularity of Mormonism—a belief system with cultic roots—and the implications of its critical rise. Mormons are moving into the spotlight in pop culture, politics, sports, and entertainment via presidential candidates like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, media personality Glenn Beck, mega-bestselling Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, and The Book of Mormon, the hottest show on Broadway.

The Cult Around the Corner is dedicated to bringing reason, understanding, and open communication to an often explosive subject: the involvement of oneself, a friend, or loved one in a group that might be called a "cult".

Discover a story of healing and personal transformation. Marlena’s childhood was full of contradictions. Her father was both a heroic doctor for people with leprosy and an abusive parent. Her Mennonite missionary community was both a devoted tribe and a controlling society. And Marlena longed to both be accepted in Paraguay and escape to somewhere new. In Nothing Bad Between Us, follow Marlena’s journey as she takes control of her life and learns to be her authentic self, scars and imperfections included.

This audiobook will document the rise to power of the most notorious cult leader of all time. Jim Jones was directly responsible for the deaths of over 900 of his followers. Many of them children. The story of the Jonestown is one of betrayed hope. Jones offered poor and needed people a promised land and in return for giving him their resources and trust, he took their lives.