The Secret History of Cults: Bizarre Rituals and Murderous Practices Revealed

From the back cover: How do cult leaders establish intellectual, physical, spiritual and sexual control over their followers -- and what are the ends to which this is put? Read how the charismatic megalomaniacs who lead cults often pit themselves against the rest of the world, amassing weapons ahead of an apocalyptic showdown -- sometimes going on the offensive to bring forward Armageddon. For others, the goal seems to be some form or another of mass suicide. FASCINATING CASE STUDIES INCLUDE: Jim Jones and the People's Temple Why did 914 members of Jim Jones' People's Temple commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in their remote jungle compound in Guyana? The Order of the Solar Temple Why did fifty-three people in several chalets in Switzerland and Canada commit suicide simultaneously, using fire, having already killed their children? Joseph Kibwetere and the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments Who locked the doors and boarded up the windows before setting fire to the Movement's small, wooden church in Kanungu, Uganda, with 500 Members inside? Yahweh Ben Yahweh and the Temple of Love What led Hulon Michell Jr to believe that African-Americans were the true Jews, living in the land of the "white devils" that cult members would kill as their initiantion? Corner of front cover bent