Hidden Cults

The Superior Universal Alignment began in Brazil in 1981 as a small UFO-inspired religious movement led by the self-proclaimed prophet Valentina de Andrade. Promising spiritual enlightenment, extraterrestrial salvation, and escape from an approaching apocalypse, the group rejected traditional Christianity and embraced increasingly extreme beliefs that isolated its followers from the outside world....

Colonia Dignidad began as a secluded German religious settlement in rural Chile, promising faith, hard work, and a better future. Behind its fences, however, Paul Schäfer built one of the most abusive cults of the twentieth century. Families were separated, children were systematically abused, members endured forced labor and psychological control, and the colony became a fortress ruled through fe...

The Sullivan Institute began in New York during the 1950s as an unconventional psychotherapy movement that promised personal liberation, emotional growth, and freedom from traditional social constraints. Under the leadership of Saul Newton and Jane Pearce, it attracted artists, intellectuals, therapists, and idealistic young people searching for a new way of life. Over time, however, the movement...

In 2010, a recently released ex-convict named Larry Ray moved into his daughter’s dormitory at Sarah Lawrence College. What began as friendly dinners, life advice, and mentorship slowly evolved into one of the most shocking cult cases in modern American history. Over the next decade, Ray manipulated a group of students through psychological coercion, isolation, humiliation, forced confessions, fin...

Tonight on Hidden Cults, we explore 3HO, the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization, the spiritual movement founded in 1969 by Yogi Bhajan. What began as a counterculture yoga movement promising a path to be healthy, happy, and holy grew into a worldwide network of ashrams, businesses, schools, and spiritual communities centered around Kundalini Yoga and Sikh-inspired practices. For many followers, 3HO...

Tonight on Hidden Cults, we examine Japa Meditation Ireland and the rise of Irish spiritual teacher Dennis Curran. What began as meditation groups built around mantra practice, healing, and personal growth expanded into a nationwide movement attracting hundreds, and possibly thousands, of followers. Supporters described life-changing spiritual experiences and a strong sense of community. Former me...

Tonight on Hidden Cults, we explore Desteni, the bizarre internet-era movement founded by Bernard Poolman in South Africa. Blending channeling, reptilian conspiracies, self-forgiveness rituals, and extreme mind-control ideology, Desteni attracted followers searching for truth, transformation, and freedom from the “programmed mind.” But behind the online videos and spiritual promises, former member...

The Nation of Yahweh began in Miami in the late 1970s under the leadership of Yahweh ben Yahweh, born Hulon Mitchell Jr., who preached that Black Americans were the true Israelites of the Bible and that he was the chosen son of God sent to lead them. What started as a movement focused on identity, discipline, and community rebuilding grew into a tightly controlled organization built around fear, o...

The Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps began as a small communal group led by James Green and Deborah Green, who moved from counterculture living into a rigid, militant form of religious control. What followed was the creation of a closed compound in New Mexico, where daily life was dictated by rank, obedience, and a belief system built around spiritual warfare. This episode follows...

Gloriavale is a remote Christian community in New Zealand, built on strict belief, total commitment, and a system that controls daily life from work to family structure. Founded by Neville Cooper, it grew into a self-contained society where obedience, isolation, and shared labour became the foundation of everything. Behind that structure, former members describe abuse, exploitation, and a system t...

The Hare Krishna movement, also known as ISKCON, began with one man arriving in New York with a message rooted in devotion to Krishna. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada built a global following through chanting, strict discipline, and communal living that drew in those searching for purpose during the counterculture era. As the movement expanded, it developed a defined way of life built around...

The Alamo Christian Foundation started in Hollywood in the late 1960s, offering faith, purpose, and community to those searching for direction. Over time, it became something far more controlled, built around the authority of Tony Alamo and a system that demanded complete obedience. Behind the image of salvation, former members describe isolation, strict control, and abuse that escalated over deca...

Tonight’s episode explores the rise, transformation, and ongoing controversy surrounding the Remnant Fellowship. What began in the 1980s as a faith-based weight loss program called the Weigh Down Workshop would evolve into a global religious movement built on obedience, discipline, and the belief that putting God first could transform every aspect of life. At the center of it all was Gwen Shamblin...

In this episode, we travel to Achill Island off the west coast of Ireland to examine the controversial religious movement known as the House of Prayer. Founded by Christina Gallagher, a woman who claimed to receive messages and visions from the Virgin Mary, the movement grew from small prayer meetings in the 1980s into an international following with pilgrims traveling from around the world. Follo...

In this episode we travel to the Czech Republic to explore one of the strangest UFO cults to emerge in modern Europe. Known as the Universe People, or the Cosmic People of Light Powers, the movement began in the 1990s when a man named Ivo A. Benda claimed he was in telepathic contact with extraterrestrial beings from distant star systems who were guiding humanity toward a spiritual transformation....

This episode of Hidden Cults explores the University of Cosmic Intelligence, an online movement led by Rashad Jamal that grew rapidly through social media and conspiracy-driven spiritual teachings. Followers were told they were cosmic beings living in a false reality and were encouraged to separate from society and join a new spiritual mission. As the movement grew, it became linked to crimes, dis...

In this episode of Hidden Cults, we explore the rise, expansion, and controversy surrounding the Church Universal and Triumphant. Founded on the teachings of Mark L. Prophet and later led by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, the movement grew from a small spiritual organization known as The Summit Lighthouse into one of the most prominent Ascended Master movements in modern American religious history. Part...

In this episode of Hidden Cults, we examine the rise and fall of Fiat Lux, a small but controversial European religious movement led by the self proclaimed prophet Uriella. Born Erika Bertschinger in Switzerland, Uriella claimed that a horse riding accident awakened psychic abilities that allowed her to receive messages directly from Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and other divine beings. What began as p...

In this episode of Hidden Cults, we examine the rise and fall of The Source Family, the Los Angeles commune led by Jim Baker, who renamed himself Father Yod and later Ya Ho Wha. What began in 1969 as a successful health food restaurant on the Sunset Strip evolved into a tightly structured spiritual movement built on discipline, devotion, and absolute loyalty to its earthly spiritual father. We fol...

In this episode, we examine the rise and unraveling of the Bergholz Community, a breakaway Amish settlement in Ohio led by Samuel Mullet Sr. What began in 1995 as an attempt to form a stricter religious district gradually drew national attention after a series of beard-cutting attacks shocked both Amish society and the wider public. We follow the timeline from Mullet’s early leadership and dispute...

In this episode of Hidden Cults, we examine the rise and violent collapse of the Fountain of the World, a California-based religious movement founded in the late 1940s by Krishna Venta, born Francis Herman Pencovic. Set in Box Canyonin in Southern California, the group presented itself publicly as a humanitarian, communal sect devoted to Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, and Love, while privately centerin...

Tony Quinn built his reputation as a self help figure promoting discipline, personal responsibility, and inner change. Through EDUCO, those ideas were developed into a structured system presented as personal development rather than belief. This episode examines Tony Quinn and the organisation most closely associated with his teachings. Focusing on reported activity in Ireland and Italy, this episo...

Love Has Won began as an online New Age spiritual movement centered on healing, ascension, and cosmic purpose. Led by Amy Carlson, who called herself “Mother God,” the group promised enlightenment, salvation, and liberation from a corrupt world. What followers found instead was isolation, psychological control, and a slow descent into delusion. As Carlson’s authority grew, belief hardened into obe...

In January 2020, police in rural Panama uncovered one of the most disturbing cult crimes in recent Latin American history. Hidden deep in the Ngäbe-Buglé region, members of a small Pentecostal sect calling itself New Light of God were found to have tortured and murdered seven people, including children and a pregnant woman, in what they believed were acts of purification and exorcism. Part 1 – The...

In 1987, South Korea was shaken by the discovery of 32 bodies inside an industrial factory in Seoul. Among the dead were the leader of the apocalyptic movement known as Odaeyang and several members of her inner circle, including children. What first appeared to be an isolated tragedy quickly revealed the final collapse of a tightly controlled religious group built around end times belief, economic...