Now don't get me wrong! I do not condone or support cults in any way! They ruin lives and truly are terrible. But for some reason, I keep finding myself researching them out of raw curiosity.
My favorite to dig into will have to be The Heaven's Gate cult. Looking at it in modern times, it's almost laughable how detached from reality it was (No pun intended). But at the time it was occurring, I wonder—just how insane did it all sound.
An old man claiming to be an alien on a different plane of existence, alongside his father, in the body of a woman, who came to Earth to save others and help them transcend to the next "level" of being. How could anyone fall victim to such ludicrous ideas? Was it the charisma? The urgency of the message? A lack of social awareness against such movements? Or maybe just the raw curiosity—that conspiracy-theorist part of the human brain?
Let me remind anyone reading this: cults are dangerous. Like a Venus flytrap, they lure you in with sweet promises, but always end in demise.
I personally think a big part of Heaven's Gate's "success" was its self-awareness. They recognized how wild their statements were—and that very recognition made their ideology seem more believable. It's that mix of desirability (the need to feel wanted), fear of missing out (limited time to be "saved"), and emotional relatability that makes such groups so dangerously persuasive.
I only share their website for educational purposes, and will repeat that ideology is dangerous. There is no next "level".
Although absurd, I do still find cults fascinating to research.