Cults and new religious movements in literature and popular culture
Encyclopedia
New religious movement
s and cult
s can appear as themes or subjects in literature
and popular culture
, while notable representatives of such groups have produced, for their own part, a large body of literary works.
religious or secular organizations, has multiple overlapping or contradictory meanings in both scholarly and popular usage.
Some anthropologists and sociologists studying cults have argued that no one has yet been able to define “cult” in a way that enables the term to apply only to groups identified as problematic; however, even without the "problematic" concern, scientific criteria of characteristics attributed to cults do exist. Note a little-known example: the Alexander and Rollins (1984) scientific study labels the socially well-received group Alcoholics Anonymous
(AA) a cult,
yet Vaillant, 2005, concluded that AA is beneficial.
Commentators other than social scientist
s participate to a greater degree in cultic studies than in many comparable topics, which may render it difficult to demarcate the boundaries of scientific research from theology
, politics, journalism, family cultural values, and the anecdotal findings of some mental-health
professionals. According to James T. Richardson
(1993), the "popular use" of the term "cult" has, since the 1920s, "gained such credence and momentum that it has virtually swallowed up the more neutral historical meaning of the term from the sociology of religion
." A 20th century attempt by sociologists to replace "cult" with the term New Religious Movement
(NRM), failed to resonate with the public
and gained only partial acceptance in the scientific community.
Some scholars use the term "New Religious Movement" (as opposed to "cult") with the implication that the group in question either lacks "destructive" cult characteristics or has evolved
away from past controversial practices.
Members of the groups in question usually strongly dispute the label "cult", especially as used in the media and popular culture, and some scholars and social scientists regard any definitions that focus on special authoritarian characteristics as flawed.
This article deals with the treatment of such groups in literature and popular culture, which may depict exaggerated and or even inaccurate perceptions of particular or generic groups. The mention of any real (as opposed to fictional) organization or person in this article reflects only that some specific source regards it as having (or having had in the past) the characteristics associated with such groups. Some organizations or movements mentioned herein have evolved over the years, as has the surrounding culture, and no longer experience the opprobrium they did at the time particular literary works about them (or literary works by their founders or members) originated. Other historical groups, such as Theosophy
in the late 19th century, became known for their novel beliefs and charismatic leadership but not necessarily for abusive practices: one might regard them as the NRMs of their day.
Alexander the False Prophet, a deeply hostile satire by Lucian of Samosata, allows this 2nd-century-AD writer to describe Alexander of Abonoteichus
, an oracle who built a following in parts of the Roman Empire, and who (according to Lucian) swindled many people and engaged, through his followers, in various forms of thuggery.
The strength of Lucian's venom against Alexander is attributed to Alexander's hate of the Epicureans (Lucian admired the works of Epicurus
, a eulogy of which concludes the piece). Whether or not Alexander epitomized fraud and deceit as portrayed by Lucian; he may not have differed greatly from other oracles of the age, in which a great deal of dishonest exploitation occurred in some shrines.
Sociologist Stephen A. Kent
, in a study of the text, compares Lucian's Alexander to malignant narcissism
in modern psychiatric theory, and suggests that the "behaviors" described by Lucian "have parallels with several modern cult leaders."
Ian Freckelton has noted at least a surface similarity between Alexander and the leader of a contemporary religious group, the Children of God.
Other scholars have described Alexander as an oracle who perpetrated a hoax to deceive gullible citizens, or as a false prophet
and charlatan who played on the hopes of simple people, who "made predictions, discovered fugitive slaves, detected thieves and robbers, caused treasures to be dug up, healed the sick, and in some cases actually raised the dead" (ch. 24). Alexander did more than combine healing instructions with the oracle
(not uncommon at the time); he also instituted mysteries. His main opposition came from Epicureans and Christian
s.
Lucian also wrote a satire called The Passing of Peregrinus, in which the lead character, Proteus, described by Lucian as a charlatan, takes advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians.
The Golden Ass
In the last chapter of Apuleius
' The Golden Ass
, Lucius, the hero, eager for his initiation into the mystery cult of Isis
, abstains from forbidden foods, bathes and purifies himself. Then the secrets of the cult's books are explained to him, and further secrets revealed before he goes through the process of initiation, which involves a trial by the elements in a journey to the underworld. Lucius is then asked to seek initiation into the cult of Osiris
in Rome, and eventually is initiated into the pastophoroi — a group of priests that serves Isis and Osiris.
, the Renaissance era exhibited experimental belief-systems and resultant arguments about their merits. Shakespeare
noted ca. 1595 in a passing comparison the phenomenon of the apostate: "the heresies that men do leave / Are hated most of those they did deceive" A Midsummer Night's Dream
(Act 2, Scene 2).
wrote a highly critical book (1907) about Christian Science
. Willa Cather
, a newspaper and magazine journalist and editor before turning to full-time fiction-writing, co-authored a detailed muckraking book (1909) on the same religious movement.
(Christian Science gained a large measure of respectability in later years.)
Zane Grey
, in his Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), a Western
novel that would have a major influence on Hollywood, lambasts the Mormons
and has his gunslinger hero rescue a wealthy young woman in the early 1870s from the clutches of elderly polygamists via exceedingly bloody gunfights. The novel contains a portrayal of the psychological conflicts of the young woman, raised a Mormon but gradually coming to the realization that she wants a supposedly less constricted life. (The Mormon misdeeds depicted in the story take place on the southern frontier of Utah
, and Grey makes no suggestion of the involvement of Mormon leader
s in Salt Lake City.) The harassment of the young woman reflects a popular literary theme in Queen Victoria
's England.
In Dashiell Hammett
's The Dain Curse
(1929), much of the mystery puzzle revolves around the Temple of the Holy Grail, a fictitious California circle that Hammett's characters repeatedly describe as a "cult". Hammett depicts it as starting as a scam, although the putative leader begins to believe in his own fraudulent claims.
A.E.W. Mason, in The Prisoner in the Opal
(1928), one of his Inspector Hanaud
mysteries, describes the unmasking of a Satanist cult.
The Italian novelist Sibilla Aleramo
, in Amo, dunque sono (I Love, Therefore I Am) (1927) depicted Julius Evola
's UR Group, a hermetical circle and intellectual movement — strongly influenced by Anthroposophy
— that attempted to provide a spiritual direction to Benito Mussolini
's fascism
.
Aleramo described the character based on her former lover Evola as "inhuman, an icy architect of acrobatic theories, vain, vicious, perverse." Aleramo based her hero on Giulio Parise, who would unsuccessfully attempt to oust the pro-Fascist Evola as the circle's leader in 1928, resulting in an announcement by Evola that he would thenceforth exert "an absolute unity of direction" over the circle's publications.
wrote two novels that deal with fictitious cult-like groups. A leading figure in his early "Future History
" series (see If This Goes On--, a short novel published in Revolt in 2100), Nehemiah Scudder, a religious "prophet", becomes dictator of the United States. By his own admission in an afterword, Heinlein poured into this book his distrust of all forms of religious fundamentalism, the Ku Klux Klan
, the Communist Party
and other movements that he regarded as authoritarian
. Heinlein also stated in the afterword that he had worked out the plot of other books about Scudder, but had decided not to write them — in part because he found Scudder so unpleasant. Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land
features two cults: the "Dionysian Church of the New Revelation, Fosterite", and the protagonist Valentine Michael Smith's own "Church of All Worlds". Heinlein treats of the motives and methods of religious leaders in some detail.
Fictitious cults also feature in science fantasy and in horror novels. In That Hideous Strength
, C.S. Lewis describes the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments, or "NICE", a quasi-governmental front concealing a kind of doomsday cult
that worships a disembodied head kept alive by scientific means. Some commentators have interpreted this head, who/which plots to turn the Earth into a dead world like the Moon, as a symbol of secularism
and materialism
. Lewis' novel is notable for its elaboration of his 1944 address "The Inner Ring." The latter work criticizes the lust to "belong" to a powerful clique — a common human failing that Lewis believed was the basis for people being seduced into power-hungry and spiritually twisted movements.
In William Campbell Gault
's Sweet Wild Wench, L.A. private eye Joe Puma investigates the "Children of Proton", a fictional cult that has attracted the support of the daughter of a wealthy businessman.
In Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon, the heroine battles against a Goddess-worshipping cult led by a radical feminist with supernatural powers and a penchant for human sacrifice.
Gore Vidal
's Messiah depicts the rise of a cult leader, while Vidal's Kalki
, a science-fiction novel, recounts how a small but scientifically adept fictitious cult kills off the entire human race by means of germ warfare.
Chuck Palahniuk
's Survivor presents Tender Branson as the last surviving member of the fictional Creedish Church/cult. He starts off as a loyal servant for a rich couple, sent out of his community to service and improve the outside world, as well as to earn money for the church. Once identified as the last survivor, he becomes a media messiah and religious celebrity.
's 2005 science-fiction novel, The Possibility of an Island
, describes a cloning
group that resembles the Raëlians
.
Dan Brown
's novel The Da Vinci Code
(2003), portrays a hero and heroine in flight from an assassin who belongs to the Catholic organization Opus Dei
. (Opus Dei has disputed the accuracy of the portrayal, as has much of the media. For example, The Da Vinci Code portrays its villain as a monk, but the real Opus Dei includes no monks.)
Paul Malmont
's The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (2006) portrays a young L. Ron Hubbard
as one of three 1930s pulp-fiction writers who fight the forces of evil in a novel that nostalgically mimics the pulps
. Although Malmont portrays the young Hubbard and future Scientology
-founder as having a tendency to pad his résumé (a charge also made by some biographers of the real Hubbard), Malmont's Hubbard appears in most respects as a sympathetic character as well as a hero of the action.
Mike Doogan
's detective thriller Lost Angel (2006) takes place at a fictional Christian commune in Alaska called "Rejoiced". In the opening pages, Doogan's novel appears to present a stereotypical cult, but it soon emerges that many of the members show independence of mind and routinely (if quietly) disobey the commune's founder and nominal leader.
Robert Muchamore
has written a book for teenagers, Divine Madness, about a religious cult that has a vast number of members: the main characters of the book must infiltrate the cult to discover a sinister plot.
The primary antagonists of Brad Fear's A Macabre Myth of a Moth-Man (2008) are an organization of super-enhanced fanatics called 'The Swarm'. The cult's beliefs seem focused on the flaws of man as a species; their motivations based on ushering in an age of superior, gene-spliced hybrids. They conceal their 'imperfect' human forms beneath gas masks and body armour (with the exception of the cult-leader, Dante Eclipse, who wears a porcelain theatre mask and robes).
The novel Godless
centers around a teenager who forms a religious cult that worships his hometown's watertower.
The film Red State
was based on the Westboro Baptist Church
cult.
, founder of the English-speaking branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis
and of a short-lived commune (the "Abbey of Thelema
") in Sicily, wrote poetry (anthologized in 1917 in The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse) and novels (Diary of a Drug Fiend
(1922) and Moonchild (1929)). Crowley died in 1947. His autobiography, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
, republished in 1969, attracted much attention. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy describes Crowley's fiction and his manuals on the occult as examples of "lifestyle fantasy".
The travel-writer, poet and painter Nicholas Roerich
, the founder of Agni Yoga
, expressed his spiritual
beliefs through his depiction of the stark mountains of Central Asia. His classic travel-books include Heart of Asia: Memoirs from the Himalayas (1929) and Shambhala: In Search of the New Era (1930).
L. Ron Hubbard
, the founder of Scientology
, worked as a contributing author in the Golden Age of Science Fiction
(1930s to 1950s) and in the horror and fantasy genres. In a bibliographical study of his works, Marco Frenschkowski agrees with Stephen King
in regarding Fear (1940) as one of the major horror tales of the 20th century, and praises "its imaginative use of the prosaic and its demythologizing of traditional weird fiction themes". Other works which Frenschkowski cites as notable include Typewriter in the Sky (1940), To the Stars (1950), the best-selling Battlefield Earth (1982), and the ten-volume Mission Earth
(1985–1987). Frenschkowski concludes that although Hubbard's fiction has received excessive praise from his followers, science-fiction critics leery of Scientology have underrated it. John Clute and Peter Nichols, however, manage to praise much of Hubbard's oeuvre while also raising questions about the thematic link to Scientology. Hubbard's "canny utilization of superman protagonists" in his early work, they argue, came to "tantalize" s-f writers and fans "with visions of transcendental power" and may explain why so many early followers of Hubbard's movement came from the s-f community.
G.I. Gurdjieff, the Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher who introduced and taught the Fourth Way, authored three literary works that comprise his All and Everything
trilogy. The best known, Meetings with Remarkable Men
, a memoir of Gurdjieff's youthful search for spiritual truth, has become a minor classic. Peter Brook
made it into a film (1979). The trilogy also includes Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
, a curious melange of philosophy, humor and science-fiction that some regard as a masterpiece. P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins
series and a disciple of Gurdjieff, described Beelzebub as "soaring off into space, like a great, lumbering flying cathedral". Martin Seymour-Smith
included Beelzebub in his 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
, characterising it as "...the most convincing fusion of Eastern and Western thought that has yet been seen." Gurdjieff's final volume, Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'
, consists of an incomplete text published posthumously.
Ayn Rand
, founder of the Objectivist movement
, wrote two bestseller
s, The Fountainhead
(1943) and Atlas Shrugged
(1957). The Fountainhead sold over 6.5 million copies by 2008; and Atlas Shrugged over 6 million. Rand's science-fiction novella Anthem
(1938) also found a wide readership.
Eli Siegel
, the founder of Aesthetic Realism
, wrote highly regarded poetry. William Carlos Williams
described his "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana" (1925) as his "major poem", and wrote that Siegel "belongs in the first ranks of our living artists". Other critics and poets who praised Siegel's work included Selden Rodman and Kenneth Rexroth
; the latter wrote that "it's about time Eli Siegel was moved up into the ranks of our acknowledged Leading Poets."
ss who founded Theosophy
, wrote Isis Unveiled
(1887) and The Secret Doctrine
(1888), and had an immense cultural and intellectual influence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, helping to stimulate the Indian nationalist movement, the interfaith ecumenical movement, parapsychology
, the fantasy literary genre,
and 's New Age
movement. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy describes her two major books as "enormous, entrancing honeypots of myth, fairytale, speculation, fabrication and tomfoolery".
Rudolf Steiner
(1861–1925), the founder of Anthroposophy
, wrote in a variety of fields (his collected works total 350 volumes) and influenced such figures as the novelist Herman Hesse and the philosopher Owen Barfield
. Through his writings and lectures, Steiner stimulated the development of the cooperative movement, alternative medicine
, organic farming
, the Waldorf schools
, and "eurythmy
" in modern dance.
s, and although their writings may not have influenced contemporary culture to the degree of a Reich or a Blavatsky, they have stimulated many to join their churches or movements and have expressed ideas that writers and spiritual "entrepreneurs" outside of their own circles have adopted and adapted. Examples include JZ Knight
, founder of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment
, whose popular Ramtha books have done much to spread the practice of spirit channelling among New Age
rs; and Elizabeth Clare Prophet
of the Church Universal and Triumphant
who, with her late husband Mark Prophet, wrote over 75 books on the "Ascended Masters" and similar topics. Other examples include the late Herbert W. Armstrong
of the Worldwide Church of God
, whose books on Biblical prophecy and British Israelism
were widely read for over a half century; and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche
— the author of over 500 books, articles and published speeches which have had a significant if often subterranean influence on various movements of the left and right as well as on the media in some countries.
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
s and cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
s can appear as themes or subjects in literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
and popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, while notable representatives of such groups have produced, for their own part, a large body of literary works.
Terminology
The term "cult," as applied to non-mainstreamMainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
religious or secular organizations, has multiple overlapping or contradictory meanings in both scholarly and popular usage.
Some anthropologists and sociologists studying cults have argued that no one has yet been able to define “cult” in a way that enables the term to apply only to groups identified as problematic; however, even without the "problematic" concern, scientific criteria of characteristics attributed to cults do exist. Note a little-known example: the Alexander and Rollins (1984) scientific study labels the socially well-received group Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous is an international mutual aid movement which says its "primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety." Now claiming more than 2 million members, AA was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio...
(AA) a cult,
yet Vaillant, 2005, concluded that AA is beneficial.
Commentators other than social scientist
Social Scientist
Social Scientist is a New Delhi based journal in social sciences and humanities published since 1972....
s participate to a greater degree in cultic studies than in many comparable topics, which may render it difficult to demarcate the boundaries of scientific research from theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, politics, journalism, family cultural values, and the anecdotal findings of some mental-health
Mental health
Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
professionals. According to James T. Richardson
James Richardson (sociologist)
James T. Richardson is a Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies, and the Director of the Master of Judicial Studies Degree Program at the University of Nevada, Reno. Richardson specializes in social and behavioral science evidence, Sociology of Religions and New Religious Movements, Sociology...
(1993), the "popular use" of the term "cult" has, since the 1920s, "gained such credence and momentum that it has virtually swallowed up the more neutral historical meaning of the term from the sociology of religion
Sociology of religion
The sociology of religion concerns the role of religion in society: practices, historical backgrounds, developments and universal themes. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in all societies and throughout recorded history...
." A 20th century attempt by sociologists to replace "cult" with the term New Religious Movement
New religious movement
A new religious movement is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in...
(NRM), failed to resonate with the public
and gained only partial acceptance in the scientific community.
Some scholars use the term "New Religious Movement" (as opposed to "cult") with the implication that the group in question either lacks "destructive" cult characteristics or has evolved
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
away from past controversial practices.
Members of the groups in question usually strongly dispute the label "cult", especially as used in the media and popular culture, and some scholars and social scientists regard any definitions that focus on special authoritarian characteristics as flawed.
This article deals with the treatment of such groups in literature and popular culture, which may depict exaggerated and or even inaccurate perceptions of particular or generic groups. The mention of any real (as opposed to fictional) organization or person in this article reflects only that some specific source regards it as having (or having had in the past) the characteristics associated with such groups. Some organizations or movements mentioned herein have evolved over the years, as has the surrounding culture, and no longer experience the opprobrium they did at the time particular literary works about them (or literary works by their founders or members) originated. Other historical groups, such as Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
in the late 19th century, became known for their novel beliefs and charismatic leadership but not necessarily for abusive practices: one might regard them as the NRMs of their day.
Ancient
Alexander the False ProphetAlexander the False Prophet, a deeply hostile satire by Lucian of Samosata, allows this 2nd-century-AD writer to describe Alexander of Abonoteichus
Alexander of Abonoteichus
Alexander of Abonoteichus , also called Alexander the Paphlagonian, or the false prophet Alexander, was a Greek mystic and oracle, and the founder of the Glycon cult that briefly achieved wide popularity in the Roman world. The contemporary writer Lucian reports that he was an utter fraud - the god...
, an oracle who built a following in parts of the Roman Empire, and who (according to Lucian) swindled many people and engaged, through his followers, in various forms of thuggery.
The strength of Lucian's venom against Alexander is attributed to Alexander's hate of the Epicureans (Lucian admired the works of Epicurus
Epicurus
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher and the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism.Only a few fragments and letters remain of Epicurus's 300 written works...
, a eulogy of which concludes the piece). Whether or not Alexander epitomized fraud and deceit as portrayed by Lucian; he may not have differed greatly from other oracles of the age, in which a great deal of dishonest exploitation occurred in some shrines.
Sociologist Stephen A. Kent
Stephen A. Kent
Stephen A. Kent, is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He researches new and alternative religions, and has published research on several such groups including the Children of God , the Church of Scientology, and newer faiths...
, in a study of the text, compares Lucian's Alexander to malignant narcissism
Malignant Narcissism
Malignant narcissism has been described as "an extreme form of antisocial personality disorder that is manifest in a person who is pathologically grandiose, lacking in conscience and behavioral regulation, and with characteristic demonstrations of joyful cruelty and sadism".Malignant narcissism is...
in modern psychiatric theory, and suggests that the "behaviors" described by Lucian "have parallels with several modern cult leaders."
Ian Freckelton has noted at least a surface similarity between Alexander and the leader of a contemporary religious group, the Children of God.
Other scholars have described Alexander as an oracle who perpetrated a hoax to deceive gullible citizens, or as a false prophet
False prophet
In religion, a false prophet is one who falsely claims the gift of prophecy, or who uses that gift for evil ends. Often, someone who is considered a "true prophet" by some people is simultaneously considered a "false prophet" by others....
and charlatan who played on the hopes of simple people, who "made predictions, discovered fugitive slaves, detected thieves and robbers, caused treasures to be dug up, healed the sick, and in some cases actually raised the dead" (ch. 24). Alexander did more than combine healing instructions with the oracle
Oracle
In Classical Antiquity, an oracle was a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. As such it is a form of divination....
(not uncommon at the time); he also instituted mysteries. His main opposition came from Epicureans and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s.
Lucian also wrote a satire called The Passing of Peregrinus, in which the lead character, Proteus, described by Lucian as a charlatan, takes advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians.
The Golden Ass
In the last chapter of Apuleius
Apuleius
Apuleius was a Latin prose writer. He was a Berber, from Madaurus . He studied Platonist philosophy in Athens; travelled to Italy, Asia Minor and Egypt; and was an initiate in several cults or mysteries. The most famous incident in his life was when he was accused of using magic to gain the...
' The Golden Ass
The Golden Ass
The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as The Golden Ass , is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety....
, Lucius, the hero, eager for his initiation into the mystery cult of Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
, abstains from forbidden foods, bathes and purifies himself. Then the secrets of the cult's books are explained to him, and further secrets revealed before he goes through the process of initiation, which involves a trial by the elements in a journey to the underworld. Lucius is then asked to seek initiation into the cult of Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
in Rome, and eventually is initiated into the pastophoroi — a group of priests that serves Isis and Osiris.
Renaissance
Even apart from the religious ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
, the Renaissance era exhibited experimental belief-systems and resultant arguments about their merits. Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
noted ca. 1595 in a passing comparison the phenomenon of the apostate: "the heresies that men do leave / Are hated most of those they did deceive" A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
(Act 2, Scene 2).
Early twentieth century
Mark TwainMark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
wrote a highly critical book (1907) about Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
. Willa Cather
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
, a newspaper and magazine journalist and editor before turning to full-time fiction-writing, co-authored a detailed muckraking book (1909) on the same religious movement.
(Christian Science gained a large measure of respectability in later years.)
Zane Grey
Zane Grey
Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the Old West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his bestselling book. In addition to the success of his printed works, they later had second lives and continuing influence...
, in his Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), a Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
novel that would have a major influence on Hollywood, lambasts the Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
and has his gunslinger hero rescue a wealthy young woman in the early 1870s from the clutches of elderly polygamists via exceedingly bloody gunfights. The novel contains a portrayal of the psychological conflicts of the young woman, raised a Mormon but gradually coming to the realization that she wants a supposedly less constricted life. (The Mormon misdeeds depicted in the story take place on the southern frontier of Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, and Grey makes no suggestion of the involvement of Mormon leader
Leader
A leader is one who influences or leads others.Leader may also refer to:- Newspapers :* Leading article, a piece of writing intended to promote an opinion, also called an editorial* The Leader , published 1909–1967...
s in Salt Lake City.) The harassment of the young woman reflects a popular literary theme in Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
's England.
In Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
's The Dain Curse
The Dain Curse
The Dain Curse is a novel written by Dashiell Hammett and published in 1929.- Plot summary :The detective known only as The Continental Op investigates a diamond heist that looks like an inside job. He is told of a supposed curse on the Dain family, said to inflict sudden and violent deaths upon...
(1929), much of the mystery puzzle revolves around the Temple of the Holy Grail, a fictitious California circle that Hammett's characters repeatedly describe as a "cult". Hammett depicts it as starting as a scam, although the putative leader begins to believe in his own fraudulent claims.
A.E.W. Mason, in The Prisoner in the Opal
The Prisoner in the Opal
The Prisoner in the Opal is a 1928 British detective novel by A.E.W. Mason. It was the third story in the Inspector Hanaud series of novels.Inspector Hanaud of the Paris Sûreté investigates a crime with the assistance of his friend, Mr Ricardo....
(1928), one of his Inspector Hanaud
Inspector Hanaud
Inspector Gabriel Hanaud is a fictional French policeman depicted in a series of novels and short stories by the British writer A. E. W. Mason. He has been described as the "first major fiction police detective of the Twentieth Century"....
mysteries, describes the unmasking of a Satanist cult.
The Italian novelist Sibilla Aleramo
Sibilla Aleramo
Sibilla Aleramo was an Italian author and feminist best known for her autobiographical depictions of life as a woman in late 19th century Italy.- Life and career :Born Rina Faccio in Alessandria, Piedmont...
, in Amo, dunque sono (I Love, Therefore I Am) (1927) depicted Julius Evola
Julius Evola
Barone Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola also known as Julius Evola, was an Italian philosopher and esotericist...
's UR Group, a hermetical circle and intellectual movement — strongly influenced by Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
— that attempted to provide a spiritual direction to Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's fascism
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
.
Aleramo described the character based on her former lover Evola as "inhuman, an icy architect of acrobatic theories, vain, vicious, perverse." Aleramo based her hero on Giulio Parise, who would unsuccessfully attempt to oust the pro-Fascist Evola as the circle's leader in 1928, resulting in an announcement by Evola that he would thenceforth exert "an absolute unity of direction" over the circle's publications.
Mid and late twentieth century
Science-fiction writer Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
wrote two novels that deal with fictitious cult-like groups. A leading figure in his early "Future History
Future History
The Future History, by Robert A. Heinlein, describes a projected future of the human race from the middle of the 20th century through the early 23rd century. The term Future History was coined by John W. Campbell, Jr. in the February 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction...
" series (see If This Goes On--, a short novel published in Revolt in 2100), Nehemiah Scudder, a religious "prophet", becomes dictator of the United States. By his own admission in an afterword, Heinlein poured into this book his distrust of all forms of religious fundamentalism, the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
and other movements that he regarded as authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
. Heinlein also stated in the afterword that he had worked out the plot of other books about Scudder, but had decided not to write them — in part because he found Scudder so unpleasant. Heinlein's novel Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians. The novel explores his interaction with—and...
features two cults: the "Dionysian Church of the New Revelation, Fosterite", and the protagonist Valentine Michael Smith's own "Church of All Worlds". Heinlein treats of the motives and methods of religious leaders in some detail.
Fictitious cults also feature in science fantasy and in horror novels. In That Hideous Strength
That Hideous Strength
That Hideous Strength is a 1945 novel by C. S. Lewis, the final book in Lewis's theological science fiction Space Trilogy. The events of this novel follow those of Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra and once again feature the philologist Elwin Ransom...
, C.S. Lewis describes the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments, or "NICE", a quasi-governmental front concealing a kind of doomsday cult
Doomsday cult
Doomsday cult is an expression used to describe groups who believe in Apocalypticism and Millenarianism, and can refer both to groups that prophesy catastrophe and destruction, and to those that attempt to bring it about...
that worships a disembodied head kept alive by scientific means. Some commentators have interpreted this head, who/which plots to turn the Earth into a dead world like the Moon, as a symbol of secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
and materialism
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
. Lewis' novel is notable for its elaboration of his 1944 address "The Inner Ring." The latter work criticizes the lust to "belong" to a powerful clique — a common human failing that Lewis believed was the basis for people being seduced into power-hungry and spiritually twisted movements.
In William Campbell Gault
William Campbell Gault
William Campbell Gault was an American writer. He wrote under his own name, and as Roney Scott and Will Duke, among other pseudonyms....
's Sweet Wild Wench, L.A. private eye Joe Puma investigates the "Children of Proton", a fictional cult that has attracted the support of the daughter of a wealthy businessman.
In Elizabeth Hand's Waking the Moon, the heroine battles against a Goddess-worshipping cult led by a radical feminist with supernatural powers and a penchant for human sacrifice.
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
's Messiah depicts the rise of a cult leader, while Vidal's Kalki
Kalki
In Hinduism, Kalki is the tenth and final Maha Avatar of Vishnu who will come to end the present age of darkness and destruction known as Kali Yuga. The name Kalki is often a metaphor for eternity or time...
, a science-fiction novel, recounts how a small but scientifically adept fictitious cult kills off the entire human race by means of germ warfare.
Chuck Palahniuk
Chuck Palahniuk
Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk is an American transgressional fiction novelist and freelance journalist. He is best known for the award-winning novel Fight Club, which was later made into a film directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter...
's Survivor presents Tender Branson as the last surviving member of the fictional Creedish Church/cult. He starts off as a loyal servant for a rich couple, sent out of his community to service and improve the outside world, as well as to earn money for the church. Once identified as the last survivor, he becomes a media messiah and religious celebrity.
Twenty-first century
Popular French author Michel HouellebecqMichel Houellebecq
Michel Houellebecq , born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1958—or 1956 —on the French island of Réunion, is a controversial and award-winning French author, filmmaker and poet. To admirers he is a writer in the tradition of literary provocation that reaches back to the Marquis de Sade and Baudelaire;...
's 2005 science-fiction novel, The Possibility of an Island
The Possibility of an Island
The Possibility of an Island is a 2005 novel by French novelist Michel Houellebecq, set within a cloning cult that resembles the real-world Raëlians.-Plot summary:There are three main characters, Daniel, and two of his clones....
, describes a cloning
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
group that resembles the Raëlians
Raëlism
Raëlism is a UFO religion that was founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël.The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim...
.
Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
's novel The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
(2003), portrays a hero and heroine in flight from an assassin who belongs to the Catholic organization Opus Dei
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
. (Opus Dei has disputed the accuracy of the portrayal, as has much of the media. For example, The Da Vinci Code portrays its villain as a monk, but the real Opus Dei includes no monks.)
Paul Malmont
Paul Malmont
Paul Malmont is an American author who has specialized in books considering the style and tropes of popular fiction of the past, making the writers of that popular fiction the heroes and protagonists of his own work.-Work:...
's The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril (2006) portrays a young L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
as one of three 1930s pulp-fiction writers who fight the forces of evil in a novel that nostalgically mimics the pulps
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
. Although Malmont portrays the young Hubbard and future Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
-founder as having a tendency to pad his résumé (a charge also made by some biographers of the real Hubbard), Malmont's Hubbard appears in most respects as a sympathetic character as well as a hero of the action.
Mike Doogan
Mike Doogan
Mike Doogan is a Democratic member of the Alaska House of Representatives, representing the 25th District since 2006.He is also the author of the Nik Kane Alaska mystery series, which includes Lost Angel, Capitol Offense, and Skeleton Lake, as well as several nonfiction books about Alaska life.In...
's detective thriller Lost Angel (2006) takes place at a fictional Christian commune in Alaska called "Rejoiced". In the opening pages, Doogan's novel appears to present a stereotypical cult, but it soon emerges that many of the members show independence of mind and routinely (if quietly) disobey the commune's founder and nominal leader.
Robert Muchamore
Robert Muchamore
Robert Kilgore Muchamore is an English author, most notable for writing the CHERUB and Henderson's Boys novels.-Prior to writing:...
has written a book for teenagers, Divine Madness, about a religious cult that has a vast number of members: the main characters of the book must infiltrate the cult to discover a sinister plot.
The primary antagonists of Brad Fear's A Macabre Myth of a Moth-Man (2008) are an organization of super-enhanced fanatics called 'The Swarm'. The cult's beliefs seem focused on the flaws of man as a species; their motivations based on ushering in an age of superior, gene-spliced hybrids. They conceal their 'imperfect' human forms beneath gas masks and body armour (with the exception of the cult-leader, Dante Eclipse, who wears a porcelain theatre mask and robes).
The novel Godless
Godless (novel)
Godless is a 2004 young adult novel by Pete Hautman. It won the 2004 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.It is about a 15-year-old boy, Jason Bock, who develops a religion of his own called "Chutengodianism." His god is the Ten-Legged God, also known as the water tower, and he is...
centers around a teenager who forms a religious cult that worships his hometown's watertower.
The film Red State
Red State (2011 film)
Red State is a 2011 American independent horror film written and directed by Kevin Smith, starring Michael Parks, John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Stephen Root...
was based on the Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and desecrating the American flag. The church is widely described as a hate group and is monitored as such by the...
cult.
Literary works by founders of new trends or movements
Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, and also known as both Frater Perdurabo and The Great Beast, was an influential English occultist, astrologer, mystic and ceremonial magician, responsible for founding the religious philosophy of Thelema. He was also successful in various other...
, founder of the English-speaking branch of the Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordo Templi Orientis is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century...
and of a short-lived commune (the "Abbey of Thelema
Abbey of Thelema
The Abbey of Thelema refers to a small house which was used as a temple and spiritual centre founded by Aleister Crowley and Leah Hirsig in Cefalù, Sicily in 1920....
") in Sicily, wrote poetry (anthologized in 1917 in The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse) and novels (Diary of a Drug Fiend
Diary of a Drug Fiend
Diary of a Drug Fiend, published in 1922, was occult writer and mystic Aleister Crowley's first published novel, and is also reportedly the earliest known reference to the Abbey of Thelema in Sicily.-Plot introduction:...
(1922) and Moonchild (1929)). Crowley died in 1947. His autobiography, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley : An Autohagiography, by Aleister Crowley , is a book written in six parts, the first two parts published in 1929. It is subtitled "An Autohagiography" which refers to the autobiography of a Saint, a title which Crowley would also have associated with the...
, republished in 1969, attracted much attention. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy describes Crowley's fiction and his manuals on the occult as examples of "lifestyle fantasy".
The travel-writer, poet and painter Nicholas Roerich
Nicholas Roerich
Nicholas Roerich, also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh , was a Russian mystic, painter, philosopher, scientist, writer, traveler, and public figure. A prolific artist, he created thousands of paintings and about 30 literary works...
, the founder of Agni Yoga
Agni Yoga
Living Ethics has also another equivalent but less widespread meaning Agni Yoga — a philosophical and ethical teaching which embraces all sides of being — from cosmological problems, down to daily human life...
, expressed his spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
beliefs through his depiction of the stark mountains of Central Asia. His classic travel-books include Heart of Asia: Memoirs from the Himalayas (1929) and Shambhala: In Search of the New Era (1930).
L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
, the founder of Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
, worked as a contributing author in the Golden Age of Science Fiction
Golden Age of Science Fiction
The first Golden Age of Science Fiction — often recognized as the period from the late 1930s through the 1950s — was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published...
(1930s to 1950s) and in the horror and fantasy genres. In a bibliographical study of his works, Marco Frenschkowski agrees with Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
in regarding Fear (1940) as one of the major horror tales of the 20th century, and praises "its imaginative use of the prosaic and its demythologizing of traditional weird fiction themes". Other works which Frenschkowski cites as notable include Typewriter in the Sky (1940), To the Stars (1950), the best-selling Battlefield Earth (1982), and the ten-volume Mission Earth
Mission Earth (novel)
Mission Earth is a ten-volume science fiction novel series by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. Hubbard died three months after the publication of volume 1, the rest of the book being published posthumously....
(1985–1987). Frenschkowski concludes that although Hubbard's fiction has received excessive praise from his followers, science-fiction critics leery of Scientology have underrated it. John Clute and Peter Nichols, however, manage to praise much of Hubbard's oeuvre while also raising questions about the thematic link to Scientology. Hubbard's "canny utilization of superman protagonists" in his early work, they argue, came to "tantalize" s-f writers and fans "with visions of transcendental power" and may explain why so many early followers of Hubbard's movement came from the s-f community.
G.I. Gurdjieff, the Greek-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher who introduced and taught the Fourth Way, authored three literary works that comprise his All and Everything
All and Everything
All and Everything is the name of a trilogy composed by ten books, all written by G. I. Gurdjieff. The ten books were further categorized into three series:# Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson.# Meetings with Remarkable Men....
trilogy. The best known, Meetings with Remarkable Men
Meetings with Remarkable Men
Meetings with Remarkable Men is the second volume of the All and Everything trilogy written by the Greek-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff...
, a memoir of Gurdjieff's youthful search for spiritual truth, has become a minor classic. Peter Brook
Peter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
made it into a film (1979). The trilogy also includes Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson or An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man is the first volume of the All and Everything trilogy written by the Greek-Armenian mystic G. I. Gurdjieff...
, a curious melange of philosophy, humor and science-fiction that some regard as a masterpiece. P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins is a series of children's books written by P. L. Travers and originally illustrated by Mary Shepard. The books centre on a magical English nanny, Mary Poppins. She is blown by the East wind to Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London and into the Banks' household to care for their...
series and a disciple of Gurdjieff, described Beelzebub as "soaring off into space, like a great, lumbering flying cathedral". Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Seymour-Smith
Martin Roger Seymour-Smith was a British poet, literary critic, biographer and astrologer.Seymour-Smith was born in London and educated at Oxford University where he was editor of Isis...
included Beelzebub in his 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought from Ancient Times to Today is a book of intellectual history written by Martin Seymour-Smith, a British poet, critic, and biographer.-Chronological list:...
, characterising it as "...the most convincing fusion of Eastern and Western thought that has yet been seen." Gurdjieff's final volume, Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'
Life is Real Only Then, When 'I Am'
Life Is Real Only Then, When "I Am" consists of the incomplete text of the third Series of All and Everything by G. I. Gurdjieff...
, consists of an incomplete text published posthumously.
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
, founder of the Objectivist movement
Objectivist movement
The Objectivist movement is a movement to study and advance the philosophy of Objectivism. It was founded by novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. The movement began informally in the 1950s and consisted of students who were brought together by their mutual interest in Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead...
, wrote two bestseller
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
s, The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead
The Fountainhead is a 1943 novel by Ayn Rand. It was Rand's first major literary success and brought her fame and financial success. More than 6.5 million copies of the book have been sold worldwide....
(1943) and Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing...
(1957). The Fountainhead sold over 6.5 million copies by 2008; and Atlas Shrugged over 6 million. Rand's science-fiction novella Anthem
Anthem (novella)
Anthem is a dystopian fiction novella by Ayn Rand, written in 1937 and first published in 1938 in England. It takes place at some unspecified future date when mankind has entered another dark age characterized by irrationality, collectivism, and socialistic thinking and economics...
(1938) also found a wide readership.
Eli Siegel
Eli Siegel
Eli Siegel was the poet and critic who founded the philosophy Aesthetic Realism in 1941. He wrote the award-winning poem, "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana", two highly acclaimed volumes of poetry, a critical consideration of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw titled James and the Children,...
, the founder of Aesthetic Realism
Aesthetic Realism
Aesthetic Realism is the philosophy founded by Eli Siegel in 1941. It is based on three core principles. First, according to Siegel, the deepest desire of every person is to like the world on an honest or accurate basis...
, wrote highly regarded poetry. William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. He was also a pediatrician and general practitioner of medicine, having graduated from the University of Pennsylvania...
described his "Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana" (1925) as his "major poem", and wrote that Siegel "belongs in the first ranks of our living artists". Other critics and poets who praised Siegel's work included Selden Rodman and Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...
; the latter wrote that "it's about time Eli Siegel was moved up into the ranks of our acknowledged Leading Poets."
Important non-fiction writers among founders of movements
Helena Blavatsky, the Russian adventureAdventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
ss who founded Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
, wrote Isis Unveiled
Isis Unveiled
Isis Unveiled, published in 1877, is a book of esoteric philosophy, and was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's first major work.The book discusses or quotes, among others, Plato, Plotinus, the Chaldean Oracles, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Bible, Pythagoras, Ammonius Saccas, Porphyry, Iamblichus,...
(1887) and The Secret Doctrine
The Secret Doctrine
The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy, a book originally published as two volumes in 1888, is Helena P. Blavatsky's magnum opus. The first volume is named Cosmogenesis, the second Anthropogenesis...
(1888), and had an immense cultural and intellectual influence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, helping to stimulate the Indian nationalist movement, the interfaith ecumenical movement, parapsychology
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
, the fantasy literary genre,
and 's New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
movement. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy describes her two major books as "enormous, entrancing honeypots of myth, fairytale, speculation, fabrication and tomfoolery".
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...
(1861–1925), the founder of Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
, wrote in a variety of fields (his collected works total 350 volumes) and influenced such figures as the novelist Herman Hesse and the philosopher Owen Barfield
Owen Barfield
Owen Barfield was a British philosopher, author, poet, and critic.Barfield was born in London. He was educated at Highgate School and Wadham College, Oxford and in 1920 received a 1st class degree in English language and literature. After finishing his B. Litt., which became the book Poetic...
. Through his writings and lectures, Steiner stimulated the development of the cooperative movement, alternative medicine
Alternative medicine
Alternative medicine is any healing practice, "that does not fall within the realm of conventional medicine." It is based on historical or cultural traditions, rather than on scientific evidence....
, organic farming
Organic farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...
, the Waldorf schools
Waldorf schools
This History of Waldorf schools includes descriptions of the schools' historical foundations, geographical distribution and internal governance structures.-The first Waldorf schools:...
, and "eurythmy
Eurythmy
Eurythmy is an expressive movement art originated by Rudolf Steiner in conjunction with Marie von Sivers in the early 20th century. Primarily a performance art, it is also used in education — especially in Waldorf schools - and as a movement therapy....
" in modern dance.
"Tract" literature
Several authors have prolifically produced tractTract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
s, and although their writings may not have influenced contemporary culture to the degree of a Reich or a Blavatsky, they have stimulated many to join their churches or movements and have expressed ideas that writers and spiritual "entrepreneurs" outside of their own circles have adopted and adapted. Examples include JZ Knight
JZ Knight
Judy Zebra Knight , usually known as JZ Knight, is an American mystic teacher and author...
, founder of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment
Ramtha's School of Enlightenment
Ramtha's School of Enlightenment or RSE , is a school of mysticism and parapsychology based near the rural town of Yelm, Washington, in the United States.-History:...
, whose popular Ramtha books have done much to spread the practice of spirit channelling among New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
rs; and Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Elizabeth Clare Prophet was an American spiritual author and lecturer who was the leader of The Summit Lighthouse and Church Universal and Triumphant, a New Age religious movement which gained media attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s while preparing for potential nuclear disaster.During...
of the Church Universal and Triumphant
Church Universal and Triumphant
Church Universal and Triumphant is an international New Age religious organization founded in 1975 by Elizabeth Clare Prophet. It is an outgrowth of The Summit Lighthouse, founded in 1958 by Prophet's husband, Mark L. Prophet...
who, with her late husband Mark Prophet, wrote over 75 books on the "Ascended Masters" and similar topics. Other examples include the late Herbert W. Armstrong
Herbert W. Armstrong
Herbert W. Armstrong founded the Worldwide Church of God in the late 1930s, as well as Ambassador College in 1946, and was an early pioneer of radio and tele-evangelism, originally taking to the airwaves in the 1930s from Eugene, Oregon...
of the Worldwide Church of God
Worldwide Church of God
Grace Communion International , formerly the Worldwide Church of God , is an evangelical Christian denomination based in Glendora, California, United States. Since April 3, 2009, it has used the new name Grace Communion International in the US...
, whose books on Biblical prophecy and British Israelism
British Israelism
British Israelism is the belief that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The concept often includes the belief that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David...
were widely read for over a half century; and conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
— the author of over 500 books, articles and published speeches which have had a significant if often subterranean influence on various movements of the left and right as well as on the media in some countries.
Television
- In BrooksideBrooksideBrookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...
, Simon Howe indoctrinates an increasingly mentally unstable Terry SullivanTerry Sullivan (Brookside)Terry Sullivan is a fictional character in the British Soap opera Brookside, played by Brian Regan. Terry first appeared a few episodes after the series began in 1982, making his debut in episode six. He was the best friend of Barry Grant having grown up with him, and in many ways Barry's mother...
into a religious cult much to the dismay of his friend Barry GrantBarry GrantBarry Grant is a fictional character in the defunct Channel 4 soap opera Brookside. He was portrayed by Paul Usher and was in the series from episode one in 1982 until 1995 with several sporadic guest appearances in 1997, 1998 and the final episode in 2003....
. The two later hold Grant hostage and blow up the his house. - In the Rocko's Modern LifeRocko's Modern LifeRocko's Modern Life is an animated series created by Joe Murray. The show aired for four seasons between 1993 and 1996 on Nickelodeon. Rocko's Modern Life is based around the surreal, parodic adventures of an anthropomorphic wallaby named Rocko, and his life in the city of O-Town...
episode "Schnit-heads", HefferHeffer WolfeHeffer Wolfe is a fictional character on the cartoon Rocko's Modern Life and the comic book series of the same name. Tom Kenny provided the voice of the anthropomorphic steer...
joins a sausageSausageA sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
-worshiping cult. When he tires of eating nothing but sausage, and is caught eating pizzaPizzaPizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...
, the cult holds him prisoner, and it is up to RockoRockoRocko Wallaby is the eponymous fictional character of the cartoon Rocko's Modern Life and the comic book series of the same name. Rocko was born in Australia and emigrated to America in High School. He was pitched to Nickelodeon executives as having the personality of a young wallaby Woody Allen...
and Filburt to save him. - In the SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "The Joy of SectThe Joy of Sect"The Joy of Sect" is the thirteenth episode of The Simpsons ninth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 8, 1998. In the episode, a cult called the "Movementarians" takes over Springfield, and Homer and the rest of the Simpson family become members...
", most of SpringfieldSpringfield (The Simpsons)Springfield is the fictional town in which the American animated sitcom The Simpsons is set. A mid-sized town in an undetermined state of the United States, Springfield acts as a complete universe in which characters can explore the issues faced by modern society. The geography of the town and its...
join a new sect called The Movementarians, led by the mysterious "Leader" who persuades most residents to give up their material possessions to him. A skeptical MargeMarge SimpsonMarjorie "Marge" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the eponymous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
tries desperately to deprogram her family with the help of Reverend LovejoyReverend Timothy LovejoyReverend Timothy "Tim" Lovejoy is a recurring character in the animated television series The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer, and first appeared in the episode "The Telltale Head". Lovejoy is the minister at The First Church of Springfield—the Protestant church in Springfield which most of...
, one of the few town residents not to join the sect, and WillieGroundskeeper WillieWilliam McDougal, usually referred to as Groundskeeper Willie, is a recurring character on The Simpsons, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He is head groundskeeper at Springfield Elementary School. Willie is a Scottish immigrant, almost feral in nature and immensely proud of his homeland...
(who offers to "kidnap HomerHomer SimpsonHomer Jay Simpson is a fictional character in the animated television series The Simpsons and the patriarch of the eponymous family. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared on television, along with the rest of his family, in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
for fifty, deprogram him for a hundred, or kill him for five hundred"). Eventually they kidnap Homer and "deprogram" him with beer. The Leader is then revealed to be a con-artist and the whole town return back to normal. - In an episode of King of the HillKing of the HillKing of the Hill is an American animated dramedy series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, that ran from January 12, 1997, to May 6, 2010, on Fox network. It centers on the Hills, a working-class Methodist family in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas...
, Luanne Platter joins a cult disguised as a sorority called the "Omega House". Members, deprived of the bathroom, must change their name to Jane, sell jams and eat a diet of only rice. - The X-FilesThe X-FilesThe X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
episode "Via NegativaVia Negativa (The X-Files)"Via Negativa" is the 168th episode of the science fiction television series The X-Files and the seventh episode of the eighth season. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on December 17, 2000 on Fox and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive...
" dealt with a murderous religious cult leader. - In an episode of MonkMonk (TV series)Monk is an American comedy-drama detective mystery television series created by Andy Breckman and starring Tony Shalhoub as the titular character, Adrian Monk. It originally ran from 2002 to 2009 and is primarily a mystery series, although it has dark and comic touches.The series debuted on July...
, entitled "Mr. Monk Joins a Cult", Adrian goes undercover within a cult to investigate the murder of one of its members. However, he becomes brainwashed and has to be deprogrammed by his therapist Dr Bell. - In an episode of Mary Hartman, Mary HartmanMary Hartman, Mary HartmanMary Hartman, Mary Hartman is an American soap opera parody that aired in daily syndication from January 1976 to May 1977. The series was produced by Norman Lear, directed by Joan Darling and starred Louise Lasser...
, Norman LearNorman LearNorman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
's 1976-1977 soap-opera parody, one of Mary Hartman's neighbors joins the Hare Krishnas and his family decides to have him deprogrammed. - In a SeinfeldSeinfeldSeinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
episode entitled "The ChecksThe Checks"The Checks" is the 141st episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 7th episode for the 8th season. It aired on NBC on November 7, 1996.-Plot:...
", Mr. Wilhelm joins a religious cult that masquerades as a carpet-cleaning service. When George tries to talk him out of it, Mr. Wilhelm reveals his new name: "TanyaTanyaThe Tanya is an early work of Hasidic philosophy, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad Hasidism, first published in 1797. Its formal title is Likkutei Amarim , but is more commonly known by its opening word, Tanya, which means "it was taught in a beraita"...
" (a nod to the Patty HearstPatty HearstPatricia Campbell Hearst , now known as Patricia Campbell Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress, socialite, actress, kidnap victim, and convicted bank robber....
case). - Spoofs of Lyndon LaRoucheLyndon LaRoucheLyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr. is an American political activist and founder of a network of political committees, parties, and publications known collectively as the LaRouche movement...
have appeared several times: on programs such as The SimpsonsThe SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
and Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
, and in the comic strip Bloom CountyBloom CountyBloom County is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, where children often have adult personalities and vocabularies and where...
. An episode of the science-fiction series SlidersSlidersSliders is an American science fiction television series. It was broadcast for five seasons, beginning in 1995 and ending in 2000. The series follows a group of travelers as they use a wormhole to "slide" between different parallel universes. The show was created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé...
depicts a parallel universe in which LaRouche has become President of the United States. - "The Plan"The Plan (Six Feet Under episode)"The Plan" is the third episode of the second season of the HBO series Six Feet Under. The episode was written by Kate Robin and was directed by Rose Troche. It first aired on March 17, 2002. The episode features a parody of the program used by est and The Forum.- Plot summary :The episode begins...
, an episode of Six Feet Under first broadcast on 17 March 2002, deals with a seminar reminiscent of an estErhard Seminars TrainingErhard Seminars Training, an organization founded by Werner H. Erhard, offered a two-weekend course known officially as "The est Standard Training"...
or Landmark EducationLandmark EducationLandmark Education LLC is a personal training and development company which offers educational programs in approximately 115 locations in more than 20 countries worldwide....
ForumWerner Erhard and AssociatesWerner Erhard and Associates, also known as WE&A or as WEA, operated as a commercial entity from February 1981 until early 1991. It replaced Erhard Seminars Training, Inc. as the vehicle for marketing, selling and imparting the content of the est training, and offered what some people refer to as...
. - The Family GuyFamily GuyFamily Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
episode "Chitty Chitty Death BangChitty Chitty Death Bang"Chitty Chitty Death Bang" is the third episode of the first season of the animated comedy series Family Guy. The episode follows Peter after he tries to make amends for his son, Stewie's, first birthday party when he loses their reservation at a popular kids restaurant known as Cheesie Charlie's...
" deals with a fictional cult that parodies elements of Heaven's GateHeaven's Gate (religious group)Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religion based in San Diego, California, founded and led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles...
and Peoples TemplePeoples TemplePeoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco...
. - The Criminal MindsCriminal MindsCriminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
episode "The Tribe", which first aired March 8, 2006, involves a fictitious cult with an affinity to the Native American people who are killing people in ritualistic ways in New Mexico and a character kidnapped from the cult who needs to be 'deprogrammed'. The cult are led by Chad Allen who followers call 'Grandfather'. There are similarities with the Manson Family and Manson's idea of "Helter SkelterHelter Skelter (Manson scenario)The murders perpetrated by members of Charles Manson's "Family" were inspired in part by Manson's prediction of Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic war he believed would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites...
". - The Criminal MindsCriminal MindsCriminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
episode "Minimal Loss", which first aired October 8, 2008, deals with a fictitious cult 'the Separatarian Sect' at 'Liberty Ranch' in Colorado. Two of the team are investigating reports of child abuse made against the cult leader (Benjamin Cyrus, played by Luke PerryLuke PerryLuke Perry is an American actor. Perry starred as Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, a role he played from 1990–95, and then from 1998–2000. Much publicity was garnered over the fact that even though he was playing a sixteen-year-old when 90210 began, Perry was actually in his...
) and are taken hostage when a federal raid on the ranch goes bad. References are made to 'similar' real life incidents in Ruby RidgeRuby RidgeRuby Ridge was the site of a violent confrontation and siege in northern Idaho in 1992. It involved Randy Weaver, his family, Weaver's friend Kevin Harris, and agents of the United States Marshals Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation...
, the Waco SiegeWaco SiegeThe Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, and ended violently 50 days later on April 19. The siege began when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located east-northeast of Waco,...
and the Freeman Standoff.
Gaming
- The Silent HillSilent Hillis a survival horror video game series consisting of seven installments published by Konami and its subsidiary Konami Digital Entertainment. The first four games in the series, Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, 3 and 4, have been developed by an internal factor, Team Silent...
series heavily involves a religious cult. - The Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionThe Elder Scrolls IV: OblivionThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a single-player action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks and the Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games...
has a cult called the "Mythic Dawn". The player must join the cult in an effort to defeat it. - In Devil May Cry 4Devil May Cry 4Devil May Cry 4 is an action game that was published and developed by Capcom in 2008 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows platforms. The game is the fourth installment to the Devil May Cry series....
, there is a quasi-religious group called the Order of the Sword that worships the demon Sparda and has many cult-like tendencies. - In Resident Evil 4Resident Evil 4Resident Evil 4, known in Japan as , is a survival horror third-person shooter video game developed by Capcom Production Studio 4 and published by multiple publishers, including Capcom, Ubisoft, Nintendo Australia, Red Ant Enterprises and THQ Asia Pacific...
, Leon Kennedy fights against a cult of Spanish villagers possessed by parasites. - In Diablo IIDiablo IIDiablo II is a dark fantasy/horror-themed hack and slash, with elements of the role playing game and dungeon crawl genres. It was released for Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment, and was developed by Blizzard North. It is a direct sequel to the 1996 hit PC game, Diablo.Diablo II...
, the player is tasked to fight against a variety of religious cults: There are shamanic groups who gather around "healers" and whose adherents are called "the fallen". Their spiritual guru is one "Colenzo". Then there is a monastery that has turned to a form of satanistic death-worship, and an old initiatic order called the "Order of the Horadrim" whose leadership has gone mad. In the third act of the game, a cult named the "Zakarum" with priests of the ranks of "sextons", "cantors", and "hierophants", is depicted. The cult followers are called the "faithful" or "zealots", and there is also a "High Council". - In EarthBoundEarthBoundEarthBound, also known as EarthBound: The War Against Giygas! and released as in Japan, is a role-playing video game co-developed by Ape and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game console...
, Ness must rescue a girl with psychic powers named Paula from a cult called Happy Happyism that resembles the Ku Klux KlanKu Klux KlanKu Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
and believes that everything must be painted blue. The Happy Happyists are controlling a small town named Happy Happy Village. Their leader is named Mr. CarpainterMr. Carpainteris the evil cult leader of Happy Happy Village in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game EarthBound. Having knowledge of psychic thunder attacks for reasons unknown, his weakness is the Franklin Badge which can deflect all forms of lightning....
, and a statue called the Mani Mani Statue is controlling the cult's thoughts. Eventually, Ness breaks the spell over the cultists and rescues Paula. Many of the characteristics of the cult are similar to real-world cults: Mr. Carpainter is claimed to have received a "divine revelation" that told him to create the cult, otherwise normal citizens appear to have delusions, and a woman in the town asks for donations. - In Dead SpaceDead Space (video game)Dead Space is a survival horror third-person shooter video game, developed by EA Redwood Shores for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was made available on Steam on October 20, 2008...
the majority of the crew of the Ishimura are "unitologists" and are seen as cultists. - In Dragon Age: OriginsDragon Age: OriginsDragon Age: Origins is a single-player role-playing video game developed by BioWare's Edmonton studio and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first game in the Dragon Age franchise...
, the player may either side with or defy the Cult of Andraste before obtaining Her Sacred Ashes from the Urn. - In Fallout 3Fallout 3Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
There is a cult named The Children Of The Atom, who worship an un-detonated nuclear bomb in a settlement called Megaton. - In Fallout 2Fallout 2Fallout 2 is a computer role-playing game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay in 1998. The game's story takes place in 2241, 80 years after the events of Fallout...
There is a cult named The Hubologists, a thinly veiled reference to Scientology. The practices of the cult broadly resemble some of the practices of Scientology. - In Grand Theft AutoGrand Theft Auto (series)Grand Theft Auto is a multi-award-winning British video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by Edinburgh based Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games...
games there is frequent discussion on the radio, and by pedestrians about the Epsilon Program, a religion started by the character Chris Formage, which has been called "a cult" by GTA radio personalities such as Lazlow Jones. - In the Warcraft UniverseWarcraft UniverseWarcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media originally created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of Four core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and World of Warcraft...
a number of cults exist, some worshiping ancient evils; seeking to bring them back into the world, while others like the "Cult of the Damned" seek to end all life on Azeroth, while securing their own immortality in undeath.
- In the "Fatal FrameFatal FrameFatal Frame, known as Project Zero in the PAL region, and Zero Zero in Japan, is a survival horror video game series consisting of four installments and a spin-off. The first and second games in the series were released for the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, the third has been released for the...
" series there are a variety of cults that do rituals and sacrifices.
Film
- The 1965 British film Help!Help! (film)Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
directed by Richard LesterRichard LesterRichard Lester is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.-Early years and television:...
, starring The BeatlesThe BeatlesThe Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
—John LennonJohn LennonJohn Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Paul McCartneyPaul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, George HarrisonGeorge HarrisonGeorge Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
, features a fictionalized version of the Indian criminal cult the Thugees as villains.
- The 1971 Indian film Hare Rama Hare Krishna centers around the hippieHippieThe hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
invasion of Kathmandu, NepalNepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
. The film also features the Hindi hit song "Dum Maro Dum", which includes the chant "Hare Krishna Hare Ram".
- The 1981 Canadian film Ticket to HeavenTicket to HeavenTicket to Heaven is a 1981 Canadian film about the recruiting of a man into a group portrayed to be a cult, and his life in the group until forcibly extracted by his family and friends. The film was directed by Ralph L. Thomas...
portrays a young man who joins a cult (based loosely on the Unification ChurchUnification ChurchThe Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
); his family subsequently kidnaps him for deprogramming.
- The 1984 American film "Indiana Jones and the Temple of DoomIndiana Jones and the Temple of DoomIndiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the second film in the Indiana Jones franchise and prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark . After arriving in India, Indiana Jones is asked by a desperate village to find a mystical stone...
" features a cult group inspired by the real-life ThuggeeThuggeeThuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in South Asia and particularly in India.They are sometimes called Phansigar i.e...
s. In the film they perform ritualistic sacrifices of human beings via a fiery lava pit and are worshipers of the Sankara Stones, believed to contain hidden mystical powers.
- The 1985 American film WitnessWitness (1985 film)Witness is a 1985 American thriller film directed by Peter Weir and starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. The screenplay by William Kelley, Pamela Wallace, and Earl W...
is a crime-thriller, directed by Peter WeirPeter WeirPeter Lindsay Weir, AM is an Australian film director. After playing a leading role in the Australian New Wave cinema with his films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films—many of them major box office...
and starring Harrison FordHarrison FordHarrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
and Kelly McGillisKelly McGillisKelly Ann McGillis is an American actress. Her films include Top Gun, The Accused, and Witness, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.-Career:...
It is set among the AmishAmishThe Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
sect of PennsylvaniaPennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and partly deals with their values and their relationships with larger society.
- The 1992 American film Malcolm XMalcolm X (film)Malcolm X is a 1992 biographical motion picture about the Muslim-American figure Malcolm X . It was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Spike Lee. It stars Denzel Washington as the titular character. It co-stars Angela Bassett, Albert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., and Delroy Lindo...
is a biographical motion pictureBiographical filmA biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
about the Muslim-American figure Malcolm XMalcolm XMalcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
, including his membership in the Nation of IslamNation of IslamThe Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
. It was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Spike LeeSpike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
. It stars Denzel WashingtonDenzel WashingtonDenzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...
.
- The 1999 Australian film Holy Smoke!Holy Smoke!Holy Smoke! is a 1999 Australian drama film directed by Jane Campion, who co-wrote the screenplay with her sister Anna. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was shown at the New York Film Festival and the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival before being released theatrically.-Plot...
features Kate WinsletKate WinsletKate Elizabeth Winslet is an English actress and occasional singer. She has received multiple awards and nominations. She was the youngest person to accrue six Academy Award nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader...
as a traveler newly returned from IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, where she fell under the spell of a religious guru. Harvey KeitelHarvey KeitelHarvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
plays the deprogrammer with whom she gets involved.
- The 2003 American film Latter DaysLatter DaysLatter Days is a 2003 American romantic drama film about a gay relationship between a closeted Mormon missionary and his openly gay neighbor. The film was written and directed by C. Jay Cox. It stars Steve Sandvoss as the missionary, Aaron, and Wes Ramsey as the neighbor, Christian. Joseph...
is a romantic dramaRomance filmRomance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
about a gayHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
relationship between a closetedClosetedCloseted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
MormonMormonThe term Mormon most commonly denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism, which is the largest branch of the Latter Day Saint movement in restorationist Christianity...
missionaryMissionary (LDS Church)The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the most active modern practitioners of missionary work, with over 52,000 full-time missionaries worldwide, as of the end of 2010...
and his openly gay neighbor. It was the first film to portray openly the clashHomosexuality and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsHomosexual acts are prohibited by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Law of Chastity, as well as other sexual acts outside the bonds of marriage. Violating the Law of Chastity may result in excommunication...
between the principles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and homosexualityHomosexualityHomosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
.