Cosmic People of Light Powers: A UFO Religion in the Czech Republic Abstract The Cosmic People of Light Powers (CPLP) is a UFO religion founded in the 1990s in the Czech Republic. The religion is centered on the teachings of Ivo A. Benda, who claims to have been contacted by extraterrestrial beings since 1997. The …
Shincheonji Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony (SCJ), commonly known as Shincheonji Church of Jesus or simply Shincheonji (Korean: 신천지; Hanja: 新天地; lit. New Heaven and New Earth; IPA: [ɕintɕʰʌndʑi]), is a denomination of Christian new religious movement established in South Korea by Lee Man-hee. It is considered as a …
he Sarah Lawrence cult was a group of young people who were allegedly brainwashed and abused by Larry Ray, the father of one of the students. Ray moved into his daughter’s dorm room in 2010 and began to exert control over her friends. He would pressure them into doing degrading and sometimes sexual acts, and …
The Sullivan Institute was a psychotherapy cult that operated in New York City from the 1950s to the 1990s. The Institute was founded by Saul B. Newton, a Marxist with no formal training as a therapist, and his wife, Dr. Jane Pearce. The Institute’s teachings held that traditional family ties were the root cause of …
Chen Tao is a UFO religion that originated in Taiwan. It was founded by Hon-Ming Chen (陳恆明 born 1955), who first associated it with UFOs and later had the group misrepresented as a New Age UFO cult. Chen was a former professor who claimed to be an atheist until he joined a religious cultivation group …
he Fellowship of Friends is a religious organization that has been accused of being a cult. The group was founded in 1970 by Robert Earl Burton, who claimed to be a spiritual teacher. The Fellowship of Friends has its headquarters in Oregon House, California, and has a number of smaller communities around the world. The …
he Aetherius Society is a new religious movement founded by George King in the mid-1950s as the result of what King claimed were contacts with extraterrestrial intelligences, to whom he referred as “Cosmic Masters”. The main goal of the believer is to cooperate with these Cosmic Masters to help humanity solve its current Earthly problems …
Ho No Hana Sanpogyo is a Japanese new religious movement founded by Hogen Fukunaga in 1987. The group is often referred to as the “foot-reading cult” because of Fukunaga’s claim that he could diagnose physical illness by examining the soles of an individual’s feet. Ho No Hana has been accused of a number of fraudulent …
Superior Universal Alignment (SUA) is a religious movement that was founded in Brazil in the 1980s by Valentina de Andrade. SUA is a syncretic religion that draws on elements of Christianity, Hinduism, and other spiritual traditions. SUA members believe that the world is in a state of spiritual crisis and that only SUA can save …
The Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) was a cult and religious sect that claimed to be based upon the ideals of the Knights Templar. OTS was founded by Joseph di Mambro and Luc Jouret in 1984 in Geneva, as l’Ordre International Chevaleresque de Tradition Solaire (OICTS), and later it was renamed Ordre du Temple …