Translated from Latin, the word “secta” means “school”, “teaching”. Formally, there is nothing negative in the concept itself, but for modern people it is associated with intolerance, fanaticism and an absurd readiness to give one’s own and others’ lives in the name of a certain subject calling himself a Teacher, Prophet or even Messiah. According to psychologists, there is a certain category of suggestible people in the world who are not inclined to build their lives independently and justify such social infantilism by the desire to “search for truth.” They become followers of false prophets who use their adherents for selfish purposes or to strengthen their own ego. And, although the percentage of people who are ready to act to harm themselves is relatively small, their fanatical willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Teacher is an additional factor of strength.
Take, for example, the followers of the Assassin sect founded in the 1080s by Hassan ibn Sabbah. The cunning Hasan pumped up the young men with hashish and, in an unconscious state, sent them to “paradise” with luxurious apartments, beauties and delicious food. Having awakened, the guy believed that he found himself in Eden, received a small portion of carnal joys, then pumped himself up again with hashish and returned “to earth” to his mentor. Naturally, after such an “excursion” he was ready to fulfill any will of Ibn Sabbah, just to quickly find himself in the “other world” again, but without a ticket back.
As a result, the relatively few but fanatically loyal assassins became an influential force in the Middle East, with such authoritative figures as Saladin and Richard the Lionheart taken into account.
But the assassins, at least, were, if not in heaven itself, then in a high-quality imitation of it. But who should be considered sectarians who take their dubious mentors at their word and commit actions for their sake that violate all generally accepted moral norms - criminals or fools?
Thugi - India
The Thugas (or Thagis) worshiped the Hindu goddess Kali, who was believed to help find real truth through murder and destruction. Each human life sacrificed to her improved the karma of the killer, contributing to his subsequent rebirth in some more prestigious forms. The Tugh sect appeared around the 12th century, and the total number of their victims is incalculable. Presumably, in the period from 1740 to 1840 alone, they killed at least a million people in India, mostly local residents.
The word "tug" itself comes from the concept of "to deceive", as they usually huddle with their victims, convincing them that traveling together is safer. In ordinary life, the sectarians looked like typical ordinary people and belonged to different strata of society. The “hunting” season began in November, after the end of field work. It was supposed to kill with minimal shedding of blood, so most often the Tugas resorted to strangulation and they themselves called each other fancigars - stranglers.
The weapon was a scarf or silk ribbon with a load sewn into one end (usually several coins). Sometimes poisons or a dagger were used, which was struck into a notch in the back of the head, which also minimized bloodshed. The corpses were buried in the ground with a hoe, which served as a kind of emblem and element of the sectarian ritual. Since the victims were travelers, people simply went missing, and it was almost impossible to find traces of them in such a large country as India.
“Ideological” Thugas usually donated their prey to the goddess Kali, but, besides them, there were also lovers (the so-called Pindaris), for whom killing travelers was considered a means of earning extra money. British authorities became seriously interested in the sect in 1825, after the Thugs killed the wife of an English general and five officers accompanying her. Captain William Sleeman, posing as an Indian, began collecting information. The information he collected caused a shock in society, and in 1830 a series of punitive actions were carried out. Typically, Thugs were caught on the approaches to temples, after which they resorted to the harshest interrogation methods.
By 1837, 3,266 sectarians were caught, of which 412 were hanged, and the rest received various sentences. Among those hanged was the strangler, who was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most prolific serial killer in world history. 62-year-old Behram, who was executed in 1840, had 921 victims!
Moonies
In the 1950s, the Korean Sun Myung Moon created an international empire, which has several different official names. Moon and his wife now live in the States. There are hundreds of thousands of adherents in the ranks of the organization, Moon owns factories and shipyards. In Moscow, sectarians bought a cinema building for their meetings. They do not allow strangers there, and the mayor’s office is not yet able to return the building back. The flock lives in small groups of 5 to 10 people, breaking all family ties. They get up at four in the morning and immediately begin a long morning prayer. You cannot have sex before marriage, and the “other half” for marriage is appointed by the top of the sect. Most often, future spouses see each other for the first time after Moon's approval without their consent, and the wedding takes place three years after they met. All income of the flock goes to the organization's treasury. According to the ideology, Moon bears divine blood and is sent to Earth to cleanse humanity. To do this, he needs to sleep with sectarian women so that they give birth to as many “special” children as possible. The psyche of the flock is destroyed. They imagine Jesus Christ, Stalin and other great personalities. Adherents run around the stage with terrible screams and distorted faces, uttering screams and stupid speeches. The police are fighting the sect because they evade taxes, commit fraud and violate visa regulations.
Sect of eunuchs
The Skoptsy were an offshoot of the Khlysty sect that appeared in Muscovite Rus' in the 17th century, largely copying its ideas and organizational structure. The name “Khlysty” The title “Khlysty” reflected the nature of prayer vigils, when the flesh was pacified through self-flagellation, which was often followed by sexual orgies. Among the eunuchs, the flesh is pacified in a more radical way - through castration, that is, castration. Both Khlysty and Skoptsy unite into autonomous communities called ships, headed by either Christs, considered the earthly incarnation of God the Son, or women of the Mother of God.
Preparing for castration
The founder of the sect of eunuchs is considered to be the fugitive serf Kondraty Selivanov (1740-1832), who left the ship of the Khlyst Mother of God Akulina Ivanovna after becoming disillusioned with the debauchery that reigned there. Having founded his own ship near Morshansk (Tambov province), he put his teachings in the form of poetry (“Stradas”). He was captured and exiled to Siberia, from where he escaped. He was caught again and presented to Emperor Paul I, who also offered to be castrated. The king sent him to a mental home.
Skoptsy Olekminsky district (Yakutia)
Selivanov ended his life while imprisoned in the Spaso-Efimievsky Monastery. However, his teaching began to spread not only among the masses, but also among the upper strata of society. It is believed that the eunuchs were patronized by the Minister of Spiritual Affairs and Public Education, Prince Alexander Golitsyn. In the 1820s, the sect of Ekaterina Tatarinova, close to the eunuchs, included General Yevgeny Golovin, the future governor of the Caucasus.
Some eunuchs were allowed to delay castration until the birth of their first child, who would then undergo a similar procedure. To expand the ranks, orphans were often adopted and peasants were redeemed from serfdom, promising to pay for freedom with a very important element of their body. Having defeated “sin” in such a radical way, eunuchs often became very successful entrepreneurs, using money to expand their influence not only in the religious but also in the political sphere.
Sect of eunuchs
At the same time, outwardly they observed many Orthodox rituals, usually masquerading as Old Believers. Some researchers believe that it was the eunuchs who orchestrated many events in Russian history, including revolutionary ones. In 1929, Soviet justice organized a high-profile trial against the followers of this sect, but information about the existence of individual communities in Latvia, Moscow, Stavropol, and Orel can be traced back to our time.
"Realino"
In France in the seventies, the “Realino” sect arose, which was created by Vorillion (Rael). He was engaged in convincing people that in 1973 a meeting of aliens with people was supposed to take place on the crater of one of the inactive volcanoes. Rael stated that only aliens are the creators of the Earth, and they used cloning. The leader of the sect lured people with a variety of promises about eternal life and the fact that only he could give it.
Sect "Realino"
Drama "Peoples Temple"
The Peoples Temple sect can be considered a kind of record holder for the number of victims of a one-time mass suicide, but only on the condition that the official version of its death is true. The founder of the sect, Jim Jones (1931-1978), began his career in the US state of Indiana, preaching the ideas of “apostolic socialism” with collective labor and community of property. Conservative Americans were irritated that Jones' flock included people of all nationalities and skin colors, which, however, did not contradict Christian precepts.
Jim Jones - founder of the Peoples Temple sect
Having moved his headquarters to cosmopolitan San Francisco, Jones helped the poor, the homeless, drug addicts, and prostitutes. Supporting the Democrats with his followers, in the mid-1970s he received a post in the municipality, communicated with California Governor Jerry Brown, US Vice President Walter Mondale and First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
Perhaps because of his increased political influence, relatives of sectarians increasingly began to file lawsuits against the Peoples Temple. Then the sectarians founded a commune in the Latin American republic of Guyana, calling it Jonestown in honor of their leader.
Life in the village was strictly regulated. I had to work 11 hours a day, and the rest of the time was “consumed” by sermons and various kinds of educational programs. On the other hand, jokes and laughter can be heard on tape recordings of Jones’s nightly sermons, and all visitors to Jonestown spoke of its residents as people quite happy with their lives.
American Themis, however, tried to get to Jones, who, in turn, allegedly established contacts with Soviet representatives on the topic of moving the entire community to the country of victorious socialism. On November 18, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan arrived in the village and, together with relatives of the sectarians, got Jones to release five members of the commune who wished to leave the Peoples Temple to their homeland. However, while boarding the plane at Port Kaituma airport, the congressman and those accompanying him, according to the official version, were shot by Jones’s gunmen who suddenly appeared on the runway.
Jim Jones with his parishioners
After this, the leader of the Peoples Temple, again, with the help of his guards, forced the sectarians to take poison poured into glasses of tonic drinks. Jones himself was shot in the head by an unknown person. A total of 918 corpses were found at the scene of the tragedy!
According to the unofficial version, the massacre was organized by American security forces to prevent the emigration of such a significant number of American citizens to the Soviet Union.
Hare Krishnas
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness was founded in 1966 in the United States by an immigrant from India. The doctrine strongly contradicts the beliefs of Hinduism. In the Russian capital, Hare Krishnas at the beginning of the 2000s tried to take a large plot of land to build a temple. But the anger of the public was such that the authorities of the Mother See did not allow it.
There are up to four thousand adherents of this sect in the Russian Federation. They wear Indian clothes, eat the national food of India, pray from morning to night and study a distorted version of the Hindu holy book. They consider Krishna to be the creator of the Universe, who started the wheel of reincarnation. You can get out of samsara by becoming concubines of God. That's why both men and women happily get themselves high at meetings. Thus, they are trying to depict sexual intercourse with the effeminate youth Krishna. Hare Krishnas regularly go into trance. At this time, they scream and laugh heart-rendingly, dance, jump and hug, roll on the ground and even spit. In this way they are trying to enter the heavenly palace of Krishna. Mental illness among many has become so severe that there are known cases of members of the organization raping small children and cutting off the heads of Christian clergy.
Sect Family
The Family commune was a sect grouped around Charles Manson, a charismatic slacker who dreamed of a musical career and preached a free lifestyle with group sex and drugs. Later, rituals with “black masses” and animal sacrifices to Satan appeared. Members of the “Family” called each other brothers and sisters. Manson called his pseudo-religion the “Law of the Rainbow” and preached the need to maintain environmental balance.
Charles Manson
The first victim of the “Family” members was drug dealer Gary Hinkman, whose brothers and sisters had complaints about the quality of his goods—he was simply stabbed to death. A week later, on August 8, 1969, Manson sent his assistant Charles Watson (nickname Tex) with three girls to carry out a pogrom in the house that previously belonged to music producer Terry Melcher, who once refused to release a disc with his songs. That evening, a party was held in the mansion, organized by film actress Sharon Tate, the wife of the famous director Roman Polanski. As a result, five people, including Tate, who was nine months pregnant, were brutally killed.
The next day, Manson himself decided to show “how it should be done” by carrying out reprisals against the owners of a chain of small stores, the La Bianca spouses. Soon the sectarians were arrested for stealing cars, but were released due to an incorrectly executed warrant. Suspecting one of their acquaintances for the denunciation, the sectarians immediately killed him, after which, in a deranged state, they set fire to earth-moving equipment at night.
This time the sectarians were arrested according to all the rules, after which other crimes surfaced. Manson and six accomplices were sentenced to death, commuted to prison. In 1984, a Hare Krishna who was sitting with him doused him with a solvent and set him on fire so that he would not interfere with his repeating mantras. Manson survived, but his face suffered from burns. Charles Manson himself died in November 2021 due to a gastrointestinal tract disease. He died right in his hospital bed in the prison hospital, at the age of 84.
Neo-Pentecostals or Charismatics
More than half of Russian sectarians belong to the Word of Life organization. Neo-Pentecostals have several other names: “Church of the New Generation”, “Calvary Chapel”, etc. The charismatic movement originated in America in the 70s of the last century and now seriously influences the social life of different countries. In the Russian Federation, there are up to 300,000 people who belong to the Pentecostal sect. They consider themselves Protestant Christians, but this is not so. Occultism in the sect is so developed that real Protestants consider them sectarians. After all, charismatics laugh and scream at meetings, supposedly feeling the Holy Spirit.
Sect leaders collect tithes and other donations from their flock. It is suggested that the more money you bring to the organization’s treasury, the closer you will be to God, the happier and healthier you will be. The leaders of the sect show pseudo-sessions of healing the blind and lame, and the hypnosis sessions look cooler than those of Kashpirovsky. Newcomers are recruited right on the street, supposedly invited to a cool party. The magic of persuasion is such that many people decide to come to large halls. They begin to dance with the others to noisy music and listen to the speeches of the “pastor.” As a result, people begin to think that everything is cool and wonderful in their lives, although in reality they have a lot of problems. Some people's psyche is completely shaken, others realize the untruthfulness of religious teachings and try to commit suicide. At that time, they had already lost all their financial savings, giving them to the sect’s budget. A number of adherents committed brutal crimes: rape of young children, murder. In 2001, charismatic parents in Moscow strangled their little sick daughter and sick granddaughter, suggesting that the illnesses of these children were a divine curse.
Branch Davidian
The American sect “Branch David” broke away from the Davidian sect of Seventh-day Adventists, which, in turn, was a splinter of a large sect of Adventists. Its spiritual leader was Vernon Weil Howell (1959-1993), who took the name David Koresh, which was a combination of the anglicized names of the Israeli king David and the Persian king Cyrus.
David Koresh
Koresh was born into a dysfunctional family, as a child he was constantly bullied by his peers, he suffered from dyslexia (problems with reading and writing), but at the age of 11 he memorized the text of the Gospel. Having joined an already existing sect, he became the lover of its elderly leader Lois Roden, after whose death he fought for power with her son John. The outcome of the struggle was determined after John was sent to prison for the murder of one of the sectarians.
Koresh and his followers founded a kind of commune at the Mount Carmel estate in Texas. In addition to the property and free labor of sectarians, an important source of income was the legal trade in weapons. This commune, of course, irritated the authorities, but in order to obtain a search warrant it was necessary to prove that the sectarians were doing something illegal - for example, illegal trade in automatic weapons or abusing minors.
Back in 1989, Koresh forbade his adherents from sexual contact, declaring that all women of the sect were his personal “spiritual wives.” True, he did not live with everyone, but only with 10 “carnal” (carnal) spouses, many of whom were seduced by him at the age of 10.
The police, having received a search warrant in Mount Carmel, decided to raid the estate suddenly, on the morning of April 28, 1993. However, law enforcement officers and the television crews accompanying them were spotted on their way. The sectarians took up arms and put up fierce resistance. While trying to enter the territory, four FBI agents were killed, after which the security forces began a full-fledged siege.
Koresh agreed to release 19 children under the age of 22, but flatly refused to give up, saying that he needed to complete work on the sacred texts. The supply of electricity and water to the estate stopped, armored vehicles destroyed buildings adjacent to the building, and the same Sinatra song and cat meowing were broadcast through loudspeakers, which should have driven the besieged into a frenzy.
On April 29, firing tear gas shells, the FBI and National Guard launched an assault under cover of tanks. The sectarians did not return fire. The building in which they were located was set on fire, either by the besieged or by the stormers, and only nine people managed to get out of it. 82 sectarians, including 20 children and teenagers, died in the fire.
Arrested members of the Branch Davidian sect
Supporters of the “militia” movement existing in the United States, who oppose government interference in the personal lives of citizens, sharply condemned the actions of the authorities. One of them, Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh, blew up a building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, which led to the death of 168 people and became the largest terrorist attack in US history (before the explosion of the Twin Towers in New York) . McVeigh was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection.
"Heaven's Gate"
At the end of the 20th century, the creator of the Gates of Heaven sect, Epwhite, was able to convince 39 sectarians to commit suicide. People believed that our planet would soon collide with a dangerous comet and the death of humanity would occur. They were told that after suicide they would leave their bodies and go into space on a rocket. Adepts prepared for future space travel, studying religious books wearing hoods, gloves and sterile clothing so as not to touch each other in order to avoid sinful desires. They were forbidden to communicate verbally; they could only write notes to each other. The sectarians watched each other and told the sect leader about the sins of the others. The bodies of all 39 sectarians who committed suicide were found in the spring of 1997 in a California villa. There were 21 men among them, the rest were women. People ate sweets, sleeping pills and washed it down with strong alcohol. All the sectarians were dressed identically and neatly covered with a purple blanket. Before dying, they tightly covered their faces with plastic bags so that they could die in their sleep from lack of air.
Aum Shinrikyo
The Japanese sect “Aum Shinrikyo,” led by Shoko Asahara, actually declared war on the state at the end of the 20th century. The sect's name is a combination of Sanskrit and Buddhist terms and can be translated as "teaching of truth." In Japan, it was called “a religion for the elite,” since a significant part of the sectarians were students of prestigious educational institutions.
Shoko Asahara
The leader of the sect was born in 1955 into the family of a large tatami manufacturer. Being completely blind in his left eye and partially in his right eye, he already earned three thousand dollars while studying at a school for the blind, acting as a guide for his completely blind comrades. Later he sold dubious medicinal drugs and created a doctrine that was a cocktail of Buddhism and other Eastern beliefs.
In 1986, having achieved “ultimate Liberation and Enlightenment” in the Himalayas, Asahara began to create a tightly structured organization aimed at seizing power, potentially on a global scale. Capital was mainly formed from semi-voluntarily donated funds from sectarians, many of which were held in Aum Shinrikyo by force. Lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, who tried to file a lawsuit in their defense, was killed in November 1989 along with his wife and young child, and this crime remained unsolved for a long time.
Shoko Asahara with adherents
Having opened branches in New York, Bonn and Sri Lanka, Asahara took a special interest in Russia, where he tried to acquire various types of weapons and technologies for their production. After the head of the sect and several of his associates did not enter the Japanese parliament, they began to purchase weapons at an accelerated pace. To eliminate opponents, poisonous gases were often used - one such attack in the city of Matsumoto led to the death of seven citizens. But the biggest resonance was caused by the gas attack in the Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995, as a result of which at least 12 people died and several dozen were seriously poisoned.
“Aum Shinrikyo” denied its involvement in the terrorist attacks, but the police raided the sect’s offices and enterprises and found a lot of interesting things, including the Ebola and anthrax viruses, the components needed to make sarin, which could be used to kill up to four million people, and also a Mi-17 military helicopter purchased in Russia.
"Aum Shinrikyo"
As a result of the trial, Asahara himself, the “Minister of Construction” Kiyohide Hayakawa and 10 other members of the sect were sentenced to death by hanging. But none of the sentences were ever carried out.
In Russia, five domestic sectarians also planned to carry out a “gas attack” in Vladivostok, but were arrested at the preparation stage, receiving sentences of up to eight years in prison inclusive.
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia are recognized as a totalitarian sect and are therefore banned. But despite this, adherents of the Jehovah's teachings hold their meetings clandestinely and place their booklets and issues of the Watchtower in mailboxes. The leaders of the sect convince their flock that there is a God called Jehovah. After the imminent end of the world, he will save those people who believe in him. In meetings, people read a distorted version of the Bible. In the New Testament version of the false holy book, Jesus Christ is not God, but the son of Jehovah. The congregation pays offerings and tithes. They are prohibited from celebrating secular and Christian holidays. New Year, birthday, Christmas and Easter - these and other holidays are strictly taboo. It is also prohibited to vote, serve in the army, or give blood transfusions. All life is full of prohibitions. Entire families from grandmother to grandson come to sect meetings. They, accompanied by noisy music and speeches from the pastor, believe in an imminent apocalypse. For more than a hundred years, a new date for the end of the world has been called, but the planet still lives. Jehovah's Witnesses are thriving throughout the world. In Russia, by court decision, it has recently been recognized as extremist and a reduction in the number of members of the sect is expected. Many of the flock became mentally ill, committed suicide, or refused treatment for serious illnesses.
