Cults

As we look ahead to the new year, we want to take one last chance to say thank you for the year that was — and present our "Best of 2021"! Please enjoy this episode from our fan-favorite podcast, Solved Murders.

In August 1969, actress Sharon Tate was living the Hollywood dream. Until it turned into the bloodiest kind of Hollywood nightmare. 

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On Christmas Eve nearly seventy years ago, Dorothy Martin and the Seekers stood outside in Chicago and sang carols. They were waiting for a spacecraft that would shepherd them away from Earth — and the impending apocalypse. On this Cults Christmas Special, join us for a look into a doomsday cult awaiting deliverance, and the psychological breakthrough that arose from studying them. 

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The Manson Family’s infamous murder spree may have been partially inspired by The Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter” but it was The Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson who opened doors in Hollywood for their charismatic cult leader. From our friends at Sinister Societies, hear how Charles Manson almost became the next great pop hit of the ‘60s.  

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After a decade of abuse at the hands of Colin Batley, a young woman made a desperate escape. Early one morning, with her baby in her arms, she ran out of the cul-de-sac that Batley and his church called home and never came back. Now, out from under his grasp, she could bring Batley down.

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In 1980s London, Colin Batley started a church based on the occult teachings of Aleister Crowley. Batley soon moved his congregation into a quiet cul-de-sac 200 miles away — where, behind the façade of suburbia, he and his followers sexually assaulted children.

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We end our three-part special in Japan, where a yoga teacher named Shoko Asahara preached a violent, apocalyptic dogma. In 1995 his cult, Aum Shinrikyo, used chemical weapons in targeted attacks in Tokyo to speed up the apocalypse. 

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Vanessa is joined by Lanie Hobbs from Crimes of Passion, a Spotify Original from Parcast, as they investigate the life of Michael Roach — Princeton grad, certified Geshe, and so-called king of Diamond Mountain, his spiritual retreat in Arizona. Together with his mentee and then-wife, Christie McNally, Roach lured hundreds of people to the desert with tantric yoga and karmic seeds.

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How do quests for enlightenment get so sinister? Today, we’re looking at three stories of yoga gurus and guides who were loved — then loathed — for their practices. We start in Romania, charting the rise of the deeply polarizing Gregorian Bivolaru. The alleged mystic is heralded by many as a great teacher and victim of persecution. But authorities say he used his teachings to manipulate, exploit, and traffic women and girls.

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When a psychic who’s been experimenting with ketamine goes missing in 1979, her brother suspects she’s been kidnapped by a cult. Today’s episode on Marcia Moore is from Unsolved Murders, a true crime podcast and Spotify Original from Parcast. Follow Unsolved Murders for new episodes every Tuesday!

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Millions of followers. A powerful political ally. And his very own Garden of Eden. Televangelist Apollo Quiboloy spent decades turning his small congregation into a multinational religious empire. Along the way, he’s faced alarming accusations of brainwashing, human trafficking, and murder. 

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