5 Books That Will Make You Rethink Cults Forever
Depending on who you talk to, the term “cult” can be a dirty word. Religious studies scholars and researchers of new religious movements shy away from it for good reason: it’s a loaded term that evokes white robes, black Nikes, and the lines of dead bodies in Jonestown. The word cult is stigmatizing, but also not very specific.
In writing my new book Blazing Eye Sees All: Love Has Won, False Prophets and the Fever Dream of the American New Age, I found myself diving down wormhole after wormhole to try to understand how New Age ideas became so embedded in America’s religious psyche. And in the process of my reporting, I read a lot of books about groups often called cults, from Aum Shinrikyo to Heaven’s Gate to the Branch Davidians.
These five fascinating books go deep on real-life religious groups: what followers believe, how their leaders act and, in some cases, how the groups collapsed after dramatic incidents that felt downright apocalyptic.
Love Cults and Faith Healers: The Story of America’s False Religions by Arthur Orrmont
In 1961, the writer Arthur Orrmont offered an inside look at some of the more eccentric faith leaders of his day, including Foursquare founder Aimee Semple McPherson, known to ride a motorcycle to the pulpit of her church and Mormon polygamist James Strang, who called himself the king of an island in Michigan. Orrmont’s work also dives into the I AM Activity and its leaders, Guy and Edna Ballard — rare reporting that proved critical in my research into the New Age.
About the Author
Leah Sottile is the author of When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow Chad Daybell, and A Story of Murder, Wild Faith and End Times. Her investigations, features and essays have been published by The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Playboy, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic and High Country News. She is the host of the investigative podcasts Hush, Burn Wild, Two Minutes Past Nine and Bundyville. She lives in Oregon.
In Blazing Eye Sees All, Sottile seeks to understand the quest for New Age spirituality in an era of fear that has made us open to anything that claims to bring relief from war, the climate crisis, COVID 19, and the myriad of other issues we face. At the same time, she attempts to draw a line between truly helpful, healing ideas and snake oil—helping us sort through the crystals to find true clarity.
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