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DISTURBING Cults You_ve Never Heard Of · The conspiracy

0:00
Speaker 1: What motivates people to give up their lives, their wealth,
0:04
Speaker 1: and even their identities to a charismatic leader. How do
0:07
Speaker 1: you ordinary everyday individuals become trapped in manipulative, often dangerous
0:13
Speaker 1: belief systems, and when the illusion of a perfect world
0:17
Speaker 1: begins to break? What then? Throughout history, cults have risen
0:22
Speaker 1: and fallen, leaving behind dark stories of controlled deception and tragedy.
0:27
Speaker 1: But some of the most disturbing cases remain largely unknown
0:31
Speaker 1: to the public. So we're going to dive deep into
0:34
Speaker 1: the rise and collapse of three such cults, each led
0:38
Speaker 1: by figures who promised enlightenment but delivered something far far
0:44
Speaker 1: more sinister. Crime, conspiracy cults, sodial killers, and murder all
0:49
Speaker 1: things that I love to consume, and I know you
0:51
Speaker 1: do too, You sick, twisted, lovely, beautiful, intellectually muttered break.
0:56
Speaker 1: So today we are talking about just that, three of
1:00
Speaker 1: the three of which I don't think you've heard of,
1:03
Speaker 1: and if you have, well I don't know. Don't listen. Yeah,
1:06
Speaker 1: you should listen anyway, but without further ado. That's I'm buckalow,
1:09
Speaker 1: seat bout's go MAK five down the highway, slam on
1:11
Speaker 1: the brakes, and bust through the windshield into these three
1:14
Speaker 1: disturbing cults together. So the first cult we're gonna be
1:32
Speaker 1: talking about today is angels Landing. Sounds nice, right, It's not.
1:38
Speaker 1: It's not. It's the furthest thing from nice. It should
1:41
Speaker 1: be called the Devil's Landing. It's probably my worst joke.
1:43
Speaker 1: And that the jokes will get up, Get up from here,
1:46
Speaker 1: go up from here, for sure. And the first joke
1:54
Speaker 1: I will mention is the man named Daniel Perez, the
1:59
Speaker 1: cult leader, you will. And he was born in Aransas Pass,
2:02
Speaker 1: Texas in nineteen fifty nine, and he was somewhat of
2:05
Speaker 1: an enigmatic figure, with early info on his life largely undisclosed.
2:10
Speaker 1: It was difficult to find information on what he was
2:13
Speaker 1: like as a little kiddo, and you know, and like
2:16
Speaker 1: what he was like as a young adult. What job
2:18
Speaker 1: he had? Did he work at McDonald's, I don't know.
2:20
Speaker 1: The guy is a bit of a he's a bit
2:22
Speaker 1: of a mystery, but I don't really care because he's
2:25
Speaker 1: a giant piece of shit. But into his adulthood he
2:28
Speaker 1: did work in Texas prisons, aviation and maintained airplanes in
2:33
Speaker 1: the Navy, and in nineteen ninety six to nineteen ninety seven.
2:36
Speaker 1: He was also accused of sensual crimes against two young girls. Yeah,
2:41
Speaker 1: it gets bad right out the gate with this guy.
2:44
Speaker 1: This guy is like megapos, and these girls were only
2:47
Speaker 1: eleven and fourteen. But these specific cases would be dismissed.
2:52
Speaker 1: Why you ask, because he was reported dead, but he
2:57
Speaker 1: actually wasn't. In reality, he just changed his name to
3:01
Speaker 1: Lou Castro and moved out of state. He can't do
3:05
Speaker 1: that shit. Now, you can't do that shit. That's crazy.
3:07
Speaker 1: I wonder how many people did that just to like
3:09
Speaker 1: wipe their slate completely clean. It's just sick. But this
3:12
Speaker 1: is when he would start to build somewhat of a following,
3:16
Speaker 1: not not necessarily a cult at this point, but a
3:19
Speaker 1: bit of a following, a commune, if you will. So
3:21
Speaker 1: he allegedly traveled with members of his commune for several
3:25
Speaker 1: years across multiple states before finally settling into their home
3:29
Speaker 1: of Angels Landing Devil's Landing, and the states they would
3:34
Speaker 1: move to was Texas, the Dakota's, Missouri, Kansas, and eventually Tennessee.
3:39
Speaker 1: But that was after Angels Landing. So Perez or Lou
3:42
Speaker 1: Gastro at this time claimed to be a seer with
3:47
Speaker 1: the ability to see the future. You know, like that's
3:50
Speaker 1: so raven, and you know that seems pretty standard as
3:54
Speaker 1: a cult leader. They all claim that the doomsday's coming,
3:57
Speaker 1: they know the future because their profit bah blah blah, bullshit, bullshit.
4:00
Speaker 1: But he would also claim that he would need young
4:03
Speaker 1: girls to sustain his life and wanted regular access to
4:09
Speaker 1: his followers, his followers being a lot of young girls,
4:13
Speaker 1: and by access, you can draw that conclusion just sick.
4:17
Speaker 1: He's just a giant sick.
4:19
Speaker 2: Oh.
4:19
Speaker 1: And there are some just heartbreaking quotes from some of
4:23
Speaker 1: the girls that endured this asshole after the fact, like
4:27
Speaker 1: after he got caught, and they were quoted saying, while
4:30
Speaker 1: other ten year old girls were riding bikes or playing
4:33
Speaker 1: with dolls, I was laying naked in bed with a
4:36
Speaker 1: pillow over my head, just waiting for it to be over.
4:39
Speaker 1: And she would go on to say, while other thirteen
4:41
Speaker 1: year old girls were getting boyfriends and holding hands, I
4:44
Speaker 1: was holding onto my secret and losing the people I
4:47
Speaker 1: loved one by one. When other sixteen year olds were
4:50
Speaker 1: experiencing their freedom of learning how to drive and planning
4:54
Speaker 1: parties with their friends, I was planning my own death
4:56
Speaker 1: every day when I drove to school. Heartbreaking, heartbreaking stuff
5:02
Speaker 1: like this guy is just a waste of oxygen. And
5:05
Speaker 1: on top of being able to see the future, or
5:08
Speaker 1: claiming to be able to see the future and taking
5:11
Speaker 1: advantage of young girls, he also claimed to be a
5:15
Speaker 1: thousand year old angel himself.
5:18
Speaker 3: What WILLI used to tell us that he was a
5:21
Speaker 3: thousand years old and that he was an angel himself.
5:24
Speaker 4: Luke Hastro had all of his followers believing that he
5:27
Speaker 4: was centuries old and that his body was inhabited by angels.
5:31
Speaker 1: What who? Like? Listen, I know everybody that not everybody,
5:36
Speaker 1: but a lot of people that join cults are usually
5:39
Speaker 1: very lost. They have nowhere to go there, they don't
5:42
Speaker 1: have a sense of self, a sense of worth. But
5:45
Speaker 1: if you know, little came up to me saying he
5:49
Speaker 1: could see the future, takes advantage of like young girls,
5:52
Speaker 1: and says he's a thousand year old angel, I would
5:55
Speaker 1: punch him in the throat. So for future reference, do
5:59
Speaker 1: that that. If some guy comes up to you and
6:01
Speaker 1: says all this stuff, this is but it's like crazy,
6:03
Speaker 1: just another prophet. He is a prophet of some sort.
6:08
Speaker 1: He is the middleman from whoever's up there to whoever's
6:13
Speaker 1: on Earth. And on top of all that, he said
6:15
Speaker 1: he could make it rain and not money, which he
6:19
Speaker 1: could do money too, we'll get into that, but literally
6:22
Speaker 1: make it rain. He could heal people, and he could
6:25
Speaker 1: use his future seeing powers to tell you were going
6:29
Speaker 1: to die, but because of him, you would come back
6:33
Speaker 1: after death. So basically he was like, oh, yeah, yeah,
6:36
Speaker 1: you guys are gonna die, like on Tuesday at three
6:39
Speaker 1: o'clock by getting hit by a bus. But don't worry.
6:42
Speaker 1: H sixteen years after that, I'll bring you back. It's
6:45
Speaker 1: gonna be some crazy zombie apocalyptic shit. It's crazy. Don't worry.
6:48
Speaker 1: I'm a thousand year old angel, Okay, I can see
6:50
Speaker 1: the future, all right. But he basically made death feel
6:53
Speaker 1: like a very normal thing, regularly telling his followers that
6:56
Speaker 1: the goal in life was to be on the other side,
7:00
Speaker 1: the other side being the afterlife.
7:02
Speaker 3: Lil talked about death frequently and how going to the
7:05
Speaker 3: other side was the ultimate goal.
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Speaker 1: And this commune was made up of a small group
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Speaker 1: of people with very diverse backgrounds, all vulnerable in some
7:14
Speaker 1: way that Perez or Luke Castro would take care of.
7:18
Speaker 4: He also made sure that all of the members of
7:20
Speaker 4: Angels Landing had their needs met. Some members of the
7:23
Speaker 4: Angels Landing cult had been living really.
7:25
Speaker 3: Well, but there was always a price to pay for
7:28
Speaker 3: that stuff.
7:29
Speaker 1: He would actually make sure that everyone on the compound's
7:32
Speaker 1: needs were met, and not just met, because they would
7:36
Speaker 1: live very extravagantly. And this is like not like a
7:40
Speaker 1: lot of other cults. I mean, usually you find that
7:43
Speaker 1: the cult leader is the only one living extravagantly. But
7:45
Speaker 1: he made sure that everybody was kind of even keel,
7:48
Speaker 1: Like everybody had stuff, but there's a reason for that,
7:52
Speaker 1: and it's really stuff. So the compound itself was located
7:56
Speaker 1: at North Oliver near the town of Ketchee, Kansas were
8:00
Speaker 1: and they would have two fairly large houses and a
8:03
Speaker 1: swimming pool and all the members, like I said, and
8:07
Speaker 1: all the members had pretty expensive vehicles and Perez himself
8:11
Speaker 1: reportedly drove a lot of core vettes. Very discreet cult
8:15
Speaker 1: leader and Perez would make use of his different personas
8:18
Speaker 1: of angels inhabiting his body to control his followers, those
8:21
Speaker 1: angels being Daniel, Arthur, and Amber. And he would open
8:26
Speaker 1: life insurance policies for commune members and set up other
8:31
Speaker 1: commune members as the beneficiaries of those policies. You see
8:36
Speaker 1: where the money's coming from. You'll see it gets he
8:40
Speaker 1: gets bad. Oh, I forgot. I needed to tell you something.
8:42
Speaker 1: What was it? What was it?
8:44
Speaker 4: What was it?
8:45
Speaker 1: Remember what it was? What was it? Oh? Yeah, Thank
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10:30
Speaker 1: we basically direct how the policies were to be written.
10:34
Speaker 1: Had a very specific way of writing these policies, and
10:37
Speaker 1: then he would convince his followers that those who died
10:40
Speaker 1: would come back as we know, zombie apocalypse shit, manipulating
10:45
Speaker 1: them to carry out his fraud basically because he's you know,
10:49
Speaker 1: putting other people's names on the policies, like people that
10:51
Speaker 1: aren't related to these people, or himself his name on
10:55
Speaker 1: these policies just to be able to get the money
10:59
Speaker 1: after these people die. But Chris, how would he get
11:02
Speaker 1: the money. He'd have to wait for people to die.
11:04
Speaker 1: He'd have to wait, like you know, fifty sixty seventy
11:08
Speaker 1: years now now, when money got tight in the commune,
11:12
Speaker 1: one of his followers would just mysteriously die when the
11:16
Speaker 1: rent had to be paid. He would just off somebody,
11:20
Speaker 1: which is so insane. And then obviously, when that person died,
11:24
Speaker 1: a very large life insurance check would benefit the commune,
11:28
Speaker 1: amounting to millions of dollars. So on top of his
11:33
Speaker 1: insurance death scheme, he was obviously exploiting these young girls
11:38
Speaker 1: as well. Like he's just bad at every angle, just
11:41
Speaker 1: ascove of the earth, at every angle. And he would
11:43
Speaker 1: tell the girls in order to keep them quiet. By
11:46
Speaker 1: him doing what he was doing, it would fix them.
11:50
Speaker 1: Because he is who he is. He's he's a thousand
11:53
Speaker 1: year old angel. He has all these powers, so he
11:56
Speaker 1: set all this stuff to basically just keep them quiet.
12:00
Speaker 1: In two thousand and one, Mona Griffith, a member of
12:03
Speaker 1: the commune, would die in a plane crash in South
12:05
Speaker 1: Dakota with her boyfriend and twelve year old daughter. This
12:09
Speaker 1: one wasn't actually procured by Perez. Obviously didn't make a
12:14
Speaker 1: plane crash. It was just a really up coincidence. So
12:18
Speaker 1: Perez or lou Castro, it was the one listed as
12:21
Speaker 1: a brother at the obituary and on the life insurance policy,
12:26
Speaker 1: which was seven hundred thousand dollars, and he would get
12:30
Speaker 1: that seven hundred thousand dollars over her other child, who
12:34
Speaker 1: he had one child that died in the plane crash,
12:35
Speaker 1: but she had another child that didn't die in the
12:37
Speaker 1: plane crash, so he would just take all of that
12:39
Speaker 1: money and not give any to the kid. And then
12:41
Speaker 1: on June two thousand and three, Patricia Hughes, a member
12:45
Speaker 1: of the commune as well, would die from what was
12:47
Speaker 1: believed to be an accidental drowning in the commune pool.
12:52
Speaker 1: So a funeral would take place in South Texas, and
12:54
Speaker 1: it's been reported that Perez told commune members that attended
12:57
Speaker 1: the funeral not to tell anyone into Texas that he
13:01
Speaker 1: was in Kansas because he doesn't exist. Remember he's dead
13:05
Speaker 1: on paper anyway. And then in March two thousand and six,
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Speaker 1: Brian Hughes, Patricia's husband and also a member of the commune,
13:13
Speaker 1: would die in South Dakota while working underneath a vehicle.
13:17
Speaker 3: Brian was a nisso mechanic. I remember Lou telling Brian
13:22
Speaker 3: you will someday get your chance to go to the
13:24
Speaker 3: other side. Brian was so safety conscious that day. Somehow
13:28
Speaker 3: that jack slipped.
13:31
Speaker 1: Very suspicious. And then in two thousand and eight, Jennifer Hudson,
13:36
Speaker 1: not that Jennifer Hudson different. Jennifer Hudson, a real estate
13:39
Speaker 1: agent and a member of the commune, would die when
13:42
Speaker 1: her vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic and would hit a
13:46
Speaker 1: truck head on. Again very spuspicious. And Sarah Macgarth, her
13:51
Speaker 1: daughter and also former member of the commune, would open
13:54
Speaker 1: up about her mom's death in two thousand and eight,
13:57
Speaker 1: and she would have crowned that her mom went to
13:59
Speaker 1: work that day and she tried calling her, but her
14:01
Speaker 1: mom never answered.
14:02
Speaker 3: Lu comes downstairs and he says, Jennifer's been in an accident.
14:06
Speaker 3: He said she's dead, inn't she.
14:07
Speaker 1: Perez wouldn't really give her a straight answer, and that
14:10
Speaker 1: made the daughter really really mad.
14:12
Speaker 3: He wouldn't answer me, and that really pissed me off.
14:16
Speaker 3: So I go running behind him and I said.
14:18
Speaker 4: What did you do to my mom?
14:19
Speaker 1: I mean the people in the commune, you know, they're
14:21
Speaker 1: not stupid. They know that. You know, these events that
14:24
Speaker 1: are happening might be caused by Perez because they're going
14:27
Speaker 1: to come back later. It doesn't matter if they die
14:29
Speaker 1: and we collect money, because they're going to come back. Remember, Remember,
14:33
Speaker 1: But this started to lose its luster after so many
14:37
Speaker 1: people were dying because Trish and Brian had died, they
14:40
Speaker 1: were other people in the commune and they hadn't come
14:43
Speaker 1: back yet. So the daughter obviously believed that her mother
14:46
Speaker 1: wasn't going to come back at least anytime soon either.
14:49
Speaker 1: So investigators would start to catch on to this scheme.
14:52
Speaker 1: A lot of life insurance policies were being paid out
14:55
Speaker 1: to like one specific person or these specific people in
14:59
Speaker 1: this and people were dying left and right, and who
15:02
Speaker 1: was this guy who was lou Castro? They didn't know,
15:06
Speaker 1: so Sedgwick County Sheriff's Detective Ron Goodwin, along with other investigators,
15:11
Speaker 1: compiled five hundred thousand pages worth of documentation of what
15:15
Speaker 1: Perez was up to, which spanned over twenty years and
15:18
Speaker 1: multiple states as we know, and Goodwin devoted nine years
15:23
Speaker 1: to figure out who Perez was and where the hell
15:26
Speaker 1: he got all his money, because Perez was living like
15:30
Speaker 1: a king and he had no job. He had no
15:34
Speaker 1: job this entire time, but he's driving around a bunch
15:37
Speaker 1: of corvettes, he has houses, he has a pull, he
15:39
Speaker 1: has all these things. So it just didn't add up.
15:42
Speaker 1: So he became suspicious of Perez at this point, still
15:45
Speaker 1: known as lu Castro in April two thousand and three,
15:48
Speaker 1: when he noticed Perez's group had multiple forty to fifty
15:52
Speaker 1: thousand dollars vehicles, very spuspicious, and their compound had the
15:57
Speaker 1: two houses and a very nice swimming pool as well.
16:00
Speaker 1: So all this unexplained wealth was starting to look pretty nefarious.
16:05
Speaker 1: So a lot of nefarious activities looked like they were happening,
16:08
Speaker 1: so Goodwin was on the case. So if you remember
16:11
Speaker 1: June two thousand and three, a member of the group,
16:14
Speaker 1: Patricia Hughes, would die in the Commune swimming pool accidentally.
16:19
Speaker 1: For those of you listening, I'm making very obvious, you
16:22
Speaker 1: know quotes winking accidentally. And this was one of the
16:26
Speaker 1: cases that drew the attention of Goodwin to look further
16:29
Speaker 1: and discover that Castro may not be who he says
16:32
Speaker 1: he is. And Castro had no apparent records and was
16:36
Speaker 1: not easily identifiable, and he had basically no identifiable past either,
16:41
Speaker 1: because the guy didn't exist. So he would do a
16:44
Speaker 1: little song and dance and claim that he came from
16:46
Speaker 1: oil wealth and he was an inventor, or that he
16:49
Speaker 1: was a cattle seller, just just spewing bullshit to investigators,
16:53
Speaker 1: and none of which could be verified, so it didn't
16:55
Speaker 1: hold up very long. But all of the members in
16:57
Speaker 1: the commune were identifiable through data bases, but lou Castro
17:02
Speaker 1: was not, so that was looking suspicious, suspicious even more.
17:06
Speaker 1: But Goodwin did find that Castro had a South Dakota
17:09
Speaker 1: ID card, and this would lead to the discovery of
17:12
Speaker 1: Mona Griffith's death in two thousand and one, on top
17:16
Speaker 1: of her boyfriends and her daughters, where Castro was listed
17:20
Speaker 1: as the brother of Griffiths, so he was just raking
17:24
Speaker 1: in the dough. After all three of these people died,
17:27
Speaker 1: so in two thousand and four, Goodwin would enlist the
17:29
Speaker 1: help of FBI agent John Sullivan to help identify Castro,
17:32
Speaker 1: and they had worked together before on other drug cases,
17:35
Speaker 1: and Sullivan was unable to find a photo or description
17:39
Speaker 1: matching lou Castro, so not even the FBI could find
17:43
Speaker 1: out who this guy was, and Goodwin would do everything
17:46
Speaker 1: he could to get fingerprints. He would follow Castro around
17:50
Speaker 1: and gather trash from the compound, even got permission from
17:53
Speaker 1: a manager to collect glasses and silverware list some like
17:56
Speaker 1: movie shit, But no fingerprint to identify Castro was ever found,
18:00
Speaker 1: so the case would slowly become cold. So Goodwin would
18:03
Speaker 1: drive to Angel's landing over the next couple years every
18:06
Speaker 1: once in a while because he would just wake up
18:08
Speaker 1: every night just wondering who the hell Castro really was
18:12
Speaker 1: and what the hell was he up to. And in
18:14
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, Goodwin would learn about another death,
18:17
Speaker 1: and this one was Brian Hughes, Patricia Hughes husband, who
18:21
Speaker 1: was crushed under that car in South Dakota, and he
18:23
Speaker 1: heard about it due do a custody case involving the
18:25
Speaker 1: Hughes daughter. And at this point there were five deaths
18:29
Speaker 1: from three fatal accidents in just five years, all associated
18:33
Speaker 1: with the same commune. So in late two thousand and
18:35
Speaker 1: six and early two thousand and seven, Goodwin requested for
18:39
Speaker 1: the US Attorney's Office to open a case to review
18:42
Speaker 1: the commune's finances. Now we're getting somewhere. And around the
18:45
Speaker 1: same time, Goodwin was assigned to a task force to
18:48
Speaker 1: go after the Crips, a street gang located in Wichita. Wichita. Crips, Wichita,
18:54
Speaker 1: those are two fun words to say. And it's here
18:56
Speaker 1: that he began working with Clint Snyder, who last name,
19:01
Speaker 1: and would tell him all about Castro and Sneyder became
19:05
Speaker 1: very interested, but they were too busy with the Cryps
19:08
Speaker 1: at this point. And then in two thousand and eight,
19:10
Speaker 1: as we know, Jennifer Hudson no not that one would
19:13
Speaker 1: die in an apparent traffic accident, bringing the total calmun
19:16
Speaker 1: deaths to six, and a response, strategies to trick Castro
19:20
Speaker 1: to giving Prince were thrown around. Goodwin went with another
19:24
Speaker 1: detective to angels Landing under the guise of looking into
19:27
Speaker 1: the area for home break ins. So they gave Castro
19:31
Speaker 1: glossy images of suspects quote unquote suspects asking if he
19:36
Speaker 1: knew any of them, and Castro would only touch the
19:38
Speaker 1: images with the palms of his hands bastard, and would
19:42
Speaker 1: move them on a table using his finger nails. The
19:46
Speaker 1: guy he was a shifty five and Castro would give
19:50
Speaker 1: his name, but claimed that he didn't have an idea
19:52
Speaker 1: around so he couldn't give one to them, and he
19:54
Speaker 1: also provided a false social Security number on top of that.
19:58
Speaker 1: So in late two thousand and nine, the Cripps case
20:01
Speaker 1: cools off a bit now and Goodwin and Snyder are
20:04
Speaker 1: signed to the US Attorney's office with the focus on
20:07
Speaker 1: the financial investigation, and Goodwin would receive a call from Sullivan,
20:11
Speaker 1: the FBI agent from before, asking if there's a fax
20:14
Speaker 1: machine nearby because he wanted to send over an email
20:18
Speaker 1: from the boyfriend of a young woman who had been
20:21
Speaker 1: part of the commune, and he was very suspicious of Castro,
20:25
Speaker 1: and at this point, Castro had moved to Columbia, Tennessee
20:29
Speaker 1: in early twenty ten, so after the FBI received this email,
20:33
Speaker 1: the agents started to watch Castro's house and he was
20:36
Speaker 1: currently living with five people at that point, and Castro
20:39
Speaker 1: at this point had also changed his name again to
20:42
Speaker 1: Joe Venegas upon moving to Tennessee, and he would be
20:46
Speaker 1: caught on camera showing his new ID to open a
20:49
Speaker 1: bank account, and that is when he would be charged
20:51
Speaker 1: with aggravated identity theft and fraudulent use of a Social
20:55
Speaker 1: Security number. We got him. Whoop, whoop, we got him.
20:58
Speaker 1: And on April twenty five, first, twenty ten, Goodwin, Snyder,
21:02
Speaker 1: and Sullivan would go to Tennessee, but the search warrant
21:05
Speaker 1: of Castro's home, so he was arrested and got fingerprinted finally,
21:10
Speaker 1: but no match would be found in the federal database.
21:13
Speaker 1: And other investigators were interviewing witnesses through all of this time,
21:17
Speaker 1: but the members of the community weren't really giving up
21:20
Speaker 1: much info. They were all pretty loyal to Castro at
21:23
Speaker 1: this point. So Goodwin and Snyder just talked to basically
21:26
Speaker 1: anyone who would talk to them about this commune and
21:29
Speaker 1: everything that was going on, and they would interview about
21:31
Speaker 1: eighty five people, and Castro during this whole thing would
21:34
Speaker 1: just stay completely silent, give them the complete silent treatment.
21:37
Speaker 1: But he would plead guilty to one of the two
21:40
Speaker 1: charges brought against him in the federal case, and he
21:42
Speaker 1: would just go to federal prison as John Doe because
21:45
Speaker 1: they still didn't know who this guy was, so during
21:48
Speaker 1: his sentence, Goodwin and Snyder worked to build the best
21:51
Speaker 1: case they had against him, and they discovered from Patricia
21:54
Speaker 1: Hughes's mother in Beeville, Texas, that Patricia had dated a
21:58
Speaker 1: man named Daniel Perez ding ding Ding ding ding Ding,
22:02
Speaker 1: but had since heard that he was dead. So they
22:04
Speaker 1: followed that thread to find an old booking mug and
22:08
Speaker 1: fingerprints that matched Castros and Boom they found him. So
22:12
Speaker 1: they picked up copies of the police reports on Perez
22:15
Speaker 1: from Biville, including that dismissed case from nineteen ninety six
22:19
Speaker 1: to nineteen ninety seven mentioned in the beginning with the
22:21
Speaker 1: girls who were eleven and fourteen, and the case, as
22:24
Speaker 1: we know, was dismissed because Perez was presumed dead. And
22:28
Speaker 1: as Perez was away in prison, his commune began to
22:30
Speaker 1: open up more and more. They began to be sick
22:33
Speaker 1: and tired of Perez's bullshit, and one young woman would
22:36
Speaker 1: recount an incident in which Perez made her break a
22:39
Speaker 1: computer hard drive with a hammer and toss it into
22:43
Speaker 1: the lagoon in Angels Landing, and the hard drive would
22:46
Speaker 1: actually be recovered after Cedric County firefighters drained the entire
22:50
Speaker 1: body of water to find it, and eventually one of
22:53
Speaker 1: his followers became the big break. She revealed that Perez
22:57
Speaker 1: was described as someone capable of seeing the future and
23:00
Speaker 1: needed a young girl to live, and she would describe
23:03
Speaker 1: all of his crimes that he did throughout all of
23:07
Speaker 1: the years, and she would also reveal the Perez had
23:09
Speaker 1: forced her to give a false story about Patricia Hughes
23:12
Speaker 1: when authorities arrived, Patricia Hughes being the one that accidentally
23:16
Speaker 1: drowned in the commune pool, and this girl was supposed
23:19
Speaker 1: to say that Hughes slipped and fell and drowned in
23:22
Speaker 1: the pool, but what she actually experienced was screams and splashes,
23:27
Speaker 1: leading to Perez seemingly out of breath and completely wet.
23:32
Speaker 1: He had drowned her. And with the testimony, they finally
23:34
Speaker 1: had enough for a murder case, thank god, and on
23:38
Speaker 1: January twenty twelve, Cedric County prosecutors filed murder and dozens
23:43
Speaker 1: of other charges against Perez while he was still in prison,
23:46
Speaker 1: and on February twenty fifteen, Daniel Perez was convicted of
23:50
Speaker 1: twenty eight charges by the journey one count of first
23:54
Speaker 1: degree murder, eight counts of grape, seven counts of aggravated
23:58
Speaker 1: criminal sodomy, three counts of aggravated assaults, one count of
24:03
Speaker 1: exploitation of a child, eight counts making false information, and
24:07
Speaker 1: he received two life sentences plus four hundred and six
24:11
Speaker 1: months on lesser charges, with no possibility for parole for
24:16
Speaker 1: at least eighty years. So the guys get a die
24:20
Speaker 1: in a rotting jailhole, Thank the Lord. But like this guy,
24:25
Speaker 1: I mean, just I can't. I don't know how many
24:27
Speaker 1: times I say it, just gone of the earth. Like
24:29
Speaker 1: I am so glad he got caught, and these officers
24:32
Speaker 1: were just on him for as long as they were.
24:35
Speaker 1: And I hope all of the victims involved are living
24:38
Speaker 1: much better lives. But just incredibly sad, incredibly sad. But
24:41
Speaker 1: that brings us to our next cult, which is Love
24:46
Speaker 1: Has Won. So Born on November thirtieth, nineteen seventy five,
24:56
Speaker 1: in McPherson, Kansas, Amy Carlson was unfortunately born subject of
25:02
Speaker 1: HBO miniseries Love Has Won the Cult of Mother God.
25:06
Speaker 1: Carlson's early life appeared pretty conventional. She was raised in
25:10
Speaker 1: a middle class family, excelled in school for the most part,
25:14
Speaker 1: and even participated in the school choir, but her parents
25:16
Speaker 1: would divorce during her childhood, and this would lead her
25:19
Speaker 1: and her sister Tara to split their time between their
25:22
Speaker 1: mother's home in Kansas and their father's home in Oklahoma City,
25:26
Speaker 1: and following allegations of by their stepmother, the sisters moved
25:31
Speaker 1: in permanently with their mother and stepfather, and the family
25:34
Speaker 1: would later relocate to Dallas, Texas when Carlson continued her
25:38
Speaker 1: education and in the mid two thousands, Carlson became deeply
25:41
Speaker 1: involved in New Age philosophies and would frequently post on
25:45
Speaker 1: a forum called light workers dot Org. And I went
25:48
Speaker 1: on that side. It's gone now, so I guess we'll
25:52
Speaker 1: never know. But there she connected with a user named
25:55
Speaker 1: Amarith White Eagle, the original Father God, who convinced of
26:00
Speaker 1: her own divinity Oh no, or should I say oh God?
26:06
Speaker 1: And as an adult, she would work as a manager
26:08
Speaker 1: at McDonald's, you know, as the divine Mother of God does.
26:13
Speaker 1: And she would go on to have three children, each
26:15
Speaker 1: with different fathers, and in late two thousand and seven,
26:18
Speaker 1: Carlson left her third husband, children, and job, severing ties
26:23
Speaker 1: with most of her family completely Mother of the Year,
26:26
Speaker 1: and she would join White Eagle in Colorado and together
26:30
Speaker 1: they founded a group initially known as Galactic Federation of Light.
26:35
Speaker 1: The Galactic Federation of Light, I mean, that's it's pretty
26:38
Speaker 1: cool name. It's a pretty good name. I'll give the
26:39
Speaker 1: mats some star warship. But this later would evolve into
26:42
Speaker 1: Love Has Won and Carlson would profess to be a
26:47
Speaker 1: nineteen billion year old deity, having lived five hundred and
26:53
Speaker 1: thirty four previous lives. She's got a couple up on
26:56
Speaker 1: Perez at this point, the thousand year old angel. She's like,
26:59
Speaker 1: I'll take your thousand year angel and raise you a
27:03
Speaker 1: nineteen billion year old deity who's lived five hundred and
27:06
Speaker 1: thirty four lives. Different lives what dolf And these lives,
27:11
Speaker 1: if you were wondering, included the life of Jesus Christ,
27:15
Speaker 1: Joan of Arc and Marilyn Monroe just like all the
27:20
Speaker 1: coolest people ever. Basically, I wish she did like Elvis
27:23
Speaker 1: Presley too, but she that would mess up her timelines.
27:25
Speaker 1: That wouldn't be legit, you know. And she asserted that
27:27
Speaker 1: she could heal ailments such as cancer with the powers
27:30
Speaker 1: of love. The powers of love so similar to Peretz
27:34
Speaker 1: saying he can heal all the shit. It's just the
27:36
Speaker 1: same with all of them. At least be original, like
27:39
Speaker 1: Jim Jones did the same shit. He said he could
27:41
Speaker 1: see into the future, he could kill cancer. Yet yeah, yeah,
27:44
Speaker 1: I would like them to be original at some point.
27:46
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. I don't want to see any more
27:47
Speaker 1: called leaders. I'll tell you what. And under Carlson's leadership,
27:51
Speaker 1: Love has Won combined elements of New Age spirituality, conspiracy theories,
27:56
Speaker 1: and mainstream religions. The group conducted daily live streams to
28:00
Speaker 1: recruit members, solicit donations, and promote spiritual healing services. I
28:05
Speaker 1: love spiritual live streams where you can donate bits to
28:10
Speaker 1: cult leaders. They're my favorite. But Love has Won operated
28:13
Speaker 1: under unique spiritual framework that combined to various religions and
28:19
Speaker 1: mystical elements. I mean Carlson being the Mother of God,
28:23
Speaker 1: she was basically seen as the only conduit for spiritual
28:26
Speaker 1: enlightenment and ascension, and the Father of God was basically
28:31
Speaker 1: just a rolodex of male figures in her life. Throughout
28:34
Speaker 1: her leadership, Carlson took on multiple Fathers of Gods, male
28:38
Speaker 1: consorts who she claimed were incarnations of divine masculinity, and
28:43
Speaker 1: these individuals often became key in forcers of her control
28:47
Speaker 1: over her followers. So then there was the Galactic Federation
28:50
Speaker 1: and ascension beliefs, which was that the cult believed that
28:53
Speaker 1: the world was in the process of a great transformation
28:56
Speaker 1: and Carlson was the only entity capable of leading humanity
29:00
Speaker 1: into the fifth dimension. Fifth dimension. Okay, all right, not
29:04
Speaker 1: quite as you know. You know, there were space with
29:07
Speaker 1: Apple White or whatever the hell's name was, and scientology
29:10
Speaker 1: has got his own thing. But fifth dimension, I gotta
29:12
Speaker 1: say it. It is original, it's more original. But the
29:14
Speaker 1: followers were required to relinquish their ego and fully submit
29:19
Speaker 1: to Carlson's teachings, and any deviation from her doctrine was
29:23
Speaker 1: seen as a resistance to spiritual growth and love has won.
29:27
Speaker 1: Integrated elements of various conspiracy theories, as I was saying,
29:31
Speaker 1: including ideas of extraterrestrials, five D consciousness, and global government corruption,
29:37
Speaker 1: which likes got some points. She's got some points there,
29:40
Speaker 1: but most of it's ridiculous, and the cult used several
29:44
Speaker 1: methods to attract and retain members, because you're like, how
29:47
Speaker 1: does a woman just walk up to you on the
29:49
Speaker 1: street and say, I'm a nineteen bella in year old
29:52
Speaker 1: daity that's left five hundred and thirty four other lives,
29:55
Speaker 1: including of which is Jesus Christ, Janet arc and Marilyn Monroe.
29:59
Speaker 1: Would you like to shoin my little call? People are
30:01
Speaker 1: just like, all right, I just don't see that happening.
30:07
Speaker 1: So how did they do it? And they did it
30:09
Speaker 1: with social media and daily live streams. This is not
30:12
Speaker 1: looking good for social media right now. Love has won
30:14
Speaker 1: gained traction through frequent online broadcasts, and Carlson and her
30:19
Speaker 1: followers discussed their beliefs, solicited donations, and recruited new members
30:23
Speaker 1: that way. And recruits were often those experiencing hardships, which
30:27
Speaker 1: we find with pretty much every cult I've ever covered,
30:30
Speaker 1: and just every cult in history, just vulnerable people, including
30:34
Speaker 1: those that have financial instability or health crisises as well,
30:38
Speaker 1: and the cult just offered them a sense of community
30:41
Speaker 1: and purpose and healing, and many members were drawn to
30:45
Speaker 1: Carlson's promises of spiritual enlightenment and physical healing from diseases
30:50
Speaker 1: such as cancer through etheric surgeries what these are also
30:55
Speaker 1: sometimes called psychic surgeries, in other words, surgery that uses
30:59
Speaker 1: psychic or spiritual means to avoid physical contact. So there's
31:03
Speaker 1: like those people that like move their hands over people's bodies,
31:07
Speaker 1: and then the people under it are like moving and shit,
31:10
Speaker 1: and it's just all like a placebo kind of effect.
31:14
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of what they're talking about. I grew up.
31:16
Speaker 4: Watching thousands of people at revival conferences claim to be
31:19
Speaker 4: healed of everything from arthritis to cancer.
31:22
Speaker 1: But again, living in this cult required complete devotion to
31:26
Speaker 1: the Mother of God and a very strict adherence to
31:28
Speaker 1: her rules. And living in this cult was not that glamorous.
31:32
Speaker 1: Members would live in very cramped quarters and they often
31:36
Speaker 1: did not have adequate food or heating, and they shared
31:39
Speaker 1: a communal space in Colorado where they expected to serve
31:42
Speaker 1: Carlson without any question. So in their daily life, the
31:45
Speaker 1: followers would participate in online broadcasts to spread the group's
31:49
Speaker 1: message and solicit donations, and this would be their main
31:53
Speaker 1: source of income, and the members would have to refer
31:55
Speaker 1: to Carlson as Mom and constantly praise her. Bitch had
31:59
Speaker 1: a let's just be real, believing that she was working
32:03
Speaker 1: to save humanity, and those who deviated and displayed ego
32:07
Speaker 1: or dissopaid orders, were humiliated on live streams or subjected
32:11
Speaker 1: to verbal and physical abuse.
32:13
Speaker 3: My version was taking parmesan, so the fine Adams turn
32:17
Speaker 3: around on me and get me needballs.
32:20
Speaker 1: I didn't say need balls. And to maintain power over
32:23
Speaker 1: her followers, Carlson implemented a series of manipulative and extreme
32:28
Speaker 1: control tactics. She would force fasting, having members often deprived
32:33
Speaker 1: of any food as a means of spiritual cleansing and control. Basically,
32:37
Speaker 1: and Carlson herself reportedly went without eating for extended periods
32:41
Speaker 1: of time, encouraging others to do the same, which like,
32:44
Speaker 1: I don't believe her. She's sneaking pop darts like late
32:46
Speaker 1: at night, I know it. And she would also sleep
32:48
Speaker 1: deprive them, similar to Jim Jones be original Carlson, but
32:52
Speaker 1: the followers were kept in a state of exhaustion, limiting
32:55
Speaker 1: their ability to think critically or question the group's practices
32:59
Speaker 1: because sleep never, I mean, it's real, it's a torture tactic.
33:02
Speaker 1: Like if you're sleep deprived, you kind of your zombie
33:04
Speaker 1: at that point you are a brainwashed zombie or have
33:07
Speaker 1: the potential to be. And then just full on isolation
33:10
Speaker 1: from the outside world again. Just be original, just same shit.
33:15
Speaker 1: Any communication with outsiders was completely discouraged, reinforcing dependency on
33:21
Speaker 1: the cult. Everything's about separating and then brainwashing and just
33:25
Speaker 1: having full control. And then of course we had threats
33:28
Speaker 1: of punishment. One man was reportedly found after group members
33:31
Speaker 1: discussed how his energy wasn't right during a live stream
33:36
Speaker 1: and that he was on the wrong side of the mountain.
33:39
Speaker 1: So they would basically stick them out in the wilderness alone,
33:43
Speaker 1: naked and dehydrated, with cactus needles in his feet and
33:48
Speaker 1: be forced to look up into the sun until his
33:50
Speaker 1: eyes were burnt. Oh my god. What. And naturally, as
33:54
Speaker 1: many cults do, members were required to surrender their financial
33:59
Speaker 1: assets to the because it's communal. Everybody, everybody is equal here.
34:03
Speaker 1: Everybody can put their money in and just never see
34:06
Speaker 1: it again. And don't worry. I'm not buying pop tarts
34:07
Speaker 1: with them, I swear. So there was the financial manipulation,
34:11
Speaker 1: isolation from families, practices, claims of divine healing, miraculous transformations,
34:17
Speaker 1: literal torture tactics. Is just a hell on earth for
34:20
Speaker 1: these people. But they felt like this is this is
34:23
Speaker 1: where they needed to be.
34:24
Speaker 3: I love, but I say that I get fucked up
34:29
Speaker 3: every moment.
34:32
Speaker 1: And shove it up here. I'm gonna take another tea.
34:35
Speaker 1: Was shot? Do that shit? And on top of all this,
34:38
Speaker 1: Carlson would claim that this wasn't a cult, This isn't
34:41
Speaker 1: a cult, This is just fun. This is we're just
34:43
Speaker 1: having a good time. I was Jesus Christ in a
34:45
Speaker 1: past life. Don't question me. It would even be featured
34:47
Speaker 1: on Doctor Phil.
34:48
Speaker 4: They're very peaceful here at the moment.
34:50
Speaker 2: Things are often not peaceful around you because I've I've
34:53
Speaker 2: seen some of your streams. I've seen some of the
34:56
Speaker 2: things that videos where you seem to be upse a lot,
35:01
Speaker 2: yelling and screaming and calling names and all. What is
35:05
Speaker 2: it that upsets you the most?
35:07
Speaker 1: Well, you know a lot of those are taken out
35:08
Speaker 1: of context. But time would go on and Carlson's health
35:12
Speaker 1: would decline well well, and her belief system impacted her
35:16
Speaker 1: physical condition. She obviously adhered to very unconventional health practices,
35:21
Speaker 1: including the ingestion of colloidal silver, which the group promoted
35:26
Speaker 1: as a cure all remedy. It was even purchasable on
35:29
Speaker 1: their website, which is obviously no longer available, and in
35:33
Speaker 1: the months leading up to her death, Carlson appeared very weak,
35:37
Speaker 1: with thinning hair and discolored skin, indicative of severe health
35:41
Speaker 1: decline and prolonged consumption of colloidal silver can lead to
35:46
Speaker 1: adgeria or a arguria argeria. I'm sorry, I'm saying that wrong,
35:50
Speaker 1: a condition causing blue gray discoloration of skin and may
35:54
Speaker 1: result in seizures and organ failure. They they don't eat silver.
35:58
Speaker 1: Just a thought, I actually don't care. Kind of a
36:00
Speaker 1: piece of shit. But the combination of heavy booze, lack
36:02
Speaker 1: of eating, intense fasting, and the gloidal silver wreaking havoc
36:07
Speaker 1: on her body. It was just a recipe for death,
36:10
Speaker 1: and that is what would happen. She would die, And
36:13
Speaker 1: in April of twenty twenty one, Carlson's mummified body was
36:18
Speaker 1: discovered in the group's Colorado headquarters. And just a little
36:23
Speaker 1: trigger warning, this is very strange. Her body was found
36:28
Speaker 1: in a sleeping bag, wrapped in Christmas lights, with her
36:32
Speaker 1: face covered in glitter and her eyes missing, suggesting a
36:38
Speaker 1: makeshift shrine. I have no words. I have no words
36:42
Speaker 1: for that. And the seven members of the Love Has
36:44
Speaker 1: Won were obviously arrested and charged with of a corpse
36:48
Speaker 1: and also child because two children were present in the
36:52
Speaker 1: home where Carlson's body was found, which is horrifying to
36:55
Speaker 1: think about. And there were initial plans to upgrade the
36:58
Speaker 1: charges to tampering with the deceased human body, but all
37:01
Speaker 1: the charges would later be dropped, so what remains of
37:04
Speaker 1: love has won well. Following her death, the group faced
37:07
Speaker 1: increased scrutiny, obviously leading to its eventual soft ending, though
37:11
Speaker 1: splinter groups remain, and co leader Jason Castillo, which was,
37:15
Speaker 1: you know, one of the fathers of God, formed a
37:18
Speaker 1: new group called joy Rains, and other former members would
37:22
Speaker 1: rebrand their online presence to FD Full Disclosure, launching a
37:26
Speaker 1: new website to continue spreading their beliefs. In this website
37:30
Speaker 1: is crazy, kind I kind of want to sign up?
37:32
Speaker 1: Should that be a video? Should I sign up? Tell
37:34
Speaker 1: you guys what happens. I'm just kidding. I'm not going
37:36
Speaker 1: to do that. That's crazy. The brainwashing that happened in
37:38
Speaker 1: this and the aftermath just brutal. But that brings us
37:42
Speaker 1: to our final cult, which is raj Niche perram So
37:52
Speaker 1: Bogwan Shri. Raj Niche was born on December eleventh, nineteen
37:56
Speaker 1: thirty one as Chandra Mohan Jean in Kushwada. I'm sorry
38:02
Speaker 1: if I'm saying these wrong. I'm trying my best. It
38:04
Speaker 1: was a small village in central India's Medea Pradesh state
38:08
Speaker 1: and was the full on subject of a Netflix documentary
38:12
Speaker 1: which I'm sure you've seen if you like watching me,
38:15
Speaker 1: which was Wild, Wild Country. He was the eldest of
38:18
Speaker 1: eleven children in the Jaina family, and a Jaina family
38:22
Speaker 1: is one that practices the teachings of Jainism, which was
38:25
Speaker 1: an ancient Indian religion focused on nonviolence and separation from
38:30
Speaker 1: attachment to worldly possessions. And he would spend most of
38:34
Speaker 1: his childhood with his maternal grandparents and they allowed him
38:37
Speaker 1: considerable freedom, fostering his independent and inquisitive nature. And his father,
38:43
Speaker 1: Babba La Jane, was a cloth merchant, and he demonstrated
38:46
Speaker 1: a highly developed intellect and a rebellious spirit from a
38:50
Speaker 1: very young age. This is Bugwan. I'm talking about the
38:52
Speaker 1: cult leader, the kid that's growing up. So it's not
38:55
Speaker 1: the father I'm talking about. It's a kid. And he
38:57
Speaker 1: would regularly question established norms and beliefs, and in nineteen
39:01
Speaker 1: fifty one he began his studies in Hitcarini College in
39:05
Speaker 1: jabel Per, but he would be later asked to leave
39:08
Speaker 1: do with conflicts with his instructor, and he then transferred
39:11
Speaker 1: to D. N. Jane College, where he would complete his
39:14
Speaker 1: Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in nineteen fifty five and
39:16
Speaker 1: at the ripe old age of twenty one, he would
39:19
Speaker 1: experience what he called a spiritual awakening and this had
39:23
Speaker 1: a major impact on his later teachings and in nineteen
39:26
Speaker 1: fifty seven he would earn his Master of Arts in
39:29
Speaker 1: Philosophy from the University of Cigar, graduating with distinction. And
39:33
Speaker 1: after completing his postgraduate studies, he secured a teaching position
39:38
Speaker 1: at Rapier Sanskrit College. However, his unconventional ideas led his
39:42
Speaker 1: vice chancellor to request his transfer, deeming him a threat
39:46
Speaker 1: to the students morally and religiously, and he would later
39:49
Speaker 1: become a lecturer in philosophy at japel Pur University in
39:53
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight and was promoted to professor in nineteen sixty.
39:56
Speaker 1: So I guess they were chill with whatever the hell
39:59
Speaker 1: he was drewn to do, and during his academic tenure
40:01
Speaker 1: he traveled extensively across India, engaging in public speaking opportunities,
40:06
Speaker 1: and he was a very outspoken critic of socialism, Mahatma
40:10
Speaker 1: Gandhi's philosophies and institutionalized religions, advocating for a more individual
40:15
Speaker 1: approach to spirituality. And in nineteen seventy he introduced the
40:18
Speaker 1: practice of a dynamic meditation and initiated his first group
40:22
Speaker 1: of disciples known as Neo saniasens Okay and dynamic meditation
40:28
Speaker 1: was characterized by fast breathing and celebration with music and dance,
40:33
Speaker 1: so just me having a panic attack basically with like tunes,
40:36
Speaker 1: bumpin just and this movement encouraged followers to embrace a
40:46
Speaker 1: celebratory lifestyle pursuing physical pleasures oh no. And in nineteen
40:51
Speaker 1: seventy four he established an ashram in Pune, India, which
40:55
Speaker 1: became a hub for spiritual seekers from around the world.
40:58
Speaker 1: And an ashram is a place dedicated to spiritual practices,
41:02
Speaker 1: often found in very remote areas. And the ashram offered
41:05
Speaker 1: various therapies and workshops lending Eastern spirituality with Western psychotherapy techniques.
41:11
Speaker 1: And he was known in the West as the uh
41:16
Speaker 1: Schuru all right, and he would attract many Westerners through
41:19
Speaker 1: promises of enlightenment, freedom, and belonging again be original, so
41:24
Speaker 1: he would denounce traditional religion and promote self actualization by
41:29
Speaker 1: means of meditation, free love, and communal living. Because if
41:33
Speaker 1: everyone's on the same grade, much easier to control. But
41:36
Speaker 1: by the late nineteen seventies, Rajnisch's teachings and rapid following
41:40
Speaker 1: attracted significant attention. This guy's got a lot of names.
41:43
Speaker 1: I'm just going to call him Resniche from here on out,
41:46
Speaker 1: and this created a tension with Indian authorities and traditional
41:49
Speaker 1: religious groups. His progressive views onality and criticism of established
41:54
Speaker 1: religions made him a very controversial figure. So, seeking allocation
41:58
Speaker 1: to expand his commune with no interference, Rajniche and his
42:02
Speaker 1: secretary Mannan Shila identified the United States of America as
42:07
Speaker 1: a suitable destination land of the free, little too free
42:11
Speaker 1: in this scenario, and the vast lands and promise of
42:14
Speaker 1: religious freedom presented an opportunity to establish a new community
42:18
Speaker 1: aligned with their vision. And facing increasing pressure from Indian
42:22
Speaker 1: authorities due to the controversial teachings, he relocated to the
42:26
Speaker 1: United States in nineteen eighty one, and the Rajniche Foundation
42:29
Speaker 1: International purchased sixty four two hundred and twenty nine acres
42:34
Speaker 1: in Big Muddy Ranch near Antelope, Oregon, with the intent
42:38
Speaker 1: to build a large, self sustaining commune, and the commune
42:42
Speaker 1: would become known as Rajnice Peram and was the center
42:46
Speaker 1: of various legal and social controversies. More on that later.
42:50
Speaker 1: The commune transformed the ranch into a thriving city basically
42:54
Speaker 1: constructed of essential infrastructure, including residential buildings, a public transfer,
43:00
Speaker 1: sports system, a sewage treatment plant, a reservoir, and even
43:04
Speaker 1: an airstrip. I mean, in the cult communes, this one,
43:08
Speaker 1: this one's up there. I mean by nice, I mean terrible,
43:10
Speaker 1: but I mean you know, you know what I mean.
43:12
Speaker 1: But the goal was to create a self sufficient community
43:15
Speaker 1: capable of supporting thousands of residents, and they would be
43:18
Speaker 1: incorporated as a city in May of nineteen eighty two,
43:21
Speaker 1: home solely to followers of Ragniche Now, Sheila served as
43:25
Speaker 1: Rajniche's personal secretary from nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty five,
43:30
Speaker 1: and she managed commune operations and acted as the primary
43:34
Speaker 1: spokesperson of the movement. Her very assertive and often confrontational
43:39
Speaker 1: demeanor made her a prominent and polarizing figure in the community.
43:43
Speaker 1: Sheila was basically an instrument in the commune's development. She
43:46
Speaker 1: oversaw all the land acquisition, infrastructure projects, and legal strategies,
43:51
Speaker 1: and her leadership style was marked by decisiveness as she
43:55
Speaker 1: maintained strict control over the commune's affairs, and a small
43:58
Speaker 1: town of Antelope with a population fewer than sixty residents,
44:02
Speaker 1: became a focal point of conflict. The rapid influx of
44:06
Speaker 1: Rajniche's followers led to cultural clashes and fears among locals
44:11
Speaker 1: about the commune's intentions, and an activist group known as
44:14
Speaker 1: the Thousand Friends in organ actively worked to prevent the
44:17
Speaker 1: growth and legitimacy of the commune, and the establishment of
44:21
Speaker 1: Rajniche Peram led to numerous legal battles over land use.
44:25
Speaker 1: We got a Yellowstone situation happening here and in corporation
44:28
Speaker 1: legitimacy and alleged violations of state and federal laws, and
44:32
Speaker 1: these disputes would attract national attention, and residents of Rajniche
44:36
Speaker 1: Peram viewed the surrounding organ communities as bigots. So in
44:40
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, members of the commune, under the direction
44:44
Speaker 1: of Shila cultivated Salmonella bacteria in their medical laboratory, and
44:49
Speaker 1: they then contaminated salad bars at ten local restaurants in
44:53
Speaker 1: the Dallas by spreading bacteria over food items, which is
44:58
Speaker 1: so wrong in disgusting. The deliberate contamination led to seven
45:03
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty one reported cases of samin A loosis,
45:07
Speaker 1: marking the largest bio terrorist attack on US soil, which
45:12
Speaker 1: is crazy. And they aim to influence local elections in
45:16
Speaker 1: favor of Rajnishes by suppressing voter turnout in Wasco County
45:21
Speaker 1: through incapacitation by food poisoning, which is so fucked up,
45:24
Speaker 1: but it ultimately had the opposite effect. As local residents
45:28
Speaker 1: were enraged by the suspected Rajnishi involvement, they showed up
45:32
Speaker 1: in even greater numbers as they should, and to gain
45:35
Speaker 1: political control over Wastcoat County, Rajniche param leaders initiated the
45:40
Speaker 1: Share a Home program. They would bring in thousands of
45:44
Speaker 1: homeless individuals from across the United States and the intention
45:48
Speaker 1: was to register these individuals as voters in the county,
45:51
Speaker 1: thereby swaying election results in favor of Rajnishi backed candidates,
45:56
Speaker 1: which is like the amount of planning is why wild Country.
46:01
Speaker 1: I get it now. But local officials would recognize these
46:04
Speaker 1: tactics as an attempt of voter manipulation, and the Waisco
46:08
Speaker 1: County Clerk enforced regulations requiring new voters to provide proof
46:11
Speaker 1: of residency and qualifications, so this effectively prevented the newly
46:16
Speaker 1: arrived homeless individuals from participating in the elections, and a
46:19
Speaker 1: federal judge upheld the measures, which ruined the Rajniches plan
46:24
Speaker 1: to influence local governance through fraudulent means. So the Rajniche
46:28
Speaker 1: Perram community engaged in widespread immigration fraud to facilitate the
46:32
Speaker 1: illegal entry and residency of foreign disciples, and this included
46:37
Speaker 1: setting up sham marriages between US citizens and foreign nationals
46:41
Speaker 1: to circumvent immigration laws, and nineteen eighty five, federal authorities
46:46
Speaker 1: indicted several Commune members for their involvement in the fraudulent activities,
46:51
Speaker 1: marking one of the largest recorded marriage fraud schemes in
46:54
Speaker 1: the United States. So not only were they one of
46:57
Speaker 1: the largest bioterrorist attack group, they were also the largest
47:02
Speaker 1: marriage fraud scheme in the United States. They're just they're
47:04
Speaker 1: just hitting all the world records or United States records
47:07
Speaker 1: at least, you know, you got to commend him on that.
47:08
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding down. Do don't do that. But it's
47:10
Speaker 1: September nineteen eighty five, Sheila abruptly left the commune with
47:14
Speaker 1: several close associates, and a sudden departure was unexpected and
47:17
Speaker 1: raised suspicions among the remaining members, and following her exit,
47:21
Speaker 1: Ragniche publicly accused her and her team of numerous criminal activities,
47:26
Speaker 1: including the attempted murder of his personal physician, the poisonings
47:30
Speaker 1: of public officials in Oregon, wiretapping and bugging within the
47:34
Speaker 1: commune in Ragniche's own residence and of officials outside the commune,
47:39
Speaker 1: and the bioterror attack in the Dales, which so he's
47:42
Speaker 1: just she's just putting it all. He's like, she's gone,
47:44
Speaker 1: she's gone, Okay, she did it all. It was her idea.
47:46
Speaker 1: It was her idea. She's not here to answer for it,
47:48
Speaker 1: so it's her idea. Crazy bitch. So the FBI and
47:52
Speaker 1: the other federal agencies then launched extensive investigations into the
47:56
Speaker 1: activities of Ragniche Barram and they would confirm the criminal
47:59
Speaker 1: acts previously alleged by Rajnich, including the bioterror attack, assassination plots, embezzlement,
48:05
Speaker 1: and illegal surveillance operations, and these actions were just part
48:08
Speaker 1: of a broader strategy to maintain control over the commune
48:12
Speaker 1: and suppress dissent. And key figures in the commune, including Sheila,
48:16
Speaker 1: were convicted on charges of immigration fraud, wire tapping, and
48:20
Speaker 1: conspiracy to tamper with consumer products, and Sila's conviction for
48:23
Speaker 1: her role in the Saminilla bioterror attack led to her
48:27
Speaker 1: imprisonment and eventual collapse of rajniche perramp. Though Rajnich was
48:32
Speaker 1: very quick to point the finger, it would not prevent
48:35
Speaker 1: him from his own arrest. On October twenty eighth, nineteen
48:38
Speaker 1: eighty five, Ragniche was arrested aboard a rented jet in
48:42
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Supposedly, he and his group were headed to
48:45
Speaker 1: Bermuda to avoid prosecution, and he would face thirty four
48:49
Speaker 1: count indictment primarily focusing on immigration violations, including the arrangement
48:54
Speaker 1: of the sham marriages mentioned earlier. And to avoid extended
48:57
Speaker 1: legal battles, Rajnice entered a Alford plea, acknowledging that sufficient
49:02
Speaker 1: evidence existed for a conviction without admitting guilt, so the
49:05
Speaker 1: plea deal resulted in a ten year suspended sentence, five
49:09
Speaker 1: years of probation, a four hundred thousand dollars fine covering
49:13
Speaker 1: penalties and prosecution costs, and an agreement to leave the
49:17
Speaker 1: United States of America and not return for at least
49:20
Speaker 1: five years without explicit permission from the US Attorney General. So,
49:24
Speaker 1: following the plea agreement, Ragniche would leave the United States
49:27
Speaker 1: and he then faced entry refusal from twenty one countries
49:30
Speaker 1: before eventually returning to India, where he resumed his spiritual
49:34
Speaker 1: teachings at the pun Ashram. And after the collapse of
49:37
Speaker 1: Rashnish Perama, many followers just dispersed globally. Some distanced themselves
49:42
Speaker 1: from the movement, while others continued to practice and promote
49:45
Speaker 1: Ragnish's teachings independently, and Rajniche rebranded himself to Oshow upon
49:50
Speaker 1: his return to India. He's pulling at Daniel Perez and
49:53
Speaker 1: he would continue to attract followers until his death in
49:56
Speaker 1: January nineteenth of nineteen ninety and the movement adapted accordingly,
50:01
Speaker 1: with the main Ashram and pun transforming into the Oshow
50:04
Speaker 1: International meditation resort, attracting visitors worldwide, and OSHA's teachings have
50:09
Speaker 1: influenced various New Age practices and continue to attract a
50:13
Speaker 1: global audience, and the movement emphasizes specifically meditation, mindfulness, and
50:17
Speaker 1: personal transformation. However, despite its ongoing appeal, the movement has
50:21
Speaker 1: faced allegations of former members have come forward with accounts
50:26
Speaker 1: of misconduct within the communes during the nineteen seventies and
50:29
Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties, leading to renewed scrutiny and discussions about
50:34
Speaker 1: the movement's legacy altogether. And this was all including the
50:36
Speaker 1: account of sects from a woman whose mother brought her
50:40
Speaker 1: into Rajnish's community at the age of nine, and she
50:43
Speaker 1: describes life as a very young girl navigating a free
50:46
Speaker 1: love community and dealing with the advances of much older men.
50:51
Speaker 1: She would quote to say at the time, I suffered
50:53
Speaker 1: silently as he repeatedly drew me in with affection and
50:56
Speaker 1: took me to bed, only to ignore me for days
50:59
Speaker 1: as I watched to pursue adult women and in time
51:02
Speaker 1: my peers. At the same time, other men circled and
51:05
Speaker 1: eventually I gave in as sleeping around and being liberated
51:09
Speaker 1: was the norm that was modeled to me. As time passed,
51:12
Speaker 1: I felt increasingly worthless and angst written and took my
51:15
Speaker 1: bad feelings to mean I was flawed. We were to
51:18
Speaker 1: be positive, not negative, so I didn't speak of my
51:21
Speaker 1: pain and confusion. When the commune collapsed in nineteen eighty five,
51:24
Speaker 1: we were all flung back into the world unprepared. I
51:27
Speaker 1: was sixteen, disoriented, broke, and unsure of who I was.
51:32
Speaker 1: The trauma of my upbringing haunted me, but I couldn't
51:35
Speaker 1: yet name it. As the years passed, I came to
51:37
Speaker 1: see it for what it was, and came to see
51:39
Speaker 1: how OSHA's teachings tilled the soil for under the guise
51:44
Speaker 1: of spiritual freedom to boot. It sickened me. I distanced
51:47
Speaker 1: myself from the movement, from the teachings and forgot a
51:50
Speaker 1: life of my own. So like everything that we talked
51:54
Speaker 1: about was just riddled with this, all the fraud and bioterrorism.
51:59
Speaker 1: It was all, well, you know, a means to have this,
52:02
Speaker 1: this group of people that Rajniche could just control and
52:06
Speaker 1: do whatever he wanted with, which we see with all
52:10
Speaker 1: all of these cult leaders that we're talking about, and
52:12
Speaker 1: a lot of other ones that I've talked about, and
52:14
Speaker 1: it's just it's horrible and so heartbreaking, especially with kids.
52:18
Speaker 1: I mean, they don't know better, they don't know how
52:20
Speaker 1: to protect themselves, how to go about life. If an
52:24
Speaker 1: adult is telling you to do something, you're going to
52:26
Speaker 1: do it. So it's just horrible, horrible, and I'm glad
52:30
Speaker 1: he's dead. But that is it for the thory cults
52:34
Speaker 1: that we discussed today. I know it was a lot,
52:37
Speaker 1: but a lot of you guys asked for a cult videos,
52:40
Speaker 1: so I gave it to you. But if you have
52:41
Speaker 1: any other video ideas, let me know down in the
52:43
Speaker 1: comments below, and I hope you stay very, very safe
52:47
Speaker 1: and I will see a beautiful face in the next video. Okay, Bye,