18 Of The Weirdest, Creepiest, And Most Disturbing Cults From Modern History With Wikipedia Pages That Read Like Horror Novels

Some cult stories sound so strange they feel fictional, but the internet has a way of making the darkest real-life history impossible to ignore.

This roundup pulls together some of the creepiest Wikipedia pages about modern cults, from infamous groups that ended in tragedy to movements whose names still send a chill down your spine. The details are unsettling, and the rabbit hole gets deeper the further you go.

If you are curious about the weirdest corners of modern history, this one is hard to look away from.

1. Church of The First Born of The Lamb of God

This Wikipedia page is about the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God group, which was started by Ervil LeBaron. This group was deemed a cult in which Ervil encouraged members to submit to God, or else they could be killed.

He murdered many people during his leadership of the group.

12 News / Via youtube.com

2. Heaven's Gate

Heaven's Gate was first founded in the 1970s by Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite. They are most known for their discovery in 1997, which uncovered a mass suicide involving 39 members.

Brooks Kraft / Sygma via Getty Images, ABC / Via youtube.com

3. The Branch Davidians

The most famous person from this cult was David Koresh, and this cult was the main group involved in the Waco Siege. It ended in a huge gunfight that killed over 80 people.

Elizabeth Baranyai / Sygma via Getty Images, Mark Perlstein / Getty Images

4. Peoples Temple

This cult was founded by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana. Over 900 people died, making it the largest loss of life until the 9/11 attacks.

David Hume Kennerly / Getty Images

5. Rajneesh Movement

The Rajneeshees are the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who founded Rajneeshpuram during the 1980s. They spent many years fighting with the locals.

Netflix

6. NXIVM

NXIVM is an MLM business that provided personal and professional development. However, NXIVM is a front for an alleged sex cult. Smallville star Allison Mack was recently arrested for her involvement.

Amy Luke / Getty Images, Jemal Countess / Getty Images

7. Aum Shinrikyo

Aum Shinrikyo was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984 and is the Japanese doomsday cult that is still active today. The cult carried out gas attacks that injured and killed over 6,000 people.

Afp / AFP / Getty Images, Junji Kurokawa / AFP / Getty Images

8. The Ant Hill Kids

The Ant Hill Kids had 40 members and were known for punishing group members who strayed away by breaking their legs with a sledgehammer, cutting off other people's toes, or forcing them to sit on hot stoves.

CITV / Via youtube.com

And if you think that cult-level control is extreme, this brother selling secret pizza sauce will still hit weird.

9. Blackburn Cult

This cult was founded by a mother-daughter duo in 1922 who believed they could talk to angels and bring the dead back to life. They were thought to have made many members disappear or die, but the cult was dismantled when the founder was arrested for grand theft.

Gabriel Hackett / Getty Images

10. Order of the Solar Temple

This secret society was formed in 1984 and was based on the Knights Templar. They are known for their mass murder-suicide, which included 74 people, an infant, and a "last supper" celebration.

Damien Meyer / AFP / Getty Images, Andre Pichette / AFP / Getty Images

11. Source Family

This group was founded in the 1970s by Father Yod and had 140 members. He also owned a popular restaurant in Los Angeles called The Source, and at the time of his death, he had 13 wives.

Gravitas Ventures / Via youtube.com

12. True Russian Orthodox Church

This is a religious cult that believed barcodes were satanic symbols and avoided possessed foods. They lived in a cave until 2008 when they had to leave due to its collapse, dead cult members, and multiple suicides.

Dmitry Kostyukov / AFP / Getty Images, Afp / AFP / Getty Images

13. The Family

The Family was a cult created to establish the "perfect race" by using children, dyeing their hair blonde, and even giving them LSD as part of the initiation process. Many of their kids were stolen from hospitals as newborns.

Newspix / Getty Images

14. The Holy Rollers

The Holy Rollers was started in the 1900s and was very popular among women. Their founder, Edmund Creffield, was thought to receive messages from God in order to prepare for the apocalypse.

He also tried to seduce women to find the second "mother of Christ," but the leader was later killed by two brothers of one of his followers.

Peter Knight / Getty Images/500px

15. Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments of God

This group was formed when its two founders claimed to see visions of the Virgin Mary. Their group was known for how strictly they followed the Ten Commandments.

Thirty-three members were killed in 2000 when a massive fire broke out in one of their churches.

Alexander Joe / AFP / Getty Images

16. Ripper Crew

The leader of this Satanic cult is shown here, but this group targeted women in the 1980s by kidnapping, raping, mutilating, and murdering as many as 20 members. Other cult members stepped forward to talk about the many cannibalistic and sexual rituals that were performed as well.

CBS / Via youtube.com

17. The Narcosatanists

This group was led by Adolfo Constanzo, and they were known for sacrificing animals and performing spells to help drug cartels. Their most notorious mutilation involved spring breaker Mark Kilroy in 1989.

Barbara Laing / Getty Images, Bettmann Archive / Getty

18. The Manson Family

This cult is famously known and was led by Charles Manson. The cult gained national attention after the murder of Sharon Tate in 1969, which Charles Manson ordered.

Hulton Archive / Getty

These Wikipedia pages really help to shine some light on the most gruesome cults of all time, including the infamous Manson Family. These are all terrible, and it really makes you wonder about some people in the world.

Cults will always be fascinating to me because it's crazy how they manage to get so many followers to join in.

Some of these stories are so disturbing, they stick with you long after you scroll past them.

Before you go, check out 70 bizarre events that defy normal explanations.