6 shocking documentaries about mysterious cult leaders and their crimes

Watch these tv shows and documentaries which are about cults formed in various periods of time. These shows give you an idea of how cults function and the psychological tools they employ to establish a solid base for their existence.  ----by Leona Merlin Antony

Image: IMDB

Documentaries are extremely important in this new age where our opinions have the tendency to shape themselves according to the main popular belief. They raise awareness and provide the factual knowledge we require to make use of our critical thinking for analysing a subject. Many online platforms are now concentrating on digging up the factual bases on which mass opinions are based upon. Watch these 6 well-crafted documentaries to known about cult and cult leaders. Know how they have amazingly switched off the critical thinking of people inorder to make them their puppets. 

 1. "Wild Wild Country" - Netflix  

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also known as ‘Osho’ was a controversial Indian guru. When Rajneeshees or ‘The Orange People’ which was the name for the followers of Osho, faced problems while expanding their community, they created their own community in Wasco County, Oregon, US. The documentary explores what happened inside the cult with close interviews participated by Ma Anand Sheela, one of Osho’s famous personal secretaries. The inspiration for the movie title was from Bill Callahan song "Drover" which has the lines, "it was just so wild, so rugged, but vast—really wild country".

2. “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey”- Netflix

The series talks about the establishment of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by Warren Jeffs. Warren Jeffs was convicted of several sex crimes and two assisted sex crimes involving children. He founded the polygamous movement and the trial for his crimes was a very traumatic one. He is still seen as the prophet and the followers who follow the cult until this day believes that he was wrongly convicted. 

3. “Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator” - Netflix

The documentary by Eva Orner observes the rise and fall of the famous yoga cult. Bikram Choudhury was a hot yoga guru. He invented the famous Bikram yoga in which the room was heated up to 120 degrees for the yogis to perform 26 postures including a routine for 90 minutes. It was reported that seven women who worked under him filed cases against Bikram for an unethical work environment, sexual assault and even rape. 

4. "Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle" - Amazon Prime

It tells the tale of the famous cult leader Jims Jones who was responsible for the 1978 Jonestown mass murder-suicide. The investigative journalist Jeff Guinn had written his best-selling book based on this story from which the documentary has taken inspiration. Previous cult members and Jones’ own family members have shared their experiences which were not given while the investigation was going on. 

5. “How to Become a Cult Leader” - Netflix

Dale Carnigie’s ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ is shown in a new light in this documentary. Narrated by Peter Dinklage, the show projects several cults and their cult leaders. Their activities, where they went wrong, the unimaginable murders committed, all these records are given to the viewer to form an idea of how we can easily be a target of these groups. 

6. "Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults" - HBO Max

It was known as the UFO cult. The creators of the cult were Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles famously known as Ti and Do. The series takes accounts from people who were former members who associated with the cult and the leaders. It explores the psychological reasons behind why the members committed mass suicide in 1997 in the belief that they attain the attributes of an alien being in the so-called constructed heaven.