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Destiny Church (1998)
Brian Raymond Tamaki was born in 1958 in Te Awamutu, New Zealand, as the eldest of five children. He was raised in a rural environment on a family farm. His mother introduced him to Methodism, while he later described his father as largely absent due to alcoholism. Tamaki left secondary school at 15 and worked… Continue reading
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Desteni (c. 2007)
Desteni was founded sometime in the middle of the first decade of the 2000s by Bernard Poolman, a former police detective from Namibia. The group developed as an online-based political and spiritual movement that built a global network of followers. It presented itself as a self-help and social justice initiative, though former members and researchers… Continue reading
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Dera Sacha Sauda (1948)
Dera Sacha Sauda (DSS), also referred to as the “Dera,” was founded on April 29, 1948, by Mastana Balochistani in Sirsa, India, as a center for religious instruction. Its founding principles emphasized humanitarian service and meditation, with followers required to practice vegetarianism, abstain from intoxicants, and observe marital fidelity. After Balochistani’s death in 1960, leadership… Continue reading
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Democratic Workers Party (1974)
The Democratic Workers Party (DWP) was a Marxist-Leninist political organization based in California that operated from 1974 until 1987, and that some cult experts consider to have been a political cult centered around founder Marlene Dixon, a sociologist and former professor. It is most well-known because cult expert Janja Lalich is a past member and… Continue reading
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Juan Pablo Delgado (2000)
The Queen and Lady of All Creation is a Costa Rican religious organization founded in 2000 by Juan Pablo Delgado. Delgado, who was in his early twenties at the time the group gained public attention, claims to receive and transmit direct messages from the Virgin Mary. The organization became widely known for its apocalyptic predictions,… Continue reading
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Defenders of Christ (c. 2010)
Defensores de Cristo, or Defenders of Christ, was founded in the early 2010s in northern Mexico by Spanish citizen Ignacio Gonzalez de Arriba. The group initially presented itself not as a formal religious movement but as a center for “bio-programming.” This approach claimed to help participants “reprogram” their minds to address psychological distress, including pain,… Continue reading
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Deeper Christian Life Ministry (1973)
The Deeper Christian Life Ministry, also known as the Deeper Life Bible Church, is an international Pentecostal denomination headquartered in Gbagada, Nigeria. Its origins date to 1973, when William Folorunso Kumuyi, then a mathematics lecturer at the University of Lagos, began a Bible study group with 15 students. In 1975, while continuing to lead his… Continue reading
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Tyler Deaton (c. 2005)
Tyler Deaton rose to prominence as a religious leader whose prayer group later became the subject of a major criminal investigation in Kansas City, Missouri. He was born and raised in Texas and attended Calallen High School in Corpus Christi. Deaton enrolled at Southwestern University, a liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. While there, he… Continue reading
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John de Ruiter (c. 1990)
John de Ruiter is a Canadian spiritual leader and author who developed an international following through a blend of New Age spirituality and a personalized teaching style. He was born on November 11, 1959, in Stettler, Alberta, to Dutch immigrant parents and was raised in traditional Christian settings. His father worked as a shoemaker, and… Continue reading
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DayLife Army (2013)
The DayLife Army was a high-control group that emerged in the early 2010s and used social media platforms to recruit young artists and musicians. Its development offers an example of how online subcultures, including the “Weird Facebook” scene, were used to build tightly controlled social organizations. The group was founded by Eben “Wiz-EL” Carlson and… Continue reading
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Chad and Lori Daybell (c. 2018)
Chad Daybell and Lori Norene Vallow Daybell were central figures in a criminal case involving multiple homicides, extremist religious beliefs, and apocalyptic ideology. Both were raised within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) and later became leaders of a small, insular group centered on end-times prophecies. Between 2019 and 2020, at least… Continue reading
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Camdan Jerrard Davis (2023)
The case of Camdan Jerrard Davis first gained public attention in late 2023, when it began circulating widely within online investigative communities. The narrative was introduced primarily through a series of videos published by YouTuber MamaMax. In these videos, MamaMax alleged that Davis was the leader of an organized cult that targeted children and young… Continue reading
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Dances of Universal Peace (1968)
The Dances of Universal Peace (DUP) are a spiritual practice that integrate singing, chanting, and collective movement with the aim of fostering interfaith understanding and personal awareness. The practice combines sacred phrases from multiple religious traditions with simple, repetitive movements. The practice originated in North America during the late 1960s. Its development is attributed to… Continue reading
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Dami Mission (1987)
The Dami Mission was an apocalyptic religious movement founded in South Korea in 1987 by former Presbyterian minister Lee Jang Rim. Officially registered as the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, the group grew rapidly and eventually claimed about 20,000 followers. At its height, it operated more than 300 churches, with international branches in major U.S.… Continue reading
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Dahn Yoga (1985)
Dahn Yoga, now known as Body & Brain, is a mind-body training system founded in 1985 by Ilchi Lee, born Seung Heun Lee. The system teaches what it calls “Brain Education,” a proprietary exercise program that combines elements of yoga, tai chi, and martial arts with traditional Korean healing philosophies. The term “Dahn” refers to… Continue reading
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Cult of the Unknown Tongues (1933)
The Cult of the Unknown Tongues was a local religious movement in eastern Kentucky that drew national attention in 1933 after the ritual killing of its founder’s mother. John Mills, born in 1899, was one of 14 children and left school after eighth grade. He worked as a farmer and later as a gas line… Continue reading
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Cult of the Great Eleven/Blackburn Cult (1922)
May Otis Blackburn was the founder and “Queen and High Priestess” of a Los Angeles-based group formally known as the Divine Order of the Royal Arms of the Great Eleven, also referred to as the Cult of the Great Eleven or colloquially as the “Blackburn Cult.” She was born May Otis in 1881 in Storm… Continue reading
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Cthulhu Mythos (1928)
Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity first introduced by American author H. P. Lovecraft in the short story “The Call of Cthulhu,” published in1928. The character is classified as a Great Old One and is central to the Lovecraftian cosmic horror tradition known as the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft described Cthulhu as a massive, green entity… Continue reading
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Crystal Cathedral (1955)
Robert Schuller was an American televangelist, pastor, and author who founded Crystal Cathedral Ministries and hosted the long-running “Hour of Power” television program. He was born in 1926 in Iowa and earned a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary in 1950. After completing his studies, he was ordained as a minister in the… Continue reading
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Crossroads Movement (1967)
The Crossroads Movement, later known as the International Churches of Christ (ICOC), emerged in 1967. Its origins lie in the 14th Street Church of Christ in Gainesville, Florida, which later adopted the name Crossroads Church of Christ. Under the leadership of minister Chuck Lucas, the congregation launched an evangelical outreach initiative known as “Campus Advance,”… Continue reading
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CrossFit (2000)
The origins of CrossFit date to 1996, when former gymnast Greg Glassman began developing a high-intensity fitness approach that combined elements of gymnastics, Olympic weightlifting, and calisthenics. Glassman had created his first signature workout at age 16. In 2000, he formally incorporated CrossFit, Inc. with Lauren Jenai. In 2001, the pair opened a physical gym… Continue reading
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Creciendo en Gracia/José Luis de Jesús Miranda (1988)
José Luis de Jesús Miranda was born on April 22, 1946, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He grew up in poverty and later said he became addicted to heroin by the age of 14. During his youth, he served multiple prison sentences for petty theft, which he attributed to his living conditions at the time. Miranda… Continue reading
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Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (1971)
The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) was a survivalist organization active during the 1970s and early 1980s. Its origins date to 1971, when James Ellison founded a Baptist congregation called the Zarephath-Horeb Community Church in Pontiac, Missouri. In 1976, Ellison purchased a 224-acre property along Bull Shoals Lake in Marion… Continue reading
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Covenant of the Goddess (1975)
The Covenant of the Goddess is an international, cross-traditional Wiccan confederation and advocacy organization. Incorporated in 1975, it is one of the oldest and largest religious bodies dedicated specifically to Wiccan practice. Its membership includes both autonomous covens and solitary individuals. The organization’s stated goals are to encourage cooperation among different Wiccan traditions, provide public… Continue reading
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A Course in Miracles (1976)
A Course in Miracles (ACIM) is a spiritual self-study program rooted in a book by the same name. It combines Christian terminology with psychological and Vedantic concepts, presenting a system focused on forgiveness as a means of releasing guilt. The text teaches that the physical world is an illusion produced by the ego and that… Continue reading
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Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religious Movements 