Cult Following: The Extreme Sects That Capture Our Imaginations—and Take Over Our Lives

This book explores the most infamous, audacious, and dangerous cults in history. Author J. W. Ocker investigates how it is that smart, ordinary people join extreme cults.

Featured are: 

- Branch Davidians, led by David Koresh, who were raided by the FBI in 1993.

- Los Narcosatánicos, a drug trafficking cult led by Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo, who believed in magic and human sacrifice.

- The Seekers, the earliest known UFO cult, studied by psychologists who coined the term cognitive dissonance.

- Ho No Hana Sanpogyo, a cult founded by Hogen Fukunaga who claimed to tell fortunes by examining feet.

- Breatharianism, a belief that humans can live on air alone.

- NXIVM, a twenty-first-century cult that attracted Hollywood actresses and engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, and racketeering.

Ocker sheds light on the terrifying attraction of cults, demonstrating the elasticity of belief, the desperateness of belonging, and the tragedy of trust.