i know it’s a big deal because beards have religious significance to the amish, but the idea of someone breaking into another person’s house then angrily shaving their beard is so funny

Bothers me so much that the Jonestown mass murder is called a mass suicide. Most were forced to drink that kool-aid and those who tried to run were shot.

Growing up Greek Orthodox, I always heard people describe our church as "new calendar" and I didn't understand until I was an adult that our church had split over something as petty as what day it is

4:36 that windows notification jumpscared me

I deeply fear any cult that has the power to live nude somewhere as cold as Saskatchewan.

Fun fact: For some jobs in Bavaria, Germany such as teaching, you have to sign a form that you are NOT associated with Scientology or financially supporting them in any way.

I find “Cargo Cults” interesting because their beliefs and tactics actually worked. The soldiers eventually did come back and brought more resources.

imo Scientology could have its own iceberg. Xenu and thetans (the stuff discussed in South Park) is literally just the tip of it, things like "Fair Game", the Hole, their shadow organizations like Narcanon, whatever happened to Shelly Miscavige, child labor, the million year contracts with the Sea Org...

Most of these are the definition of “we can make a religion out of this”

Society for Ethetical Culture sounds like a group therapy TED Talk where everyone is depressed but excited to be there.

The weird thing is that if Jim Jones had had died suddenly in the 60s when his church was still in Indianapolis, he'd likely be remembered relatively fondly as a figure of the civil rights movement; then he moved the church to San Francisco where his church had a truly astounding amount of political sway in the city during the 70s. And then the whole situation in Guyana, where his behavior was very similar to that of a family annihilator write large. Truly terrifying to imagine the people who experienced the full trajectory of the church.

Jewish person here! Kabbalah was actually originally only allowed to be learned by men in their 40’s (mostly rabbi’s and other religious figures) however, in recent years (I mean really recent) people of all ages have been learning about it as well. In high school (Jewish high school to be specific) my Jewish Culture teacher made us write a report on different parts of Kabbalah; we had to expand on what we thought was most interesting and important and while doing my research and learning about it I understood why only certain people could learn it cause it is very complicated (on both surface level and deeper into the practice)

Frustrating thing about Jim Jones is that he actually didn't drink the "kool-aid" himself. He died from a gunshot wound to the head when just about everyone else at Jones town died a slow agonizing death.

the best thing is how he decribes absolutely horrible stuff with a soft dancy music on the background, i love it

i thought that thumnail said CLIT in big bloody red font

So, what I'm taking from this video is that there are three basic kinds of fringe religions: -My race is better than your race -It's this one well-known religion, but ✨better✨ -Give me twelve hundred dollars or you won't go to heaven

I can imagine that some of the dangerous cults are still alive to this day and may be watching this video, thinking they just got a massive shoutout.

How dare you pass over our lord and savior The Flying Spaghetti Monster

I love that you mentioned Church of the Subgenius: and yes, its complete satire and totally "serious" at the exact same time.

I'm an ex-member of the Ordo Templi Orientis. I was in it for 10 years. The OTO is an occult organization which started in Germany in the late 1800s as an attempt to create an "Academia Masonica" which would bring together various Masonic rites (Masonry only has 3 regular degrees, called Blue Lodge, and everything after that is done through semi-autonomous "rites" like the most popular Scottish Rite which has 33 degrees or York Rite which has 10 degrees) to learn from one another (and bring those which had existed in other countries into Germany) as well as be a reconstitution of the 1776 Bavarian Illuminati. On top of this the OTO claimed to hold a "key" which one of the co-founders Kellner says he discovered in his travels meeting and unifying Eastern and Western spiritualities). Eventually Aleister Crowley joined and, as is his norm, took over entirely. He reformed the Order to match his own self created religion called Thelema (a hodge podge of many different religions but which focus on him being a Prophet of "The New Aeon of Horus". I was a dedicated Thelemite for around 13 years (including my time in the OTO) and after a series of weird personal events sought out the local chapter of the OTO to ask them for help and see if I wanted to join. I was a little stunned to see they had so few members and their temple space was running out of temporary rentals above an occult book store. All the same these people had chill vibes and were able to talk about things I just could not with anyone else as there's so much esoteric jargon in Thelema telling someone like a friend or family about Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khuit, Babalon, The City of Pyramids etc etc is near impossible. I decided to join. They offer a 0th degree called Minerval which allows you to attend Lodge meetings (non-members can only come to the after gathering, usually at a pub, bar or restaurant or attend the public demonstrations of Crowley's "Gnostic" Mass which in reality is just a Thelemic Mass based off the Mass of Russian Orthodox Christianity... but be warned if you go the eucharist, called Cakes of Light, contain a single drop of either blood or semen put into the massive batch before cooking it to kill any viruses possibly present) and the 0th degree is supposed to be an unbinding way to see if you want to go further or back away... but in reality the ritual contains vows which are far from unbinding. I progressed through several of the degrees before I left. I left for many different reasons but was in it for 10 years (I'm about to turn 31). My Lodge itself was full of pretty normal people but the Grand Lodge which ran out of the US began to be something I questioned more and more especially when one of the highest rank members, James Wasserman, begun outwardly spouting far-right ideals, posting pics of himself smiling with people like Roger Stone and Milo Yiannopoulos. If you search up "Proud Boys founder" on Google Images several pics in you'll see a picture with a man on the right wearing a shirt that has a unicursal hexagram and the number 93, those are Thelemic symbols. Looking into it he was an OTO member as were others in the Proud Boys due to James Wasserman's militant Trumpism. The man in the pic sadly passed away due to an overdose. Then there's Augustus Sol Invictus who was only booted from the Order when public relations got bad as he was a keynote speaker at the tragic hate rally Unite The Right. He was not kicked out for his views which were known beforehand but for making the news... oh and he was a candidate for the Libertarian Party nomination in the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida, was the publisher of Revolutionary Conservative, a magazine which calls for a violent far-right white uprising. To add to that In response to Invictus's campaign, the chairman of the Libertarian Party resigned due to Invictus calling him a "violent Fascist and Neo-Nazi" whose ideology was incompatible with libertarianism and saying he did not want to be part of the same party. The chairman also accused Invictus of supporting eugenics and of "sadistically dismembering a goat in a ritualistic sacrifice". Invictus responded by admitting that he once wrote a paper advocating eugenics but saying that he has since "changed his mind". He said he had sacrificed the goat and drunk its blood as part of a ritual to give thanks for surviving a pilgrimage in spring 2013, but denied it was "sadistic". So yeh while my Lodge was full of normal people the same cannot be said of many others especially those in America and Australia. I started being far more critical and doing research, openly breaking my vows to keep silent about all I've experienced and seeking out leaks about future degrees. I found out that the Order had actually essentially died out in the past (in the 70s I think, I'd have to look it up to find exact dates) and an author named Francis King wrote a book called The Secret Rituals of the OTO with every degree's ceremony and teachings included. The book matched precisely my experiences although certain signs, grips and passcodes were changed following the book being published. I knew the OTO was openly leading towards sx magick, that didn't bother me, but what I found and read in the final degree teachings was far more messed up than the sort of thing I was expecting. Those interested can easily google "Secret Rituals of the OTO pdf" and find it to see what I'm talking about. I also found out there was a long history of far-right tendencies within the OTO going back to Crowley. When the OTO first came to America the FBI puts tabs on them and heard the leader state that he believed evil-moustache-man from WW2 was right in thinking Germans were superior to others. Crowley's own opinions on evil-moustache-man are harder to pin down as the British government has declassified the fact he was working for British secret intelligence against Germany during WW1. It's highly implied he joined the Golden Dawn and caused the schism that brought it down because of direct orders from the British Government as The Golden Dawn was becoming a hub for well known Irish Nationalists who wanted to British to relinquish control over their country. However in his personal diaries he writes actual sx dreams about evil-moustache-man. A man, who doesn't seem too stable himself but none the less has acquired and is collecting and publishing primary source material about the OTO runs a website the OTO has been trying to get shut down for many years but can't as it is hosted in Sweden. It is called parareligion (search "parareligion oto" in google to find it) and while it is hard to navigate and full of weird stuff its a treasure trove of primary source material covering the entire 100+ years of OTO history. It even, kinda sillily, logs conversations about my own Lodge Master and a "controversy" where he took 5$ from the dues of members (which he replaced immediately) to buy uhh some white stuff that goes in the nose. Throughout my time in the OTO I met people from many different esoteric Mystery Schools and cults ranging from Freemasons (by far the most down to Earth, chill and normal of all the people I met were all Masons with 32nd degree Scottish Rite Masons being regular people like one who was a university teacher and specialist in translating ancient Sanskrit into English) to several versions of reconstituted Golden Dawns, several reconstituted Rosicrucian Orders (the most cult and kinda pathetic just successful is AMORC and the most respectable and legitimate was the SRIA available only to Master Masons affiliated with the United Grand Lodge of England which most Masonry is), non-English Grand Lodge Masons like Memphis-Misraim which many of the OTO's own initiations are based off of, an ARG that turned into an actual cult called Project 89 that convinced me to bring around 10 friends to farm to start a commune which failed miserable (please do not harass anyone who was affiliated with 89, most have moved on and are very good people who just did some stupid stuff when their were younger), chaos magick groups such as DKMU and much more. If you're interested in asking me anything, really anything, about any of this just let me know. To close off I want to note I was introduced to the occult through KZfaq videos and the algorithm driving my interest in spirituality into deeper and deeper weirdness.

Wendigoon: "I wanna be monetised guys, can't say bad words." Also Wendigoon: "SO ABOUT THAT EXTREME RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE IN CHINA..."

The scariest part of this video was when the Windows notification sound played at 4:40

It’s interesting that you mention Ghost Dance. I recently (maybe a couple of months ago) saw people do a ghost dance at a Powwow. I’m from Canada and I’m mixed Mohawk so I often go to support local Indigenous communities and vendors and enjoy the dances. A couple of the dancers there actually preformed a version of ghost dance that they used to bring in the spirits of the ancestors of all those in attendance to enjoy the powwow, especially those of the recently found residential school children here. I think there was actually someone who had attended one of the schools dancing too, but I can’t remember fully. There were no cameras or videos allowed and there was no singing, just drums and the dancers. It was really moving and a powerful moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if some elements of ghost dance found themselves re-emerging into Indigenous spirituality especially with the Indigenous Resurgence movements going on. I think it would be really nice to find those dances incorporated partly because they were meant to strengthen the community and make the links between the ancestors and the community stronger. Not sure if all that makes sense. But it was a really beautiful moment to honour those who had passed and are still with us.

“I kept seeing information that they denied the holocaust… so.. ok go off I guess??” CACKLING 😭😭

Scientology is waaaaay worse than he made it sound. There’s so many stories of people who left the church you can find online of them being trapped and unable to leave, being stalked/bugged, being abused, etc

I wish you added that very interesting fact that the Heavens Gate cult is still ongoing, and their website is up and running by two members who wanted to stay behind and spread the word.

As a past jehovahs witness, I'm kind of sad he didn't cover it more or at all. It's a cult that so many people think is just a religion. its very extremest, and its just.. yeah.

I remember when i was 11ish being on call with one of my friends with him reading the wikipedia page on scientology and laughing our asses off because it started out semi-normal and just kept getting crazier as we went on

Tell me “Florida man dies of venomous snake bite after founding religion about playing with snakes” doesn’t sound like a real article, you can’t.

I've actually talked to the surviving heavens gate members, they helped me with my religion project on them lmao they still believe in Heaven's gate, it's super evident from what they say in their emails. it got actually creepy when they told me that they believe it was an honor to stay behind and help their fellow members off themselves and didn't feel any remorse, and told me that I would likely die in a "recycling of the earth", I almost stopped communication after that. Got an A+ on the project though!

The last bit about the bunkers and illuminatii reminded me of Vault Tech from The Fallout Series. I appreciate your thoroughness, and not sharing when you don't have enough information. Thank you for always keeping it interesting and adding warnings at the beginning of your videos.

You know you gotta buckle your seats for a ride whenever wendigoon changes his wholesome message of "Hey, but I don't want to spread hate to this community, the acts of some aren't representative of the whole group!" to the other wholesome message of "So even if this group done that, this is not representative of the *whole religion* they branched off, so don't spread hate!".

"It's fun to look into the rabbit hole and see how deep it goes, but you got to remember to take your head out." That is profound and is definitely going to stick with me. I might even try to use that when I start falling down an anxiety spiral.

just came out of a coma because the nurse told me there was a new wendigoon video fresh off the press

Rewatching iceberg videos because it’s nice to fall asleep too…. Very soothing voice.

The end of this video was genuinely inspiring. Thanks, wendigoon! You’re the man💜

“imagine you start a religion and you cant even make a football team out of it” PLS

I was shocked that there would be a cult based on icebergs, then I watched the first minute of the video and was like "oh"

Imagine being kidnapped by the cartel simply because you hold the opinion of "Kidnapping is bad"

Marcus Wesson lived just a couple blocks from my house when I was still in elementary school. Hearing about what he did when I grew up was a huge shock to me because my parents refused to tell me what was going on.

My Dad did an audit for scientology in the 80s. It really freaked him out, so he never went back. They called him and when he said he wasn't interested, the person on the phone started asking who he was talking to and was essentially demanding him to give a reason as to why he wasn't coming back. In roughly 2015~, they called him at his work and invited him to a barbecue in another state. Keep in mind, hes hard to find. He's changed his last name, has drifted around a lot, doesn't have a social media presence, and has had a ton of other jobs. They called him again sometime later, too. Weird organization.

the level of pettiness of the greek orthodox old calendar is honestly something i aspire to

Wendigoon i started watching u recently nd can not get enough i love ur views nd the way u talk about things u have taught me so much!

very good disclaimer at the start, encouraging people to research what they're interested in is always nice.

"Imagine you start a religion, and you can't even make a football team out of it!" Imma steal this.

i have a friend whos parents were into the whole appalachian snake handling thing and he was telling me about how as a child in church they would literally force children(including him) to play with snakes such as pit vipers and rattlesnakes and told them that if they get bit it was gods will, he ended up in the foster system by like age 9 because his parents were batshit crazy so yeah

Man I wish this video was longer and went into more detail about all of these. I know that's a ton of work, but cults are so interesting and I've found NO other deep dive videos about any of these

What I like about la Santa muerte, is that we basically shouldn’t be afraid of death for death comes for everyone at some point in time. And I guess I’m interpreting it into my own philosophy or way of thinking etc.

Heaven's Gate still has 2 members and a website that is running to this day

I don't know if this is weird to say, but I just love how this guy talks. He is concise, calm and speaks with clarity. I have ADHD so i find it hard to pay attention to videos that have little visuals, not to mention a 1 hour long one. He would be a great teacher, very easy to follow the topic even if I'm not familiar with the content.

When I was a kid, a Moonie came up to my mom and I while we were in a parking lot of a restaurant. He was odd and he wouldn't let us pass but was overly polite (asking if we heard of his religion.) When we finally got past him and got into the restaurant I asked my mom who he was and she explained about cults to me. I've been fascinated by them ever since. This was an interesting video.

a lot of these deserve their own video Wendi, Glad I stumbled here 😂

Everyone on the iceberg sub: Wendigoon is time for another iceberg video! Wendigoon: Yes dear...

The snake handler story is one of my favorites like the absolute irony of him saying people dying from snake bites are just not faithful enough and then dying from a snake bite is so funny

I’d like to say Scientology isn’t Tier 3 it’s Tier 9….especially if you were in the Sea Org. The long term damage from Scientology is some of the worst mind control of all cults! Despite what tier you might have been in, the long term damage from cults never fully heal. There are over 2000 cults in the world. I was raised in a cult and lost entire family from this and severe PTSD. If you have been affected by any tier, sending you love ❤

I'm super late to this video. I love it! I'm surprised Palo Mayombe wasn't mentioned. Or the cult started by Adolfo Constanzo that used a lot of the Palo teachings. It's dark, but I'd love to hear you talk about them some day!

in 5th grade my friends and i as a joke created a soup cult and we got a bunch of other kids involved and it went on for a while our rituals where we put this one kid (my friend Darin who was the smallest) on one of the benches and we would stand or rest on our knees and chant the names of soup brands and soup types while he danced around vigorously and get louder and louder till we all started repeatedly screaming soup till Darin was tired of dancing and sometimes id stand on the bench (cuz i was the nut case who founded it) and would read off the "soup bible" which where just pieces of paper that i printed the history of soup onto and whenever they served grilled cheese for lunch with tomato soup we'd all sit together at a table and give Darin the warm tomato liquid and bow our heads as he wolfed all of it down (it was like 9 bowls including his) the teachers didn't care as long as we weren't trying to sacrifice Darin and disturbing the other classes going on or if people where testing nearby. it was a yard about the size of half a football field in length with like 4 trees and a playground with some swings.

Lmao here in Greece, where most people are hardcore orthodox Christians, old calendar believers are memed pretty hard. You're right it's such a petty thing.

loved the video !! i'm sure you know there's so many more, you should cover the jms cult from korea sometime ☺️

I just realized where "drinking the Kool aid" came from. I didn't know that it's associated with the Jonestown cult

Moe Szyslak: "I was born a snake handler and I'll die a snake handler." THIS WASN'T JUST A JOKE?

For the record, for many years in scientology the alien beliefs were a secret that you could only learn if you assended to the highest spiritual levels (aka paying about $10,000), alot of it was about past lives and souls and finding out about past lives and souls through their special form of therapy

Either there's a Windows error message in the first five minutes of this video or my computer which is running Linux is getting something on the side without telling me Great video! Just finished your Blood Meridian recap. Which means that 9-hour conspiracy theory vid is def on the docket.

I was raised in Tier 6. I had a 90’s childhood that I knew was not normal. I did what I could to get out as fast as I had the ability to. Living on my own at 17. I no longer have a relationship with my Mom and feel absolutely free!

I was born and raised in West Virginia where the Snake Handling churches exist. There's a pretty infamous one locally, the current preacher still "handles" (abuses) the highly venomous snakes. His father was killed by a snake in the church. His father's father was also killed by a snake in the church.

1:06:04 thanks for the bright message at the end of a very grim video, cheers!

Man, what I would give for Wendigoon to do an iceberg on the history of torture methods from the oldest to today’s torture methods.

I'm so glad for this man. He's a Christian, and he isn't shitting on other religions. (that aren't inherently dangerous) he actually genuinely encourages his viewers to do their own research if they're interested in a certain religion. Thank you so much for your respect towards respectable people, dude :)

You missed the most fun part about cargo cults which is they often worshiped an American deity called something like John Frum or or Tom Navy, presumably from the Americans introducing themselves as John from America or Tom from the Navy.

The Chaos Cult symbol is literally the Chaos Undivided symbol in Warhammer 40k

I’m back for a relisten >:) still so good dude

If it wasn’t for South Park, not a lot of people would really know what Scientologists believe as they’re very secretive with their teachings. Good shit, Matt and Trey!

For the Jonestown massacre: There's a tape of some of the last hours where he's preaching to the members about killing themselves while many of the children are heard crying because they don't want to die or whatever they were told by their parents is gonna happen to them, it's harrowing. Also, there's a very cool band called Brian Jonestown Massacre.

I have listened to you for 9 hours straight before dude. No video you make is “ too long” 😂

I feel like when discussing the Falun Gong, it is also important to point out that it is not simply a “peaceful religion.” Many of the teachings are extremely racist and homophobic, and a lot of the media outlets controlled by them promote many conspiracy theories and anti-vaccine misinformation. However, this is in no way a justification for any sort of any human rights abuses committed against practitioners of that religion.

No idea if you’ll see this, but im egyptian. And the brotherhood is not a religious organization its more of a political party, they believe in an islamic government and they are aligned with turkey and qatar politically

I dunno guys, I think the Ashtar Command has some good ideas. Namely the space elves. Also I'm pretty sure you can say sex without getting demonetized.

I’ve been on a binge watch of these videos and I gotta say, Wendigoon’s giggles trying to explain the absurdity of it all is really heartwarming. But about the iceberg, moral of the story: High points in Charisma and low points in Empathy is a frightening combination. Add to that the ability to pull in people that are vulnerable… and well… you get all these cults.

Rajneesh: How do I become a cult leader and not have people suspect I’m in it for the chance to assault children? Rajneesh: Family is bad, no minors

NIXVM will always be a weird one for me because I met Allison Mack at a comic con like two months before all that shit blew up, and just so you know finding out a childhood crush from one of your favorite shows is helping run a sex cult is about as much of a mindfuck as you'd expect

Fun fact : the audio from Jim Jones' last speech while people are dying is available on youtube, and it's terrifying.

Wow, I knew that the Hub & Hubologists from Fallout franchise were based off of Scientology but I didn't realize how cheeky they were about it until listening to your apt description. In just your first few minutes like damn 😂

Very good and respectful summary of the People's Temple/Jonestown events. Just a heads-up: they didn't actually drink Kool-Aid (the real brand), they drank another drink that resembles Kool-Aid. Not that it really matters, but there you go.

That Windows Notification at 4:37 confused me so much, especially since I'm on an iPhone lol

I really admire how you don't pretend to know more than you do and just admit when you don't feel qualified/comfortable to talk about something, it's something you unfortunately don't see a whole lot on the internet. It's also a sign of both emotional and intellectual intelligence when someone is able to be honest about what they do and don't know and what they can and can't talk about, so thank you for being honest with us in all these videos!

3 years late but a couple things about Rajneesh. They took over the town of Antelope, Oregon and renamed it to Rajneesh by members moving there and all voting to basically install its own members in its government. Their bioterrorism attacks were in the nearby larger town The Dalles, which is the seat of Wasco County in which both town exist.

25:42 LMAAAOOO NO I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING BECAUSE UR TAKE IS SO RIGHT 😭😭 "are you sure about this??" 💀

Just wanna say, as an Igbo Nigerian man, “Igbo” is pronounced “E-bow”. The “g” is silent

Not everyone in People’s Temple willingly drank the kool-aid. Some members were forced, some were shot, and some were injected with poison. Also, the last few living members set up the bodies to look as though they died hugging/ holding each other.

42:50 its a hell of a sales pitch tho, you have to give them that.

Random fun fact about the Bergholz Barbers that Wendi didn't mention: their leader happens to be named Sam Mullet. Fitting name.

I don't think you all realize how much of a perfect anomaly Wendigoon is. That distinct voice, deadpan delivery, his weirdly full lips, the splashy Super Nintendo ass music, not to mention his videos' primary lighting comes from ABOVE him and he still looks fine.

R.I.P. Ricky Rodriguez, one of the many victims of the Children of God. This is the cult that River Phoenix was in as a kid and they have ruined so many lives.

Wendigoon: "people's temple" Me: Oh hey that sounds kinda familiar Wendigoon: "Joanstown" Me: *Oh no*

I love the whiteboard in the background from the 'AI in a box' concept video

Important to mention that even though Malcom X was accosiated with Nation of Islam he abandoned the ideas of black supremacy later in life when he visited Mecca and saw diffrent races praying together.

5:40 me, half black from one parent and half white from the other: "So... What you're saying is... I only have half a soul."

Father Seraphim Rose talks about secret societies in his "Orthodoxy survivial guide" - amazing read, and great vid Wendigoon 👍

Excellent research you've accomplished. I think you'd make an impressive iceberg on the topic of Inventions and how some were found by happenstance, others through dedicated refinement. Some by remarkable individuals, and more by the actions of coordinated teamwork of groups guided by people stepping up to become leaders for a cause.

I was in the 'children of god' till the age of 21. Many things about are similar to all the other cults but the sexual, physical and emotional abuse was intense. Im glad that the veil of secrets is being ripped away by folks like you talking about it.