All language subtitles for The Unxplained s02e04 Deadly Cults.eng

William shatner:
Masters of manipulation,

mind control...

And deadly practices
committed by...

ordinary people.

The manson family,
heaven's gate,

Jonestown.

All are examples
of deadly cults.

But what makes a gathering
of people a cult?

And why do many cult leaders

possess the power
to control minds

and make people do
unspeakable acts?

Well, that is what
we'll try and find out.

? ?

Former United States marine
Omar rosales is at a crossroads.

Three years after graduating
from law school,

he is struggling to get
his career off the ground.

After a series of dead ends,

Omar decides to enroll in a
professional development course

run by a company known as nxivm,

in the hope that it will help
bring him greater success.

I think at the time,
I was a little bit lost.

I was looking for guidance.

I had been out of
the marine corps for six years,

finished law school
and I still felt a bit empty.

I was told about nxivm
and I was recruited by a friend

who told me
that these were good courses

to become more successful.

And the group had a lot
of accomplished members.

So I thought it was
a-a good way to improve myself

and get to know more people.

Shatner: Nxivm claimed that its
executive success programs were designed

to put members on a path toward
experiencing more fulfillment

in their lives and achieving
self-actualization.

But Omar soon found that
the company's training methods

were a bit unusual.

Rosales: It was decided
that Keith raniere

would be called vanguard.

He was the leader
of this new movement,

and so you were not
supposed to say "Keith,"

you're supposed
to talk to him as vanguard.

That's how you would
address him.

"Yes, vanguard. No, vanguard."

The lessons were very long
during the courses.

We would sometimes go
12 or 14 hours straight.

It was almost hypnotic.

What I also noticed was,
playing volleyball with Keith,

when women would
enter or leave the room,

they had to kiss Keith
on the mouth.

Every single woman
had to do this.

And I just thought,
"that's kind of unusual."

That's not a normal
social custom,

to make a woman kiss you
on the mouth before they left.

It's almost like the women
were subservient to Keith

or servants controlled, and it
was done without thinking.

And that kind of
struck me as-as off.

As something that's going wrong.

Shatner: Fortunately,
Omar was able to get out of nxivm

before it brought him
any more harm.

But sadly, many others,
especially women,

were unable to break free.

The suspected head of an alleged
cult that reportedly

branded female members now faces
charges in the United States

after he was arrested
and extradited from Mexico.

Jim moret: It became
a cult primarily for him,

of women who were
his sex slaves.

And it's fascinating,
because you're talking about

young, attractive, smart,
successful women

often coming from money, and you
think, "how is it possible?"

How could you lure these people
who are intelligent and educated

and have them become sex slaves?

The women would be
brought into a room

and they would
be told, "disrobe."

They would be told
to be blindfolded.

They would lie down on a table,

and then,
for ten, 20, 30 minutes,

another member of that cult
would literally brand them

just above the pelvic area
with Keith raniere's initials.

I think my reaction to nxivm was
what most people's reaction was:

"Uh, how is this possible?
That can't possibly happen."

But it didn't start like that.
It developed very slowly.

Keith raniere, like many
cult leaders, had allure,

had an attraction,
had a charisma.

And that charisma
was intoxicating.

And you think to yourself,
"this is impossible."

But imagine now that
you've gone through with this.

The only way to rationalize this

is you must tell yourself
this is okay, this is important,

because otherwise
you'd say that's crazy.

Actors are the perfect advert

to attract cult members.

Society values actors
and their opinions.

Catherine oxenberg, the actress
who was initially part

of this group,
her daughter became involved,

and she came to US at inside
edition and began pleading.

"Please, help me.
Please, get the word out.

"I haven't seen my daughter.
She won't talk to me.

I don't know where she is.
I'm worried for her safety."

She admitted to me
that she had been branded,

and she didn't think
that it was problematic.

When you heard
that she had been branded

and she was okay with it,
what was your reaction?

Really sad.

Really, it's like,
"what have they done?

"What have they, um, how have
they spun this to make it

a good thing for woman to be
doing to themselves and others?"

So that's, that was really,
really hard to figure out.

How do you make sense of that?

Moret: When the
alarm bells start to ring,

and then investigative
journalists get involved

and you think to yourself,
"this can't get any stranger,"

and then it does.

And then, fortunately,
in this case,

you find people are eventually
brought to justice.

Keith raniere was convicted
of racketeering

and sex trafficking.

He'll be sentenced in January,

and faces a possible sentence
of life in prison.

Keith wanted to get
as many people as possible,

so his message was
always a message of love.

It says, "I love you
just the way you are."

There was no overt agenda.
It was just an acceptance.

Moret: It's all designed
to lure people in.

A kind of a multilevel
pyramid scheme.

But the, at the pyramid, there's
only one person on the top,

and that person is the guy
who gets all of the money.

And in nxivm, got all of the
women to be subservient to him.

It's just fascinating to see
how people are so willing

to put themselves
beneath somebody else

who's going to tell them
all the answers.

Shatner: While the power of
cults to draw in the unwitting

and convert them
into true believers

has long been
a subject of intense

and terrifying fascination,
one has to wonder,

what makes cults so powerful?

And how does a person
keep themselves

from falling into
their deceptive clutches?

Janja lalich: People generally
are looking for something

to belong to, to be a part of,

to find purpose
in their life, or meaning.

And today, that's
a very common phenomena.

In ancient belief systems,
"cult" was not a negative.

Uh, cult is related
to cultivate,

to tend or, uh, take care of.

You had the mithraic cult
in ancient Rome

or the eleusinian mysteries
in Greece

or the cult of dionysus
that bridged both of them.

There were cults in India,
the thuggee.

These were religious bodies
with practices that promise

various possibilities
of enlightenment,

and all seen as a constructive
part of the community.

David whitehead:
There's a virtue to seeking out

a spiritual expression

or a religious expression
towards orientating yourself

to the truth, to answering
the big questions of life,

which are, "who am I? Why am
I here? Where am I going?"

That's a natural human endeavor.

Lalich:
Cults are led by and founded by

a charismatic
or someone who's considered

to be a charismatic leader.

Often narcissistic
and authoritarian,

and they always demand total
devotion from their followers.

There also needs to be some type
of indoctrination program

that is meant to change
or transform the person

into who the cult leader wants
you to be as a cult member.

Whitehead: If we look back at
figures such as Charles manson,

he ended up indoctrinating
his followers to the point

where they were willing
to do things that they otherwise

would never have been
capable of doing.

Shatner: Humans are hardwired
to form social relationships.

Bonds that identify our tribe
and keep US together.

Friend groups, sports teams,
community organizations.

(Cheering, applause)

All of them speak
to our instinctual urge

to be part of the group.

Could the basic human need
to belong

explain how a cult could make
an otherwise normal person

lie, enslave or even kill?

Lalich: We always say,
"in Rome, do as the romans do."

So that kind of peer pressure,
that's why cults are groups.

Rosales:
There's something in our psyche

that draws US to the dark,
the other.

We're intrigued by it,
because we want

to maybe experience it
vicariously.

But there are people that will
take advantage of that

and manipulate you because
they want your money, your life

and your soul.

Shatner:
Is it possible that cult leaders

are drawing on powers that
are even stranger and stronger

than we think?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by taking a closer look

at what many believe
to be the cult leader's

most powerful weapon: Charisma.

Shatner:
Port kaituma, Guyana.

November 18, 1978.

News cameras broadcast
shocking images from a commune

that lies deep within
the Guyanese jungle.

Hundreds of men, women
and children,

most of them families, lie dead,

victims of a mass cult suicide.

It was an event so horrific

that it would eventually come
to be known around the world

as the Jonestown massacre.

Jonestown is the quintessential
example after world war ii

of what a cult is.

It started off as
an idealized church vision,

based in christianity,

advocating racial
integration and Harmony.

It gradually devolved, however,
into a commune in Guyana,

based around the pathologies
of Jim Jones.

Lalich:
He took his followers to Guyana

because there was
going to be an expos�

in one of
the San Francisco magazines

about his phony faith healing.

They were really
in a bounded reality.

And Jones' voice was on
loudspeakers all the time.

He was in total control.

And he also got more

and more demented and more
and more drug-addled.

Shatner:
When reports of abuse surfaced,

congressman Leo Ryan of
California flew to Jonestown

with a delegation
to investigate.

Fearing that the congressman
would blow the whistle

on the strange
and abusive behavior

happening at the compound,
Jones ordered

his armed guards to attack
Ryan and his companions

before they could
leave the country.

Congressman Ryan
and four others were killed.

Jones then summoned
his followers, one by one,

to swallow a cup
of powdered fruit drink

mixed with cyanide,

before taking his own life.

All told,

909 people died

in what Jones called
"a revolutionary suicide."

Jim Jones wielded a level
of control over his followers

that to this day,
remains hard to comprehend.

But what makes these leaders so
different from the rest of US

that they are capable
of making people do

almost anything?

Perhaps the answer can be found
by examining one such person

whose influence extended,
not just within a community...

But across
the entire United States.

Self-help guru and author,
James Arthur ray,

takes the stage to speak
to a packed audience

at his "harmonic wealth weekend"
seminar.

It isn't long
before he has the crowd

hanging on his every word.

He was very compelling,

very, um, masterful

from the stage.

And knew how
to move an audience.

Ginny brown: James ray
was famous from the secret

and from being on Oprah
and all the morning TV shows.

He was a very charismatic,
powerful speaker.

He had an amazing ability
to rally the audience

and to synthesize
eastern and western

religious concepts
and modern science.

We all have
a special purpose and a,

and a mission to fulfill
in this lifetime...

Shatner:
On the strength of his seminars,

media appearances,

and best-selling book,

James Arthur ray
became a household name

in the field
of personal development.

In October of 2009,

he held an event at
the angel valley retreat center

near sedona, Arizona,

that was designed to be the apex

of his personal
development curriculum.

The spiritual warrior retreat.

Tucker:
Spiritual warrior was

described
as the highest pinnacle.

It was appealing to me
because it was a smaller group.

I had done all
of the successive workshops.

It was an 18-month
journey for me.

And so, I saw it
as a bit of a finish line.

Brown: My daughter Kirby
was a very physical person.

She loved adventure--

she mountain biked, she hiked.

And she went there to grow
and expand her life.

Shatner:
After four days

spent meditating
in the desert heat,

and having already undergone
36 hours of fasting,

the retreat members took part in
the culmination of the program:

A vision quest
inside a sweat lodge.

Tucker:
The sweat lodge

was explained as a ceremony
with the intent

to celebrate transformation
and rebirth.

They pulled out razors
with the expectation that

if someone was serious,
you would shave your head.

And I did.

I remember that we went in
in a line,

and circled around
on the inside.

When the sweat lodge began,

one thing that surprised me
was when the flap

was closed, how dark it was.

Shatner:
With the only source of light

and oxygen cut off,

and hot rocks brought in to
raise the temperature even more,

ray asked the participants
to push themselves

past their discomfort,

in hopes of being
spiritually transformed.

But as they spent many hours

baking in the temperatures
of the sweat lodge,

many people began slipping
in and out of consciousness.

By this point, the heat's
radiating from our bodies.

It was very chaotic.

It was discombobulating.

The sweat lodge
was extremely hot,

possibly up to, uh, 200 degrees.

He pushed people
beyond physical limits.

He told people,

"you may think you are going
to die in this, but you won't."

Shatner:
Despite what ray believed,

several people were,
in fact, teetering on the edge

of losing their lives in the
suffocating, oppressive heat.

Until the inevitable finally,
and tragically, happened.

Shatner: As officers flooded the
compound in response to a 911 call,

it became apparent that
the spiritual warrior retreat

had gone wrong.

Very wrong.

Two people were dead,

including 38-year-old
Kirby brown.

And a third would die
a week later.

All killed by the excruciating
heat in the sweat lodge.

When the police
arrived on the scene,

they couldn't find James ray,

because in the midst
of all of this chaos,

in the midst of people standing
over my daughter's body,

trying to revive her,

he was up in his... room

having dinner
and taking a shower.

Shatner: For people
like James Arthur ray,

the ability to exert
absolute power over others

was as natural as breathing.

But why do so many
who have this power

use it for harm?

Kent:
Ray had been a bodybuilder.

He was very concerned
about his hair, his clothes,

his presentation,
and so some people think

ray as an adult was reacting
against, uh, his childhood.

He, in fact, talked about
himself being a geek.

He made comments about
the size of his glasses,

his teeth and so on,
and so, later on in life,

ray became very concerned
about his appearance.

Cult leaders are often sick,
troubled individuals.

So, in the case
of James Arthur ray,

it's exactly what we see
with so many of these leaders.

It's like they can't deal
with who they really are,

so they're living their fantasy.

They're living out
their perverted hopes.

Most people think that charisma

is-is a characteristic inherent
in an individual.

But, in fact, charisma
is a social relationship.

Everyone sitting there
and they're oohing and awing,

and you don't want
to be the odd one out.

Which gives them the ability
to then demand things of you.

And you are obligated
to carry out the wishes

of your so-called
charismatic leader.

What was it that compelled
James Arthur Ray's followers

to stay in that sweat lodge,

three of them
to the point of death?

Was it peer pressure...
Or something else?

Perhaps that question will be
answered after we investigate

a cult that was responsible
for an even deadlier event...

Heaven's gate.

15 members
of the apocalyptic ufo cult

known as heaven's gate,

gather for the sighting

of the much-anticipated
hale-bopp comet.

They believe
the arrival of the comet

is a signal that the time

for final salvation is at hand.

After observing the comet,
one by one,

the members of heaven's gate

ingest a lethal concoction
of phenobarbital--

a powerful sedative

mixed with pudding...

and chased down
with a shot of vodka.

Over the next few days,
two more groups

follow their brethren
into what Shakespeare called

"the undiscovered country from
which no traveler returns."

We don't care to cling
to the life of this body

until it naturally gives up.

We don't care to be aborted

by the body that we're wearing.

We care more to abort it

in proof to our heavenly father

that we're ready
to leave this place.

(Siren wailing)

Shatner:
In all, 39 bodies,

including that of cult leader
Marshall applewhite,

are found dead
in their bunk beds.

All of them wear identical
black shirts and sweatpants,

Nike tennis shoes

and purple cloths
covering their faces.

Bill kolender: Based on
the conditions at the scene,

all indications are that
this was a mass suicide.

Shatner:
It was, and still is,

the worst mass suicide
ever committed on u. S. Soil.

Whitehead: Marshall applewhite
was a failed cult leader.

He had tried starting up
many other cults before.

Welcome to beyond human.

Whitehead: He was in
a psychiatric institution.

I mean, all the warning signs
were there.

Yet he blended new age ufo-logy
and christianity

and was able
to swindle these people

and start a very
successful cult.

Shatner:
The notion of committing suicide

so a spaceship can beam
your soul up to heaven

is certainly misguided,
but how could

a group of highly
intelligent people,

most of whom were
skilled computer experts

and web designers, come to
believe something so irrational?

Lalich:
This is a perfect example of

what we call
cognitive dissonance,

when reality doesn't match
what you believe.

So if you actually believed,

"I'm an alien and I'm gonna
go out into this world

"of human beings,

nobody's gonna believe me. How
am I gonna fit in out there?"

If people would just know that
we're not forced into this

in any way; It's, you know,
our own choosing to do it.

Lalich:
At the end,

most of the people who died,
had been with them

for 20-some years, I mean,
a-a huge part of their life.

Shatner: Investigative journalist
and radio host, David whitehead,

travels to the museum of death,

which houses authentic artifacts
from notorious deaths,

including the
heaven's gate suicides.

Meeting David is museum curator,
erek obrist.

And here it is.

Obrist: Yes,
indeed. You are looking at a recreation

of the crime scene
of the heaven's gate

suicide cult
from rancho Santa fe.

Whitehead: So everything
in here is authentic?

Everything that you are viewing
right now is 100% authentic.

(Shudders)
That is chilling.

This is how it went down.

This is all the real clothing,
the purple scarves,

the Nike shoes.

Everything that wasn't evidence
or religious material

was auctioned off
to the highest bidder.

They've actually got
the comet on there.

This one says,
"earth exit: Monasteries."

Obrist:
I believe they referred to

the mansion they were living in
as the monastery.

The initial responding officers

originally thought
that it was all men.

Turns out that half, easily,
were women,

but they couldn't tell because
of the short hair, the dress,

the loose style of clothing.

The cult was very asexual.

They saw themselves as aliens.

Eight of the male members
had actually

undergone castration.

- No way.
- Yes. Willingly.

Whitehead: What are
those notes on the wall?

That is a very important piece
within the exhibit.

A four-page handwritten note
left behind

by one of the members trying
to explain why they're doing it.

The note was left behind
in a set of clothing

that was purchased
at the auction, and naturally,

just like when you do
your laundry, you go through

the pockets to see if anything
had been overlooked.

The note itself is really
amazing to read because

you can see how some things
are crossed out.

Maybe they changed their mind
a little bit.

Maybe they just wanted
to express themselves properly.

They were excited
about leaving this planet

and going to what they thought
would be "home,"

to a better place.

It ends with the chilling line,

"I hope you may all experience
someday what we've had."

Yeah, I'm-I'm just feeling
an overwhelming sense of...

Just this heavy feeling.
Reading about it

is one thing, but coming in
and-and seeing it...

Obrist: I don't think
people are aware there are

surviving members still to this
day that maintain the website.

It's still active.

You can write them,
they'll reply.

Really?

Yeah.

Shatner:
Will the remaining members

of heaven's gate repeat
the horrific events of 1997?

The fact that they're still
committed to their mission

suggests that such a frightening
notion is possible.

It is also a testament
to the insidious power

of cult leaders and their ideas.

But not all cults
use the promise of heaven

to control their followers.

Some are even able to turn
the simple art of dancing

into something deadly.

Not all deadly cults
involve the indoctrination

of hundreds or even thousands
of followers.

Some cults only involve one.

An unlucky person under
the spell of a cult leader

who uses something
as benign as dancing

to lure their follower.

That's all very well and good,
of course,

until the dance turns deadly.

29-year-old performer and
yoga instructor, Sharon stern,

enrolls at naropa university

to earn her master's degree
in dance.

Tibor:
Sharoni was unbelievably happy.

She played piano,
guitar, singing,

dancing.

Mizrahi:
She just had this way of taking

anything monotonous
or anything repetitive

or anything routine and just,
like, flipping it upside down.

She had a way of making
any moment special.

Tibor:
She told me one day in 2007,

"dad, I would like to go back
to finish my master degree."

And she told me
that she got naropa,

which is a Buddhist university.

And I told her, "sharoni,
that sounds so good to me."

I was wrong. I was very wrong.

Shatner: Soon after
arriving at university,

Sharon enrolls
in a class on butoh,

a Japanese form
of dance theater.

Translated
as "dance of darkness,"

butoh is known for
its grotesque imagery,

controlled movements
and taboo themes.

Performers wear corpse-like
white body makeup

and use unnatural movements in
order to appear that much more

inhuman.

Mizrahi: Having been a dancer
for most of my life,

it's like nothing
I've ever seen before.

The facial movement

is completely expressionless.

There's no smiling,
there's very little eye contact.

The movements
are sort of robotic.

It's a little chilling.

Shatner: Mesmerized by butoh's
strange motions and imagery,

Sharon immediately felt drawn
to the unique dance

and to her instructor,

a world-renowned butoh
practitioner from Kyoto, Japan,

who operated under the name
of katsura kan.

Mizrahi: Sharoni seemed very
excited to introduce me to him,

and he turned around
and made very little eye contact

and sort of said "hi,"
and turned--

gave his back to me
and barked some orders

at her and-and left.

There was definitely a very

powerful influence coming from
this teacher figure in her life,

this mentor figure in her life.

He was intriguing to her.

Shatner:
Under kan's tutelage,

Sharon devoted herself
to the study of butoh,

sacrificing everything
in an effort to immerse herself

in this macabre ritual.

The Sharon before butoh
and the Sharon after butoh

are two totally
different people.

The Sharon after butoh
was malnourished in every way.

She looked skinnier
than she had ever looked.

That energy

that was so, so characteristic
of Sharon wasn't there.

It wasn't the same person.

Tibor:
Sharoni called kan "god,"

and anybody who tried to change
her mind and bring her back

to normal life was enemy.

She became a zombie, and, uh,

she hardly remembered things.

At that point,
two things had happened:

She lost her critical thinking.

She felt useless, worthless.

She couldn't cope
with life anymore.

Shatner: Over the course
of the next four years,

Sharon's friends and family
became more and more concerned

about what they believed
was her obsession

with the world of butoh
and the disturbing nature

of her relationship
with her teacher,

katsura kan.

Lalich: Kan developed a
relationship with Sharon

that became sexual.

She became completely
dependent on him.

We all know
that that's verboten,

that's something you don't do,
you know.

If it's a-a teacher and a pupil,

if it's a pastor and a,
and a parishioner,

if it's a psychologist
and his patient.

You don't take advantage
of your students.

It's already
a power relationship.

Shatner:
On April 25, 2012,

after years of psychological,
emotional and physical decline,

Sharon stern
was finally overwhelmed

by this dance of darkness
and ended her own life.

In 2019, in a civil case for the
wrongful death of Sharon stern,

a judge in Florida
found terugoshi kotoura,

the real name of katsura kan,

liable for the
young dancer's death,

a judgment that Mr. Kotoura
is attempting to overturn.

But how could
a bright young woman,

who had her entire life
ahead of her,

become so consumed
by thoughts of death,

that she eventually
took her own life?

When you align physical states,
like movements,

you align neural states, and
you align psychological states.

In a sense, their brain states
and their psychology

is also moving together at once.

I would liken it
to the experience of hypnosis.

Some people
are easily hypnotized,

some people aren't,
and that feature,

that defining
personality feature,

is usually called
suggestibility.

Some people are
highly suggestible,

especially if that is coming

from this highly charismatic
authority leader or figure.

And it's because
of that personality trait

that they're having
those experiences.

Tibor: He was teaching to
lose your identity, authenticity.

And darkness

and death and suffer
was the message.

Shatner: Was it the
psychosomatic power of dance

that led Sharon stern

down such a dark, deadly path?

Sadly, that seems
to have been the case.

Sharon's story is a testament
to the destructive power

untethered belief can have
on a single person.

But what happens
when those same beliefs

infiltrate... an entire city?

Shatner:
In this coastal town

located 300 miles southwest
of Sao paolo...

19 children have mysteriously...

Gone missing.

Vanished without a trace.

Kent:
What happened in Brazil

in the late 1980s
and early 1990s

was a shock
to Brazilian society.

People were afraid.

They did not know why these
disappearances were going on.

Shatner: Todd lewan,
a foreign correspondent

for the associated press
news agency,

is assigned to cover
the developing situation.

Lewan:
This was a major story

going on in the country
at the time.

It was being covered
by the major news weeklies.

It was in the newspapers
every day.

I immediately drove
to guaratuba,

and went straight
to the police station

for my interview.

And I walk into
the investigator's office,

and he looked at me and said,

"there's no need
to tell me who you are.

I know why you're here."

Shatner: As the number
of missing children

continues to climb,
the authorities are unable

to identify who, or why,
the children of guaratuba

are being targeted.

But then they receive
a significant clue

when the body
of one of the missing children

is found in the field
near the local sawmill.

When these young children
were executed,

when they were slain,
it was done with a skilled hand,

indicating that this was
a medical person

and that they did not act alone.

The state in which they found
the remains of this young boy

indicated to the police
there was a madness behind this.

The precise incisions,

the places of the incisions...

this led police to believe that

there was a...

Darker purpose here,

that perhaps a cult
had been involved.

Shatner: Police suspect
the owner of the sawmill,

a man named Aldo abagge,

who, shockingly,
happens to be the town's mayor.

Abbage is soon arrested
in connection with the killing

and accused of being
a cult member,

along with seven other
well-regarded members

of the community.

Lewan:
It was a bit of a shock.

But the most chilling thing
about this was

he'd actually been played
by the leader of a satanic cult,

a Brazilian woman

whose name was
Valentina andrade.

Moret:
Valentina de andrade was

this almost mystical
occult leader

who merged religion and ufos

and espoused the belief
that Jesus Christ was an alien.

Lewan:
On the surface,

Valentina andrade cut the figure

of a sweet,
genteel kindergarten teacher,

complete with a pretty smile.

It turned out that she
was actually

the ringleader behind a cult...

Called
the superior universal light.

Lalich: Another part
of her belief system

was convincing her followers
that all boys

who were born
after the year of 1981,

uh, were evil
and were to be murdered.

Lewan:
You have to wonder,

how could
experienced politicians

be taken in
by a Valentina andrade.

Was it because she had done such
a good job presenting herself

as a...
Woman of love and family?

Moret: She would lure
people into her religion

and convince them that they
had to sacrifice young children

in order to gain
and maintain their power

and their level
within the religion.

Federal investigators
were stunned

when they realized that
this cult had 2,000 members

not just from within Brazil
but from around the world.

Shatner:
Of the 19 children

that the members of the cult
were accused of abducting,

six were found dead,

their remains badly mutilated.

The rest were never found.

Valentina was ultimately
arrested and accused

of coercing her followers
by promising them good fortune

if they agreed
to commit the murders.

When the case went to trial,
the mayor and his accomplices

were found guilty,

but not Valentina.

Unlike Charles manson,
she was able to convince a jury

that she shouldn't be
held responsible,

because she wasn't even there.

Lewan:
Her alibi was that

she was not at the scene
of the crime for these killings.

It was almost too horrific
to consider that a woman

with this matronly appearance

could be leading
such a vicious, barbaric group.

And I think that's
why she was not convicted,

and then she was able
to slip away from justice.

That, to me,
is deeply, deeply unsettling.

Shatner: It may be one thing
to convince cult followers

to do harm to themselves,

but it's quite another
to harm others,

especially innocent children.

So when does
the strange ideology of a cult

pose a deadly threat
not only to its members

but to US all?

The answer...

May be more disturbing
than you think.

Shatner: After interviewing
former cult members,

researchers from the addictology
and psychiatry department

at nantes university publish
the results of their study.

Their conclusion: What makes
someone want to join a cult

is a feeling of deep
dissatisfaction with life

and a need
for personal development.

Although this may sound obvious,

it is also a bit frightening,

especially
since those same traits

apply to millions of people--

perhaps even you.

You can have political cults,
you can have therapy cults,

you have new age cults,
you have channeling cults,

you have karate cults--
probably you could find

(laughs): A chocolate chip
cookie cult if you wanted to.

So cults can be built around
any type of belief system,

and we see that
not only in our country

but around the world today

with the rise of this sort of
push for hatred and violence.

So it's something that, uh,

is very prevalent.

Unfortunately,
this will not stop.

I don't want to be naive.

In our organization, we receive

about five to ten
cult-related complaints a day

from families of the victims,

and they all surround
the same place.

And we find out

that seven percent
of our society

are psychopaths and sociopaths.

And worse than that, 25 to 30%

of our society, families,

somehow, directly or indirectly,
are suffering

from cult abuses.

Whitehead: Each one of US
could be susceptible

to falling prey to many
of these cult-like groups,

because every single one of US
is seeking meaning.

We want to understand
the big questions of life.

We want to know why we're here.

We want to have
a sense of direction.

We want to have a sense
of community.

We want to be a part
of something.

And that's what a cult
offers you.

It offers you all of the things
that you're looking for,

except it's...

A wolf in sheep's clothing.

One of the difficulties
is pulling yourself out.

Because if you
look in long enough

and you're in deep enough,
you don't have a way out.

And so I-I encourage people
to be supportive

of former members,
try to be sympathetic.

Don't be judgmental.

People join cults because they
wanted to improve themselves.

They had no idea they
were falling into these traps

or vortexes of-of pain and...
And torture.

So could you be a member
of a cult right now,

even as we speak?

No, not you?
(Chuckles)

Don't kid yourself.

Anyone who joins others
in the collective demonstration

of shared needs
could find themselves in a cult.

But whether that cult
is benign or deadly

is the bigger question.

Hopefully, you or someone else
won't have to die

before you learn the answer.

Till then, you'll just have
to let the matter remain...

Unxplained.

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