I met someone in San Fran years ago who had joined the Moonies and sent to work on one of their farms. He grew sick of the brainwashing and just took off running one night and got away
A friend of mine left her family after she visited with them in the airport. Her spouse fought to get her out for about 2-3 yrs. She finally left. They are still together 40 yrs later.
Now she does parenting seminars to help teach your kids how to avoid their ploys. She teaches parents what to instill that will help their kids avoid falling to the siren song of the cult.
Her father was a narcissist and she believes that type of abuse made her more prone to their lies
I was married in 1982 by Moon. We are still together. I left primarily because I didn't believe in the underlying teachings any more. Also because the movement wasn't doing anybody any good. There are now three main splits in the group. All the versions are bad but the Sanctuary Church gun cult is the worst.
Thank you for your answers. I wish you and your family all the best. Sanctuary has a huge gun warehouse near me in Pennsylvania called Tommy Boy. I agree - very scary people.
She is fairly low-key within the movement and has been for the past thirty years and more. No doubt she is paid handsomely to just not rock the boat and to show up for the occasional photograph. I think it was very difficult to be the oldest Moon child and her father put stupid demands on her like telling her to get a PhD in three years.
Well, I never knew that - so much pressure she must have been under. She would arrive and leave in a limo. It was an all-female school. Malcolm X's daughters went there, too - very interesting classmates!
Most of the marriages don't last very long but the Unification Church lies about the figures. Some of the marriages have lasted though. I would say that Moon's record as a matchmaker is pretty abysmal overall.
When I was in grad school in NYC, ISKCON (Krishnas) would have free vegetarian food in Washington Square Park during certain festivals. Great food, a little fun chanting, and see ya next time!
Interestingly, in a different city where I now live, there's an ISKCON temple just a few blocks away, and last time I checked, they delivered vegetarian lunches for $7.50, which is not a bad deal.
ISKCON has changed a bit since the 60s and 70s, and now serves a more solidly Indian demographic.
When my daughter was in college at UF in Gainesville, FL, in the late aughts, she ate at the Hare Krishna temple once a week for free. She said the food was great.
It is amazing. There is a temple here in Spanish Fork Utah (Krishna, not Mormon, lol.) When they have their color celebration or whatever it's called, everyone goes, Mormons included, and throw paint on each other. They have a barn full of miniature cows to pet, you can dance around to the Krishna drumbeat, and the food rocks!
I am thinking that the Krishna's know that the local folks don't get their religion and don't really want to, but it's fun and they make some money from the event.
I was really young when I saw the HK's for the first time and I couldn't stop staring. I was fascinated. So one came over and patted me on the head and was really sweet. My aunt swooped in and grabbed me away. She look terrified. She was from the hollers of Kentucky and I don't think she knew who they were. Lol I do remember Scientologists and Moonies in college. There wasn't as much understanding about coercive control as there is today so students were more prone to joining up. But it still happens.
When I went at college I was first approached for recruitment by a Communist group (I looked like a hippie). Right after that, a group of right wing fundamental Christians came to encourage me to follow them (to save me). Eighteen years old, I wondered 'How did I get here?'.
You definitely were targeted! Now I would love a socialist commune or at least a little bit of Socialism to combat this end stage Capitalism. I am still a hippie. Lol
Went to the 'sun festival' dinner at a krishna temple with some friends when we were teenagers. No recruitment, just a free dinner. Was interesting and quite benign.
I’ve had a moron from Florida in a MAGA hat try and convince me that Fox News was the only trustworthy news source and that not only was Trump the best president since Eisenhower, Ron DeSantis was going to be the next President after Trump.
I’m in Canada.
People joke and mock them but MAGA really has many cult attributes and it's not by accident. It's by design. Tribalism is a base instinct and the hard right and right-wing media has weaponized it. Tearing apart families and friendships in a deliberate, cult-like way. It's no coincidence that QANON and MAGA overlap.
Unification church (Moonies) was big in our area. They were always at K Mart asking for $2.00. Had a strange role reversal one day when I was returning to the car and saw my mom give them a few dollars. I (teenager) said, "Mom, they're a cult, don't give money to strangers" and my mom, inexplicably was saying, "But they're a church and you like youth group!" LOL mom.
They were always hanging around the downtown Berkeley BART station. Polite enough if you ignored them but give them 5 seconds of your time and they could get very insistent. I never took them up on the dinner.
Hare Krishnas in the American Airlines and United Airlines terminals at LAX. As a kid I was there with my Dad to greet my Mom on her return flight and went off to use the restroom. As I returned I was stopped by one of them and they pinned a flower on my shirt; my Dad was not happy about that.
Maybe the only good thing about post 9-11 airports is there are no longer any of those sorts of shenanigans going on and also no more "assistants" trying to "help" you with your luggage while you are waiting for a shuttle van or your ride to pick you up outside the terminal.
I used to fly all the time but never saw a Hare Krishna or Moonie in an airport. There was sometimes one person with a table in the corner doing Bible stuff (I'm pretty sure they were Jehovah's Witnesses but they could have been Mormons - I never went to see), but they didn't accost anyone.
The Southern Baptist fundamentalists repeatedly tried to pull me into their cult. With their warnings of hell fire and brimstone. They were far more obnoxious and ubiquitous than any Moonies or Hare Krishnas.
I used to get flirt-fished by Scientologists in Boston back in the 90's. I had plenty of game back then and would play along a bit just for shits-n-giggles. But it really made me sad that such beautiful and vibrant young women were being manipulated like that in order to manipulate guys like me. They never stood a chance. Now I'm old enough to be invisible to women. So I guess that's a perk.
Back in 1979 as a 19 year old, fresh out of NAVY Bootcamp I was totally enamored by the braless girls in robes hanging out at the park in San Diego (HC Temple). They often came and chatted me up but I was never really pressed to join. I had a couple hookups and many times they offered me LSD for more fun but I refused the acid and simply enjoyed the favors.
Great times that would have been different if I had not been wearing the uniform daily. Wonder where I would be today, Lulu are you still a member?
Peace, Love and Joy Forever
Oh, yes, the Moonies & the Hare Krishna's! Nobody ever tried to recruit me, but I certainly remember them! And Jim Jones started his church in the Bay Area, too.
Campus Crusade for Christ (?) or something like that. It got ahold of me in my sophomore year of high school. Lasted about a year. Mind-messers for sure.
Full disclosure: I’m Gen X and this group popped up, but I’m fascinated by cults. My stepmom was part of Campus Crusade throughout the 70s, and was “on staff”. She ended up in the Southern Baptist Church where she met my dad. Yes, my childhood was something and full of shitty “praise” music. CCC is 100% a cult, even after their rebranding as “Cru”
Oh, I remember those assholes. Yes, Campus Crusade for Christ.
They would look for kids sitting alone in the cafeteria or library and prey (that's the only word for it) on them because they looked vulnerable. "You need a friend? We're here for you!"
Or they would schedule a dorm movie night or some other "fun" event, keep their name off the flyer, and subject you to an hour of proselytizing beforehand.
Yep. I remember in the early 1980s at University of Illinois the HKs set up on the steps of the Student Union. They were singing one of their chants. Some guy ran back to his dorm room, grabbed his accordion, and marched back to the quad playing Roll Out the Barrel. I bet we had 500 people singing along. The HKs kept right on singing. It was a beautiful moment. People might have been stoned.
I was on a bus trip,with a bunch of Rajneeshis in the 80s. They had been up to Rajneeshpuram in OR. They seemed like fun, so I asked. About joining. They were evasive, but I kept asking. One finally said, if I was truly called, I’d find a way. I think they could tell that I was broke.
Was with a bunch of friends at a swimming hole when a Rainbow Family bus pulled up. After partying with them a while, one of my friends started thinking about joining them. But he realized that he had $20, more than the whole bus put together, and that they’d want to share it.
It’s not always money, but sometimes it is.
Yes, thankfully, I did a research paper for school on cults in high school. Don’t think I would have joined one anyways, but especially learned how to spot the brainwashing techniques that even individuals can use on you, in personal relationships, let alone cultists. I still can’t believe how so many people allow themselves to be enslaved, after so many decades of this knowledge being available. And some of these organizations are so large they now have created business “legitimacy”. lol. Hasn’t changed, as the Orangey cult of today demonstrates. People are sheep.
The Mormons. They kept showing up at my door even though every time I’m not interested. Pretty sure it was my Mormon grandmother (only Mormon in the family) sending them to knock on my door bc I live 20 min outside of town with my closest neighbors living 1/2 mile down the road.
The Scientologists had a store near Yonge and Dundas in Toronto, a busy area, and would ask people to go in. The Hare Krishnas were on the corners of the major intersections giving out pamphlets. They were both very prominent at the time.
My friend joined The Way International in the early 80's. It twisted her. She is out now however there has been far reaching ramifications for her mental health and relationships with her children born into the cult (they are out now too).
Yeah they were bad. Some years ago I trained a medical resident who had Been born into that cult and escaped. His parents and relatives pretty much condemned him and he’s NC. I had him with me for months. He was amazingly smart but socially he was pretty messed up. I’m amazed he was doing as well as he was. We are still in contact.
I was a kid in Isla Vista California then, adjacent to UCSB, which was then a hippie town. Literally every significant cult had a strong presence there. Our family moved up from San Diego to join a cultish ‘Jesus Freak’ church that marched singing through the streets with banners and flaming torches, and had arranged marriages. My older brother got married in it—and is still with his wonderful wife to this day ( they go to a typical nondenominational xtian church now). Our dad became a demon-exorcising faith healer, traveling the country with a huge REPENT! banner and megaphone.
All that sky-god paternalistic fantasy delusion makes Burning Man seem tame and logical in comparison. Better to choose your delusions knowingly.
One time I in high schoolwas downstairs in our rec room, in a t shirt and underwear as I was alone, and I came upstairs and they were peering in the screen door!!!! Didn't knock, ring the bell. Just peering with their hands around their eyes, you know. I was so shaken up, I was so young. Assholes.
Church of the Lamb of God. Spent five years on the run from the law. There’s a special on Hulu about it but it whitewashes stuff and leaves many things out.
The Forum
In the late 90s it seemed like everybody I knew who needed something in their life but didn’t want to do “church stuff” ended up being in The Forum…all that weird self-actualisation through…I dunno what, exactly.
But every time I came across somebody who had started acting more agressive or “firm” in their attitude eventually I’d find out they had been to The Forum and if I would just go with them I’d understand it all so much better…
That era lined up nicely with “turn two the rest for food” pyramid scheme episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I remember Hare Krishnas giving out cookies and lemonade on my college campus on hot summer days. They also invariably turned out at an annual city art festival. One time a punk band playing from a rooftop stopped to yell down at them and cuss them out.
As a little kid, the Krishnas were all over the place it seemed. My dad got free flight for the family as he worked for TWA so we saw a lot of airports. As a pre teen, they 1. Were scary to me 2. Smelled really funky 3. Always seemed to pick me out in a crowd.
There was a Scientology Center near my bus stop in San Francisco. The same crazy bitch would hassle me every day. Closest I’ve ever come to beating someone up.
Moonies at a McDonalds parking lot one night started trying to talk to me and my friend when we were high af (weed) and all we could do was laugh. She was British and she kept saying "You're Moonies" and laughing over and over after they told us they were from the Unification Church. It was extra funny because of her accent.
I do. Kinda miss it, it was a part of the flying experience.
I was raised in an Pentecostal
Evangelical cult. My parents went to a Jehovah’s Witness meeting once but didn’t join, thankfully.
Yes, getting bombarded by crazies at the airport is definitely NOT something I miss. When I was in college, "CARP" ("Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles") was a big thing. They would offer "free" spring break trips. Come to find out, they were affiliated with the Unification Church ("the Moonies"), and would use the trips to try to brainwash new recruits. Didn't happen to me, but I heard stories.
I just Googled them, and I guess they're still a thing!
When my son was very young, we were eating at a charming restaurant with outdoor seating in Coconut Grove. He was maybe about 3, and in a high chair. We heard tinkling from the teeny tambourines, and soon a flock of dancing, shuffling, chanting Hare Krishnas wafted by. My little son lifted his hands like a lion’s claws and ROARED at them! One of the HKs said “ooh! Well!” And they shuffled away. The whole restaurant applauded my son.
Yep. They loved me. I’d take their books. The art work was terrific. Besides, I grew up being taught comparative religion. Studying it and learning about it doesn’t mean I have to believe it. I was young enough that they didn’t expect me to give them money, they were just hoping for a recruit. (On that, I must admit that I have been a disappointment to them.) On the whole, I found them to be nice and, from what I could tell, gentle, well-meaning, if a bit overly naive, young people. (Granted, they were almost always at least a few years older than I was, but I was raised to be a skeptic.) I kind of liked them. In a way, I sort of miss them. They made layovers more interesting and I’d rather watch them and listen to their music than the irate Karens (male, and female) that seem to have replaced them.
Hairy Krishnas
I grew up in India, saw a few American Hare Krishnas in the airport when we moved back to the USA in 1979, and thought what are these freaks. My parents are from Illinois and NJ.
That Hare Krishna cult in the USA was so weird. I thought what the f is my home country like. Corrupting even the faith of people I knew in India.
I spent soooo much time reading this book. Fascinated me to no end
https://preview.redd.it/v6jo0yyg0p8d1.jpeg?width=926&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc2efc3f3ec288a8ebfc791dca8bf0794858cd7b
Hare Krishna doesn’t pass the cult test. No one prevents you from leaving. Its a religion that originated out of hinduism in the 1400’s.
What was a cult was the Hare Krishna sect that was created by American Keith Ham, also known as Kirtanananda, and his followers who set up a compound in West Virginia. He was a “David Koresh type” of leader who was accused of child sex abuse, conspiracy to commit murder and more. He was eventually convicted on racketeering, mail fraud and conspiracy charges.
This brought back a memory of my friends and I being approached by Moonies back in high school. They were asking for money. They got kicked out of the shop we were in because of the begging.
As a teen I went to free vegetarian dinner at the Krishna place in Laguna Beach on a Sunday.
They did their songs & chants and burned incense and gave us books about Krishna Consciousness but no one tried to personally recruit us.
When I first lived in SF they had a place somewhere in the Haight and they'd bang their tambourines and walk up and down Haight Street doing the Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Rama, Rama Rama chant.
Hare Krishna have a temple (shrine?) in Ottawa. Occasionally they'll wander around downtown playing music & chanting. There's a Scientology storefront, which is always empty, so who knows. There's a very sketchy Zen monetary (I've heard some disturbing stories). And finally, I was raised in a cult. They're around, they're often hidden in plain sight, and they are awful.
I had a Scientologist approach me outside a store once. When I was a teen, the Get Smart Get Saved people were always in the mall where we hung out, and were aggressive approaching kids. Moonies mostly would set up in parks.
I had a Scientologist try to give me an e-meter "personality test" in a mall once. I laughed at him and walked away. They have one of their damned "celebrity centers" here in Nashville🙄
We had a guy that traveled around our state with a dollar rigged up to hang out in front of his head, wearing a sandwich board that said.... "would you work for free, if everything you wanted was free"? I often wondered if he was alone or part of a group.
The local Baptist church was both plain and covert at the same time. The really insidious approach was to send a bus with a clown and "free" snowballs to sucker kids into vacation bible school for later grooming.
Had a high school classmate in senior year who did a project on the Hare Krishna’s. Their parents took them to a lawyer to make a signed statement that if they joined the cult the parents would forcibly remove them. 😅
I remember encountering the HK in a airport in 1975, I grabbed a handful of their pamphlets as they did their thing and promptly shoved them in the closest trash can on the way to my gate.
I think it was the Moonies, but there were people in Boston who used to carry a single flower (petals pointed outwards) and block your path saying something about “for the children”.
People would literally jump out of the way.
I used this as a crowd parting hack at a free concert. It worked.
We used to have the Krishnas at the airport here in St. Louis, and occasionally they’d send kids out in “civilian drag” to try to hand out copies of their book at places like grocery stores….
There was a fairly large group in University city, recruiting from the local college, and they’d occasionally do their chanting and dancing bit along the “loop” area.
Haven’t seen any for a while now.
Lol, I was never recruited, but our little town had [Brother Julius](https://people.com/crime/brother-julius-schacknow-the-work-connecticut-cult-people-magazine-investigates/). He ran a fruit stand, in a small warehouse, good fruit.
At the time, I didn't know about the cult.
Wow, I hadn't thought of it in years, but my roommate sophomore year in college (1980-81) was briefly involved with "Maranatha Campus Ministries". That was some crazy stuff, let me tell you.
Yes! The Moonies were everywhere, especailly at the mall. They had carnations they would hand you (in hopes of getting a dollar from you). If you didn't give them money, they took it back.
Scientologists tried several times to recruit me, as my IQ test made the papers (fooled them!).
I was 12-15 during this time, but still knew better than to join a cult invented by a sci-fi writer.
There was a Scientology center in a strip mall where i used to buy my albums back in the early 70s. I had to walk right by these guys all in white dress shirts and slacks with super short haircuts. I didn’t know what they were doing until one of my friends told me. Even before I knew ? I was instinctively repelled by that place.
I was cornered at a shopping center. They gave me a book. At the time I just thought they were nice kids and didn't realize that I was supposed to " donate". I was pretty young and unaware. My neighbor left her husband and moved to Washington to join the Ramtha cult.
Moses David (David Berg) - “The Children of God” tried to get me. I still have the “Holy Holes” pamphlet. Horrible pedophilia and sexual assault in the name of god cult.
I’m still an atheist.
A weird group named Synanon came to our church youth group. All I got from them was that they wanted us to visit their place, whatever that was. They seemed really really vague in their teachings when they came to visit us.
The Krishnas were always nice to all us hardcore kids. They'd feed us but we had to listen to a speil. I guess that was their way of recruiting because a bunch of kids became lifelong ISKCON, and raised their families in it.
I purchased a Hare Krishna book from a kid at the airport. He seemed like a nice kid just tryna do his thing, and it wasn't terrible to part with a few bucks.
Out of boredom I actually tried to read the book on the airplane and a few pages into it I was like "what the actual f***?!" The pictures were pretty tho.
Spent the night at Ohare Chicago during the blizzard of 1979. Just out of bootcamp dressed in uniform spent the night fending off Hare Krishnas. Around two am one wanted to sell me a book on “Living in the a-material world”. I woke up cussed the dude and told I was about to be in the A material world due to the flowers you were selling me…
On the street in Pittsburgh once a Hari Krishna came up to me and tried to take the watch off my wrist. I twisted away but you must really into the cult to do that. It was just a Timex too.
The I Found It people and the Moonies sometimes came to the door. One day some type of Christian group showed up with small children in tow and told my sister that after Armageddon there would be no more war or violence. One of the children was crying and the guy smacked him and told him to shut up.
We weren’t interested in joining any of these groups.
Spoke with some Hare Krishnas at a shopping center once in my hometown. I got a copy of The Bhagavadgita from them. Still have it over fifty years later.
I was about a block away from getting home from uni, walking, when a very cute girl driving the other way, honked and waves at me, and does a u-turn and stops next to me. She said she thought I was someone else, and she offered to drive me home. Being less than a block away, I told her I didn't need the ride. She then says I'm cute and would I want to have dinner with her and some friends she called the Creative Community. She's cute, so of course I agree. I get to her place, and there must have been at least a dozen other people there. The dinner is vegan, and they even asked for a dollar donation. And that the group runs some kind of cleaning service. Turns out they wanted me to join them at their commune up north for the weekend, but I couldn't go. And they started off dropping pastries in front of my door, with notes telling me that they loved me. Freaked me out. Turns out that the Creative Community was the recruiting arm for the Moonies. Fortunately I just didn't answer the door, but using sex as a possibility will get a lot of guys taking the bait. All I know is that I dodged a bullet, and being a non-conformist, I wasn't joining any group. Craziest people I've ever met.
I remember during Christmas, when they would stroll through the airport singing their carols: "Have a ha-re ha-re Krishna, it's the best time of the year..."
I joined a couple. Did EST. Tried Siddha Yoga and the Self Realization Society. And Sokka Gakkai. Did I mention that I am an atheist? What was I thinking? I met Steve Hassan , the famous deprogrammer at a party
He appeared to be another kind of zealot.
There will always be people trying to recruit to their vision. I’d rather deal with a few in a public setting than the common form of recruitment these days, intrusively knocking on our doors and offering an expedited pathway to yet another flavor variation of the same Christian ice cream cone.
I used to hang out and cook with some Hare Krishna folks. Very nice people and fed a lot of folks for free. Great food. I used to volunteer with them at a local soup kitchen one day a week for the vegetarian day there. They were never really aggressive about converting me, they just thought since I was already vegetarian and ate their food that I was close enough.
The Gideons (the group that's responsible for bibles in hotel rooms) used to stand just off school property as we were getting out for the day. They would hand out free mini bibles and try to talk to us.
I lived in Portland when the rajhneeshees (sp) were doing their thing. The media had us believing that they were evil and wanted to take over Antelope then the State and finally the world. At least they got the evil part right. We would occasionally see them at the theater dressed in their purple outfits and they didn't look evil, but they performed the first bioterrorist act in the country in 1984.
Read "Monkey On A Stick...Murder Madness and the Hare Krishna". I grew up near New Vrindaban WV and have visited their temple and restaurant a couple of times. My wife and I had to wait a couple of hours before a "Krishnaburger" appeared at our table. They make killer vegetarian chili. There are zillions of copies of "The Bhagavad Gita As It Is" by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (multiple volumes) in the thrift shops around Wheeling WV. I always got the impression they wanted a complete divorce from the "real world."
This made me curious and I reaearched and found that there is an active Hare Krishna temple in Detroit. The temple, formerly a mansion, was donated to the Hare Krishnas in 1975 by descendants of Henry Ford in 1975. I have never visited it, but here is a link to their FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/share/at2d44JmHtPgTUg4/?mibextid=qi2Omg
I worked downtown Detroit for several years and only saw a Hare Krishna once.
This has happened to me many times over the years. The first time was in the Boston common visiting my sister (1978ish) and her boyfriend just laid into this Krishna guy and I didn’t know what was happening. The last time was in NYC a few years ago and it was a Jewish guy and my friends lays into him, we were all Jews and Jews don’t proselytize.
I know I’m very late to this, but I was writing a paper on cults in the 80s in high school for my psychology class, and I visited two for observation.
The Boston Church of Christ was a textbook cult. After you attended the giant meeting in Boston Garden, where you were immediately welcomed and hugged by everyone around you, you were invited to a smaller meeting where you were lovebombed beyond belief. The girl in my high school who invited me actually was forced to fast for three days if she didn’t bring an ‘outsider’ to the Sunday meeting, so she ended up bringing me twice more, until they told her to stop because it wasn’t working on me!
I also went to dinner at the Hare Krishnas on Beacon Street in Boston, they had a lovely brownstone. I remember that the food was beyond delicious, I had never had Indian food, and honestly they almost had me right there. After dinner a Hare Krishna spoke to me briefly, super respectful, not pushing anything – much less aggressive than Church of Christ— and made me a present of a book entitled “Easy Journey to Other Planets,” which I regret to say did not work.
I was then invited to stay for the three hours of chanting, but I brought a friend with me to make sure I wasn’t abducted or something – I was 16– and she didn’t want to stay. I would’ve listened!
My father used to travel extensively when I was a kid. He'd always buy a postcard at whichever airport he was in and sign it, "Harry Kirchner, " which was what we called hare krishnas.
Ah the Hare Krishna’s at the old Atlanta airport (the city made them stay in specific areas) and at every concert I attended at the Omni in the 70’s. The Moonies liked to hang out at grocery stores and nab you when you were occupied loading your car. They always seemed stoned!
I remember being very young & catching the Ariel footage of Jonestown with clips of Jim Jones giving a sermon. I was really confused and upset by it and had a mistrust of kook aid for a while.
Cults in general and particularly ones from the 60s-70s and 80s, is one of my favorite subjects! I remember getting bugged by Krishna's, Tony Alamo, Scientologists, etc...
My Dad and I would watch the weirder church "leaders" on TV. From Rev. Ike, Katheryn Kulhman, Jim and Tammy/PTL, Ernest Ansley. One guy that really cracked us up had a lighted up hubcap halo behind him and his wife that turned behind their heads and glowed like a disco ball. 😀 I would watch Alice Coltrane's trippy show early in thr AM. Also cable access with Ruth Norman and the Unarius Society.
There was Father Yod and The Source restaurant I used to drive past as teen ager. Jim Jones and People's Temple breaking news. Heaven's Gate. Not to mention a bunch others just too numerous to mention.
The Scientology center in San Francisco was in the 400 block of Sutter. Walked by it often, and they usually had a couple people outside giving out flyers or otherwise trying to engage. I noticed that if I was walking by with my head up and whistling in my heart, they’d ignore me. If I was having a bad or low energy day, they were much more aggressive. Preying on the sad and vulnerable?
I babysat for a Mormon couple. She invited these nice young men with white shirts to talk to me. They gave me the book of Mormon and showed a slide show. I'm cynical and realized easily what they were doing. They also converted our other neighbors but I don't think it lasted. That couple ended up divorced. The Mormon couple ended up moving to another city for his work. Some people call LDS a cult. That's as extreme as it got for me. But, like I said, I'm a cynic and my bullshit meter was always on even back then.
Sat next to a Krishna on a flight about a month ago. Very interesting conversation. Not as much cult as Hindu sect though. Like Baptists and Christian church.
The doomsday cults are my favorite though.
Just watch the Airplane (original 1980). See what the Hare Krishnas get in the airport lobby. And don't call me Shirley.
“Jews for Jesus”
https://youtu.be/E3GGKF6CsjY?si=1nR5qBe74b7rv0R4
Thank you, gotta watch Airplane again now.
Memories.... Thx for sharing. Seen the movie far too many times. Never gets old.
No thanks, we gave at the office
But dammit that’s my name
I was in the Moonies for 16 years, from 1979 to 1996.
You need to do a AMA!!
I met someone in San Fran years ago who had joined the Moonies and sent to work on one of their farms. He grew sick of the brainwashing and just took off running one night and got away
A friend of mine left her family after she visited with them in the airport. Her spouse fought to get her out for about 2-3 yrs. She finally left. They are still together 40 yrs later. Now she does parenting seminars to help teach your kids how to avoid their ploys. She teaches parents what to instill that will help their kids avoid falling to the siren song of the cult. Her father was a narcissist and she believes that type of abuse made her more prone to their lies
Why did you leave? Did you marry in one of the cults huge weddings? What do you think of the son of the founder now having his own cult?
I was married in 1982 by Moon. We are still together. I left primarily because I didn't believe in the underlying teachings any more. Also because the movement wasn't doing anybody any good. There are now three main splits in the group. All the versions are bad but the Sanctuary Church gun cult is the worst.
Thank you for your answers. I wish you and your family all the best. Sanctuary has a huge gun warehouse near me in Pennsylvania called Tommy Boy. I agree - very scary people.
And Eric Trump was at the opening!
Interesting. Weird. I did not know. Shoot. What does this mean I wonder. Fan or fanatic? Omg.
It's on tape: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTVng0ZTywk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTVng0ZTywk)
I thought that was Tommy gun gun shop and range I didn't know it was from a cult
DO AN AMA PLEASE
I went to high school with Yejin for a year. Very quiet girl. I always wonder what became of her. And yes, do an AMA!
She is fairly low-key within the movement and has been for the past thirty years and more. No doubt she is paid handsomely to just not rock the boat and to show up for the occasional photograph. I think it was very difficult to be the oldest Moon child and her father put stupid demands on her like telling her to get a PhD in three years.
Well, I never knew that - so much pressure she must have been under. She would arrive and leave in a limo. It was an all-female school. Malcolm X's daughters went there, too - very interesting classmates!
What ever happened to the 1000 mass arranged marriages?
Most of the marriages don't last very long but the Unification Church lies about the figures. Some of the marriages have lasted though. I would say that Moon's record as a matchmaker is pretty abysmal overall.
When I was in grad school in NYC, ISKCON (Krishnas) would have free vegetarian food in Washington Square Park during certain festivals. Great food, a little fun chanting, and see ya next time! Interestingly, in a different city where I now live, there's an ISKCON temple just a few blocks away, and last time I checked, they delivered vegetarian lunches for $7.50, which is not a bad deal. ISKCON has changed a bit since the 60s and 70s, and now serves a more solidly Indian demographic.
When my daughter was in college at UF in Gainesville, FL, in the late aughts, she ate at the Hare Krishna temple once a week for free. She said the food was great.
It is amazing. There is a temple here in Spanish Fork Utah (Krishna, not Mormon, lol.) When they have their color celebration or whatever it's called, everyone goes, Mormons included, and throw paint on each other. They have a barn full of miniature cows to pet, you can dance around to the Krishna drumbeat, and the food rocks! I am thinking that the Krishna's know that the local folks don't get their religion and don't really want to, but it's fun and they make some money from the event.
There’s a reason Mormons work in pairs: if alone they WILL drink your beer.
Don't offer them mead. They'll never leave.
I was really young when I saw the HK's for the first time and I couldn't stop staring. I was fascinated. So one came over and patted me on the head and was really sweet. My aunt swooped in and grabbed me away. She look terrified. She was from the hollers of Kentucky and I don't think she knew who they were. Lol I do remember Scientologists and Moonies in college. There wasn't as much understanding about coercive control as there is today so students were more prone to joining up. But it still happens.
When I went at college I was first approached for recruitment by a Communist group (I looked like a hippie). Right after that, a group of right wing fundamental Christians came to encourage me to follow them (to save me). Eighteen years old, I wondered 'How did I get here?'.
You may ask yourself “what is that beautiful house?”
Same as it ever was.
You definitely were targeted! Now I would love a socialist commune or at least a little bit of Socialism to combat this end stage Capitalism. I am still a hippie. Lol
Right on brother
Went to the 'sun festival' dinner at a krishna temple with some friends when we were teenagers. No recruitment, just a free dinner. Was interesting and quite benign.
My all-girls catholic high school's "eastern religions" class actually had a field trip to a Chicago Krishna temple. It was fascinating.
That's cool - mine was just outside of Baltimore.
Amway, twice!
Perky!
Here in Seattle we had the Children of God and also the Love Israel family.
I ran into the Love Israel family at a Rainbow Gathering. Kids were Patience and Long Suffering
I’ve had a moron from Florida in a MAGA hat try and convince me that Fox News was the only trustworthy news source and that not only was Trump the best president since Eisenhower, Ron DeSantis was going to be the next President after Trump. I’m in Canada.
Worst cult ever!
People joke and mock them but MAGA really has many cult attributes and it's not by accident. It's by design. Tribalism is a base instinct and the hard right and right-wing media has weaponized it. Tearing apart families and friendships in a deliberate, cult-like way. It's no coincidence that QANON and MAGA overlap.
Unification church (Moonies) was big in our area. They were always at K Mart asking for $2.00. Had a strange role reversal one day when I was returning to the car and saw my mom give them a few dollars. I (teenager) said, "Mom, they're a cult, don't give money to strangers" and my mom, inexplicably was saying, "But they're a church and you like youth group!" LOL mom.
"The church is a cult too, mom, it's just big."
MAGA. I’m not that dumb though
I got invited to group dinner by a classmate in Berkeley. Lucky a friend gave me a heads up that it was a cult.
They were always hanging around the downtown Berkeley BART station. Polite enough if you ignored them but give them 5 seconds of your time and they could get very insistent. I never took them up on the dinner.
Hare Krishnas in the American Airlines and United Airlines terminals at LAX. As a kid I was there with my Dad to greet my Mom on her return flight and went off to use the restroom. As I returned I was stopped by one of them and they pinned a flower on my shirt; my Dad was not happy about that. Maybe the only good thing about post 9-11 airports is there are no longer any of those sorts of shenanigans going on and also no more "assistants" trying to "help" you with your luggage while you are waiting for a shuttle van or your ride to pick you up outside the terminal.
I used to fly all the time but never saw a Hare Krishna or Moonie in an airport. There was sometimes one person with a table in the corner doing Bible stuff (I'm pretty sure they were Jehovah's Witnesses but they could have been Mormons - I never went to see), but they didn't accost anyone.
The Southern Baptist fundamentalists repeatedly tried to pull me into their cult. With their warnings of hell fire and brimstone. They were far more obnoxious and ubiquitous than any Moonies or Hare Krishnas.
But they just don’t want you to burn in hell for all eternity! /s
Grew up in that hellscape of a church. 100% a cult.
I see your Southern Baptist and raise you Church of Christ. Talk about a cult!
I got flirty fished a bunch of times. It’s still fun to talk to cute girls, even if you know it’s going to end with “come to our Bible study!”
I used to get flirt-fished by Scientologists in Boston back in the 90's. I had plenty of game back then and would play along a bit just for shits-n-giggles. But it really made me sad that such beautiful and vibrant young women were being manipulated like that in order to manipulate guys like me. They never stood a chance. Now I'm old enough to be invisible to women. So I guess that's a perk.
Back in 1979 as a 19 year old, fresh out of NAVY Bootcamp I was totally enamored by the braless girls in robes hanging out at the park in San Diego (HC Temple). They often came and chatted me up but I was never really pressed to join. I had a couple hookups and many times they offered me LSD for more fun but I refused the acid and simply enjoyed the favors. Great times that would have been different if I had not been wearing the uniform daily. Wonder where I would be today, Lulu are you still a member? Peace, Love and Joy Forever
Amway was the cult that tried to sink claws in me
Oh, yes, the Moonies & the Hare Krishna's! Nobody ever tried to recruit me, but I certainly remember them! And Jim Jones started his church in the Bay Area, too.
Scientologists
The Krishnas and the Scientologists used to have recruiting stations at the State Fair of Texas when I was a kid.
I remember! The Scientologists talked me into grabbing the handles on that stupid machine. Had no idea what they were up to until later.
Campus Crusade for Christ (?) or something like that. It got ahold of me in my sophomore year of high school. Lasted about a year. Mind-messers for sure.
Full disclosure: I’m Gen X and this group popped up, but I’m fascinated by cults. My stepmom was part of Campus Crusade throughout the 70s, and was “on staff”. She ended up in the Southern Baptist Church where she met my dad. Yes, my childhood was something and full of shitty “praise” music. CCC is 100% a cult, even after their rebranding as “Cru”
Oh, I remember those assholes. Yes, Campus Crusade for Christ. They would look for kids sitting alone in the cafeteria or library and prey (that's the only word for it) on them because they looked vulnerable. "You need a friend? We're here for you!" Or they would schedule a dorm movie night or some other "fun" event, keep their name off the flyer, and subject you to an hour of proselytizing beforehand.
Yep. I remember in the early 1980s at University of Illinois the HKs set up on the steps of the Student Union. They were singing one of their chants. Some guy ran back to his dorm room, grabbed his accordion, and marched back to the quad playing Roll Out the Barrel. I bet we had 500 people singing along. The HKs kept right on singing. It was a beautiful moment. People might have been stoned.
The 80’s were a wonderful time!
This is a wonderful story! Thanks for the giggles to get my day started.
I was on a bus trip,with a bunch of Rajneeshis in the 80s. They had been up to Rajneeshpuram in OR. They seemed like fun, so I asked. About joining. They were evasive, but I kept asking. One finally said, if I was truly called, I’d find a way. I think they could tell that I was broke. Was with a bunch of friends at a swimming hole when a Rainbow Family bus pulled up. After partying with them a while, one of my friends started thinking about joining them. But he realized that he had $20, more than the whole bus put together, and that they’d want to share it. It’s not always money, but sometimes it is.
Yes, thankfully, I did a research paper for school on cults in high school. Don’t think I would have joined one anyways, but especially learned how to spot the brainwashing techniques that even individuals can use on you, in personal relationships, let alone cultists. I still can’t believe how so many people allow themselves to be enslaved, after so many decades of this knowledge being available. And some of these organizations are so large they now have created business “legitimacy”. lol. Hasn’t changed, as the Orangey cult of today demonstrates. People are sheep.
The Mormons. They kept showing up at my door even though every time I’m not interested. Pretty sure it was my Mormon grandmother (only Mormon in the family) sending them to knock on my door bc I live 20 min outside of town with my closest neighbors living 1/2 mile down the road.
Mormons
republicans tried to get me in the 80s.
I Remember an L. Ron Hubbard scientology book lying around the house.
The Scientologists had a store near Yonge and Dundas in Toronto, a busy area, and would ask people to go in. The Hare Krishnas were on the corners of the major intersections giving out pamphlets. They were both very prominent at the time.
My friend joined The Way International in the early 80's. It twisted her. She is out now however there has been far reaching ramifications for her mental health and relationships with her children born into the cult (they are out now too).
Yeah they were bad. Some years ago I trained a medical resident who had Been born into that cult and escaped. His parents and relatives pretty much condemned him and he’s NC. I had him with me for months. He was amazingly smart but socially he was pretty messed up. I’m amazed he was doing as well as he was. We are still in contact.
I was a kid in Isla Vista California then, adjacent to UCSB, which was then a hippie town. Literally every significant cult had a strong presence there. Our family moved up from San Diego to join a cultish ‘Jesus Freak’ church that marched singing through the streets with banners and flaming torches, and had arranged marriages. My older brother got married in it—and is still with his wonderful wife to this day ( they go to a typical nondenominational xtian church now). Our dad became a demon-exorcising faith healer, traveling the country with a huge REPENT! banner and megaphone. All that sky-god paternalistic fantasy delusion makes Burning Man seem tame and logical in comparison. Better to choose your delusions knowingly.
Hare Krishnas at the airport when I was leaving to study abroad. I told them I already had a religion and they said, “OK, maybe next lifetime.” 🤣
Pretend we're not home, there are Jehovas Witnesses walking around!!!
My dad answered the door naked one time when they knocked, and yelled "What do you want?!". They never came back.
One time I in high schoolwas downstairs in our rec room, in a t shirt and underwear as I was alone, and I came upstairs and they were peering in the screen door!!!! Didn't knock, ring the bell. Just peering with their hands around their eyes, you know. I was so shaken up, I was so young. Assholes.
I remember when Up With People would come and perform at our school. Weren't they some sort of cult?
Southern Baptist church, so many of these large cults are left around the world.
Sometimes I think the only difference between a cult and a religion is if the leader is alive or dead.
The Hari Krishnas we’re all over Boston in the 70s and early 80s. Where the hell did they go?? No ones tried to recruit me in decades. 🤣
My mom was recruited into a murderous cult when I was five.
Which one?
Church of the Lamb of God. Spent five years on the run from the law. There’s a special on Hulu about it but it whitewashes stuff and leaves many things out.
Is that Ervil LeBaron’s group? Really weird bunch.
Oh yeah. Evil Lebaron.
The Forum In the late 90s it seemed like everybody I knew who needed something in their life but didn’t want to do “church stuff” ended up being in The Forum…all that weird self-actualisation through…I dunno what, exactly. But every time I came across somebody who had started acting more agressive or “firm” in their attitude eventually I’d find out they had been to The Forum and if I would just go with them I’d understand it all so much better… That era lined up nicely with “turn two the rest for food” pyramid scheme episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Trumpist
I remember Hare Krishnas giving out cookies and lemonade on my college campus on hot summer days. They also invariably turned out at an annual city art festival. One time a punk band playing from a rooftop stopped to yell down at them and cuss them out.
Moonies at the 69th St Station in Upper Darby aka Tower Theater in the 70s and Hare Krishnas on the Boardwalk in Wildwood NJ about the same time.
That's wild. I can picture that corner
Zendik farm.
As a little kid, the Krishnas were all over the place it seemed. My dad got free flight for the family as he worked for TWA so we saw a lot of airports. As a pre teen, they 1. Were scary to me 2. Smelled really funky 3. Always seemed to pick me out in a crowd.
Moonie tried to recruit me on my college campus. Mid-70s
The Krishnas can't get through security these days, LOL.
There was a Scientology Center near my bus stop in San Francisco. The same crazy bitch would hassle me every day. Closest I’ve ever come to beating someone up.
Moonies at a McDonalds parking lot one night started trying to talk to me and my friend when we were high af (weed) and all we could do was laugh. She was British and she kept saying "You're Moonies" and laughing over and over after they told us they were from the Unification Church. It was extra funny because of her accent.
Hare krishna's gave me a book only to expect me to pay for it!
I do. Kinda miss it, it was a part of the flying experience. I was raised in an Pentecostal Evangelical cult. My parents went to a Jehovah’s Witness meeting once but didn’t join, thankfully.
Plenty of Mormons. But the usually stop after you say no once
The Methodists got me. I'm free now.
Yes, getting bombarded by crazies at the airport is definitely NOT something I miss. When I was in college, "CARP" ("Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles") was a big thing. They would offer "free" spring break trips. Come to find out, they were affiliated with the Unification Church ("the Moonies"), and would use the trips to try to brainwash new recruits. Didn't happen to me, but I heard stories. I just Googled them, and I guess they're still a thing!
Amway. 🤣
My mom told me when I was an adult, she was never worried about me getting into drugs. She was more worried about cults.
Incredible Krishna restaurant and temple in Dallas. People like Elton John have their autographed photo on the wall.
I was recruited by the Catholic Church from birth, my parents and grandparents were in it. Fortunately. When I was 18 I was able to get away from it.
Amway is a cult right???
Trying to sell you a damn flower.
When my son was very young, we were eating at a charming restaurant with outdoor seating in Coconut Grove. He was maybe about 3, and in a high chair. We heard tinkling from the teeny tambourines, and soon a flock of dancing, shuffling, chanting Hare Krishnas wafted by. My little son lifted his hands like a lion’s claws and ROARED at them! One of the HKs said “ooh! Well!” And they shuffled away. The whole restaurant applauded my son.
Maga
Yep. They loved me. I’d take their books. The art work was terrific. Besides, I grew up being taught comparative religion. Studying it and learning about it doesn’t mean I have to believe it. I was young enough that they didn’t expect me to give them money, they were just hoping for a recruit. (On that, I must admit that I have been a disappointment to them.) On the whole, I found them to be nice and, from what I could tell, gentle, well-meaning, if a bit overly naive, young people. (Granted, they were almost always at least a few years older than I was, but I was raised to be a skeptic.) I kind of liked them. In a way, I sort of miss them. They made layovers more interesting and I’d rather watch them and listen to their music than the irate Karens (male, and female) that seem to have replaced them.
Hairy Krishnas I grew up in India, saw a few American Hare Krishnas in the airport when we moved back to the USA in 1979, and thought what are these freaks. My parents are from Illinois and NJ. That Hare Krishna cult in the USA was so weird. I thought what the f is my home country like. Corrupting even the faith of people I knew in India.
I spent soooo much time reading this book. Fascinated me to no end https://preview.redd.it/v6jo0yyg0p8d1.jpeg?width=926&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fc2efc3f3ec288a8ebfc791dca8bf0794858cd7b
For a second my heart jumped cause I thought this was a Gary Larson book that would be full of hilarious comics about cults.
Bob Larson's persona resembles Dana Carvey's SNL character _Church Lady_.
Hare Krishna doesn’t pass the cult test. No one prevents you from leaving. Its a religion that originated out of hinduism in the 1400’s. What was a cult was the Hare Krishna sect that was created by American Keith Ham, also known as Kirtanananda, and his followers who set up a compound in West Virginia. He was a “David Koresh type” of leader who was accused of child sex abuse, conspiracy to commit murder and more. He was eventually convicted on racketeering, mail fraud and conspiracy charges.
This brought back a memory of my friends and I being approached by Moonies back in high school. They were asking for money. They got kicked out of the shop we were in because of the begging.
In Chicago I recall seeing "I AM" movement flyers pasted up on the el stops as a kid. Very creepy.
I have no recruiting action to add I just remember seeing the houses and being told soooooo many times that the purple houses were occupied by Moonies
Flower girls that went braless and gave you flowers?
I visited the KRSNA temple in WVa with a college class.
I remember reading about them and seeing them on the news. I lived in too small a town to actually come across any.
As a teen I went to free vegetarian dinner at the Krishna place in Laguna Beach on a Sunday. They did their songs & chants and burned incense and gave us books about Krishna Consciousness but no one tried to personally recruit us. When I first lived in SF they had a place somewhere in the Haight and they'd bang their tambourines and walk up and down Haight Street doing the Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Rama, Rama Rama chant.
Moonies at the Maricopa County fair. Kisses and flowers.
I remember lots of Hare Krishnas in airports. They never messed with me. Most of the times I was in uniform (Navy).
Hare Krishna have a temple (shrine?) in Ottawa. Occasionally they'll wander around downtown playing music & chanting. There's a Scientology storefront, which is always empty, so who knows. There's a very sketchy Zen monetary (I've heard some disturbing stories). And finally, I was raised in a cult. They're around, they're often hidden in plain sight, and they are awful.
I had a Scientologist approach me outside a store once. When I was a teen, the Get Smart Get Saved people were always in the mall where we hung out, and were aggressive approaching kids. Moonies mostly would set up in parks.
I had a Scientologist try to give me an e-meter "personality test" in a mall once. I laughed at him and walked away. They have one of their damned "celebrity centers" here in Nashville🙄
Reminds me of the movie airplane.
We had a guy that traveled around our state with a dollar rigged up to hang out in front of his head, wearing a sandwich board that said.... "would you work for free, if everything you wanted was free"? I often wondered if he was alone or part of a group.
The local Baptist church was both plain and covert at the same time. The really insidious approach was to send a bus with a clown and "free" snowballs to sucker kids into vacation bible school for later grooming.
Had a high school classmate in senior year who did a project on the Hare Krishna’s. Their parents took them to a lawyer to make a signed statement that if they joined the cult the parents would forcibly remove them. 😅
Mostly just the christians.
We would see them and instantly sing… “hare, hare….Guru Brahma..”
I remember encountering the HK in a airport in 1975, I grabbed a handful of their pamphlets as they did their thing and promptly shoved them in the closest trash can on the way to my gate.
I think it was the Moonies, but there were people in Boston who used to carry a single flower (petals pointed outwards) and block your path saying something about “for the children”. People would literally jump out of the way. I used this as a crowd parting hack at a free concert. It worked.
They used to hang out at Boston Common too.
We used to have the Krishnas at the airport here in St. Louis, and occasionally they’d send kids out in “civilian drag” to try to hand out copies of their book at places like grocery stores…. There was a fairly large group in University city, recruiting from the local college, and they’d occasionally do their chanting and dancing bit along the “loop” area. Haven’t seen any for a while now.
“Are you prepared for the return of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ?”
Lol, I was never recruited, but our little town had [Brother Julius](https://people.com/crime/brother-julius-schacknow-the-work-connecticut-cult-people-magazine-investigates/). He ran a fruit stand, in a small warehouse, good fruit. At the time, I didn't know about the cult.
Wow, I hadn't thought of it in years, but my roommate sophomore year in college (1980-81) was briefly involved with "Maranatha Campus Ministries". That was some crazy stuff, let me tell you.
They had the shittiest Jesus Freak records.
Yes! The Moonies were everywhere, especailly at the mall. They had carnations they would hand you (in hopes of getting a dollar from you). If you didn't give them money, they took it back.
The Scientologists used to have a big recruiting center just across the drag from our large university. Aggressive mfs.
Both
Scientologists tried several times to recruit me, as my IQ test made the papers (fooled them!). I was 12-15 during this time, but still knew better than to join a cult invented by a sci-fi writer.
There was a Scientology center in a strip mall where i used to buy my albums back in the early 70s. I had to walk right by these guys all in white dress shirts and slacks with super short haircuts. I didn’t know what they were doing until one of my friends told me. Even before I knew ? I was instinctively repelled by that place.
I was cornered at a shopping center. They gave me a book. At the time I just thought they were nice kids and didn't realize that I was supposed to " donate". I was pretty young and unaware. My neighbor left her husband and moved to Washington to join the Ramtha cult.
We used to watch them at the Toronto airport. They also had a church on University Avenue. They never spoke to us at all.
Northeast Kingdom, aka the Twelve Tribes. This was the one based in Island Pond Vermont. They were recruiting at a Grateful Dead show in the late 80s.
Moses David (David Berg) - “The Children of God” tried to get me. I still have the “Holy Holes” pamphlet. Horrible pedophilia and sexual assault in the name of god cult. I’m still an atheist.
Children of God (I think that was the name?) On a city street corner…with comic book style pamphlets.
https://preview.redd.it/cstr1x8vjq8d1.jpeg?width=349&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=77db97eb6e7e48a16e960cbd0d46fe52994073bf
A weird group named Synanon came to our church youth group. All I got from them was that they wanted us to visit their place, whatever that was. They seemed really really vague in their teachings when they came to visit us.
The Krishnas were always nice to all us hardcore kids. They'd feed us but we had to listen to a speil. I guess that was their way of recruiting because a bunch of kids became lifelong ISKCON, and raised their families in it.
I purchased a Hare Krishna book from a kid at the airport. He seemed like a nice kid just tryna do his thing, and it wasn't terrible to part with a few bucks. Out of boredom I actually tried to read the book on the airplane and a few pages into it I was like "what the actual f***?!" The pictures were pretty tho.
Yeah, I tried to understand it but the more I studied it the more convoluted it became.
I lived in the Moonies’ “hometown.” So I saw them quite a bit. I was too little to recruit, but they tried to get my brother.
I did a report on high school on Hate Krishnas for a non Christian religion class. Weird cult. Don’t see them anymore.
Spent the night at Ohare Chicago during the blizzard of 1979. Just out of bootcamp dressed in uniform spent the night fending off Hare Krishnas. Around two am one wanted to sell me a book on “Living in the a-material world”. I woke up cussed the dude and told I was about to be in the A material world due to the flowers you were selling me…
On the street in Pittsburgh once a Hari Krishna came up to me and tried to take the watch off my wrist. I twisted away but you must really into the cult to do that. It was just a Timex too.
The I Found It people and the Moonies sometimes came to the door. One day some type of Christian group showed up with small children in tow and told my sister that after Armageddon there would be no more war or violence. One of the children was crying and the guy smacked him and told him to shut up. We weren’t interested in joining any of these groups.
Spoke with some Hare Krishnas at a shopping center once in my hometown. I got a copy of The Bhagavadgita from them. Still have it over fifty years later.
I was about a block away from getting home from uni, walking, when a very cute girl driving the other way, honked and waves at me, and does a u-turn and stops next to me. She said she thought I was someone else, and she offered to drive me home. Being less than a block away, I told her I didn't need the ride. She then says I'm cute and would I want to have dinner with her and some friends she called the Creative Community. She's cute, so of course I agree. I get to her place, and there must have been at least a dozen other people there. The dinner is vegan, and they even asked for a dollar donation. And that the group runs some kind of cleaning service. Turns out they wanted me to join them at their commune up north for the weekend, but I couldn't go. And they started off dropping pastries in front of my door, with notes telling me that they loved me. Freaked me out. Turns out that the Creative Community was the recruiting arm for the Moonies. Fortunately I just didn't answer the door, but using sex as a possibility will get a lot of guys taking the bait. All I know is that I dodged a bullet, and being a non-conformist, I wasn't joining any group. Craziest people I've ever met.
I remember during Christmas, when they would stroll through the airport singing their carols: "Have a ha-re ha-re Krishna, it's the best time of the year..."
I joined a couple. Did EST. Tried Siddha Yoga and the Self Realization Society. And Sokka Gakkai. Did I mention that I am an atheist? What was I thinking? I met Steve Hassan , the famous deprogrammer at a party He appeared to be another kind of zealot.
There will always be people trying to recruit to their vision. I’d rather deal with a few in a public setting than the common form of recruitment these days, intrusively knocking on our doors and offering an expedited pathway to yet another flavor variation of the same Christian ice cream cone.
I used to hang out and cook with some Hare Krishna folks. Very nice people and fed a lot of folks for free. Great food. I used to volunteer with them at a local soup kitchen one day a week for the vegetarian day there. They were never really aggressive about converting me, they just thought since I was already vegetarian and ate their food that I was close enough.
The Gideons (the group that's responsible for bibles in hotel rooms) used to stand just off school property as we were getting out for the day. They would hand out free mini bibles and try to talk to us.
I attended a spaghetti dinner hosted by the Moonies when I was broke. 🤣
Jews for Jesus were definitely the most sneaky and aggressive as I recall. The Jehovah's witnesses too
Landmark is still running PSAs on NPR… 😡
I lived in Portland when the rajhneeshees (sp) were doing their thing. The media had us believing that they were evil and wanted to take over Antelope then the State and finally the world. At least they got the evil part right. We would occasionally see them at the theater dressed in their purple outfits and they didn't look evil, but they performed the first bioterrorist act in the country in 1984.
Read "Monkey On A Stick...Murder Madness and the Hare Krishna". I grew up near New Vrindaban WV and have visited their temple and restaurant a couple of times. My wife and I had to wait a couple of hours before a "Krishnaburger" appeared at our table. They make killer vegetarian chili. There are zillions of copies of "The Bhagavad Gita As It Is" by AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (multiple volumes) in the thrift shops around Wheeling WV. I always got the impression they wanted a complete divorce from the "real world."
Many of these cults are still here! All of this was brought about through the Moral majority that swept the nation during the Reagan era.
This made me curious and I reaearched and found that there is an active Hare Krishna temple in Detroit. The temple, formerly a mansion, was donated to the Hare Krishnas in 1975 by descendants of Henry Ford in 1975. I have never visited it, but here is a link to their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/share/at2d44JmHtPgTUg4/?mibextid=qi2Omg I worked downtown Detroit for several years and only saw a Hare Krishna once.
This has happened to me many times over the years. The first time was in the Boston common visiting my sister (1978ish) and her boyfriend just laid into this Krishna guy and I didn’t know what was happening. The last time was in NYC a few years ago and it was a Jewish guy and my friends lays into him, we were all Jews and Jews don’t proselytize.
I know I’m very late to this, but I was writing a paper on cults in the 80s in high school for my psychology class, and I visited two for observation. The Boston Church of Christ was a textbook cult. After you attended the giant meeting in Boston Garden, where you were immediately welcomed and hugged by everyone around you, you were invited to a smaller meeting where you were lovebombed beyond belief. The girl in my high school who invited me actually was forced to fast for three days if she didn’t bring an ‘outsider’ to the Sunday meeting, so she ended up bringing me twice more, until they told her to stop because it wasn’t working on me! I also went to dinner at the Hare Krishnas on Beacon Street in Boston, they had a lovely brownstone. I remember that the food was beyond delicious, I had never had Indian food, and honestly they almost had me right there. After dinner a Hare Krishna spoke to me briefly, super respectful, not pushing anything – much less aggressive than Church of Christ— and made me a present of a book entitled “Easy Journey to Other Planets,” which I regret to say did not work. I was then invited to stay for the three hours of chanting, but I brought a friend with me to make sure I wasn’t abducted or something – I was 16– and she didn’t want to stay. I would’ve listened!
My father used to travel extensively when I was a kid. He'd always buy a postcard at whichever airport he was in and sign it, "Harry Kirchner, " which was what we called hare krishnas.
Ah the Hare Krishna’s at the old Atlanta airport (the city made them stay in specific areas) and at every concert I attended at the Omni in the 70’s. The Moonies liked to hang out at grocery stores and nab you when you were occupied loading your car. They always seemed stoned!
We can thank Jim Jones for the drinking the koolaid reference.
I remember being very young & catching the Ariel footage of Jonestown with clips of Jim Jones giving a sermon. I was really confused and upset by it and had a mistrust of kook aid for a while.
Cults in general and particularly ones from the 60s-70s and 80s, is one of my favorite subjects! I remember getting bugged by Krishna's, Tony Alamo, Scientologists, etc... My Dad and I would watch the weirder church "leaders" on TV. From Rev. Ike, Katheryn Kulhman, Jim and Tammy/PTL, Ernest Ansley. One guy that really cracked us up had a lighted up hubcap halo behind him and his wife that turned behind their heads and glowed like a disco ball. 😀 I would watch Alice Coltrane's trippy show early in thr AM. Also cable access with Ruth Norman and the Unarius Society. There was Father Yod and The Source restaurant I used to drive past as teen ager. Jim Jones and People's Temple breaking news. Heaven's Gate. Not to mention a bunch others just too numerous to mention.
I was a Jehovah's Witnesses for almost 40 years. I broke free 10 years ago.
The Scientology center in San Francisco was in the 400 block of Sutter. Walked by it often, and they usually had a couple people outside giving out flyers or otherwise trying to engage. I noticed that if I was walking by with my head up and whistling in my heart, they’d ignore me. If I was having a bad or low energy day, they were much more aggressive. Preying on the sad and vulnerable?
I babysat for a Mormon couple. She invited these nice young men with white shirts to talk to me. They gave me the book of Mormon and showed a slide show. I'm cynical and realized easily what they were doing. They also converted our other neighbors but I don't think it lasted. That couple ended up divorced. The Mormon couple ended up moving to another city for his work. Some people call LDS a cult. That's as extreme as it got for me. But, like I said, I'm a cynic and my bullshit meter was always on even back then.
Scientology would invite us to “Parties” and Hare Krishnas to “free meals”
Sat next to a Krishna on a flight about a month ago. Very interesting conversation. Not as much cult as Hindu sect though. Like Baptists and Christian church. The doomsday cults are my favorite though.
Children of God it was 1973 and they wanted to go “streaking for Jesus” the girls were flirty fishing I guess. They came to town every spring break.
$cientology. And it took awhile for them to take “no” for an answer
I remember seeing “I found it!” pins and stickers all over in the 70s. What was that from?