| Description |
1 videodisc (approximately 94 min.) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. |
| System Details |
DVD, widescreen, Dolby digital stereo. |
| Language |
Closed-captioned. |
| Performer |
Narrator, Don Harvey. |
| Note |
Originally broadcast on the History Channel as an episode of the television program Decoding the past in 2007; produced in 2006. |
| Summary |
Uses interviews with world-renowned scholars and the survivors of cultic tragedy to unmask the mystery of cults. Defines three characteristics that make a cult: reliance on a guru or leader rather than general principles of religion, systematic indoctrination with a focus on confession and self-criticism, and heavy exploitation from above. Shows how cult leaders have twisted the quest for purity into an obsession with madness and murder from Jim Jones' pursuit of a socialist paradise at Jonestown to Warren Jeffs' Yearning for Zion ranch. Looks at a number of examples of contemporary cults, including the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo, the polygamous Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS), Charles Manson and his bizarre prophecies, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, and Paul Schäfer's colony of German immigrants in Chile that became a center for torture. |
| Subject |
Cults -- Videodiscs.
|
|
DVDs.
|
| Genre |
Documentary films.
|
|
Television programs.
|
| Added Author |
Viswanathan, Sandya.
|
|
Harvey, Don.
|
|
Partisan Pictures (Firm)
|
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History Channel (Television network)
|
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Arts and Entertainment Network.
|
| Added Title |
Dangerous devotion |
|
Decoding the past (Television program)
|
| ISBN |
142294364X |
| Standard No. |
733961163490 |
| Music No. |
AAAE163490 A&E Television Networks |
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