David Brandt Berg, also known as King David, Mo, Moses David, Father David, Dad, or Grandpa to followers, was the founder and leader of the cult generally known as the Children of God and subsequently as The Family International. Berg's group, founded in 1968 among the counterculture youth in Southern California, gained notoriety for incorporating sexuality into its spiritual message and recruitment methods. Berg and his organization were accused of a broad range of sexual misconduct, including child sexual abuse.
QAnon is a far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement which originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals known as "Q". Those claims have been relayed and developed by online communities and influencers. Their core belief is that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters are operating a global child sex trafficking ring which conspired against Donald Trump. QAnon has direct roots in Pizzagate, an Internet conspiracy theory that appeared one year earlier, but also incorporates elements of many other theories. QAnon has been described as a cult.
The Leftovers is an American supernatural drama television series created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta that aired on HBO from June 29, 2014, to June 4, 2017. Based on Perrotta's 2011 novel of the same name, the series begins three years after the "Sudden Departure", a global event that resulted in 2% of the world's population disappearing. The lives of police chief Kevin Garvey and his family, along with grieving widow Nora Durst and her brother, Reverend Matt Jamison, are the focal points of the series as they struggle to adjust to life after the Departure.
Hyperobject Industries is an American film and television production company founded by director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian Adam McKay in October 2019.
Elizabeth M. Crokin is an American columnist and conspiracy theorist. Since 2020, she has been an outspoken supporter of QAnon conspiracy theories.
The Vow is an American true crime documentary series directed by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer that revolves around the cult NXIVM and its leader Keith Raniere. The NXIVM documentary series premiered on August 23, 2020, on HBO.
Me and the Cult Leader (Aganai) is a 2020 Japanese documentary film. The film follows the director, Atsushi Sakahara, a victim of the 1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack, and Araki Hiroshi, a current executive member of the doomsday cult Aleph behind the attack, as they travel to their hometowns in the Kyoto prefecture. It premiered at the Sheffield Doc Fest as part of its Ghosts and Apparitions strand.
Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults is an American documentary miniseries revolving around the religious group Heaven's Gate and its leader Marshall Applewhite. It consists of four episodes and premiered on December 3, 2020, on HBO Max.
Baby God is an 2020 American documentary film, directed and produced by Hannah Olson, which follows Quincy Fortier, a doctor who used his own sperm to inseminate fertility patients. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady were executive producers under their Loki Films banner.
Jacob Anthony Angeli Chansley, also known as the QAnon Shaman, Q Shaman, and Yellowstone Wolf, is an American far-right conspiracy theorist, activist, and convicted felon who participated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack, for which he was convicted on charges of obstructing an official proceeding. He is a former supporter of former president Donald Trump and a believer and disseminator of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Ronald Watkins, also known by his online pseudonym CodeMonkeyZ, is an American conspiracy theorist and site administrator of the imageboard website 8kun. He has played a major role in spreading the discredited far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, and has promulgated conspiracy theories that widespread election fraud led to Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He is the son of Jim Watkins, the owner and operator of 8kun.
Q: Into the Storm is an American documentary television miniseries directed and produced by Cullen Hoback. It explores the QAnon conspiracy theory and the people involved with it. It consisted of six episodes and premiered on HBO on March 21, 2021. The series received mixed reviews, with some critics praising its insight into the conspiracy theory, and others finding it to be overlong and lacking in analysis of the impacts of QAnon. Some reviewers have criticized the series for not following best practices outlined by extremism researchers for reporting on extremism and conspiracy theories.
Pastel QAnon is a collection of techniques and strategies that use "soft" and feminine aesthetics – most notably pastel colors – that are used to attract women into the QAnon conspiracy theory, often using mainstream social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.
Hannah Olson is an American documentary film director and producer. She is best known for her work on the HBO documentaries, Baby God, The Last Cruise, and Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God.
Love Has Won is an American new religious movement which was led by Amy Carlson, referred to within the group as "Mother God", who described herself, among other things, as the creator of the universe. The group has been described as a cult by many, including ex-members and media outlets. The group had between twelve and twenty full-time members who lived with Carlson at the time of her death.
Amy Carlson is a U.S. television actor.
Since the movement's emergence in 2017, adherents of the QAnon far-right conspiracy theory have been involved in a number of controversial events, some of them violent, resulting in the filing of criminal charges and one conviction for terrorism.
Romana Didulo is a Canadian conspiracy theorist. She is one of the most prominent figures of the QAnon movement in Canada and promotes other conspiracy theories such as the pseudolegal concepts derived from the sovereign citizen movement. Didulo came to prominence as a pretender who proclaimed herself to be the "Queen of Canada", and later, "Queen of the World". She has a group of followers that travel with her, resulting in confrontations with local residents.
Twin Flames Universe (TFU) is an American cult run by Jeff and Shaleia Divine. The group's practices, based on elements of New Age spiritualism regarding soulmates popularized in the 2000s, have been criticized as a "self-help and wellness cult" by experts such as Janja Lalich. In 2023, the group was the subject of the documentaries Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe and Escaping Twin Flames.
Amy Carlson, also known by her followers as Mother God, was an American religious leader and the co-founder of the new religious movement Love Has Won. Carlson and her followers believed that she was God, a 19-billion-year-old being, and a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and that she could heal people of cancer "with the power of love." News media have described the group as a cult.
