10 Reasons Why Tesla Is a Scientific God
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10 Reasons Why Tesla Is a Scientific God
History, they say, is written by the victors, but that's cold comfort to the men and women x-ed out by the editor's pen. For years, science textbooks equated electricity and light with one man, Thomas Edison, while the genius whose pioneering electrical technologies truly power the modern world languished as a minor note in scientific history, sandwiched between Edward Teller and Thales of Miletus.Before the turn of the 20th century, electricity remained a mere scientific curiosity -- one that many doubted would ever do an honest day's work. Nikola Tesla, arguably more than anyone else, changed that, but his pioneering research in electricity represents only a portion of the scientific and technical innovations that elevated him to science godhood.
Tesla not only expanded and revolutionized the work of his predecessors; he also leapfrogged ahead of his contemporaries to the next step, and the next. But, just as it takes more than groundbreaking music to give rise to a rock god, we think it takes more than innovative breakthroughs and amazing machines to make a scientific one. We'd argue that such a figure must also possess intriguing facets -- qualities like eccentricity, vision and the will to suffer for science. Nikola Tesla was such a man.
Ahead of His Time: Military Meddling
Before America's involvement in World War I, Tesla outlined a means of detecting enemy ships and submarines using electromagnetic induction. Induction is the process by which a changing magnetic field instills an electric current in a metallic object located within it. The reverse is also true, so currents inducted in the skin of a nearby submarine, for example, would create their own magnetic fields, which would "push back" against, or dampen, the original field, theoretically rendering the sub detectable.10: He Saw the Potential
In an era when the dollar was king, in which scientists and engineers built business empires on the backs of one or two breakthroughs, Tesla's focus never strayed from his work. Consequently, he was both prolific and, at times, poor.While his competitors in the War of the Currents -- the struggle between Tesla's and Edison's camps over whose electrical technology would reign supreme -- fought tooth-and-nail to secure electrical monopolies, his desire to acquire funding for his next big project repeatedly trumped his interest in protecting his patents and inventions [sources: Cheney; Jonnes].
Tesla's focus and farsightedness worked to the inventor's detriment almost as much as they benefited society. Unlike Edison, he did not actively cultivate a reputation with the public, wield the press for publicity (or to launch attacks) or possess a strong business standing. More to the point, his work delved into realms beyond the grasp of many of his contemporaries. Consequently, Tesla struggled to gain funding to support his research [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Secor]. For example, Tesla suggested bouncing high-frequency electrical waves off the hulls of ships and subs made of nonferrous and nonconducting materials. The Navy passed on funding his research [sources: PBS; Secor].
The Big Blue Battery?
As Tesla studied high-frequency electricity, his growing fascination with transmitting energy wirelessly led him to invent the Tesla coil – a transformer capable of producing high-frequency alternating current -- as well as radio [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS]. When he discovered that the Earth itself might transmit energy, he planned to build stations capable of powering the entire world [source: Jonnes].9: He Dreamed Big
Like any world-changing inventor, Tesla was a man of vision, and his career ran most smoothly when he could convey that vision to other pioneers. In 1893, his alternating current beat out Edison's direct current proposal to light the monumental World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (aka the Chicago World's Fair). Not only did this event mark a turning point in the War of the Currents, it also enabled him to follow his grandest ambitions, including his childhood dream of harnessing the power of Niagara Falls [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS].Even after he'd won the Niagara contract, most of his backers remained dubious about whether Tesla's hydroelectric machines would work. The inventor did not. When the switch was thrown at midnight, Nov. 16, 1896, lights turned on in Buffalo, N.Y., 21 miles (34 kilometers) away. Within a few years, the station expanded its reach to New York City, roughly 400 miles (644 kilometers) away [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS]. Tesla's youthful dream had come true.
Tesla also proposed controlling, or at least catalyzing, weather with electricity. He visualized transmitting power globally and, with it, information -- an early version of a global wireless communications system [sources: Cheney and Uth; PBS]. The scientist told investor J.P. Morgan, "When wireless is fully applied the Earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts" [source: PBS].
Charged Particle Beams
A charged particle beam (CPB) is a directed-energy weapon that fires pulses of charged particles to heat and potentially explode a target. Theoretically, such a weapon could reach a target almost instantly and at enormous range, delivering lethal doses of energy in seconds or less. However, the technical challenges involved in building a beam like this -- especially one capable of firing in the atmosphere -- remain daunting [source: Roberds].8: Two Words: Death Ray
Oh, we're sorry, did we say "death ray"? We meant "peace beam that can knock airplanes out of the sky hundreds of miles away and give infantry a very, very bad day."Amid the gathering clouds of World War II, Tesla announced that he had conceived a new "peace beam" weapon capable of ending war forever. He saw his device, which we now know as a charged particle beam, as a kind of "Chinese wall," an anti-war device that would safeguard national borders. The papers took a different view: "TESLA, AT 78, BARES NEW 'DEATH BEAM'" blared The New York Times' front page on July 11, 1934.
The possibility of a world power developing a particle beam haunted the Cold War, especially after some of Tesla's papers went missing following his death [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS; PBS].
CPBs were made famous by Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, program, but the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) was investigating them as early as 1958 [source: Roberds].
Who cares if he had a loose fuse! He invented the Tesla coil, for goodness' sake.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images
7: He Had a Loose Fuse or Two
For good or ill, quirkiness is a quality we associate with genius, and Tesla does not disappoint.Some say Tesla constructed his greatest inventions, including his induction motor, entirely within his own mind. Unlike Edison, who worked a problem through prototyping, trial and error and similar hands-on methods, Tesla found that key solutions sometimes came to him in blinding flashes of insight [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes].
By his own account, Tesla suffered from visual and auditory hallucinations, as well as hypersensitivity to vibrations and strong light [sources: Chandrasekhar; Pickover]. He also feared round objects, such as women's pearls, and fixated on the number three [sources: Jonnes; Pickover].
The inventor also suffered a progressive germ aversion and eventually limited his diet to boiled foods. This phobia reportedly arose after a scientific colleague showed him unboiled water under a microscope. Late in life, the aging scientist kept pigeons in his hotel room, but continued to dress as nattily as ever -- behaviors that led some to question his mental state [sources: Jonnes; PBS].
Tesla's peculiarities did not impair his socializing, however; reporters and friends described him as charming, humble and well-spoken.
Tesla's eponymous SI unit can be used to measure stronger magnetic fields, like those of MRI machines.
Dana Neely/Getty Images
6: He Has a Scientific Unit Named After Him
They don't just hand those things out like party favors, you know.Tesla, like Carl Friedrich Gauss, lends his name to a unit of magnetic flux density in the International System of Units (abbreviated SI). A tesla can also be thought of as a unit of magnetic induction [source: Encyclopaedia Britannica]. At one time, high-frequency currents were known as Tesla currents [source: Houston and Kennelly].
One tesla equals one weber per square meter, or 10,000 gauss (hence, scientists often use gauss to measure weak magnetic fields, reserving tesla for stronger ones, like those used in MRIs). A weber is a unit of magnetic flux, which can be thought of as the amount of magnetic energy "flowing" over an area, such as the surface of a magnet.
Remember above when we described induction, and how changing magnetic fields can induce currents to flow in a conductor? One weber is the amount of this magnetic energy "flow" required to induce one volt of current in a loop of wire. Actually, it's a bit more specific than that: The definition assumes that you drop the flow, or flux, to zero at a uniform rate, and do it in one second [source: Encyclopaedia Britannica].
The weber is named for Wilhelm Eduard Weber, a German physicist known for his work in terrestrial magnetism and his invention in 1833 of an electromagnetic telegraph [source: Encyclopaedia Britannica].
Vita-Rays?
Scientists at the turn of the 20th century were just becoming familiar with radiation and what it could do; in the process, they sometimes raised strange hypotheses or drew dubious conclusions. Numerous manufacturers, for example, added radium to products after it was discovered that radiation could shrink tumors [source: Blum].5: He Was a Prolific Polymath
Over his long career, Tesla registered more than 111 American patents and around 300 patents worldwide [sources: Jonnes; Šarboh].While investigating high-frequency electricity and trying to improve upon Edison's light bulbs, which were only 5 percent efficient, Tesla developed some of the first neon lights. He premiered them at that same 1893 World's Fair we mentioned, twisting their tubes to spell out the names of beloved scientists such as Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell [sources: Cheney and Uth; PBS]. He also developed early fluorescent lights, which he illuminated wirelessly using electrostatic waves [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes].
Tesla's invention and demonstration of radio-controlled vehicles has earned him a place among the pioneers of robotics. In fact, the scientist described his "teleautomaton" as the first step in a race of robots, although it had no more programming or self-guidance than a modern RC car [sources: Cheney and Uth; PBS].
A novel bladeless turbine designed by Tesla rotated at such high speeds that its component disks distorted. Tesla never solved the problem, but modern materials such as Kevlar, carbon-fiber and titanium-impregnated plastic have inspired some to pick up where he left off [sources: PBS].
Tesla also reported taking X-ray photographs in 1896, a short time after Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays [sources: Electrical Review; PBS].
The Static Over Radio's Inventor
For decades, Guglielmo Marconi was known as the father of radio. Marconi, an Italian nobleman with strong connections to British aristocracy and backing from Edison, contributed significantly to the field and made radio a business success. In 1904, he convinced the U.S. Patent Office to grant him the radio patent, despite previous rejections based on Tesla's widely recognized primacy [sources: Harkins; PBS].4: He Gave Us Radio
Radio arose from an array of discoveries and innovations, but Tesla's work devising and refining its foundational technologies has earned him hard-fought recognition as its father [sources: Jonnes; Vujovic].The scientist's work in the field grew out of his foray into the wireless transmission of energy -- which, if you think about it, is exactly what radio is.
Not only did Tesla file the first radio patents, he also gave a lecture in1893 -- two years before Marconi began experimenting with radio -- that laid out how radio broadcasting worked, complete with a demonstration of radio communication. By mid-1894, he had built and begun testing a small, portable radio-transmitting station [sources: Cheney; Jonnes].
As with the induction generator and transformer, Tesla built upon the work of his predecessors, but with unparalleled vision. James Clerk Maxwell had theorized electromagnetic waves, and Heinrich Hertz had figured out how to transmit them, but the Tesla coil, and Tesla's four tuned circuits for transmitting and receiving, made radio a reality. His patents describe the fundamental way we still transmit and receive radio signals [sources: Cheney and Uth; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Vujovic].
Tesla also pioneered radio control -- an idea he patented on Nov. 8, 1898, and demonstrated at the 1898 Electrical Exhibition at Madison Square Garden [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Vujovic].
Saving Wardenclyffe
Tesla's Wardenclyffe work was over almost before it began. While the tower was still under construction, Marconi made his famous trans-Atlantic radio broadcast, robbing Tesla of his great moment, and the stock market crashed. J. Pierpont Morgan, who financed Wardenclyffe, was already dubious about providing free electricity, and backed out of the deal. The government demolished the tower in 1917 as a wartime security measure [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Vujovic].3: Two More Words: Secret Labs
Like any great movie scientist or Bond villain, any self-respecting science god requires a secret laboratory -- preferably one located in some remote locale and bristling with mad machines. Tesla had two.In 1899, Tesla constructed a lab in Colorado Springs, Colo., to delve into the mysteries of high voltage and high frequency electricity [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Vujovic]. In one experiment, a 42-foot (12.8-meter) metal mast drove huge electrical impulses into the ground; in another, a Tesla coil shot 100-foot (30.5-meter) arcs of electricity across the room. The latter's surge blew out the electric company's dynamo and cast Colorado Springs into darkness [sources: Jonnes; PBS].
While at Colorado Springs, Tesla proved the existence of terrestrial stationary waves -- a means by which the Earth could conduct energy at certain electrical frequencies -- by illuminating 200 lamps from 25 miles (40 kilometers) away [sources: PBS; Vujovic]. As far as we know (contrary to the film "The Prestige"), he never worked on human teleportation.
Tesla later built his second secret lab, Wardenclyffe, closer to his Manhattan home. The Shoreham, Long Island, facility featured a 50-ton, 187-foot-high (45,000-kilogram, 57-meter-high) transmitting tower above a 120-foot-deep (36.6-meter-deep) well, along with 16 iron pipes sunk 300 feet (91.4 meters) deeper. Tesla planned to transmit power through the planet, using the rods to "get a grip of the Earth ... so that the whole of this globe can quiver." [sources: Greenfieldboyce; Jonnes; PBS].
The loss of J.P. Morgan's funding for Wardenclyffe likely came as a huge blow to Tesla.
Museum of the City of New York/Getty Images
2: He Was Tragic
We revere geniuses as much for their struggles as for their triumphs. Perhaps it comforts us to know that brilliance comes at a cost, or maybe we find that suffering humanizes those rare souls who truly operate on a higher level.Tesla, an outsider, fought an uneven battle against wealthier and better-connected businessmen: Edison smeared his name and took his electric fame; Marconi beat him in the radio market -- and to a Nobel Prize -- using his own technology; and industrialist George Westinghouse built an empire out of his torn-up patent agreements [sources: Cheney; Harkins; Jonnes; PBS].
Tesla's loyalty to his first loves, science and progress, cost him his fame, his fortune and, some argue, his sanity. Indeed, it is likely that, after losing J.P. Morgan's financing and, with it, his dreams for Wardenclyffe, Tesla suffered a nervous breakdown. "It is not a dream," he said. "It is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive ... blind, faint-hearted, doubting world" [sources: Jonnes; PBS].
Invention, Reinvention and Innovation
Tesla's strength was often revealed in his ability to see the potential latent in other people's research. Nowhere was this more evident than in his early electrical work.1: He Electrified the World
Tesla's system of alternating current generators, motors and transformers powers the world's industry, lights our homes and underpins most modern electronics. Edison, though more famous, backed a direct current (DC) system used today primarily in batteries.DC vexed Edison because he could not find a way to send it long distances [sources: Jonnes; Vujovic]. He also struggled to convert the alternating current produced by his dynamos into direct current. Edison's solution involved "commutators" -- brushes that allowed current to flow in only one direction but created inefficient friction and required frequent replacing [source: Jonnes].
Tesla's generators didn't require such a cumbersome approach. Moreover, his system could "step up" current to a higher voltage to transmit it over long distances, then "step down" the current at the destination to levels usable in homes and factories.
Take the electric motor pioneered by Belgian engineer Zénobe-Théophile Gramme. Whereas Edison and others tried to tether the device inefficiently to DC, Tesla revolutionized it by adding a second circuit that would "alternate" a current out of phase with the first, creating the prototype for his successful polyphase system.
The transformer, like the generator, was invented by Michael Faraday, but both lay fallow until Tesla unlocked their potential and, by doing so, harnessed electricity to do the work of the modern world [source: Jonnes].
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Author's Note: 10 Reasons Why Tesla Is a Scientific God
Tesla was my childhood hero, and I have been excited to witness his recent surge in recognition and status, especially among young people. At the same time, I have been increasingly troubled by some of the blatant misrepresentations on both sides of the Tesla vs. Edison feud. The career of Nikola Tesla, perhaps more than that of any other scientific figure, is surrounded by a fog of misinformation -- generated first by those who sought to usurp his place, and later by those who overreached in their attempts to redress those wrongs -- and to demonize Edison and Westinghouse.The truth is, Tesla had many more patents and ideas than he could ever test; inventors still scour his notebooks for clues. Some ideas, like his particle beam, appear to have been on the mark; others, such as his alleged proto-radar or his V/STOL aircraft, remain debatable. Of course, Tesla may well have corrected any oversights or blind alleys through experiment, had he received funding and pursued these ideas, but that's neither here nor there. As for Edison and Westinghouse, both were complex figures who have been both vilified and lionized more than they deserve.
But then again, maybe that's what made Tesla a scientific god: He has inspired factions ranging from zealots to true believers to doubting Thomases. Depending on your point of view, Tesla vs. Edison is either like the Beatles vs. the Rolling Stones ... or the Beatles vs. the Monkees. I'm just glad were having the argument.
10 of the World’s Most Infamous Cults
by Jane McGrath
Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, speaks to a crowd of followers in St. Louis, Mo.
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Introduction to 10 of the World's Most Infamous Cults
Most people have their own vague idea of what constitutes a cult. But "cult" is one of those slippery, nebulous terms that are difficult to define. Strict definitions tend to be either too wide or too narrow. To complicate matters, what one considers a cult is often a matter of opinion. But, as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said about another ill-defined topic, people tend to think that they know it when they see it.
Sidestepping the controversy, sociologists don't like to use the pejorative term "cult." Instead, they like to talk aboutnew religious movements (NRMs), which can be more widely defined. NRMs hold beliefs that are far outside of the mainstream. They are often characterized by making strict demands on the lifestyle of their members, such as giving up possessions, professions and contact with family to live in a commune with other members. Many have charismatic, authoritarian leaders whose followers believe have special prophetic powers. These leaders often prophesize about an imminent apocalypse.
We'll explore the most infamous cults that have gained notoriety either because they were so successful or because they met a bloody and horrifying end.
THE UNIFICATION CHURCH IN FICTION
Author Don Delillo's 1991 novel, "Mao II," significantly features an opening prologue in which a mass wedding takes place at Yankee Stadium. The followers in attendance: Members of the Unification Church.
10: The Unification Church
The Unification Church, formally known as Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, was founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Born in North Korea, Moon claims to have received a vision when he was 16 years old that told him he was called to complete Christ's mission on earth. According to Moon, Christ was crucified before he was able to fulfill his mission of marrying and having perfect children. Moon, then, saw himself as the Messiah.
At odds with the teachings of his Presbyterian Church, he was excommunicated and formed his own church in the 1950s. As the Messiah, Moon claimed that salvation was only possible through pledging obedience to him, and, after seven years of service, taking a spouse picked by him. The religion became known for its mass weddings, where he presides over the marriages of hundreds of people at one time.
Already a successful businessman, in the 1970s he moved his headquarters to New York, where he attracted new members to his movement as well as widespread suspicion. As a focus of the anti-cult movement gaining momentum at this time, parents of church members began kidnapping and "deprogramming" their children. They also filed lawsuits, and by 1982, Moon was convicted of tax evasion. Now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the church is still active.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh leads his disciples in a devotional ritual in 1984.
Matthew Naythons/Liason/Getty Images
9: Rajneeshpuram
An untraditional Indian guru, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh embraced earthly pleasures. He himself owned 93 Rolls Royces, and he promoted an indulgence in sex. In fact, his ideas were largely rejected in India itself, and he found larger followings in the U.S. and Europe.
Rajneesh began his congregation in India in the 1970s, setting up a headquarters in Pune in 1974. However, after facing increasing hostility there, Rajneesh moved to the United States in 1981 and soon purchased land in Oregon, where followers built their own city called Rajneeshpuram. Ma Anand Sheela, an Indian woman who helped organize Rajneeshpuram became a member of Rajneesh's inner circle. As Rajneesh no longer spoke in public, Sheela took control of daily operations in the city.
By 1985, Rajneeshpuram had more than 2,500 residents, but had become embroiled in local tensions. During the previous year, Sheela instituted the "Share-a-home" program, where the city bused in thousands of homeless people in order to register them as voters there in a failed attempt to influence the Wasco County court elections. Around the same time, Sheela and other leaders of the commune orchestrated the first bioterrorist attack in U.S. history by poisoning restaurant food in the large town of Dalles. In this attempt to reduce the voter population, they sickened 750 people.
In 1985, Sheela and other leaders fled the commune, and Rajneesh was deported for immigration fraud. Despite his death in 1990, Raneesh's movement still lives.
FREE LOVE AMONG CHILDREN
In 1982, Berg published a book that depicted his toddler stepson, Davidito, being exposed to free love practices and engaging in sex play with adult women. In 2005, Davidito, having changed his name to Ricky Rodriguez, murdered his former nanny and shot himself, leaving a video saying that this was revenge [source: Sreenivasan].
8: Children of God
In the 1960s, after hearing of the large hippie population in Huntington Beach, Calif., a Christian minister, David Berg, moved there to recruit the young people. It wasn't hard for him, and the hippies were quickly attracted to his anti-establishment attitude. Many gave up their jobs and donated their savings to the group to live communally in Berg's house. The group moved to Arizona when Berg claimed to receive a revelation that California would be struck by an earthquake. Members began to call Berg, "Moses" and their group "the Children of God."
In the early 1970s, the Children of God recruited all over the country and even set up international centers. By 1974, it had more than 4000 members in 70 countries [source: Sreenivasan]. Berg wrote a series of letters to all his communities to relate his teachings. In 1978, he reorganized the group, renaming it "The Family."
However, the U.S. anti-cult movement targeted the Children of God, and many parents of members kidnapped and deprogrammed their children. Most controversial was Berg's progressive attitude towards sex. He encouraged open sexual relationships and experimentation. The group has also been accused of encouraging child sex abuse. In what was called "flirty fishing," he encouraged his members to engage in sexual relationships to attract new members. By the late 1980s, after dealing with the problem of sexually transmitted diseases, the group formally ended this practice.
Now called "The Family International," this group is still very active, despite Berg's death in 1994.
An icon remains inside one of the many rooms where cult members had lived in Uganda.
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7: Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
Founded by four ex-Roman Catholic priests, two ex-nuns and one ex-prostitute, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTCG) in Uganda emphasized the importance of the Ten Commandments. Through visions of the Virgin Mary, the leaders were convinced that the Roman Catholic Church had abandoned the Commandments.
The leaders also had doomsday prophesies. They predicted the apocalypse would occur on Dec. 31, 1999. In anticipation of this, members sold their possessions. However, when the end of the world didn't come that day, the leaders quickly altered their prediction and they claimed that the Virgin Mary would come on March 17, 2000, to save the faithful and bring them to heaven. Still believing the prophesies, members held a feast on March 16. They killed some cattle for the occasion and even ordered crates of Coca-Cola.
When March 17 arrived, police discovered that an explosion and fire had killed hundreds of the group's members. Although at first this was assumed to be a mass suicide, the evidence and subsequent uncovering of more bodies at other sites soon pointed to murder. Leaders had murdered the members, perhaps because they were unable to repay them for giving away their possessions after the prophesy failed to materialize. It was never determined whether the leaders killed themselves or fled the country.
PROPHECIES
Asahara was fascinated with Nostradamus and even came up with his own disaster prophecies, such as an impending war between Japan and the United States.
6: Aum Shinrikyo
Formed in 1987 by Master Asahara Shoko, Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese cult. Asahara had originally started a yoga school, but after a trip to India in which he met the Dalai Lama and achieved enlightenment in the Himalayas, he changed the name of his school to Aum Shinrikyo (Aum Supreme Truth) and began teaching a combination of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity. He gained many followers as he claimed to embody a god, and he secured significant financial donations. The group became increasingly radical, and defectors met violent ends.
By 1995, the group had about 50,000 members, mostly in Russia. By this time, Asahara had begun preparing for war and expected Aum Shinrikyo to take over the government. To deflect police attention away from the group's activities and instigate the violence he prophecized, Asahara orchestrated an attack on the Tokyosubway.
On March 20, 1995, five members of Aum Shinrikyo boarded the subway on different trains. When they arrived at Kasumigaseki, they each placed a package wrapped in newspaper under their seats. They punctured the packages with the tips of their umbrellas and rushed off the train as gas seeped out. They succeeded in killing 12 people and sickening 5,500. Authorities traced the attack to the group and arrested the leadership, largely dismantling the group.
A scene depicting the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar in 14th century France.
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5: Order of the Solar Temple
Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple in Geneva in 1984. It was one of many groups that have seen itself as a revival of the Medieval Knights Templar. Jouret claimed to be both Christ and the reincarnationof one member of the 14th century order. The leaders also prophesized that Di Mambro's daughter, Emmanuelle, would take the group's members to a planet that revolved around the star Sirius after their earthly death.
The Order of the Solar Temple was a doomsday cult. Di Mambro and Jouret believed the end of the world would come in the mid-1990s. However, the group lost several members, including Emmanuelle, after what leaders claimed was a "vision" was exposed as a hoax [source: Clarke].
Finally, in 1994, Di Mambro and Jouret believed the end was near and it was time for the transit to the new planet. In order to enter a higher spiritual plane, 53 members of the order committed suicide or were murdered in Canada and Switzerland on Oct. 4 and 5, 1994. The buildings were also set on fire after the deaths, and Di Mambro and Jouret's remains were found among the bodies. It was later revealed that Di Mambro had also recently ordered the murder of an infant he believed to be the anti-Christ. Sixteen more members of the order died in France in December 1995, and five more after that in Quebec in March 1997.
TAKEOVER
After Roden's death, Koresh would end up fighting Roden's son in a violent gun battle before taking over in 1987.
4: Branch Davidians
David Koresh, born Vernon Howell in 1959, was the leader of a Christian sect that would meet a violent and controversial end in Waco, Texas, that would devastate the country. After being expelled from the Church of the Seventh Day Adventists as a young man, Koresh soon joined an offshoot called the Branch Davidians. While there, he shared a special friendship and affair with the leader, Lois Roden, who named him as her successor.
Among Koresh's controversial teachings as leader of the Branch Davidians was his New Light doctrine. This declared that all women were his spiritual wives, even underage girls and those women who were already married. He declared himself a messiah, albeit an imperfect one, and preached that the apocalypse was imminent. Koresh amounted a vast arsenal of firearms and faced suspicion of child abuse at his church center, Mt. Carmel. The cult's members overlooked his sexual abuse because it was his call from God.
Based on weapons charges, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided Mt. Carmel in February 1993. After a shoot-out and stand-off lasting 51 days, the ATF finally came in and battered the walls of the center, sending in tear gas. A fire broke out, killing more than 80 members, including about 20 children and Koresh himself.
Members of the Heaven's Gate cult wore purple shrouds and Nike shoes during the suicide.
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3: Heaven's Gate
In the 1970s, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles came to believe that they were the two witnesses referenced in chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation. They began preaching and gaining followers in California and Oregon with apocalyptic prophecies about how salvation would come (for those who were prepared) in the form of a spaceship. There, their bodies would be kept in a cocoon state to transform their bodies for heaven.
The group was known as "Human Individual Metamorphosis," and then later "Total Overcomers Anonymous," before becoming "Heaven's Gate" in the 1990s. Members had to live with the group as well as give up their possessions and family. To perfect themselves for salvation, Applewhite encouraged members to detach themselves from emotion and give up sex entirely. Members dressed androgynously with loose clothing and closely-shaved shaved hair.
Never consisting of more than about 60 people, the small group receded from public during much of its existence, finally coming out to proselytize once again in 1993. Over the next few years, using the emerging popularity of the Internet, they set up a Web site to help spread their message. In 1997, the Hale-Bopp comet was approaching close to earth, and a rumor suggested that a UFO was following it. The group took this rumor very seriously and became convinced that their salvation would finally come.
In March 1997, all 39 members were found dead from apparent suicide in preparation for their transition to heaven.
THE FAMILY JAMS
Around 1970, several members of the Manson "family" recorded music written by Charles Manson and actually released an album, appropriately titled "The Family Sings the Songs of Charles Manson." The album was reissued as a two-disc set in 1997 under the title "The Family Jams" and included unreleased material.
2: Manson Family
Charles Manson was born in 1934 to a 16-year-old single mother. After his mother was imprisoned for armed robbery, he lived with his uncle and aunt in West Virginia and soon turned to a life of petty crime himself. He spent much of his juvenile and young adult life in reformatories or prison. When he was released in 1967, he moved to San Francisco and attracted a small but devout group of young people that became known as "the Family."
Unlike most cults, the Manson Family was not primarily religion-based, however Charles Manson did dabble in Satanism as well as Scientology and held bizarre, quasi-religious ideas. He also predicted a violent race war in which African Americans would prevail but would need to then turn to surviving whites for proper leadership. He planned to have his Manson Family hide out during the race war and then emerge to take control when it was over.
To help instigate this race war, Manson ordered his followers to carry out murders, intending them to be blamed on blacks. In August 1968, Manson family members killed several people in a Los Angeles house, including actress Sharon Tate (the pregnant wife of director Roman Polanski) and coffee-heiress Abigail Folger. The next night, Manson Family members murdered two others. In both cases, the killers repeatedly stabbed victims and wrote messages on the walls in their blood. Manson and his cohorts were sentenced to death, but got life in prison after California banned the death penalty.
Empty bottles of cyanide found at the commune known as Jonestown.
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1: The People's Temple
The epitome of the charismatic cult leader, Jim Jones was a preacher from the Pentecostal tradition. Although white, Jones attracted a large African American following because of his preaching style as well as dedication to integration and racial equality. His teachings were influenced by liberation theology and socialist beliefs.
Jones began the People's Temple in the 1950s in Indianapolis. After reading in Esquire magazine about places to survive a nuclear holocaust, he moved his congregation to Ukiah, Calif., in 1965. In the next five years, the People's Temple membership went from less than a hundred to thousands. With thriving churches in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Jones also built up a significant amount of political clout.
Meanwhile, Jones began building a commune called "Jonestown" in Guyana, a socialist-led country in South America. In 1977, when Jones heard that New West magazine was to publish an expose on life in the People's Temple as "a mixture of Spartan regimentation, fear and self-imposed humiliation" he and his congregation quickly fled to the commune [source: Kilduff].
Convinced by former members and relatives of members to go, U.S. Congressmen Leo Ryan flew down to visit Jonestown to learn more about it. Just before Ryan was about to leave on Nov. 18, 1978, Jones's men arrived at the airstrip and killed the congressman, as well as several others. That same day, Jones convinced his congregation to kill themselves. More than 900 people died, including 276 children.
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