Your favourite cult books

by refiners fire 7 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  refiners fire

  Down the past 15 years I have read many many books about cults, religious movements, Propaganda techniques, Psychological manipulation and brainwashing .

  For about 10 years I read nothing else, and obtained literally hundreds of books. Are there any books on my "favourites" list that you wanted to read but never did? Ever Heard of any of them? Have you Read anything that might interest that I havent read? Am I the only nutty cult reseacher here?

  My all time favourites:

  'A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance" - Leon Festinger. "When Prophecy Fails"- Festinger."Coercive Persuasion" -Edgar Schein. "The True Believer" -Eric Hoffer. "Battle for the Mind" -William Sargant. "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism" -Lifton . These are terrific books examining theories about cults and brainwashing

  On the Subject of Propaganda technique, the best two books I ever read were "Propaganda" -Jaques Ellul. "Goebbels and National Socialist Propaganda" - Ernest Bramstead

  Excellent books about specific cults would be "Six Years with God" By Mills (Jonestown) . "The Refiners Fire" -. John L Brooke, (mormons) "No man knows my History"- Fawn Brodie (mormons). "Imperfect Company"- Millikan (about an Australian cult called "tinker Tailor") . Erica Heftmanns "Dark side of the moonies" is still a classic after all this time. "The Disappointed" - Ronald Numbers, is a great book about Adventism. But if you really want to know about Adventism you read "The Great Second Advent Movement" by Loughborough, or "Millennial Fever" by Knight. available from Adventist bookshops. "Helter Skelter" By Vincent Bugliosi is THE book about the Charles Manson cult. Not everyone knows that Charlie was a religious guru. If youre into the Hitler cult, of all the books available, Alan Bullocks- "Hitler a study in tyranny", is probably the best.

  "Pursuit of the Millenium" by Norman Cohn is a great book about historical millenial expectations from the year 1000ad forward. This stuffs been going on a long time!

  These are my pick of the crop. Anybody else ever read any of this kinda stuff??

  Edited by - refiners fire on 18 July 2002 5:59:22

  Edited by - refiners fire on 18 July 2002 6:4:19

  Edited by - refiners fire on 18 July 2002 6:30:24
• 

  Beck_Melbourne

  Whoa! I haven't read any of those books - I prefer the real girlie books - like Colleen McCullough, Jean Auel (who has released her latest book in the Ayla series), Virginia Andrews is okay if you really feel like weeping, Victoria Holt is okay but not enough smutt, Jane Austen who is always highly vexed.

  The latest book I am reading is The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa - I have to submit a review to my mentor Lemme think of some more titles, and I'll come back to ya!

  Oh, your books sound interesting too RF

  Beck
• 

  refiners fire

  Well I suppose "The Third Eye" is heading down the line Im talkin about. Actually, I love looking at my books and Ive always been a book worm, but im just curious, really, to see if anyone will recommend something "cultic" that theyve read that might appeal to me.

  I need a good cult book!
• 

  Guest 77

  That is an impressive list, my question to you is, why such a long history of studying cults?

  Guest 77
• 

  zenpunk

  I just finished "The Story of B" by Daniel Quinn. It basically about a Catholic Priest sent to investigate a lecturer in Europe who may be the Antichrist. I won't give away any more of it, but there were definately some interesting theories about the belief structure of the last 4000 years being an evolutionary flaw.
• 

  Francois

  How 'bout that book that was on the best seller list for quiet a while about a cult in the Australian outback called "Oyster"? I haven't read it, but I'm thinkin' about doing so here pretty soon.

  I really like suggesting books to other folk, especially when they come back and say how much they liked it, or how it opened their eyes, or stuff like that. And I really like getting the reviews back, too.

  Francois
• 

  Incense_and_Peppermints

  Am I the only nutty cult reseacher here?

  i wouldn't say "nutty"...

  helter-skelter was a good one. riveting! i haven't read any of those other books though... i prefer post-apocalyptic stories like "farnham's freehold" by robert heinlein, or "warday" by whitley streiber. or true stories about man conquering things, like "into thin air" (about everest) by jon krakauer.
• 

  refiners fire

  Peppermints.

  I gave up reading novels a long time ago and shifted to biographies and history (and cult books too)

  "Into Thin Air" was a great book about an Assault on Everest. A woman called Elspeth Huxley Wrote a book called "Scott of the Antarctic", about the doomed 1912 expedition that you might enjoy. It was the best account of that incident that I have read if your into "man versus the elements" type stories.

  No...Ive got it!.... Being a lady of culture, obtain a book called "The Sleepwalkers" by Arthur Koestler , its been rereleased. An account of The lives of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. AWESOME book!

  Aldous Huxley Wrote a book called "The Devils of Loudun" about a true incident in France in the 1600s, A priest who gets accused of being a sorcerer. Totally amazing story.

  Three great factual stories there, youll love them!