United States

89 profiled groups with documented operations in United States — 19 Extreme-band, 38 High-band, 32 Moderate or below. Presence here describes documented operations, not a judgement about United States or its communities; many listed groups also operate elsewhere.

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New Religious Movement

Heaven's Gate

UFO-religion led by Marshall Applewhite ('Do') and Bonnie Nettles ('Ti'). On 26 March 1997, 39 members were found dead by coordinated suicide near San Diego, believing they would board a spacecraft trailing the Hale-Bopp comet.

Christian

Church of the Lamb of God (Ervil LeBaron)

Defunct Mormon-fundamentalist violent splinter founded in 1972 by Ervil Morrell LeBaron after a fratricidal split from the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times. The movement is one of the most extensively documented violent religious-splinter cases in the US public record, with multiple criminal convictions of Ervil LeBaron, members of the LeBaron family, and adherents for murders carried out under a 'blood atonement' / 'hit list' doctrine across the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 2000s.

Christian

Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name (Apollo Quiboloy)

Philippines-based restorationist Christian movement founded in 1985 by Apollo Quiboloy, who identifies himself in the organisation's own publications as 'the Appointed Son of God'. Subject of an active US Department of Justice federal indictment including sex-trafficking charges, an FBI Most Wanted listing, a Philippine Senate inquiry, and a September 2024 Philippine criminal arrest. All charges remain pending.

New Religious Movement

Larry Ray (Sarah Lawrence sex-trafficking case)

Lawrence Ray ('Larry Ray', 1959–) — convicted federal sex-trafficker who, beginning 2010, lived among his daughter's college roommates at Sarah Lawrence College and over a decade subjected several to coercive psychiatric 'confessions', forced labour, sex trafficking, and extortion. Convicted April 2022 on 15 federal counts; sentenced January 2023 to 60 years; $20M restitution. The S2 'Stolen Youth' Hulu docuseries (2023) is the canonical record.

Political / Ideological

The Order / Brüder Schweigen (Robert Mathews, 1983–84)

White-supremacist Christian Identity terror group founded by Robert Mathews (1983). Conducted multiple armoured-car robberies and the 1984 Alan Berg murder. Mathews killed in FBI siege December 1984. Subject of Steve Earle's song and many academic studies.

Christian

Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps (Jim & Lila Reidhead)

New Mexico-based para-church group founded by James (Jim) and Deborah (Lila) Green-Reidhead in the 1980s with quasi-military uniforms, ranks ('Generals'), and a Sacramento-then-Berino fortified residential compound. Multiple 2018 New Mexico convictions for child abuse, sexual servitude, and human trafficking; founder Deborah Green sentenced to 72 years; multiple co-defendants serving sentences. Active in residual form post-prosecution.

Christian

LeBaron clan polygamist groups

Network of fundamentalist Mormon polygamist groups descended from the LeBaron family. Notable for the 1972 Joel LeBaron assassination ordered by his brother Ervil; the 1977 'Lambs of God' assassinations across the US; and the 2019 Mexico cartel-related massacre of nine LeBaron family members.

Christian

7M Films / Shekinah Church (Robert Shinn)

Los Angeles-based Shekinah Church and its 7M Films talent management business, led by Robert Shinn. Subject of Netflix's 'Dancing for the Devil' (2024) documenting how TikTok dancers under 7M contracts were severed from family.

Christian

Twelve Tribes Communities / Messianic Communities / Yellow Deli (Gene Spriggs)

International communal Messianic Christian high-control group founded 1972 in Chattanooga, Tennessee by Elbert Eugene 'Gene' Spriggs (1937-2021) and Marsha Spriggs. Operates approximately 50 communities in 9 countries; estimated 2,500-3,000 members. Recognisable public face is the Yellow Deli / Common Sense Market cafe network. Documented forced child labour, corporal-punishment doctrine, multiple government raids (Vermont 1984 Island Pond raid, Bavaria 2013 Wörnitz / Klosterzimmern raids, France 2015), and the full set of severance, total residential control, and arranged marriage patterns.

Christian

Concerned Christians (Monte Kim Miller, Y2K Denver apocalyptic group)

Y2K-era apocalyptic Christian splinter founded by Monte Kim Miller in Denver, Colorado, in the late 1980s. Miller predicted that Denver would be destroyed on 10 October 1998 and that an apocalyptic event would follow in Jerusalem before the Y2K turn-of-millennium. The group relocated to Jerusalem; in January 1999 Israeli police detained 14 members on grounds of suspected planned apocalyptic-violence activity and deported them. The group is treated by Denver Post coverage, by US press, by academic accounts (David Bromley, Catherine Wessinger), and by FBI public statements during the Y2K period as defunct as an organised entity by the early 2000s.

Christian

The House of Yahweh (Yisrayl Hawkins)

Texas-based Sacred Name movement founded by Yisrayl Hawkins (1980). Multiple Texas legal cases regarding bigamy, child-bigamy, and child abuse in the 2000s. Apocalyptic separatist theology.

New Religious Movement

Nuwaubian Nation / Dwight York

Esoteric movement founded by Dwight 'Malachi Z.' York, cycling through Islamic, Hebrew, and ancient-Egyptian identities before settling followers at the 'Tama-Re' compound in Putnam County, Georgia. York was convicted in 2004 of child molestation and racketeering — one of the largest prosecutions of its kind — and sentenced to 135 years; the compound was seized and demolished.

Christian

Lord Our Righteousness Church / Strong City (Wayne Bent)

A small Seventh-day-Adventist-derived commune at 'Strong City', New Mexico, whose leader Wayne Bent ('Michael Travesser') declared himself Messiah in 2000. Bent was convicted in 2008 of criminal sexual contact with a minor and related counts involving teenage members' 'consecration' rituals, drawing national attention via documentary coverage. He was paroled in 2016; the remnant community persists quietly.

Political / Ideological

LaRouche PAC successor network (Schiller Institute / EIR)

US-founded political cadre organisation founded as the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) by Lyndon LaRouche in 1973 and continuing through the Schiller Institute, Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), and LaRouche PAC under successor leadership after Lyndon LaRouche's death in 2019. Subject of a 1988 US federal mail-fraud / conspiracy conviction of its founder (imprisoned 1989–1994), of a major book-length investigative account by Dennis King, of sustained mainstream press coverage, and of significant ex-member testimony documenting cadre control practices including sleep deprivation, communal living arrangements, financial control, and isolation from family.

Political / Ideological

Atomwaffen Division

Neo-Nazi accelerationist terror organisation founded 2015. Multiple US members convicted of murder; UK proscribed as terrorist organisation 2021. Heavily entwined with Order of Nine Angles esoteric materials.

Political / Ideological

Zizians (rationalist splinter)

A small, decentralised network that splintered from Bay Area rationalist circles around the pseudonymous blogger 'Ziz', combining radical animal-rights ethics, unorthodox decision-theory doctrines, and total commitment demands. Members have been charged in connection with a series of violent deaths in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, including the 2025 killing of a US Border Patrol agent. Prosecutions are ongoing; all defendants are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

New Religious Movement

Twin Flames Universe (Jeff and Shaleia Divine)

Online 'spiritual coaching' organisation run by Jeff and Shaleia Divine teaching that everyone has one 'twin flame' romantic partner. Documented patterns of pressuring members to pursue uninterested 'twins', gender-identity coercion, and total community life consumed by Divine couple's livestreams.

Political / Ideological

National Labor Federation / NATLFED (Gino Perente)

US-founded political cadre organisation founded by Gerald Doeden ('Gino Perente') in 1972. NATLFED operates as a closed-cell front-organisation network in which named labour, immigrant-services, and community-organising front groups present a public-facing service face while functioning as recruitment-and-funnelling structures into the unnamed central cadre. Documented in Dennis Tourish and Tim Wohlforth's 'On the Edge' (M.E. Sharpe 2000), in Village Voice and other US press coverage, and in long-running ex-member testimony archives.

New Religious Movement

Your Black Muslim Bakery / Bey organization (historical)

Yusuf Bey's Oakland bakery empire fused Black-Muslim-derived teaching, community businesses, and patriarchal absolutism: 'spiritual wives', dozens of children, and — as prosecutions later established — systematic rape of underage girls in his care. Under successor Yusuf Bey IV the organisation murdered journalist Chauncey Bailey in 2007 to stop his reporting; the convictions that followed, and the Chauncey Bailey Project's journalism, closed the organisation and documented its history exhaustively.

Hindu

Oneness University / Ekam (Kalki Bhagavan / Sri Bhagavan)

Indian guru-led devotional movement founded in 1989 by Vijaykumar Naidu (known within the movement as 'Kalki Bhagavan' and 'Sri Bhagavan') and his wife Padmavathi ('Sri Amma'). The movement operates internationally as 'Oneness University' and more recently 'Ekam', offering 'deeksha' transmission practices and 'awakening' programmes from an ashram complex in Andhra Pradesh, India. Subject of 2019 Indian Income Tax Department raids on properties and documented in academic work on contemporary Indian gurus and in sustained Indian press coverage.

Christian

Israelite House of David (historical)

Benton Harbor, Michigan colony founded by Benjamin and Mary Purnell (1903) as the gathering of Israel's 144,000: members surrendered property, took celibacy vows, left hair uncut, and worked colony enterprises — including the famous barnstorming baseball team and amusement park. A 1927 Michigan proceeding documented Purnell's systematic sexual abuse of colony girls under 'purification' doctrine; he died months later, and the colony split into two shrinking successor communities.

Christian

University Bible Fellowship (UBF)

Korean-origin campus-focused Christian missionary organisation founded in 1961 in Gwangju, South Korea, by Samuel Lee (Chang-woo Lee) and Sarah Barry. The organisation built an international campus-targeted missionary apparatus and operates as a closed-discipleship structure under appointed shepherds. Documented internal patterns include intensive one-to-one 'shepherding' relationships, leadership-directed marriage practices, financial expectations on students, and family-displacement reports across the long-running ex-member testimony archive.

Hindu

Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU)

International guru-led devotional movement founded in 1937 by Lekhraj Kirpalani ('Brahma Baba') in Hyderabad, Sindh (now Pakistan), and headquartered since 1950 at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India. The organisation holds UN ECOSOC general consultative status and runs over 8,500 centres internationally. Substantial academic study (Lawrence Babb, Julia Howell, John Walliss) and a long-running ex-member testimony archive document a set of internal control patterns including strict lifetime celibacy, sustained early-morning meditation discipline, distinctive cosmology centred on a 5,000-year cycle, and family-displacement patterns for committed adherents.

Christian

Worldwide Church of God under Herbert W. Armstrong (historical)

Herbert W. Armstrong's Radio/Worldwide Church of God taught British-Israelism, strict sabbath and holy-day observance, triple tithing, and medical-care avoidance, enforced through disfellowshipping. After Armstrong's death (1986) the church repudiated his distinctive doctrines — a nearly unique institutional reformation — and continues as Grace Communion International; splinter churches perpetuate the old system and are treated separately.

Political / Ideological

Elohim City (Oklahoma)

A private Christian Identity settlement in eastern Oklahoma founded by Robert Millar (1973), operating as a closed covenant community of several hundred acres. Residents live under patriarchal religious governance and Identity doctrine; the settlement drew federal attention through links to 1980s CSA militants and contacts around Timothy McVeigh's 1995 circle, though the community itself was never charged. It persists quietly under Millar's descendants.

Christian

House of Prayer Christian Church (HOPCC)

Active US-headquartered network of military-base-focused high-control evangelical Christian churches founded in 1993 by Lige Huber. HOPCC operates congregations primarily in proximity to US military installations, where service members and their families are the documented primary recruitment target. Documented in sustained Military Times and Stars and Stripes investigative coverage from the 2000s onward, in long-running ex-member testimony archives, and in academic LGAT-comparative work.

Wellness / Multi-Level

IM Academy (formerly iMarketsLive / IML)

US-headquartered multi-level marketing company founded in 2013 by Christopher Terry, marketing trading-education products (foreign-exchange, cryptocurrency, sports-betting) through a recruitment-based affiliate structure. Subject of multiple national financial-regulator warnings (Belgian FSMA 2018, Australian ASIC 2019, Spanish CNMV 2018, and others), sustained Truth in Advertising (TINA.org) documentation, and sustained mainstream financial-press coverage.

Christian

International House of Prayer KC (IHOPKC)

24/7 prayer-room ministry in Kansas City founded by Mike Bickle (1999). Fractured in 2023 after multiple women publicly alleged decades of clergy sexual abuse by Bickle.

Christian

Shakers (United Society of Believers, historical)

United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing — a communal Christian tradition founded by Mother Ann Lee in Manchester, England (movement begins 1747; Lee emigrates to America 1774). Distinctive features included communal property, lifelong celibacy for all members, ecstatic worship (the eponymous 'shaking'), and full gender equality in leadership and labour. The celibacy mandate has driven the community to functional extinction; Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine — with 2 to 3 surviving members as of 2024 — is the last active Shaker community. The Hancock Shaker Village (Massachusetts) and Pleasant Hill (Kentucky) operate as museums.

Christian

John MacArthur / Grace Community Church (Sun Valley, California)

John MacArthur (b. 1939) is the founding pastor of Grace Community Church (Sun Valley, California, ~8,000 weekly attendance) and one of the most-influential Reformed celebrity-pastors in late-20th and early-21st century American evangelicalism. The Master's Seminary, Master's University, Grace to You media network, and a global affiliate-church network extend Grace's reach. Documented coercive-control patterns include the Eileen Gray custody-pressure case, the David Gray child-murder case (2010), elder-board discipline of women pressured to return to abusive husbands, COVID-era defiance litigation, and a multi-year *Roys Report* + *Christianity Today* investigation series 2022–2024.

Christian

Centennial Park group (Second Ward, Mormon fundamentalist)

Active Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous community of approximately 1,500 members located in Centennial Park, Arizona, formed in 1986 when the 'Second Ward' broke from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) over leadership and doctrinal disputes. The community continues to practice polygamy under the doctrinal authority of the Council of Priesthood Holders. Distinct from but related to FLDS, the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB), the Kingston Order, and the LeBaron-clan polygamist groups — each profiled separately in the catalogue. Documented in academic monographs (Janet Bennion 1998 and subsequent) and in sustained Arizona regional press.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Avatar Course / Star's Edge International (Harry Palmer)

Active intensive-seminar network founded in 1986 by Harry Palmer (a former Scientology mission holder) and operated through Star's Edge International from Altamonte Springs, Florida. The Avatar Course is delivered as a sequence of multi-day residential intensive seminars (the Avatar Course, the Masters Course, the Wizards Course, the Avatar Professional course) under a Scientology-derived 'tech' adapted into a non-Scientology commercial format. Documented in academic Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT) literature, in sustained mainstream press, and in long-running ex-participant testimony archives.

Hindu

Science of Identity Foundation / Chris Butler

Hawaii-based offshoot of the Krishna-consciousness tradition led by Chris Butler ('Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda'), operating through low-visibility satsang networks, schools, and political engagement rather than temples. Ex-members — several now public figures' critics — describe absolute guru veneration, purity rules, homophobic teaching, and children raised under total deference to Butler. Coverage expanded after adherent-raised politician Tulsi Gabbard's campaigns drew scrutiny to the network.

Christian

Church of Bible Understanding (Stewart Traill)

The Church of Bible Understanding (COBU) was founded in 1971 in Allentown, Pennsylvania by former vacuum-cleaner salesman Stewart Traill — first as the Forever Family, renamed in 1976 — and became one of the era's most documented communal 'Jesus movement' groups gone authoritarian: members lived in crowded communal fellowships, worked long hours in church businesses (most famously the Christian Brothers carpet-cleaning operation in New York), and lived under Traill's absolute doctrinal and personal authority until his death in 2018. The group ran orphanages in Haiti funded by the business income; in February 2020 a fire at its Kenscoff orphanage killed 13 children and two adults, drawing international scrutiny to facilities that had repeatedly failed accreditation. A diminished remnant continues.

Political / Ideological

Patriot Front

American white-nationalist hate group founded by Thomas Rousseau (2017) after splitting from Vanguard America. Distinctive uniformed flash-mob demonstrations. SPLC hate-group designation.

Christian

Pillar of Fire under Alma White (historical era)

Alma White — the first woman bishop in the United States — built the Pillar of Fire from a Denver holiness mission into a communal denomination headquartered at Zarephath, New Jersey, with schools, farms, and radio stations. The Alma White era combined strict communal discipline and loud anti-Catholic polemic with an open 1920s alliance with the Ku Klux Klan, documented in her own publications. The much-reduced modern church long ago repudiated that era.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Holiday Magic / Leadership Dynamics (historical)

William Penn Patrick's 1960s cosmetics company was the prototype recruitment pyramid — regulators in dozens of states and the FTC/SEC forced it out of business by 1974 — and its training arm, Leadership Dynamics Institute, ran 'encounter' seminars whose documented beatings, cagings, and coffin exercises produced landmark lawsuits and the book 'The Pit'. The pair form the canonical historical case of MLM economics fused with coercive-group psychology.

Christian

Shepherd's Rod / Davidian Seventh-day Adventists (historical)

Victor Houteff's 1929 reform message within Seventh-day Adventism — 'The Shepherd's Rod' — grew into the Davidian movement: a gathered community at Mount Carmel near Waco preparing the 144,000 for an imminent Kingdom. Houteff's interpretive authority, the community's separation economics, and the failed 1959 prophecy of his widow Florence shattered the movement into factions — one of which, under Ben Roden and eventually David Koresh, became the Branch Davidians.

Christian

Harvest Bible Chapel (James MacDonald)

Chicago-area evangelical megachurch network. James MacDonald fired 2019 after Christianity Today exposé documenting bullying, financial extravagance, and suppression of dissent.

Christian

Jesus Christians (Dave McKay)

Small active communal-living Christian movement founded in 1981 by Dave McKay (an Australian-born ex-Children of God / Family International member) and his wife Cherry. The movement operates as a sequence of small communal households across Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, and Kenya, organising around a literal-discipleship interpretation of Christian texts. The movement is internationally known for its members' documented practice of voluntary kidney donations to strangers as an expression of that literal-discipleship framework. Documented in sustained BBC and Sydney Morning Herald long-running coverage and in documentary work.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Access Consciousness (Gary Douglas / Dain Heer)

Active US-headquartered commercial seminar and body-work network founded around 1990 by Gary Douglas and later co-developed with Dain Heer. Markets the 'Access Bars' (32 'bars' of the head touched by a trained facilitator), 'Access Body Processes', and a sequence of intensive seminars (Foundation, Levels) at substantial per-participant cost. Documented in ABC Australia 4 Corners sustained investigative coverage (notably the 2019 'The Cost of Consciousness' investigation), in ex-participant testimony archives, and in Australian regulator attention to consumer-protection concerns. Confidence published as Low — primary source base is journalism + ex-member testimony with limited academic coverage.

New Religious Movement

Epoch Times / NTD / Shen Yun media empire (Falun Gong-aligned)

Falun Gong-aligned media empire including Epoch Times, NTD, Shen Yun, and The Dissident. Documented misinformation and political-partisan campaigning.

Judaism

Chabad-Lubavitch

Hasidic Jewish movement based in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, distinguished by its global emissary (shluchim) network and the messianic veneration of the late Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (d. 1994). Outward-facing; internally high-demand.

Christian

Sovereign Grace Churches (formerly SGM)

Reformed Charismatic church-planting network founded by C.J. Mahaney (originally People of Destiny International, 1982; renamed Sovereign Grace Ministries / SGM, then Sovereign Grace Churches in 2014). The 2012 Cohen v. SGM class-action lawsuit alleged a multi-decade pattern of pastoral cover-up of child sexual abuse across at least three SGM churches; the case was dismissed on statute-of-limitations grounds in 2014 without reaching the merits. Mahaney remains in active ministry; ex-member testimony and the 2011 'Brent Detwiler Documents' archive remain the substantive evidentiary record.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Optavia / Medifast

Maryland-based weight-loss MLM operating Optavia coaching network atop Medifast's meal-replacement product line (current corporate form 2017; Medifast public since 1993). ~80k 'Coaches' at 2022 peak; documented 800–1,100 calorie/day prescribed protocols; multiple eating-disorder professional-society warnings (NEDA 2023, AED 2024); class-action litigation pending 2024+.

Political / Ideological

Active Club Network (white nationalist combat sports)

Decentralised white-nationalist combat-sports network founded by Robert Rundo (Rise Above Movement). Combines MMA training with explicit white-nationalist ideology. SPLC hate-group designation.

Christian

Quiverfull movement

A decentralised conservative-Christian conviction movement rejecting all birth control and organising family life around maximal childbearing, male headship, and homeschooling isolation. Documented by Kathryn Joyce's reporting and by survivor networks (including children of the movement), it functions as a movement-pattern entry: no headquarters exists, but the doctrine bundle produces recurring documented control dynamics inside adherent households and aligned ministries.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Equinox International (historical MLM)

Bill Gouldd's Las Vegas water-filter MLM built one of the 1990s' most aggressive recruitment machines — misleading job ads funnelling recruits into fee-laden 'trainings', inventory loading, and rally culture around Gouldd himself — until the FTC and eight states shut it down in 1999–2000. The settlement liquidated the company, returned ~$40 million to distributors, and banned Gouldd from multilevel marketing for life.

Christian

Family Radio under Harold Camping (historical era)

Harold Camping's Family Radio network taught that the church age had ended and that his Bible-numerology proved Judgment Day — finally fixed for May 21, 2011. Followers left churches, jobs, and savings to fund a global billboard campaign; the failure, revised to October, then acknowledged by Camping as sinful presumption, is among the best-documented modern prophecy failures. Post-Camping Family Radio dropped the doctrines and continues as a conventional broadcaster.

Christian

Jesus People USA (JPUSA)

The largest surviving commune of the 1970s Jesus movement: several hundred members living communally in Uptown, Chicago, running businesses and the Cornerstone festival under a council of pastors. Ex-member accounts, a 1994 lawsuit wave, Ronald Enroth's follow-up research, and the 2014 documentary 'No Place to Call Home' documented authoritarian-era discipline and historical child-abuse allegations, which the community has publicly grappled with while remaining an open, functioning fellowship.

Wellness / Multi-Level

TelexFree (historical pyramid fraud)

Nominally a VoIP reseller, TelexFree paid 'promoters' to post internet ads — returns funded almost entirely by new promoter buy-ins. Before its 2014 collapse it took in roughly $3 billion from nearly a million participants across Brazil, the US, and beyond, hitting Brazilian and Dominican immigrant communities hardest. US criminal cases convicted co-owner James Merrill; co-owner Carlos Wanzeler fled to Brazil; massive parallel Brazilian proceedings ran for years.

Christian

Church of the Highlands / Chris Hodges / Association of Related Churches (ARC)

Birmingham, Alabama-based multi-site evangelical megachurch founded 2001 by Chris Hodges. Approximately 60,000 weekly attendees across 23 campuses. Flagship of the Association of Related Churches (ARC) — a 1,000+-church franchise network co-founded by Hodges with documented authoritarian governance critique. 2020 racial-insensitivity controversy (Hodges' social-media likes of Charlie Kirk content) preceded deeper reporting on ARC's pastoral-accountability structures.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Nu Skin Enterprises

Provo, Utah-based MLM (founded 1984) selling skincare and nutritional supplements through a multi-level distributor network. ~1.1M distributors globally as of 2024. 2014 People's Daily exposé triggered $47M China regulatory fine; multiple SEC investigations into pyramid-scheme structure. Documented internal culture of LDS-adjacent religious exhortation tying distributor performance to spiritual virtue.

Political / Ideological

Hutaree militia (historical)

A small Michigan 'Christian warrior' militia whose members trained for end-times battle against the Antichrist's forces, arrested in 2010 on sedition-conspiracy charges alleging plans to kill police. In 2012 the judge acquitted defendants of the principal charges, finding hateful speech but insufficient proof of concrete conspiracy; two pleaded to weapons counts. The case is a reference point for the line between apocalyptic militia culture and prosecutable conspiracy.

New Religious Movement

Summit Lighthouse (parent of Church Universal and Triumphant)

Parent and publishing organisation of Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), founded by Mark L. Prophet (1958, Washington DC) building on the I AM Activity tradition. Mark died 1973 and was succeeded by his wife Elizabeth Clare Prophet ('Guru Ma') until her 2009 death from Alzheimer's. Summit Lighthouse continues today as the doctrinal and publishing arm alongside CUT, with substantially lower-control practices than the late-1980s 'shelter cycle' era when CUT moved members to fallout-protected Montana ranches.

Christian

Society of Separatists of Zoar (historical)

Historical German-Pietist communal Christianity (1817–1898) at Zoar Village in Tuscarawas County, Ohio. Founded by ~200 Württemberg Separatists fleeing state-church persecution under Joseph Bäumeler (anglicised Bimeler). The community dissolved by member vote in 1898 with property distributed to remaining members; Zoar Village (the Ohio Historical Connection's Historic Zoar Village) operates today as a heritage site and museum.

Christian

Bethel Church Redding (Bill Johnson)

California megachurch led by Bill Johnson and the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM). Distinctive 'Christian mysticism' practices — grave-soaking, fire-tunnels, Sozo inner healing — and the 2019 attempted resurrection of a deceased child.

Christian

Elevation Church (Steven Furtick)

North Carolina-based evangelical megachurch led by Steven Furtick. Substantial criticism over financial extravagance, 'spontaneous' choreographed baptisms, and senior-pastor unilateral authority.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Vemma Nutrition (historical MLM)

Arizona energy-drink MLM whose 'Young People Revolution' recruited college students as 'affiliates' buying in with product packs and chasing BMW bonuses. The FTC shut the model down in 2015 as a pyramid targeting young adults; the 2016 settlement imposed a $238 million judgment (largely suspended) and banned recruitment-based pay. The case sits beside BurnLounge as modern pyramid-law's defining precedent set.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (historical MLM)

Kentucky MLM claiming participants could earn by reselling phone, TV, and beauty services from brand-name companies. The FTC, three states, and Puerto Rico shut it down in 2013 as a pyramid: the record showed at least 88% of participants recouped less than their sign-up costs, with earnings driven by recruiting. The receivership and settlement banned the founders from MLM.

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Complete list of 89 group profiles

Complete list of 89 group profiles