LatAm

71 group profiles operating in LatAm. All scores are BITE-derived from publicly available sources.

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Christian

Peoples Temple (Jim Jones / Jonestown)

Originally an integrationist Disciples of Christ congregation in Indianapolis, the Peoples Temple under Jim Jones evolved into a totalitarian movement that culminated in the 1978 mass murder-suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, killing 918 people.

Judaism

Lev Tahor

Extreme isolationist Haredi-fringe sect founded by Shlomo Helbrans (1980s, d. 2017). Practises full-body covering for women, child marriages, and total community control. Leadership convicted in multiple jurisdictions; community has fled across borders to evade child-welfare investigations.

New Religious Movement

Antares de la Luz (Ramon Castillo Gaete doomsday sect)

Antares de la Luz was the religious identity adopted by Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, leader of a 12-member Chilean doomsday sect active from around 2009 to 2013 that relocated repeatedly through the Valparaiso region before settling near Colliguay/Mantagua. Believing himself God and expecting the world to end on 21 December 2012, Castillo declared the newborn son of member Natalia Guerra -- his own child -- to be the Antichrist, and in November 2012 the group bound the two-day-old infant, gagged him, and burned him alive. Castillo fled to Peru and hanged himself in Cusco in May 2013 before facing trial. Chilean courts subsequently convicted Guerra of parricide and Pablo Undurraga of qualified homicide (five years' effective imprisonment each, per Chilean press reporting), with five further members convicted as accomplices (three years each); several other members were found not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. Guerra was a fugitive for two years before her 2019 capture and 2021 conditional release. The case was the subject of a 2024 Netflix documentary.

Christian

Word of Faith Fellowship (Jane Whaley)

Spindale, North Carolina-based Christian sect led by Jane Whaley. The 2017–18 Associated Press investigation documented corporal punishment of children, forced labour at member-owned businesses, and 'blasting' prayer sessions to expel demons.

Christian

Colonia Dignidad (Paul Schäfer)

Colonia Dignidad was a sealed German colony in southern Chile founded in 1961 by Paul Schäfer, a lay preacher who fled child-abuse charges in West Germany with some 300 followers. Behind fences, floodlights, and watchtowers, the colony ran on total control for four decades: families deliberately separated, marriage and contact between the sexes suppressed, unpaid labour from childhood, informing institutionalised, and systematic sexual abuse of the colony's children by Schäfer — established in Chilean courts, which convicted him in absentia contexts and, after his 2005 capture, sentenced him for the abuse of 25 children. Under the Pinochet dictatorship the enclave served the DINA secret police as a detention and torture site where political prisoners were interrogated, tortured, and in documented cases disappeared. Schäfer died in prison in 2010; the settlement, renamed Villa Baviera, persists as an ordinary village whose reckoning — German-Chilean commissions, memorials, compensation — remains contested.

New Religious Movement

NXIVM-style Wellness Cults

NXIVM (1998–2018) and its imitators dressed coercive control as 'executive success programmes' or 'women's empowerment'. Founder Keith Raniere was convicted in 2019 of racketeering, sex trafficking, and forced labour.

Christian

La Luz del Mundo (Naasón Joaquín García)

Mexico-based Christian Restorationist movement founded by Eusebio Joaquín González (1926). Current leader Naasón Joaquín García was convicted in California in 2022 on multiple counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 16 years.

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

Twelve Tribes

Communal Messianic-Jewish-influenced movement founded by Elbert Eugene Spriggs (1972). Members surrender all property, work in community businesses (Yellow Deli cafés, construction), and follow strict child-discipline teachings repeatedly investigated by child welfare authorities.

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

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) / Sodalit Movement (Luis Fernando Figari)

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) was a Catholic Society of Apostolic Life founded in Lima, Peru in 1971 by Luis Fernando Figari. It expanded across Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the United States, and Italy through the 1980s–2010s. The 2015 Pedro Salinas + Paola Ugaz book *Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados* ('Half Monks, Half Soldiers') surfaced decades of sexual, psychological, and physical abuse by Figari and senior leaders. Figari was suspended in 2017 and expelled in 2024. In **August 2024 Pope Francis suppressed (formally dissolved) the entire society** — an exceptionally rare canonical action. The current entry covers the SCV through its dissolution and the Sodalit Movement adjacent lay groups (Christian Life Movement, Marian Community of Reconciliation) that the same papal decree restructured.

Christian

Legion of Christ (Marcial Maciel)

Catholic religious congregation founded by Marcial Maciel (1941). The Vatican confirmed in 2010 that Maciel sexually abused dozens of seminarians and fathered children with multiple women; major institutional reform followed under Vatican delegate Cardinal Velasio De Paolis.

Christian

The Bible Speaks / Carl Stevens / Greater Grace World Outreach

Carl H. Stevens Jr. (1929–2008) founded The Bible Speaks (TBS) in Bath, Maine in 1972 and built it into a major high-control evangelical-charismatic organisation centred at the Lenox, Massachusetts compound by the mid-1980s. The 1987 Dovydenas v. Bible Speaks $6.5M federal civil judgement — at the time the largest cult-recovery civil judgement in US history — found that Stevens had exercised 'undue influence' over Elizabeth Dovydenas. The organisation rebranded as Greater Grace World Outreach (GGWO), relocated to Baltimore in 1989, and continues operating with affiliated churches and Bible colleges in 75+ countries.

Wellness / Multi-Level

John of God (João Teixeira de Faria)

Brazilian 'faith healer' João Teixeira de Faria, who claimed to channel deceased spirits at his Casa de Dom Inácio in Abadiânia. Multiple Oprah-Winfrey-promoted appearances. Convicted of rape in 2019; over 600 women have alleged sexual abuse.

Christian

The Message of the Hour / William Branham / Voice of God Recordings

Post-WWII Pentecostal prophet movement founded around the ministry of William Marrion Branham (1909–1965), an American faith-healing evangelist. After Branham's December 1965 death in a road accident in Texas, followers organised around the Voice of God Recordings ministry in Jeffersonville, Indiana (now led by Branham's son Joseph), which distributes Branham's sermon recordings as scripture-equivalent. Doctrines include Branham as the end-times Elijah, the 'Serpent's Seed' doctrine, and a distinctive pre-tribulation rapture timeline. Approximately 500 congregations and 1-2 million followers globally.

Christian

Igreja Mundial do Poder de Deus (Apóstolo Valdemiro Santiago)

Brazilian neo-Pentecostal mega-church founded in 1998 in São Paulo by Valdemiro Santiago de Oliveira after his split from IURD. Operates 4,500+ branches in Brazil and ~50 countries. The 2020 'miracle COVID-19 bean' incident drew international attention.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Octavio Rettig — Bufo alvarius (5-MeO-DMT) facilitator network

Mexican former physician who popularised the inhalation of vapor from the Sonoran Desert toad (Bufo alvarius / Incilius alvarius, 5-MeO-DMT) globally. Multiple in-ceremony participant deaths and Mexican criminal investigations.

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 15 children, drawing international scrutiny to facilities that had repeatedly failed accreditation. A diminished remnant continues.

Christian

Word of Faith / Prosperity Gospel networks

Word of Faith and Prosperity Gospel networks (Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, T.B. Joshua, much of TBN's flagship roster) blend Pentecostal worship with explicit teaching that financial gifts to the ministry produce divine wealth.

Christian

Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus / IURD (Edir Macedo, Brazil)

Brazilian Pentecostal megachurch founded by Edir Macedo (1977). Owns Brazil's second-largest TV network (Record). Subject of multiple Brazilian money-laundering and tax-fraud investigations over decades.

Other

House of Israel (Guyana)

The House of Israel was founded in Guyana in the early 1970s by David Hill — a US fugitive who restyled himself 'Rabbi Edward Washington' — preaching a Black Hebrew Israelite doctrine that Afro-Guyanese were the true Israelites. Claiming several thousand members at its peak, the organisation became openly entangled with Forbes Burnham's ruling PNC government, supplying muscle against strikes, opposition rallies, and critical media. In July 1979 a member murdered Fr. Bernard Darke, a Jesuit priest and photographer for the Catholic Standard, during a street demonstration — the emblematic act of Guyana's era of political violence. After Burnham's death in 1985 the protection evaporated: Hill and lieutenants were imprisoned in 1986 in connection with the killing of a member, and the organisation collapsed. It is studied alongside Jonestown as the other face of 1970s–80s Guyana's cult-state entanglement.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Bikram Yoga (Bikram Choudhury)

'Hot yoga' system created by Bikram Choudhury in the 1970s. Multiple women won civil sexual-assault judgments against him in the 2010s. Choudhury fled to Mexico to evade enforcement; the surviving Bikram Yoga community has fragmented. ESPN '30 for 30' and Netflix's 'Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator' (2019) are major documentaries.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Aubrey Marcus / Onnit / Fit For Service

Aubrey Marcus (b. 1981) is a wellness-influencer and the founder of Onnit Labs (a sports-supplement company sold to Unilever for ~$200M in 2021), the Aubrey Marcus Podcast, and Fit For Service (a residential-retreat-and-coaching network). The Fit For Service component has documented severance pressure, substantial financial extraction (~$10,000+ per multi-day retreat), and a programmatic combination of polyamory exploration, ayahuasca tourism, and 'masculinity work' that has produced multiple ex-participant complaints of psychological coercion. The wellness-bro-psychedelic-cult-adjacent pattern.

Other

Santa Muerte high-control templos (umbrella)

Umbrella entry covering the documented high-control variants of the Mexican Santa Muerte folk-religious cult — specific templos and lineages where transactional coercive-magic obligations, severance from family, and adjacency to organised criminal networks have been documented. Distinct from the broader low-control Santa Muerte folk-veneration phenomenon (~10–12 million casual devotees) which is mainstream Mexican syncretic Catholicism.

Christian

Ekklesia / cell-church high-control networks

Umbrella entry for high-control cell-church / G12-style networks. Mainstream G12 (Cesar Castellanos) is moderate; specific high-control sub-networks exhibit shepherding-style discipleship patterns.

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

United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI, Oneness Pentecostal)

United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) is the largest Oneness Pentecostal denomination globally (~4 million members, ~30,000 congregations in 200 countries). Distinctive non-Trinitarian theology requiring baptism in Jesus's name only as a salvation requirement (not the Trinitarian formula); strict 'holiness standards' regulating women's hair (uncut, long, never cut), dress (long skirts, long sleeves, no jewellery, no makeup), and behaviour (no television in many congregations historically, no movies, no swimming pools, no slacks for women); strong patriarchal headship doctrine. Headquartered at Hazelwood, Missouri.

Christian

Cornelia Connelly Society / Society of the Holy Child Jesus

The Society of the Holy Child Jesus (SHCJ) is a Catholic women's religious community founded in 1846 in Derby, England by Cornelia Connelly (1809–1879), an American-born convert. SHCJ operated girls' boarding schools and day schools across the UK, Ireland, and the United States from the 1840s through the late 20th century. Mid-20th-century coercive-control patterns at the schools have been documented in survivor memoirs, *Guardian* + *Irish Times* 2024 reporting, and the broader Irish state-inquiry context (Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries). The contemporary order has substantially reformed and operates a much smaller educational footprint.

Wellness / Multi-Level

It Works! Global

Florida-based MLM (founded 2001) best known for 'Crazy Wrap Thing' body-contouring wraps and the 'Skinny Pack' supplement bundle. ~100k 'Distributors' at 2018 peak; FDA 2012 warning letter on wrap disease claims; state attorney-general inquiries for income misrepresentation; characteristic Southern-evangelical coach culture documented across multiple ex-member accounts.

Buddhist

Diamond Way Buddhism (Ole Nydahl)

Western Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhist organisation founded by Danish lama Ole Nydahl (1972). Aligned with the Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje. Documented patterns of cult-of-personality around Nydahl, sexual relationships with students, and political controversies.

Political / Ideological

Posadism (Trotskyist UFO-communism)

Historical Trotskyist sect founded by J. Posadas (1962). Distinctive doctrine combining Trotskyism with UFO contact theories. Small surviving network.

Christian

Iglesia de Cristo (Mexican high-control variants)

Generic name covers many Mexican Christian denominations. The CLCI applies to specific high-control sub-currents documented in Mexican press, particularly some independent Pentecostal congregations with documented severance and financial-extraction patterns.

Wellness / Multi-Level

Ayahuasca retreat high-control facilitator circles

Umbrella entry for the diverse set of Western-facing ayahuasca retreat facilitator circles (often Peru, Costa Rica, USA) that exhibit high-control patterns. Distinct from the established Brazilian Santo Daime / UDV churches.

Wellness / Multi-Level

5-MeO-DMT / Bufo Alvarius shaman circles

Umbrella entry for high-control Western 5-MeO-DMT facilitator circles (the powerful psychedelic from Bufo alvarius toad secretions). Multiple documented sexual misconduct and severance patterns.

Christian

Catholic-charismatic high-control cells (Latin America)

Umbrella entry for documented high-control sub-cells within Latin American Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Specific cases include various house-church cells under individual charismatic leaders.

Other

Sukyo Mahikari (Japanese new religion)

Japanese new religion founded by Yoshikazu Okada (1959) practising 'okiyome' palm-radiation purification. Split into multiple successor branches after Okada's 1974 death.

Buddhist

Soka Gakkai International (SGI)

Lay Buddhist organisation derived from Nichiren Shoshu. Globally promoted via Daisaku Ikeda's leadership (d. 2023). Excommunicated by Nichiren Shoshu in 1991. Affiliated with Japan's Komeito political party. Historical patterns of aggressive recruitment ('shakubuku').

Christian

Deus É Amor (David Miranda, Brazil)

Brazilian Pentecostal church founded by David Miranda (1962). Distinctive strict modesty code (no alcohol, smoking, dancing, jewellery). Substantial Latin American and diaspora presence.

Other

Bolivian / Andean curanderismo high-control variants (umbrella)

Umbrella entry for the smaller documented high-control variants of Bolivian and Peruvian Andean curanderismo — specific living-yatiri (Aymara) and paqo (Quechua) figures whose lineages have produced documented financial-extraction, severance, and unsafe psychedelic practice (mishandled ayahuasca, San Pedro / huachuma). Distinct from mainstream low-control Andean indigenous religious tradition.

Christian

Reborn in Christ Church (Igreja Renascer em Cristo)

The Reborn in Christ Church (Igreja Renascer em Cristo), founded in São Paulo in 1986 by Estevam Hernandes Filho and Sônia Hernandes, rode Brazil's neo-Pentecostal boom to hundreds of congregations, a media network, and the mass São Paulo March for Jesus, built on an intense prosperity theology — tithes and offerings as the mechanism of blessing — and celebrity-inflected 'Apostle' and 'Bishop' leadership branding. The founders' legal record anchors the entry: arrested at Miami airport in 2007 with tens of thousands of dollars in undeclared cash — some famously concealed in a Bible — they pleaded guilty to US federal smuggling-related charges, while Brazilian prosecutors pursued fraud and misappropriation cases over church funds across years of litigation. In January 2009 the roof of the church's São Paulo cathedral collapsed during a service, killing nine and injuring over a hundred, with prosecutions over the building's condition following. The church continues at reduced scale.

Other

Bobo Shanti / Bobo Ashanti (Rastafari Mansion)

Strictest Rastafari Mansion founded by Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards (1958). Distinctive black turbans / robes; insular community at Bobo Hill, Jamaica.

New Religious Movement

Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) — Crowley-tradition Thelemic order

Ordo Templi Orientis ('Order of the Temple of the East', OTO) is a Western ceremonial-magic religious order founded ~1904 in Germany by Theodor Reuss and brought to international prominence by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), who used it as the institutional vehicle for his Thelemic religious system articulated in *The Book of the Law* (1904). Crowley took leadership in 1922 and rewrote OTO ritual and doctrine to express the Thelemic premise 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law'. Multiple post-Crowley succession disputes have produced the contemporary Caliphate OTO (the largest organisation, US-based), SOTO (Society Ordo Templi Orientis), and Kenneth Grant's Typhonian OTO. Included in the dataset as a Moderate-band boundary case in cult-studies literature.

New Religious Movement

New Acropolis

New Acropolis is an international esoteric-philosophy organisation founded in Buenos Aires in 1957 by Jorge Ángel Livraga Rizzi, teaching a curriculum of comparative philosophy in the Theosophical lineage through local schools in dozens of countries. Its public face is that of a cultural association — philosophy courses, volunteering, arts events. Its contested face comes from the 1980s–1990s European cult debates: the organisation appeared on the 1995 French parliamentary report's list of movements, Belgian and other inquiries examined it, and ex-member and watchdog accounts describe hierarchical discipline, uniformed ceremonial, loyalty structures, and an internal culture considerably more demanding than the evening-class exterior suggests. The organisation firmly denies sectarian characterisations. The profile scores the documented middle ground at low confidence.

New Religious Movement

Seicho-no-Ie (Taniguchi Masaharu)

Japanese new religion founded in 1930 by Taniguchi Masaharu blending New Thought, Shinto and Buddhist elements. Substantial nationalist political associations under Taniguchi; significant moderation since 1985.

Christian

Broader Brazilian neopentecostal boom (umbrella)

Broader Brazilian neopentecostal boom umbrella. Hundreds of denominations beyond IURD / Assemblies of God. Collectively tens of millions of Brazilian adherents.

Christian

Guatemalan evangelical political right (Ríos Montt legacy)

Guatemalan evangelical political right. Historical 1982–83 Ríos Montt presidency associated with Ixil genocide; evangelical political involvement continues.

Christian

Various Latin American evangelical denominations (umbrella)

Umbrella for Latin American evangelical denominations beyond Pentecostal mega-denominations.

Christian

Renovação Carismática Católica (high-control Latin American variants)

Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Latin America (originally a 1960s US movement) — mostly low-control with substantial Vatican approval. Specific high-control sub-circles around individual charismatic priests have been documented.

Other

Santo Daime / União do Vegetal (Brazilian ayahuasca churches)

Brazilian Christian-syncretic churches that use ayahuasca sacramentally — Santo Daime (founded 1930s) and União do Vegetal (UDV, 1961). US Supreme Court 2006 ruling protected UDV ritual ayahuasca use. Mostly low-control; specific high-control sub-chapters exist.

Other

Tenrikyo (Japanese new religion)

Japanese new religion founded by Nakayama Miki (1838) teaching faith in Tenri-Ō-no-Mikoto. Headquartered in Tenri City, Nara Prefecture. Practises distinctive sacred dance (Otefuri) and pilgrimage to the Jiba (sacred axis).

New Religious Movement

Valley of the Dawn (Vale do Amanhecer)

Valley of the Dawn is a Brazilian spiritist-syncretic religion founded in 1959 by the clairvoyant former truck driver Neiva Chaves Zelaya — Tia Neiva — and headquartered in a purpose-built temple town outside Brasília. Its elaborate cosmology blends Kardecist spiritism, Christianity, Afro-Brazilian and indigenous elements, and ancient-astronaut narrative: initiated mediums, costumed in some of the most visually striking ritual dress of any modern religion, perform disobsession rituals channelling spirit phalanxes to relieve clients' suffering. The movement is open, non-residential for the great majority of its hundreds of thousands of adherents, charges no fees for its core rituals, and lacks documented coercive apparatus — scored low-moderate as an elaborate-cosmology comparator, with a negative modifier for its documented open, service-oriented culture.

Christian

Assemblies of God Brazil (Assembleias de Deus)

Largest single Brazilian Pentecostal denomination. Estimated 12+ million members. Mainstream Pentecostal low-moderate control.

Christian

Latin American Pentecostal broader (umbrella)

Broader Latin American Pentecostal boom umbrella beyond Brazil. Mainstream low-moderate control. 200+ million adherents across region.

Other

Indigenous-syncretic spiritual movements (umbrella)

Umbrella entry for the diverse indigenous and syncretic spiritual movements globally — Native American, Andean, African Traditional, Polynesian, etc. Mostly low-control mainstream reference points. Specific high-control facilitator-led variants exist.

Other

Rastafari Movement (mainstream)

Jamaican Afrocentric religious-political movement (1930s+) venerating Haile Selassie I as God incarnate. Distinctive dietary (Ital), dreadlocks, ritual cannabis use. Mostly low-control with strong cultural identity.

Other

Twelve Tribes of Israel (Rastafari Mansion)

Rastafari Mansion founded by Vernon Carrington ('Prophet Gad', 1968). Most globally diffuse Rastafari group; Bob Marley was a member.

New Religious Movement

Umbanda (Brazilian Afro-syncretic, mainstream)

Brazilian Afro-syncretic religion (1908) blending Spiritism, Candomblé, and Catholic elements. Substantial Brazilian following.

Other

Nyahbinghi Order (Rastafari Mansion)

Oldest Rastafari Mansion (1930s+). Distinctive Nyahbinghi drumming traditions. Mainstream traditional Rastafari.

New Religious Movement

Spiritism (Allan Kardec, mainstream)

Mainstream French / Brazilian mediumship religion founded by Allan Kardec (1857). Substantial Brazilian following (millions). Distinctive doctrine of reincarnation and progressive evolution.

Other

Brazilian Eastern-religion imports (broader umbrella)

Broader umbrella for Brazilian Eastern-religion imports — Soka Gakkai Brazil, Seicho-no-Ie, PL Kyodan, Perfect Liberty. Brazil has one of the largest non-Asian memberships of multiple Japanese new religions.

Canonical entries only (hide alias-redirects)Recently reviewed (last 6 months)

Showing 71 of 71 groups

Christian

Ekklesia / cell-church high-control networks

Umbrella entry for high-control cell-church / G12-style networks. Mainstream G12 (Cesar Castellanos) is moderate; specific high-control sub-networks exhibit shepherding-style discipleship patterns.

Wellness / Multi-Level

TelexFree (historical pyramid fraud)

Christian

United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI, Oneness Pentecostal)

Christian

Cornelia Connelly Society / Society of the Holy Child Jesus

Wellness / Multi-Level

It Works! Global

Buddhist

Diamond Way Buddhism (Ole Nydahl)

Political / Ideological

Posadism (Trotskyist UFO-communism)

Historical Trotskyist sect founded by J. Posadas (1962). Distinctive doctrine combining Trotskyism with UFO contact theories. Small surviving network.

Christian

Iglesia de Cristo (Mexican high-control variants)

Wellness / Multi-Level

Ayahuasca retreat high-control facilitator circles

Wellness / Multi-Level

5-MeO-DMT / Bufo Alvarius shaman circles

Umbrella entry for high-control Western 5-MeO-DMT facilitator circles (the powerful psychedelic from Bufo alvarius toad secretions). Multiple documented sexual misconduct and severance patterns.

Christian

Catholic-charismatic high-control cells (Latin America)

Umbrella entry for documented high-control sub-cells within Latin American Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Specific cases include various house-church cells under individual charismatic leaders.

Other

Sukyo Mahikari (Japanese new religion)

Japanese new religion founded by Yoshikazu Okada (1959) practising 'okiyome' palm-radiation purification. Split into multiple successor branches after Okada's 1974 death.

Buddhist

Soka Gakkai International (SGI)

Christian

Deus É Amor (David Miranda, Brazil)

Brazilian Pentecostal church founded by David Miranda (1962). Distinctive strict modesty code (no alcohol, smoking, dancing, jewellery). Substantial Latin American and diaspora presence.

Other

Bolivian / Andean curanderismo high-control variants (umbrella)

Christian

Reborn in Christ Church (Igreja Renascer em Cristo)

Other

Bobo Shanti / Bobo Ashanti (Rastafari Mansion)

Strictest Rastafari Mansion founded by Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards (1958). Distinctive black turbans / robes; insular community at Bobo Hill, Jamaica.

New Religious Movement

Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) — Crowley-tradition Thelemic order

New Religious Movement

New Acropolis

New Religious Movement

Seicho-no-Ie (Taniguchi Masaharu)

Christian

Broader Brazilian neopentecostal boom (umbrella)

Broader Brazilian neopentecostal boom umbrella. Hundreds of denominations beyond IURD / Assemblies of God. Collectively tens of millions of Brazilian adherents.

Christian

Guatemalan evangelical political right (Ríos Montt legacy)

Guatemalan evangelical political right. Historical 1982–83 Ríos Montt presidency associated with Ixil genocide; evangelical political involvement continues.

Christian

Various Latin American evangelical denominations (umbrella)

Umbrella for Latin American evangelical denominations beyond Pentecostal mega-denominations.

Christian

Renovação Carismática Católica (high-control Latin American variants)

Other

Santo Daime / União do Vegetal (Brazilian ayahuasca churches)

Other

Tenrikyo (Japanese new religion)

New Religious Movement

Valley of the Dawn (Vale do Amanhecer)

Christian

Assemblies of God Brazil (Assembleias de Deus)

Largest single Brazilian Pentecostal denomination. Estimated 12+ million members. Mainstream Pentecostal low-moderate control.

Christian

Latin American Pentecostal broader (umbrella)

Broader Latin American Pentecostal boom umbrella beyond Brazil. Mainstream low-moderate control. 200+ million adherents across region.

Other

Indigenous-syncretic spiritual movements (umbrella)

Other

Rastafari Movement (mainstream)

Other

Twelve Tribes of Israel (Rastafari Mansion)

Rastafari Mansion founded by Vernon Carrington ('Prophet Gad', 1968). Most globally diffuse Rastafari group; Bob Marley was a member.

New Religious Movement

Umbanda (Brazilian Afro-syncretic, mainstream)

Brazilian Afro-syncretic religion (1908) blending Spiritism, Candomblé, and Catholic elements. Substantial Brazilian following.

Other

Nyahbinghi Order (Rastafari Mansion)

Oldest Rastafari Mansion (1930s+). Distinctive Nyahbinghi drumming traditions. Mainstream traditional Rastafari.

New Religious Movement

Spiritism (Allan Kardec, mainstream)

Mainstream French / Brazilian mediumship religion founded by Allan Kardec (1857). Substantial Brazilian following (millions). Distinctive doctrine of reincarnation and progressive evolution.

Other

Brazilian Eastern-religion imports (broader umbrella)

Other

Caribbean syncretic spiritualities (umbrella)

Umbrella for Caribbean syncretic religions (Obeah, Espiritismo Cruzao, Trinidadian Orisha tradition).

Other

Winti (Surinamese Afro-syncretic)

Surinamese Afro-syncretic religion combining West African traditions with European elements.

Other

Myalism (Jamaica historical)

Historical Jamaican Afro-syncretic religion; precursor to Revival Zion and Pukumina.

Other

Mexican syncretic folk religion (umbrella)

Umbrella for Mexican syncretic folk religion — Curanderismo healing tradition, Santa Muerte veneration, various local saint cults.

Other

Santa Muerte veneration (broader)

Mexican Santa Muerte (Holy Death) veneration. Among the fastest-growing religious movements in the Americas. Substantial mainstream popular following plus documented presence in narco / cartel contexts.

Other

Santería / Lukumí (Cuban Yoruba diaspora)

Cuban diaspora variant of Yoruba Traditional Religion. Distinctive orisha worship, animal sacrifice, and substantial financial commitment for full initiation. Mostly low-control with some moderate patterns.

Other

Candomblé (Brazilian Yoruba diaspora)

Brazilian diaspora variant of Yoruba Traditional Religion. Distinctive orixá worship in terreiros (community houses). Mostly low-control mainstream tradition.

Other

Haitian Vodou (mainstream)

Haitian syncretic religion blending West African (Fon, Yoruba, Kongo) traditions with Catholic iconography. Distinctive lwa veneration and houngan/mambo priesthood. Mostly low-control mainstream tradition.

Other

Yoruba Traditional Religion / Ifá (mainstream)

Mainstream Yoruba Traditional Religion / Ifá and its diaspora variants (Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil) are low-control reference points for African Traditional Religion.

Other

Native American Indigenous spiritualities (umbrella)

Umbrella entry for the diverse Native American Indigenous spiritualities across 500+ federally recognised tribes plus many more unrecognised.

Christian

Latin American Catholic Base Communities (umbrella, mainstream)

Latin American Catholic base-community movement (Comunidades Eclesiales de Base) emerging from 1960s liberation theology. Mainstream voluntary Catholic tradition.

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Complete list of 71 group profiles

Peoples Temple (Jim Jones / Jonestown)

Lev Tahor

Antares de la Luz (Ramon Castillo Gaete doomsday sect)

Word of Faith Fellowship (Jane Whaley)

Colonia Dignidad (Paul Schäfer)

NXIVM-style Wellness Cults

La Luz del Mundo (Naasón Joaquín García)

LeBaron clan polygamist groups

Twelve Tribes

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

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) / Sodalit Movement (Luis Fernando Figari)

Legion of Christ (Marcial Maciel)

The Bible Speaks / Carl Stevens / Greater Grace World Outreach

John of God (João Teixeira de Faria)

The Message of the Hour / William Branham / Voice of God Recordings

Igreja Mundial do Poder de Deus (Apóstolo Valdemiro Santiago)

Octavio Rettig — Bufo alvarius (5-MeO-DMT) facilitator network

Church of Bible Understanding (Stewart Traill)

Word of Faith / Prosperity Gospel networks

Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus / IURD (Edir Macedo, Brazil)

House of Israel (Guyana)

Bikram Yoga (Bikram Choudhury)

Aubrey Marcus / Onnit / Fit For Service

Santa Muerte high-control templos (umbrella)

Ekklesia / cell-church high-control networks

TelexFree (historical pyramid fraud)

United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI, Oneness Pentecostal)

Cornelia Connelly Society / Society of the Holy Child Jesus

It Works! Global

Diamond Way Buddhism (Ole Nydahl)

Posadism (Trotskyist UFO-communism)

Iglesia de Cristo (Mexican high-control variants)

Ayahuasca retreat high-control facilitator circles

5-MeO-DMT / Bufo Alvarius shaman circles

Catholic-charismatic high-control cells (Latin America)

Sukyo Mahikari (Japanese new religion)

Soka Gakkai International (SGI)

Deus É Amor (David Miranda, Brazil)

Bolivian / Andean curanderismo high-control variants (umbrella)

Reborn in Christ Church (Igreja Renascer em Cristo)

Bobo Shanti / Bobo Ashanti (Rastafari Mansion)

Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) — Crowley-tradition Thelemic order

New Acropolis

Seicho-no-Ie (Taniguchi Masaharu)

Broader Brazilian neopentecostal boom (umbrella)

Guatemalan evangelical political right (Ríos Montt legacy)

Various Latin American evangelical denominations (umbrella)

Renovação Carismática Católica (high-control Latin American variants)

Santo Daime / União do Vegetal (Brazilian ayahuasca churches)

Tenrikyo (Japanese new religion)

Valley of the Dawn (Vale do Amanhecer)

Assemblies of God Brazil (Assembleias de Deus)

Latin American Pentecostal broader (umbrella)

Indigenous-syncretic spiritual movements (umbrella)

Rastafari Movement (mainstream)

Twelve Tribes of Israel (Rastafari Mansion)

Umbanda (Brazilian Afro-syncretic, mainstream)

Nyahbinghi Order (Rastafari Mansion)

Spiritism (Allan Kardec, mainstream)

Brazilian Eastern-religion imports (broader umbrella)

Caribbean syncretic spiritualities (umbrella)

Winti (Surinamese Afro-syncretic)

Myalism (Jamaica historical)

Mexican syncretic folk religion (umbrella)

Santa Muerte veneration (broader)

Santería / Lukumí (Cuban Yoruba diaspora)

Candomblé (Brazilian Yoruba diaspora)

Haitian Vodou (mainstream)

Yoruba Traditional Religion / Ifá (mainstream)

Native American Indigenous spiritualities (umbrella)

Latin American Catholic Base Communities (umbrella, mainstream)

Peoples Temple (Jim Jones / Jonestown)

Lev Tahor

Antares de la Luz (Ramon Castillo Gaete doomsday sect)

Word of Faith Fellowship (Jane Whaley)

Colonia Dignidad (Paul Schäfer)

NXIVM-style Wellness Cults

La Luz del Mundo (Naasón Joaquín García)

LeBaron clan polygamist groups