Original subtitles

>> MARSHALL APPLEWHITE: Your

only chance to evacuate is to

leave with us.

>> NARRATOR: Charismatic

leaders...

>> TIM CARTER: What happened

there was murder.

>> NARRATOR: ...and faithful

followers.

>> JANJA LALICH: Here were these

39 bodies laid out with these

plastic bags.

>> This was a mass suicide.

>> NARRATOR: ...threatening

families...

friends...

and even national security.

>> RICK ROSS: This was the first

act of bioterrorism in the

history of the United States.

>> NARRATOR: Does the American

public have something to fear

from an estimated 5,000

religious, political and satanic

cults?

>> ARTHUR GOLDWAG: If America

has a big secret about cults,

it's that we provide incredibly

fertile ground for them.

>> NARRATOR: Or is it already

too late?

(three gunshots)

>> CLINT VAN ZANDT: The decision

was made to go tactical.

That turned out to be a terrible

decision.

And people died because of it.

>> NARRATOR: There are those who

believe in the existence of a

book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book...

whose very existence is known to

only a select few.

But if such a book exists...

what would it contain?

Secret histories?

Secret agendas?

Secret murders?

Does there really exist...

America's Book of Secrets?

>> APPLEWHITE: We came and

incarnated him to these human

bodies, and now we're leaving

these human bodies tonight.

>> NARRATOR: Their names stand

as infamous landmarks in

American culture.

Heaven's Gate, the Branch

Davidians, the Peoples Temple.

But they are only the tip of an

enormous iceberg.

According to government

statistics, there are an

estimated 5,000 cults currently

operating in the United States.

And each year, there are

approximately 200,000 Americans

who serve as secret--

and for the most part, willing--

members.

>> Lo, I am come to do thy will,

O, God.

Lo, I am come to do thy will,

O, God.

>> LALICH: The people who are

getting drawn into cults are a

rather different demographic

then we were seeing in the '60s,

'70s and '80s.

Back then, it was mostly young

people who were getting

involved.

So, today, it's people who are

more in their 30s, 40s, 50s,

and that's because I think a lot

of the cults have gotten rather

savvy and they realized that

recruiting young people is a

hassle.

>> ROSS: Many of the cults

deliberately recruit people who

are highly educated, who are

affluent, because they can

exploit them more effectively.

I have met brilliant people--

absolutely brilliant people--

who have been pulled into cults.

>> ELIZABETH CLARE PROPHET: The

kingdom of God is the

consciousness of God.

>> NARRATOR: But just what are

these cults?

And what is the secret of their

allure?

>> LALICH: People don't know

they're joining a cult.

I mean, if they knew that, they

probably would never have

joined, so you won't find too

many cult members who identify

themselves as cult members.

>> DAVID CUNNINGHAM: Cult

dynamics are all about trying to

get people to have a sense of

self and a sense of identity

that they don't feel that

they're getting from the groups

and opportunities in communities

around them.

>> CARTER: I got out of the

Marine Corps in 1969, and it

wasn't like I was looking for a

group but some place to call a

home, in a sense of making a

commitment.

In January of '73, I found

Peoples Temple.

And as soon as I arrived at the

Temple, it felt like home to me.

I was home.

>> NARRATOR: For those who

join, current U.S. laws provide

little in the way of protection

for individuals that find

themselves drawn into dangerous

and even deadly religious and

political cults.

So how can they be recognized?

>> MITCH HOROWITZ: For a

movement to be a cult, there

has to be a presence of some

kind of abuse or coercion.

Most observers think of four

criteria that defines an

organization as a cult:

behavioral control,

informational control, some sort

of thought control and

emotional control.

People might find such an

organization very easy to fall

into and very difficult to get

out of.

>> ROSS: Cults can become

dangerous and deadly because

there's kind of a formula for

tragedy inherent in the group.

That is, you have a group of

people that have in large part

given up their ability to

function autonomously.

>> NARRATOR: San Diego,

California, March 26, 1997.

Police discover a chilling scene

in a large suburban home

occupied by members of a cult

called Heaven's Gate.

39 bodies are discovered.

Later it is learned the cause of

death is the voluntary ingestion

of a deadly cocktail of sleeping

pills, vodka and applesauce.

>> All indications are that

this was a mass suicide.

>> LALICH: Here were these 39

bodies laid out with these

plastic bags.

They were completely all on

their back.

They had these purple shrouds

covering them.

They all wore the same outfits.

They had their brand new Nike

shoes.

>> NARRATOR: It was the final

act of devotion to a charismatic

but twisted leader named

Marshall Applewhite.

>> APPLEWHITE: We don't care to

cling to the life of this body.

We're ready to leave this place.

(crickets chirping)

>> NARRATOR: On the evening of

the suices, Applewhite

believed a UFO would pass over

the Earth, in the wake of the

Hale-Bopp Comet.

His followers were instructed to

commit suicide in order to have

their souls transported aboard

the flying saucer and out to

deep space.

>> If people would just know

that we're not forced into this

in any way.

It's, you know, our own

choosing to do it, and I'm...

really happy that I made this

choice.

>> (over video): A lot of you

are watching this film...

>> ROSS: The leader says, "It's

the end.

This is absolutely the end.

This is your last chance."

And people, rather than miss

that window, will grab and not

really completely think it

through.

It's a technique of persuasion.

And I think that many cult

leaders understand it very well.

>> APPLEWHITE: Welcome to beyond

human.

>> MARK MIRABELLO: Applewhite

taught the membership that they

should suppress sexual desire,

but if they couldn't, castration

was allowed.

He clearly believed his own

teachings and, in fact,

castrated himself because they

believed that highly evolved

beings would have no sexual

characteristics.

>> APPLEWHITE: We came for the

express purpose, to offer a

doorway to the kingdom of God.

>> CUNNINGHAM: The most extreme

kind of claim to legitimacy

that a charismatic leader can

make is that they can dictate

even something like a mass end

of people's lives.

>> VAN ZANDT: All cults need a

very charismatic leader at

the head.

They need someone who is either

representing himself to be some

type of deity figure,

someone who is so far

intellectually superior to any

of the rest of us that we have

to subscribe ourselves to him

and to his will.

When we make a person that

powerful, that one person is

capable of, in some cases,

infinite good, and other times,

infinite evil.

>> ROSS: I can tell you from

30 years of experience that

cult leaders are not exactly

examples of mental health.

So these people are by nature

unstable.

Many have been described by

mental health professionals as

psychopaths.

So here you have a group of

people attached to a disturbed

personality.

And when that personality slips

over the edge, everyone goes

with him or with her.

>> NARRATOR: But not all cult

leaders and their organizations

are motivated by spiritual,

social or-- as in the case of

Marshall Applewhite--

extraterrestrial agendas.

Many have more financial

incentives.

When registered as religions,

cults can collectively generate

more than $70 billion a year.

And all tax-free.

>> LALICH: It's very easy in

America to become a religion.

You fill out a few papers and

you say you have a few members

and whammo, you're a religion.

They don't have to pay taxes.

And so it's to their advantage

to become a religion.

(chanting)

>> HOROWITZ: The most

disturbing thing about certain

cultlike groups today is that

they have a great deal of

financial sophistication, and

that can be used to exploit

membership.

>> NARRATOR: Does a cult's

tax-exempt status raise a

red-flag for government

watchdogs?

Or do authorities actually turn

a blind eye toward their secret,

and perhaps sinister, agendas?

(gunshot)

Agendas that might even include

overthrowing the government

itself?

Coming up...

>> ROSS: Jim Jones was a brutal

leader, and there were rumors

about drug abuse.

>> CARTER: What happened there

was murder.

I saw people that had been

injected in the arms, in the

legs, in the neck.

>> NARRATOR: Indianapolis,

Indiana.

1955.

Self-proclaimed mind reader,

healer and preacher Jim Jones

founded his own church, the

Peoples Temple.

>> ROSS: Jim Jones was an

ordained minister of the

Disciples of Christ, which is a

mainstream, respected

denomination within

Protestantism.

So, the church and Jim Jones and

everything seemed perfectly fine

in the beginning.

>> CARTER: Well, Jones's message

was-- "apostolic socialism" is

what he called it.

In other words, feed the

hungry, clothe the naked,

minister unto the sick and

needy.

(rock music playing)

>> NARRATOR: By 1970, as the

nation embraced an era of free

love, social rebellion and

experiments with mind-altering

drugs, Jim Jones moved his

Peoples Temple to the epicenter

of the cultural revolution:

San Francisco, California.

>> ROSS: I think, if there's a

book of secrets about cults, it

would probably be a chapter

about the influence of certain

groups with politicians

that would be very unsettling.

Jim Jones was a very popular

political figure, uh, community

leader and activist.

He was greatly respected and

admired.

Mayor Moscone appointed him to

an urban planning commission.

Governor Jerry Brown was good

friends with Jim Jones.

>> LALICH: The reason he

was so important politically

was that he had a huge church.

And he was able to have those

members rally for any political

candidate that he'd so choose.

>> CARTER: The Temple's

mailing list had around between

40,000 and 50,000 addresses

around the country.

Then there was a group which

was simply referred to as

"staff," which I was not a part

of.

And what separated staff from

everybody else, the staff were

the people that knew that the

healings were fake.

(whoops)

(cheering)

So, in terms of what I was

perceiving, it was one thing;

what the reality was,

was something else.

And that's kind of the story of

Peoples Temple.

>> ROSS: In San Francisco,

people started to find out that

Jim Jones was a brutal leader,

highly punitive, and also there

were rumors about drug abuse.

He decided, "I need to leave,"

because what destructive cult

leaders want is to keep control

of information.

>> NARRATOR: In 1977, Jones,

with money from donations, had

nearly completed the process of

moving his congregation to a

3,800-acre site he had leased

in the South American country

of Guyana.

>> NANCY AMMERMAN: That created

a sense of really being in a

different place.

Almost as if they had died and

gone to Heaven.

>> CARTER: It's beautiful.

I can't-- I-I've never been so

totally happy or fulfilled in my

life.

I can't begin to describe it.

The Temple was full of life; it

really was very much full of

life, um, in the very best sense

of the word.

>> JIM JONES: What a swing.

What liberation brings.

(cheering)

>> NARRATOR: In Guyana, Jim

Jones believed he had built a

socialist utopia, far from the

prying eyes of federal

authorities, who had long

suspected Jones of extorting

money from his parishioners and

ultimately enslaving them.

>> GOLDWAG: What Jones was doing

near the end of the cult, he

would gather the people of the

compound together and tell them

that forces from the outer world

were moving in on them and they

were going to die.

This terrified the people.

It also kind of sealed his

power.

>> LALICH: Many of these people

were on welfare or on Social

Security, and all of their

checks were being accumulated

by Jones, because once people

got there, their passports were

taken away.

They had no way to leave, and

they had no access to their

money.

>> CARTER: The worst part about

Jonestown was Jim Jones.

The constant meetings, the

constant haranguing.

People were not allowed to

leave once they got there.

If you got to Jonestown and you

did not like it, it was a

prison camp.

>> NARRATOR: In November, 1978,

following reports that Temple

members were being held against

their will, U.S. Congressman

Leo Ryan of San Francisco flew

to Jonestown to investigate.

Traveling with him was a small

entourage of reporters and

concerned family members.

>> CARTER: Congressman Ryan got

Jones figured out in less than

24 hours.

Ryan said only a genius could

have built this, then he pointed

to Jones.

He said, but at the same

time, he's the most destructive

force here.

>> NARRATOR: After his tour of

the Peoples Temple settlement,

Congressman Ryan arranged to

fly a handful of defecting cult

members back with him to San

Francisco.

But when the group arrives at

the remote Port Kaituma

airstrip, members of Jones' Red

Brigade militia ambush them and

begin to open fire.

(gunshots)

Congressman Ryan and four others

are attacked and killed.

Nine more are injured.

>> GOLDWAG: I think Ryan was

killed because he got in the

middle of a very dangerous

situation and he stirred it up.

>> ROSS: Jones did not want

them to leave.

He knew that they had

information about the armed

guards there, the jail and

imprisonment that he had

instituted, the mistreatment of

the people there.

>> NARRATOR: In the chaos,

Temple member Tim Carter was

ordered by Jones to smuggle the

cult's horde of cash out of the

compound.

>> CARTER: When I accepted

this mission, there was a part

of me that said everybody's

gonna die, and there was still

a part of me that said this is

not happening.

>> LALICH: Jones realized that

he had blown it, that this was

gonna be trouble.

And so he decided now is the

time to truly enact what he

called revolutionary suicide.

And so he called everyone

together.

>> NARRATOR: One by one, Temple

members were summoned to swallow

a cup of powdered fruit drink

mixed with cyanide.

Many of the victims were small

children.

But was it mass suicide, or is

there another more secret

explanation?

>> CARTER: What happened there

was murder.

It was not a mass suicide.

The very first body I saw, the

person had been held down, and

I saw people that had been

injected in the arms, in the

legs, in the neck.

Back of the hand.

>> NARRATOR: Jim Jones himself

died of a possibly

self-inflicted gunshot to the

head.

>> CARTER: Jones had said more

than once, "When I die, my name

will be on the lips of every

person in the world," that,

"when I die, I'm gonna take as

many people with mas I can."

>> NARRATOR: In the decades

since the horrific events at

Jonestown, many rumors and myths

have been propagated.

Some cite Jim Jones' known LSD

use as an indication that the

Peoples Temple may have

actually been part of a covert

CIA mind control program known

as "Project MK-Ultra," which

reportedly used LSD in its

experiments.

>> CARTER: I realized long ago

that too many answers died that

day.

But, ultimately, Jim Jones is

the only one that's actually

going to know what was up.

>> NARRATOR: Although no proof

of a connection between covert

CIA operations and Jonestown has

ever been found, one fact is

certain: 918 people died...

all united in believing the

teachings of a false prophet,

and his promise of a heaven on

Earth.

Coming up...

>> HOROWITZ: The story of

America is the story of

alternative or breakaway

religious movements.

>> GOLDWAG: If America has a

big secret about cults, it's

that we provide incredibly

fertile ground for them.

>> There'll be no excuses!

(whooshing)

(military drumbeat plays)

>> NARRATOR: National pride.

(camera shutter clicking)

Political ideology.

Religious devotion.

Even sports fanaticism...

and celebrity idolatry.

In 21st century America, the

fine line drawn between popular

culture and secret, deadly

cult can occasionally be

blurred.

The U.S. Constitution and the

Bill of Rights protects a

citizen's freedoms of speech and

religion, and the right to

assemble as he or she chooses.

But what if the choices aren't

mainstream... or the beliefs

widely held?

Why do otherwise normal citizens

find themselves drawn into

secret, and at times deadly,

cults?

>> ROSS: All of us go through

times that are tough, and when

we're looking for relief from

that distress and answers to our

problems, we are more open and

vulnerable to someone giving us

all the answers.

And that's the appeal of many

destructive cults.

>> LALICH: We had the '60s era,

where people were seeking and

exploring and trying new things,

and then that kind of led into

what we call the New Age

Movement.

It's become part of our society

at this point.

So that today we have people

taking all kinds of supplements

and potions, we have just about

everybody doing yoga, we have

people meditating, we have

people going to sweat lodges and

glomming onto the Native

American traditions, and all of

this is seen as quite

acceptable.

>> NARRATOR: But perhaps one of

the biggest secrets about cults

is that they have always existed

as part of American culture,

even before the Revolution.

As the 19th century dawned, the

United States was undergoing a

population explosion.

Waves of immigrants were

arriving from Europe, many

seeking economic opportunity

and religious freedom.

>> AMMERMAN: The United States

has been, from its very

inception-- when Europeans first

arrived on these shores, they

were arriving here because they

wanted to have the freedom to

exercise their religious

beliefs.

And what that has meant over our

long history is that people have

not only had the freedom to

practice religious beliefs but

also to invent new religions.

>> HOROWITZ: The story of

America is the story of

alternative religious movements.

America has always been a kind

of safe harbor.

>> NARRATOR: One area that

became a haven for numerous

political, social and religious

cults was located on the edge of

what was once the American

frontier-- known as the

"Burned-Over District."

>> HOROWITZ: The Burned-Over

District was a section of

Central New York State that, in

the first decades of the 1800s,

was a scene of tremendous

religious passion and

innovation.

In many respects, it was the

Mount Sinai of American

mysticism.

>> NARRATOR: With the completion

of the Erie Canal in 1825, the

central region of New York State

became a gateway for those

seeking political and social

freedom, and an exchange of what

were then considered radical

ideas.

Here, the early Women's Rights

movement, Abolitionism and

Transcendentalism flourished.

And it was also here that

numerous religious groups, like

the Quakers and the Shakers,

first put down roots in America.

But even during this era of

religious and spiritual

reawakening, some groups, like

the Mormons, were considered too

outrageous and cultlike to

find mainstream acceptance.

>> AMMERMAN: The Mormons have

been one of the most visible of

the groups that have had those

kinds of practices that the rest

of society found quite

repugnant.

The notion of one man having

multiple wives was something

that in the 19th century, when

Mormons did practice this, got

them run out of town.

>> NARRATOR: But the Mormons

were by no means alone in their

advocacy of multiple marriages.

Some of these so-called

religions suggested "free love"

and an even more communal

approach to living.

>> HOROWITZ: The Oneida

community was a communal

experiment that grew up in the

Burned-Over District starting

around 1848.

They existed for a little over

30 years, and their aim was to

practice biblical communism,

to experiment with alternative

family structures, where

children might have been raised

by the community rather than by

what we would consider a nuclear

household.

>> NARRATOR: New York's

Burned-Over District also

spawned cults whose names

are now long forgotten.

The leader of the Millerites

predicted the world would end in

1844.

And the rituals performed by the

so-called Spiritualists were

considered perverse, blasphemous

and downright bizarre.

>> HOROWITZ: When people began

to form séance circles and talk

to the dead within the movement

of Spiritualism that grew out of

the Burned-Over District-- these

were supernatural activities

that cut very sharply against

the standards of the day.

>> NARRATOR: But what was it

about this particular region of

upstate New York that made it

such fertile ground for

religious cults?

Could it be-- as some believe--

the strong influence of the

region's Native American tribes,

who believed in the supernatural

and practiced communal living?

Or was there another, perhaps

even more logical, reason?

>> GOLDWAG: America's a country

that was founded by religious

rebels and seekers, and one of

the things that goes along with

that is the susceptibility to

cults and powerful religious

leaders.

If America has a big secret

about cults, it's that we

provide incredibly fertile

ground for them.

>> NARRATOR: Is there something

unique to the American

experience that gives rise to

cults?

Could it be the very freedoms

Americans hold dear?

And could a dangerous mix of

power, profit and paranoia

explain how a cult can go from

being dangerous...

to deadly?

Coming up...

>> RICK ROSS: What you had was a

group of people controlled by a

psychopath.

>> VAN ZANDT: This was going to

be the end of David Koresh, and

he was going to take all of his

followers with him.

>> ...and the cosmic cross of

white fire shall be...

>> NARRATOR: Over the past 30

years, cults in America have

grown at an alarming rate.

And fueling their growth is

money.

Money that allows their leaders

to buy property, often with the

intention of isolating their

group from society.

>> LALICH: If a group is living

together on a piece of land,

which, you know, we tend to then

call a compound, it's easier for

the cult leader and his or her

lieutenants to control

everybody.

>> NARRATOR: 1935.

A stretch of open land in Waco,

Texas, becomes home to a

religious sect known as the

Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists.

Within 20 years, the group, now

known as the Branch Davidians,

has built a sprawling compound

on the site they name Mount

Carmel, to house its members.

>> AMMERMAN: The Branch

Davidians at Waco were people

who thought they had a new kind

of revelation about how people

should live their lives and what

the Bible meant.

>> ROSS: You might say it was a

cult group, but it was a

relatively benign cult that did

no harm, and they lived there

for decades.

Then came David Koresh.

>> NARRATOR: Born in Houston in

1959, David Koresh was a

part-time musician who also

claimed to be a prophet.

(thunder crackling)

He moved to Waco in 1981 to join

the Branch Davidians, and by

1989, after a vicious power

struggle within the group,

ominously had declared himself

to be the final prophet.

>> AMMERMAN: One of the things

that made David Koresh such a

powerful figure for the group

was that he seemed to be such an

amazing commentator on the Book

of Revelation.

>> KORESH: His tongue is the pit

of a...?

(crowd speaking)

>> KORESH: So how's God gonna

talk to me in the latter days?

(overlapping crowd responses)

>> KORESH: And who's gonna bring

that book?

(indistinct chatter)

>> KORESH: So there'll be no

excuses!

>> ROSS: So, what you had was a

group of people in a bubble,

completely controlled by a

psychopath, and they were led

to believe, some would say

brainwashed to believe, that he

was the messiah.

>> NARRATOR: Law enforcement

largely ignored the reclusive

group at Mount Carmel until the

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and

Firearms became aware that the

cult had been amassing a large

stockpile of military-style

firearms.

>> DICK J. REAVIS: The Branch

Davidians were under

surveillance for about nine

months.

It started with computer checks

to see what gun parts they may

have been ordering.

>> GOLDWAG: The Branch

Davidians, unfortunately, made

themselves known to the federal

government, because they were

selling weapons at gun shows.

They weren't paying taxes on it.

(garbled radio transmission)

>> NARRATOR: 76 ATF agents

surround the Branch Davidians'

Texas headquarters, intending to

search the premises for illegal

firearms.

Suddenly, shots ring out from

inside the compound.

(gunfire)

An intense gun battle erupts...

...leaving four agents and six

Branch Davidians dead.

>> VAN ZANDT: At that time, the

federal government made a

decision that the FBI would come

in and take over all control,

trying to resolve this

situation.

>> NARRATOR: With the FBI now in

command, water, power and food

are cut off to the compound, and

negotiations are initiated with

Branch Davidian leader David

Koresh.

>> KORESH: They started firing

at me.

I fell back in the door.

Then bullets started coming

through the door.

Some of the young men and stuff

started firing on them.

I was already hollering, "Go

away.

There's women and children here.

Let's talk."

>> VAN ZANDT: Our goal was to

come to a solution where the

Branch Davidians would lay down

their arms and come out of the

compound, and this could be

resolved in a nonviolent way.

>> NARRATOR: On April 19, after

a 51-day standoff, and under

orders from U.S. Attorney

General Janet Reno, helicopters,

tanks and armored vehicles

arrive at the Branch Davidians'

compound at 6:00 a.m.

>> VAN ZANDT: The decision was

made to go tactical.

That turned out to be a terrible

decision, and people died

because of it.

>> REAVIS: Well, the people at

Mount Carmel fired on the tanks

that the FBI sent in within

about two minutes of the tanks'

arrival.

So, immediately, the FBI starts

shooting CS gas into the

building.

>> NARRATOR: 7.30 a.m.

An armored vehicle breaks

through the front wall of the

main building.

>> VAN ZANDT: There were those

in the FBI and the federal

government believed we had tried

everything we could, and that

the way to force the Davidians

out was to put a massive amount

of gas inside the compound and

drive them out.

>> ROSS: David Koresh came to a

point where he realized, "If I

leave this compound, I'm going

to prison, I will no longer be

the king, I will not rule over

my group and my people, and I

will simply be a prisoner on a

cellblock."

He decided that he would rather

die.

>> VAN ZANDT: This was going to

be the end of David Koresh, and

he was going to take all of his

followers with him.

>> NARRATOR: 12:07 p.m.--

fires are reported in three

locations inside the compound.

(wind rushing)

Gusty winds quickly fan the

flames through the building.

Within minutes, part of the roof

collapses, followed by several

explosions.

(explosion)

>> REAVIS: If there was a book

about the secrets of Waco, we

would know whether or not

David Koresh ordered his

followers to set that building

on fire, or if it caught fire

because the FBI had pumped in

that CS gas.

>> JANET RENO: The FBI did not

set that fire.

That fire was set by David

Koresh and the people in that

building.

I let the facts speak for

themselves, and I'm going to

continue to pursue the truth.

>> NARRATOR: The inferno that

consumed the Branch Davidians'

compound lasted 30 minutes and

burned David Koresh and 75

of his followers, many of them

children, to their deaths.

As the smoke cleared, the

tragedy seemed to validate the

paranoia that had fueled much of

the Branch Davidians'

antigovernment ideology--

an ideology that now would grow

and spread like a disease, and

eventually become linked to

another American tragedy...

the Oklahoma City bombing.

>> AMMERMAN: Many new religious

groups see all of the existing

authorities in society as

potentially enemies.

They quite naturally are afraid

that something about the way

they want to live is something

that other people will find so

offensive that they'll "send in

the Feds," as we say.

>> NARRATOR: But were the U.S.

government's actions at Waco

merely the result of a law

enforcement effort gone terribly

wrong?

Or were they, as some conspiracy

theorists believe, something

much more... deliberate?

>> REAVIS: The U.S. Army was

involved in at least one way

in the raid on Mount Carmel.

When things went wrong, it

provided tanks to the FBI.

There are people who say it

provided Delta Force troops--

troops whose use can only be

authorized by the president.

>> NARRATOR: Did President Bill

Clinton personally authorize the

use of military force against

the Branch Davidians?

But if so, why?

Did the cult really pose a

threat to national security?

Or was there another, perhaps

more secret reason?

Coming Up...

>> ROSS: It was a very scary

period for the people of

Oregon-- the idea that this

guru could move in and basically

take over their town and try to

take over their government.

(camera shutter clicking)

(whooshing)

>> NARRATOR: Facebook.

Craigslist.

Twitter.

Google.

In America, and throughout the

world, people are connected to

each other as never before.

Shoppers can find items to buy,

singles can find dates, and

cults... can find new and

willing members.

Like a moderday Erie Canal,

the Internet offers a gateway

for individuals with uniquely

held beliefs to find others with

whom they can bond and later

congregate.

And it's all perfectly legal...

and anonymous.

In the 21st century, cults not

only focus on religion, but

more and more on political and

social change.

>> LALICH: We tend to overlook

the kinds of groups that aren't

religious.

And I know when I got out of the

group that I was in, which was a

political cult, it took me quite

a while to figure out what it

was, and I kept thinking, well,

it couldn't have been a cult

because we weren't religious.

And then the more I started

reading and studying and

understanding the psychodynamics

of these groups, I thought, oh,

wait a minute, it doesn't have

anything to do with religion.

>> NARRATOR: The larger and more

powerful organizations often try

to exert political influence.

But in an age of global

terrorism, it isn't ballots...

but bullets and even biological

weapons that can turn an

otherwise harmless cult into a

national security nightmare.

Fall, 1984.

Followers of the cult leader

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh suspend

their regular pursuits of

meditation and guilt-free sex

to unleash the first

bioterrorist attack in United

States history... 90 miles east

of Portland, Oregon.

>> ROSS: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

originally had a ashram, or a

compound, in Pune, India, but

eventually he decided to move

to Oregon, and he created a very

expansive compound called

Rajneeshpuram.

He actually tried to take over

local government.

He was not happy with the way

things were being handled by

government in his area.

He felt that it would be better

if he had more control.

>> NARRATOR: To guard and

expand their growing influence,

the 1,200-member cult secretly

amassed an arsenal of

semiautomatic rifles, handguns

and tear gas at their

$30 million compound outside

the rural town of The Dalles.

Then they nominated cult members

as candidates in the county

election.

>> ROSS: It was a very scary

period for the people of

Oregon-- the idea that this guru

could move in and basically

take over their town and try to

take over their government.

>> NARRATOR: But in order to

guarantee a favorable turnout,

Rajneesh's cult followers--

also called "Sannyasin" or

"Truth Seekers"-- began brewing

a toxic cocktail of salmonella

bacteria and sprinkled it on

salad bars and into coffee

creamers at ten local

restaurants.

>> GOLDWAG: They came up with

the idea that they could

influence the school board

elections if they made people

sick.

>> NARRATOR: It didn't work.

Although the assault on the

town's voters sickened over 750

people, it was not enough to

keep them away from the polls.

Bhagwan Rajneesh's bacterial

coup ended in defeat...

and arrests.

(sirens wailing)

And Rajneesh-- also known as

Osho-- was deported back to

India.

America's first documented case

of bioterrorism had been

thwarted.

But could it happen again?

And could there be other secret

cults in America hiding in

plain sight?

>> ROSS: The United States

really in many ways is a haven

for destructive cult activity,

and that's the way it's been for

some time.

>> LALICH: Today there are more

cults than ever before.

There are more cults in America

than we ever could have

imagined.

>> VAN ZANDT: If tre was an

America's Book of Secrets on

cults, one secret we would learn

is that anyone is susceptible,

no matter what your background,

to being negatively influenced

by a cult.

>> NARRATOR: Charismatic

leaders...

a devout membership...

and the tempting promise of a

heaven on Earth.

Perhaps a nation that prizes

religious freedom and individual

responsibility will always be at

risk.

Reason enough to remain guarded

against the dangerous mix of

power...

profit...

and paranoia...

>> APPLEWHITE: Leave with us.

>> NARRATOR: ...that can turn a

seemingly well-intentioned group

of individuals into a dangerous

and deadly... cult.

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