A doomsday cult is a

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

that believes in

apocalypticism Apocalypticism is the religious belief that the Eschatology, end of the world is imminent, even within one's own lifetime. This belief is usually accompanied by the idea that civilization will soon come to a tumultuous end due to some sort of ...

and

millenarianism Millenarianism or millenarism () is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarianism exists in various cultures and re ...

, including both those that predict

disaster A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. '' Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by na ...

and those that attempt to destroy the entire universe. Sociologist John Lofland coined the term ''doomsday cult'' in his 1966 study of a group of members belonging to the

Unification Church of the United States The Unification Church of the United States is the branch of the Unification Church in the United States. It began in the late 1950s and early 1960s when missionaries from South Korea were sent to America by the international Unification Church' ...

: '' Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith''. In 1958,

Leon Festinger Leon Festinger (8 May 1919 – 11 February 1989) was an American social psychologist who originated the theory of cognitive dissonance and social comparison theory. The rejection of the previously dominant behaviorist view of social psycholo ...

published a study of a group with cataclysmic predictions: '' When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World''. The phenomenon of continued commitment to the "doomsday cult", even after the prophecy fails, has been attributed to the coping method of dissonance reduction, a form of rationalization. Members often dedicate themselves with renewed vigor to the group's cause after a failed prophecy, rationalizing with explanations such as a belief that their actions forestalled the disaster or a continued belief in the leader when the date for disaster is postponed. Some researchers believe that the use of the term by the government and the news media can lead to a

self-fulfilling prophecy A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true at least in part as a result of a person's belief or expectation that the prediction would come true. In the phenomena, people tend to act the way they have been expected to in order to mak ...

, in which actions by authorities reinforces the apocalyptic beliefs of the group, which in turn can inspire further controversial actions. Group leaders have themselves objected to comparisons between one group and another, and parallels have been drawn between the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy and the theory of a

deviancy amplification spiral The deviancy amplification spiral and deviancy amplification are terms used by interactionist sociologists to refer to the way levels of deviance or crime can be increased by the societal reaction to deviance itself. Origin of term The process ...

Etymology

The term "doomsday cult" was first used in the title of a 1966 scholarly study of a group of

Unification Church The Unification Church () is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. It was founded in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon in Seoul, South Korea, as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unificatio ...

members by John Lofland, entitled: '' Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith''. In 1958,

published a study of a group with cataclysmic predictions: '' When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World''. Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctoral thesis entitled: "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes," and in 1966 in book form by

Prentice-Hall Prentice Hall was a major American educational publisher. It published print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market. It was an independent company throughout the bulk of the twentieth century. In its last few years it ...

. It is considered to be one of the most important and widely-cited studies of the process of

religious conversion Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

, and one of the first modern sociological studies of a

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part ...

. James Richardson writes in the ''Encyclopedia of Religion and Society'' that after the publication of Lofland's work, "The term ''doomsday cult'' has become a part of everyday parlance, used by the media to refer to apocalyptic religious groups."

Psychological studies

psychological research Psychological research refers to research that psychologists conduct for systematic study and for analysis of the experiences and behaviors of individuals or groups. Their research can have educational, occupational and clinical application ...

study by Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter found that people turned to a cataclysmic

world view A worldview (also world-view) or is said to be the fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society encompassing the whole of the individual's or society's knowledge, culture, and point of view. However, when two parties view the s ...

after they had repeatedly failed to find meaning in mainstream movements.

and his colleagues had observed members of the group for several months, and recorded their conversations both prior to and after a failed prophecy from their charismatic leader. The group had organized around a belief system which foretold that a majority of the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the 180th meridian.- The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Geopolitically, ...

would be destroyed by a cataclysmic flood on December 21, 1955. Their work was later published in the 1956 book '' When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World''. Social scientists have found that while some group members will leave after the date for a doomsday prediction by the leader has passed uneventfully, others actually feel their belief and commitment to the group strengthened. Often when a group's doomsday prophecies or predictions fail to come true, the group leader will simply set a new date for impending doom, or predict a different type of catastrophe on a different date. Niederhoffer and Kenner say: "When you have gone far out on a limb and so many people have followed you, and there is much '

sunk cost In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Sunk costs are contrasted with '' prospective costs'', which are future costs that may be a ...

,' as economists would say, it is difficult to admit you have been wrong." Festinger and other researchers have attempted to explain the commitment of members to their doomsday cult after the leader's prophecies have proven false. Festinger attributed this phenomenon to the coping method of dissonance reduction, a form of rationalization. Members often dedicate themselves with renewed vigor to the group's cause after a failed prophecy, rationalizing with explanations such as a belief that their actions forestalled the disaster or a continued belief in the leader when the date for disaster is postponed. In ''Experiments With People: Revelations from Social Psychology'', Abelson, Frey and Gregg explain this further: "...continuing to proselytize on behalf of a doomsday cult whose prophecies have been disconfirmed, although it makes little logical sense, makes plenty of psychological sense if people have already spent months proselytizing on the cult's behalf. Persevering allows them to avoid the embarrassment of how wrong they were in the first place." The common-held belief in a catastrophic event occurring on a future date can have the effect of ingraining followers with a sense of uniqueness and purpose. In addition, after a failed prophecy members may attempt to explain the outcome through rationalization and dissonance reduction. Explanations may include stating that the group members had misinterpreted the leader's original plan, that the cataclysmic event itself had been postponed to a later date by the leader, or that the activities of the group itself had forestalled disaster. In the case of the Festinger study, when the prophecy of a cataclysmic flood was proved false, the members pronounced that their faith in God had prevented the event. They then proceeded to attempt to convert new members with renewed strength. In his book ''Politeia: Visions of the Just Society'', Eric Carlton debates whether or not the term is appropriate to describe these types of groups. Carlton writes that the event is only seen as a "doomsday" for the "wicked and unrepentant," whereas members of the group itself often regard it as a "day of deliverance," or a "renewal of the world." He regards these groups as "the ultimate in exclusivity," and while the future will be bleak for nonbelievers due to an unforeseen cataclysm, members of the group are promised existence in a new

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

Media coverage

In ''Globalisation and the Future of Terrorism'', Brynjar Lia notes that "Doomsday cults are nothing new," but also states that they are "relatively few." In ''Mystics and Messiahs'', Jenkins writes that as a result of events between 1993 and 1997 including the

Waco Siege The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the siege by US federal government and Texas state law enforcement officials of a compound belonging to the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians, between February 28 and April 19, 1993 ...

involving the

Branch Davidians The Branch Davidians (or the General Association of Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, or the Branch Seventh-day Adventists) are a religious sect founded in 1955 by Benjamin Roden. They regard themselves as a continuation of the General A ...

, violence involving the

Order of the Solar Temple The Order of the Solar Temple (, OTS), or simply the Solar Temple, was a new religious movement and secret society, often described as a cult, notorious for the mass deaths of many of its members in several mass murders and suicides throughout ...

Aum Shinrikyo , better known by their former name , is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religious movement and doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been respo ...

's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and the Heaven's Gate incident, "Reporting on so-called doomsday cults became a mainstay of the media, just as satanic cults had been a decade before." Jenkins regards the Order of the Solar Temple as more of an example of

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

than a doomsday cult. In ''Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld'', the authors also make a comparison to organized crime, writing that

"...often resembled a profit-hungry racketeering gang more than a fanatic doomsday cult." In James R. Lewis' '' The Order of the Solar Temple'',

Jean-François Mayer Jean-François Mayer (born 25 April 1957) is a Swiss religious historian, author, and translator. He is also Director of the Religioscope Institute, which he founded. He received his master's degree, and then his doctorate, from the Jean Moul ...

writes that the media made use of the term doomsday cult to characterize the movement, though former members and outsiders did not know what kind of event would occur. Some see the use of the term itself as a

, where the characterization of being called a doomsday cult may actually affect the outcome of violent events related to the group. The ''Canadian Security Intelligence Service Report on Doomsday Religious Cults'' reported:"Doomsday Religious Movements", ''Perspectives'', a

Canadian Security Intelligence Service The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS, ; , ''SCRS'') is a Intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service and security agency of the Government of Canada, federal government of Canada. It is responsible for gathering, processing, a ...

publication, Report # 2000/03, December 18, 1999
available online
, last updated November 1, 2000.

Sanctions applied by authorities are often interpreted by a movement as hostile to its existence, which reinforces their apocalyptic beliefs and leads to further withdrawal, mobilization and deviant actions, and which in turn elicits heavier sanctions by authorities. This unleashes a spiral of amplification, as each action amplifies each action, and the use of violence is facilitated as the group believes this will ultimately actualize its doomsday scenario."

Eileen Barker Eileen Vartan Barker (born 21 April 1938, in Edinburgh, UK) is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She is the chairp ...

has compared these concepts to the notion of a deviancy amplification spiral in the media and its effects on

s, and James Richardson has also discussed this effect. In the case of the Concerned Christians, use of the term "doomsday cult" as a characterization of the group served as a justification for deportation of its members by the

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i government. In the book '' The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines'', author Loren Coleman discusses the effect the media can have on the seemingly innocuous intentions of a French doomsday cult, Néo-Phare. On September 5, 2002, Arnaud Mussy told his followers based in

Nantes, France Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

to look forward to voyagers from

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

who would collect them before the end of the world on October 24, 2002. Though Mussy denied any plans for a

mass suicide Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves. Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious settings. In war, defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts ...

, both police and the media drew parallels to the Order of the Solar Temple. In '' Apocalypse Observed'', authors Hall and Schuyler discuss the effect the media had on the events surrounding the Order of the Solar Temple group.

References

{{Authority control New religious movements Apocalyptic groups Unification Church neologisms 1960s neologisms

Etymology

Psychological studies

Media coverage

See also

References