I stand at the bottom of a staircase with red walls and a dirty red carpet. An elderly woman wearing a powder-blue suit and matching eye shadow stands in the middle of the stairs, illuminated by a chandelier. “Are you here for the conference?” she asks with an otherworldly smile. I follow her into a […]
Tag: Cults
The Best Depictions of Cults in Film and Television
Tonight, the Paramount Network premieres the first installment in a six-part miniseries about real-life cult leader David Koresh and the tragic siege of his compound in Waco, Texas. Waco stars Taylor Kitsch as Koresh and Michael Shannon as FBI agent Gary Noesner, and will dig into the complexities of Koresh’s spiritual sect, the Branch Davidians, […]
Colorful Photos of the Gender Non-Conforming Spirit Cults of Southeast Asia
Award-winning photographer Mariette Pathy Allen’s work focuses on gender non-conforming cultures around the world, featured in such pioneering books as Transformations: Crossdressers and Those Who Love Them (1989). Allen’s fourth book, Transcendents: Spirit Mediums in Thailand and Burma (out November 14 from Daylight Books), is “a fascinating and unprecedented look at the phenomenon of gender […]
Cults Are Making a Comeback in France — Why?
I stand at the bottom of a staircase with red walls and a dirty red carpet. An elderly woman wearing a powder-blue suit and matching eye shadow stands in the middle of the stairs, illuminated by a chandelier. “Are you here for the conference?” she asks with an otherworldly smile. I follow her into a […]
