Supreme Truth
Shoko Ashara went above and beyond many of the cult leaders we've seen so far when he founded his organization in Japan in the 1980s. He asserted to be a reincarnation of both Buddha and Jesus Christ, at least in terms of enlightenment. As overly dramatic as that may sound, even before the organisation received official registration in 1989, his supporters valued him highly enough to pay for his hair, bathwater, and in at least one instance, a drink of what was purported to be his blood, totaling more than £6,000.
Supreme Truth is better known to adults who were teenagers in the 1990s as "Aum Shinrikyo." After the fall of the Soviet Union, a large portion of Ashara's followers found his claims that mankind will perish on its own following World War 3 to be considerably less persuasive, and the cult then started using violence.
Ten of the seventeen terrorist operations carried out by Aum Shinrikyo between 1990 and 1995 reportedly featured the use of poison gas. For alleged disloyalty, 19 of its own members were murdered by other members. Most notably, the group attacked the Tokyo Subway on March 20, 1995, resulting in the deaths of 12 people and the trampling of thousands of others in the ensuing panic.
Many of the organisation's most important members were apprehended and put to death during the inevitable crackdown, which also caused the group to alter its name to Aleph and go through other transformations. Since 1998, there have been rumors that the group may have not only recovered but also started to grow again.
