From free-love communes to secretive “wellness” empires, these infamous groups turned sex, desire and intimacy into tools of control.
Content warning: This article discusses sexual abuse, child abuse, coercion, trafficking, exploitation and murder.
There is something particularly unsettling about the phrase “sex cult.” It conjures images of forbidden pleasure, charismatic gurus and communities that appear to have escaped the rules of ordinary society. But behind the mythology, the reality is usually much darker.
Sex was rarely simply about sex.
In many of the groups that have become notorious as “sex cults”, intimacy was intertwined with obedience. Leaders could dictate who members slept with, who they married, whether they could have children, what they wore, or whether they could leave a relationship. In some cases, sexual activity became a recruitment tool; in others, it became a mechanism for humiliation, blackmail, trafficking or abuse.
The ten groups below are among the most notorious examples — although not all would describe themselves, or be described by historians, as purely “sex cults”.
1. Children of God / The Family International
Few groups have a more disturbing relationship with sexuality than Children of God, later known as The Family and eventually The Family International.
Founded in California in 1968 by David Berg, the movement presented itself as a radical Christian community preaching salvation and an alternative way of life. But Berg also promoted an extreme doctrine of sexual liberation.
One of the group's most notorious practices became known as “flirty fishing”: female members were encouraged to use sexual relationships as a means of attracting converts. The movement's sexual teachings went far beyond unconventional attitudes towards monogamy, however. Former members have described widespread sexual abuse of children and the sexualisation of children within the group's culture.
That history has made Children of God one of the clearest examples of how a doctrine of “free love” can become something very different when an authoritarian leader decides that consent, boundaries and conventional family relationships are obstacles to spiritual obedience.
The movement changed its name and publicly repudiated some of its earlier practices, but the testimonies of people raised inside it have left a lasting record of the damage.
2. NXIVM and DOS
From the outside, NXIVM looked less like a sex cult than a corporate self-help empire.
Founded by Keith Raniere, it offered expensive personal-development courses and attracted thousands. Behind the polished seminars was a secretive inner organisation known as DOS, in which women were placed into hierarchical relationships described using the language of “masters” and “slaves.”
Members were required to provide compromising material — including sexually explicit photographs and damaging personal information — as “collateral”. According to the US Department of Justice, the material was used to prevent members from leaving or exposing the organisation. Some women were directed to perform sexual acts with Raniere, and members were branded with his initials.
Raniere was convicted in 2019 of racketeering, sex trafficking, forced-labour conspiracy and other offences. He was sentenced to 120 years in prison in 2020.
NXIVM became particularly notorious because it demonstrated that a modern sex cult did not necessarily need robes, communes or religious prophecy. It could look like a leadership seminar.
3. OneTaste
If NXIVM showed how sex could hide behind self-help, OneTaste showed how it could hide behind wellness.
Founded by Nicole Daedone, OneTaste marketed itself as a sexual-wellness organisation and became associated with a practice called “orgasmic meditation”, or OM.
The organisation attracted people interested in sexuality, mindfulness and personal transformation. Former members, however, alleged that the supposedly empowering environment could become coercive and exploitative.
In 2023, US prosecutors charged Daedone and former sales head Rachel Cherwitz with forced-labour conspiracy, alleging that members were subjected to economic, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse and were groomed to perform sexual acts for the benefit of the organisation. At that stage, the allegations remained allegations.
Then came a major development: in June 2025, a federal jury convicted both women of forced-labour conspiracy. The US Department of Justice said the victims had been promised sexual empowerment and healing but were instead subjected to coercive practices.
OneTaste is a particularly modern example of the phenomenon: the language changed from salvation to wellness, but the question remained the same — who gets to decide where another person's boundaries end?
4. The Rajneesh Movement
In the 1970s and 1980s, Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, later known as Osho, built an international movement around meditation, personal liberation and sexual freedom.
Thousands of followers eventually established the enormous Rajneeshpuram commune in Oregon. The group became internationally famous for its political battles, extravagant lifestyle and the criminal activities of senior members.
Sex was an important part of Rajneesh's philosophy. The movement rejected many conventional ideas about monogamy and sexual morality. But later accounts from former members raised much darker allegations concerning children who grew up inside the communities. The Oregon Encyclopedia notes that survivors have reported widespread sexual abuse of children within the community. OOregon Encyclopedia
Former member Sarito Carroll has publicly described being sexually abused as a child within the Rajneesh movement, bringing renewed attention to a part of the group's history that had received far less attention than its spectacular Oregon scandals.
The Rajneesh story is a reminder that sexual liberation and sexual exploitation can exist in the same environment — particularly when questioning the group's ideology becomes difficult.
5. The Manson Family
Few names are more synonymous with cults than Charles Manson.
The Manson Family emerged from the counterculture of late-1960s California, attracting predominantly young followers who were drawn to Manson's charisma, communal lifestyle and increasingly bizarre apocalyptic ideas.
Sex played a complicated role in the group. Manson cultivated relationships with female followers and used the promise of communal love and liberation as part of the group's countercultural identity. But the Family's notoriety ultimately came from something far more horrific: murders carried out by Manson's followers in 1969, including the killing of actress Sharon Tate and four others at her Los Angeles home.
The Manson Family therefore isn't a “sex cult” in the same straightforward sense as NXIVM or OneTaste. Its place on this list comes from the way sex, drugs, dependency and charismatic control became intertwined with Manson's domination of his followers.
It also helped cement the popular image of the cult leader as a seductive outsider capable of turning intimacy into obedience.
6. The FLDS
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) is another case where the term “sex cult” can obscure a more complicated reality.
The group is a fundamentalist religious movement associated with plural marriage. Under its former leader Warren Jeffs, allegations and criminal cases surrounding underage girls, forced marriages and sexual abuse brought the organisation international scrutiny.
Jeffs became an FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive before his arrest in 2006. In Utah, he was convicted in 2007 on two counts of rape as an accomplice relating to underage marriages and received two sentences of five years to life. GGovInfo
The disturbing element wasn't simply polygamy. It was the concentration of authority in a religious leader who could determine marriages and sexual relationships — effectively making intimate life part of the group's hierarchy.
The FLDS demonstrates why the word “consent” matters so much when discussing sexual relationships inside high-control communities.
7. The Source Family
Not every notorious sexual commune was defined by allegations of criminal sexual abuse.
The Source Family, founded in Los Angeles by James Edward Baker, better known as Father Yod, became famous for its combination of spirituality, vegetarianism, music, communal living and radical ideas about sexuality.
At its height, roughly 150 people were connected to the commune, which operated around the fashionable Source vegetarian restaurant on Sunset Strip. Father Yod had numerous wives, and sexual relationships were incorporated into the group's spiritual worldview.
Former member Isis Aquarian has defended the group's sexual practices, describing sex as sacred and insisting that members were not forced into relationships. Other observers have viewed Father Yod's multiple marriages and patriarchal authority more critically.
That's what makes the Source Family fascinating — and complicated.
It illustrates that not every unconventional sexual community is synonymous with sexual abuse, and that the label “cult” can flatten radically different experiences into one sensational story.
8. The Ant Hill Kids
The Ant Hill Kids, founded in Canada by Roch Thériault in the late 1970s, represents the most extreme end of the spectrum.
Thériault presented himself as a prophet and established an isolated religious commune. He eventually exercised enormous control over the group's members, including their relationships and family lives. He had multiple wives and fathered numerous children within the community.
The sexual element was inseparable from the wider system of domination. Members were subjected to severe physical and psychological abuse, while children were also endangered.
The group's horrific history came to public attention after survivor Gabrielle Lavallée escaped in 1989. Thériault was later convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Unlike the glossy image sometimes associated with “free love” communes, the Ant Hill Kids shows what happens when one person gains authority over sex, reproduction, spirituality, money, medicine and punishment simultaneously.
9. Twin Flames Universe
The newest group on this list is also one of the most distinctly internet-age examples.
Founded by Jeff and Shaleia Ayan, Twin Flames Universe sells spiritual teachings built around the idea that everyone has a destined romantic partner — their “twin flame”.
The group's teachings and practices attracted widespread attention after former members alleged manipulation, financial exploitation, pressure around relationships and interference in members' gender identities. Netflix's Escaping Twin Flames brought many of those allegations to a huge international audience.
It is important to distinguish allegations from established criminal findings: Twin Flames Universe has disputed the accusations and rejected the characterisation of itself as a cult.
Nevertheless, the group belongs in this conversation because it highlights an evolution in coercive control. The traditional cult leader might dictate whom you married. An online leader can potentially go further — influencing who you believe your soulmate is, how you pursue them and how you understand yourself.
10. The Family — Australia
Anne Hamilton-Byrne's Australian group, simply known as The Family, is one of the country's most notorious cults.
Founded in the 1960s, the movement mixed Christianity, Eastern spirituality, yoga and psychedelic ideas. Hamilton-Byrne claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus and surrounded herself with wealthy and influential followers.
The group became infamous for the way it obtained and raised children. Children were taken through questionable adoption arrangements, given matching appearances and subjected to severe discipline. Police raided the group's property in 1987 and removed children from the compound.
Sexual abuse was among the allegations made by former members, although it was not the defining feature of the group in the same way it was for organisations such as Children of God or NXIVM.
That distinction matters. Calling every abusive cult a “sex cult” can actually obscure the broader machinery of control — isolation, financial dependence, psychological manipulation, violence and the destruction of family relationships.
Written by VavaViolet Magazine's Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Sophie Blackman
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