The Penguin Book of Cults Audiobook By Joseph P. Laycock - editor cover art

The Penguin Book of Cults

Pre-order with offer Pre-order for $0.00
Offer ends April 30, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Penguin Book of Cults

By: Joseph P. Laycock - editor
Pre-order with offer Pre-order for $0.00

$14.95/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends April 30, 2025 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Pre-order for $19.80

Pre-order for $19.80

Confirm pre-order
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

A chilling documentary history of the most notorious cults of the past two thousand years, from the ancient Roman ritual sacrifices that inspired The Wicker Man all the way up to Heaven’s Gate

A Penguin Classic

Hypnotism. Human sacrifice. Sexual perversion. Mass suicide. For millennia, people have been enthralled by graphic descriptions of terrible rites performed by the religious other. The Penguin Book of Cults compiles the most notorious and uncanny of these true accounts: salacious stories of frenzied worship by the cult of Dionysus; human sacrifices burned alive in giant wooden effigies, the inspiration for the (cult) classic movie The Wicker Man; moral panics over the hypnotic powers of yoga; the massacre at Jonestown, which left hundreds of bodies strewn across a foreign jungle; the bloody FBI siege of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas; the deadly chemical attack in a Tokyo subway by the Aum Shinrikyo cult; and the mass suicide of Heaven’s Gate. Both terrible and tragic, this illuminating history of cults exposes the seductive power with which new religious movements have ensnared their followers and beguiled outsiders for generations.

©2025 Joseph P. Laycock (P)2025 Penguin Audio
Murder Religious Studies Sociology True Crime

What listeners say about The Penguin Book of Cults

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.