Further Reading For Aum Shinrikyo
Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
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1995. Tokyo. A doomsday-obsessed cult of manga nerds carried out a horrifying terror attack on the Tokyo subway system by releasing deadly sarin gas into the system. Had the attack not been hamstrung by a series of mishaps and bad timing, the attack had the potential to kill millions at peak rush hour time.
At the center of it all was Shoko Asahara, an exceptionally savvy blind man, that fostered his cult from humble beginnings, offering training and workshops that would allow his students to gain great psychic powers and enlightenment. As with many cults, similar to The People’s Temple, Asahara used extremely powerful and trusty imagery of the end of the world to convince his followers that with his training they could survive and rise from the ashes to be the new rulers of the world. When his prophecy of “harumageddon” didn’t come to fruition, Asahara took it upon himself to cause this catastrophe and ordered his young sapient followers to carry out the subway gas attack with much alacrity.
Japanese authorities arrested Asahara, who, of course, maintained his innocense, as well as numerous other people in the cult directly involved in planning the attack and sentenced them to death. In 2018, Asahara and twelve other Aum cult members were executed by hanging. The cult continues to this day under the name Aleph.
Episodes: 218 – 221
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