Speaker 1: Please be aware this episode contains scenes of gore and mutilation.
Speaker 1: Parental discretion is advised. For many, the idea of joining
Speaker 1: a cult might seem almost as remote as the prospect
Speaker 1: of going to space. Nonetheless, there is something undeniably magnetic
Speaker 1: about the notion of cults. A testament to our fascination
Speaker 1: with them can be seen in the popularity of cult
Speaker 1: related documentaries and news stories, which we devour with the
Speaker 1: same dark enthusiasm we have for serial killers and true crime.
Speaker 1: Perhaps we feel drawn to them like the way some
Speaker 1: people who, despite being afraid of heights, find themselves drawn
Speaker 1: to the edge of cliffs, not because they fear they
Speaker 1: will fall, but because they fear they might jump. In French,
Speaker 1: they call it lapel d vide, the call of the void.
Speaker 1: I would never join a cult, we might think, congratulating
Speaker 1: ourselves on our own relative lack of gullibility. I would
Speaker 1: never be caught under the spell of a megalomaniac like
Speaker 1: Jim Jones or David Koresh, we casually reassure ourselves. But
Speaker 1: what if submitting to cultish behavior was about more than
Speaker 1: simply following a charismatic leader. What if all it took
Speaker 1: for someone to be considered a member of a cult
Speaker 1: was to unthinkingly submit themselves to prevailing orthodoxy, to something
Speaker 1: we might otherwise take for granted as normal. In Shirley
Speaker 1: Jackson's classic nineteen forty eight horo novella The Lottery, residents
Speaker 1: from an unnamed fictional village in New England practice and
Speaker 1: annual ritual. Despite all other aspects of their existence. Appearing
Speaker 1: friendly and mundane, the ritual betrays a sinister adherence to
Speaker 1: group think at the heart of society. I won't spoil
Speaker 1: the story for anyone who hasn't read it, but needless
Speaker 1: to say it is well worth the read. James Demonico's
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen dystopian thriller The Purge deals with a similar concept,
Speaker 1: as does Robert Hardy's nineteen seventy three folk horror masterpiece
Speaker 1: The wicker Man. What makes the artistic representations of cult
Speaker 1: like behavior such as these so terrifying isn't that we're
Speaker 1: forced to imagine a world in which their scenarios are
Speaker 1: alien or outlandish. On the contrary, each story heightens the
Speaker 1: normalcy of everyday life to emphasize how plausible our collective
Speaker 1: descent into violence actually is, how the maintenance of our
Speaker 1: liberal way of life in the Western world might ultimately
Speaker 1: require it, and how each of us is complicit in
Speaker 1: turning a blind eye to its prevalence. In her twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one book Cultish, The Language of Fanaticism, American linguist
Speaker 1: Amanda Montell describes the twenty first century utilization of cult
Speaker 1: like language to inspire consumer devotion to everything from multi
Speaker 1: level marketing schemes like Amwaycore, Avon, and Neutralite to fitness
Speaker 1: societies like Soul Cycle, CrossFit, and Peloton. She suggests that
Speaker 1: the prevalence of online communities has facilitated the spread of
Speaker 1: fringe ideas and conspiracy theories like QAnon. What all these
Speaker 1: groups seem to have in common is the promise of
Speaker 1: individual betterment through adherence to an ideology, while frequently perpetrating
Speaker 1: financial manipula on its members at the same time. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: Montell's thesis is that we shouldn't be so quick to
Speaker 1: judge when we hear stories about people's involvement with cults.
Speaker 1: Many of us already adhere to cult like behavior without
Speaker 1: even realizing it, and have the potential to be swindled
Speaker 1: just as comprehensively as anyone else. More alarming is the
Speaker 1: fact that once we've already drunk the cool aid, as
Speaker 1: they say, Montell shows that escalation can lead seamlessly to
Speaker 1: acts of self sabotage, the committing of crimes, and even murder.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the cult has insinuated itself so completely into the
Speaker 1: life of its subject that it isn't immediately clear whether
Speaker 1: a crime has been committed at all. The line between
Speaker 1: what's acceptable and what constitutes strange or abnormal behavior becomes
Speaker 1: so blurred that the perarameters of reality itself seemed to
Speaker 1: shift and upbraid. For one South Korean man in twenty eleven,
Speaker 1: this lack of clarity appears to have led to one
Speaker 1: of the most baffling acts of self mutilation in recent history.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. By
Speaker 1: all accounts, Kim John Bong was a quiet, unassuming man,
Speaker 1: someone who shied away from the trappings of the modern world.
Speaker 1: He worked hard and cared for his family, but always
Speaker 1: seemed to be yearning for something more, as though he
Speaker 1: were waiting for something meaningful to save him from the
Speaker 1: unrelenting grind of life. Something cosmic and world shaking something
Speaker 1: that might write him into history, he hoped. Many Koreans
Speaker 1: of the fifty eight year olds generation, Kim's upbringing was
Speaker 1: marred by political strife and civil unrest. Kim himself was
Speaker 1: born in nineteen fifty three, in the immediate aftermath of
Speaker 1: the Korean War, when the division of the country into
Speaker 1: North and South produced a psychosocial sense of displacement that
Speaker 1: would take years to rectify. Against this backdrop, Kim's childhood
Speaker 1: and early adulthood would have played out under the shadow
Speaker 1: of military coups, presidential assassinations, popular uprisings, and government crackdowns.
Speaker 1: His parentage and schooling would have struggled to cut through
Speaker 1: against all the uncertainty of the future. With so much
Speaker 1: of Korean society up for grabs, the young man's identity
Speaker 1: was ripe for molding by the first source of promise
Speaker 1: to offer him salvation, a clear sighted path out of sad.
Speaker 1: The chaos following the division of the country in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty three, South Korea was a powder cake waiting to
Speaker 1: ignite with the formation of the rigidly totalitarian state to
Speaker 1: the north with its atheistic doctrine, and the more capitalists
Speaker 1: right leaning state to the south, many conservative Christian movements
Speaker 1: fired for influence and control among those who felt confused
Speaker 1: by it all. Out of this turmoil, in nineteen fifty four,
Speaker 1: the Unification Church was established. Its followers became known as
Speaker 1: Mooney's after its founder Sun May Young Moon. Despite its
Speaker 1: somewhat traditional Christian leanings, the church is often referred to
Speaker 1: as being cult like in nature, with between one hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty and three hundred thousand members in South Korea today,
Speaker 1: the Moonies are known for their leader's radical claim to
Speaker 1: be the embodiment of the Second Coming of Jesus, as
Speaker 1: well as for their mass wedding ceremonies for him and
Speaker 1: opposition to left leaning ideology, and significant influence over Korean
Speaker 1: business and politics. Kim Junbong would have been a teenager
Speaker 1: during the Mooney's aggressive global expansion in the mid nineteen seventies.
Speaker 1: From what little we know about him, it seems that
Speaker 1: it was during this period in his life that he
Speaker 1: became an active member of the wider Christian community. As
Speaker 1: Kim grew older, married, and settled down, he became involved
Speaker 1: with a number of fringed religious sects. Kim's family became
Speaker 1: deeply concerned about the people he was associating with. One
Speaker 1: such example was sole based Master Jarrok Lee, founder of
Speaker 1: Careers man Mint Central Church. In twenty eighteen, Lee was
Speaker 1: convicted on multiple accounts of sexual assault and rape against
Speaker 1: several members of his own congregation. Like the Moonies, the
Speaker 1: man Min Central Church became notable for its founder's claim
Speaker 1: that he was sinless and exempt from dying. As Kim's
Speaker 1: devotion to this extremist sect deepened, so too did his
Speaker 1: suspicions of any idea to the contrary. Working under the
Speaker 1: apprehension that he was now part of a beleagued minority
Speaker 1: subject to persecution and ridicule, Kim began fervently promoting the faith.
Speaker 1: He started to leave home, sometimes for days or weeks
Speaker 1: on end, supposedly to undertake missionary work, the details of
Speaker 1: which were never made entirely clear to his family. Over time,
Speaker 1: Kimjin Bond's wife and children started to notice that their
Speaker 1: address in Mungjong had become a target for crank phone
Speaker 1: calls and mysterious visitors. When word of their father's involvement
Speaker 1: with the man Min's Central Church spread throughout the community,
Speaker 1: Kim's children were ostracized by their peers at school, but
Speaker 1: all this seemed only to harden Kim's devotion to his
Speaker 1: church and justify his commitment to the cause. Worryingly, what
Speaker 1: Kim's family were not aware of was that their father
Speaker 1: was now regularly volunteering himself for some of the church's
Speaker 1: most extreme missions. Members within the church were hardened to
Speaker 1: have found in Kim a devotee who was so committed
Speaker 1: to their cause that he started to neglect all other
Speaker 1: facets of his life. He seemed uninterested in developing himself professionally.
Speaker 1: He spent days away from home and stop looking. After
Speaker 1: his appearance, his hair grew matted and his beard unkempt,
Speaker 1: and in what his colleagues regarded as his utter abjection
Speaker 1: and self humiliation, he reminded them of a modern day
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And then in May twenty eleven, Kim Junpong disappeared.
Speaker 1: It's a clear sunny day in early May twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: Three men are hiking in the mountains near Mugong in
Speaker 1: southern Korea. They're on the hunt for the perfect spot
Speaker 1: to establish a b colony. As they step further and
Speaker 1: further away from the city, the men revel in the
Speaker 1: serenity of the landscape that morning. Something about the Saobak
Speaker 1: Mountains seems to exude an extra note of tranquility. Perhaps
Speaker 1: it's simply the lack of traffic noise, one of the
Speaker 1: men observes. Or perhaps it's the fact that there seems
Speaker 1: to be so little noise of any kind, neither insect
Speaker 1: nor animal, which was odd given the vast array of
Speaker 1: vegetation surrounding them. The men trudge on and soon arrive
Speaker 1: at the edge of an abandoned granite quarry. One of
Speaker 1: the men has brought a flask of coffee and suggests
Speaker 1: they stop for a break before continuing on their journey.
Speaker 1: They head down a steep pathway for a short while
Speaker 1: until they spot the perfect outcrop of rocks to set
Speaker 1: down their packs. One of the men talks excitedly about
Speaker 1: the recent trip he took with his church group to Japan.
Speaker 1: Then he suddenly notices that the other two aren't listening
Speaker 1: to him. Both have stopped dead in their tracks. Aren't
Speaker 1: you coming, he says, not stopping for coffee, The man's
Speaker 1: companions say nothing. Transfixed by something in the middle distance,
Speaker 1: he follows their gaze toward the outcrop, where he then
Speaker 1: seeks what appears to be three large crucifixes that have
Speaker 1: been erected on a rocky plinth. Drawing closer, he pushes
Speaker 1: aside the branches of a laurel tree to get a
Speaker 1: closer look. Given the remote location and mountainous to Reign,
Speaker 1: he couldn't help thinking that the Bazaarre scene before him
Speaker 1: reminded him of Christ's final resting place at Calvary. Remembering
Speaker 1: that he has brought his small leather bound copy of
Speaker 1: the King James Bible, he flips it to Matthew chapter
Speaker 1: twenty seven, verse forty five. Then he reads it aloud,
Speaker 1: and about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a
Speaker 1: loud voice, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
Speaker 1: Then one of the other men points toward the cross
Speaker 1: in the middle. Only then did the first man appear
Speaker 1: to notice the strange effigy that had been placed on it.
Speaker 1: As the three men draw closer to the middle cross,
Speaker 1: they hear the sound of buzzing. The place is teeming
Speaker 1: with flies because it isn't an effigy that has been
Speaker 1: placed on the cross, it's the body of a man
Speaker 1: that appears to have been crucified. The smell hits them first,
Speaker 1: the warm, putrid meat stench of death and day's old
Speaker 1: human waste. One of the men recoils and vomits on
Speaker 1: the ground. Another, all color drained from his cheeks, begins
Speaker 1: to babble incoherently to himself. He points meekly toward one
Speaker 1: of the figures hands. It's been bound with rope and
Speaker 1: nailed through the wood. There's blood, he manages, almost in
Speaker 1: a whisper. Up close, they can now see the dark
Speaker 1: brown streak caked into the grain of the crucifix's crossbeam,
Speaker 1: and the crown of thorns on the dead man's head
Speaker 1: that dig into the flesh. At the top of his skull,
Speaker 1: A thick black puddle of congealed blood as formed around
Speaker 1: the cross's base. Strikingly, the man is dressed modestly as
Speaker 1: Jesus had been, in a makeshift loincloth, with his hands
Speaker 1: and feet bound tightly to the wood. One large casing
Speaker 1: nail has been driven through both feet, and there was
Speaker 1: a nail driven through the palm of both hands. As
Speaker 1: he looks upon the terrible scene, the Christian among the
Speaker 1: men can't help remembering how the chapter from Matthew finished
Speaker 1: when it became clear to all who were present that
Speaker 1: the life of their Lord Jesus had finally expired. He
Speaker 1: recites it out loud, so when the centurion and those
Speaker 1: with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and
Speaker 1: the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, truly,
Speaker 1: this was the son of God. When police arrive later,
Speaker 1: more details come to light. The full bulk of the
Speaker 1: dead man's weight is held in place by two crudely
Speaker 1: fastened pieces of plywood, while the tools that were used
Speaker 1: to construct the crucifix and crucify the man have been
Speaker 1: left at the base of the pedestal. The man's car
Speaker 1: is found in a layby leading up to the site.
Speaker 1: The police trace it back to its owner, and from
Speaker 1: there the dead man's identify is confirmed. It was, of course,
Speaker 1: Kim Jun Bong. After an extensive investigation, the police concluded
Speaker 1: incredibly that Kim Jen Bong had apparently acted alone, much
Speaker 1: to the astonishment of his family and anyone else. Following
Speaker 1: the story on the news, many voiced their concern that
Speaker 1: it would have been simply impossible for Kim to carry
Speaker 1: out the operation by himself. The logistics alone were enough
Speaker 1: to confuse anyone. Questions began to be asked about how
Speaker 1: someone could physically withstand the pain of such a procedure,
Speaker 1: but also how had he been able to nail one
Speaker 1: hand at the crossbeam before nailing the other without a
Speaker 1: hand to hold. Then, in order to nail both feet
Speaker 1: to the cross, Kim would have needed to hammer the
Speaker 1: nail through the bones of both feet without passing out.
Speaker 1: There was little to no evidence of painkillers in his system,
Speaker 1: and the rapid advancement of blood loss from his wounds
Speaker 1: would have meant that Kim would likely have needed to
Speaker 1: complete the act while simultaneously losing consciousness. Either way, if
Speaker 1: Kim had managed to crucify himself, it would have required
Speaker 1: superhuman levels of strength and endurance. Then something new came
Speaker 1: to light. Kim had been in communication with one of
Speaker 1: his church's senior clerics in the days and weeks leading
Speaker 1: up to his death. He outlined a desire to emulate
Speaker 1: his Lord and savior, Jesus Christ by making the ultimate sacrifice.
Speaker 1: He seemed to suggest also that a real life crucifixion
Speaker 1: would send a message that would be hard for society
Speaker 1: to ignore and that if that was what it would take,
Speaker 1: he could be the man to do it. But the
Speaker 1: question remains did he do it alone? Not only did
Speaker 1: the senior cleric that Kim jn Bong had been in
Speaker 1: contact with not to do anything to prevent him from
Speaker 1: carrying out his ambition, something was about to emerge that
Speaker 1: turns the entire case on its head, because, as it happens,
Speaker 1: this senior cleric was one of the three men that
Speaker 1: discovered the body, the one with all those Matthew quotes
Speaker 1: readily to hand. Perhaps he had genuinely been stunned to
Speaker 1: come across the body, or perhaps he had smiled radiantly
Speaker 1: at the thought thought of his disciples ultimate sacrifice and
Speaker 1: the tacit power of his own guiding hand that had
Speaker 1: led him to that shocking end. We will likely never know. Surprisingly,
Speaker 1: Kimjn Bond's gruesome act didn't remotely discourage his compatriots. In fact,
Speaker 1: he came to be regarded as a martyr within his sect.
Speaker 1: His example inspired others in the group to continue his
Speaker 1: faith spreading mission and served for them as just further
Speaker 1: evidence of their own persecution. His death was viewed as
Speaker 1: a necessary, albeit extreme method of spreading Christ's teachings, and
Speaker 1: the attention it drew to their cause likely served as
Speaker 1: encouragement to inspire new recruits. Since Kim's death, there have
Speaker 1: been a number of commemorations and memorials established by devotees
Speaker 1: of his faith, including staffatues, plaques, and annual events. Like
Speaker 1: other modern day Christian martyrs Ireland's Matt Talbot in nineteen
Speaker 1: twenty five Matthew Iaiga in twenty fifteen, his asceticism serves
Speaker 1: as a stark counterpoint to the frivolities of modern life,
Speaker 1: offering an alternative vision of what it means to give
Speaker 1: oneself wholly to a faith, regardless of what society at
Speaker 1: large dictates. The opportunity to somehow escape or better yet,
Speaker 1: transcend modern life are essential to the appeal of the cult.
Speaker 1: The rejection of modernity in favor of so called traditional
Speaker 1: values like self sacrifice and humility are often used to
Speaker 1: justify the cult's existence. This, in turn, must be safeguarded
Speaker 1: from outside corrupt, meaning members are encouraged to gradually shut
Speaker 1: themselves off from anything that threatens these ideals, from family
Speaker 1: and friends to the concept of their social standing and
Speaker 1: even their entire sense of self. The growth of mass
Speaker 1: media appears to play a significant role in modern day cults,
Speaker 1: first the newspaper, then radio and television, and now the Internet.
Speaker 1: It is perhaps no accident that with the further atomisation
Speaker 1: of the so called civilized world, many people have started
Speaker 1: to seek more radical alternatives to the pressures of information
Speaker 1: overloadd and personal attainment. And with atomisation comes alienation. Though
Speaker 1: you may well have found your tribe, for many, modern
Speaker 1: life is an unceasing grind, in which we are continually
Speaker 1: surrounded by people, be they are colleagues, fellow mutas, or
Speaker 1: the hundreds of people that might read your socials on
Speaker 1: any given day. And yet how many of these people
Speaker 1: do we actually have a meaningful connection to. It is
Speaker 1: little wonder that movements like Heaven's Gate, the People's Temple,
Speaker 1: Agricultural Project better known as Jonestown, or even the Islamic
Speaker 1: State of Iraq and the Levant or Isilfa short have
Speaker 1: proliferated the way they have. Why they often fall apart, however,
Speaker 1: is because more often than not, they center around one
Speaker 1: singular figure, as earth bound and human as anyone else,
Speaker 1: and often not quite as without ego as they might
Speaker 1: like you to believe. One example of this would be
Speaker 1: Charles Manson, of course, whose so called family committed murder
Speaker 1: during the late nineteen sixties, but the Asia Pacific region
Speaker 1: is not without its parallels. The twentieth of March nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety five, a group known as I Am Shinyiko or
Speaker 1: ALEF for short, committed the worst act of Japanese domestic
Speaker 1: terrorism in the country's history when they killed fourteen people
Speaker 1: and injured over one thousand others on the Tokyo Subway.
Speaker 1: The incident became known as the Saren gas attack after
Speaker 1: members from the group dropped two newspaper packages laced with
Speaker 1: the deadly nerve agent on the busy Chioda line of
Speaker 1: the city's underground. Their hope was that it would start
Speaker 1: a war, from which they believed armageddon would come, and
Speaker 1: with that a cleansing of the entire world to start
Speaker 1: anew als. Leaders were caught and eventually brought to justice,
Speaker 1: but much like Kim Jin Bong, their example inspired as
Speaker 1: much as it horrified. Numerous copycat incidents have been foiled
Speaker 1: by police in the years since, and the group's core
Speaker 1: message continues to spread in the darker corners of the Internet.
Speaker 1: It's tempting to dismiss Aleph's acolytes as deluded drones, or
Speaker 1: the members of Heaven's Gate as gullible fools for truly
Speaker 1: believing as they did that an alien spaceship hiding behind
Speaker 1: the hail Bob Comet would take their souls to a
Speaker 1: better place as long as they ended their own lives first.
Speaker 1: We might look upon these and other examples of cults
Speaker 1: as warnings about the danger of Messiah figures who seemed
Speaker 1: to offer easy solutions to all the travails and complexities
Speaker 1: of the modern world. But perhaps more than anything, what
Speaker 1: the success of these cults demonstrate is simply the power
Speaker 1: of a good story. So if we don't like the
Speaker 1: stories that others telling, and we're tired of watching people
Speaker 1: for for them, perhaps the only real solution is to
Speaker 1: come up with a better one. This episode was written
Speaker 1: by James Connor Patterson and Richard McLain Smith. James as
Speaker 1: a brilliant writer and poet. His debut collection of poems
Speaker 1: titled Bandit Country, Exploring the hinterland between the North of
Speaker 1: Ireland and Republic, was shortlisted for the twenty twenty two T. S.
Speaker 1: Eliot Prize and is out now to buy. Do check
Speaker 1: it out. Thank you as ever for listening to the show.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe and rate it if you haven't already done so.
Speaker 1: You can also now find us on TikTok at TikTok
Speaker 1: dot com. Forward Slash at Unexplained Podcast. Unexplained as an
Speaker 1: Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All
Speaker 1: other elements of the podcast, including the music, were also
Speaker 1: produced by me Richard McLean Smith. Unexplained. The book and
Speaker 1: audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase
Speaker 1: from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Please
Speaker 1: subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts
Speaker 1: or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like
Speaker 1: to share. You can find out more at Unexplained podcast
Speaker 1: dot com and reach us online through Twitter at Unexplained
Speaker 1: Pod and Facebook at Facebook dot com. Forward Slash Unexplained
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