Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism

by Robert Jay Lifton

National Book Award winner and renowned psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton reveals a world at risk from millennial cults intent on ending it all.

Since the earliest moments of recorded history, prophets and gurus have foretold the world's end, but only in the nuclear age has it been possible for a megalomaniac guru with a world-ending vision to bring his prophecy to pass. Now Robert Jay Lifton offers a vivid and disturbing case in point in this chilling exploration of Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult that released sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subways.

With unprecedented access to former Aum members, Lifton has produced a pathbreaking study of the inner life of a modern millennial cult. He shows how Aum's guru Shoko Asahara (charismatic spiritual leader, con man, madman) created a religion from a global stew of New Age thinking, ancient rituals, and apocalyptic science fiction, then recruited scientists as disciples and set them to producing weapons of mass destruction. Taking stock as well of Charles Manson, Heaven's Gate, and the Oklahoma City bombers, Lifton confronts the frightening possibility of a twenty-first century in which cults and terrorists may be able to bring about their own holocausts.
Bold and compelling, Destroying the World to Save It charts the emergence of a new global threat of urgent concern to us all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cults, True Crime, History, Religion, Psychology, Japan

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Jay Lifton was an American psychiatrist and author, chiefly known for his studies of the psychological causes and effects of wars and political violence, and for his theory of thought reform. He was an early proponent of the techniques of psychohistory.

Reviews

[Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way Lifton analyzes Aum and later incorporates that understanding into the analysis of more modern cult and extremist movements is just absolutely amazing. Couldn't possibly understate this book.

[William Frost · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book back in college as part of a term paper on Aum Shinrikyo, and I remember it being one of the best explanations I had for the terrorist group. If terrorist cults are your jam, I recommend reading it.

[Nate H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and very, very powerful.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

What stays with me most is a sense that Asahara and Aum have changed the world, and not for the better. A threshold has been crossed. Thanks to this guru, Aum stepped over a line that few had even known was there. Its members can claim the distinction of being the first group in history to combine ultimate fanaticism with ultimate weapons in a project to destroy the world. Fortunately, they were not up to the immodest task they assigned themselves. But whatever their bungling, they did cross that line, and the world will never quite be the same because, like it or not, they took the rest of us with them.

Part of Lifton's lifelong quest to understand cults. The book is based on interviews of former Aum disciples, interviewed in the two years after the deadly 1995 Tokyo subway sarin gas attacks, which in turn led to Aum's implosion.

Quick summary of Aum
1) Kinda stereotypical cult in many parts:
a) charismatic cult leader who dabbles in all world religions, uses meditation techniques, LSD, and (presumably) his magic eyebrows to bedazzle people,
b) develops a lot of opinions how the world works, very conspiratorial, very megalomaniac about his superhuman powers
c) community is growing, luring with pretty women, Answers To All Your Questions, transcendental experiences, and feelings of community and superiority – and later coercing you with guilt trips and "therapy" (=torture) if you think wrongly or want to leave
d) inner circles form around the guru, based on loyalty, vibe, ability to getting things done, and willingness to go all the way

2) Surprisingly successful (e.g. a lot of people were surpringly impressed by this comically ridiculous image of him floating in the air: Google Image Shoko Asahara). With tens of thousands of members by 1995, multiple bases, making hundreds of millions through donations and a bunch of entrepreneurial avenues.

3) But: Guru very quickly and increasingly getting obsessed with apocalyptic visions and his role in it, increasingly power tripping, increasingly paranoid, thinks he should start the apocalypse with only him surviving (plus maybe his disciples).

4) They have secret weapon programs (chemical, biological, nuclear), start murdering their critics, and conspire to start a nuclear holocaust.

How concerning are cults with apocalyptic visions?
- As above quote indicates, Lifton is very worried. Sees Aum as an extreme but not singular outgrowth of societal tensions and patterns of megalomania and "some men just want to watch the world burn".
- Lifton foreshadows that Aum will not be the last cult with omnicidal intentions. I don't think we've seen any so far, but at the same time I expect some groupings get awfully close: extremist environmental groups, some extremist Islamist and probably also Christian groups, as well as extremist negative utililatarians and anti-natalists.
- Both Aum and a right-wing extremist Lifton covers later considered the possibility of provoking a large-scale nuclear exchange between the US and the USSR, which as a total layman seems to have been frighteningly tractable at the heights of the Cold War.

Other things the book covers
- Lifton locates Aum's roots in Japanese culture, among others discussing Zen Buddhism and Japanese decades long failure to properly acknowledge and process its horrendous war crimes during WWII.

Some takeaways
- Lifton also covers other cults with each one chapter: People's Temple, The Manson Family, Heaven's Gate, and a diffuse network of right-wing extremists and terrorists in the US. Those people got so incredibly unhinged from common sense. Leave small groups of people to themselves for a few years and you get the most insane insanity. These were of course not normal people, but still, I got a new appreciation for the current society's sanity baseline. I find a lot of aspects of our mainstream culture super cringe, dumb and toxic, but it's so much better than what we can observe here.
- I really liked the book, I think Lifton's approach of interviewing people "on the ground" and trying to holistically report on their thinking and then doing some theorizing on top is a great service.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

I understand Lifton's more famous book is on Nazi war criminals and this is pretty much the same methodology applied to the Japanese cult that released sarin gas on the Tokyo subway in the 1990s. I read this for a class called "Relgion and International Relations: The Apocalyptic Tradition," for which I received actual credits from an accredited university and everything, and it has stuck with me ever since. I'd classify it as the opposite of those made-for-Blockbuster serial killer movies (DAHMER) that were all the rage back in the halcyon days when people actually went to video stores and renting terrible movies; that is, you spend the whole book inside of the one of the most deranged, murderous, paranoid human beings the world has ever produced but instead of coming out the other side thinking of that person as an inhuman monster, you see him as just another human being crushed by the weight of the world. This, along with Galbraith's "The Affluent Society," have probably been the two books that have influenced my thinking the most in the past three or four years.

[Vasil Kolev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book on recent cults, their inner working, driving forces and people. It describes mostly Aum Shinrikyo (the ones responsible for the release of sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway), and in depth - the guru, the programs, methods - but also compares it (and describes pretty well) some other cults, like the Manson family, Heaven's gate, and even Timothy McVeigh.

[Ann Herrold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite some organizational problems, this was an incredibly insightful book. I learned so much about Buddhism and Japanese culture as well as some of the concepts behind death cults and apocalyptic thinking. The message is fairly clear, we must become more aware of our hubris and question when others claim to have special knowledge or power.

[Nancy McQueen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. That's all I can say right now.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is listed on The Last Podcast on the Left Reading List. This books is about Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. This cult was responsible for the worldwide headline grabbing Tokyo Sarin Gas Attack in 1995, and was also responsible for the Matsumoto Sarin Gas Attack in 1994. I knew about this from readings and podcasts, but I was not aware of the murders and shenanagins that cult members were involved in. This book gave a really in depth look at the cult and the members, as well as the psychology behind cults. This cult has split into other active factions, especially after the arrest of Asahara and other members for criminal activities. I thought that Asahara was still alive, but he and six other cult members were executed in July 2018. This was a very interesting book, which I would recommend for anyone interested in cults, Japanese history, crime, or psychology. I love Robert Jay Lifton's work, and look forward to reading another book that I own by him. The only complaint I have about this book is that I bought it used and someone had written themselves footnotes in it, but their handwriting was illegible, so I have no idea if they had interesting thoughts to add.

[Padraic Cghln · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not so sure about his psychological insights or the framework in which he compared Aum to other death cults, but as a collection of morbid facts this book is pretty fun.

[Adam Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written but really dry and hard to get through. Kind of eerie, written 20 years ago but hauntingly predicts a lot of events that have happened since.

[Aung Khant Zaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

basically its all about how fuckup so called religious orgnaizations it can be

[Mark Steciuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book. Really interesting topic, thoughtful, and informative. A little dry but a solid serious treatment.

[Jamee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was some scary stuff! This book is about the group that released sarin gas in a Tokyo subway some years ago. It discusses the inside workings of Aum Shinrikyo and delves into possible explanations for the rise of doomsday cults in Japan. Interesting ties to their experience with the atomic bomb (being the only nation that has ever experienced the tragedy of being attacked by one.)

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

how is a book about this subject boring???

i don't know, but it was.

i finally gave up after dreading reading it for 2 months and never getting past page 120.

this man could make a book about cannibalistic drug-crazed sex slaves dull.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been very interesting given the subject matter, but it lacked any sort of narrative whatsoever, which made it an exhausting and confusing read.

[Sarah]

great, but with a social psych slant. less sociology.

[Stew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the rank-and-file members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult.