Money & Labour
Belief is rarely the whole business model. Unpaid labour, tithes, courses sold in escalating tiers, property portfolios, front organisations: many of these groups are, structurally, employers who do not pay. Follow the money and the labour and the picture is usually clearer than following the doctrine, and it is the part that most often ends in a courtroom, which is why it is the best-documented facet here.
Part of Cults
42 moments in this segment.
- - Community Silver advertised in Good Housekeeping. A 1907 magazine advertisement for silverware from Oneida Community, Ltd. The commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 dissolved into a joint-stock company in 1881, and the tableware brand outlived the community by more than a century.
- - Jim Jones at the International Hotel eviction protest. Jim Jones among demonstrators opposing the eviction of elderly tenants from the International Hotel in San Francisco in January 1977. The Temple could deliver large, disciplined turnouts to city causes, and that capacity bought the organisation standing with local government.
- - A city supervisor beside Jim Jones at the hotel protest. San Francisco Supervisor Dorothy von Beroldingen stands next to Jim Jones at the International Hotel anti-eviction rally in January 1977. Jones held a city housing appointment at the time, and proximity to elected officials was part of what kept the Temple clear of scrutiny.
- - Entrance to the Peoples Temple headquarters on Geary Boulevard. The doorway of the Temple's San Francisco headquarters at 1859 Geary Boulevard, photographed in December 1978. The building was the organisation's administrative centre and the base from which it ran its political work in the city.
- - Scientology and Dianetics premises in Amsterdam. The exterior of the Scientology and Dianetics church on the Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal in Amsterdam, photographed for a Dutch press agency in May 1984, at a time when the organisation's methods were under press scrutiny in the Netherlands.
- - The commune's DC-3s in Oregon. Douglas DC-3s belonging to the Rajneesh movement's own airline, parked near Antelope, Oregon, with a light helicopter alongside. The settlement housed more than a thousand followers and ran its own transport, businesses and services; it dissolved within months of this photograph.
- - Dedication stone at the commune's reservoir. A stone beside the road into Rajneeshpuram recording the reservoir the commune built: a 44-acre surface, a 36-square-mile catchment and a capacity of 360 million gallons. The work was done by members and the result dedicated to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
- - The commune's bus fleet at the ranch. Buses of Rajneesh Buddhafield Transport parked at Rajneeshpuram in 1985. Alongside the buses the commune ran a mall, a restaurant, a state-recognised police force and a small airline.
- - Air Rajneesh aircraft at Big Muddy Ranch. A Convair 240 and a Douglas DC-3 belonging to the commune's own airline at the ranch airstrip. Running an air service was part of operating the settlement as a self-contained city.
- - Scientology frontage in San Francisco, 1989. A Scientology building front in San Francisco photographed in September 1989, before the wave of new city-centre openings of the 2000s.
- - Universal Peace Federation launch in Kyrgyzstan. Sun Myung Moon speaking at the inauguration of the Universal Peace Federation in Kyrgyzstan in October 2005. The federation is one of a number of affiliated bodies through which the movement operates publicly.
- - A Copenhagen building bought for an Ideal Org. The building at Nytorv 11 in Copenhagen in 2006, before its conversion into an Ideal Org. Under that programme local members are expected to raise the purchase and renovation money for a large central building before it opens.
- - New Era Publications headquarters, Copenhagen. The Copenhagen offices of New Era Publications International, which publishes and distributes the movement's books and recordings outside the United States. The Continental Liaison Office for Europe stands directly behind it.
- - Dianetics demonstration at Union Station. Scientologists running a Dianetics demonstration at Union Station in Washington, D.C., March 2007. Stations and shopping streets are the usual settings for this kind of outreach.
- - The Toronto org on Yonge Street. The Church of Scientology of Toronto at 696-700 Yonge Street, photographed in April 2007. A central-city org is the standard unit of the organisation's property network.
- - Scientology office in Coyoacan, Mexico City. A Scientology office in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City in 2007; the photographer's note records the stress-test stand outside. The same street-level approach is used worldwide.
- - Scientology building in Amsterdam. The Church of Scientology's Amsterdam premises photographed in December 2007. City-centre buildings are the most visible part of the organisation's property holdings in Europe.
- - The Los Angeles building used by Peoples Temple. The Los Angeles premises of Peoples Temple, photographed for the Jonestown Institute's report series. The Temple ran churches in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Redwood Valley, and moved members and money between them, before the Guyana settlement.
- - Volunteer Ministers tent in Sweden. A Scientology Volunteer Ministers tent carrying the slogan 'Something can be done about it', Sweden, October 2008. The photographer recorded that no assists or tests were being given inside; books were being sold.
- - Church of Scientology building, Montreal. The Montreal church, photographed in August 2009.
- - Churches of Scientology for Europe, Brussels. The organisation's European office building in Brussels on the day it opened, 23 January 2010. Acquiring premises in capital cities has been a steady feature of its expansion.
- - Scientology church in Munich. The Munich premises, photographed in 2011. Germany has generally treated the organisation as a commercial enterprise rather than a religion, and several state constitutional-protection offices have kept it under observation.
- - The building recorded as Jim Jones's first church. A building recorded on Wikimedia Commons as the site of Jim Jones's first church, photographed in 2011. Peoples Temple began in Indianapolis in the 1950s, more than two decades before Guyana.
- - Former Latter-day Saints chapel on 16th Street. The Unification Church building at 2810 16th Street NW in Washington, D.C., built in 1931-33 as the Washington Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Buying established church buildings is a visible part of the movement's property record.
- - Scientology stand at Potsdamer Platz. A Scientology promotion stand on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, July 2013. Germany has treated the organisation as a commercial enterprise rather than a religion, and its street stands there are watched accordingly.
- - The former Scientology headquarters in Oslo. The Norwegian church's old headquarters in Grunerlokka, Oslo, photographed in 2013. The organisation later left the building, which was demolished to make way for housing.
- - A documentary on the church's finances. The 2015 documentary adapted from Lawrence Wright's book, built on former officials' accounts and archive footage. Its central documented event is the Internal Revenue Service's grant of tax exemption in 1993, which ended a quarter-century dispute over roughly a billion dollars in claimed liabilities.
- - Chapel inside the Amsterdam church. The chapel of the Scientology church in Amsterdam, photographed in July 2015. Purpose-fitted congregational rooms are part of how the organisation presents itself as a church in Europe.
- - Scientology building in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The organisation's premises in Shinjuku, Tokyo, photographed in March 2016. The property network extends well beyond the countries where the church has legal recognition as a religion.
- - Church of Scientology, Rue Legendre, Paris. The Paris church on Rue Legendre in February 2017. French courts convicted the organisation's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop of organised fraud in 2009, a conviction upheld on appeal.
- - Scientology information centre in Los Angeles. A public information centre operated by the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles, photographed in June 2017.
- - A Scientology mission on an industrial estate in Vitoria. The mission at Vitoria-Gasteiz occupies a remote corner of the Gamarra industrial estate, photographed in 2018. Not every property is a restored city-centre landmark.
- - Free stress test stand at a book convention. An E-meter set up for free stress tests at BookCon in 2019. The street-level stress test is the standard first contact and the opening of a course sequence that is paid for step by step.
- - The prosecutor speaks after the verdict. The United States Attorney addresses reporters after the conviction of Keith Raniere in June 2019. He was sentenced on 27 October 2020 to 120 years and fined 1.75 million dollars; five co-defendants were convicted separately.
- - Verdict in Brooklyn. On 19 June 2019 a federal jury in the Eastern District of New York convicted Keith Raniere on all counts, including racketeering and sex trafficking. The organisation he founded in 1998 sold executive coaching courses and had no theology at all, which is why it is the clearest evidence that coercive control is a structure rather than a belief.
- - Japanese headquarters of the Family Federation. The Japanese headquarters of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification in Tokyo, photographed in September 2022, as the church's donation practices in Japan came under national scrutiny.
- - The business behind the group. A report on how Aum Shinrikyo financed itself: computer shops, restaurants, a members' labour force and the legal advantages of registration as a religious corporation in Japan. The money is what paid for the chemistry.
- - Washington Family Church on Columbia Road. The Unification Church facility at 1610 Columbia Road NW in Washington, D.C., photographed in August 2023.
- - The United Effort Plan building at Short Creek. The office of the United Effort Plan in Short Creek, Utah. The trust held members' homes and land communally, so leaving the church could mean losing the house you lived in; a Utah court placed it under outside control in 2005.
- - The former NXIVM offices outside Albany. An office block in the Karner Woods Office Park in Colonie, New York, leased by NXIVM while it sold personal-development courses at graduated prices. The organisation collapsed after its founder's federal conviction in 2019; this photograph was taken in 2024.
- - Family church in Shiga Prefecture. A Family Federation for World Peace and Unification church in Shiga Prefecture, photographed on 30 May 2026, at a time when the organisation's legal status in Japan was the subject of court proceedings.
- - Free stress tests on Princes Street. A gazebo on Princes Street in Edinburgh offering free Dianetics stress tests, June 2026. The free test remains the entry point to a sequence of paid courses.
