THE GOD PROBLEM

A wide variety of extremist groups - Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis - share the oddly similar belief that a tiny shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. Learn More

Growing up in the suburbs of Boston and raised on secular Judaism, Cocoa Puffs, and Gilligan’s Island, Peter Bebergal was barely in his teens when the ancient desire to finding higher spiritual meaning in the universe struck. Already schooled in mysticism by way of comic books, Dungeons & Dragons, and Carlos Castaneda, he turned to hallucinogens, convinced they would provide a path to illumination. Learn More

Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. Learn More

On March 20, 1995, 5 members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult waged chemical warfare on the Tokyo subways system with sarin (a poisonous gas 26 times more deadly than cyanide). Learn More