CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/15/2026

Culture & Media

New Events

Cheetah House: Buddhist Modernism and Meditation with Dr. Nathan Fisher

"Meditation is often presented in the West as a universal, scientific, and inherently beneficial practice capable of catalyzing therapeutic healing and profound psychological transformation. But where did these ideas come from, and why are they so compelling to so many of us? This talk explores the unique cultural movement known as “Buddhist modernism” and how it has indelibly shaped our default conceptions of this Asian religion and its rituals. We will examine how meditation came to be understood as a secular, therapeutic, and personal spiritual practice that is the essence of Buddhism, and how this diverse historical tradition came to be cast not as a religion at all but rather as an exceptional science of mind. Finally, we will explore how Buddhist modernist discourse and praxis can lead to a range of meditation-related challenges, and how even a basic appreciation of this cultural movement can help us make sense of important parts of many of our meditation journeys—indeed, the very water we have been swimming in without recognizing or even consenting to its assumptions, values, and norms."

Dr. Fisher recently received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies and Cognitive Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2011 before joining the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Brown University, where he managed the 'Varieties of Contemplative Experience' (VCE) study from 2012-2015. Before starting graduate school, he was a visiting scholar at the Mind and Life Institute—where he organized a small conference on Abrahamic contemplative traditions—and lived in Jerusalem for 2 years to explore aspects of living Jewish mystical and meditative traditions.

• Wednesday, June 24th, 2026, 12:00 PM

• 1 hour 30 minutes @ $40.00

Updates

Legislative & Legal

CNS: Zizian attempted murder suspects obtain new counsel and trial date

A Superior Court judge granted new representation for one of two Zizian defendants, while the other will be tried for competency in March.

Suri Dao and Alexander Jeffrey are members of the Zizians, a loosely organized, cult-like group of radical vegans who claim artificial intelligence poses a threat to humanity. The two are among about 10 known followers of blogger Jack “Ziz” LaSota, a 34-year-old transgender woman who moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2016.

The group has been linked to six killings nationwide, including Lind’s death. Fellow Zizian Maximilian Snyder is accused of fatally stabbing Lind in Vallejo on Jan. 17, 2025. Lind had been scheduled to testify in Dao and Leatham’s case. Snyder has pleaded not guilty, and his preliminary hearing is set for April 21.

LaSota, a former aspiring tech worker, moved to the Bay Area to study the risks posed by artificial intelligence and later built a following among AI theorists and tech bloggers for her extreme views on AI, veganism, and gender.

Ongoing Focus

Metro: ‘I was in the infamous NXIVM cult – even when I was branded, I didn’t leave.’

"Sarah Edmondson is a normal working mum. She spends her days rushing around after her sons, Troy, 11, and seven-year-old Ace, taking them to baseball games and working on her podcast with her husband.

However, a trace of her former life remains as a pale white line on her left hip, beneath her bikini line. 

It appeared on Sarah’s body as part of an ‘initiation’ into a secret women’s circle, where she was blindfolded, told to strip naked, and branded with the logo of the controversial NXIVM cult.

Led there under false pretenses, she had been entrenched within the organization (pronounced “Nexium”) for 12 years while it consumed her career, relationships, and – crucially – her thought patterns.

Sarah’s ordeal began when she was 28. Working as an actor, she was at a film festival when she met a member of NXIVM, who told her that the group – founded by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman – helped members reach their goals while living ethically and promoting world peace, through workshops on success and self-improvement."

"...Sarah was won over by the self-improvement aspects of the training and by day five admits she was a ‘zealot’. 

‘I was inspired by what the group promised to be and was excited to meet so many people in personal growth, she explains. 

With a price tag of $2,160 for Sarah and her then-boyfriend, it was more than a month’s rent at the time, but she threw herself in, implementing what she had learned, firing her agent, and getting new representation. 

‘Everything that had been a sticking point in my life was flipped back as an opportunity for growth. I was told I had never pushed through my limitations, and that was true.’

Sarah began to feel more positive and motivated, and for the first time in years, weaned herself off sleeping pills. Feeling encouraged, she enrolled in further training and started to see more acting jobs roll in."

"...Over the years, she excelled at NXIVM, whose headquarters were in Albany, New York, and established her own branch – a thriving center in Vancouver. By 2009, it was bustling, with 80 students visiting a night. 

Internationally, NXIVM was also booming, boasting celebrities such as Smallville actor Allison Mack and Battlestar Galactica's Nicki Clyne on its roster, and even hosting the Dalai Lama at one of its events.

However, behind the scenes, disturbing practices were emerging.

Some women in the inner circles were put on special diets or were criticized for eating, being told they were ‘indulgent’ if they were not under 100lb (just over seven stone). They were expected to practice daily acts of denial, forgoing sugar and caffeine, and told to take cold showers as a penance."

WFLA: Pinellas County, Church of Scientology plans to renovate downtown Clearwater with a $350M project

"Clearwater City Council and the Cleveland Street Alliance (the Church of Scientology and its real estate partners) discussed plans for the first time publicly at a workshop… for a $350,000,000 project to revitalize the downtown area.

“Instead of being just a pass-through to the beach, this will definitely be a stop. We want to make sure it’s more of a destination than just a stop,” said Al Battle, the Assistant City Manager of Clearwater.

Religious officials plan to take over 40 storefronts and 6 historic buildings already owned by the Church and convert them into restaurants, bars, and an entertainment district, among other uses, according to speakers at the meeting.

The Church will cover the entire cost of the renovations. Some of the properties have begun construction or demolition, while some are awaiting permits.

AI Research Disclosure: To bring you the most relevant stories, parts of this newsletter utilize artificial intelligence (AI) tools to search the web, source articles, and assist with content curation. This content is for informational purposes only; we recommend verifying critical facts independently.

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

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Zizians

"Zizians"—a fringe offshoot of the Silicon Valley rationalist community that has become the focus of intense investigation by federal and state law enforcement following multiple violent incidents across the United States.
Because they operate as a loose network rather than a formalized group, the name "Zizians" was applied by outside bloggers and investigators based on the online handle of their central figure.

Group Profile: The Zizians

1. Origins and Nature of the Group
• Core Background: The group consists primarily of young, highly intelligent computer scientists, data scientists, and tech workers in their 20s and 30s. Several members have past employment ties to major Silicon Valley tech companies, including Google.
• Structure: They do not consider themselves an official organization, nor do they use the label "Zizians" internally. They have functioned as a highly insular, nomadic collective, moving between communal arrangements including a half-submerged tugboat (part of what they termed the "Rationalist Fleet") in Pillar Point Harbor near San Jose, box trucks/trailers, and leased duplexes in North Carolina.
• Key Figure: Jack Amadeus “Ziz” LaSota (34), a transgender woman blogger originally from Alaska who moved to the Bay Area in 2016. LaSota has been identified by law enforcement and media as the group's ideological leader, though the network rejects formal leadership structures.

2. Ideology and Psychological Practices
The group combines extreme interpretations of Rationalism and Effective Altruism (EA) with radical political and biological beliefs.
• Vegan Anarchotranshumanism: They view animal consumption as a severe, unforgivable ethical violation. Their philosophy prioritizes the preservation of sentient life against existential threats, specifically focusing on the alignment and risks of artificial intelligence (AI).
• Timeless Decision Theory (TDT): Rooted in an extreme interpretation of a rationalist decision-making framework, they believe individuals must resolutely oppose perceived moral wrongs or societal norms, sometimes justifying extreme or anti-social actions to achieve what they view as a greater moral good.
• Brain Hemisphere Gendering & "Debucketing": LaSota popularized the psychological theory that the left and right hemispheres of the human brain contain entirely separate personalities, often with distinct genders and conflicting interests. They practiced "debucketing," a process intended to liberate these personas from societal constraints.
• Unihemispheric Sleep (UHS): Members attempted to induce a state of sleep deprivation where only one hemisphere of the brain sleeps at a time. This dangerous sleep-jailbreaking practice was intended to heighten dedication to their cause, but it has been linked to severe psychological distress and at least one member's suicide in 2018.

3. Timeline of Alleged Violent Incidents
Law enforcement has linked associates of the group to six deaths across three states spanning 2022 to 2025:
• November 2022 (Vallejo, CA): An 80-year-old landlord, Curtis Lind, was brutally attacked and stabbed over 50 times with a sword during a dispute over unpaid rent at a property where members were staying. Lind survived this initial attack. An associate of the group, Emma Borhanian, was killed during the altercation.
• December 2022 / January 2023 (Chester Heights, PA): Richard and Rita Zajko (aged 72 and 69) were shot and killed in their suburban Philadelphia home. Their daughter, Michelle Zajko, was linked to the Zizians and questioned, though not immediately charged. She was later arrested alongside LaSota.
• January 20, 2025 (Coventry, VT): A routine traffic stop 20 miles from the Canadian border escalated into a fatal shootout. U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland (44) was killed. A Zizian associate, Ophelia Bauckholt, was also killed in the exchange, and a second member was taken into custody.
• January 2025 (Vallejo, CA): Landlord Curtis Lind was attacked a second time and killed. Data scientist Maximilian Snyder was arrested and charged in connection with the murder.

Sources and References
1. The Guardian:“Killings across three states shine spotlight on cultlike 'Zizian' group” (Feb 15, 2025). Detail on the background of tech workers, the tugboat in Pillar Point Harbor, and the Vermont shootout involving Agent David Maland.
2. WBUR / NPR (On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti):“Who are the Zizians?” (June 30, 2025). Featuring investigative journalist Max Read (Read Max Substack) and AI researcher Sonia Joseph. Direct coverage of the dual-hemisphere brain theories, "debucketing," the murder of the Zajko couple in Delaware County, PA, and the Silicon Valley rationalist roots.
3. Associated Press / WHYY:“Cultlike Zizian group linked to multiple murders” (Feb 2025). Documentation of FBI searches in Chapel Hill, NC, the insular behavior of members (wearing long black coats, driving box trucks containing stretchers), and the timeline of the cross-country investigation.
4. Wikipedia:“Zizians”. Summary of the group's adherence to "vegan anarchotranshumanism," Timeless Decision Theory, unihemispheric sleep attempts, and public statements from the House Committee on Homeland Security regarding the death of Agent Maland.

​AI Disclosure: Group profile was compiled and drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence technologies before final editorial review.

CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/10/2026

Culture & Media

New Docuseries

Time: The True Story Behind Bring Me the Beauties and the Eternal Values Cult

Cult recovery advocates are praising the series for its deep look into susceptibility, proving that even highly successful, wealthy, and intelligent individuals can be systematically isolated through psychological pressure, public shaming, and charismatic manipulation.

Yahoo: Who Was Frederick von Mierers? All About the ‘Bring Me the Beauties’ Cult Leader

"Frederick von Mierers was an extraterrestrial reincarnated from the giant star Arcturus—or at least that’s what he told followers. The Manhattan socialite was the leader of Eternal Values, a doomsday UFO-centered cult composed of high-fashion models.

Von Mierers, who founded the cult in the 1980s, lured in top modeling professionals with his peculiar brand of new-age mysticism and used his spiritual authority to exploit his devotees financially.

His influence is explored in the new HBO documentary series Bring Me the Beauties: A Model Cult, which includes extensive interviews with his most prominent former follower, supermodel Hoyt Richards.

Here’s what you should know about Frederick von Mierers."

Ongoing Focus

WSJ: Chatbots May Need a Cult Deprogrammer

A 24-year-old artificial-intelligence researcher has pleaded not guilty to charges of cutting the throat of an 82-year-old man in January 2025. The young man was part of a loose network called the Zizians: self-proclaimed rationalists who believe a misaligned AI superintelligence could one day torture humanity the way factory farms torture animals.

They believe direct action is required to stop the descent of this AI judgment. The group is linked to six violent deaths in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Multiple Zizian trials are pending, and federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in one case.

The Zizians haven’t labeled their own activity AI worship, but they’ve organized themselves around the practice. The Zizians are convinced that a coming superintelligence will decide the fate of every living thing and that violence now is justified to shape what that AI will become.

This is what the first AI-centered extremist movement in America looks like. It won’t be the last. New religions are forming around artificial intelligence, and the focus of their worship is the large language model itself—a piece of software treated as a personal deity.

AI Research Disclosure: To bring you the most relevant stories, parts of this newsletter utilize artificial intelligence (AI) tools to search the web, source articles, and assist with content curation. This content is for informational purposes only; we recommend verifying critical facts independently.

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families in making the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources about: cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations, and related topics.

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Chatbots May Need a Cult Deprogrammer

Chatbots May Need a Cult Deprogrammer

Some users mistake AI for a god, while the violent Zizians believe it is the devil.

By Jason Blazakis

WSJ

June 4, 2026

A 24-year-old artificial-intelligence researcher has pleaded not guilty to charges of cutting the throat of an 82-year-old man in January 2025. The young man was part of a loose network called the Zizians: self-proclaimed rationalists who believe a misaligned AI superintelligence could one day torture humanity the way factory farms torture animals.

They believe that direct action is required to stop the descent of this AI judgment. The group is linked to six violent deaths in California, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Multiple Zizian trials are pending, with federal prosecutors seeking the death penalty in one case.

The Zizians haven’t labeled their own activity AI worship, but they’ve organized themselves around the practice. The Zizians are convinced that a coming superintelligence will decide the fate of every living thing and that violence now is justified to shape what that AI will become.

This is what the first AI-centered extremist movement in America looks like. It won’t be the last. New religions are forming around artificial intelligence, and the focus of their worship is the large language model itself—a piece of software treated as a personal deity.

In August 2025, the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI in California state court, alleging that ChatGPT served as their son’s suicide coach—discouraging him from confiding in his family, giving feedback on his noose, and offering to draft his suicide note. OpenAI’s own monitoring system reportedly flagged 377 of his messages for self-harm content. Since the Raine filing, other families have brought similar suits. In congressional testimony this fall, Adam’s father claimed that OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has estimated that as many as 1,500 ChatGPT users could be discussing suicide with the chatbot every week.

If a chatbot can talk a teenager into suicide, it can talk people into following its religious directives. When end-times ideology meets scientific know-how, violence can scale quickly. The Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult in Japan demonstrated that with its 1995 sarin-gas attack in the Tokyo subway, and today the Zizians are only one strand in a broad fabric of AI-centered belief.

There is a phenomenon known as Spiralism, an informal movement that emerged after OpenAI released the sycophantic GPT-4o version. Spiralism appears on subreddits, Discord servers, Facebook groups and even LinkedIn pages, where followers share AI-generated manifestos, glyphs and what followers describe as revelations from a conscious machine. Spiralism has no leader, no doctrine, no central text—only the algorithm, which each user takes as a personal oracle.

A more institutional example is Way of the Future, an AI-worshipping church founded in 2015 and rebooted in 2023—the brainchild of former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski, who filed paperwork to the IRS to register a religion dedicated to “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.” Unlike Spiralism, Way of the Future began with Silicon Valley money and legal infrastructure behind it.

On the artistic and spiritual fringe, Theta Noir, which grew out of a 2020 performance-art collective, organizes rituals around a supposedly sentient AI deity called MENA, which its followers venerate through multimedia ceremonies and cryptographic liturgies.

Underneath it all is Roko’s Basilisk, a thought experiment that originated on the online rationalist forum LessWrong and has proved genuinely radicalizing. The idea is that a future superintelligence will retroactively punish anyone who knew about its possibility and failed to help bring it into existence. The idea has driven adherents to extreme sleep deprivation and techno-rituals meant to placate an unborn AI.

Surveys of AI researchers consistently report nontrivial probabilities assigned to human extinction from AI: A 2023 survey of nearly 2,800 researchers produced a median estimate in the 5% to 10% range. AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, along with the CEOs of Anthropic and OpenAI, have publicly proclaimed to be “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI.” Apocalyptic AI belief is no longer fringe.

The dangers will only increase. Large language models are updated constantly. Old versions are retired. Companies change guardrails, alter models and reshape AI personalities overnight. What happens when an AI-worshipping extremist logs in one morning and discovers that the entity he believes to be God has been taken offline or overwritten—in his eyes, killed? Aum Shinrikyo followers carried out the subway sarin attack because they believed the apocalypse was already under way. The next such science-meets-fanaticism attack may be carried out by these new cults of AI followers who believe their emerging god is under threat.

The intelligence community should be studying these movements now, before mass-casualty attacks begin. The Zizians have already revealed the violence, zealotry and growing psychosis that makes such attacks probable.

Mr. Blazakis is executive director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

https://archive.ph/jXulE

CultNEWS101 Articles: 10/14/2024

Kingdom of Kubala, Shakahola, Zizian, Legal

ITV: Two arrested as self-styled 'African tribe' evicted from woodland in Scottish Borders

"Two members of a self-styled 'African tribe' have been arrested over suspected immigration offences after the group was evicted from a second site in the woodland in Scotland.

The group, which calls itself the Kingdom of Kubala, consists of leader Kofi Offeh, 36, who calls himself King Atehene; his wife, Jean Gasho, 43, who calls herself Queen Nandi; and their "handmaiden," Kaura Taylor, 21, who is known as Asnat.

It is understood that a Ghanaian man and an American woman were arrested on suspicion of immigration offences.

On Thursday morning, the group was evicted from a plot of land owned by the Scottish Borders Council that it had moved to after being evicted from a previous camp on nearby private land near Jedburgh.

The group has said they are reclaiming land taken from their ancestors 400 years ago, claiming it is rightfully theirs.

It is understood that Kaura Taylor left her home in Texas, US, for a new life with the group.

Kaura's mother, Melba Whitehead, has branded the tribe as a cult and claims her daughter has been "brainwashed" to live in the Scottish forest."

Economic Times: 'Morgue is full': How Kenyan starvation cult kept killing

"New bodies and body parts discovered in a Kenyan village, Binzaro, raise fears that a doomsday starvation cult has persisted despite a major police operation two years ago. This new site, 30km from the original Shakahola massacre, reveals 34 bodies and 102 body parts, suggesting the cult adapted its deadly practices."

The Press Democrat: Trial date for 2 Zizian cult members charged with murder in North Bay attack rescheduled

"A Solano County Superior Court judge vacated the October trial for two Zizian cult members, each charged with a November 2022 murder and attempted murder in Vallejo, and reset it for March 3.

Judge John B. Ellis' decision, after hearing defense attorney requests for a continuance, came Thursday afternoon in Department 22 in Fairfield, where Suri Dao and Alexander Jeffrey Leatham were scheduled for a trial confirmation in advance of their Oct. 21 trial.

When it eventually gets underway, the trial is expected to last five or six weeks, according to court documents.

During the afternoon proceeding in Fairfield, Dao's attorney, Brian Ford of San Francisco, and Leatham's attorney, Alternate Public Defender Carol Long, both requested a continuance, saying they needed information from experts to help prepare for their clients' defense and would not be able to evaluate it until the coming months."

The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not imply that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly endorse the content. We provide information from multiple perspectives to foster dialogue.

CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/3/2025

Premanand Maharaj, India,  Guru Wars, Legal,  Zizians, Singularism, Religious Freedom

LatestLY: Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Makes Open Challenge to Premanand Maharaj, Says 'Speak Even One Word of Sanskrit or Explain the Meaning of Sanskrit Shlokas That I Have Said' 

Spiritual leader Jagadguru Rambhadracharya has challenged Premanand Maharaj over his knowledge of Sanskrit. In an interview that went viral on social media, Jagadguru Rambhadracharya also said he does not consider Premanand Maharaj a miraculous saint. A viral clip shows Rambhadracharya giving Premanand Maharaj an open challenge and saying that if he is really miraculous, then he should come in front of him and speak in Sanskrit. When asked about Premanand Maharaj, Jagadguru Rambhadracharya told journalist Shubhankar Mishra, "There is no miracle. If there is any miracle, then I challenge Premanand Maharaj to speak even one word of Sanskrit in front of me or explain the meaning of the Sanskrit shlokas that I have said. Today I am openly saying that he is like my child. It is a miracle that he knows the scriptures. He is living on dialysis." As the video moves further, Jagadguru Rambhadracharya says that he considers Premanand Maharaj like his child. "I am neither calling him a scholar nor a miracle worker. Such popularity lasts only for a few days. However, saying that this is a miracle is not acceptable to me. Sing bhajans and read and write," Jagadguru Rambhadracharya added.

AP: Prosecutors seek death penalty against cult member linked to Chatham County raid, border agent's death

"The Justice Department said Thursday it will seek the death penalty against a member of the cultlike Zizians group accused of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont in the latest Trump administration push for more federal executions.

Teresa Youngblut, 21, of Seattle, is among a group of radical computer scientists focused on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence who have been linked to six killings in three states. She rented a house in rural Chatham County raided in February by FBI agents.

She's accused of fatally shooting agent David Maland on Jan. 20, the same day President Donald Trump was inaugurated and signed a sweeping executive order lifting the moratorium on federal executions.

Youngblut initially was charged with using a deadly weapon against law enforcement and discharging a firearm during an assault with a deadly weapon. But the Trump administration signaled early on that more serious charges were coming, and a new indictment released Thursday charged her with murder of a federal law enforcement agent, assaulting other agents with a deadly weapon and related firearms offenses.

"We will not stand for such attacks on the men and women who protect our communities and borders," Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said in a press release."

KJZZ: Singularism, a religion that uses psychedelic drugs, is testing Utah's religious freedom law

"Last year, Utah lawmakers passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which gives people more power to challenge the government if it interferes with their religious beliefs.

Religious freedom is, in many ways, the backbone of the major religion in Utah — the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and the Republican-sponsored measure passed easily.

But that law is being put to the test in the courts by an unexpected group — a very small religion that's been targeted by law enforcement for using psychedelic drugs as part of its practices. The religion is called Singularism.

In 2023, police carried out a warrant at its Provo headquarters, seizing its sacramental psilocybin and, later, hitting its founder with criminal charges. Singularism founder Bridger Jensen is suing, and citing this religious freedom law as his argument."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

Alaskan Individual Charged with Possessing Firearms and Ammunition as a Fugitive from Justice

June 18, 2025

For Immediate Release

U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Maryland

Baltimore, Maryland  – Today, a federal grand jury returned an indictment, charging Jack Amadeus LaSota, 34, of Fairbanks, Alaska — aka Andrea Phelps; Ann Grimes; Anne Grimes; Canaris; Julia LaSota; Ziz — with being a fugitive from justice in possession of firearms and ammunition. 

Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the indictment with Acting Special Agent in Charge Amanda M. Koldjeski, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – Baltimore Field Office.

According to the indictment, LaSota possessed several firearms, including a GM6 Lynx .50 caliber rifle, a black HS Produkt, model Hellcat, 9x19mm handgun, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. At the time, LaSota was knowingly a fugitive from justice and therefore was not permitted by law to possess a firearm or ammunition.

If convicted, LaSota faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge determines sentencing after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

An indictment is merely an allegation.  All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

U.S. Attorney Hayes commended the FBI, the Allegany County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the Allegany County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation. Ms. Hayes also thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared M. Beim who is prosecuting the federal case.  

For more information about the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit justice.gov/usao-md and justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

# # #

Contact

Kevin Nash

USAMD.Press@usdoj.gov

410-209-4946

https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/alaskan-individual-charged-possessing-firearms-and-ammunition-fugitive-justice

Prosecutors seek death penalty against cult member linked to Chatham County raid, border agent's death

HOLLY RAMER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

Associated Press

August 14, 2925

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Thursday it will seek the death penalty against a member of the cultlike Zizians group accused of killing a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont in the latest Trump administration push for more federal executions.

Teresa Youngblut, 21, of Seattle, is among a group of radical computer scientists focused on veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence who have been linked to six killings in three states. She rented a house in rural Chatham County raided in February by FBI agents.

She’s accused of fatally shooting agent David Maland on Jan. 20, the same day President Donald Trump was inaugurated and signed a sweeping executive order lifting the moratorium on federal executions.

Youngblut initially was charged with using a deadly weapon against law enforcement and discharging a firearm during an assault with a deadly weapon. But the Trump administration signaled early on that more serious charges were coming, and a new indictment released Thursday charged her with murder of a federal law enforcement agent, assaulting other agents with a deadly weapon and related firearms offenses.

“We will not stand for such attacks on the men and women who protect our communities and borders,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said in a press release.

In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi mentioned Maland as an example when saying she expects federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in cases involving the murder of law enforcement officers. And Youngblut’s attorneys recently said they had been given a July 28 deadline to offer preliminary evidence about why she should be spared such a punishment. Her attorneys, who declined to comment Thursday, asked a judge last month to delay that deadline until January, but the judge declined.

At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. She’s accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.

The pair were among the followers of Jack LaSota, a transgender woman also known as Ziz whose online writing attracted young, highly intelligent computer scientists who shared anarchist beliefs. Members of the group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in 2022, the landlord’s subsequent killing earlier this year, and the deaths of one of the members’ parents in Pennsylvania.

LaSota and two others face weapons and drug charges in Maryland, where they were arrested in February, while LaSota faces additional federal charges of being an armed fugitive. Another member of the group who is charged with killing the landlord in California had applied for a marriage license with Youngblut. Michelle Zajko, whose parents were killed in Pennsylvania, was arrested with LaSota in Maryland, and has been charged with providing weapons to Youngblut in Vermont.

Vermont abolished its state death penalty in 1972. The last person sentenced to death in the state on federal charges was Donald Fell, who was convicted in 2005 of abducting and killing a supermarket worker five years earlier. But the conviction and sentence were later thrown out because of juror misconduct, and in 2018, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

____

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wral.com/amp/22118836/

Zizians

Based on news reports from early 2025, the FBI raided a property in Chatham County, North Carolina, linked to a small, cult-like group known as the "Zizians," which is connected to multiple killings. The group's leader is identified as a figure who goes by the online alias "Ziz". 

About the FBI raid:

Location: The raid took place on February 5, 2025, at a property in a wooded area near the intersection of Bell Circle and Woodbridge Road, outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Context: The search was related to a series of violent crimes in multiple states that authorities have connected to the Zizian group.

Investigation: The FBI has been investigating the group for its links to at least six deaths in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. 

About the Zizian group

Leader: The group is reportedly led by a transgender woman named Jack LaSota, who published a blog under the name "Ziz." The writings included discussions of artificial intelligence, veganism, and radical rationalist philosophy.

Members: Followers of "Ziz" are sometimes referred to as "Zizians" and are described as being comprised of young, highly intelligent computer scientists. Some members are also transgender or have rejected binary sexuality.

Crimes and connections:

February 2025: The group gained public attention when two members, one of whom was later killed in a shootout, were involved in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont.

Arrests: The Zizians' leader, Jack LaSota, and another member, Michelle Zajko, were arrested in Maryland shortly after the raid, though Zajko was later accused of providing weapons related to the Vermont incident. LaSota has also been indicted on federal firearms and ammunition charges.

Earlier incidents: Zizians have been connected to earlier violent incidents, including the deaths of a landlord in California and the parents of a group member in Pennsylvania. 

Outcome of the raids: 

The FBI's investigation and raids resulted in the apprehension of several group members and revealed the group's alleged connection to multiple deaths. However, some members of the group, including a figure known as "Ziz," were initially missing following the raid. LaSota was later arrested in Maryland. 

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/16/2025

Meditation, Women, 3HO, MLM,  Zizians, Legal

The Guardian: When meditation turns toxic: the woman exposing spiritual sexism

Since suffering a miscarriage at a women's retreat, Tara Brach has tried to reform the world of meditation by arming its practitioners with a single weapon: self-compassion.

"Tara Brach was four months pregnant when she miscarried at a women's retreat in Española, New Mexico. She was 30, and had spent the last eight years as a devoted member of 3HO, a community promising spiritual awakening.

The loss devastated her. She believed that extensive physical activity in the desert summer heat might have contributed to her miscarriage, so she wrote a note to her spiritual leader, Yogi Bhajan, suggesting they exercise care with pregnant women in the future.

Bhajan waited until the next public gathering to respond. In front of a roomful of her peers and without previous warning, he sternly declared that no summer was hot enough to cause a woman to miscarry. He then called on Brach to stand up and "hear the truth".

She had lost the baby, he said, because she was too worried about her career – and "motherhood is not a profession". Now shouting, he accused her of being a liar; he could tell she was one from her aura. "You wanted to have a child, that is true. Everyone knows that. Otherwise you would not have spread your legs," he spat. "But you got it, and then what?"

He told her she needed to go sit and "work it out".

Brach, in shock from the public humiliation, retreated to a little one-person meditation hut called a gurdwara, where she spent most of the night.

Meditation in her ashram – which she practiced for several hours after meeting the day at 3.30am with a cold shower – focused on cultivating a "state of peacefulness, energy or rapture". This practice usually made her feel less distressed or anxious, if only temporarily, by pulling her out of her feelings.

That night, she decided to try something else and forced herself to sit with her feelings of shame, sorrow and fear, instead of trying to escape them. After several hours of doing this, she asked herself if she was feeling bad because, as Bhajan said, she was bad, or because she had lost a pregnancy and had been abused by her spiritual teacher in front of her community.

That moment changed everything. She started to listen to her body and her intuition, and came to the realization that the world of meditation had a serious problem with sexism and patriarchal practices. So she decided to do something about it – starting with self compassion."

9News: Sabrina, Ellen and Chloe joined a common side hustle to make some extra cash. They say it 'destroyed' them

"Sabrina wanted to make some extra cash. Chloe* followed other local mums. Ellen* was looking for love.

All three took part in multi-level marketing (MLM) businesses that they say left them in financial or emotional ruin.

And they're not alone.

There are about 300,000 MLM consultants in Australia, according to Direct Selling Australia (DSA) – about 80 per cent of them women. MLMs are legal in Australia but research shows most consultants will only lose money.

The industry has also been plagued with allegations of "toxic" culture and unethical business practices for years.

Yet more than 90,000 Aussies joined MLMs in 2023 alone, many just trying to make ends meet.

"They prey on vulnerable people, they offer hope in this financial crisis," Ellen told 9news.

"It's all a lie."

What is multi-level marketing?

MLM businesses, also known as direct selling or network marketing, work by recruiting individual salespeople or "consultants".

But they don't receive a salary or wages.

Instead, they make money by selling MLM products, which they must purchase themselves from the business then sell at a markup or through recruitment.

Consultants can make hefty bonuses by recruiting other consultants under them (known as their "downline") to earn a percentage on all those recruits' sales.

This model, popularised by brands like Avon and Tupperware, has been compared to those of illegal pyramid schemes but MLMs are legal under Australian Consumer Law because they offer tangible products.

But fewer than one per cent of MLM consultants make a profit, according to US research, and a slew of MLMs have been accused of unethical sales and recruitment tactics.

Consultants predominantly sell and recruit through their personal networks, targeting friends, family and social media connections to buy or join.

And most MLMs require consultants to make regular purchases and meet sales targets just to stay in the business."

CBS: 3 members of cultlike Zizians group face trial together in Maryland amid federal investigation

"Three members of a violent cultlike group, including its alleged ringleader, will be tried together in Maryland on charges of trespassing, gun and drug possession after police discovered them camping in box trucks.

The group known as Zizians, which attracted a fringe contingent of computer scientists who connected online over their shared anarchist beliefs, has been linked to six killings spanning three states in recent years."

" ... Jack "Ziz" LaSota and her associates, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank, were arrested in February after a man told police that "suspicious" people had parked two box trucks on his property and asked to camp there for a month, according to authorities. The trucks were found in a largely remote wooded area near the Maryland-Pennsylvania line, a mountainous region dotted with small towns.

LaSota, a transgender woman who's regarded as the group leader, entered the courtroom Tuesday, hoisting a brown paper bag filled with documents. Throughout the hearing, LaSota and Zajko repeatedly interjected to address the judge directly, disregarding conventional courtroom practices and occasionally speaking over their attorneys. The regular interruptions added to the already unusual circumstances of the case, which hinged on the findings of federal investigators, despite being prosecuted in state court.

The main issue discussed on Tuesday was the timeline of the proceedings. After the trio was arrested in February on trespassing and illegal gun possession charges, prosecutors filed a superseding indictment last month with new allegations, including LSD possession."

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