KallMeKris

who was ready to give up everything for the cause until it was too much.

And those that left pointed to extremely strict commitments that were demanded of them as something that most people could not maintain.

But many did stay, and the group's numbers supposedly reached around 100 or more members throughout the Western US by late 1975.

And some estimates say the group reached to 200-ish people at its peak.

And they were called the, quote, doomsday UFO cult in the media.

And reporters actively pursued any chance at the story.

And a book titled UFO Missionaries Extraordinary was released in 1976 as one of the first published stories of the group.

And as publicity skyrocketed, so did Marshall and Bonnie's fears, which led them to drop out of the public eye for a period of time.

And instead of letting their followers carry on the recruitment, life within the group, which as a whole was sometimes called the class and members were sometimes called crew, was not conventional by any means.

But despite the harsh conditions, many members were disarmingly ordinary people who just believed they were on a spiritual mission.

And they were instructed to set up makeshift campgrounds in remote locations and all belongings and money were to be surrendered to a common pool for the group.

And they lived collectively and essentially had no contact with anyone outside of the group.

So just complete isolation, complete control.

Nobody could leave because nobody had anything to leave with.

It was just...

Classic cult.

And extreme obedience was demanded from the start because they had to give up all earthly attachments, including their families, friends, sex, drugs, fried foods, you name it.

And they even had to give up their birth names and they were controlled and stripped of their individuality.

And Joan Culpepper, an early member who later left and became a critic said, quote, most cults want to sweet talk you.

These guys weren't like that," unquote.