--- title: Companies with Surprising Links to Cults description: "There are a lot of companies and products with surprising origin stories. Everyone knows that Coca-Cola once contained cocaine and that Listerine was a powerful surgical antiseptic and floor cleaner, but there are plenty of other examples. For instance, before treadmills were used as a form of exercise, they were a form of punishment for prisoners that also provided useful work like grinding grain. And of course Ferruccio Lamborghini founded his luxury car company out of spite because Enzo Ferrari was rude to him.\n\nHowever, sometimes these origin stories aren't just surprising, they're concerning. Today we'll be looking at a few prominent companies with deep ties to religious cults, some of which are still wholly owned by the cults to this day.\n\n## Purina\n\nYou're probably familiar with the brand Purina from their lines of pet foods, but those aren't the only products that the company made. Purina was founded by William Danforth in 1894 as Purina Mills. The company's goal was to sell feed for farm animals that they referred to as \"chow.\" You may have seen Purina Puppy Chow and Purina Cat Chow at the grocery store, as those products still use that original name, but they also made horse chow, pig chow, rabbit chow, and for some reason monkey chow.\n\nHowever, the same year that Purina started up its animal feed business, a man named Webster Edgerly purchased a large amount of farmland in New Jersey. This land was going to be home to the members of his cult, known as Ralstonism.\n\nEdgerly had graduated from law school in 1876 and was a practicing lawyer, but that wasn't his primary interest. The same year he graduated, he formed a group known as the Ralston Health Club. The organization was based on Edgerly's teachings from a number of books he wrote under the pseudonym Everett Ralston, which was also the basis for the group's name.\n\nBetween those published under the Ralston pen name and his real name, Edgerly wrote dozens of books of a somewhat religious nature, preaching of a utopian society. He also published 82 books under the pseudonym Edmund Shaftesbury that were essentially self-help books. These books were also key to the beliefs of the Ralston Health Club, later renamed Ralstonism, and were published by Edgerly's Ralston Company.\n\nAs with most cults, the majority of the beliefs and teachings of Ralstonism were insane. There was a lot of pseudoscientific gibberish about things like personal magnetism. For example, Edgerly wrote that by picking up a marble off a table and swinging it around, a person could increase their personal magnetism and thus attract more members of the opposite sex. He also believed that people should only walk on the balls of their feet and never in a straight line, otherwise their \"vital forces\" would leak out.\n\nEdgerly's views on marriage were more than a little unusual as well. He believed that every man should have a sort of trial marriage with someone old enough to be his grandmother. Presumably this was meant to teach the man how to be an adequate husband and lover, and once the probationary marriage was complete each man should then marry a girl 20 years younger than him. And of course, couples were to have sex once every eight days. No less, and absolutely no more.\n\nBut perhaps the most important part of Edgerly's teaching as it pertained to Ralstonism was the desire to create a new Caucasian race that was free from impurities. Those who joined him in New Jersey would be the founding members of the new race, and he advocated for all racially impure males to be castrated at birth.\n\nHowever, while most of Ralstonism was insane, not quite everything was. Many of Edgerly's self-help books focused on actual good advice about hygiene, diet, and exercise. Those books would also be filled with non sequitur racist rants, though this was only one generation removed from the Civil War, so perhaps it didn't seem unhinged to people back then.\n\nRegardless, one of the recommendations made regarding diet was the consumption of whole grain cereals for breakfast, which was both gaining in popularity at the time and sensible advice. And that's where Purina came in. In 1898 they decided to branch out from animal feed into people feed, and Danforth decided to base his recipe on one that appeared in one of Edgerly's books. He reached out for an endorsement, which was received, and Ralston Wheat Cereal went on sale that year as a hot breakfast cereal.\n\nDespite being a crackpot cult leader, Edgerly was still well known and respected; it was even known that Queen Victoria had a full collection of his books. Unsurprisingly the Ralston Wheat Cereal was a hit, and so Purina Mills and the Ralston Company merged to create Ralston Purina. The Ralston side of the company was responsible for cereal production, and they created several popular cereals such as Chex and Cookie Crisp. These cereals were branded with the Ralston name until 1998 when the brands were sold off to General Mills.\n\n## Yogi Tea\n\nHarbhajan Singh Puri was born in 1929 in Punjab, British India, what is now Pakistan. His family fled to New Delhi during the partition of India in 1947, after which he attended college and received a master's degree in economics. About 15 years later, he moved to North America, first staying in Toronto before settling in Los Angeles. The year was 1968, and it was the perfect time for Puri to have arrived in Los Angeles. The city was fresh off the heels of the Summer of Love, and LA was still completely overrun by hippies.\n\nThese hippies made the perfect audience for Puri as he introduced Sikhism to Western society. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, a bureaucratic organization responsible for managing Sikh temples and their jurisdictions, had given Puri the title of Siri Singh Sahib, making him the official leader of Sikhism in the Western world. As such, Puri began going by the name Yogi Bhajan while acquiring followers.\n\nHowever, as impressive as all of that sounded to gullible hippies, none of it was true. Puri had spent his 15 years after college as a low level government employee, mostly working as a customs officer. Not only was he not an official ambassador of Sikhism for the West, but the president of the committee condemned Puri and his teachings, many of which were considered \"forbidden and immoral\" violations of Sikh customs.\n\nBut the Westerners didn't know any of this, and much of what Puri taught aligned with what the hippies already believed anyway. His early work in North America mostly focused on teaching yoga, with an emphasis on tantric yoga, but in the summer of 1969 Puri founded 3HO. The name stood for the Healthy, Happy, and Holy Organization, and it was also referred to as Sikh Dharma International.\n\nPuri used 3HO to spread what was seen in the East as a bastardized version of Sikhism. He claimed that his teaching of meditation, yoga, and vegetarianism, and the practices of wearing all white and of men not cutting their hair or beards were all part of the Sikh religion. While this was all appealing to members of 1960s and 70s counterculture in the United States (except for the part about not being able to wear their tie-dyed clothes anymore), most of it was a lie. Naam Simran and Kirtan are both forms of Sikh meditation, and it's true that traditionally Sikh men did not cut their hair or beards. However, they are not required to wear white, be vegetarian, and they do not practice yoga.\n\nRegardless, Puri was able to lie his way into being a prominent member of the community and recruiting many members to 3HO. The early converts were mostly hippies, but as they grew they began to branch out. And of course, Puri had to also tighten his grip on his followers. In standard cult fashion, members of 3HO had to cut off everyone else in their lives, sign over their assets or buy property in the organization's name, and work long hours in 3HO businesses. Members were forced into arranged marriages where men had total control over their wives, and following his death in 2004 Puri was subject to numerous credible claims of sexual abuse and assault.\n\nThe cult's members were also kept sleep deprived and malnourished, but at the end of their long and grueling shifts, they would always be treated to Puri's special blend of tea. And as it turns out, the tea was really good. Because he was going by the name Yogi Bhajan, his students referred to it as Yogi Tea. And in 1984, the cult began manufacturing and selling the tea en masse. Yogi Tea has since grown into one of the best selling tea companies in the United States, with almost $60 million in sales annually.\n\nHowever, this isn't the only company that the 3HO cult is responsible for. One of Puri's converts was a man known as Gurutej Khalsa, the name he took after converting to 3HO's version of Sikhism. He attempted to join the military and to find work in law enforcement, but he found that his beard and turban made it impossible to do so. Undeterred, in 1980 he founded a security company called Akal Security which was then donated to 3HO.\n\nThe security company was originally staffed entirely by cult members and was used to guard local stores and restaurants. It quickly grew, and was able to secure government security contracts thanks to the US government's policy of always going with the cheapest available option. They have acquired many lucrative contracts and have been responsible for providing security to airports, military bases, embassies, and even the White House.\n\nWhile price was the major factor in the early contracts, obviously Akal Security must be good at what they do if they have been able to continue acquiring these government contracts for decades. And since 2000, Akal Security, who is still wholly owned by 3HO's parent organization Sikh Dharma International, has secured over $3.5 billion in government security contracts.\n\n## Acellus Academy\n\nIn 2013, Acellus Labs was founded by Dr. Roger Billings. The company focused on online learning with their Acellus Learning System, an online curriculum that could be used by schools or for parents that were homeschooling their children. In 2015 they also created Acellus Academy, an accredited school with the ability to give high school diplomas. Acellus Labs was under the umbrella of Billing's other business venture, the International Academy of Science.\n\nFor years the curriculum was utilized by a number of public schools, and many homeschooled children were taught entirely through Acellus Academy. However, it wasn't until 2020 that the program became the matter of controversy. Due to the pandemic, all schooling was switched to remote learning which resulted in more children using the Acellus curriculum. Perhaps more importantly, many parents were also now working remotely as well, which meant that they were home to see exactly what Acellus was teaching their children. And they were not happy.\n\nMany people found the curriculum created by Acellus to contain racist, misogynistic, or otherwise objectionable content. There were reports of religious content being included in subjects when it wasn't appropriate and not being taught in a historical context. Even ignoring the arguably subjective complaints regarding the content being taught, a review by the Department of Education found the material to contain repetitive tasks with \"low cognitive demand,\" and the online tools were often glitchy or poorly designed, with navigation bars covering up text that appeared on screen as part of the lessons.\n\nAll of these complaints caused people to look further into the company behind these educational tools, and then into the man behind that company. As it turns out, Dr. Roger Billings received his doctorate from the International Academy of Science, the unaccredited institution that he personally founded. Many of the other teachers working for Acellus also received degrees from the International Academy of Science, and they had no teaching credentials from accredited universities.\n\nLooking further into Billings, it was discovered that he was also the former head of the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion. This was an offshoot of the Mormons, and it was founded in 1984 based off the teachings of Billing's friend, Kenneth Asay. Asay claimed to be the reincarnation of Joseph Smith, and one of the key reasons for the split with the Mormon Church was the belief that it was man's divine responsibility to take more than one wife.\n\nFormer members of the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion have referred to the organization as a polygamist cult, with Billings allegedly having 38 wives and at least 70 children. However, information regarding this can be difficult to find or verify. Billing officially distanced himself from the church in public statements as early as 2004, and he has worked tirelessly to scrub the internet of anything that might connect him to the church, as well as attempting to remove all negative press about Acellus from the internet.\n\nAccording to reporting, he has gone so far as to threaten people with legal action for making disparaging comments about Acellus's curriculum on internet forums, and any attempt to look into Acellus or Billings is likely to result in countless dead links to pages that he has since had removed. Despite his public claims, however, experts believe that he is still the head of the cult. And while Billings has done his best to sanitize his appearance online, there are still the employee reviews of Acellus Academy on the career website Glassdoor, a website that specializes in anonymous and honest company reviews that the companies cannot alter or delete.\n\nSeeing as Billings is a former (if not current) cult leader, it should come as no surprise that the company was described as feeling like a cult. Management was made up entirely of Billings and his family members, people were expected to work long hours with no benefits, most people lived on a campus directly across the street, and employees were not even allowed to bring their own food to work, even if they had strict dietary restrictions.\n\nBut even if Acellus Academy is a poorly run company founded by a cult leader that produces questionable, problematic, and sometimes even factually inaccurate educational material, there was one thing that even the most negative company reviews from employees all agreed on: it was pretty cool having free Starbucks in the company's cafeteria.\n\n## Key Takeaways\n\n- Purina's origins are tied to Ralstonism, a cult led by Webster Edgerly, who promoted pseudoscientific beliefs.\n- Yogi Tea was created by Harbhajan Singh Puri, who founded the 3HO cult and sold the tea to members.\n- Akal Security, a company owned by the 3HO cult, has secured over $3.5 billion in government contracts since 2000.\n- Acellus Academy, founded by Dr. Roger Billings, faced controversy for its curriculum and ties to a polygamist cult.\n- Billings, the founder of Acellus Academy, has attempted to scrub negative information about his company and cult ties.\n\n## Frequently Asked Questions\n\n### What is the origin of the name 'Purina'?\n\nPurina was originally founded by William Danforth in 1894 as Purina Mills. The name 'Purina' comes from the combination of 'Purina Mills' and the 'Ralston Company,' which merged to create Ralston Purina.\n\n### What was the original purpose of treadmills?\n\nBefore treadmills were used as a form of exercise, they were a form of punishment for prisoners that also provided useful work like grinding grain.\n\n### What is the connection between Purina and the Ralstonism cult?\n\nPurina was founded the same year that Webster Edgerly, the leader of the Ralstonism cult, purchased land in New Jersey for his followers. Purina's founder, William Danforth, based his recipe for Ralston Wheat Cereal on one that appeared in one of Edgerly's books, leading to a merger between Purina Mills and the Ralston Company.\n\n### What are some of the unusual beliefs of the Ralstonism cult?\n\nThe Ralstonism cult had beliefs such as increasing personal magnetism by swinging a marble, walking on the balls of feet to avoid leaking vital forces, and advocating for a trial marriage with someone old enough to be one's grandmother before marrying a much younger person.\n\n### Who founded the 3HO cult and what does the name stand for?\n\nHarbhajan Singh Puri, who went by the name Yogi Bhajan, founded the 3HO cult. The name 3HO stands for the Healthy, Happy, and Holy Organization.\n\n### What is the connection between Yogi Tea and the 3HO cult?\n\nYogi Tea was created by Harbhajan Singh Puri, also known as Yogi Bhajan, the founder of the 3HO cult. The tea was originally made for cult members and later became a commercially successful product.\n\n### What is Akal Security and its connection to the 3HO cult?\n\nAkal Security is a security company founded by Gurutej Khalsa, a convert to the 3HO cult. The company is wholly owned by 3HO's parent organization, Sikh Dharma International, and has secured over $3.5 billion in government security contracts since 2000.\n\n### What controversies surround Acellus Academy?\n\nAcellus Academy faced controversies due to its curriculum containing racist, misogynistic, or otherwise objectionable content. The curriculum was also found to have repetitive tasks with low cognitive demand, and the online tools were often glitchy or poorly designed.\n\n### Who is Dr. Roger Billings and what is his connection to Acellus Academy?\n\nDr. Roger Billings is the founder of Acellus Labs, which created the Acellus Learning System and Acellus Academy. Billings is also the former head of the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion, a polygamist cult, and has been accused of having 38 wives and at least 70 children.\n\n### What is the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion and its connection to Dr. Roger Billings?\n\nThe Church of Jesus Christ in Zion is a polygamist cult founded based on the teachings of Kenneth Asay, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Joseph Smith. Dr. Roger Billings was the former head of this church and has been accused of having multiple wives and children.\n\n## Sources\n\n- [Original Side Projects video: Companies with Surprising Links to Cults](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H_9EoomyI)\n- [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Asbury_Park_Boardwalk_New_Jersey_2024.jpg) by Euthman / openverse, by.\n\n## Related Coverage" url: https://sideprojects.pub/article/companies-with-surprising-links-to-cults.md canonical: https://sideprojects.pub/article/companies-with-surprising-links-to-cults datePublished: 2026-07-02 dateModified: 2026-07-02 author: - name: Simon Whistler url: https://sideprojects.pub/author/simon-whistler publisher: Side Projects image: "https://media.sideprojects.pub/cdn-cgi/image/width=1600,height=900,fit=cover,quality=80,format=auto/articles/S8H_9EoomyI/hero.jpg" type: Article contentHash: 352676409bc8a9cb61ce5c0f7633dc30e6ff74130a088db63d9f9338dd05510b tokens: 4591 summaryUrl: https://sideprojects.pub/article/companies-with-surprising-links-to-cults.md.summary.md --- There are a lot of companies and products with surprising origin stories. Everyone knows that Coca-Cola once contained cocaine and that Listerine was a powerful surgical antiseptic and floor cleaner, but there are plenty of other examples. For instance, before treadmills were used as a form of exercise, they were a form of punishment for prisoners that also provided useful work like grinding grain. And of course Ferruccio Lamborghini founded his luxury car company out of spite because Enzo Ferrari was rude to him. However, sometimes these origin stories aren't just surprising, they're concerning. Today we'll be looking at a few prominent companies with deep ties to religious cults, some of which are still wholly owned by the cults to this day. ## Purina You're probably familiar with the brand Purina from their lines of pet foods, but those aren't the only products that the company made. Purina was founded by William Danforth in 1894 as Purina Mills. The company's goal was to sell feed for farm animals that they referred to as "chow." You may have seen Purina Puppy Chow and Purina Cat Chow at the grocery store, as those products still use that original name, but they also made horse chow, pig chow, rabbit chow, and for some reason monkey chow. However, the same year that Purina started up its animal feed business, a man named Webster Edgerly purchased a large amount of farmland in New Jersey. This land was going to be home to the members of his cult, known as Ralstonism. Edgerly had graduated from law school in 1876 and was a practicing lawyer, but that wasn't his primary interest. The same year he graduated, he formed a group known as the Ralston Health Club. The organization was based on Edgerly's teachings from a number of books he wrote under the pseudonym Everett Ralston, which was also the basis for the group's name. Between those published under the Ralston pen name and his real name, Edgerly wrote dozens of books of a somewhat religious nature, preaching of a utopian society. He also published 82 books under the pseudonym Edmund Shaftesbury that were essentially self-help books. These books were also key to the beliefs of the Ralston Health Club, later renamed Ralstonism, and were published by Edgerly's Ralston Company. As with most cults, the majority of the beliefs and teachings of Ralstonism were insane. There was a lot of pseudoscientific gibberish about things like personal magnetism. For example, Edgerly wrote that by picking up a marble off a table and swinging it around, a person could increase their personal magnetism and thus attract more members of the opposite sex. He also believed that people should only walk on the balls of their feet and never in a straight line, otherwise their "vital forces" would leak out. Edgerly's views on marriage were more than a little unusual as well. He believed that every man should have a sort of trial marriage with someone old enough to be his grandmother. Presumably this was meant to teach the man how to be an adequate husband and lover, and once the probationary marriage was complete each man should then marry a girl 20 years younger than him. And of course, couples were to have sex once every eight days. No less, and absolutely no more. But perhaps the most important part of Edgerly's teaching as it pertained to Ralstonism was the desire to create a new Caucasian race that was free from impurities. Those who joined him in New Jersey would be the founding members of the new race, and he advocated for all racially impure males to be castrated at birth. However, while most of Ralstonism was insane, not quite everything was. Many of Edgerly's self-help books focused on actual good advice about hygiene, diet, and exercise. Those books would also be filled with non sequitur racist rants, though this was only one generation removed from the Civil War, so perhaps it didn't seem unhinged to people back then. Regardless, one of the recommendations made regarding diet was the consumption of whole grain cereals for breakfast, which was both gaining in popularity at the time and sensible advice. And that's where Purina came in. In 1898 they decided to branch out from animal feed into people feed, and Danforth decided to base his recipe on one that appeared in one of Edgerly's books. He reached out for an endorsement, which was received, and Ralston Wheat Cereal went on sale that year as a hot breakfast cereal. Despite being a crackpot cult leader, Edgerly was still well known and respected; it was even known that Queen Victoria had a full collection of his books. Unsurprisingly the Ralston Wheat Cereal was a hit, and so Purina Mills and the Ralston Company merged to create Ralston Purina. The Ralston side of the company was responsible for cereal production, and they created several popular cereals such as Chex and Cookie Crisp. These cereals were branded with the Ralston name until 1998 when the brands were sold off to General Mills. ## Yogi Tea Harbhajan Singh Puri was born in 1929 in Punjab, British India, what is now Pakistan. His family fled to New Delhi during the partition of India in 1947, after which he attended college and received a master's degree in economics. About 15 years later, he moved to North America, first staying in Toronto before settling in Los Angeles. The year was 1968, and it was the perfect time for Puri to have arrived in Los Angeles. The city was fresh off the heels of the Summer of Love, and LA was still completely overrun by hippies. These hippies made the perfect audience for Puri as he introduced Sikhism to Western society. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, a bureaucratic organization responsible for managing Sikh temples and their jurisdictions, had given Puri the title of Siri Singh Sahib, making him the official leader of Sikhism in the Western world. As such, Puri began going by the name Yogi Bhajan while acquiring followers. However, as impressive as all of that sounded to gullible hippies, none of it was true. Puri had spent his 15 years after college as a low level government employee, mostly working as a customs officer. Not only was he not an official ambassador of Sikhism for the West, but the president of the committee condemned Puri and his teachings, many of which were considered "forbidden and immoral" violations of Sikh customs. But the Westerners didn't know any of this, and much of what Puri taught aligned with what the hippies already believed anyway. His early work in North America mostly focused on teaching yoga, with an emphasis on tantric yoga, but in the summer of 1969 Puri founded 3HO. The name stood for the Healthy, Happy, and Holy Organization, and it was also referred to as Sikh Dharma International. Puri used 3HO to spread what was seen in the East as a bastardized version of Sikhism. He claimed that his teaching of meditation, yoga, and vegetarianism, and the practices of wearing all white and of men not cutting their hair or beards were all part of the Sikh religion. While this was all appealing to members of 1960s and 70s counterculture in the United States (except for the part about not being able to wear their tie-dyed clothes anymore), most of it was a lie. Naam Simran and Kirtan are both forms of Sikh meditation, and it's true that traditionally Sikh men did not cut their hair or beards. However, they are not required to wear white, be vegetarian, and they do not practice yoga. Regardless, Puri was able to lie his way into being a prominent member of the community and recruiting many members to 3HO. The early converts were mostly hippies, but as they grew they began to branch out. And of course, Puri had to also tighten his grip on his followers. In standard cult fashion, members of 3HO had to cut off everyone else in their lives, sign over their assets or buy property in the organization's name, and work long hours in 3HO businesses. Members were forced into arranged marriages where men had total control over their wives, and following his death in 2004 Puri was subject to numerous credible claims of sexual abuse and assault. The cult's members were also kept sleep deprived and malnourished, but at the end of their long and grueling shifts, they would always be treated to Puri's special blend of tea. And as it turns out, the tea was really good. Because he was going by the name Yogi Bhajan, his students referred to it as Yogi Tea. And in 1984, the cult began manufacturing and selling the tea en masse. Yogi Tea has since grown into one of the best selling tea companies in the United States, with almost $60 million in sales annually. However, this isn't the only company that the 3HO cult is responsible for. One of Puri's converts was a man known as Gurutej Khalsa, the name he took after converting to 3HO's version of Sikhism. He attempted to join the military and to find work in law enforcement, but he found that his beard and turban made it impossible to do so. Undeterred, in 1980 he founded a security company called Akal Security which was then donated to 3HO. The security company was originally staffed entirely by cult members and was used to guard local stores and restaurants. It quickly grew, and was able to secure government security contracts thanks to the US government's policy of always going with the cheapest available option. They have acquired many lucrative contracts and have been responsible for providing security to airports, military bases, embassies, and even the White House. While price was the major factor in the early contracts, obviously Akal Security must be good at what they do if they have been able to continue acquiring these government contracts for decades. And since 2000, Akal Security, who is still wholly owned by 3HO's parent organization Sikh Dharma International, has secured over $3.5 billion in government security contracts. ## Acellus Academy In 2013, Acellus Labs was founded by Dr. Roger Billings. The company focused on online learning with their Acellus Learning System, an online curriculum that could be used by schools or for parents that were homeschooling their children. In 2015 they also created Acellus Academy, an accredited school with the ability to give high school diplomas. Acellus Labs was under the umbrella of Billing's other business venture, the International Academy of Science. For years the curriculum was utilized by a number of public schools, and many homeschooled children were taught entirely through Acellus Academy. However, it wasn't until 2020 that the program became the matter of controversy. Due to the pandemic, all schooling was switched to remote learning which resulted in more children using the Acellus curriculum. Perhaps more importantly, many parents were also now working remotely as well, which meant that they were home to see exactly what Acellus was teaching their children. And they were not happy. Many people found the curriculum created by Acellus to contain racist, misogynistic, or otherwise objectionable content. There were reports of religious content being included in subjects when it wasn't appropriate and not being taught in a historical context. Even ignoring the arguably subjective complaints regarding the content being taught, a review by the Department of Education found the material to contain repetitive tasks with "low cognitive demand," and the online tools were often glitchy or poorly designed, with navigation bars covering up text that appeared on screen as part of the lessons. All of these complaints caused people to look further into the company behind these educational tools, and then into the man behind that company. As it turns out, Dr. Roger Billings received his doctorate from the International Academy of Science, the unaccredited institution that he personally founded. Many of the other teachers working for Acellus also received degrees from the International Academy of Science, and they had no teaching credentials from accredited universities. Looking further into Billings, it was discovered that he was also the former head of the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion. This was an offshoot of the Mormons, and it was founded in 1984 based off the teachings of Billing's friend, Kenneth Asay. Asay claimed to be the reincarnation of Joseph Smith, and one of the key reasons for the split with the Mormon Church was the belief that it was man's divine responsibility to take more than one wife. Former members of the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion have referred to the organization as a polygamist cult, with Billings allegedly having 38 wives and at least 70 children. However, information regarding this can be difficult to find or verify. Billing officially distanced himself from the church in public statements as early as 2004, and he has worked tirelessly to scrub the internet of anything that might connect him to the church, as well as attempting to remove all negative press about Acellus from the internet. According to reporting, he has gone so far as to threaten people with legal action for making disparaging comments about Acellus's curriculum on internet forums, and any attempt to look into Acellus or Billings is likely to result in countless dead links to pages that he has since had removed. Despite his public claims, however, experts believe that he is still the head of the cult. And while Billings has done his best to sanitize his appearance online, there are still the employee reviews of Acellus Academy on the career website Glassdoor, a website that specializes in anonymous and honest company reviews that the companies cannot alter or delete. Seeing as Billings is a former (if not current) cult leader, it should come as no surprise that the company was described as feeling like a cult. Management was made up entirely of Billings and his family members, people were expected to work long hours with no benefits, most people lived on a campus directly across the street, and employees were not even allowed to bring their own food to work, even if they had strict dietary restrictions. But even if Acellus Academy is a poorly run company founded by a cult leader that produces questionable, problematic, and sometimes even factually inaccurate educational material, there was one thing that even the most negative company reviews from employees all agreed on: it was pretty cool having free Starbucks in the company's cafeteria. ## Key Takeaways - Purina's origins are tied to Ralstonism, a cult led by Webster Edgerly, who promoted pseudoscientific beliefs. - Yogi Tea was created by Harbhajan Singh Puri, who founded the 3HO cult and sold the tea to members. - Akal Security, a company owned by the 3HO cult, has secured over $3.5 billion in government contracts since 2000. - Acellus Academy, founded by Dr. Roger Billings, faced controversy for its curriculum and ties to a polygamist cult. - Billings, the founder of Acellus Academy, has attempted to scrub negative information about his company and cult ties. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the origin of the name 'Purina'? Purina was originally founded by William Danforth in 1894 as Purina Mills. The name 'Purina' comes from the combination of 'Purina Mills' and the 'Ralston Company,' which merged to create Ralston Purina. ### What was the original purpose of treadmills? Before treadmills were used as a form of exercise, they were a form of punishment for prisoners that also provided useful work like grinding grain. ### What is the connection between Purina and the Ralstonism cult? Purina was founded the same year that Webster Edgerly, the leader of the Ralstonism cult, purchased land in New Jersey for his followers. Purina's founder, William Danforth, based his recipe for Ralston Wheat Cereal on one that appeared in one of Edgerly's books, leading to a merger between Purina Mills and the Ralston Company. ### What are some of the unusual beliefs of the Ralstonism cult? The Ralstonism cult had beliefs such as increasing personal magnetism by swinging a marble, walking on the balls of feet to avoid leaking vital forces, and advocating for a trial marriage with someone old enough to be one's grandmother before marrying a much younger person. ### Who founded the 3HO cult and what does the name stand for? Harbhajan Singh Puri, who went by the name Yogi Bhajan, founded the 3HO cult. The name 3HO stands for the Healthy, Happy, and Holy Organization. ### What is the connection between Yogi Tea and the 3HO cult? Yogi Tea was created by Harbhajan Singh Puri, also known as Yogi Bhajan, the founder of the 3HO cult. The tea was originally made for cult members and later became a commercially successful product. ### What is Akal Security and its connection to the 3HO cult? Akal Security is a security company founded by Gurutej Khalsa, a convert to the 3HO cult. The company is wholly owned by 3HO's parent organization, Sikh Dharma International, and has secured over $3.5 billion in government security contracts since 2000. ### What controversies surround Acellus Academy? Acellus Academy faced controversies due to its curriculum containing racist, misogynistic, or otherwise objectionable content. The curriculum was also found to have repetitive tasks with low cognitive demand, and the online tools were often glitchy or poorly designed. ### Who is Dr. Roger Billings and what is his connection to Acellus Academy? Dr. Roger Billings is the founder of Acellus Labs, which created the Acellus Learning System and Acellus Academy. Billings is also the former head of the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion, a polygamist cult, and has been accused of having 38 wives and at least 70 children. ### What is the Church of Jesus Christ in Zion and its connection to Dr. Roger Billings? The Church of Jesus Christ in Zion is a polygamist cult founded based on the teachings of Kenneth Asay, who claimed to be the reincarnation of Joseph Smith. Dr. Roger Billings was the former head of this church and has been accused of having multiple wives and children. ## Sources - [Original Side Projects video: Companies with Surprising Links to Cults](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8H_9EoomyI) - [Hero image source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Asbury_Park_Boardwalk_New_Jersey_2024.jpg) by Euthman / openverse, by. ## Related Coverage