In 2018, Shoko Asahara and other members of a doomsday cult known as Aum Shinrikyo were executed by the Japanese state for perpetrating the worst terrorist attack to ever happen in Japan, according to The Strategist. As History explains, the attack took place in the Tokyo subway system in 1995, when Aum Shinrikyo set off sarin gas delivery devices, injuring more than 5,000 innocent people and killing 12. The terrorist cult's roots came from a sci-fi novel series written by the great Isaac Asimov.

Probably one of Asimov's more famous works, the "Foundation" series speaks of a hero who forms a secret society meant to rebuild the human world after a foretold total collapse of the fictional intergalactic civilization. The secret society, as Wired notes, becomes a religion after the protagonist dies. Asahara took the pages to heart and formed his own secret-society-turned-religion, which in the real world equates to a cult. The series became Asahara's blueprint, but in his organization's attempt to "save" as many humans as possible from a fictional apocalypse it believed to be real, the cult members committed the worst civilian crime known to the country.

Aum Shinrikyo wasn't a small group either. It had around 100 active and former military personnel, as well as several scientists and doctors. It's amazing what cult leaders are capable of, especially when they're armed with a classic piece of sci-fi excellence.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunCClHFocWxfl7ywt9Jmq6GZpGK2r7%2FPoqmenF2YvLHFwpqrZpuinrqmv4yipWaqlZa5brjIn5xo