Aum shinrikyo is a Japanese cult listed as a terrorist organization by several countries. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The name gAum Shinrikyoh derives from the Sanskrit syllable Aum, which represents the universe, followed by Shinrikyo which is written in kanji, roughly translating to greligion of Truthh. 

The organisation started as a yoga and meditation class known as Aum Shinsen no Kai ((ƒIƒEƒ€_å‚̉ï "Aum club of gods and hermitsh) in 1984 and steadily grew in the following years. It attracted a lot of young graduates from japanese elite universities which gave it the name greligion for the eliteh.

The group follows a syncretic belief system that combines parts of Christianity with unusual interpretations of Yoga and the writings of Nostradamus. Shoko Asahara calls himself gChristh with the mission to take the sins of the world upon himself. (syncretic = a combination of something which mostly contradicts itself)

The cult started attracting controversy in the late 1980s due to accusations of deception of recuits and holding cult members against their will. A member has been murdererd as he tried to leave the cult.

The Sakamoto family incident
Sakamoto, a lawyer, worked on a lawsuit against Aum Shinrikyo which could potentially bankrupt the group.
On October 1989, he recorded an interview for a talk show, the network  of the talk show then secretly showed the interview to members of Aum Shinrikyo, In the following month Sakamoto, his wife and his child went missing from their home. The police were unable to resolve the case, until 1995 where they found their dead bodies dumped into different regions of japan by cult members. This was uncovered due to the arrest of the perpetrators in the following incident.

the Subway Sarin Incident
On 20th of March 1995, members of the cult released sarin, a toxic gas, in a coordinated attack on several trains in the Tokyo subway system, killing 13 victims, seriously injuring 54 and affecting over thousand more. The attack should have made Japan blame the USA  for the attack, ultimately resulting to World War 3. Their plan failed because the police found out about it.
After the Subway Sarin Incident Asahara was sentenced to death on 27 February 2004.
 Today the cult still exists as Aleph, with 2100 members which tries to distance itself from the old Aum Shinrikyo.