I'm using the word Messiah in the broadest sense, not just in the orthodox Jewish sense. Many movements caused problems when they promoted the idea of the religious leader as a
Messiah. Moon, Guru Maharaji, Hickman (a rather small potato), and others, transcend the role of a normal religious leader.
They become answerable to no one (actually, Maharaji's mother demoted him as Lord of the Universe and put his brother in his stead, and Hickman was booted out of his cult's church).
Someone once asked a Hickmanite, "what would you do if Jack Hickman asked you to kill someone?" The person replied, "he'd be dead in a minute". Pays to ask hard questions. Probably pays to get the FBI involved too sometimes.

When Lubavitch got involved with me because of Hickman, I asked one of the "anti-cult" workers about his fulfilling of Rabbi Schneerson's wishes. He said "... anything that the rebbe would want [I'd fulfill]..." I think Chabad's idea was that it was ok to follow a leader almost blindly but it had to be the right leader and of course Rabbi Schneerson was that "right leader".
Where I come from these days, I just do a lot of comparing of notes. I try to run my own life my way, not your way, not some grand rebbe's way. Rugged individualism. That's me, the Crocodile Dundee of this forum. No joke, try thinking for yourselve's for a change. Rely on your own reflexes and instincts.