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Introduction
Cults come in all sizes, form around any theme, and recruit persons of all ages and backgrounds. Not all cults are religious, as some people think. Their reasons for existing may concern religion, life-style, politics, or assorted philosophies. Not everyone who is approached by a cult recruiter joins, and of those who join, not all stay forever. Cults vary in how much financial and political power they wield. Some are local phenomena with only a dozen members. Others have thousands of members, operate multinational businesses, and control complex multimillion -if not multibillion- dollar organizations.
Cults are not always easy to recognize at first glance. Most people have a general grasp of what a cult is and are aware of the rise of cultic groups in the past decades. However, what people are not generally aware of is how cults achieve the control of people's lives that they appear to have.
In my study of cults, I find that the personality, preferences and desires of the leader are central in the evolution of any of these groups. Cults are truly 'personality cults'. Because cult structure is basically authoritarian, the personality of the leader is all important. Cults come to reflect the ideas, and whims of the leader and become extensions of the leader.
Legend has it that all cult leaders are charismatic. In reality, charisma is less important than skills of persuasion and the ability to manipulate others. In order to start a group, a leader has to have ways of convincing others to follow him or her, and such leaders tend not to relinquish their control. Cult leadership can be a heady role when the leader comes to see the amount of control he or she holds and how easily he or she can influence followers.
Introduction
Cults present a consuer issue as well as the philosophical issue of whether one person should have near-total control over others. From the consumer vantage point, how can a potential cult member learn what really occurs during memberhsip? Allegations abound that there are deceptions during the recruitment phase and that new members are not at all aware of what will be expected after they affiliate with a cultic group. More than one former cult member has told me that once caught up in the group, he or she found it something far different than it appeared at first.
In order to understand how someone can be hoodwinked to such a degree that she or he gives up job, family, and the freedom of self-determination, we must look ath the social and psychological influence techniques used by cults and cultic groups. This process of planned, covert, coordinated influence -popularly called brainwashing or mind control or, more technically, thought reform- is the route by which the cult leader gains control.
Introduction
We are all more vulnerable to flattery, deception, lures and enticements when we are lonely, sad, and feeling needy. In such periods of transient vulnerability, most of us are more manipulable, more suggestible, and more likely to be deceived by the flattery and inducement of designing persons.
Introduction
Readers should know that a number of cults are highly litigious and use their wealth and power to harass and curb critics. Citizens, academics, journalists, former cult members and their parents, and publications ranging from Time magazine to the Journal of the American Medical Association have been the targets of leagal suits brought by various wealthy cults in efforts to intimidate and silence critics. Defending himself of herself against the false accusations made by some of these cults can break the ordinary person. It appears that winning is not the most important goal for the cults. Their motivation appears rather to be to harass, financially destroy, and silence criticism.
Last year alone, one large cult was involved in approximately two hundred suits with government entities, critics, and ex-members who spoke out about their time in the group.
Defining Cults
Currently, depending on how one defines a cult, there are anywhere from three thousand to five thousand cults in the United States alone. Over the past two decades as many as twenty million people have been involved for varying periods of time in one or another of these groups. And not only are the cult members affected, but millions more family members and loved ones worry and wonder, sometimes for years, about what has happened to their relatives or friends.
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Defining Cults - Definitions and Characteristics
I perefer to use the phrase "cultic relationships" to signify more precisely the processes and interactions that go on in a cult. A cultic relationship is one in which a person intentionally induces others to become totally or nearly totally dependent on him or her for almost all major life decisions, and inculcates in these followers a belief that he or she has some special talent, gift, or knowledge.
For our purposes, the label 'cult' refers to three factors:
1. The origin of the group and role of the leader.
2. The power structure, or relationship between the leader (or leaders) and the followers.
3. The use of a coordinated program of persuasion (which is called thought reform, or, more commonly, brainwashing)
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