En Beğenilen Janja Lalich Sözleri ve Alıntıları
En Beğenilen Janja Lalich sözleri ve alıntılarını, en beğenilen Janja Lalich kitap alıntılarını, etkileyici sözleri 1000Kitap'ta bulabilirsiniz.Who Joins Cults? - Myth of the Seeker
As we have seen, a cult can be defined in many ways, but for our purposes and to explain most modern-day cults, it is necessary to think of a process, not an event, and to view life in the cult as a process. Processes evolve and unfold, something goes on between people. There is an interaction, a transaction, a relationship established.
The act of joining a cult results from a process put in motion by a cult recruiter. Cult practices make it clear that recruits are propagandized and socialized to accept the life conditions of the group. These conditions are revealed slowly, and the recruits do not know where they are going when they start. How can they be seekers for a particular result when they are unaware of the final patterns and contents of the group that they join?
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Defining Cults - Cult Types
To understand cults we must examine structure and practice, not beliefs. As will be explained in later chapters, it is the thought-reform techniques used by skillful manipulators to ensure compliance and obedience among their followers that is, in the final analysis, what makes cults so worrisome and harmful.
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Defining Cults - Who Joins Cults? - Yes, You
Many adults today are overwhelmed by the confusion and apparent coldness of our society: the senseless violence, the rampant homelessnes, the lack of meaning, the widespread loss of respect for authority figures, the vast numbers of unemployed and marginalized, the insecurity and instability of the job market, the loss of family communication, the lessening role of the established religions, the failing sense of community or even neighborhood. No less bewildered than the adolescents, many mature adults are finding less and less to hold onto in today's technoculture. What does this create but ripe recruits for the multitude of manipulators and swindlers?
Nevertheless, the fact remains that even apart from unsettling socioeconomic conditions and certain relevant family factors, any person who is in a vulnerable state, seeking companionship and a sense of meaning or in a period of transition or time of loss, is a good prospect for cult recruitment.
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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
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.
A Brief History of Cults
Whether the lure is warmed-over ancient lore or the most avant-garde secrets of the universe, followers are expected to step into the elite compound, community, or sphere of the leader. To do so usually means leaving behind family and friends and forsaking most of the ordinary world. In return for participating in this elite group, followers are told that they will be let in on the special knowledge.
Historically, we have seen that as the fabric of a society unravels, self-appointed leaders easily recruit a following. People at a loss to make sense of the mayhem around them look for direction and become more approachable and vulnerable to the manipulations and expoitations of these skillful con artists. Certainty and simple solutions for the complex problems of decision making become attractive offerings in a world that appears to be unstable and rapidly changing.
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A Brief History of Cults
History tells us something about the periods when cults thrive. It appears that there have been legions of self-appointed messiahs, gurus, or pied pipers (I use the term interchangeable) throughout time. But these types, ever present in our midst, only obtain substantial followings in certain periods. Traditionally, these periods have been marked by unusual social or political turbulence or breakdowns in the structure and rules of the prevailing society. Such are the times when cults flourish.
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Who Joins Cults? - Yes, You
Despite the myth that normal people don't get sucked into cults, it has become clear over the years that everyone is susceptible to the lure of these master manipulators. In fact, the majority of adolescents and adults in cults come from middle-class backgrounds, are fairly well educated, and are not seriously disturbed prior to joining.
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Defining Cults - Who Joins Cults? - Yes, You
What do the cults offer to lonely, depressed, or uncertain persons? In one form or another, each cult purports to offer an improved state of mind, an expanded state of being, and a moral, spiritual, or political state of righteous certainty.
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