Janja Lalich Gönderileri
Janja Lalich kitaplarını, Janja Lalich sözleri ve alıntılarını, Janja Lalich yazarlarını, Janja Lalich yorumları ve incelemelerini 1000Kitap'ta bulabilirsiniz.
Defining Cults - Who Joins Cults?
When we hear of cults, scams and individuals' being controlled and influenced by others, we instinctively try to seperate ourselves from those persons. It seems a point of valor and self-esteem to insist that "no one could get me to do such things" when hearing about situations of intense influence. Just as most soldiers believe bullets will hit only others, most people tend to believe that their own minds and thought processes are invulnerable. "Other people can be manipulated, but not me" they declare.
Sayfa 15
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.
Sayfa 15
Defining Cults - Cult Types
In the United States, there are at least ten major types of cults, each with its own beliefs, practices, and social mores. The list below is not exhaustive, but most cults can be classified under one of the following headings:
1. Neo-Christian religous
2. Hindu and Eastern religious
3. Occult, witchcraft, and satanist
4. Spiritualist
5. Zen and other Sino-Japanese philosophical-mystical orientation
6. Racial
7. Flying saucer and other outer-space phenomena
8. Psychology or psychotherapeutic
9. Policital
10. Self-help, self-improvement, and life-style systems.
***
This kind of listing could go on and on, exposing the sheer numbers and scope of the cults around us. Yet, on one level, all cults are a variation on a single theme. And ultimately, that theme has nothing to do with belief. In cultic groups, the belief system -whether religious, psychotherapeutic, political, New Age, or commercial- ends up being a tool to serve the leader's desires, whims, and hidden agendas. The ideology is a double-edged sword: it is the glue that binds the member to the group and it is a tool exploited by the leader to achieve his goals.
Sayfa 13
Defining Cults - Cults Are Not All Alike
In sum, the term cult is merely descriptive, not pejorative. It refers to the origins, social structure, and power structure of a group. The conduct of certain cults, however -expecially groups that tend to overtly exploit and abuse people and engage in deceptive, unethical, and illegal conduct- does provoke the surrounding society into a critical stance.
Sayfa 11
Defining Cults - Cults Are Not All Alike
Cults basically have only two purposes: recruiting new members and fund-raising. Established religions and altruistic movements may also recruit and raise funds. Their sole puprose, however, is not simply to grow larger and wealthier; such groups have as goals bettering the lives of their members or humankind in general, either in this world or in a world to come. A cult may claim to make social contributions, but in actuality these remain mere claims or gestures. In the end, all work and all funds, even token gestures of alturism, serve the cult.
Sayfa 11
Defining Cults - Cults Are Not All Alike
Cults are not uniform nor are they static. Cults exist on a continuum of degrees of influence, from more to less extreme. There are live-in and live-out cults. Groups vary in levels of membership and degrees of involvement: for example, members on the preiphery of a group usually are not privy to the costs, contents, and obligations of the later stages of membership and ahve little knowledge of the real purposes of the group or the amount of power wielded by the leader. Even within the same cult, rules, restrictions and requirements may change from year to year, or from location to location, depending on outside pressures, local leadership, and the fancies of the leader.
The manner in which controls are put into place, the extent of control over details of members' behaviour, and the blatancy of these controls also vary from cult to cult. In most live-in cults, every detail of life comes under group scrutiny. For example, there are dress codes, food restrictions, and enforced marriages or relationships. In such cults, the members generally live together at the headquarters or at specified locations around the country or overseas and work for cult-owned enerprises. However, there are also cults whose devotees appear to remain active in quite a few major aspects of the outside world, earning a living outside the cult. But for all practical purposes these individuals also live under rules governing such crucial features of their personal life as the people with whom they associate, what happens to their moeny, whether they raise their own children, and where they live.
Sayfa 10