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When people hear the word cult a certain image tends to burst into their brain. Brainwashed
devotees worshipping a crazed narcissist and ready to sacrifice anything for them.
While Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, and the Solar Temple have given cults a violent reputation,
most cults keep a much lower profile.
Cults are everywhere. There's probably a cult in your town. And the tricks they use to lure
people in aren’t complicated but rather tried and tested social manipulation tactics
that anyone can fall for.
So what is a cult, how do they trap people, and how do people end up believing that volcano
alien ghosts are living on their bodies? Well Let’s Find Out.
A cult can form around anything: politics, religion, business, self improvement, therapy,
hate, aliens, meditation, youtube channels, or eco friendly lifestyles.
Cults are not solely religious and not all New Religious Movements or unorthodox groups
are cults. Cult does not mean “religion or group I don’t like” but refers to a
specific structure and characteristics.
The Symbionese Liberation Army, famous for kidnapping Patty Hearst, was a political cult.
Amway is a corporate cult. And the Children of God, the cult that Joaquin Phoenix was
raised in, is a religious cult.
Rastafarianism, Baháʼí, and Wicca are New Religious Movements but not cults. They don’t
deceive people into joining or force them to cut off ties with non-Rastafarian friends
and family.
It isn’t beliefs that make a cult but their authoritarian structure, their deceptive recruitment,
and how controlling they are. That is why cults are also called Totalist Groups and
why they share their structure with totalitarian regimes. Cults aren’t about belief they’re
about control.
To spot a cult look out for the following 3 characteristics.
1. A Charismatic And Authoritarian Leader
Cults leaders always have two qualities. Charisma and Authoritarianism.
A cult leader needs to have enough confidence, charm, or drive to pull people in.
And they are always narcissists! Cult leaders like Jim Jones, Shoko Asahara, and Marshall
Applewhite, all fit at least eight of the nine criteria for people with narcissistic
personality disorders.
Their charisma and grandiose sense of self-importance attract people. But after the initial charm
their authoritarian nature and lack of empathy creates a culture of fear and terror, which
keeps people in the cult.
-Heaven's Gate member- The energy that I felt from him left me in a state of almost fear
and awe. Because when somebody says and starts owning that he maybe or kinda is the representative
of the Kingdom of Heaven. There's a kind of energy that exchange between the two people.
There's like a charge that goes on.
2. Thought Reform
Coercive persuasion
Brainwashing
Mind control
Whatever you want to call it. It’s a process through which people can change the minds
and thought patterns of other people without them realising it is happening.
Cults along with other cult-like groups such as terrorist organizations, hate groups, and
totalitarian movements all use Thought Reform. It even happens in cases of domestic abuse.
Thought Reform or Brainwashing doesn’t turn people into zombies or Manchurian Candidates.
There are no secret drugs or hypnosis. It's simply words and group pressures.
We'll look at how cults use Thought Reform to manipulate people in a bit.
3. Exploitation
Once a charismatic leader has indoctrinated a follower through Thought Reform they begin
exploiting them economically, politically, sexualy, or psychologically.
He was doing so much in the community. And so why not rather than just tithe your 20%,
why not sell your house and give that money to the church. And that is what people began
to do.>
So How do people end up in cults?
People end up in cults or totalist groups in different ways.
Many are kidnapped or forcibly enlisted;
Like the estimated 20,000 children forced into Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army.
Once forced into these groups their charismatic and authoritarian leaders can begin indoctrination.
Or you can be born into a cult or totalitarian state;
The children raised in the Children of God cult or North Korean citizens didn’t join
their cults but they still live with the same Thought Reform processes and authoritarianism.
Or you can be recruited.
There is a common stereotype of a cult recruit. A seeker. A slightly wacky hippy type, very
into hummus and crystals, who went looking for enlightenment found a cult, and can now
assemble a kalashnikov while doing yoga.
But study after study has discovered that there is no personality profile for a typical
terrorist or cult recruit.
Any of us could become vulnerable given the right conditions, the right group and the
right time. Major life changes such as a recent move, a breakup, a death in the family, career
shift, war, natural disaster, or global pandemic can leave someone isolated from their usual
support structures.
During these times, we all tend to look for friends, are more open to strangers, and more
willing to accept things we normally wouldn’t.
Usually, it’s the cults that go out looking for followers. And cults recruit everywhere.
Lectures, seminars, retreats, or going door to door. They run schools, businesses, political
groups, meditation or yoga classes, weight-loss programs, and therapy clinics.
Most cults have front groups set up to appeal to a range of interests.
The Unification Church, commonly known as the Moonies, has hundreds of front groups
including academic and professional groups, dozens of business and media such as the New
World Encyclopedia and the Washington Times.
The Church of Scientology has front groups like Sterling Management who do corporate
training or the Narconon drug rehabilitation program, or hilariously the Cult Awareness
Network is also a Scientology Front Group.
Cults are always deceptive during recruitment.
New recruits will interact with a front group, unaware that it is related to a cult.
There is never any mention of galactic overlords, celibacy, polygamy, suicide missions, 20-hour
work days, or forced marriages. That all comes much later.
For now it’s just a group interested in bettering themselves and the world through
mindfulness, or new biblical interpretations, or a public speaking workshop.
The Unification Church calls this “Heavenly Deception”, other Bible based cults call
it giving Milk before Meat. It’s ok to lie to new recruits since it's for their own good.
Once within reach the new recruit will be love bombed. Loving-Bombing is a tactic in
which cult members smother recruits with flattery, praise, and affection. Love bombing is effective
on anyone but especially so on people who already feel isolated and ignored.
New recruits will gradually find their free time filled with group classes, meetings,
dinners, and retreats. Recruits' lives are swallowed up by the group.
Their entire day is filled with cult related work assignments, studying, lectures, meditating,
chanting, etc. This has the added bonus of keeping the recruit awake for long periods.
Which affects their critical thinking abilities and simply leaves them with no time to reflect
on what is happening.
You're constantly up, you're constantly busy and you're made to feel guilty if you take
to many luxuries like sleeping. You tend to not really think for yourself and I did let
Jones to my thinking for me.
Many cults will then begin to pressure new members to leave their families, friends,
and jobs.
Free Domain Radio (FDR) is an internet-based cult led by self-proclaimed philosopher Stefan
Molyneux. Known for its practice of encouraging its new recruits to “deFoo”. To reject
their family of origin (Foo).
This isolation tactic is common in cults to force a recruit to become dependent on the
group.
Removing family removes a fundamental source of emotional and financial support for people.
And a source of reality-checking.
Romantic relationships and friendships must also be scrutinised even within the group.
This is why many cults practiced either celibacy or polygamy, because it stops people from
forming close romantic bonds with one person.
The only relationship must be with the entire group or leader.
To replace families many cult leaders take on familial titles.
David Berg, head of the Children of God, was known as Dad or Grandpa.
Elizabeth Clare, Prophet of the Church Universal and Triumphant, was Mother.
And Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, was Brother Number One.
Many cults encourage confessing traumas either to the whole cult or with an assigned member.
Before I cam here I was taking "funny smokes" every kind of "naughty pills" you can imagine.
Without our pastor Jim Jones I would not be in college right now.
The cult will usually lead the recruit to exaggerate or even misremember their pasts
negatively. This causes guilt and anxiety about their former personal connections and
past.
They were “bad people” before joining the group and the cult can make them better.
In my last lifetime I lived during world war II and I was A Franch woman of the night that
had taken up with a German officer just to save my behind. The French Resistance found
out about me and the threw me and all my belongings out on the street and the mob that mocked
me and shaved my head there is the reason I'm so afraid of crowds now.
The group will position itself as the only sanctuary in which those feelings can be expressed.
So now the follower seeks more comfort from the group even though the group is causing
the discomfort.
Everyone is constantly confessing things to the cult. Sharing anything to one member of
the cult means sharing it to everyone.
So privacy does not exist. They cannot share doubts or complaints, or tell anyone if they
are being abused.
The lack of free time, sleep deprivation and destruction of individuality means there is
no time for self-reflection. Recruits suffer a triple isolation. From friends and family,
from other cult members, and from their own mind.
As the follower grows more isolated they begin to rely on approval from the cult. This is
when human weakness to peer pressure can be used against them.
Even when a cult member has doubts, they are made to feel like they are in the wrong. When
they look around they see only happy believing followers. No one expresses any doubt. And
so when a follower feels doubt they feel alone, and wrong. It is them that must work harder
to better understand the group. The group or leader is never wrong.
I'd look around and think Am I The Only One That Feels This Way. Eventually I learned
not to say anything to anyone.
In a cult you are rewarded for good behaviour with praise and privileges. But those that
behave in the wrong way are shunned and punished.
So as the cult is isolating you from your ordinary reality they provide you with a new
and unanimously approved worldview.
Now a total all-or-nothing point of view begins to be preached to them.
They teach that either every word of the ideology is completely true or none of it is. If you
have doubts you will be excluded and suffer.
The way that these ideas are told also matters.
Every cult or totalitarian system has its own loaded language. Scientology for example
uses terms like “reactive mind,” “suppressive person” and “case gain”.
Loaded language prevents followers from expressing anything outside of the cults ideology.
New vague words that can stand for anything are used without the things themselves actually
being discussed. Why listen to your family telling you you’re in a cult when they’re
“suppressive people” and “suppressive people” shouldn’t be listened to.
All kinds of horrible names are given to outsiders: systemites, unclean, or Satanic.
This creates an us-versus-them mindset. Now any criticism of the cult is seen as an attack.
You are in the cult, or you are an enemy. There is no in between.
Now their whole existence is the group. If they leave, they are nothing and joining the
outside world is painted as dangerous. Many cults preach that anyone that leaves will
most likely die or end up living on the streets.
Here the cult's control becomes total. Allowing no other beliefs and no other affiliations.
This is why cults are called totalist groups. They consume every aspect of the followers
life. While an average Christian, Buddhist, or Muslim can also enjoy astrology, attend
Yoga classes, and like and subscribe to the Cogito youtube channel. Someone that has progressed
this far into a cult has nothing outside of it. All activities, relationships, and beliefs
revolve around it.
The deeper you go towards the center of the cult, the more distant from reality you become.
The beliefs revealed to the inner circles of the cult are sometimes so extreme that
the outer circles must be protected from it until they are ready.
For example, in Scientology the public and new recruits were protected from their most
extreme ideas. Like that of the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy", Xenu, and of alien
souls bursting forth from volcanoes and jumping onto human bodies. The public only found out
about this story after it was leaked by ex-cult members, journalists, and the internet.
Once a follower has reached this stage where the cult’s ideology has totally consumed
them they’ll believe and do anything. Followers can now be exploited and deployed.
In most cases cult members will end up losing a few years of their lives, going broke, or
ending up with too many supplement pills that they can’t sell. But cults can take an unfortunately
deadly route sometimes. Which is why it’s important to spot a cults characteristics
and the methods they use to isolate and control people.
And that’s a basic introduction to cults. It isn't even close to covering everything.
There is a lot of debate around this topic. One video simply can't cover everything. This
was just a primer so that when we start making videos about specific cults you’ll know
what we’re talking about.
Cults can be very dangerous and should always be avoided so instead of joining a cult….why
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