It's hard to know how many cults exist out there right
now, but Margaret Singer, she
estimated about 5,000 in the United States alone.
A big misconception is that you'll be able to
spot a cult and you'll be like, "I'm not going to fall for
that," but what's surprising about
cults is that they can actually come in many forms.
It could be a religion.
It could be a business, a motivational seminar.
No one's going to walk up to you and be like, "Hey, you
want to join my cult?"
It's something I think we're still figuring out as a society.
FarCry5 takes place in the fictional town of Hope County,
Montana.
It's about a cult leader, Joseph Seed, who calls himself
The Father.
He starts a doomsday cult.
They're basically taking over the town and forcing people
to convert.
While this seems like an extreme scenario, this kind of
thing has happened before.
Dave Koresh convinced his members to form an army of
god at the Mt. Carmel compound.
He gained a huge arsenal.
The ATF was just supposed to go in and put them all
under arrest, but Koresh was tipped off.
So, it turned into a 51 day standoff.
A fire started and then that just burned down the whole
compound.
It resulted in the deaths of 76 people.
People think that only dumb or gullible people fall for a
cult, but if it's the right time
and place, a charismatic figure can walk into anyone's
life.
If the world is in a state of instability, people are looking
for assurance.
Like, in the '60s, it was a time of new age movements,
deconstructing of the nuclear family,
and that was just fertile ground for someone to rise up, a
charismatic leader – CharlesManson.
The type of people he looked for were hitchhikers and
people who were part of the "free love" movement.
He was definitely not a hippie.
He just found what was working at the time and used it
to his advantage.
Him giving his followers LSD was just a way to
perpetuate that otherworldliness.
As he built this delusional world, he interpreted The
Beatles as singing songs about a certain
race war that was about to happen.
In order to ignite that race war, he murdered Sharon Tate
and her friends in her home.
There's also the case of Jim Jones.
Someone's financially unstable and let's say a wealthy
cult leader comes around.
He actually attracted a lot of working class people.
He was very much about socialism.
He gave everyone that chance to feel equal.
He moved his group to Jonestown in South America and
he told everyone to give up all their
assets to the group.
Being poor and being isolated in Jonestown, it made the
members vulnerable because, really,
they didn't have any other option.
If they had their doubts about their beliefs, he would
publicly humiliate, sometimes physically
beat them, hold a gun to someone's head.
It brought about criticism and then, eventually, it turned
into tragedy.
When he told everyone to kill themselves by drinking a
mix of cyanide and Kool-Aid, really
they didn't have any other option.
So, that's where we get the phrase "drinking the Kool-
Aid."
Cult leaders definitely twist religious beliefs to make it
about them.
A lot of them claim to be the second coming of Christ.
It's harder to disobey the leader because their sense of
identity comes directly from
the leader.
"I'll tell you who I am.
As to whether or not you believe who I am or not is up to
you."
Marshall Applewhite, he was actually a very charismatic
figure.
He just seems like a very warm and knowledgeable
person.
He started Heaven's Gate.
He believe that their destiny was to transcend into
space.
So, they all took this poisonous cocktail in bunk beds
and killed themselves.
One of the saddest things about cults is that I don't think
people fall prey to a cult because
they're suckers, as much as they're human.
People want to trust people.
We're social beings and in a social climate of confusion
and divisiveness, people are
looking for assurance.
When someone comes and pitches this better life, who's
going to say no unless you already
have it pretty well.
I think it's important to take a hard look at yourself; am I
easily trusting of new friends,
am I in a financially unstable or vulnerable position?
Could you fall prey to a cult?
"Well, give me that old time religion, give me that old
time religion, give me that old
time religion.
It's good enough for me."