DID I JOIN A CULT?

The word cult has a connotation of all dressing alike and living out in the woods, potentially culminating in something like Jim Jones and the Peoples’ Temple or maybe Heaven’s Gate. Certainly not something that we could ever fall into ourselves, we would recognize it before it got so bad. But would we?

The Haunt (1969) by Laurence Stephen Lowry

Ultimately what marks a cult is not the “weirdness” of the belief, but the amount of control that the group seeks to exert over an individual’s life. Ultimately a cult taps into the wants and needs that we all have, and uses its members to shore up money, power, and sexual access for the leaders. It can occur in a variety of scenarios. Not only religious groups, but political groups, social clubs, and even businesses can fall into these patterns.

The thing is nobody joins “a cult” so anybody can wind up falling prey to one. Cult victims describe being how they were in the process of trying to deal with the loss of a family member, significant other, identity, purpose or goal or experiencing isolation. The group appears to offer them what they need emotionally at the time. Others share that the groups they joined seemed like natural progressions of beliefs they already had or causes they supported.

Steve Hassan’s BITE Model is also a good resource which describes techniques such as controlling clothing, hair, and sexuality, depriving people of sleep, limiting or misrepresenting information by sources outside the group, requiring people to report infractions sometimes even as small as having “bad thoughts,” and instilling irrational fear about the outside world. Alternately, Robert Jay Lifton lays out 8 criteria for “thought reform.” Some of the most distinctive consist of manipulation to create the appearance of extraordinary ability or knowledge, elaborate processes for members to confess wrongdoing, and “sacred science” where the group’s worldview is declared to be the Truth and all ideas and knowledge wind up being contorted to fit the worldview.

Despite having their roots as a drug rehabilitation group, a set of personal development practices, and a college Bible study respectively, Synanon, Scientology, and the International House of Prayer group led by Tyler Deaton all evolved into the sinister cults that we now recognize. Even if you’re not typically interested in true crime, one way to become familiar with the signs it might not hurt to sit down and watch a documentary like Holy Hell or Wild Wild Country or listen to a podcast like My Favorite Murder.

More on Cults:

Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton