10 Signs You’re in a Cult
Sep 20th, 2010
Cults are more than just convenient narrative devices for thriller and mystery writers. In reality, they penetrate families and peer groups and leave an emotional trail of destruction behind. Whether disguised as a religious organization, a job opportunity or a self-help group the three most common masquerades they share many sociological and psychological phenomena. While not a definitive list by any means, this one points out a few of the more typical and dangerous amongst them for the benefit of those afraid for their lives or the lives of a loved one. Organizations such as Cult Hotline and Clinic, reFOCUS and Cult Awareness and Information Library dedicate themselves to promoting an awareness of how these dangerous groups operate. Most major metropolitan areas and college towns host their own cult hotlines and rehabilitation centers as well, all of them far better equipped to providing valuable resources on either escaping or staging an intervention than a mere website. Look them up, give them a call and help save a loved one from a horrifyingly restrictive, exploitative situation. If you think you might be in a cult, please read over this and other available resources (the links provided above are a good start) and analyze the situation at hand. Escaping and intervening will prove neither easy nor safe, so be thorough in research and prudent in exercise.
- Were you approached to join in a moment of weakness?
A common misconception about cults is that they tend to attract those marginalized from mainstream society because of their looks, quirks, pocketbooks, etc. Interestingly enough, people from all walks of life can fall vulnerable to these groups. One of their main recruitment tactics involves seeking out individuals suffering from periods of depression, grief, low self-esteem and other emotional universals everyone unfortunately seems reluctant to acknowledge. Cults prey on their need for companionship and validation, offering them a loving, nonjudgmental environment where they can (supposedly) be free. Most of the people who end up entwined in such organizations merely want some degree of release and love from others who ask little of them. When recruiting, cults sound great; their reality isn’t quite so much, though. - Are you incapable of leaving?
Cults, most especially those with commercial interests, make escape incredibly difficult for members fed up with their tenets. Emotional manipulation and pressure and, in more extreme cases, threats or acts of physical violence are utilized to intimidate possible defectors into staying. Those whose recruitment strategies involve preying on individuals experiencing moments of emotional weakness typically bring up how they “rescued” or “saved” or “provided a home and/or family” for them. Hoping, of course, to guilt trip them into staying by cutting down their defenses and forcing them to feel like ingrates. Any reasonable organization would realize that not everyone fits their expectations and ideologies and grant their members the freedom to depart as they see fit. - Do the leaders or members higher up in the organization enjoy tossing out shame, guilt and insults?
Even when members do not pose any threat of leaving, they find themselves subjected to regular batteries of humiliation and degradation. Questioning anyone in any position of authority results in insulting or condescending language meant to break their spirits rather than civil discourse. Whenever members grow concerned with unfulfilled promises, they end up bearing the brunt of the blame told that their lack of faith or slack work ethic resulted in dissatisfaction rather than the fact that higher-ups held no intentions of actually doing anything for them in the first place. Spunkier participants may end up undergoing specially choreographed “breaking sessions,” subjected to a series of verbal abuses meant to snap their psyche. Instead of offering the loving home and family promised during recruitment sessions, they strive to reinforce the negative emotions that initially inspired people to join. - Do you feel isolated from loved ones?
In order to prevent outside influences from leading adherents outside the fold, cults attempt to isolate them from the friends and family who loved them before they joined up. This undoubtedly ties in with their desire to exploit the depressed and unsure, reaching out with false promises of a ready-made set of replacements entirely without judgments or prejudices. Provided, of course, that they question nothing. A cult’s brand of “unconditional love” comes saddled with an agreement of unyielding conformity without it, these newfound companions drift off at best and participate in shaming rituals at worst. Kind of like junior high. Some organizations with a religious bent may ram the opinion that anyone outside their circle deserves ridicule and spite for rejecting the “one true path.” Reinforcing an “us vs. them” mindset drives larger wedges between victims and their family and friends from a “previous life,” nurturing paranoia to prevent rescues and escapes. - Have absolute truth claims ever slipped into the conversation?
One of the more common scare tactics employed by cults involves absolute truth rhetoric, where only adherents receive ultimate rewards. Along with those experiencing personal weak points, they also tend to target anyone encumbered with spiritual questions. Preying on existential fear, more religious cults tout their ideologies as the only real solution to life’s big answers. All others come packaged and sold as dead ends where nothing but torment and toil await. Natural questioning gets squelched, dismissed as evil and shameful. Leadership demonizes friends and family outside the collective for not believing in their doctrine, furthering the isolation of its individual components. Be wary of any organization whose literature and discussions claim that what they have to offer is the only possible path towards happiness and salvation in life. - Is your reading material censored?
As a means of perpetuating isolation and unquestioning compliance, cult leaders and their appointed authority figures censor the reading materials available to members. Anything critical or revealing of their strategies never makes it to the lower tiers as a means of keeping them under control. Their media intake revolves around glorifying the organization, and more extreme cases may ban any works promoting free thought and intellectualism that could result in some seriously questioning followers. Legitimate groups with any degree of transparency take no issue with their members reading, watching or listening to any criticisms levied out on the practices. They may not agree with what’s being said, of course, but they see no real imperative to restrict access to any of the people or publications, either. - Can your “friends” keep a secret?
Gossip runs rampant amongst cult leadership and members, in spite of referring to themselves as “family” and “friends.” Lower-tier individuals eager to slink up the ranks attempt to earn the trust of their peers, relaying any whispers of insubordination to their superiors. These shady communities encourage members to spy on one another and report back. Sound familiar? Like something out of Orwell or the Third Reich? If you start suspecting that your peers may be taking advantage of any trust for their own personal gain not to mention your rather brutal punishment then you might just very well be in a cult! Likewise, if upper echelons of the hierarchy start sniffing around asking questions about what your friends have told you in the strictest confidence, then you may want to make your way out of the organization as quickly as you can. - Are you expected to hand over money or possessions to move up?Not every cult structures itself around a level system requiring some type of compensation to move up, but enough of them do to render the practice a warning sign. Both religious and commercial cults can employ this method, and monetary, sexual, servile or other types of favors sometimes work in tandem with snitching to score a promotion. Because many of these groups exist under the leadership of one particularly charismatic individual, the tributes go straight into his or her bank account and all the givers receive in turn is a usually negligible amount of status. Rare is the cult that operates under a meritocracy, seeing as how that generally defeats the purpose of heaping obscene amounts of possession and power on the leader.
- Do you have to go to a meeting to even understand what the organization is about?
When it comes time to recruit more troubled individuals into the fold, cults typically utilize vague language when first encountering a potential new member. Rather than explaining up front what the organization hopes to accomplish and offer, they push them towards informational meetings. Oftentimes coached to remain upbeat and happy at all times, members sent out into the fertile fields of the real world skirt questions about their “benefactor’s” true motives and keep on promoting those group sessions instead. Either that or they speak in vagaries and absolute truths if not a combination. After ensnaring unsuspecting individuals looking for a little guidance and a couple of friends, cults typically occupy adherents’ time with a cramped schedule full of largely meaningless work. Like pretty much everything else they do, this tactic is just one more weapon to combat thinking, escaping and thinking about escaping. - Is the leader a megalomaniacal, paranoid, power-hungry tyrant of a crazy person?
Yes, yes, it probably is an unfair stereotype to paint all cult leaders as less-than-benevolent, egomaniacal sociopaths who exploit individuals suffering from entirely-too-human doubts and depressions for their own personal, monetary and sexual gain. In reality, though, most cult leaders are less-than-benevolent, egomaniacal sociopaths who exploit individuals suffering from entirely-too-human doubts and depressions for their own personal, monetary and sexual gain. Why else would they go out of their way to lie, steal, cheat and manipulate their way through life? Most of the common strategies wielded by cult leaders aren’t exactly the nicest or the sanest out there. So keep a sharp eye tuned to his or her behavior. If the suspect reacts to questions regarding authority with verbal or physical violence, starts spouting off absolute truth rhetoric, requests some type of compensation in order to reach some sort of inner sanctum (PROTIP: You won’t.) and enjoys disavowing the First Amendment, then he or she is either a cult leader or just a really, really, really terrible person.
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