About Religious Cults

 

There are different forms of mind control that are used to lure people into, or keep people in a cult. These include the following:

·Deception: hiding what the “organization” truly is.

 

·Exclusiveness: cults make you feel that you must stay in this organization – it is not based on beliefs then, but someone must stay in the specific group to be “saved”.

 

·Fear: Fear and guilt are used to keep a person in a cult. For example, a person may be made to feel guilty because the leader attacks their character. The organization uses tactics such as putting people down, or instilling threats/fear into them.

 

·Relationship control: The cult tries to cut people off from their family and friends so they are isolated; then the group sets up “new friends” for the person – and if the person tries to leave, they make them feel that they will lose their friends. The fear of losing relationships makes the person want to stay.

 

·Information control: Disallowance of people to look at information from “non-cults”; and information about the specific cult a person is in is warped to make it not so strange or concerning.

 

·Reporting structure: Members of the cult are supposed to mislead other cult members, and tell leaders other personal “secrets” or information another cult member confides in them.

 

·Time control: Keeping people of the cult busy with things to do with the cult itself.

 

·Confession: People in a cult talk to you, and “get to know you”, and once they find out your weaknesses, they use it against you.

   

Religious Cults Relating to Anthropology

Anthropology studies humanity (i.e. culture, collective behaviour, etc.) We can relate religious cults to anthropology because of religion (which is an important part of a culture). Relgious cults create their own culture based on a set of beliefs and rituals that they follow. The humans that participate in these types of cults can be studied.

 Religious Cults Relating to Sociology

Sociological Characteristics of Cults (reference)

·  Authoritarian Leadership:  Accepting an authority figure that controls all of the members of the organization. The leader is either a prophet or founder – and all members in the cult follow the leader’s rules. The group is supposed to be obedient to the leader’s rules.

·  Exclusiveness: The cult believes it has all of the answers, and it knows the way to salvation (no one else).

·  Isolation: Cults separate the members from their family and friends, and usually place them in certain boundaries that the leader creates. Sometimes there are bad endings ; the members engage in activities that lead to their death.

 

·  Opposing Independent thought: The cult leader does the thinking for the group – the members must listen.

 

·  Fear: People are scared of being banished from the group.

 

·  Satanic threats: People in cults are told that something bad will happen if they leave – for example; that they will be attacked by Satan. This fear is used to make people obedient. If someone leaves the group they suffer psychological consequences and emotional issues for years.

Religious Cults Relating to Psychology

The use of thought control - There have been experiments conducted by psychologists that show how a person can easily be influenced by a person of authority to conform to group behaviour – even if the behaviour violates the person’s personal beliefs.

Ego – cult leaders are very manipulative, and they get “an ego trip” (reference) from controlling others and testing what they will do for them. These actions are destructive. Ego is what makes us feel important – by destroying or doing bad things it makes people feel important (instead of getting this feeling from doing something positive and good, it is easier to destroy something). A fact about manipulation that is Ego- forced is; it is when a person manipulated others in doing things that goes against their values, or against human nature.

A cult gains psychological control by using a number of techniques (i.e. brainwashing or mind control). There is a change in identity when people join cults – it is most likely that the leader has chosen this new identity for the person. 

Usually leaders of cults want it to be all about them – but when recruiting members they pretend there is a greater/better purpose in order to get people to do things for them. Instead of getting them directly to do things for him/her they say it is for a greater purpose, so people will do what he/she says. The more things are about a person like this (egotistical), the “bigger” they feel. Cults usually act like or pretend to be a religion in order to control the members – people are not going to join if it doesn’t have some sort of belief system. 

 The leader will try and isolate the group from their community, friends and family. This isolation gives him/her more control over the members and makes the “ego trip” quicker. 

The leader gets the members to perform difficult physical tasks or ‘hardships’. These include chronic hunger, sleep deprivation, long hours of labour, etc (reference). The brain has methods that deal with pain – but the group believes that the pain won’t be long lasting, and it is for a greater good, the brain won’t remove the “painful stimuli”. Instead it will repress the pain and continue striving for the ‘greater purpose’.

The leader is happy when this happens – their “ego gets a boost” (reference). This method of control also changes the mentality of the people in the cult. The “natural painkillers” of the brain allow the person to continue pursing whatever they are doing in order to accomplish whatever they need to accomplish. When this “greater good” is non-existent it will cause the person to become disconnected from reality.

This makes the members feel great – they can tolerate pain and extensive work that they never could before. This gives them false evidence that their group’s beliefs are true. The cult members have overcome pain – in their subconscious they feel no pain (the have removed themselves).