Why Are People Joining Cults

Cults are scary, dangerous, and lead people to do disturbing things,

often in the name of the cults dominant personality. A worldwide phenomenon that is being highlighted because of the advances in mass media and social media - cults can affect all people. Religion, family structure, income, age, and race are all no protection from cults.

When “Reverend” Jim Jones (1)founded the Peoples Temple in 1955 few could have imagined it’s horrifying direction and ultimate destruction unleashed on his followers. This progressive religious movement rose in popularity and gained support from some of San Francisco’s most prominent politicians and community leaders. But in 1977 among allegations of brainwashing and abuse, Jones left the country with several hundred followers to establish a commune in Jonestown, Guyana.

Seeking to establish the commune as a utopian paradise the fact was that the commune was more of a prison camp than anything else. Due to promptings from concerned family members in the states, a congressional delegation visited Jonestown to investigate conditions. While the delegation was in Jonestown, November 18, 1978 Jones executed his diabolical plans. More than 900 men, women, and children died after being forced to drink poisoned Flavor-Aid. That grisly image has since been immortalized as shorthand slang for single minded cult like thinking, “...they drank the Kool-Aid”.

Today they are literally hundreds if not thousands of cults around the world. It's important to know two things about them. 1) Not all cults are religious. Some are political, therapy based and focused on self improvement or otherwise. 2) Not all new religions are to be defined as cults.

So what exactly defines our modern understanding of cults and why do people join them? Broadly speaking a cult is a group or movement with a shared commitment to an unusually extreme ideology typically embodied in a charismatic leader. And while few turn out as deadly as Jonestown or the Heaven’s Gate cult that ended in the mass suicide of 39 people in 1997, most cults share some basic characteristics.

A typical cult requires a high level of commitment

from it’s members and maintains a strict hierarchy. Cults maintain a strict separation of supporters and recruits from the inner workings of the ruling hierarchy. It claims to provide answers to life’s biggest questions through its doctrine(s). Added to this is the recipe for change that shapes new members into true believers. And most importantly it uses both formal and informal systems of control and influence to keep members obedient. Minimal tolerance is allowed for internal disagreement or external scrutiny.

You might wonder if some of these descriptions apply to established religions. In fact the word cultist originally described people who cultivated the worship of certain gods by performing rituals and maintaining temples. In time it came to mean excessive devotion. Many religions began as cults but integrated into the fabric of larger society as they grew. But by contrast modern cults separate it’s members from others.

Rather than providing guidelines for better lives, a cult seeks directly to control them. Personal affairs, financial assets, and living arrangements are controlled.

Cults demand obedience to human leaders who tend to be highly persuasive people who have authoritarian and narcissistic traits. Cult leaders are often motivated by money, sex, and power -- or all three. While personal charisma is used to attract initial followers, further expansion works like a pyramid scheme. Older members skillfully recruit new members who are determined to be new to an area or who may have undergone a personal or professional loss. Loneliness and a desire for meaning makes one susceptible to friendly people offering the security of a community.

The recruitment process can be subtle sometimes taking months

to establish the relationship. In fact more than two thirds of cult members are recruited by a friend, family member, or co-worker whose invitations are harder to refuse. Once in the cult members are subjected to multiple forms of indoctrination. Some play on our natural inclination to follow orders or mimic social behaviors. Other methods may be more intense using methods of coercive persuasion involving guilt, shame, or fear.

In many cases a member may submit out of a desire to belong

and to obtain the promised rewards. The cult environment discourages critical thinking when there is doubt and everyone around you models absolute faith. Resulting in an internal conflict known as cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance keeps you trapped as each compromise makes it more painful to admit to yourself that you have been deceived.

Even though most cults do not lead people to their deaths they can still be harmful by denying basic freedoms of thought, speech and association. This results in stunting cult members psychological growth and is particularly harmful to children. Children are deprived of normal psychological and developmental milestones.

Many cults may be hard to identify and their freedom of belief is often protected by laws of religious freedom. But when their practices involve harassment, threats, illegal activities, or abuse---the law can intervene. Believing in something should not come at the sacrifice of family or friends regardless of how much pressure is applied to do just that. If a cult leader tells a member to sacrifice their relationship or morality for the “greater good”, then that member is most likely being exploited for the pleasure of the cult leader.

Image Credits
Cultwatch.org
Salon.com
Slideshare.net

Article Support
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/drinking-the-kool-aid-a-survivor-remembers-jim-jones/248723/
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/377369/unburied-truth-about-jim-jones-j-delgado
http://www.workingpsychology.com/cult.html
https://libertyforcaptives.com/2012/08/01/eight-ways-to-identify-religious-brainwashing-the-cult-of-confession-part-4-of-8/

(1) James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader and communist.[1][2] Jones was ordained as a Disciples of Christ pastor, and he achieved notoriety as the founder and leader of the radical leftist Peoples Temple, which was often described as having cult-like qualities. Wikipedia.