Cults by Steve Novella & Perry DeangelisEver since the Bronze Age, charismatic leaders that have sought, for their own selfish desires, to control people drawn to them. Psychological and physical coercion have been used by those who would compel the will of othersbut always in the guise of beneficence. Masking the actual beliefs and goals of the group is common to almost all cults. This is an insidious and deliberate use of deception. The details of the cults belief system are revealed to recruits only in stages, which is a move calculated to draw them in, step by step, without scaring them off early on. In contrast, mainstream belief systems are up front with their principles and make no attempt to conceal them.Cult leaders commonly seek to eradicate their members ability to think critically and make life decisions. They retrain their victims to think in their own highly defined and constricting manner, so that they become pawns subject to the will of the leader. This process is not accomplished through argument or force, as is often thought, but rather with subtle persuasion, flattery, guilt, and always deception.Due to the large variety of cultic organizations, there is no simple method to determine whether a particular group can be defined as a cult. One must evaluate both the groups belief structure and its behavior in order to determine if it adheres to the hallmarks of a cult. Robert Lifton defined five tried-and-true methods destructive groups use to ensnare their flocks and keep them corralled (Lifton 1961):1. TotalismTotalism is an us-against-them philosophy used to achieve complete separation from the past, which is portrayed as filled with evil forces or unenlightened individuals.2. Environmental controlEverything that perspective recruits see, eat, and do in their waking hours is carefully manipulated.3. Loading the languageThe jargon of the cult features quick and easy phrases and statements that only have meaning to the cultists. Such jargon encourages isolationism and psychological cloning.4. Demand for purityAll actions are judged by the cults definition of purity, which is crafted by the leaders to suit their needs. Such definitions are applied in an absolute, black-and-white manner. Anything is acceptable in the pursuit of this purity.5. Mystical leadershipThe cult leader endows him- or herself with a mystical mantle, often supposedly as an agent of divine powers on Earth. Confession to and denunciation by the leader are ingrained. The victim acquires a pawn-like attitude, wherein devotion and obedience to the leader supersede standards of morality or self-preservation.The more obvious and pervasive these philosophies are in a group, the more group members will adhere to ideological totalism and the more these devices will be used to corrupt an individuals will, making the group more of a cult.How Cults RecruitHistorically, cults have thrived during times of societal instability. When people are at a loss to make sense of the rapid changes around them and are forced to rethink much of what they once held as true, they are ripe for cult membership.For example, after the fall of Rome or during the French and Industrial Revolutions, cults sprang up in theretofore unprecedented numbers. The siren song of the recruiters promising to wash away the fear and uncertainty of the time was simply too alluring for many to deny, and cults flourished. The black-and- white philosophies of cults are much easier to digest than the complex and dynamically changing realities of society.It has been argued that cults are not destructive because people who join them are seekers, that is, individuals who seek answers to grand questions. Yet this statement cannot be true because cult recruiters reach out with malign intent and trap their victims with deception. The true nature of the cult is never discussed at the outset. One cannot join a group to aid its members in their search if one does not know what the group itself is actually about. Cults recruit people from all socioeconomic strata and all age groups. In fact, they actively seek out older people who have accumulated estates that can be willed to the group.Two main aspects are predominant in making individuals vulnerable to cult recruitment. The first is that they feel unconnected to those around them. This feeling is likely to occur at certain times in life, such as between completing college and taking a job, when traveling for an extended period, on arriving at a new location, or soon after being rejected, fired, or divorced. Anytime that people do not have compelling connections in their lives, they are extremely vulnerable to the seeming familialness of cultic recruitment. The second aspect is depression. A person suffering from a depression that is not completely debilitating is very malleable and is easily soothed by the honey coating of cultic deception. Cults seem to offer nearly instant and often simplistic and focused solutions to the myriad problems daunting vulnerable individuals.Recruiters for cultic groups are trained to spot susceptible people, and they know well the signs of vulnerability. They will often strike up a conversation with a potential recruit and perform a purposeful cold reading of the victim. They are trained to assess the individuals needs very rapidly and will then speak directly to these needs. To a person suffering from anxiety and want of affiliation and affection, these soothing words from a stranger, whose only apparent motivation is to help, are very persuasive. In addition, the recruiter carefully scripts the physicality of the first contact with a recruit. He or she knows what posture to hold and at what distance to sit from a mark so as to not be too threatening, while still maintaining control of the conversation. Keeping direct eye contact is always emphasized, as this relays a sense of both empathy and sincerity. These are highly intelligent practices, and they speak directly to the insidious nature of destructive cults.After the initial contact, the first crucial step in absorbing the victim is to proffer an invitation. This invitation is anything that the recruiter believes the victim will acquiesce to after the first assessment. This step is essential, for it is at this time that the victim will be moving out of his or her familiar world and entering into the nebulous world of the cult. What the victim who accepts the invitation will usually find on attending the first gathering is the cults front group. A front group is a cadre of select individuals from within the cult who act to mask the cults real agenda. Often, cults will have several different front groups that can appeal to a wide variety of interests and needs. At this initial meeting, the victim is swarmed by the front group, and affection and attention are lavished. The primary purpose of this step is to get the recruit to agree to a longer-term commitment at the cults facility.Persuading the victim to accept an invitation into the cults facility is the second crucial step, for once he or she is there, the actual separation from the outside world is effectuated. Then, the process of thought reform begins in earnest. The recruits are surrounded by veteran members of the cult who sing its praises ceaselessly, going on and on about the inherent strength of whatever new belief system is being advocated. The leader is praised without end as his or her uniqueness is revealed and claimed to be the savior of humanity via whatever method he or she has chosenrevealed knowledge, perfect social paradigms, ancient or alien wisdom, and so forth. The fact that there is little or no objective evidence to support these claims is glossed over with the groups jargon. Again, the recruits feel that they are somehow not as good as the other members because they do not understand the specific language and nonsense words of the cult. Only through a parroting of this jargon do they get approval.Veteran cult members immediately begin to direct the recruits actions, keeping their time carefully filled with meetings, exercise, reading cult propaganda, chanting, and whatever else the particular group has found that will occupy the recruits time. This oppressive atmosphere does not allow for reflection and negative feelings, and questions are suppressed, as these are only the victims old and unclean ways rising to surface. All connections with the past are severed. The recruits families and friends are painted as unenlightened individuals who need to be shunned until they have seen the way. Victims are made to feel that they, too, were bad in their old lives, and this guilt is reinforced by the denunciation of the past. The guilt is embedded after the initial waves of love that the group showered on the recruits, and it is very confusing and causes much anxiety. Recruits are never allowed to speak with other recruits who might share their initial doubts and hesitations. They are made to believe that if they have doubts, they are the only ones with such qualms and should be ashamed of them. Their critical faculties are derided at every turn.In addition to psychological conditioning, a careful program of physiological control is instituted. Recruits are often kept so busy by the cult that they become sleep-deprived. Prospective members can also be made to hyperventilate by loud repetitive chanting, an activity that reduces the level of carbon dioxide in the blood, causing it to become too alkaline and leading to respiratory alkalosis. This, in turn, makes the victims light-headed and woozy, further diminishing their critical processes. Special and restrictive diets are enforced to make the recruits weak and uncomfortable. Drugs and even sugar can be used to induce an artificial high so the cults activities and propaganda will temporarily excite the recruits. Purging and colonics may also be used, as well as dehydration, all to make the subjects more confused, disoriented, and dependent.The recruits appearance is often altered to suit the cults standards. This can involve anything from wearing a special uniform to cutting hair a certain way to constantly wearing cult paraphernalia. Changing a persons long held appearance can have a profound effect on his or her sense of continuity, and it reinforces the notion that an entirely new life has begun. Sometimes, the recruits are even required to take on new names.A pattern of antagonism, apathy, and acceptance is classic in brainwashing. The antagonism is any resistance that the victims might have to the indoctrination process when first inducted. This is quickly quelled via the previously described methodologies, and the recruits move into the apathy stage. In this state, it is simply easier to just go along, drop any excoriated resistance, and fall into the reassuring conformity of the encompassing groupwhich, of course, leads directly to acceptance and the final attenuation of individuality and self-preservation.

Exiting a CultIt is much more difficult to exit a cult than to enter one. On the way in, all is sweetness and light, the courting process has just begun, and recruits still feel that the cult is enhancing their personalities. It is only during the exiting process that they learn that their personalities have, in fact, been stolen. The damaging methods a cult uses to beguile its victims leave mental wounds in former members that often take years to heal. The reduction of ones will to resist and the degradation of ones critical faculties make the transition back to freedom very difficult. Several key characteristics typify almost all excult members. The most predominant is fear. Many cults use fear to maintain loyalty to the group; everything from denunciation to claims of damnation to physical force is used to both retain and return members. Ex-members are often encouraged, if not forced, to change locations, telephone numbers, and even their names to escape the harassment of their former groups. Of course, this fear is always much more acute when a family member, particularly a child, is left in the group. The group can threaten the child with sanctions unless the member returns; at the very least, it will almost always sever all contact between the child and the traitor.Another after-effect that excult members must deal with is flashback. Not unlike shell shock (wherein combat veterans react with inappropriate emotion and fear to any loud noise), excult members will sometimes find themselves wandering back to the trancelike state they were ensconced in during their days in the group. These times of floating are triggered by stress or deep depressions or even when the cults jargon is heard in completely unrelated contexts. These flashbacks decrease in frequency over time, but they can last for months (Singer 1995).The attack on ones mentality when in a cult leaves the victims cognitive skills dulled. It takes time to retrain the mind to evaluate and perceive in real time. The outside world is a busy and complex place. The empty simplicity of the cultic core is gone, and the sensory input can sometimes be daunting to one who has languished in zombielike obedience for an extended period of time. For this reason, the ex-member should attempt tasks in an ascending level of difficulty and complexity, as one would do when training to do these things for the first time.Many ex-members report that they are consumed with guilt, a guilt that may take many forms. Within the cult, members are often forced to perform illegal activities, learning to con, trick, and steal from others. They compel donations in a variety of dishonest and coercive ways. And they suppress personal morality to the will of the cult. Such actions leave them deeply ashamed once they separate from the group. They are uncertain how they can face up to these actions and how they can repay those they themselves victimized. Further, ex-members may feel very troubled about close friends and family members who were left behind in the cult. This makes the dismissal of the cult extraordinarily difficult. When their feelings for those still within the cult call to them most strongly, they may even begin to doubt their wisdom in leaving the cult. This miasma of doubt and confusion can be debilitating and slow recovery to a crawl. Finally, ex-members must come to face those in the outside world with whom they suddenly severed ties when they were absorbed by the cult. When confronted with the compassion and concern that their loved ones have maintained for them, even as they were chanting about their loved ones evils at the leaders behest, the guilt can be overwhelming.This shame leads directly to another problem faced by excult membersthe continual bombardment of questions from others and the sense that they have an obligation to explain what happened to them. It is exceptionally difficult to talk to those never victimized by a recruiter and thence a cult about the subtleties of manipulation and coercion that ensnared them. To describe the charisma of the leader in full plume and the atmosphere of euphoria that the masterful manipulation of the cult could cause is all but impossible. As a result, excult members sense that no one on the outside understands what they went through, and they feel pitied. Further, family and friends often put the emerged individual under a microscope, watching for any signs of weakness that may be indications that he or she may again become the mark of the old (or even a new) group. This situation often leads to encounters in which both the watchers and the watched grow concerned but fail to communicate that concern effectively. Tensions can quickly rise under such circumstances, and the ex-members sense of self-worth can be eroded by the perception that loved ones do not believe he or she can manage things properly.The entire sense of self that was so artificially inflated at times within the cult must be reassessed in a realistic state. No longer can the victims consider themselves the chosen. They are suddenly just like everyone elsestill searching, still hoping, and still struggling. These ex-members are left feeling that perhaps they are not only no longer chosen but also valueless. They have a very difficult time learning to trust again. Fear of being victimized anew can make them cynical and distant (Lifton 1961).Helping Victims CopeThe primary way to help excult members re-emerge as healthy persons is through understandingunderstanding their plight and helping them to understand what happened to them. It must be explained to them with firm compassion that they were the victims of time-tested, cohesive, and insidious methods of manipulation that have trapped countless thousands through the ages. This will allow them to talk openly about their fears, both past and current. Once the victims begin to see that they were, in fact, victimized, the process of rebuilding and reawakening their atrophied critical faculties can begin in earnest. They must be made to see how and why they were ensnared and be given the tools to avoid such an outcome in the future.Ex-members must be reoriented to reality. This process can be accomplished by simple tasks that help them to rebuild a fulfilling connection with the outside world. Anything that might bewilder or entrance them must be meticulously avoided. No drugs or alcohol should be consumed during this tenuous time. Anything that might cause a state of sensory overload should be avoided (loud music, crowds, a large urban environment, and the like). The maintenance of routines in the earlymrecovery stages is a good idea. Making checklists of activities and following a schedule are important, as is planning out purchases and projects well beforehand. The reorientation to reality can be accomplished by keeping apprised of current events via newspapers, television news and talk shows, and talk radio (Ryan 1999).For information on specific cults as well as anti-cult and support groups, contact the Leo J. Ryan Society at http://www.cultinfo.com. References: Appel, Willa. 1983. Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Heinsohn, Gunnar. URL: http://www.teleport.com/~kronia/journals/sacrfice.txt. (Accessed in 1998). Langone, Michael D. URL: http://www.mhsource.com/edu/psytimes/p960714.html. (Accessed in 1998); URL: http://www.csj.org/studyindex/studyrecovery/study_trance.htm. (Accessed in January 1999). Lifton, Robert Jay, M.D. 1961 (1989). Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press. MacCollam, Joel A. 1979. Carnival of Souls: Religious Cults and Young People. New York: Seabury Press. Ryan, Patrick L. 1999. Coping with Trance States: The Aftermath of Leaving a Cult. Singer, Margaret T. 1995. Cults in Our Midst. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Tobias, Madeleine, and Janja Lalich. 1994. Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships. New York: Hunter House Publishers.