Cults

“The less reasonable a cult, the more men seek to establish it by force.”

~Jean-Jacques Rousseau

What are they?

“A cohesive group of people devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream”

There are 4 types: religious, psychological, commercial, & political.

Characteristics of Cults

Captivating leader – dispenses knowledge

Use of separation or isolation – environmental control

Psychological manipulation, brainwashing or deception – results in lower self-esteem = more opportunity for control

May use abuse – financial, emotional or physical

Characteristics of Cult Leaders

Ambitious Attractive (physically/emotionally) Intelligent Demanding Offer promises of hope/ false sense

of security Believe they are above others

Characteristics of Cult Members

Lonely – looking for love or acceptance

At a transitional point in life Dissatisfied with some aspect of

life Often disenchanted Often young, middle-class, white,

educated

How Cults Control Members

Love bombing – show warmth and caring at first

Exploiting personal weakness, fears, dreams

Group pressure – conformity! Discouraging critical questions

– offer explanations later

Control…

Isolation/no privacy – keep people away from “outside” world

Food and sleep deprivation – makes people more open to suggestion

Guilt, confession and group approval – destroy self-esteem

Statistics…(do not copy)

5-7 million people have been a part of a cult or cult-like group

There are between 3,000-5,000 cults in existence

Cults recruit about 180,000 members each year (cultclinic.org)

Jim Jones Peoples' Temple: A Case Study

Jones had first started building Jonestown in 1974 as a means to create both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from the media scrutiny which had started in 1972. Regarding the former goal, Jones purported to establish Jonestown as a benevolent model communist community stating, "I believe we’re the purest communists there are."[58] In that regard, like the restrictive emigration policies of the then Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and other communist republics, Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown.

The Suicide

909 inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion..] This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks.[91] No video was taken during the mass suicide, though the FBI did recover a 45 minute audio recording of the suicide in progress.

On that tape, Jones tells Temple members that the Soviet Union, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Ryan and four others at a nearby airstrip. The reason given by Jones to commit suicide was consistent with his previously stated conspiracy theories of intelligence organizations allegedly conspiring against the Temple, that men would "parachute in here on us," "shoot some of our innocent babies" and "they'll torture our children, they'll torture some of our people here, they'll torture our seniors.