The Culture of Cults Website

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David McCarthy
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The Culture of Cults Website

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The Culture of Cults
A great website to educate yourself on the mechanics of how Cults operate in our society.
Here is a snippet pulled from this site.
David
The Culture of Cults Introduction Preamble
The intended purpose of this analysis, written by a former cult member, is to explain the nature of a cult, to warn others of the dangers of involvement with a cult group, and to support calls for society to be more pro-active in protecting the rights of individuals targeted by cults.

Preliminary Definitions

A CULT can be defined in general as any group of people holding to a common belief system, but in practice the term cult is often used pejoratively, to refer specifically to 'a quasi-religious organization using devious psychological techniques to gain and control adherents' (Collins English Dictionary)[1] , and this is the sense in which 'cult' is used in this analysis. This analysis will seek to explain what those 'devious psychological techniques' are, how they work, and why they are devious.

Various terms have been used to describe the devious psychological techniques allegedly used by cults, the most common being 'brainwashing'[2], 'mind-control', 'thought reform' and 'mental manipulation'.

The term 'mind control' can be misleading. It suggests that a person's mind can be robotically controlled by some outside agency, or that thoughts can somehow be hypnotically implanted in a person's mind. This is not at all what happens in a cult. This analysis will argue that in fact a cult controls its members primarily through the promotion and inculcation of a hierarchical, cult-type belief system within a person's own mind, rather than by means of external, physical restraints. It is the belief system itself which is the primary active agent in cult mind control.

Cults actively promote and market their belief systems. Commercial companies use marketing and public relations techniques to promote an idealised image of their product or service to potential consumers, and cults do much the same.[3]

However, the difference with a cult is that both their product, and any consequences resulting from purchase and use of their product, are entirely subjective and intangible in nature. The 'product' that is marketed by a cult is its belief system, together with the attitudes and Behaviour codes that are part of that belief system. Because of the nature of their product, cults do not really operate in the public domain. They operate in a private world, within an individual's personal religious framework or set of beliefs, and within an individual's own subjective world of self-esteem and self-confidence. They operate within a person's mind.

The fact that cults operate within a person's mind has a number of consequences. A person's mind (or consciousness) is something which is difficult to define or to measure, and so it something which tends to be outside the scope of scientific and academic enquiry. From a legal point of view, a concept like 'freedom of mind' is equally difficult to define, and therefore it is difficult to specifically protect such a freedom.[4] Personal free will is a cherished axiom of Western democracies, but neither individual free will, nor its restriction, can actually be objectively verified or measured with any certainty. It is never possible to know for sure to what degree a person is acting out of their own free will, or not. It is always partly a matter of opinion.

Consequently, the whole area of cults and mind control is contentious and difficult. Cults as organisations are usually opaque to outside scrutiny, and the actual process of mind control is difficult to define or to analyse. It is possible to identify and classify a number of apparent 'techniques' of mind control as used by cults, and among the best known of these classifications are Robert J. Lifton's 'eight criteria of mind control' [5], and Steven Hassan's BITE acronym - control of Behaviour, information, thoughts, and emotions.[6]

Outwardly, these techniques may appear similar to many of the techniques and strategies of social compliance experienced within society at large. (For example, some years ago a Canadian government enquiry into cults concluded that the techniques used by cults to secure the loyalty of their members were essentially the same as those used in the English Public School system.)

However, it is important to consider the possibility that these apparent techniques of mind control may not actually be the primary causative factors, but may only be the secondary symptoms, or external indicators, of other hidden and subjective processes. If they are, then an external examination of an alleged cult group, which relies on objectively demonstrable factors, such as the publicly stated belief system or the social organisation of the group, may yield little insight into the subjective psychological processes occurring within a mind control environment, and may be of little help in distinguishing between a cult and a non-cult organisation.

It is possible to take the view that society at large embraces a variety of organisations and institutions which could be interpreted as being somewhat cult like in their nature. It is often argued that there is a fine line between socialisation and indoctrination, or between persuasion and mind control. Nevertheless, society does attempt to make a distinction between acceptable and unacceptable Behaviour: Persuasion through physical force or through the denial of food and water, for example, are clearly illegal. In the view of this writer, there is a need for society to be more active in protecting its citizens from other more subtle processes of persuasion, which can be equally abusive of personal freedoms, and which are sometimes made use of by individuals and organisations in order to gain personal power over those they claim to help, but whom often they merely manipulate and exploit. This analysis will seek to unravel some of the processes of persuasion used by cults, and to show in what ways they may be devious and an infringement of personal liberty.

The Culture of Cults
http://www.fwbo-files.com/CofC.htm#Ex
But he has nothing on at all, cried at last the whole people....
Rooster
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 11:30 pm

Re: The Culture of Cults Website

Unread post by Rooster »

David,
That is a excellent breakdown on what a cult is. I asked this question early on in leaving rse. Being taught from the cult that everything is basically a cult. I really worked at grasping on to how rse is different. I knew the difference, but had a hard time putting it into verbatum. Thank you, for this excellent share. It does put that little, nagging part of my mind to rest.
preeatenna
Posts: 64
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:27 pm

Re: The Culture of Cults Website

Unread post by preeatenna »

An excellent article, David.
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