It is mostly perception. For some, all religions are cults to a certain extent. For others any religion other than there own is. Below are some basic distinguishing characteristics of cults i gleened while doing a paper on them. Hope that helps...
Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups - Revised
Janja Lalich, Ph.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.
Concerted efforts at influence and control lie at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group or relationship.
Compare these patterns to the situation you were in (or in which you, a family member, or friend is currently involved). This list may help you determine if there is cause for concern. Bear in mind that this list is not meant to be a “cult scale” or a definitive checklist to determine if a specific group is a cult. This is not so much a diagnostic instrument as it is an analytical tool.
The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).
The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).
The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).
The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).
The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.
The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
The group is preoccupied with making money.
Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.
Characteristics of a Destructive Cult:
1. Authoritarian pyramid structure with authority at the top
2. Charismatic or messianic leader(s) (Messianic meaning they either say they are God OR that they alone can interpret the scriptures the way God intended.....the leaders are self-appointed.)
3. Deception in recruitment and/or fund raising
4. Isolation from society -- not necessarily physical isolation like on some compound in Waco, but this can be psychological isolation -- the rest of the world is not saved, not Christian, not transformed (whatever) -- the only valid source of feedback and information is the group
5. Use of mind control techniques (we use Dr. Robert Jay Lifton's criteria from chapter 22 of his book "Thought Reform & the Psychology of Totalism" to compare whether the eight psychological and social methods he lists are present in the group at question)
Mileu Control: Control of the environment and communication within the environment
Mystical Manipulation: Seeks to promote specific patterns of behavior and emotion in such a way that it appears to have arisen spontaneously from within the environment, while it actually has been orchestrated totalist leaders claim to be agents chosen by God, history, or some supernatural force, to carry out the mystical imperative the "principles" (God-centered or otherwise) can be put forcibly and claimed exclusively, so that the cult and its beliefs become the only true path to salvation (or enlightenment)
Demand for Purity: The world becomes sharply divided into the pure and the impure, the absolutely good (the group/ideology) and the absolutely evil (everything outside the group) one must continually change or conform to the group "norm"; tendencies towards guilt and shame are used as emotional levers for the group's controlling and manipulative influences
Confession: Cultic confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself sessions in which one confesses to one's sin are accompanied by patterns of criticism and self-criticism, generally transpiring within small groups with an active and dynamic thrust toward personal change
Sacred Science: The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic doctrine or ideology, holding it as an ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence questioning or criticizing those basic assumptions is prohibited a reverence is demanded for the ideology/doctrine, the originators of the ideology/doctrine, the present bearers of the ideology/doctrine offers considerable security to young people because it greatly simplifies the world and answers a contemporary need to combine a sacred set of dogmatic principles with a claim to a science embodying the truth about human behavior and human psychology
Loading the Language: Words are given new meanings -- the outside world does not use the words or phrases in the same way -- it becomes a "group" word or phrase
Doctrine Over Person: If one questions the beliefs of the group or the leaders of the group, one is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them to even question -- it is always "turned around" on them and the questioner/criticizer is questioned rather than the questions answered directly the underlying assumption is that doctrine/ideology is ultimately more valid, true and real than any aspect of actual human character or human experience and one must subject one's experience to that "truth" the experience of contradiction can be immediately associated with guilt one is made to feel that doubts are reflections of one's own evil when doubt arises, conflicts become intense
Dispensing of Existence: Since the group has an absolute or totalist vision of truth, those who are not in the group are bound up in evil, are not enlightened, are not saved, and do not have the right to exist; impediments to legitimate being must be pushed away or destroyed one outside the group may always receive their right of existence by joining the group; fear manipulation -- if one leaves this group, one leaves God or loses their salvation/transformation, or something bad will happen to them; the group is the "elite", outsiders are "of the world", "evil", "unenlightened", etc
American Family Foundation (14 Characteristics)
1.The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
2. The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
3. The group is preoccupied with making money.
4. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
5. Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
6. The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).
7. The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
8. The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.
9. The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
10. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
11. The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.
12. Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
13. Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.
14. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
University of California at Berkeley (19 Characteristics)
Recruitment
1. Deception - Group identity and/or true motives are not revealed. The group leaders tell members to withhold truth from outsiders.
2. Emotional Leverage/Love Bombing - Instant friendship, extreme helpfulness, generosity and acceptance...Group recruiters "lovingly" will not take "no" for an answer-invitations impossible to refuse without feeling guilty and/or ungrateful. "Love", "generosity", "encouragement" are used to lower defenses and create an ever increasing sense of obligation, debt and guilt.
3. Exploit Personal Crisis - They use an existing crisis as a means of getting you to participate. They exploit vulnerability arising from:
•Broken relationships
•Death in the family
•Loss of job
•Move to new location
•Loneliness/depression
•Guilt/shame
•Stress/fear
4. Crisis Creation - They employ tactics designed to create or deepen confusion, fear, guilt or doubt. i.e. "you aren't serving God the way He intended." Questions areas of faith never before examined or explored and attack other faiths specifically.
5. All The Answers - Provide simple answers to the confusion they, themselves, create. Support these answers with material produced or "approved" by the group.
Programming
1. Intense Study - Focus is on group doctrine and writings. Bible, if used at all, is referred to one verse at time to "prove" group teachings.
2. Opposer Warnings - Recruiters are told that "Satan" will cause relatives and friend to say bad things about the group to try to "steal them away from God." Recruits soon believes group members, alone, are truthful/trustworthy.
3. Guilt and Fear - Group dwells on members' "sinful nature" (many use public confession). Guilt and fear arising from "failing God" are magnified to manipulate new member.
4. Schedule Control & Fatigue - Study and service become mandatory. New member becomes too busy to question. Family, friends, jobs and hobbies are squeezed out, further isolating the new member.
5. Attack Independent Thought - Critical thinking is discouraged as prideful and sinful, blind acceptance encouraged.
6. Divine Commission - Leader(s) claim new revelation from God, within past 200 years, in which all but their group are rejected by God. They, alone, speak for God.
7. Absolutism - They insist on total, unquestioning obedience and submission to the group, both actions AND thoughts. Group "love" and acceptance becomes dependent upon obedience and submission. Unconditional love...isn't.
8. Totalism - "Us against them" thinking. Strengthens group identity. Everyone outside of group lumped under one label.
Retention
1. Motive Questioning- When sound evidence against the group is presented, members are taught to question the motivation of the presenter. The verifiable (sound documentation) is ignored because of doubts over the unverifiable (presenter's motives). See Opposer Warnings (#2 above).
2. Information Control - Group controls what convert may read or hear. They discourage (forbid) contact with ex-members or anything critical of the group. May say it is the same as pornography making it not only sinful and dangerous but shameful as well. Ex-members become feared and avoidance of them becomes a "survival issue."
3. Isolation, Separation & Alienation - Group becomes substitute family. Members encouraged to drop worldly (non-members) friends. May be told to change jobs, quit school, give up sports, hobbies, etc.
4. Coercion - Disobedience, including even minor disagreement with group doctrine, may result in expulsion and shunning.
5. Phobias - The idea is planted that anyone who leaves goes into a life of depravity and sin, loses their sanity, dies, or will have children die, etc. Constant rumors of bad things happening to people who leave. No one ever leaves for "legitimate reasons."
6. Striving for the Unreachable - Group membership and service are essential for salvation..."Work your way into God's favor." NO matter what you do, it is never enough.
Cult Information Centre (31 Characteristics)
Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following five characteristics:
1. It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members
2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society.
3. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma.
4. It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds recruit people.
5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.
Mind Control techniques include:
1. Hypnosis
Inducing a state of high suggestibility by hypnosis, often thinly disguised as relaxation or meditation.
2. Peer Group Pressure
Suppressing doubt and resistance to new ideas by exploiting the need to belong.
3. Love Bombing
Creating a sense of family and belonging through hugging, kissing, touching and flattery.
4. Rejection of Old Values
Accelerating acceptance of new life style by constantly denouncing former values and beliefs.
5. Confusing Doctrine
Encouraging blind acceptance and rejection of logic through complex lectures on an incomprehensible doctrine.
6. Metacommunication
Implanting subliminal messages by stressing certain key words or phrases in long, confusing lectures.
7. Removal of Privacy
Achieving loss of ability to evaluate logically by preventing private contemplation.
8. Time Sense Deprivation
Destroying ability to evaluate information, personal reactions, and body functions in relation to passage of time by removing all clocks and watches.
9. Disinhibition
Encouraging child-like obedience by orchestrating child-like behaviour.
10. Uncompromising Rules
Inducing regression and disorientation by soliciting agreement to seemingly simple rules which regulate mealtimes, bathroom breaks and use of medications.
11. Verbal Abuse
Desensitizing through bombardment with foul and abusive language.
12. Sleep Deprivation and Fatigue
Creating disorientation and vulnerability by prolonging mental an physical activity and withholding adequate rest and sleep.
13. Dress Codes
Removing individuality by demanding conformity to the group dress code.
14. Chanting and Singing
Eliminating non-cult ideas through group repetition of mind-narrowing chants or phrases.
15. Confession
Encouraging the destruction of individual ego through confession of personal weaknesses and innermost feelings of doubt.
16. Financial Commitment
Achieving increased dependence on the group by 'burning bridges' to the past, through the donation of assets.
17. Finger Pointing
Creating a false sense of righteousness by pointing to the shortcomings of the outside world and other cults.
18. Flaunting Hierarch
Promoting acceptance of cult authority by promising advancement, power and salvation.
19. Isolation
Inducing loss of reality by physical separation from family, friends, society and rational references.
20. Controlled Approval
Maintaining vulnerability and confusion by alternately rewarding and punishing similar actions.
21. Change of Diet
Creating disorientation and increased susceptibility to emotional arousal by depriving the nervous system of necessary nutrients through the use of special diets and/or fasting.
22. Games
Inducing dependence on the group by introducing games with obscure rules.
23. No Questions
Accomplishing automatic acceptance of beliefs by discouraging questions.
24. Guilt
Reinforcing the need for 'salvation' by exaggerating the sins of the former lifestyles.
25. Fear
Maintaining loyalty and obedience to the group by threatening soul, life or limb for the slightest 'negative' thought, word or deed.
26. Replacement of Relationships
Destroying pre-cult families by arranging cult marriages and 'families'.
Carol Giambalvo (13 Characteristics)
1. Authoritarian in their power structure.
2. Totalitarian in their control of the behavior of their members.
3. Pyramidal structure.
4. Uses thought reform techniques.
5. Isolation of members (physical and/or psychological isolation) from society.
6. Uses deception in recruiting and/or fund raising.
7. Promotes dependence of the members on the group.
8. Totalitarian in their world view.
9. Uses mind altering techniques (chanting, meditation, hypnosis and various forms of repetitive actions) to stop normal critical thinking.
10. Appear exclusive and innovative.
11. Charismatic or messianic leader who is self-appointed and has a special mission in life.
12. Controls the flow of information.
13. Instills a fear of leaving the group.
Rick Ross (20 Characteristics)
Ten warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader.
1.Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
2.No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
3.No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
4.Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
5.There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
6.Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
7.There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.
8.Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
9.The group/leader is always right.
10.The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.
Ten warning signs regarding people involved in/with a potentially unsafe group/leader.
1.Extreme obsessiveness regarding the group/leader resulting in the exclusion of almost every practical consideration.
2.Individual identity, the group, the leader and/or God as distinct and separate categories of existence become increasingly blurred. Instead, in the follower's mind these identities become substantially and increasingly fused--as that person's involvement with the group/leader continues and deepens.
1.Whenever the group/leader is criticized or questioned it is characterized as "persecution".
2.Uncharacteristically stilted and seemingly programmed conversation and mannerisms, cloning of the group/leader in personal behavior.
3.Dependency upon the group/leader for problem solving, solutions, and definitions without meaningful reflective thought. A seeming inability to think independently or analyze situations without group/leader involvement.
4.Hyperactivity centered on the group/leader agenda, which seems to supercede any personal goals or individual interests.
5.A dramatic loss of spontaneity and sense of humor.
6.Increasing isolation from family and old friends unless they demonstrate an interest in the group/leader.
7.Anything the group/leader does can be justified no matter how harsh or harmful.
8.Former followers are at best considered negative or worse evil and under bad influences. They can not be trusted and personal contact is avoided.
Steven Hassan (26 Characteristics)
I. Behavior Control
1. Regulation of individual's physical reality
a. Where, how and with whom the member lives and associates with
b. What clothes, colors, hairstyles the person wears
c. What food the person eats, drinks, adopts, and rejects
d. How much sleep the person is able to have
e. Financial dependence
f. Little or no time spent on leisure, entertainment, vacations
2. Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals
3. Need to ask permission for major decisions
4. Need to report thoughts, feelings and activities to superiors
5. Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques- positive and negative).
5. Individualism discouraged; group think prevails
6. Rigid rules and regulations
7. Need for obedience and dependency
II. Information Control
1. Use of deception
a. Deliberately holding back information
b. Distorting information to make it acceptable
c. Outright lying
2. Access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged
a. Books, articles, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio
b. Critical information
c. Former members
d. Keep members so busy they don't have time to think
3. Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines
a. Information is not freely accessible
b. Information varies at different levels and missions within pyramid
c. Leadership decides who "needs to know" what
4. Spying on other members is encouraged
a. Pairing up with "buddy" system to monitor and control
b. Reporting deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions to leadership
5. Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda
a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audio tapes, videotapes, etc.
b. Misquotations, statements taken out of context from non-cult sources
6. Unethical use of confession
a. Information about "sins" used to abolish identity boundaries
b. Past "sins" used to manipulate and control; no forgiveness or absolution
III. Thought Control
1. Need to internalize the group's doctrine as "Truth"
a. Map = Reality
b. Black and White thinking
c. Good vs. evil
d. Us vs. them (inside vs. outside)
2. Adopt "loaded" language (characterized by "thought-terminating clichés"). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words".
3. Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.
4. Thought-stopping techniques (to shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts); rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.
a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
b. Chanting
c. Meditating
d. Praying
e. Speaking in "tongues"
f. Singing or humming
5. No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate
6. No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful
IV. Emotional Control
1. Manipulate and narrow the range of a person's feelings.
2. Make the person feel like if there are ever any problems it is always their fault, never the leader's or the group's.
3. Excessive use of guilt
a. Identity guilt
1. Who you are (not living up to your potential)
2. Your family
3. Your past
4. Your affiliations
5. Your thoughts, feelings, actions
b. Social guilt
c. Historical guilt
4. Excessive use of fear
a. Fear of thinking independently
b. Fear of the "outside" world
c. Fear of enemies
d. Fear of losing one's "salvation"
e. Fear of leaving the group or being shunned by group
f. Fear of disapproval
5. Extremes of emotional highs and lows.
6. Ritual and often public confession of "sins".
7. Phobia indoctrination : programming of irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader's authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.
a. No happiness or fulfillment "outside" of the group
b. Terrible consequences will take place if you leave: "hell"; "demon possession"; "incurable diseases"; "accidents"; "suicide"; "insanity"; "10,000 reincarnations"; etc.
c. Shunning of leave takers. Fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family.
d. Never a legitimate reason to leave. From the group's perspective, people who leave are: "weak"; "undisciplined"; "unspiritual"; "worldly"; "brainwashed by family, counselors"; seduced by money, sex, rock and roll.
John Hochman (7 Characteristics)
What Cults Want
Cults want wealth and power for the leadership, to be supplied by members.
1. Wealth may include:
•transfer of cash, real estate, and cars,
•profits, from exploitation of members' labor in cult-owned businesses, and
•funds raised deceptively from relatives and other non-members.
2. Power may include:
•manipulation of all relationships, work, or schooling to solely the needs of the cult,
•assignment of city and country of residence,
•regulation of pregnancy and sexual favors,
•behavioral/ideologic controls via group punishments, or threatened expulsions, and
•limitation of members' opportunities to sleep, to pursue individual interests, or simply to reflect.
3. Leaders exhort members to proselytize; predictably, more members mean more wealth and power for the leaders.
What Cults Don't Want
1. Cults are uninterested in altruism as a moral imperative. Most have self-serving moralities to benefit the organization and its leadership in particular. Individual fulfillment is irrelevant. Pseudoaltruistic activity helps image building.
2. Cults don't want high overhead. Members in cult enterprises may be underpaid or unpaid, work in unsafe environments, or have no provision for medical care.
3. No cult wants its inner workings exposed, although sophisticated cults may curry media interest or even employ public relations consultants and ad agencies to manage their image.
4. Cults do not want to be called "cults." Thus, a definition is proposed to clarify the discussion in this article.
In a majority of cases, those who join cults do not
necessarily hold to the beliefs of the cult. Rather, the
cult meets some needs or desires of that person. Meeting the
needs of a person can amount to many things. The following
is a summary of needs, encompassing both interactive and
felt needs.
1. Social needs. People need others to feel normal
and human. Interaction with others is a necessity
for a fulfilled and balanced person.
a. affirmation - the need to be recognized as
having value.
As Christians, we possess two kinds of affirmation.
Affirmation of the Spirit says that we have value
because of Christ's sacrifice. Affirmation of
Fellowship says that we have value to others,
because we recognize the value of others, due to the
sacrifice of Christ.
b. security - the need to have a consistent social
environment; a somewhat predictable
habit of social contact.
As Christians, we have security through Christ, who
is our environment, and who is a constant. Note the
theme of God's faithfulness and providership in Scripture.
c. attention - the need to have a personally
directed response to our thoughts
and actions.
As Christians, we have a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ, who directs and affirms our thoughts
and actions.
d. leadership - the need to have a goal or purpose;
sometimes a reason for life.
As Christians, our leadership is through Christ,
augmented through those appointed to lead us in
discipleship to Christ.
e. philosophical - the need to reason and find
rationale for what happens, or
what is perceived.
As Christians, we find our reasoning and rationale
in revelations, naturally occurring through God, and
in the nature and being of God.
f. power - the need to control and not be
controlled. The need for an aspect
of order in our own personal life.
As Christians, our lives are controlled by Christ,
who provides the order in our lives, and becomes
the enabler for our aspirations.
2. Physical Needs
a. food
b. shelter
c. health and medicine
Dependency upon God to provide is a consistent theme in
Scriptures. Note that God's faithfulness is constant,
while human faithfulness is not.
3. Emotional Needs
a. dependence
b. comfort/contentedness
c. emotive social response/response to hurts
d. compassion
e. justice
Emotional needs are met in the community of Christ,
where care and understanding are modeled in the first
chapters in the book of Acts.
4. Spiritual Needs
a. God-shaped emptiness within each person
b. justice/balance
c. worship
As evidenced by the wealth and consistency of writings
throughout the ages, man has a need to worship and
acknowledge a constant. Some contemporaries that have
been examples of this need are Herman Hesse, Blaise
Pascal, Bonhoffer, Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, and Joseph
Conrad.
Techniques
The following techniques are actively used by all cults,
whether they be religious or political, to varying degrees.
1. repetitive recitation: makes responses automatic,
and is most closely affiliated with what has been
termed "brainwashing". It reduces the natural
inquisitiveness of a person to an automatic,
homogenous "parrot" of the ideas that are taught
in this repetitive way. Often, victims are told
to meditate on an idea, or become part of a group
that uses peer pressure to enforce the activity.
2. Scripture twisting: appeals to the need for rational
thinking, and depends on a pre-existing confidence
in Scriptures, or a possible confidence in
Scriptures. Misinterpretation, discouraging question
asking, and extreme authority are often utilized in
conjunction with Scripture twisting.
3. Emotional incentive: social needs are met only when
the "proper" response is given. Often coupled with
peer pressure, once a target is drawn into the group,
conformity to the group's ideas and "rules" is
enforced by providing and/or withholding emotional
needs.
4. Emotional teardown: breaking down the individuality
of a person encourages replacement of the individual
with the ideas and thoughts of another. Related to
ideas of self-esteem, emotional teardown consists of
a leader or group emphasizing negative traits in an
individual. Through this process, individuals with
low self-esteem, or have a low self-confidence, will
strive to satisfy the "new" attitudes of the group,
thereby reducing the group's concentration on the
individual's "negative" traits. Often, emotional
teardown is utilized when an individual can be
isolated from society, family, and friends. (i.e.
retreats, camps, "training" schools)
5. physical incentive: physical needs are met only
when the "proper" response is given. Conformity
is enforced by providing or withholding physical
needs. Often, the targets are not able to be
self-sufficient, or they have "lost" these skills
due to the influence of the group.
6. spiritual incentive: secret or mystic "truths" are
revealed only when the "proper" response is given.
Often, secret oaths and horrifying penalties for
the disclosure of these "secrets" are utilized,
although some groups are known to reveal "inner"
secrets only to those that have proven loyalty to
the group. A defined hierarchy of authority is
usually the case with these kinds of groups, with
the revelation of "secrets" used as a method of
enforcing conformity.
7. physical teardown: a sensual experience is
generated through physical deprivation. Affects
emotional and rational needs. This takes
advantage of a medical phenomenon whereby an
individual becomes more suggestible under a
physically weakened state. Sensory deprivation
is also related to this, to a certain extent.
The most common occurrence of physical teardown
occurs when individuals are isolated, encouraged
to "meditate", and are fed at the end of long
intervals. Repetitive recitation often follows.
8. spiritual teardown: current belief system is
challenged and ridiculed. A new, or modified
belief system is proposed to replace it. The
technique plays on emotional and spiritual needs.
In pseudo-christian cults, scripture twisting
is common.
9. social incentive: social needs are met when the
"proper" response is given. An individual who
does not conform to the group is shunned, harassed,
or persecuted.
10. peer pressure: needs are met when the expected
"proper" response is given. Acceptance of an
individual into a group is dependent on conformity
to group ideals and actions. This is often tied
to any and all of the incentive methods.
11. graduated indoctrination: the actual basis, or belief
system, is introduced to the target so slowly, the
victim assimilates information without checking
it against previous information. Most commonly,
truthful principles are utilized initially, then
the true beliefs and policies of the group are
intermingled. An individual may subjectively
perceive the new ideas of the group as being very
consistent with his/her own belief system, even
though those ideas were originally perceived as
being contrary to that individual.
In general, a cult is a small religious group outside the established churches, usually with a charismatic leader who is a strong authority figure. One psychiatrist has described cults as "religions that haven't grown up yet."
Ray Moseley, Chicago Tribune, Dec. 3, 1978
1. Special Claims The members of the harmful faith system make claims about their character, abilities, or knowledge that make them "special" in some way
a. The Claim of a Special Anointing or Calling
b. The Claim of Special Powers from God
2. Authoritarianism The leader is dictatorial and authoritarian
3. An "Us Versus Them" Mentality Religious Addicts are at war with the world (flesh and the devil) to protect their terrain and establish themselves as godly persons who can't be compared to other persons of faith.
4. Punitive Nature Harmful faith systems are punitive in nature. The minister addicted to power punishes and purges the system of anybody who would upset the status quo.
5. Overwhelming Service Religious addicts are asked to give overwhelming service. Deep depression, extreme anxiety, and a general numbness are common in overwhelmed religious addicts.
6. Followers in Pain Many religious addicts in the system are physically ill, emotionally distraught, and spiritually dead. Denial becomes a quick and easy tool to live a lie until both physical and emotional trauma break the religious addicts' facades of perfection.
7. Closed Communication Communication is from the top down or from the inside out. With an attitude of spiritual superiority, religious addicts reinforce that they are always in greater touch with God's truth, more sensitive to God's will, and more worthy of being listened to than anyone else.
8. Legalism Rules are distortions of God's intent and leave Him out of the relationship. As new people come into the hurtful faith system, they are indoctrinated into the rules rather than strengthened in a relationship with God. It becomes a faith system based on "don'ts" rather than a faith centered on God. What you do is valued more than who you are.
9. No Objective Accountability Religious addicts have no system of objective accountability. If religious addicts were in healthy, accountable, relationships with others, hurtful faith would not be allowed to flourish. A person accountable only to God is a person out of control.
10. Labeling The technique of labeling is used to discount a person who opposes the beliefs of the religious addict. Labeling attempts to dehumanize persons so that dismissing them or their opinions is much easier. Labeling allows religious addicts to define truth, uphold that truth as defined, and destroy anyone else who would dare to question that truth.
Checklist of Cult Characteristics
"Comparing the following statements to the group with which you or a family member or loved one is involved may help you determine if this involvement is cause for concern. If you check any of these items as characteristic of the group in question, and particularly if you check many of them you may well be dealing with a cult and should critically examine the group and its relationship to you or your loved one.
1) The group is focused on a living leader to whom members display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
2) The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members and/or making money.
3) Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged.
4) Mind-numbing techniques (for example: meditation, chanting, denunciation sessions, or debilitating work routines) are used to suppress members' doubts.
5) The group's leadership dictates how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, or get married;) leaders may determine types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth.
6) The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, it's leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
7) The group has a polarized we-they mentality that causes conflict with the wider society.
8) The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
9) The group teaches or implies that its "superior" ends justify means that members would have
considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).
10) The group's leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control then
11) Members'subservience to the group causes them to give up previous personal goats and interests while devoting inordinate amounts of time to the groups."
12) Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.