Rival cults distracting from themselves by hitting against another cult.
Vera noted:
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All cults have their similarities and differences. It is of value to look at the operating systems of different cults even if their philosophies and practices differ.
The point that we all need to learn in this day and age is this:
It is not the belief system (the content) that defines something as a cult.
It is the behavior of the leader and group that determine whether it is
a sect, a religion, a secular idealogy, a marketing group --versus its being
classifiable as a CULT.
The term 'cult' is meant to be descriptive, like the term TB for a particular
type of bacterium that causes a specific lung infection different from other lung infections.
If you want to pick one characteristic that defines a cult versus a non cultic
group or relationship it is this:
Lack of your fully informed consent. If you knew the full truth about that person or that group, you would never get involved or stay involved.
What you need to know is deliberately with held from you. Your recruiter may also
be kept ignorant of the actual nature of the group. But the leader and senior members know what is going on and orchestrate the deceit.
A group can be 'diagnosed' as a cult if its leader and members demonstrate
one or more of the following behaviors:
(For the full list - read here.
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www.culteducation.com]
This is so useful that it is worth storing this
in your phone and keeping a paper copy where you can get at it easily. If I ran
a coffee shop or laundromat, I would allow anyone to put up fliers advertising whatever they want. But...I would have a framed copy of these guidelines alongside the bulletin board.)
Cults target people who are in transition and feeling unsure of themselves - hence they often recruit at colleges and universities. They often recruit in places such as India, where new arrivals are disoriented, jet lagged, culture shocked, etc.
Every undergraduate should be given this checklist and this matter discussed as part of orientation.
Note: if you are a physician, lawyer, psychotherapist CPA or are studying in these areas, you are a high value recruit. Your presence will make a sleaze group look good. Your presence will bring immense prestige to a guru. You may never be exposed to the abuses that the leader inflicts on lower ranking members. Always research any group desiring your presence or inviting you to be part of some religious dialogue. Investigate social justice groups too. Look at this example.
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forum.culteducation.com]
Methods of Coercive Persuasion and Attitude Change - OfsheTo this list, Corboy would add some observations.
1) Look out for 'free meditation classes'. It costs money and labor to print brochures, fliers, and to distribute this material. Where does that money come from if the meditation classes are free? If posers and brochures are printed in
color on high quality paper, costs increase substantially. None of this is
'free' in the long run.
Donated labor? No need to set up a payroll, no need to arrange W-2 forms. Nope.
Donated labor frees a group to utilize what cash it has in a much more efficient manner.
Eventually, someone has to pay for those 'free classes'. You need to know from the very first 'free class' when you will be expected to pay money. That is why fiscal accountability is listed as an important topic when assessing a group.
2) It costs money to rent rooms for meditation classes and workshops. Where does the money come from?
3) A group may rent a room near a prestigious university (Harvard College is a great example) and without actually saying so, make it seem that they are endorsed by the university.
A group may rent a room from a university, a church, a hospital and make it seem they are endorsed or associated with the master tenant. Do not fall for this. We are all short on cash these days and renting rooms is an easy way to do it.
Note: a cult or a terrorist group may operate in the guise of a social justice project. If you are fired up to join a 'direct action' or advocacy group, especially one that works you over with pictures of suffering children, shows you photos of alleged atrocities, FACT CHECK.
Go to Google and learn to research atrocity photos -- some groups will fallciously
use photographs from other sources.
Find out if the group is on a State Department watchlist.
Find out if this group is attempting to use you and your trust and idealism in an exploitative manner. If they tell you to lie to your own family so that you can leave school, leave the country and go abroad, please do not do this. An honorable group will not tell you to lie to your family. Anyone who claims this is service to God or justice is seeking to use you like a toilet.
If you get killed, you will be used as a martyr and then forgotten after a few years. Your family will be left grieving for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile the group will look for new targets to recruit.
Ask questions, it is your human right. Anyone who shames you smiles at you shouts you down for asking questions -- dont date them and dont let them recruit you to
their project.
4) Do your own consumer education. Do not assume that the leader is giving full disclosure about his or her history, especially if he or she claims to be a guru or has had a magical transformative experience that led to overnight healing.
* The person might have studied with a group or guru that later gained bad publicity and learned a lot of social manipulative skills, but wants to hide
his or her sources. Do your own fact checking and look up where that person actually studied.
* If a person claims to have a Ph.D or medical degree, find out if it is legitimate. If a person had only a few years of graduate school, yet failed to defend a dissertation and graduate with a PH.D, yet claims to have a Ph.D, that person is not being truthful. Do you want to entrust your soul and money to such a person?
* Many people claim trans formative experiences that cannot be fact checked.
* Notice if persons who seemed sedate and mature change behavior when the leader
enters the room and has begun to speak. I once saw a group of middle aged professionals regress into zombies when the lecturer began to speak. Get out of there.
* Never stay with anyone who demands that you give over your phone, your keys, your laptop, your ID papers. RUN.
* Take your own transportation to any event and refuse to carpool. This is one time to refuse to be Green. To protect yourself and preserve your freedom of autonomy, it is OK to leave a big carbon footprint. Remember what your mom says
when you go out on a blind date: have the money to pay for a cab ride home in case your blind date turns out to be a bad apple.
In case you
discover this is a bad situation and you need to leave, you must have control over your own transportation and your own telephone. If someone has carpooled with you, you may feel reluctant to abandon them, and you may remain in this situation and
get scrambled. These groups have studied how to break people. And some intentionally set it up so you cannot leave when you want to. This has happened to me twice.
*Learn the actual 'family history' of the group -- see if it matches with the official version. Did it change its name? Was the group or its leader sued or sentenced? Has the group moved around the country leaving angry neighbors?
Some may say that US Marine Corps training is cultic. . Here
is where USMC training is different from cultic methods of coercion and indoctrination.)
Some of us may read all this and think, "guru groups are the ones who have this kind of trouble."
No. This same list can be used to test whether a church is going off the rails.
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forum.culteducation.com]
Rick Ross (rrmoderator) observed:
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To whom it may concern:
Many people that have been burned by independent churches with pastors that lack meaningful accountability move on to another church where there is meaningful accountability, through democratically elected church government and meaningful financial transparency.
The overwhelming majority of Protestant churches in North America have these features.
That is, elected church boards that serve fixed terms through regularly held elections.
A board that has the power to, if necessary, discipline and/or dismiss a pastor.
Financial transparency in the form of annual financial reports, which disclose in detail all church finances, including salaries, all compensation and expenses paid out from church funds. Many such reports are also independently audited.
When these safeguards are not in place there are frequently serious problems regarding abuse of power and church funds.
If your church doesn't have these safeguards there is is an element of risk regarding abuse of power.
Denominational churches often have these safeguards with the added check of denominational oversight. This may insure educational requirements for pastors and staff. Also, it may insure that the bible is taught correctly per articles of faith and doctrine, rather than whatever a particular pastor might fancy.
Typically, the more checks and balances there are the safer the church will be and conversely the less there are, the higher the risk
A friend may be happy, seemingly healed and urge you to join him or her. Or you may be curious. No matter how much you love your friend, you still should fact check and trust your gut. Many exploitative groups intentionally use friendships
to recruit new bodies. Some groups will train members to befriend you and then
exploit that false friendship to reel you in.
And, even the strongest of us go through disorienting crises. That is exactly when
we are vulnerable. A group may wait and then recruit you right when you are hit by
a crisis such as a death in your family.
It is a very sad truth that there are some deceitful, sleazy people out there who use their gifts of charisma to enslave us. We have been told to 'test the spirits" and have the right to do so.
Some may say, "Oh this can never happen to me".
Some have been born into cults.
Some are pressured by their employers to do workshops that are run by cults. During economic downturns, employees may be terrified to lose their jobs.
One person wrote to us who moved into a shared apartment at a time when affordable
rentals were virtually non existent. His master tenant turned out to be an aggressive recruiter for a cult and pushed him to join. Our correspondent told his
he was having a difficult time finding another place to live and until he could, he had to endure the coercion.
Hell of a choice. Attend a Landmark Education workshop or sleep in a homeless shelter or on the street.
A woman engaged to be married wrote in to us because several of her bridesmaids had joined Landmark and had become dotty.
People wrote to us telling how their spouses and partners developed crippling
food phobias after joining diet cults.
You may find your therapist is not really your therapist, because your therapist is the psychological property of a guru and is not fully adult, just impersonating an adult.
We take care to research if a nanny, a baby sitter, or a school is qualified to care for and educate our children.
We have the right to do this kind of research for anyone who offers to educate our souls and psyches.
If you lose a friendship over this, you are better off. Hard to say but true. I have been there.
