Destructive Cult Characteristics:

Transcription

1 What is a Cult? 1

2 Destructive Cult Characteristics: Self Appointed Messianic Leader who focuses the followers worship upon himself, claims divine selection and exercises control over its members 2

3 Use of deception and misrepresentation for the purposes of recruitment, retention and fundraising Techniques are used to control individual thought and personal privacy that leads to a change in the individual s (follower s) personality. 3

4 Differences between a Destructive Cult and a Religion Cult: Deceit in recruitment Totalitarian Destroys the family Unit Religion: Information is offered up front Allows freedom of thought; members have a say Promotes the family unit Isolates its members Keeps non-believers out Works within society Open to the general community Limits development of the individual Interested in promoting potential 4

5 Exploits and manipulates its members with mindcontrol techniques Although there are guidelines, members are not systematically controlled Commitment is encouraged during recruitment process Thought before commitment is encouraged as part of conversion process Criticism is met with threats of legal action People are free to speak out against the tenets of a religion Leader and follower consider the leader to be above reproach Clergy are expected to be responsible for their words and action 5

6 Questioning the leader or basic tenets is not allowed Critical thinking is allowed and sometimes even encouraged THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGIOUS CULTS There are 16 stages of cult evolution. Not all religious cults will pass through each stage and stages will overlap: 6

7 1 People encounter an attractive, small group within which a leader has emerged or is self-appointed 2 The leader is charismatic and people focus around him or her 7

8 3 The followers gradually isolate the leader by elevating him or her 4 The group enlarges and members form emotional bonds, united by common aims and activities 8

9 5 The leader begins to change, flattered by the attention of the followers. Drained by the constant demands of the followers, she or he develops a distorted view of her or himself. The leader lacks peers with which to measure herself or himself against. The leader considers there is no earthly authority to which she or he is answerable 6 The group continues to grow to the point where formal organization becomes necessary 9

10 7 The group applies for charitable status. It runs businesses. By now, the annual financial turnover of the group is substantial 8 The group is highly structured with several people in positions of power over others 10

11 9 The leader begins to live away from the main body of the group 10 People desiring power and control gravitate to the leader and form a clique around him or her 11

12 11 The clique protects the leader in order to protect its own interests. The leader is now out of control - testing her/his autocratic powers to their limits. The power clique attempts to prevent followers from recognizing the deterioration in the leader. People on the fringes of the organization are mostly unaware of what is happening at the centre. 12 News begins to leak out to the membership. The leadership comes under attack both from outside and within the group 12

13 13 Law suits are served by the organization against those publicly expressing criticism of the group. Former members challenge the group with counter suits 14 The leader and power clique resort to increasingly extreme and desperate measures in order to maintain their position and silence opposition 13

14 15 The catastrophic denouément - public scandal, imprisonment, attempted murder, murder, suicide 16 The emergence of the re-formed group in a more repressive form than the original (All along this evolutionary line people are joining and leaving the organization). 14

15 THE END 15