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Cults Studies

Lessons
So-called cult wisdom is considered
"Cults and sects and wicked clowns had better be found out. You have to remain judicious throughout life. Things come to a sad end unless, you know that.
Living in rigidly regulated tracks, you may feel yourself bound to slave for big queens or big ones - how is it?
In the human realm, wincers often have personal ties to cults and sects or settings that resemble it. They may mask themselves to look bold as their Favourite Compensation Game. Think better: what wincers find great - shun it thoughtfully."

Cults and sects turn humans into "cattle", herd animals
Cult jungle messages
They exploit transitions and baffle
There may be morbid appeals
No way out after victim of tricks for too long?
Relating in modern maladaptations

Any information given on this page is not intended to be taken as a replacement for fit expert advice. Any person with a condition requiring medical attention should consult a well qualified practitioner or therapist.
Besides, very supporting "well medleys" are presupposed throughout:

Cattle, human cattle

If the sect gangster leader tells all underneath him that you have to be immensely loved and venerated, who can withstand?

Think "well-well" to fit in and avoid drudgery.

Here is a very old story of how humans were changed into pigs. It is a prototype for the cult members. We suggest you read that story first. [Ulysses meets Circe]

Counter-persuasions hardly make it

WE'LL go a bit into cults where members are encouraged to worship in some way or other that others may not like full well, and which make parents and friends very anxious and want to kidnap the victims back home and counter-brainwash them if needs be, after all normal-looking persuasions fail.
   Bogus Christianity - it may make our hearts smile sadly at times. And good things can make our hearts smile. Like bogus items in a sect, many good things can favour loyalty askance.
   What we deal with right here could be an quite American-linked society, designed and established where it grew big enough to impress by more than glitter. A big herd of cattle is like that; impressive!
   Let us figure: The tone of the cattle-holding society may be exposed by the media as clannish and outright cultish. That hardly makes good things happen all the same. To the contrary at times. In time publicity may help pave the way for essentially unsound, affiliated groups and centres in other countries, and so on.
   If you annoy a herd of cattle and persons with cult fever inside themselves, in the end the ox-herd or boss will accuse you of being a disturbing menace, and next go out of his way to get rid of you.
   But if you manage the near-incredible, make them welcome you into their families where some females hug and bless you profusely and howl at the idea that you should leave, it sometimes gives the impression of being good to you. But it is all in vain, maybe a vain performance. Knowing something about free will could help - it could really happen. Now, if the first series things they do to you after the kidnapping and ballyhoo on top of that, seems imposed on them from above - is it really they who love and hug and bless and sleep with you night after night without wearing anything and protection? The free will is the element that could be missing. And do you know what? In the end it should not pay to call it up if they claim God himself has favoured you with being loved always, truly and easily all the time!
   These are words of an expert, one who knows. One who knows, has first-hand knowledge, not just written words on his desk and desktop.
   Besides, farces may be funny. As a certain Indian guru was into too, his followers should have fun instead of hating, for fun is linked to gladness, which he often equals to God's essential nature. Good fun is fit for many persons nowadays - the need for it can be as great as for stretching.

What is a sad cult?

An insensitive cult is a congregation of people. Insensitive people may cause much long-range harm, and in the lend also among themselves and to themselves.
Some cults may work for our long-range harm. Better stay out of them. As for others, judicious study often helps.
According to Merriam-Webster's Internet dictionary, the word's Latin roots of 'cult' involve "care, adoration, cultivate".
A cult deals with:

formal religious veneration, worship;
a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also its body of adherents;
a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also its body of adherents;
a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator;
(a) great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book), and especially such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad. (b) usually a small group of people marked by such devotion.

You don't have to be wicked to link up to a cult unwittingly. You don't even have to be stupid. It's enough to be hoodwinked by frequent baits that play on such as insecurity, loss of belongingness and so on.
Cults may have inner circles, for example of monastics of various shapes and kinds. Much-encompassing service and "enterprise" may be headed by one or more inner circle figures. They officially believe in this and that, for example in being lifted up in the air to God, or in god-making (apotheosis) in general. Many cults may play well - they don't have to be termed bad or too bad to entertain - till they're big - and then it seems too late to change things because of grand size, or many, many human cattles to handle. Much cattle brings about very settled ways in time. It's like that in Texas.

How long shall impurity reside inside Christianity?

It depends on how you look at things. "To the pure everything is pure," decreed St. Paul, after first having denounced all Cretans - without having met all of them. (Titus] The teachings of some cults and sect may seem like soap opera repetitions.
Speaking of flying in the air, appearing and disappearing and all that, it may be added that the size of flying Indians (Hindu gurus) seems very irrelevant to "all and sundry", and yet ... The ancient primer Patanjali's Yoga Sutras teach that those that attain, can make themselves as big and small as they wish - it's one of the "eight miraculous powers" in that book. [Cf. Hos]
Also, much confusing verbiage may come "drifting" our way, in part in the form of lessons that work in ruthless ways, mysteriously enslaving ways. It depends.
There may not be good ground to adapt to them locally, if you are away from the hub. Now, granting that "pretty boy sunshine teachings" may breed unnecessary defeats in very hostile environments, let's go on.

Crazy? Can we be made crazy?

Someone may ask, "What must I do to not to get tricked facing seniors, rank and handy teachings inside some - crazy, but so haughty and assy that it is hardly reconed with in the large society?"
We should not get silly, and we should not succumb to bossy arrogance and get confused if we live in a harsh climate and teachings come from the sunshine regions far south. Maybe you find the conditions fit for elegant, relevant and safe HAMSA drilling anyway. It can be tried out in freedom.

Cult hallmarks

A marked synchretic (assimilating, confluence-rich) strain is not necessarily a Hindu hallmark. It may just as easily be taken to be a sign of very large-looking eclective (selective) mistakes or better.
But as for an allegedly Christian farm that influences persons to believe that Jesus heads the demons, not only one's karma, reincarnation, loyalty to suspicious or insane bosses marked by untrue prophesies and the like - things may not get better.
You have to not the difference between those two modes, even though they can or should complement each other pretty well in one's day-to-day schemes: Very eclectic (selective) strivings may lead into metaphors and symbols that may be interpreted in more than one way as time goes by.
But too rigidly specified stuff seems naturally destined to breed lawishness, "the letter of the rule instead of its spirit" and much else really degrading stuff unless you're very careful.
Over and above these two modes, beware of the charlatan and his handicrafts, if any. The charlatan may fast turn into a crook.
If that man seeks to influence others to win heaven and salvation from self-effort, plus "a little help from my friends", i.e. gurus or leaders, it may be high time to leave his favourite places and settings and never come back. Preferably you should have learnt to interpret the signs from over your head a long way before that, even. As the Bible insists, God often gives signs, and they can help if interpreted. That's one of the basics.
You have to suspect mistakes or perhaps "wolf in sheep's clothing" tricks too. I don't think it is fit to worship the idol Hare Krishna or the just and Hinduism-linked Divine Mother (Kali etc.) in the name of Jesus Christ here. Some gurus want it otherwise. Yet as I said, you should not get silly. It may cost terribly much as time goes by, and you can lose many favours from much else that is not really up to snuff as well. We just teach: "Go on where you can. Try to be the judge of that yourself."

How is artistic believing?

It should be good to reach up to; cosy in its own right. Not too tight. Sometimes ready for corrections, even. Pablo Picasso had it that way with his paintings. He often wanted and tried to modify something, even items he had sold and that were hanging in some public gallery.
Frozen and demoniac teachings are not good for you. Friendly teachings allow some leeway and room for thought, even expansive thought to be added - not unlike the shoe that allows the child's feet and toes to grow.
So don't be laden solely with questions. And bear in mind that much skilled thinking is favourable and should be a blessing.
There is no reason to get strangled in the belief street. How to do it? Maybe a good Russian proverb may serve you a bit: "Believe, but make sure." How to do it: "I am and I think at times."
Beliefs are forms of thinking - And sound verification tends to bring non-maiming knowledge to man. Some knowledge is probabilistic - partly dealing in odds also.
Sound and rational study with apt comparisons shouldn’t hurt. Not at all.

Today's American cult junge and its messages

UNDERSTANDING cults may be crucial. The following is much in line with deep cult understanding from mature persons. It goes much against facade matters on top of romantic idealism - study it to bulwark better. The following depth survey is rooted in sanity concerns: Much has been validated in the United States.

1 Much unsavoury, mindless and thoughtless blaming is to be aborted or avoided

MAYBE much irrational compliance initiates many a cult game. Nasty cults break down a lot, including sounder, more fit adaptations. There are good reasons to do something about it.
Some cultish stands may be modified to suit many persons. The Christian persuasion started as a cult or sect of Judaism in its time, and has ever since been marked by big and bad fractions and very little help from Judaism of Sabbath rest and circumcision - and has been modified far and wide. The process goes on today as well. One day having female ministers is bad and not allowed, the "next day" it is wise to have it - the other day lesbian female ministers - this happens.
Cults may give other focuses and enlarge myths of their own. It may lead to nothing just to blame stubborn actors of a sorry "cult game", and blaming its victims may go even worse, as they tend to have less freedom. There can be more freedom on top.
If cult members with their fads act very different from us, the best to do may be to keep a safe distance first of all, and next look into what the ... to do next.
In that context, in the United States it has become much more urgent than in Scandinavia to search for some common ground in the forces that shape all human behaviour. By acknowledging our own vulnerability to the operation of the powerful, often subtle situational forces that controlled their actions we can do better than blaming lamely and bluntly. Let's go for that.
The majority of "normal, average, intelligent" individuals can be led to engage in immoral, illegal, irrational, aggressive and self destructive actions that must be contrary to their values or personality in coming. When manipulated situational conditions exert their power over individual dispositions, this happens.
Cult methods of recruiting, indoctrinating and influencing their members are not exotic forms of mind control, but only more intensely applied mundane tactics of social influence practised daily by all compliance professionals and societal agents of influence. ¤

2 Natural strivings toward meaning, unions and fulfilments are made use of in cults - and too harshly. it often shows up

CULTS in part represent each society's "default values," filling in its missing functions. ...
Very few need to join a "cult thing" and few feel they do if they do: Lots of people join interesting groups that promise to fulfil their pressing needs. They become "cults" when they are seen as deceptive, defective, dangerous, or as opposing basic values of their society.
Our search for meaning should begin at the beginning: "What was so appealing about this group that so many people were recruited/seduced into joining it voluntarily?" We want to know also, "What needs was this group fulfilling that were not being met by "traditional society?" ¤

3 Lots of cult members harvest less sanity from pervertions and abuses that may grow tall in time

AS BASIC human values are being strained, distorted and lost in our rapidly evolving culture, illusions and promissory notes are too readily believed and bought--without reality validation or credit checks. ... you and I could be recruited or seduced into doing--under the right or wrong conditions. (7)

Exploiting transitions

1 Reactions from narcissists may lead into a long cult sway - being held much in subjection through non-equality-rooted ways and means

TRANSITIONS in life are of many sorts - change of livelihood is marked by transitions. Having to move to adapt to new jobs, growing in stages, and striving to get higher in the stratitifed society - they involved transitions. Many become a lot more sensitive and vulnerable in such stages of modern living. It's much natural. And maybe matters get too annoying. The next may be "being marred in a climb", so to speak. Many soap opera looking cults play on deep needs for a good life - baits are there, deep needs to be played on are there. What the end result can be, none can tell along general lines. It depends on other influencing factors and one's measure of greatness, intelligence - whatever. Maybe a good friend can help. One rather remarkable thing about cult mind control is that it's so ordinary in the tactics and strategies of social influence employed. They are variants of well-known social psychological principles:

Unsound conformity striving can be marred in stages or being lorded over - that sort of perversity.
Non-solid "reaction-formation" that eventually backfires in many members - often results of emotional manipulation, and much persuasion or framing along with morbid recruiting.
Compliance from bad play on unfulfilled instincts or needs may breed mental dissonance.

Also enticing us to donate; to join; to change and believe ludicrous things without having facts to aid the rational instance of the personality, and maybe to hate some decreed enemy also.
Cult mind control is not different in kind from these everyday varieties, but in its greater intensity, persistence, duration, and scope. One difference is in its greater efforts to block quitting the group, by imposing high exit costs, replete with induced phobias of harm, failure, and personal isolation. This may go along with "exhausting labour as another danger (spending all one's waking time begging for money, recruiting new members, or doing menial service for little or no remuneration)", as the professor lets us on on.
What makes cults dangerous? It’s in part up to who you are and where you may be - and it depends in part on the kind of cult: Perhaps the main danger lies in deception, mindless devotion, and failure to deliver on the recruiting promises.

2 You can be made stupid by sleek manipulation, and being confused is a hallmark

OUR SOCIETY is in a curious transitional phase ... the economic gap grows exponentially between the rich and powerful and our legions of poor and powerless. Up to very possible madness of any leader can become "normalised" as members embrace it, and the folly of one becomes "divine", and only with three or more adherents, it becomes a constitutionally protected belief system. It has happened. The menial tendency may be gauged by strong examples.
Unless one is forewarned, dramatic change and confusion create intellectual chaos and a lot disbelief with what was handed over in fair ways. ¤

3 Much sound inspection was needed before critical thinking hits

A CERTAIN danger ties in with insisting on contributions of exorbitant amounts of money (tithing, signing over life insurance, social security or property, and fees for personal testing and training).
Unquestioning obedience to the leader and following arbitrary rules and regulations could eliminate independent, critical thinking, and the exercise of free will. Such straitjacketing is a looming danger that can lead in stages to either committing suicide upon command or destroying the cult's enemies, the Stanford professor warns us. ¤
Poor thinking is at the root of cults. There is reason to figure that young people hardly have enough personal experience to stand up to the overt and hidden or unforeseen challenges that cults often impose on folks.
Most cult groups demand that members sever ties with former family and friends which creates total dependence on the group for self identity, recognition, social reinforcement. (8)

Deep, often morbid appeal

1 A lot cults speculate in member needs and make hard use of much willingness to contribute, maybe by feigning "up in the sky" for a while

WHAT makes any of us especially vulnerable to maiming cult influences? It could be such as being in a transitional phase in life. Most youths are, and some get battered by discrepancies between what they see and what values and anchorage they are told to take up. Holding traditional religion as personally irrelevant is one side of the outcome. This - being in a transitional phase of growing up mentally or morally, and dropping one’s traditional anchors somehow, one way or other - is the soil that many morbid thistles may strike root in. And then there is the problem of tricky influencing:
"In a 1980 study where we (C. Hartley and I) surveyed and interviewed more than 1,000 randomly selected high school students in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, 54 percent reported they had at least one active recruiting attempt by someone they identified with a cult, and 40 percent said they had experienced three to five such contacts." And that was long before growing up as web surfers.
Expert influencing has a counter-side in much growing, personal shyness in the targets of cult influencing: With the rise in cults and maiming membership, a public health model is essential for understanding how societal pathology is implicated in contributing to the rise in shyness among adults and children in America," writes Professor Philip G. Zimbardo of Stanford University. So much shyness is perhaps not only an individual problem - but more and more a deep function of how the society handles growing youngsters. ¤
In general, cult leaders offer simple solutions to the increasingly complex world problems we all face daily. It can be done by following their simple rules, simple group regimentation and simple total lifestyle. Ultimately, each new member contributes to the power of the leader by trading his or her freedom for the illusion of security and reflected glory that group membership holds out. It means there are things you shouldn't adjust to.

2 Intelligence may not be enough to combat maiming influences that portray or speculate in future’s conditions by fraud

THE FUTURE can be hard to tell of. That’s why intelligence is not up to much against plots and tricks that deal in promises and visionary attempts that we find cults speculate in a whole lot.
Your leader may promise not only to heal any sickness and foretell the future, but give you the gift of immortality.
What is the appeal of major cults? Imagine an identity, safety, security, simplicity, and an organised daily agenda. Look forward to intelligence and no illness. "Who would fall for such appeals? Most of us ... especially if we had unfulfilled needs," Dr. Zimbardo finds.
Cults are not unusual among us. "They exist as part of the frayed edges of our society ... [and] we want to prevent such tragedies or our children and neighbours from joining," Dr. Zimbardo specifies.

3 You should study what is behind many cult fad facades and the findings of good and solid research in the first place, so as not to be taken in all the way

LOTS OF cults promise to fulfil most of those personal individual's needs where they find them. They will eliminate the increasing feelings of isolation and alienation being created by mobility, technology, competition, meritocracy, incivility, and de-humanised living and working conditions in our society. In this they may contribute to neurotic maladaptation - very often there is no easy way out from it.
Initially the "cult member bargain" seems like a "win-win" trade for the shy members of society, but there is often a difference between a facade and what’s behind - it has to be taken into account. As for the rising shyness among young and adult members of the American society, "shyness among adults is now escalating to epidemic proportions, according to recent research by Dr. B. Carducci in Indiana and my research team in California. More than 50 percent of college-aged adults report being chronically shy (lacking social skills, low self-esteem, awkward in many social encounters)." ¤

There may be no solution

WE HAVE to create an alternative, "perfect cult", Professor Philip Zimbardo states, and he advocates means and ways to make our society actually nicer and more handsome. "Enriching that core of common humanity should be our first priority," he concludes and overview with (see right below).
His deep-probing counsel is rooted in his sights: We may lessen the shy man’s secret or deep needs and drives that cult-members and other manipulators exploit in the first place, with their deception, distortion and potential for destruction.
In many an individual case, maybe it’s too late, maybe it’s not. A lot depends on how long certain perversions of natural instincts and neurotic mal-adaptation have been allowed to flourish. Maybe much depends on what was idealised in early childhood as well, in such as Sunday School or its counterparts. And much depends on how contacts outside cults handle narcissistic expressions or tokens. And also on how low in "insignificant personalism" each member has landed.
Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D., is professor of psychology at Stanford University.

Get away from the dross, favour yourself instead

There is a difference between being spiritual and being merely a conform part of some herd. Being bluntly religious is much and severely linked to conformism.
Very often religious art with tricks and hoodwinking stunts a man's growth and blocks and thwarts sound libido development or more, becoming nicely evolved as a spiritual artist in close assonance with the very old insider ways, including those of Moses and Jesus.
Moses represents more than: "face to face, much sincere, strive to be "on a good foot" with "I am" (i.e. Yahweh) that can be deep inside.
And Jesus more than: "Know the Father in truth and righteousness. Lift up the son of man, do your best each day to enter heaven - it's inside a man" and so on. [Cf. Net xxiv]
Here were what is understood as great spiritual measures, as reflected in the Bible. They should not be underscored.

1 Christianity is a relating to a true God

IN MODERN DAYS things have started to get complicated. And Christianity has entered into a direct contact with living non-Christian religions.
Recognition of the plurality of the world religions marks the religious consciousness of the 20th century in a way that was unknown before. And many Christian institutions for the study of non-Christian religions have been founded. This is much against how things were done in the ancient church, when the Holy Spirit was much active - That church went directly against paganism, as Acts substantiates. Religions encountered were held to be offsprings of human error, and worship directed to various representative images crafted by humans, was not welcome. Not at all.
There was basically an urge to degrade pagan gods as demons, evil demonic forces engaged in mortal combat with the true God. So in our days the pure missionary and salvationist task must have drifted.
"The readiness of encounter or even co-operation of Christianity with non-Christian religions is a phenomenon of modern times," Encyclopedia Britannica writes.
A spiritual encounter and discussion of Christianity with other world religions has begun only during the 20th century. It's a deep fruit (consequence) of change in the general lay of the and in our world, after the global spread of Christianity in the 18th and 19th centuries through the activity of the European and American churches. It paved the way for many immediate encounters with existing religions, and now the counter-move is on.

Pagan

Not all pagans are trolls and mean to maim you. It may be well to bear that in mind. Now, according to Merriam-Webster's Internet dictionary, pagan means:

heathen [(a) relating to heathens, their religion, or their customs; (b) strange, uncivilised, especially a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome) (c) of a member, people or nation that does not acknowledge the God of the Bible - see "heathen" for the inserted heathen elaborations - it’s all there];
one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods;
an irreligious or hedonistic person.

A fit selection of definition elements can be had in more than one way. The elements above are kind of middling, just as with the Merriam-Wester definitions of 'cult' and very many other items in general. They reflect a traditional side of matters. In recent times our uses and understanding has changed somewhat, but very often in consonance with one or more items (read: parametres) from the arrays in each definition above. That's how general definitions often serve evolving man: he should get more functional grasps of tricky subjects. What is more, specialists may elaborate on some items, lessen the value of others, and bore into significant outlooks tied in with them, as the case may be. It's much in the "art of science". In other words, fair, good and top-notch use of words can be just as much an art as a science - and it's seen in the best scientific writings. [Cf. Scu]

2 Special religions may tie in with neurotic maladaptations in modern days

WELL ORGANISED mission - also on Internet - makes known a flow of religious ideas and methods of meditation through literature ad many art images as the case may be. These many influences can be linked to much and maybe advanced philosophy, psychology, and psychotherapy. So Christianity in the latter part of the 20th century found itself forced to enter into a factual discussion with non-Christian religions.
There are also a number of specialised centres in many Western countries, such as France, England and the unrest-marked United States. There is also room for mumbo-jumbo.
Concern for a responsible co-operation of Christian churches and non-Christians made it easier for Asian, elevated religions that involve paganism, to surface the world over. Since World War II, Hinduism, Buddhism, and older teachings have been heading for positions of leadership or dominance in minds of men.

3 Asian religions may or may not have good answers to some modern dilemmas - including a need for peace and self-help development

NOWADAYS, many Asian religions have turned to activities in world missions in Christian countries in Europe, the Americas, and Australia. Missionary Hinduism has founded many centres and cults. Various forms of Buddhism too has begun world missionary activities. There is a Buddhist renaissance.

Zen pictured One hallmark of the good friend is courage. Another can be feasible indefiniteness against taming. Family living is based on friendship and service.

REFERENCE: Encyclopedia Britannica, s.v. "Christianity: The Christian Community And The World: The Christian church and non-Christian religions".

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