Cults maintain their following by putting members through a cycle of ups and downs. There is a psychology behind these tactics and it is to exploit the the members and keep them dependent on the cult. This brainwashing is very effective and it is important for people to understand how it works.
From Wikipedia, “Cult roughly refers to a cohesive social group devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture considers outside the mainstream.”
Thus all religions are cults. Whether or not a particular cult is considered a religion depends on the local customs and traditions of the area.
Now onto the psychology of brainwashing.
Brainwashing or thought reform is the technique that all cults use to keep and recruit new members. The goal is to modify the attitudes, behaviors and beliefs of a recruit so that it conforms to the attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs of all of the members.
Let me be clear that this can happen in a variety of situations. It does NOT require an isolated environment, physical abuse, or require complete control of a recruit. These tactics do help to make the brainwashing more effective, however, they are not a necessity.
The important feature about brainwashing is that it is done over and over again to achieve the desired goal. When people stop thinking independently for themselves, when they stop questioning their own personal sense of right and wrong, and when they refuse to listen to information that conflicts with their own beliefs… then they have been effectively brainwashed.
Find or create vulnerable recruits
People experiencing the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, an uncomfortable or frustrating situation, etc. can be considered vulnerable (basically anything that can make you sad, anxious, or angry). Cults are especially good at finding these people. Many large cults will send out missionaries to 3rd world countries and war torn areas where many of these people exist. In more developed areas the cults will target places with lots these vulnerable people, such as college campuses and hospitals.
A cult recruiter will “reach out” to let these people know that they are “missing something.” The recruiter will claim to have the solution to this problem. Scientology uses a “personality test” to show a recruit how they can improve their personality. Recruiters for Christianity and Islam will often tell you that you are going to “hell” or will face “eternal damnation” when you die, and that you can be “saved.”The cult recruiter’s whole intent at first is to exploit the recruit’s vulnerability and to make them feel worse about their situation.(this is used over and over by naxal)
Make the Broken Down Recruit Feel Good
The recruiter will then reward the recruit with social support when he or she listens and agrees to the propaganda. Often the recruiter will offer personal assistance to get the new recruit to enter the cult’s isolated environment. This positive interaction helps to get the new recruit to a cult owned building. These isolated cult environments go by different names: church, synagogue, temple, mosque, dianetics center, jinja, mandir, kingdom hall, and shrine (to name a few). The encouragement from the recruiter makes the new recruit feel good and boosts their self esteem. This step reinforces that the cult and anything involved with the cult is good.
Use Guilt to Break the Recruit Back Down
In the isolated cult environment a member of the cult will explain to the recruit why he or she is bad/evil/impure. The things that make a person “evil” are usually normal, acceptable human behaviors and thus it is inevitable that the recruit is guilty of these “evils.” Things like sex and drug use are almost universally rejected by cults. Behavior that is actually adaptive in many situations, such as dishonesty, theft, and violence, are looked at as always bad. Therefore according to the cult it is NEVER alright to lie, cheat, steal, or maim in any situation, regardless of potential harm or personal gain. Many cults will also claim that a belief in a supernatural being/s is a requirement to be “pure.”
The recruit ends up feeling guilty about their impropriety and believes that it is his or her own fault that they were unhappy to begin with. The recruit’s self esteem will go down because of this guilt. Christianity and Judaism have the 10 commandments. Islam and Mormonism has an even longer list of commandments. Buddhism has the 5 percepts. Hinduism has the rules of karma and dharma. And every cult has its own unique set of rules.
Bring the Self Esteem of the Recruit Back Up
Now that the recruit has been broken down again by guilt, the members of the cult will go about bringing the recruit’s self esteem back up. The cult will ask the recruit to confess all of their wrongdoings to other members. When the recruit exposes their guilt to the cult, the members give the recruit praise and will declare that the recruit is on their way to being “saved.” The release of guilt makes the recruit realize that it’s not he or she that is wrong, but his or her beliefs that are wrong.
The cult will tell the recruit to follow these rules and return on a regular basis to the “holy” place. This means returning to the isolated cult environment at least every week if not more often. The new recruit then leaves feeling happy and relieved.
Continue the Cycle of Breaking Down and Building Up Cult Members
Within the week the cult member will probably commit one of the “sins” and feel guilty. They will attribute any sadness, anxiousness, or anger to their flawed beliefs. They will return to the cult environment at a low. At the weekly meeting the cult will use the social influence of a large group of people to now induce guilt and break down members further. The confession of wrongdoings and the “goodness” of the cult will once again be used to build up everyone’s self esteem.
This cycle is repeated week after week.
The Loss of Self and Exploitation
Eventually the cult member’s self worth becomes dependent on the cult. The cult’s self worth replaces any independent self worth. The cult member feels that any and all happiness is because of the cult, and the “sins” of the real world are the cause of their unhappiness.
Once the individual has reached this point they will have also lost most of their independent thought. The cult then exploits the member for their time and resources. Donations of money are mandatory in all cults. Cult members will claim that donation is not mandatory, however failing to donate or taking money from the cult is a major “sin.” Tithes, voluntary contributions, sacrificial giving, voluntary stewardship, tzedakah, alms, and zakat are some names for these mandatory donations. In all cults donating money is considered “sacred” and met with praise (how odd that even the supernatural obey the almighty $$).
Like businesses the intent of the cult is not really to help members, but to make money from them. Unlike businesses, though, cults do not pay taxes. This distinction is a result of politicians and other government officials being members of cults themselves. The influence of cults is widespread in all countries of the world. Hopefully information like this will help people realize these mind control techniques and manipulation.
“1) Find lonely, desperate people
2) Break them down: Make them feel much worse about themselves
3) Build them back up: make them feel good about themselves again
4) Repeat 2-3 until their sense of self-worth is completely dependent on you
5) Reveal the “true” beliefs of the cult and take all their money
Et Voila. Combine those with other brainwashing techniques and you have yourself a nice little cult.
So it is not so much “what do these people get out of the cult?”, as it is “what does the cult take from them?”. They take your independent sense of self-worth and turn it into a cult-dependent sense of self-worth.
edit: the strange part is, a lot of other organizations use the same tactics but nobody tends to notice them. The army, marine corps, navy, sports teams, pimps ;), etc.. all use the same break em down, build em back up tactic, which is brainwashing 101.”
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