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Essays on a cult
Cults and their followers
Social psychology of cults
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k a Subject
The first step is to pick a subject that someone might consider devoting their life to. The subject should be a positive activity, concept, or idea that may potentially change lives for the better. An example idea would be forming a cult around pizza. If the subject is believed in, then that ideal has the potential to be a good thing in the world.
Another way to look at it is if you are passionate enough about the subject then you are able to continue to worship it over time. Cults can only be successful if the devotees are truly passionate about the idea, to be worth the excessive worship.
When thinking of the subject, a good question to ask is whether the world would be a better or worse place if this cult was to form? If the
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Cult’s can have a single leader, also known as a collective. The leader must be organized and have a vision for great things. While also refusing the temptation of abusing the power for their own material gains. Cult leaders can range from charismatic to manipulative, the one who wants the job should be picked last for the eagerness.
Basic Rules
Next, you establish the basic rules of the cult. These are the rules, concepts, and moral codes that the cult will live by. The focus should be on how you can use this to transform your lives for the better. It is extremely wise to record the rules down in a document. Refrain from excessively using the word ‘cult’ in the rules, to prevent anyone from getting the wrong idea.
Place of Worship
Sometimes a cult needs a worship gathering place so it is a wise decision to have the place of practice in a private place where you can do things however you want without the judgment of the surrounding peers. Public places are more dangerous because of the hostility of those not converted towards the cult. Beware that the cult may attract both positive and negative attention in the more public
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Begin Cultish Nature
Singular Ideals
Behavioral restrictions start to apply to ensure singularity, because the cult cannot have its members eating granola bars if their whole ideal is pizza.
Attempts to isolate members away from outsiders will help with the singularity processed mind. Another option is to regulate a self-censorship. Program in their brain that if it’s not of the cult, then it’s the devils work.
To solidify the cult, your obsession must be considered the one true ideal. The idea is the only answer to every problem in the world. Preaching it will make them soon believe it.
Stories of greatness, especially those about the leader will increase the number of devotees. The more outrageous the story is, the more believable they can be. Figure 4: Singular Thought Process
Practice, Practice, Practice
Consistently practicing the obsession will help you determine the direction in which you prefer to take it. Make it a light-hearted or serious cult. If it becomes a serous cult, an option to increase devotion would be to increase demands. Start small but increase till eventually you will have the devotees willing to give up worldly
...id Koresh will come back because he really is a prophet. It might not ever be know why people truly join cults, but they do.Cults are similar to a religion but they have more extreme ways of expressing themselves that society finds abnormal.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorders have been found to have many causal factors. Many of these are cultural and one possibility is that religion plays a part in severity of symptoms, like obsessive thoughts. Because of Darien’s past history and heavy involvement...
Cultic activity has taken place since the practice of religion was established thousands of years ago. Since then, literally thousands of denominations have been inoculated throughout the world, especially in the United States. A cult, according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary is a system of religious beliefs and rituals. By definition, this includes organizations such as Baptists, Catholics as well as Satanists and Witches. While this maybe true, cults have been popularly perceived as Separatists who are consumed by the belief of apocalyptic events, and the leader is someone who believes he or she is chosen by God or some other deity to lead those who are to follow him or her. One group that fits this description is the Branch-Davidians. In the early 1990’s the Branch-Davidians made national headlines when they had a deadly standoff with government agents in Waco, Texas, where many perished, including their infamous leader, David Koresh. To understand why this happened, we must understand the history, beliefs and the determination of the Branch-Davidians to defy the government by stockpiling arms, supplies and taking refuge in Waco, Texas. We must also enter the world of David Koresh to make sense of how he was able to have the impact he did on the minds of members of the Branch Davidians.
A cult is defined as a small group of people that do not adhere to the larger widely accepted belief system, instead they are often regarded to have extreme or dangerous beliefs (Cult). Cult leaders engage in many different methods and actions to gain their followers. Some cults last for a long period, others end shortly after creation. Cults nevertheless hold a stigma that brings terror and confusion to many outsiders looking in. The public questions why people could become so consumed in someone else that they could bring themselves to take their own lives. Not all cults are the evils the public makes them out to be; they are not necessarily spotless institutions however. When one thinks of a cult, they imagine death, brainwashing, and simple human robots following the reincarnation of the devil. Not all cults end in mass suicide, violence, or terror; many religions once started as cults and have thrived since. However, some cults end in the expected display of death, confusion, and regret. Heaven’s Gate, led by Marshall Applegate, is one such example. Marshall Applegate invoked various methods of persuasion to gain followers, who in the end would commit suicide in attempts to reach their idea of heaven.
According to dictionaries a cult is 1) a system of religious worship or ritual. 2) A religion or sect considered extremist of false. 3) Obsessive devotion to a person or principle. It is believed that every cult ties into some kind of religion, and religions all have a common basis of “a leap of faith”. Whether this so-called leap of faith is going to heaven or being reincarnated, or moving on to some other planet, depends on the beliefs of the cult itself.
Everyone is in a consumer’s hypnosis, even if you think you are not. When you go to a store and pick one brand over the other, you are now under their spell. The spell/ hypnosis is how companies get you to buy there things over other companies and keep you hooked. Either through commercials or offering something that you think will make your life better by what they tell you. For example, you go to the store and you need to buy water, once you get to the lane and look, there is 10 different types of water you can buy. You go pick one either because the picture is better or you seen the commercial the other day and you want it. During the length of this paper we will talk about two important writers, Kalle Lasn the writer of “The Cult You’re in” and Benoit Denizet-Lewis writer of “ The Man Behind Abercrombie & Fitch”. They both talk about similar topics that go hand and hand with each other, they talk about the consumers “Dream”, how companies recruit the consumers, who cult members really are, how people are forced to wear something they don’t want, and about slackers.
A cult society is an organization that basically disguises itself as a religion. In a cult, they normally perform rituals. There are usually many people in these societies. In Jim Jones’s cult, there were at least one thousand people in this community.
their world, their universe revolves around it. Santeria is a religion in which many people do not
Society strives to feel a sense of belonging. We want to be a part of something that shares the same beliefs as us. We spend our time trying to place ourselves in a group to satisfy these needs, whether it is in a hobby club, a group of friends, or religion. Some people go to more extreme measures and find this in what we call a cult. According to Henslin, a cult is a new or different religion whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion. (2013:405) Cults are often identified with the ideas of mass murder, deviant behaviors, unusual beliefs, and extremely devoted members. Cults are also highly known for their leaders. The leaders of cults usually are the ones that portray the image for the entire group. Successful cults take a strong-minded and, according to Max Weber, charismatic leader.
Cults Each year, hundreds of North Americans join one of the increasing, estimated 3000 unorthodox religions that exist across North America. The increasing number of cults, to date in North America, is due to the fact that cults are a social movement that attempts to help people cope with their perceived problems with social interaction. Cult recruiters target those who perceive themselves as different from the rest of society, and give these individuals the sense of belonging that they crave. Cult literature lures potential cult members by appealing to their desperate need to socially fit in. Cults provide a controlled family environment that appeals to potential cult members because it is a removal from the exterior society.
For many years, cult leaders always had a psychological hold on their followers' minds. Whether it was to kill other people or to kill themselves, they did it without question. Some cult leaders used fear, violence and guilt as a means of a weapon to control the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers believe they were doing good and fulfilling God's plan. Because cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldn't normally do in their right state of mind.
Opinions vary as to why people are drawn to cults. “Martin Marty, professor of religious history at the University of Chicago, attributes the growth of cults to the frustrations of seemingly rootless people”(U.S. News and World Report 23). Marty’s classification of a rootless person is a person who is overly frustrated by modern life and is at a loss for direction. Often the rootless individual will “short-circuit and try to hook their lives to any guiding spirit” (U.S. News and World Report 23).
Religion cannot be lived in textbooks, it is about the personal consciousness of those that believe and “their own account of their religion and its relevance in contemporary life” (Fisher, 1996). It is performed, experienced by the individuals living within society and communities. For some it is a sense of hope, to connect with a supreme power, to end the cycle of birth and death, find inner peace and/or a way of life. Traditional understanding of religion through textbooks, television, and internet does provide one with understanding about the religion doctrine and what they believe in. The majority of people will know what religion is when seeing it, for example, a Buddhist Monk sitting cross-legged in meditation. However, it is important to study religion off campus in order to grasp an explanation and a clear understanding of how beliefs change personal lives, how individuals tackle certain situations due to belief for example, Buddhist Monk sitting cross-legged in meditation, but w...
Cults entice people whom by nature want to belong to a group and make it hard for them to leave by altering their thought processes. Those in the psychology field have defined what makes up a cult, have determined what draws individuals in and have recognized the effects that a cult can have on
Cult is a “system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object.” (Sopko). There are different cults all across the world. Cults have distinctly different beliefs and devotions. For instance, some cults that are formed to follow a particular real life figure, and other cults are formed to follow (or worship) a spiritual being that might be part of a certain organized religion. One example of a cult would be the KKK (Ivan).