Cult checklist - Definition and Overview

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Factors that really do predict future destructiveness

1. The organization is willing to place itself above the law. With the exceptions noted earlier (in the full document linked below), this is probably the most important characteristic.
2. The leadership dictates (rather than suggests) important personal (as opposed to spiritual) details of followers' lives, such as whom to marry, what to study in college, etc.
3. The leader sets forth ethical guidelines members must follow but from which the leader is exempt.
4. The group is preparing to fight a literal, physical Armageddon against other human beings.
5. The leader regularly makes public assertions that he or she knows is false and/or the group has a policy of routinely deceiving outsiders. [1] (http://www.religioustolerance.org/safe_sec.htm)

Surreptitious way is best

A psychologist wrote:

In order to influence or brainwash people, the following methods work best:

• isolate them in new surroundings apart from old friends or reference-points
• provide them with instant acceptance from a seemingly loving group
• keep them away from competing or critical ideas
• provide an authority figure that everyone seems to acknowledge as having some special skill or awareness
• provide a philosophy that seems logical and appears to answer all or the most important questions in life
• structure all or most activities so that there is little time for privacy or independent action or thought, provide a sense of "us" versus "them"
• promise instant or imminent solutions to deep or long-term problems
• employ covert or disguised hypnotic techniques. [2] (http://www.gpsch.org/Articles/Building_Resistance.html)

Checklist For Cult Behavior

While the religious, philosophical, and spiritual beliefs vary widely from one cult to the next, many believe that the actions of cults show characteristic similarities. Many popular checklists of "cult behavior" circulate, and sources differ in the terminology they use and how they group the behaviors together. Two examples of checklists appear hereunder. The third list for potentially dangerous situation in new religious movements (NRMs) was made by professor Eileen Barker allegedly based on empirical research.

It should be mentioned that if the behaviours are interpreted rigidly, the original Christian body (as presented in the scriptures) might easily be labeled a cult (ie Milieu control, infallibility, demand for purity, authoritarianism, promised ones, fire & brimstone, shunning, and on and on) as indeed it was by some, and as any modern christian denomination which explicitly holds fast to the outline set forth in the Scriptures would likewise be. Clearly, most today would not (as many did then) say that Christians were a cult. Thus, care should be taken in leveling serious accusations at any group according to an arbitrary set of guidelines, at least before close and unbiased inspection of the motives and practices of the group is undertaken.

First example of checklist

• Mind control – Cults seek to control members' sources of information and social interaction. They encourage members to sever communication and relationships with friends and family members.
• Infallibility, or "The Sacred Science" – Cults teach that the chosen philosophy or experiential panacea forms the only possible path to salvation. Cults discourage critical and rational thinking. Persons who question or challenge what the cult offers are denied access or exiled.
• Demand for purity – Cults have unreachably high standards for the behavior of their members.
• Confession – Even trivial violations of the group's demand for purity must be confessed immediately and thoroughly, often to a large group.
• Loading the language – Cults redefine common words and use glib thought-terminating catchphrases as an answer to questions. The constant use of acronyms and abbreviations by some cults has a similar thought-terminating effect.

Additionally, many cults are described as having the following characteristics, though they are not as unique to cults as the behaviours listed above:

• Authoritarianism -- Control of the organization stems from an absolute leader or a small circle of elite commanders. Often the cult's leadership is glorified with a vast personality cult. The leader may be recognized as divine, or even as God.
• Secret doctrines - certain "secret" (esoteric) teachings that must not ever be revealed to the outside world
• Promised Ones - members of the cult are encouraged to believe they were chosen, or made their choice to join the cult, because they are special or superior
• Fire-and-Brimstone - leaving the cult, or failing at one's endeavor to complete the requirements to achieve its panacea, will result in consequences greater than if one had never joined the cult in the first place.
• Shunning -- members who leave may not contact members who remain.
• Mystical Manipulation - Cults may ascribe events to supernatural influences that only they understand.

Second example of checklist

The following characteristics need not all apply to every case, but the more of them that do apply, the more likely this is a cult:

• The group has a firm hierarchical structure and is led by one person or a small group of people who rule absolutely.
• The leader or leading body is not accountable to anyone (on earth).
• The leaders claim to have a special mission.
• The group has a clear view of their enemy.
• The leaders direct admiration, reverence and maybe even worship to themselves.
• The group exerts a total control over its members. Thinking and behavior in everyday matters is prescribed.
• The group applies a double standard (behaves differently towards their own group and towards outsiders).
• The group portrays itself as something new and exclusive or as the only true version of a larger religion.
• The teachings of the group are (at least in part) not open to the public but only to members or even only to some inner or advanced circle.
• New members are introduced to the teachings only gradually.
• There is a discrepancy between the way the group presents itself to the public and the way it is seen by neutral outsiders.

Total control

This has four basic aspects:

• Control of behavior and activities: The way of life is rigidly laid down in detail (dress, food, contacts, music, motion pictures, computer and video games, Web sites, rites to be observed) and members are kept so busy that little spare time remains.

• Thought control: Cults teach their members techniques to stop thinking processes involving questions or doubts immediately. Criticism is labelled unethical or sinful.

• Control of emotions and feelings: Members are kept under control by means of feelings of guilt and fear which supposedly can only be relieved by means of the group.

• Information control: Access to independent information, education and culture is reduced or forbidden. Contact with former members is forbidden.

These techniques make a mature, critical reflection of one's attitudes and the one-sided information given by the group largely impossible.

Eileen Barker's list for potentially dangerous situations in NRMs

This list for potentially dangerous situations in new religious movements was made by professor Eileen Barker allegedly based on empirical research.

1. A movement that separates itself from society, either geographically or socially
2. Adherents who become increasingly dependent on the movement for their view on reality.
3. Important decisions in the lives of the adherents are made by others.
4. Making sharp distinctions between us and them, divine and satanic, good and evil etc. that are not open for discussion.
5. Leader who claim divine authority for their deeds and for their orders to their followers.
6. Leader and movements who are unequivocally focused on achieving a certain goal.

See also

• destructive cult

References

Bibliography