Okay out of somewhat fear that one of the hundreds of people who read these forums will come across this thread and decide to start a cult I am going to provide this as more of a defense against cults rather than creating your own (if your a member and wanna know more PM me).

Let me first explain how cults work, cults are what big religions call little religions but sometimes these little religions are very extreme. Cults work with a hiearchy, their is the leader, then the ones who have been in the cult for a long time and the new reqruits. The leader is essentially god, their is no one greater on this earth than him, he is all powerful if he says jump you WILL jump or you will recieve one hell of a beating. The ones who have been in the cult for a while server many important purposes, firstly they are the most conditioned and are the most trusted by the leader. These people are also the ones responsible for maintaining order, they give out the punishments and also reqruit new members. The new reqruits are the ones who may not even know that they are in a cult or religious place, all new reqruits go through a humiliating and painful phase of conditioning for the cult. Now that you have an idea of what a cult is its time for the important stuff.

The Golden Rule For Cults Is: If you think you are in a cult, you probably are!

Reqruitment

How is it that from ordinary joes to corperate executives people become involved in cults? Well it all begins with deception. Cults do not look like cults from the outside, they appear to be regular places that no one would ever look at twice. Contrary to common views cults can be very difficult to spot dependant on the experience and knowlege of the leader and how he/she carries out their reqruitment. Cults can be anything from yoga classes to a buisness seminar, cults are everywhere in all shapes and forms. Now surely you would think that if someone is in a cult the families would notice they have changed drastically. Well here is a few facts about cult members, almost all of the time cult members are told to "pretend" to be how they were before entering the cult when dealing with the public. Cult leaders are also very sly when it comes to drawing people away from society and can often take months even years of slowely ripping the cultists away from every aspect of life besides the cult. Now how do you spot a cult from a real legitimate institution? Well first off you are not going to look down the street and see a brain washed cultist, instead you will see the most loving caring person you have probably seen in a week. They will appear sincere and caring, regardless of if you think you can tell the diffrence these people have been trained for years at a time to decieve you. Their are several ways you may be approached by a cult and the ways vary according to what sort of lies they plan on telling you. I myself had an attempted reqruitment on me (although he wasnt as good as some) he tried to reqruit me for a free meditation seminar. From the second I layed eyes on him I could tell he was a cultist but that was because I have spent a long time learning about how to spot these sort of people (it isnt something learnt over night). What you can best hope to do is instead of looking for the slight diffrences in the person try to spot the place as a whole. If you are reqruited for a cult you will not have the slightest notion it is a cult at first (at least I doubt it) most likely the front (false identity of the group) will be a well designed set of lies to draw you in, however it WILL have certain diffrences between a legitimate institution and a cult.

Yoga, Meditation and Psychic Powers


Okay this is one of the methods used for a few cults and I will teach you the diffrences between them. Here is a example of a cult yoga class: You are waiting at a cross walk and a nice lady comes up to you and asks for a light, you obliged and light her cigarette, she then starts small talk with you. -Lady "This is a terrible habit but I just cant stop" -You "Yeah I know what you mean" -Lady "My friend quit through meditation and I am going to try but im not sure if I have the will power" -You "Oh im sure you can, I would like to quit to but its so hard" -Lady "well my friend has just started her own meditation group, she offers a free first class do you wanna come down with me?" she looks at you as though it might also lead to dinner so lets just say you say yes.

Okay now before continuing, there may be times similar to a conversation like this where the person is being honest, please dont start acussing people of being in cults left right and center before investigating further, however if you are uncomfortable with someones request then simply say no.

So you arrive at the meditation group and sit down to start the class, the instructor introduces herself and has you start with some stretches (depending on the size of the cult the person leading the class 90% of the time is the leader or if the cult is very big than it is a minon who has been in their for a while). Now this is where things may begin to get weary, sometimes cult initiation takes a few weeks, other times it takes years before bringing you into the cult, but with yoga as a front they all have this in common. You may not even be instructed to do these advanced or even regualr exercises or they might start you off right away but here is how it works. The instructor will give you an instruction to do far less comfortable exercise, sometimes this is running around in a circle, it could be standing on your head for a long period of time, doing strange breathing exercises like breathing in and then breathing out very quickly to cause hyperventalation, but never the less what they all have in common is

a. they will not feel very good, far worse than regular exercises
b. they will most likely make you and others pass out or become dizzy
c. when you complain about feeling light headed or anything similar they will claim that you are doing the exercise correctly and give you alot of praise
d. when people begin to pass out or fall to the floor ect, they may claim it is the power of god, psychic est.

Now this is a legitimate institution

a. You may feel a bit tired but they will not make you nausious
b. If you complain to the instructor about dizziness est. they will tell you to take a break, try to help stop the dizziness est.
c. If people are passing out to the floor it will be one of two things; they are tired from a tough workout or if they pass out due to dizziness est the instructor will immidatly go to their aid and possibly call an ambulance if it is serious enough

Now why do cultist try to make you get all dizzy by doing harmful exercises? well their are several approaches but the dizziness is first claimed to be a sign of paranomal activity (you are having a vision, stuff like that) and secondly it is used to put you into a more suggestible state. In this state the leader will most likely attempt to make you believe that he/she posses' divine powers, are experiencing messages from god, recieving enlightenment est. This is used to make you believe you have had a "special" experience and should keep coming back. The cultist will also encorage behaviour that would normally be viewed as negative like hyperventalation. What probably gets people the most is that they WILL be nice, appear to care about you and probably give you lots of praise when you do what they want.

I went for a weekend I came back 7 years later..


Okay we already know that if you are approached by a cult chances are your not gonna see it coming until you at least in the facility where they have new reqruits. Now we are going to discuss another commonly used tactic which is inviting someone somewhere for a brief period of time and then making sure they never leave. Now the reqruitment technique is usually the same, a lot of cults enjoy the personal approch of using their members because it has a better chance of success. Please note that cults do not always approach through people, it may be a radio ad, something a friend tells you about, the possibilites are the same as how a legitimate corperation might approach you. Now lets say you are in a mall eating at the food court, two pretty girls approach you and ask if you wanna come for a free trip to a sking lodge. You (after being manipulated by the women) agree to come up to the cabin. Now you take your car up and go into the lodge, you see lots of people (big lodge) and the girls hang out with you. Now later that night you are brought to a place where they have a mic, chairs, stage est. and a man comes onstage and starts talking. The girls tell you that it is a part of their religion that you listen to this man so they can go out with you (maybe even both of them haha ^.= nice thoughts for guys). So anyways you listen to the speech and it goes on for a long long time, they even bring in a big ole tub of candy for the guests to munch on. The next morning the girls ask you to stay for the rest of the week, the leader had been talking all night but these girls are pretty and you wanna get laid for sitting through that speech. However the leader decides to have a chat personally with you, his speech included some stuff about material possesions est. He asks you to give him the pink slip for your car (of course it wont be this blunt they will use a horde of tactics to try and make you submit). Now here is where the turning point is.

This is a real example from a place that will remain un-named in the U.S. The way this story was obtained is from someone who escaped the cults grasp. He told the leader he was leaving (no way he was gonna give up his car), they tried very hard to stop him but he managed to finally make it to his car and drive the hell on outta their. The key to escaping cults is DONT BECOME RELIANT ON THEM! no matter what bullsh*t they tell you do not under any circumstances hand over your bank accounts, vehical, house or for that matter give up your friends and family. That is the absolute strength of cults (many people in cults do try to escape) people in cults detach away from everything and when they wish to escape they cant because they have no where to turn, they have been taught that society is evil, friends and family are evil and they are to rely on the cult.
Their are two reasons why the leader wanted the vehical, #1 it is a secluded mountain lodge, to escape would require a lot of treking through the mountainous snow so you become reliant on the cult. #2 money, the leaders of cults often start them for money, cars can be sold for loads of cash to expand and operate the cult. Many people who enter cults do not manage to get away for a very long period of time, in cases like the one we just looked at you could very well spend the rest of your leaders life in the cult where after he died you would do one of 3 things; continue the cult (not as likely but it does happen), commit suicide (this happens a lot) or undergo years of deprogramming (this is what happens to those who are not as all believing in the cult as others).

Spotting A Cult 101

1. Do they teach you to be reliant on them, or to impower your own life?
2. Do they encorage activities that would normally be considered unhealthy?
3. Does the leader and other members act far diffrently in public than in private? (often a leader will appear to be somewhat kind to the cultists in public but in private it is his way or no way)
4. Does the leader make all of the decisions?
5. Are they enforcing any strange exercises,diets est. that you are not comfortable with?
6. When they are teaching techniques do they simply follow out a plan put down by the leader? (often cult reqruiters will have entire books from their leader on reqruitment methods)
7. Do they enforce stricter and stricter rules and ideologies the longer you are their?
8. Do they encourage you to interact with society?
9. Does the members try to expose your problems and humiliate you about them?
10. Do they encourage you to have relationships with people not in the group?
11. Do they have it so you hand over all your possesions and they will take care of you?
12. Are the groups views about society all around negative?
13. Does the group claim that others do not care about you and that society is a harsh hateful place?
14. Does the group tell you to spend more and more time with them?
15. Does you friends or family express concern about the group?
16. Does this group encorage illegal activities?
17. Does the leader appear to be dillusional?
18. Does the leader enforce strict and cruel punishment (mental or physical) for those who break the rules?
19. Does the leader have rules for the entire group but he does not follow them?
20. Does the leader claim to be powerful, godly or someone directly connected to god?
21. Do you feel threatened by any member of the group?
22. Do you notice a general fear amongst the group for the leader?
23. Are you encouraged to expose all of your problems and faults and then rely on the group to correct them? (sometimes this is used for AA and addiction treatment but it has also been used to manipulate people)

Okay some questions are more important and specialized than others, no single question will tell you if you are in a cult except maybe "Do you think you are in a Cult?" I would recommend answering all the questions and then PMing me if you think you might be in a cult, also talking to a psychologist or a guidance counsellor will help if you are worried about it.

Please remember that a cults "front" can be anything, they may even disguise themselves as a franchise from a large corperation or as a lemonade stand, the possibilities are endless. But with that final note if you go to any depression, Alcohol or Substance abuse programs, check with your local office and make sure that a degree is required to lead a group therapy session. If it is not required then I strongly recommend first investigating your therapist for their qualifications, this is because former addicts have realized the vunerablility this therapy can put people into and in the hands of unethical people it can be used to turn them into cultists, so be on the watch for the signs.

...Part 2 will be coming up when I have the time lol.