Cults – An Overview

What is a cult…Are the following images examples?

What is a Cult?

• Hard to define• Not always a pejorative term• Focal point is on leader and/or mission• Semi-spiritual or spiritual oriented language

Are Religions and Cults the Same?

• Argument for:• Religions are simply larger and older• Argument against:• Religions tend to be more metaphysical

oriented• Religions tend to point to something

beyond themselves

David Koresh

• American cult leader• Leader of the Branch Davidians• Went to churches looking to start “bible study

groups”• Used highly manipulative psychological techniques• Had many spiritual wives ranging in age from 10-

68• Killed during a fire in 1993 along with 75 of his

other followers

Jim Jones

• Founder of The People’s Temple• Began in the late 1950s• Over 923 were mass murdered by this cult in 1978• Cult began as an agricultural project, Jonestown

Appeal of Cults

• Seduce people into believing they’ll fulfil unmet needs• Cults often masked behind alibi• Manipulate spiritual, emotional, or even

sexual needs of people

Psychology of Cults

Why Care?

• Important implications of psychology• Provides insight into how the brain

functions • Further augments knowledge of

persuasion techniques

Post Cult Experience

• Depression• Guilt• Fear• Paranoia• Slow Speech• Rigidity of facial expression and body posture• Indifference to physical appearance• Passivity and memory impairment

How Cults Break People

• Results drastically change person• Target vulnerable people• Manufacture a crisis• “Reidentification”

Physiological Impact on the Brain

• Same symptoms of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy• “Cult-Conversion Syndrome”• Overloading of brain’s ability to process

information• Induce a trancelike state• In such a state, one is far more suggestable