Essay Jonestown

Cults can be evil and mind controlling. They can also be extremely dangerous. According to Rick Ross, an expert consultant and intervention specialist, “there are several signs of a potentially unsafe group or leader.” These signs include: “absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability; there is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil; followers can never be good enough; and the group or leader is the exclusive means of knowing the truth or receiving validation, no other process or discovery is really acceptable or credible.” Cult leaders use mind control to control their group. This could be dangerous or life threatening. Leaders are

In addition to Jim's superstitious nature, throughout the novel he also demonstrates gullibility. A good example of this

The word “Cult” has not always had such a negative connotation attached to it. Many religions would’ve been considered cults when they first began. By the end of the 19th century many visionaries had revealed radically new religious systems, claiming immunity to the impurities of the old ones (Powers, 1997). These were no more than a group of people organizing themselves in worship and devotion for a person, object, or movement. They practiced rituals different to other “mainstream” religions, and were therefore considered cults.

The history surrounding cults is not as simple as one might think. Cults raise a

Ever since we were little, our parents, guardians, or even ourselves grew up to know the difference in between was would be considered peversive and what isn’t. Many people find it difficult to understand how people can be so devoted to a religion or something that can’t be scientifically proven, but the real question is how can a normal resident be allured by cults. A religious cult may be well known to us as a religious imposter who claims to lead the way to salvation and a lifespan of well being filled with blessings and free of the damnation a disease may bring, only because he or maybe even she may claim that he was sent from the heavens to the filthy earth. People who are believers in a omipitent kind believe this to be a ludicrous idea ,

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

From Jamestown, to Scientology, and even at one point Christianity, cults have helped to shape our way of viewing religion so much so that it is hard to imagine a life without them. Cults have a negative connotation in our modern world typically due to the violence that their members undertake in attempting to save their way of life or convert others. The question must be asked then; what would happen if a cult became a place of community rather than a place of religious intolerance? No longer would cults be seen in negative lights such as Jamestown and similar suicide cults, but instead be an intense bonding experience between like minded members of society. With interpersonal relationships so fragmented in our modern day, people could find immense benefit from face to face experiences with others, hence the need for a new type of cult to be created. While there are many reasons that Lynden Voth should form a cult, some of the most important include the creation of a nonviolent form of religion that would only play a small part in daily lives, the leadership potential from its founder, and the reformation and community atmosphere the cult would attempt to inspire.

A cult, also known as a new religious movement, is defined as an exclusive group of individuals who come together to follow a leader's extreme ideas. A cult holds three general characteristics which include: being led by a charismatic leader, has radical beliefs and rituals compared to the norm, and isolates its members from their society to protect them from “evil”. The Unification Church, short for The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, is a cult that began in 1954 and was founded by Sun Myung Moon. Moon believed Jesus appeared to him when he was a teenager and told him he was carefully chosen to continue the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. He was told that Jesus himself had begun this mission before his death,

The relationship between Jim and his parents at the start of the film provides a powerful insight into how his personal values create a barrier between him and his parents, who evidently retain values that derive from an alternate generation. This notion is employed in The ‘Police Station Scene’. Jim is seen fidgeting in emotional pain while his parents argue about the situation. Jim’s father tries to identify the motives behind Jim’s actions: “Don’t I buy you everything you want? A bicycle, you get a bicycle, a car…well, not just buy. We give you love and affection, don’t we?” Jim deems his parents love to be artificial and smothering. His emotional anger climaxes with his out burst: “You’re tearing me apart! You say one thing, he says another, and everybody changes back again.” He feels alienated from his conformist parents and their values. He additionally blames them for the misery in the family. Jim’s emotional anger derives from his lack of a father figure. He hates that his father is incessantly submissive to his mother. The effect of this dysfunctional family results in Jim not being able to establish any personal values that coincide with the values of the broader world, resulting in Jim not feeling he possess any sense of ethical direction. This is the basis of his overwhelming struggle of transition from adolescence to adulthood. In ‘Raw’, Brett struggles to experience and develop relationships

The Breakfast Club is known for being a cult

The Peoples Temple A cult is a system sharing religious beliefs and devotion towards a specific figure or object. Every system or organization has a leader, and a cult leader is followed blindly by his/her followers. Leadership and control over people is a form of manipulation and the people who mastered it to perfection are the people who are at the top of the pyramid. Jim Jones is the founder of Peoples temple and he is a great example.

Is someone's religion a cult just because you find it odd, or sinister? The small polygamous community of Bountiful would argue that it does not; however many see polygamy as a dangerous and vile practice, and therefore, basing a lifestyle around it would be cultish behaviour.To determine if Bountiful is a dangerous cult or a peaceful haven for an outdated lifestyle, one must look at it’s dark past under the leadership of Warren Jeffs, how and why Winston Blackmore split from the sect, and how they have apparently changed to respect modern culture.

I appreciate your contribution to this week's topic "Cults." You indicated, "That demonstrates impartiality, and openness, and willingness to engage in discussion the individual. The individual already believes he or she may be right, or that their possible doubts are because of their personal lack of faith." To further elaborate on your point, it appears that most cult members are extremely witty and lose the love and hope of being, thus "the members" covet to be in a group, to feel a sense of love, hope, and belonging. What these cult members do not know is that, they are headed for destruction and calamity. No man or woman will ever be able to fulfill the emptiness without God's presence. Muck declares, in contemporary cultures, there

It’s not unknown that The Church of Scientology has been a contentious subject of conversation for decades. The controversial religion was originally discovered by a gentleman named L. Ron Hubbard in 1954 through the establishment of ideas in which he believed would act as an antidote to mental health concerns called Dianetics. After an unsuccessful attempt resulting in bankruptcy, Hubbard branched his ideas into the basis of a new found religion called Scientology ("The Beliefs and Teachings of Scientology”). To Hubbard’s advantage, Scientology expeditiously accelerated in growth, becoming one of the fastest expanding religions in the 20th century. Scientology pledged a “light at the end of the tunnel” to those wandering through dark times, and created a pathway to a faultless understanding of one’s true spiritual fulfillment through a system of self-knowledge in relation to one’s own life, community, and mankind. Due to the Scientology’s controversial beliefs, abnormal practices, and aberrant church-member relationships, the religion poses as a superlative model of church rebelling against society’s social norms.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines cult as: "a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also: its body of adherents." Indeed, any religion involving unconditional worship and unquestioning obedience to God could be labeled as a cult (using the derogatory suggestion of the word), since such a religion would have that high level of dependency, obedience, and unwavering compliance ascribed to cults by definition. Many mainstream religions still require their members to believe in God unquestioningly, to have faith that he is good and that what he does is good, to consider one's own wants and needs as unimportant while accepting the will of God as paramount. All of these are certainly characteristics commonly attributed to cults, but while it would not be unreasonable to apply this definition of a cult to any dogmatic religion that requires strict compliance with God's word and will as a condition of membership, the notion of applying the word "cult" to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other major world religion today is considered absurd. There are those who make this very claim: that those who worship God fit the classic depiction of cult members in their dogmatism, unswerving