Religious Cults And Other Dangerous Cults

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.

One of the most common characteristics of cults is that they employ the foot and the door phenomenon to help achieve the leader of the cult’s

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

No one has ever been able to articulate just what makes a cult, and what makes a religion different. Yet most people, when listing mainstream religions, name Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, among others. These religions have existed for thousands of years and have millions of followers; they have thus earned a degree of respect even from outsiders. However, Mormonism—the tradition of the Latter Day Saints movement—is considered strange, and by some, a cult. In the modern age, many consider its very premise a hoax. Mark Twain criticized the Mormon holy scripture, calling it “chloroform in print” (Turner 229), and Jacob Weisberg (editor of the Washington Post) called Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, “an obvious con man” (Ostling xv). Yet

Next, the two groups celebrate customs that are often blindly followed. Finally, the dominant world religions and smaller cults pursue a lifestyle that is accepted by their group. By analyzing the recognized beliefs, the different customs, and the controlled lifestyle of the widespread religion and cult followers, it will become evident that the two are ultimately similar.

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

	Cult leaders and members use mind control to inundate their message into the minds of prospective and existing followers.Groups that demonstrate exaggerated devotion or commitment to some person, idea,

In OST, Di Mambro and Jouret were generally very forceful and powerful leaders and prominent authority figures within the cult, as they were the sources of the teachings the entire cult was centred around; while in the presence of such authoritative figures, followers would have been under great pressure to obey them. Jouret in particular had a strong air of credibility to his teachings, due to his doctor’s degree and his charismatic personality, which would have made it very easy to follow orders from him. The leaders managed to strip followers of all their money and force them to adhere to strict rules, and there is evidence of them ordering followers to stockpile weapons or even kill on their behalf. Another example of the cult’s obedience was Jouret’s obsession with sex, which caused his tendency to have intercourse with one of the female members before a ritual, saying that he needed it to have the “spiritual strength” required for the ceremony – the women involved always agreed without complaint to this arrangement. (Bizarrepedia, 2015) Di Mambro and Jouret sometimes even ordered married couples to separate on the basis of them not having any “cosmic

Cults are the groups that exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause. All the group members have a same goal or mission, and the group thinking helps the group members to stick on the same goal. For the Heaven Gate, their goal is to enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom level above human. The documentary of “Heaven Gate Cult” perfectly shows the four ways for the cult to promote their group thinking.

Cults have existed throughout history since the beginning of time. A cult is defined in Webster’s dictionary as a “system of religious worship with a devoted attachment to a person, principle, etc.” Over the past thirty years numerous religious cults have caused “ tens of thousands to abandon their families, friends, education’s, and careers to follow the teaching of a leader they will never meet”(Beck 78).

Most historians use the more neutral term ‘new religious movement’ instead of the cult, because there is no one definition of cults, their number and membership cannot be accurately measured even today (Sarah Pike, 2016). New religious groups are regularly developed from another, more accepted religion. An example of this is Christianity, which first began as a cult extending from Judaism (Sarah Pike, 2016). While this was regularly the case, many cults did not begin as religious groups. A famous example of this is the movement called Synanon, which was originally organised to rehabilitate drug addicts, but then later changed into a commune and won legal recognition as a religion (Sarah Pike, 2016). A theory among UFO groups, there is a widespread belief that extraterrestrials have no vocal cords, an atrophied digestive system and no sexual organs (B.A. Robinson, 2009). This is symbolic of three common religious disciplines: silence, fasting and celibacy. These attitudes may have somewhat shaped what the UFO group Heaven’s Gate believed in.

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

In the sense of saving one in the act of heroism is not considered negative, but in a cult, the expectations of death by a cult leader is less of a choice and more of a demand. Preserving one ’s sense of individuality while being in a group helps prevent the pressure of peers. For example, being in the military suppresses people’s individuality.

The second factor is the outcome. People in cults often come out of the group in a worse position than when they first joined the cult. They could be worse off financially, psychologically, or relationally to give a few examples. More times than not, people in groups that are not considered cults do not produce the effects listed above. Instead, members of these groups report that they improve as a person in some way (Salande, and Perkins 382, 383). Cults can be differentiated from other groups because of the methods that cults use, and the effect that cults can have on its members.

destructive cult is a rigidly structured absolutist group usually under an authoritarian, charismatic leader which isolates itself from established societal