Tags
apologetics, atheism, biology, cognitive dissonance, conspiracy realities, cults, manipulation, psychology
I grew up on the fringes of a lot of cults, and the occult, raging from simple pagan worship to some pretty horrific satanic stuff. But for the grace of God, I did not wind up drinking blue kool aid or dying with a roll of quarters in my pocket. As a kid you have very little power over your own circumstances.
I should mention, I never encountered a Christian cult. The cults and cult like behavior I am familiar with have to do with ideology, charisma, and malignant narcissism, usually orbiting a set of political ideals or a utopian vision for the future. I grew up under atheism in the 60’s, in a chaotic time of rejecting Christian values, not embracing them.
How do you identify a cult? Control, control, control. Compliance with the group, dependance on the leader, devaluing outsiders, and avoiding dissent. That devaluing of outsiders can be downright pathological and extremely paranoid. Cults thrive on keeping people isolated, therefore anyone outside the group is perceived as the enemy. Isolation is critical to social control. Hence, I did not go to school or church or have much contact with the outside world at all. Other people were perceived as the enemy, they would immediately begin to brainwash you, indoctrinate you, contaminate your thinking, put bad ideas in your head.
Cults crave followers and they tend to engage in love bombing, seductive recruiting strategies, combined with heavy handed conversion techniques. In other words, they try to mess with your head, toy with your psychology and biology, play you, so to speak. They’re very good at it too. People are so starved for attention, for love, for a sense of community, it’s ridiculously easy to exploit their desires. Once hooked, people will do anything to remain within the good graces of the group. It hits the reward centers of your brain, like an addiction. Being cast out, shunned, ostracized, or simply frowned on by others, begins to consume people and they start to do everything they can to avoid it. They comply, they conform, they bend the very nature of themselves seeking approval. There is nothing you can’t make people do, once you hold the strings, no line they won’t cross. Common sense, reason, have left the building.
I suspect that many of those who engage in acts of terrorism are being controlled by a cult like psychology.
Most cult leaders have a kind of charisma, a form of malignant narcissism, that really does have some dark spiritual things attached to it. I have looked into some of those empty soul-less eyes, eyes that actually burn when they look at you, and heard people’s praises of this person, and thought this just has to be demonic, there is simply too much cognitive dissonance going on here. It’s just not of this world.
There are religious cults in the world, no doubt about that, but religion is not the key component to cults. Anything can become a “religion” for the purposes of cult like control and a charismatic leader’s desire for validation and power. They are absolute experts at manipulation. They know precisely how to push people’s feelgood and feelbad buttons.
I have a powerful allergy to manipulation, social control, and charisma. (LOL, I should mention that there are some people who have a rather charming kind of charisma, that draws you towards them simply because they are delightful to be around. Those people are awesome and we need more of them in the world, but that is a kind of charisma that has no manipulation and control behind it, no desire to exploit others.)
Cult leaders often present themselves as the only game in town, the only people on Earth who possess the truth, who see the world as it really is, and have found the answer. They are the only one’s in the Matrix that have taken the red pill and are now operating within true reality. I realize that some of these ideas could be translated to define Christianity, although there is a difference there, even within so called Christian cults. One identifying factor is that they tend to completely reject scripture and people’s personal relationship with Christ, because that than threatens the god like status sought by the leader. Thou shall have no other gods before me….including God Himself, in a cult. That’s the marker right there, Christ first, leadership second, and anytime that line becomes blurred, you’re in dangerous waters.
There are people in the world who believe that if you rid the world of religion you will rid the world of the manipulative psychological power of cults. Au contraire, cults and cult like behavior can absolutely thrive in the absence of organized religion. It can spring forth from anything, including various forms of political ideology and utopian ideals of a completely secular nature. The game of cults is about psychology, biology, and human nature, not religion. In fact for many, including me, religion is actually where freedom and healing is to be found, so don’t be trying to throw the baby out with the bathwater, because there is a historical precedent that suggests the odds of religion being replaced with something even worse are significant and predictable.
clockworkjosh said:
Reblogged this on The Churchianity Blog.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Thanks for the reblog, much appreciated.
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Mike said:
“I should mention that there are some people who have a rather charming kind of charisma, that draws you towards them simply because they are delightful to be around. Those people are awesome and we need more of them in the world, but that is a kind of charisma that has no manipulation and control behind it, no desire to exploit others.”
Even if they desire to do so… they do not apply Force.
It always comes back to Force.
Arndt talks about this in her ‘Origins of Totalitarianism’. I’ve never been happy with the ‘cult’ label as it seems to me to make small what is a profound psychological phenomena. While it certainly occurs within small numbers starting at folie a deux (standing alone would make him a narcissist… a cult of one.) it has motivated some of the largest, and irrational, movements the World has known. What better way to fulfill your need than to create a group and make yourself leader of it. Then start a war with all opposition. Id with a touch of Thanatos. Interesting Companion piece with XPreatorious’ Hitler post.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Thanks for your comment, Mike. Lots of interesting food for thought there.
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Mike said:
Nothing I say is worth spending much time on. I’m drunk.
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL! Yes, but you rate rather low on the narcissism scale, so it’s all good.
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Mike said:
yes… that’s right… keep talking about me… me…Me… ME…. MEEEeeEEeee… haaahaahhahahha…
…do you remember where I left my scotch this morning?
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Paladin Justice said:
Charles Manson came to mind while I was reading this post. And of course Jim Jones of Jonestown infamy. I also thought of Obama. Hmmm. Anyway, very interesting.
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Mike said:
All subscribe to Socialist Governing Theory. Good call.
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Doobster418 said:
“Control, compliance with the group, dependance on the leader, devaluing outsiders, and avoiding dissent.” Hmm. Sounds a lot like organized religion to me. 😉
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insanitybytes22 said:
Apparently you’ve never tried leaving the democratic party. They don’t call it the plantation for nothing 😉
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Doobster418 said:
I’ve actually never been a member of the Democratic Party. I’m registered as an independent. That said, I do admit that I vote for Democratic candidates more often (but not exclusively) than I do for Republican candidates. You know, ideology and all that other good stuff.
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Mike said:
Can be… as it has in the past when Organized Religion was Government. Luckily for all of us, Doobster, we don’t suffer that here. Just the Government part.
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thetruthisstrangerthanfiction said:
But does it sound like a description of Jesus himself? That is the more relevant question… No one here is defending “organized religion”, yet you (understandably) have a difficult time discerning the difference between “religion” (i.e., man-made institutions which are all ultimately, like you point out, about control, oppression, etc.) and the freedom of a true personal relationship with Christ directly, which in fact is not dependent on “the group” or conformity or manipulation whatsoever, despite how often it has tragically been portrayed in such a way….
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Doobster418 said:
As a person who doesn’t believe in the existence of God, I can’t exactly have a “true personal relationship” with something (or someone?) I don’t believe exists. And in the context of this prompt, IB was talking about cults, and cults rely on group-think, as do organized religions. So I fail to see much difference, really, between a cult and organized religions.
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thetruthisstrangerthanfiction said:
I don’t see a huge difference between cults and organized religions all too often either, and that is my whole point.
But you’re right, you can’t very well have a relationship with someone you don’t believe exists. It’s a tad prohibitive…
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Eric said:
Doobster:
IB has a point. Moreso than the Democrats, the French Jacobins, German Nazis, and Soviet/Chinese Communists set up national cults of their own that exceeded in fanaticism most atrocities committed in the name of organized religion.
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Doobster418 said:
I’m not aware of any atrocities that the Democrats have committed. However, are you saying that atrocities committed by governments are any worse than those committed by organized religions? Atrocities are atrocities, regardless of who — governments or religions — is behind them.
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Eric said:
Doobster:
I agree that atrocities are atrocities: the point being that secular cults can be even worse than religious ones: especially considering that organized religion doesn’t typically have the enforcement powers of the State at its disposal.
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kimberlyharding said:
Great point “control, control, control” is the hallmark.
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outstandingbachelor said:
The private priesthood, at least as established within Protestant traditions, should diminish the effectiveness of the call of the cults. From this ideological reference grew an interest in literacy – which included women, as well as ‘testing the spirits’ and so forth.
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thetruthisstrangerthanfiction said:
“private priesthood”…? Do you mean professional pastors? Cuz I’ve met plenty of those who I’d say qualified as having achieved “cult leader status” in their own right. Control can take many subtle forms…
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insanitybytes22 said:
That’s a really good point Outstanding makes. People who have a church, a spiritual life, a sense of community, are far less likely to fall victim to a cult.
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LindaGHill said:
Psychopathic narcissism gone wild. That’s all it is. I know someone who could easily start a cult. … what am I talking about? She did. But that was long before she got her hooks into me.
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insanitybytes22 said:
I tend to agree, psychopathic narcissism gone wild, good description.
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Angela Wittman said:
Reblogged this on Christian Heritage News and commented:
Insightful and informed article on cults by a woman who has overcome a difficult childhood and found her true self in Jesus Christ.
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insanitybytes22 said:
Thank you for the reblog 😉
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thetruthisstrangerthanfiction said:
“I suspect that many of those who engage in acts of terrorism are being controlled by a cult like psychology.”
I very much agree. Could we realistically expect Satan to control his various factions in any other way…? “ideology, charisma, and malignant narcissism, usually orbiting a set of political ideals or a utopian vision for the future” is a pretty way of describing all the folks who in their own specific ways are pushing for the Luciferian “New World Order”…
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insanitybytes22 said:
Ahh, dissent is another part of the puzzle, truth. Cults tolerate no dissent, no debate. As messy as Christianity is, the arguments, disputes, debates are a healthy sign. Polemics, controversy, all of that stuff, lend itself well to preventing that kind of cult like compliance.
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thetruthisstrangerthanfiction said:
mmmm, I both agree and disagree. It’s true that cults, in the literal “don a robe and drink the kool aid” sense, tolerate zero dissent. However, in the broader, “societal programming” level I’d say that there is a lot of evidence to support the idea that, especially here in the “free West”, instead of just squashing dissent, it is allowed and used quite effectively to perpetuate the illusion of “free thinking”, when in reality the debates themselves almost entirely skirt the real issues, and thus are useless in affecting real change. A type of diversion, “bread and circuses” for those who actually DO want to make a difference instead of just being entertained.. It’s the concept of the “free speech zone”. Go protest over there, between the marked lines, make as much noise as you want, while we go ahead and quietly legislate even more draconian measures into existence than were there before. Knock yourself out calling your congressmen. That’s why they’re there after all, to make you feel as though you have a voice, a means of enacting change, fomenting meaningful dissent…
Sounds horrifically cynical I know, but this is what I see every time you turn on the news and see pundits screaming at each in “heated democratic discussion”… Useless noise that isn’t true dissent at all.
The illusion of choice, free will, “freedom”, is the most alluring and deceptive means of control of all….
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insanitybytes22 said:
“The illusion of choice, free will, “freedom”, is the most alluring and deceptive means of control of all…”
There’s a flip side to that however, that is also rather dangerous. It’s learned helplessness, where you are deceived into believing you have no power, no influence, and the game is completely rigged. The game may well be rigged, but those running the game benefit a great deal from the rest of believing we have no influence and that our voice doesn’t matter anymore.
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lovelifeandgod said:
“Compliance with the group, dependance on the leader, devaluing outsiders, and avoiding dissent.” Come now, you have to have been spending time on tumblr. 😉
“People are so starved for attention, for love, for a sense of community, it’s ridiculously easy to exploit their desires. Once hooked, people will do anything to remain within the good graces of the group. It hits the reward centers of your brain, like an addiction. Being cast out, shunned, ostracized, or simply frowned on by others, begins to consume people and they start to do everything they can to avoid it. They comply, they conform, they bend the very nature of themselves seeking approval. There is nothing you can’t make people do, once you hold the strings, no line they won’t cross. Common sense, reason, have left the building.”
This is happening a lot in first world country colleges. There are so many lonely people there, so many people losing sight of their purpose, that when they hear that somehow there is a great deal of oppression out there and that only by reblogging dozens of social justice posts they will solve it, it’s enticing. These people, they’re so lonely already that they can’t help but conform, because if you don’t you get ostracized, doxxed, threatened with death.
Cults take vulnerable people and compliment them, coddle them, make them feel warm and fuzzy, like they’ve never felt before. Then the moment they step out of line, they bring out the whips. The person, having felt so comfortable before and not knowing where else to go, will go back to the cult and desperately apologize. The leader achieves a balance of affection for the members when they please him and crime and punishment when they don’t.
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insanitybytes22 said:
“The leader achieves a balance of affection for the members when they please him and crime and punishment when they don’t.”
Good point. It’s not unlike the abuse you sometimes see between individuals. The victims get so confused they start to believe they can somehow control the behavior. The problem is, even when you comply, most manipulative people are going to also get frustrated with that, so the abuse tends to just accelerate over time.
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authorleighmichaels said:
“I have a powerful allergy to manipulation, social control, and charisma.” Me too.
Well said.
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Eric said:
IB2:
I can’t help but think of how far the Churchian Gamers resemble a cult. Not only are they personality-centered, but St. John warned that the acid test of truth and falsity in theological teachings centered on Love. And the Churchian Gamers don’t have much positive to say on that topic.
http://therationalmale.com/2015/01/05/the-love-experience/
Whose definitions of love sound decidedly distinct from St. John’s! LOL
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insanitybytes22 said:
Well let’s see, control, fear, isolation, paranoia, why yes, they do seem to meet all the criteria!
Kind of cute how Tomassi tries to reconcile the evidence of women loving men, women who seem to be claiming they love men, men acknowledging they feel loved……..versus his own theory that women are ruled by nothing but hypergamy.
Poor guy, I almost had some hope for him. He went back packing or something and while hanging out with the little people, he noticed how detached game seemed to be from the rest of the world. There were like waitresses in cafes and everything, and…….happy people. 😉
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Eric said:
IB2:
Well…I would connect the dots a little more. Notice how few cults leaders historically have been committed to celibacy. They always seem to have fairly substantial harems of various kinds.
And naturally, the leaders of the Churchian Game cults would be representative of the ‘alpha male’, being at the top of the Game pyramid…
So…can anyone conclude from that why preaching uncontrollable female ‘hypergamy’ is recurring theme among them? LOL
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Malcolm Greenhill said:
Literature, poetry, drama, religion, cults and philosophy are all stories which we tell about ourselves. Some stories are better than others, that’s all.
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insanitybytes22 said:
LOL, that’s very profound. I think I like it 😉
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