Having spent several years studying the psychology and sociology of cults, I find this to be an interesting article, especially with your comparison to religion. And, religion does not only refer to the usual definition, but also groups that have religious fervor. The Trump following comes to mind.
In my experience, a religion is simply a cult that has been around for a long time and has gained social acceptance, even if reluctantly; and the original leader is dead.
One cult in particular that I studied is Eckankar, a small but profitable cult based in Minnesota and headed by a former mental patient who refers to himself as a modern-day prophet. His name is Harold Klemp and he is the third leader/successor of the cult. As with religions, logic and facts do not dissuade followers from their beliefs and loyalty. Eckankar’s first leader, its founder, was a man named Paul Twitchell who published a number of books used as the backbone of the cult. His books were widely plagiarized, which is quite easy to prove by comparing their content to earlier writings by other authors. Much of the plagiarism is word-for-word. Twitchell invented a host of “Eck Masters,” with one of the names obviously taken from two crossroads in Mexico. This laughable fact has had no effect on cult members who pass it off as a coincidence.
Twitchell was a prolific liar and his inconsistencies are provable. Pointing out the plagiarisms, lies, and inconsistencies does nothing to sway followers who either refuse to look at them or use excuses that are even more bizarre than the lies. One such excuse, profferred by one of Twitchell’s successors, is that all information and knowledge is contained on the astral plane and this is where Twitchell got his ideas from. Oddly, however, if this were really true then Eckankar would not have had any need to copyright and trademark its works and words it seems to have invented.
I have personally reviewed a great deal of Eckankar’s plagiarism. It has not only stolen writings from smaller Eastern sects, but Twitchell has actually stolen other people’s life experiences and adventures and said they were his own. From what I know about psychopaths, Twitchell checked all the boxes.
In the 1970s a Berkeley professor named David Lane wrote a book exposing Eckankar called The Making of a Spiritual Movement. The cult then took him to court and, lacking the funds to properly defend himself, Lane had to settle. When the internet became available in the late 1990s, all sorts of damning information, including hundreds of pages of criticisms and proof of plagiarisms, provided solid evidence of Eckankar’s nefarious teachings and exonerated Lane. This was helpful for people seeking the truth or to avoid the cult or perhaps had an inkling that the group is not what it pretends to be, but for the most part it has had little impact on the cult’s continued success.
Eckankar has repeatedly tried to make itself accepted as a New Age religion, but so far no one in government has bought into their nonsense.
Here are some other important characteristics of cults. These are from memory, but I am probably missing a few:
1. The leader claims to be divine, a messiah, a prophet, god-incarnate
2. Cults have their own secret words
3. Cults have initiations that bind the members deeper into the cult.
4. Questioning the cult leader or upper tier of higher initiates is sacrosanct.
5. Cults use relatively new recruits to recruit more members because the former more easily relate to newcomers.
6. Cults use fear tactics, either overt or subliminal, to enforce obedience and prevent open dissent. Often these fear tactics involve what might happen in a subsequent lifetime or the afterlife; damnation.
7. Cult leaders are believed to have supernatural and psychic powers.
8. Cult leaders are usually psychopaths, narcissists, and/or at least psychotic.
9. Cults rely on partial truths to lure their recruits:
The last characteristic, and perhaps the most important one, is that cults recruit new members using a sales technique that is age-old: The recruitment language and message begins with the statement of truths, such as the world is really in a terrible state, life is difficult, people don’t understand us, we are here for a higher purpose, etc., then half-truths are told, and finally complete fabrications are expressed that are are part of the foundation of the cult dogma.
I could easily write a book on this, but I’ll give it a rest and say that one of the most poignant things you wrote in your article is: “by way of diagnosis, as it were, I think we all resort to cultish mindsets and lifestyles because the sheer reality of our existential situation is appalling and intolerable.” Cults prey on fear and insecurity. Outlandish beliefs and lying-but-charismatic cult leaders offer an escape.
