# What cults are

A cult is a relatively recent broad term representing a wide variety of concepts:

1. A [religion](religion.md) someone regards as unorthodox or spurious.
2. Great [devotion](addiction.md) to a [person](humanity.md), [idea](values.md), [object](reality.md), [movement](trends.md), or [work](creations.md).
3. A [small group](groups-small.md) who identify heavily with the above.
4. A [formal system](logic.md) of religious beliefs and rituals that veers into [taboo](morality-taboo.md) behavior.

Like the concepts of [power](power.md) or [hacking](hacking.md), we [intuitively](mind-feelings.md) know it when we see it, but have a hard time [defining it](language.md).

In short, a cult is most easily defined as "[group](groups-small.md) [gaslighting](influence.md)", and has the following elements:

1. A [charismatic](influence.md) leader who first embodies the group's [values](values.md), then the group trends to following their [personality](personality.md) as the values phase out
2. Extreme viewpoints relative to the [surrounding culture's norms](people-culture.md)
3. A [strict](people-rules.md), formal group hierarchy that [severely enforces](morality-taboo.md) those viewpoints
4. The group violates members' [rights and boundaries](people-boundaries.md) while also redefining the [members'](groups-member.md) thoughts and feelings

APPLICATION: While cults are sometimes obvious, there's a *spectrum* of cult-like behavior based on how much that group violates its members' [boundaries](people-boundaries.md) with their consent. On one end, it's a [well-marketed](marketing.md) product that implies a greater sense of meaning than what it really is, and goes all the way to a top-down [authoritarian](people-rules.md) society that advances genocide.

## Undue influence

Undue influence is a [legal term](glossary-legal.md) where an entity takes advantage of their [position of power](power-types.md) over another entity:

- [Deception](image-distortion.md)
- [Flattery](influence.md)
- [Outright lies](people-lying.md)
- [Coercion](power-types.md)
- [Subliminal messages](symbols.md) (e.g., hypnosis)

Any person, however, only becomes a victim of undue influence when several simultaneous conditions happen:

1. They trust a person with [influencing skills](influence.md) as an authority figure farther than that person's legitimate authority.
2. That authority figure has a [story](stories.md) that doesn't reflect or accommodate [reality](reality.md).
3. That person decides to trust the authority figure's [story](stories.md) over their [understanding](understanding.md).

## Power

Most large groups use the [power of influence](influence.md) in some capacity, but cults use that influence and [trust](trust.md) toward *very* unhealthy [purposes](purpose.md):

- The leadership are selfish and direct most contributed resources toward their interests.
- A leader is delusional toward believing they must follow directives that transcend mankind's judgment.
- A leader is delusional to believing they are simply operating toward the common interests of humanity.

Most cults start with at least a few of several distinct experiences:

1. A deluge of [affection and kindness](people-love.md) by existing members to the new member ("love bombing").
2. Grandiose promises of avoiding [pain](hardship.md) or never having to [die](legacy.md).
3. Promises of special [power](power-types.md) unattainable otherwise, typically through becoming part of an elite society or ruling [class](classes.md).

To gain the necessary influence and maintain it, cult leaders are a *very* specific type of [personality](personality.md):

- Openness to Experience
  - High-enough Openness to express ideas in a new way, or revisit old ideas and share them with a new approach.
  - High-enough Intelligence to craft [believable lies](people-lying.md).
- Conscientiousness
  - High-enough Orderliness to maintain a set of rules that everyone abides by, but not so high that they defer to another external authority.
- Extraversion must be high enough to encourage and inspire people to follow them.
- Agreeableness
  - Low-enough Compassion to not care how others may feel.
  - Extremely high Politeness, which lends itself to them being charismatic.
- Neuroticism doesn't really matter, but they have to reframe their emotional reactions as still having some form of authority (e.g., a prophet, righteous anger).
- Further, Cluster B personalities are *always* capable of running a cult from their single-minded [pursuit of power](purpose.md).
- Generally, they will seem like one of the nicest and relatable people ever, but will be *very* [influential](influence.md) to bring others to their way of thinking.

## Recruitment experience

A cult proponent must be suggestible and malleable enough that they'll believe a consistent [pattern](symbols.md) of indoctrination from a single source across months and years.

Only a specific group of [personalities](personality.md) will *ever* [choose](people-decisions.md) to join a cult:

- Openness to Experience
  - Low-enough Openness to simply [trust](trust.md) someone else for information.
  - High-enough Openness to adopt new [trends](trends.md) foreign to their lifestyle.
  - Low-enough Intelligence to not ask questions that would make the leadership demonstrate they *don't* [understand](understanding.md) everything.
- Conscientiousness doesn't really matter, though the cult will need to be *much* more consistent and complex with their rules proportional to that person's conscientiousness.
- Extraversion doesn't matter much, though introverts may be more susceptible from less social feedback from outside sources.
- Agreeableness
  - High-enough compassion to feel compelled to respond to shame.
  - High-enough politeness to desire honoring the group's standards.
- Neuroticism
  - High-enough withdrawal to let their feelings define their decisions.
  - High-enough volatility that a cult leader can routinely exploit their feelings.

However, long-term cults will adopt a few other types of people:

- [Cluster B personality disorders](mind-neurodivergence.md) will join a cult for [personal gain](purpose.md).
- People [suffering severe hardship](hardship.md) will join cults if they think that's their only option.
- Anyone born into a cult [family](people-family.md) will adopt the [lifestyle](people-culture.md) and a severe [false self](personality.md) which conforms to the above simply to survive.

Usually, joining a cult requires a large personal sacrifice.

- This sacrifice ensures the member has found [meaning](meaning.md) regading the group, since their efforts will validate that the sacrifice was worth it.
- Further sacrifices compound onto the first sacrifice, meaning they develop *more* of a sense of meaning as they continue to give over everything to the group.
- Eventually, they've sacrificed all sense of [self](humanity.md), [identity](identity.md), [ownership](people-boundaries.md), or [agency](people-decisions.md), and are so deeply entrenched into their efforts that the slightest [hope](understanding-certainty.md) of any redemption can [keep them going](success-5_persevering.md).

## Advancing

Incrementally, the members are then introduced to further sacrifices to release control to the group, one small step at a time (BITE Model):

1. Behavior control - their [physical reality](reality.md):
   - The collective group ends up owning *all* their individual [creations and results](results.md).
   - This typically starts with [legitimately good habits](https://adequate.life/habits/), then moves to more intimate control methods.
2. Information control - how they [understand](understanding.md) [reality](reality.md):
   - The group will typically give clear answers to more [controversial matters](people-conflicts.md), then work inward to otherwise non-negotiable or [taboo](morality-taboo.md) beliefs.
3. Thought control - how they [think](values.md):
   - Their values will be subtly shifted to conform with the group's shared standards.
4. Emotional control - how they [feel](mind-feelings.md):
   - Without any [philosophical connection](philosophy.md) to their understanding, submitting their feelings naturally follows as well.

By the end, the person has been transformed into a perfect extension of the leader's [desires](purpose.md):

- Complete compliance to the group's [cause](purpose.md), which is open to change if it's driven by a charismatic [personality](personality.md) more than a [value system](values.md).
- Tremendous hatred of everything that obstructs the group's cause, sometimes to the point of [violence](people-conflicts-war.md).
- Trusting the group more than themselves for just about everything, with all [conversations](people-conversation.md) involving the group or group activities.
- Any time they experience a [conflict](people-conflicts.md) with an outside source, they defer or deflect to their group's authority.

**Behavior control** involves [changing habits](habits.md), and is the most obvious for the public to notice:

- Instilling dependency and obedience, with permission required for all major [decisions](people-decisions.md).
- Rewards and punishments modify positive and negative behaviors.
- Rigid rules:
  - How, where, and who that person can live with, associate with, or isolates from.
  - How, where, and who that person can have sex, wear clothing, choose hairstyle, eat/drink.
  - Manage, manipulate, or restrict their [sleep](sleep.md), leisure, entertainment, or vacation time.
  - An unreasonable amount of time spent with any type of [indoctrination/rituals](habits.md).
- Financially exploit them, manipulate them, or require them to be dependent.
- Punishing disobedience with beating, torture, burning, cutting, rape, or tattoo/branding.
- Threatening harm to family or friends or separating families.
- Forcing rape or for them to rape, encouraging corporal punishment, imprisonment, or murder.

**Information control** involves a *lot* of [image distortion](image-distortion.md):

- Deliberately, systematically lying to the person, often consistently across all members.
  - Only leadership is permitted to decide who needs to know what, and when.
- Minimizing access to non-approved [sources of information](stories-storytellers.md):
  - Extensive use of [propaganda](stories-storytellers.md) to advance an agenda, including snippets of outside information given with extensive context.
  - The group is publicly encouraged to shame and discredit outside information sources.
  - To accommodate the growing conflicts, sharing [myths](stories-myths.md) together that clarify why they're experiencing conflicts and that they're the hero of that conflict.
- Using an Outside vs. Inside doctrine:
  - The mindset is that nobody can understand the group's ideas unless they're in the group.
  - Ensures information is not freely and equally accessible.
  - Uses different levels of information control within the group.
- Encourages spying among members:
  - Uses a partnering system to monitor and control members' knowledge.
  - Any deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions are reported to leadership.
- Uses confession unethically:
  - The leadership use any information about transgressions to disrupt and dissolve identity boundaries.
  - [Forgiveness and exoneration](mind-feelings-happiness-stress.md) are withheld until they perform a significantly burdensome sacrifice to repay it.

**Thought control** is a [philosophical](philosophy.md) redirection that conforms a mind to a predetermined [value system](values.md):

- Members are required to internalize the group's doctrine as [absolute truth](understanding-certainty.md).
  - This doctrine is subject to a black-and-white dichotomy, with no room for exceptions.
  - Only "good" or "proper" thoughts are permitted, which forbids *any* criticism of the leader, doctrine, or policy.
  - Rejection of [rational analysis, critical thinking](logic.md), and [constructive criticism](understanding.md).
  - Alternative belief systems are illegitimate, evil, or not useful, which may include *other* cults or [reality itself](reality.md).
- Through repetition, manipulate memories to falsely insert past events that hadn't happened.
- The member is required to adopt a new [name](language.md) and [identity](identity.md).
- Copious amounts of [jargon and cliché](language.md) statements that obstruct access to [understanding](understanding.md).
- [Hypnosis](habits.md) that alters mental states, undermine conscious thought, and can even make members [regress in age](maturity.md):
  - Denial, rationalization, justification, or [wishful](trust.md) thinking
  - Chanting, mantras, and meditation
  - Praying, speaking in tongues, singing, or humming

**Emotional control** manipulates and narrows the range of [feelings](mind-feelings.md) applied to experiences:

- Declaring some feelings as inherently wrong.
  - Teaching emotion-stopping techniques to block specific unpleasant feelings like homesickness, anger, and doubt.
- Direct the person's feelings to them believing problems are *always* their fault, and never the leader's or group's fault.
- Promoting feelings of guilt or unworthiness:
  - [Identifying](identity.md) with inadequacy
  - Not living up to their potential
  - Insufficient or deficient [family](people-family.md)
  - A condemned past, including guilt imposed by history/society
  - Unwise affiliations
- Instilled [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) of many things:
  - Thinking independently
  - Others' disapproval
  - The outside world without the group
  - Rejection, leaving, or being shunned by the group
  - Enemies and what they could do
  - Losing [salvation](religion.md)
  - Advancing various phobias that promote staying within the group
- Anger at everyone who *does* leave the group for being weak, undisciplined, not spiritual, brainwashed by family/counselor/opponent, or seduced by greed.
  - This can often mix disgust (at the perceived [evils](morality-evil.md)) and pity (for their perceived destitute state).
  - At the farthest end, they'll act on their thoughts of destroying the outside group and feel themselves to be "merciful" for performing the action.
- Extreme mood swings, with love bombing and praise one moment and utter condemnation the next.

APPLICATION: Gaslighting is a person trying to create a cult with a 1-person following.

In a [larger cult](groups-large.md), the [classes](classes.md) of leader/follower are *explicitly* enforced with formalized titles and a rigid hierarchy. Any [disputes](people-conflicts.md) are *never* addressed among peers, and *always* involve the leadership making a directed decision.

## Power expressed

Most [small groups](groups-small.md) can sit latent for *decades* without becoming a cult.

- They still exist, but only represent as [risks](safety.md) of becoming a cult until a charismatic personality arises to take advantage of the situation.

Some of these groups are patently obvious to anyone on the outside:

- [Violent](people-conflicts-war.md) extremist groups (e.g., terrorists)
- Cartels and organized crime (e.g., mafia)
- [Human traffickers](slavery.md)
- [Charming](influence.md) [religious](religion.md) leaders and [human potential](politics-leftism.md) leadership
- [Multi-level marketing](marketing-mlm.md)
- Extreme [political action](politics-conservativeliberal.md) groups
- Abusive [family members](people-family.md) and [spouses](relationships-marriage.md)

APPLICATION: Calling something a cult isn't very relevant because most things in life have their cult [subculture](people-culture.md). Instead, look at *who* calls it a cult.

Generally, the public only notices cults when they violate [basic human rights](people-boundaries.md):

- People give up their property or inheritance to the group they're swearing allegiance toward.
- A person shuns their [family](people-family.md) and [friends](people-friends.md) while believing it's a [loving act](people-love.md), or leaves their family entirely.
- Belief in [corporal punishment](people-rules.md) without examining its basis.
- Desire to trust "God's will" to the point of letting a person die.
- Principled disregard for [human universals](humanity-universals.md) to the point of severe, permanent damage.
- Adolescents coerced toward sexual acts, permanently changing their gender, or sold as [slaves/prostitutes](slavery.md).
- Threatening people who may report child molestation or domestic violence.
- Engagement in [questionable arrangements](people-contracts.md) with others.
- *Severely* [inappropriate behavior](morality-taboo.md) to advance the cult's cause.

Once a cult has fully indoctrinated members, they will [decide](people-decisions.md) to perform acts of violence on their own:

- Killing people who [didn't deserve it](morality-justice.md), sometimes while making it a [public spectacle](stories-storytellers.md).
- Operating a vehicle (e.g., [auto](autos.md), plane) to crash into buildings or crowds of people.
- Using weapons (e.g., guns, bombs) to attack a public place (e.g., school, convention center).

## Permitted

Some cults are vilified, but many cults can be endorsed by [strong authority figures](groups-large.md).

- Cult leadership can often curate a [public image](image-distortion.md) of generosity or kindness, even when most of the contributions don't serve anyone but the leadership.
- Cults are frequently part of the mechanism behind many [defective social systems](mgmt-badsystems.md).
- A cult may have tax-exempt or charitable [government status](people-rules.md).
- Most government intelligence agencies and militaries borrow from cult practices, if not outright being cults themselves.
- Many secret societies also borrow from cult practice.
- The leaders of relatively unrelated [large-scale organizations](groups-large.md) may be informally (but distinctly) all members of the same cult.
- Many [advertising-based organizations](marketing.md) (e.g., marketing firms) employ cult tactics to generate leads.

In fact, while it's [taboo](morality-taboo.md) to say in many parts of the world, many governments themselves (frequently with their [media propaganda](stories-storytellers.md)) are cults altogether.

The more [addicted](addiction.md) and isolated away from the rest of humanity, the more cult-like that group becomes. This has no limit, and can (but doesn't always) apply to many parts of society:

- Geek subcultures
- Hobby and political clubs
- Church groups
- Indigenous tribal societies
- Small towns
- Large corporations
- Social media

APPLICATION: All [addictions](addiction.md) are cults of 1+ people centered on that substance.

APPLICATION: To take extreme ownership of your life, with your thoughts, is essentially grabbing control of yourself and making a "cult" of your [personality](personality.md), for yourself alone.

[Amusingly](humor.md), in a free society, each [political party](politics-conservativeliberal.md) creates its own cult, then tends to call the other party a cult.

APPLICATION: Because of the [range of our personalities](personality.md), even a country-sized cult only has some adherents, with the rest only honoring the [culture](people-culture.md) for their [advantages](purpose.md). Even "mass formation psychosis" can only get 60-70% of the people all at once.

## Aftermath

Often, cult membership creates very severe effects upon a participant:

- Absolute sabotage of [personal freedoms](people-boundaries.md), to the point of having a broken [personality](personality.md) and unable to make [good boundaries](people-boundaries.md).
- Severe [trauma](hardship-ptsd.md) from the events performed *to* them.
- Bad [decisions](people-decisions.md) and [their effects](results.md) they [chose](people-decisions.md) to make *on behalf of* the group they trusted.

Generally, they'll veer *hard* into the polar opposite extreme value system:

- The "opposite" is defined by the mode of thought the follower takes:
  - A hyper-[religious](religion.md) cult follower will leave and become an atheist or pantheist.
  - An extremely [liberal](politics-conservativeliberal.md) activist may become highly conservative or apolitical.
- The only way they'll ever find [a healthy balance](goodlife.md) is by becoming equally entrenched in several groups until they start seeing they need to change their tactic.

The most powerful [influencers](stories-storytellers.md) to [bring down](people-conflicts.md) those cults are typically the people who have [integrated their shadow self](personality.md).

- They must acknowledge they were partly responsible for submitting their [will](people-decisions.md) to another person.
- They *also* must acknowledge they were a victim of that leader exploiting their [trust](trust.md).