Cult notes:
Cults typically center around extreme and unusual beliefs, devotion to their leader, and/or an extreme focus on the collective rather than the individual.
Difficult time in life – looking for help with self-esteem, positive feedback, sometimes to absorb you and distract you from your own losses and pain, salvation from the pain.
About 5000 cults in the U.S and growing – often they will expand overseas – 20 million people involved in cults
Can be formed around any content – any topic.
Ever-changing theme for cults – when culture changes, manipulative people take advantage.
The nucleus of a destructive cult – Robert J Lifton = Harvard Uni Paper - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x2mWDq1kzSfXMT8x3TgZQOESbz9JP_NVYO815SikG3Q/edit
3 core characteristics
Leader then becomes the focus of worship
Thought reform and coercive persuasion techniques to gain undue influence
Using this influence to exploit members
TACTICS:
Separation in some way from others. Also an offer of salvation.
Large grou…
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