What Is a Cult?

Alcoholics Anonymous is clearly a religious organization, but is AA a cult? Before answering that question, it's first necessary to define the key term. That's a very difficult task; there are almost as many definitions of the word "cult" as there are experts on the subject. One thing virtually all definitions of the word have in common is that they're quite broad.

Two of the definitions given by the Random House Unabridged Dictionary are fairly typical: "a group or sect bound together by devotion to or veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc."; and "a group having a sacred ideology and a set of rites centering around their sacred symbols."

Such definitions—as opposed to lists of attributes—could well apply to a great number of groups, many of which most people would never consider cults. Thus, the crucial question becomes what are the specific characteristics that distinguish cults, especially cults that are dangerous both to their own members and to society?

In the first edition of this book, I listed 17 such characteristics. At the time I made my list, I was unaware of Robert Jay Lifton's groundbreaking study of totalitarian indoctrination methods, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. In his book, Lifton lists eight characteristics of "ideological totalism."ⁱ These characteristics closely match those of most cults. Four of Lifton's listed characteristics correspond with some of those listed in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous: Cult or Cure? (though they're labeled differently), but four were not included or were touched on only tangentially. I've included them here as characteristics 3, 5, 10, and 12, though I've relabeled most of them, and I've reinterpreted all of them to some extent. I've also added two of the characteristics listed by Margaret Singer in her important recent book, Cults In Our Midst; here they're listed as characteristics 8 and 17. As a result of these additions, my list of cult criteria now includes 23 characteristics .

Based on Lifton's and Singer's criteria, as well as my own research into and direct contact with a number of groups commonly labeled as cults (especially Synanon, the Church of Scientology, the Unification Church [Moonies], Kerista Village,ⁱⁱ the People's Temple, the Church of the Blood of the Lamb of God, and the Lyndon LaRouche organization in its various permutations [National Caucus of Labor Committees, U.S. Labor Party, etc.]),ⁱⁱⁱ I would list the following traits as being characteristic of most cults. (I should note, though, that not even the most obviously dangerous cults always possess all of the following attributes, though some do.)
   

1) Religious Orientation. Cults are usually centered around belief in a "higher power"; they often have elaborate religious rituals and emphasize prayer. Current and recent religious cults include the People's Temple, Branch Davidians, the Church of Scientology, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishnas), the Unification Church, Kerista Village, the Church of the Blood of the Lamb of God (Ervil LeBaron's murderous Mormon splinter group), Synanon (which declared itself a religion while developing the most unsavory aspects of a cult), the Children of God, The Way International, Jehovah's Witnesses, and, arguably, an organization that I consider on the border between cults and mainstream religions, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons.

While secular cults also exist, they are not as numerous as religious cults. The most obvious example of a secular cult is the LaRouche organization, which has almost all of the characteristics of a totalitarian cult other than religious orientation. Two others which I believe could properly be classified as secular cults are the Revolutionary Communist Party and the New Alliance Party. But these are the exceptions; easily 90% of present-day cults are religious in nature.
   

2) Irrationality. Cults discourage skepticism and rational thought. As James and Marcia Rudin note in Prison or Paradise: The New Religious Cults:
   

The groups are anti-intellectual, placing all emphasis on intuition or emotional experience. "Knowledge" is redefined as those ideas or experiences dispensed by the group or its leader. One can only attain knowledge by joining the group and submitting to its doctrine. One cannot question this "knowledge." If a follower shows signs of doubting he is made to feel that the fault lies within himself, not with the ideas . . .^iv
   

It's also common for cult leaders to tell their followers that doubt is the work of the devil. The Unification Church in particular has institutionalized the practices of equating doubt with sinfulness and satanic influence, and of attempting to stamp out independent thought. Some of its most common slogans (for internal use) are "Your Mind Is Fallen," "Stamp Out Doubt," and "No More Concepts."^v If members of cults persist in having doubts, they're accused of being under satanic influence and excommunicated or, in extreme instances, even murdered, as in Ervil LeBaron's Lambs of God,^vi or in the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
   

3) Dogmatism. Cults invariably have The Truth and are highly antagonistic to those who question it. The Truth is invariably revealed in a cult's sacred text(s) or in the pronunciations of its leaders. It is beyond question, and to voice doubts about it is seen as, at best, a sign of confusion, and, at worst, a sign of being under satanic influence. This is clearly the case in the Unification Church, where doubt invariably comes directly from Satan, and it's also common in secular cults. In Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Lifton notes that Chinese Communist true believers attribute deviation from revealed Truth to "bourgeois" influence.^vii
   

4) A "Chosen People" Mentality. Given that cultists are alone in possessing a very precious commodity, The Truth, they almost always view themselves as better than other people, which means that nonbelievers and members of rival sects are frequently seen as less than human, if not outright tools of the devil. This attitude of superiority often manifests itself in an "ends justify the means" mentality and in the use of violence against outsiders or against heretics within the group. The most lurid recent examples of such violence have been provided by Ervil LeBaron's Lambs of God,^viii though historical examples abound.
   

5) Ideology Over Experience, Observation, and Logic. Cults not only demonize doubt and doubters, but they are also nearly immune to experience, observation, and logic that contradict their claims. Cult leaders claim to have The Truth—and their followers believe them—so anything that contradicts that Truth must be wrong. The Catholic Church's insistence that the earth is the center of the universe, coupled with its persecution of Galileo and Giordano Bruno, and its attempted suppression of the Copernican view of the solar system (well supported by observational evidence, even in the early 17th century), provides but one famous example of this phenomenon. To cite another, the leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses—claiming inspiration directly from God—stated that doomsday would come in 1914, and then in 1925.^ix Yet when the appointed days came and went, the Witnesses suffered relatively minor defections. When their claims are proven false, cult leaders normally either ignore the contradictory evidence or invoke the fathomless Will of God to explain the turn of events. Their flocks never seem to notice this.

6) Separatism. Cult members almost always view themselves as outsiders, as different from the rest of society. This sets up an "us versus them" mentality, and it's common for cult members to believe that only they and their fellow cult members can understand each other—"outsiders" certainly can't.

One manifestation of separatism is the use of specialized terms; almost all cults develop a jargon peculiar to themselves. Another, though less common, manifestation of separatism is the abandonment of "old" personal names and the taking of "new" ones, as was done in the San Francisco-based cult, Kerista Village. A third is the adoption of distinctive dress and/or other alterations in personal appearance. The practice of head-shaving among the Hare Krishnas and in Synanon, and the required wearing of red and orange hues by the Rajneeshees are examples of this.^x
   

7) Exclusivity. Cults invariably view themselves as the only path to salvation. Normally that "salvation" is spiritual, though, as with the LaRouchites and other political sects, it can be secular. Again, this leads to arrogance, dehumanization of nonbelievers, and an "ends justify the means" mentality. The Moonies have even adopted a "spiritual" term (for internal use only) for lying and cheating in pursuit of Church goals: "Heavenly Deception."
   

8) Special Knowledge. This is closely related to the concept of exclusivity. Many cults claim that they are the route to personal and/or social salvation because they hold special, extremely valuable knowledge that's unavailable to the uninitiated. As well, many cults only gradually reveal that "knowledge" to members in order to avoid early defections. (A great deal of this "knowledge" is so absurd that most people would walk away immediately were it to be revealed to them all at once.) As an example of this cult tendency, Margaret Singer, in Cults In Our Midst, cites a researcher who quotes L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, as follows: "new followers or potential converts should not be exposed to [the language and cosmology of Scientology] at too early a stage. 'Talking whole track to raw meat' is frowned upon."^xi
   

9) Mind Control Techniques. These involve such measures as keeping members malnourished and in a state of exhaustion. The classic example of this was the conduct of Jim Jones' cult in its Jonestown settlement in Guyana prior to the mass murder/suicide in 1978.^xii More sophisticated methods are also used, examples being "self-criticism" (in political cults), the use of chanting and various forms of "sensory overload" in groups like the Hare Krishnas, and the use of "therapy," as in the New Alliance Party.

Another important mind control technique is the destruction of personal privacy. The Moonies, for example, normally do not even allow potential recruits at their retreats to go to the bathroom unless accompanied by a member of their cult. This is a way of never allowing new or potential recruits to regain their mental balance.

Still another important mind control technique is the humiliation and intimidation of members. In Synanon, this took the form of "the game," a warped encounter session in which individuals were attacked by other members of the group.^xiii In the People's Temple the technique was cruder, with members being, among other things, sexually humiliated in public.^xiv
   

10) Thought-Stopping Language. This is another mind-control technique, but Lifton considers it so important that he made it one of his eight criteria of "ideological totalism."As Lifton puts it, the way that these "thought-terminating cliche[s]" operate is that "the most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis."^xv

Put more broadly, thought-stopping phrases include any use of language, especially repeated phrases, to ward off forbidden thoughts. One common example of this is the admonition given to Catholic schoolchildren to recite the Hail Mary or rosary to ward off "impure thoughts." The use of repetitive chanting by the Hare Krishnas serves the same thought-stopping purpose.

Another aspect of thought-stopping terms is that, as Ken Ragge points out, "Loaded language, the language of non-thought, entails more than cliches. Individual words are given meanings or shades of meanings entirely separate from their normal usage."^xvi To cite the most obvious example, the use of the word "Father" by members of some cults does not refer to a biological parent, but to the cult's leader. These alternative meanings to common words serve to accentuate the separateness of cult members from "outsiders" or "normies."
   

11) Manipulation Through Guilt. Many cults expertly manipulate their members through arousal of guilt feelings. Guilt is created, according to Lifton, by the setting of impossible-to-meet "demand[s] for purity":
   

By conducting an all-out war on impurity, the ideological totalists create a narrow world of guilt and shame. This is perpetuated by an ethos of continuous reform . . . Since each man's impurities are deemed sinful and potentially harmful to himself and to others, he is, so to speak, expected to expect punishment . . . Similarly, when he fails to meet the prevailing standards in casting out such impurities, he is expected to expect humiliation and ostracism.^xvii

As one might expect, in addition to proscribed actions, proscribed thoughts also give rise to guilt. Any attempt at individual assertion or resistance to the demands of the cult's leader or hierarchy—including even the smallest reluctance to enthusiastically parrot every assertion in the group's ideology —is attacked as selfishness and lack of devotion to "The Cause." Such guiltarousing attacks are especially effective when made in public. They serve as powerful spurs to orthodoxy in thought and action, and also as powerful goads to members to "donate" their assets to the cult and to prove their devotion through self-sacrifice.

But with truly successful indoctrination, guilt is internalized. The simple surfacing of proscribed thoughts—let alone the carrying out of proscribed actions—is sufficient in itself to arouse intense guilt feelings in indoctrinated cult members. To make these feelings bearable, to preserve their self-images as "good" persons trying to live their lives in accord with revealed Truth, cult members "must also look upon [their] impurities as originating from outside influences, that is, from the ever-threatening world beyond the closed, totalist ken."^xviii Thus cult members escape responsibility for their sinful thoughts and actions, at least in part. They're just weak individuals dealing with powerful, insidious forces, which they can successfully resist only with the help of the cult.
   

12) The Cult of Confession. Lifton explains the mechanism as follows:
   

It is first a vehicle for . . . personal purification . . . Second, it is an act of symbolic self-surrender, the expression of the merging of individual and environment. Third, it is a means of maintaining an ethos of total exposure . . . The milieu has attained such a perfect state of enlightenment that any individual retention of ideas or emotions has become anachronistic. . . . More than this, the sharing of confession enthusiasms can create an orgiastic sense of "oneness," of the most intense intimacy with fellow confessors and of the dissolution of self into the great flow of the Movement.^xix
   

Thus confession serves the purpose of fostering identification as a member of the cult rather than as an individual human being. It also serves the purpose of alleviating guilt, thus making the confessor dependent on the cult for that alleviation.

A great many cults and religions—the lines are often blurry—have used confession, both individual and public, for these dual purposes. The Catholic Church is, of course, the prime example of an organization that uses individual confession to these ends. The Chinese Communists are the prime example of an organization that uses public confession to these ends.

As well, there is always the possibility that cults will use information revealed in confessions to threaten, manipulate and control their members. The Church of Scientology, for example, supposedly maintains extensive files on individuals' "auditing" sessions—therapeutic/confessional sessions in which a great deal of potentially embarrassing information is often revealed; one former Scientologist told me that the Church of Scientology records and retains every minute of every auditing session. The Church's retention of the information disclosed in auditing sessions, and the possibility of its being publicly revealed, could well contribute to the reluctance of some disaffected ex-Scientologists to speak out against the Church of Scientology.

Far worse, the hold of some cults is so intense that they intimidate their members into making false confessions, which they then dangle over their members' heads as a means of controlling them. Perhaps the worst example of this was provided by the People's Temple, in which parents were routinely forced to sign false confessions stating that they had sexually molested their own children.^xx

If confession is good for the soul, it's even better for helping cults cement their control over their members.
   

13) A Charismatic Leader. Present in most cults, the leader can be living (Revolutionary Communist Party, Unification Church, LaRouchites) or dead (Synanon, Scientology, Mormons). In cases where the leader dies, the cult either fades away, is taken over by another charismatic leader, or, as with the Scientologists and Mormons, is taken over by a pre-existing hierarchy.
   

14) A Hierarchical, Authoritarian Structure. While this is a very common feature of cults, it should be noted that relatively new cults often have little structure. But as time passes, hierarchy and bureaucracy usually arise, as is to be expected in authoritarian setups. If a hierarchy does not arise—this sometimes happens because of the charismatic leader's fear of take-over attempts—the cult will probably disintegrate upon the leader's death, unless a new charismatic leader quickly arises to take his or her place.
   

15) Submission of the Individual to the "Will of God" or to some other abstraction, such as the "dictatorship of the proletariat." This means abandonment of individual decision making in favor of obeying the will of the abstraction as interpreted by the cult. In practice, this usually means obeying the orders of the charismatic leader or the hierarchy which controls the group.

One outward sign of individual submission to the charismatic leader is the infantilization of members. In many instances, the People's Temple and Unification Church being examples, members refer to and address the leader as "Father."

In many cults the submission of the individual is so complete that the charismatic leader and/or hierarchy make all significant life decisions for the individual, up to and including choice of sex and marriage partners. I

n Synanon, the control of its founder, Charles Dederich, was so complete that he forced all of the male members of his cult, save himself, to undergo vasectomies.^xxi He later forced all members to switch sex partners.^xxii And in the Unification Church, the hierarchy picks the marriage partners of members. In that church, it's common for brides and grooms to meet for the first time at their marriage ceremonies.

But perhaps the ultimate expressions of the submission of the individual to the "will of God" (that is, the cult) are self-mutilation and mass suicide. A recent horrifying example of both was provided by the Heaven's Gate cult. A majority of the male members of that severely anti-sexual religious group—in order to remove themselves from temptations of the flesh— "voluntarily" submitted to castration prior to the cult's mass suicide in 1997, in preparation for joining the (of course, nonexistent) UFO in Comet Hale-Bopp's tail.
   

16) Self-Absorption. The primary focus of a cult is the cult itself. Whatever its ostensible aims, in reality a cult is overwhelmingly self-absorbed. Cults are prone to extreme over self-estimation, to what could be termed organizational narcissism; and so a cult's primary concerns are its own survival and expansion, with the ends justifying the means.
   

17) Dual Purposes. This extreme self-absorption leads to what Margaret Singer terms dual purposes—in other words, cults have their stated purposes and their real purposes. As regards individual members, cults present themselves as ways for members to meet their own needs, grow personally or spiritually, and/or to realize higher social or spiritual goals. In reality, Singer notes, the purpose of cults is to subject their members to mind control techniques in order to control and exploit them.

The dual-purpose aspect of cults is also noticeable in their dealing with outsiders, and it's particularly noticeable in their fundraising activities. Cults frequently raise huge sums of money which they allege will be used to alleviate social problems such as alcoholism, drug abuse, homelessness, and abandoned or abused children, when in reality they spend all, or nearly all, of the money raised to support the cult. For example, in its fundraising materials, the People's Temple routinely represented itself as a do-good organization caring for abandoned children.^xxiii

Secular cults are every bit as self-absorbed as religious cults. Political cults have long been notorious for infiltrating social change groups and manipu-lating them for the benefit of the cults, often destroying the social change groups in the process. In the 1960s, the Socialist Workers Party (itself heavily infiltrated by the FBI) and the Progressive Labor Party wreaked havoc in the anti-war movement through this tactic; in the 1970s, the women's movement was targeted by the International Socialists and other sects; and in the 1980s and 1990s the New Alliance Party and the so-called Humanist Party have infiltrated environmental and other progressive groups. The political lines and the names of the cults have changed, but the virus-like infiltrate/ manipulate/destroy tactic remains the same.
   

18) Economic Exploitation. Cults not only exploit their own members, but, when they can manage it, nonmembers as well.^xxiv Some, such as the LaRouchites, Synanon, and the People's Temple, have extensively targeted nonmembers.

Cults which target nonmembers solicit money by presenting themselves —or their front groups—as doing "good works," such as fighting drugs, when in fact virtually all of the money that they raise is spent on their own operations and, often, on enriching their leaders. Synanon fundraisers, for example, routinely represented Synanon as a drug rehabilitation program for years after it had effectively abandoned working with drug abusers.^xxv The LaRouchites have gone further and have engaged in criminal fraud—under the guise of fighting drugs and other "good works"—on a massive scale. As a result, many of the top members of the cult, including founder Lyndon LaRouche, Jr., were sentenced to lengthy prison terms in the late 1980s.^xxvi

Direct economic exploitation of members by their cults is often even less subtle. Many cults, such as the People's Temple, strip their members of assets. In the People's Temple, the technique was crude: members were pressured to "donate" their possessions to the church. The Scientologists have taken a more sophisticated approach—potential members are lured by widely advertised free computer personality evaluations and pay very little to take introductory courses, but then must pay much higher fees (often in the thousands of dollars) to take "advanced" Scientology courses.^xxvii

Another way in which cults exploit their members is by having them work long, exhausting hours for little or no pay. Cults which employ(ed) such tactics include Synanon, the People's Temple, the various LaRouche front groups, the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishnas).^xxviii
   

19) Deceptive Recruiting Techniques. Some cults routinely deceive potential members, which is understandable: most potential recruits would not find attractive the prospect of slavishly following the orders of a gurufigure while working 16 to 18 hours a day for little or no pay. The Unification Church in particular is notorious for deceptive recruitment tactics.^xxix

The primary recruitment targets for the Moonies are unattached young people. They usually have a member of the opposite sex approach the target and invite her/him to dinner. According to those who have attended such dinners, no mention of Moon or the Unification Church is made. Rather, there is general talk of a "family" and improving the world. Next follows an invitation to spend a weekend at a retreat. Those who accept are "love bombed" (showered with attention) by members and are invited to a longer retreat. If they accept, they're again "love bombed," kept constantly occupied, accompanied by a Moonie at all times, and denied adequate sleep. And before they know it, they're selling flowers 18 hours a day for room and board.

Another tactic of the Unification Church is the setting up of front groups, such as the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP), and having members of the front groups lie about their association with the Unification Church, if asked. In the late 1970s, CARP appeared on the campus of Boise State University, and I investigated it for the school newspaper, the BSU Arbiter. Even though CARP's address was the same as that of the local Unification Church, and its literature was distributed by members of that Church, the Moonies staunchly maintained that there was "no connection" between the Unification Church and CARP.

Other cults also employ front groups. The LaRouchites in particular are notorious for this practice. This amoeba-like cult splits so often that it's difficult to follow its permutations. Some of the names it has operated under included the U.S. Labor Party, National Caucus of Labor Committees, Fusion Energy Foundation, the Schiller Institute, the National Anti-Drug Coalition, and the National Democratic Policy Committee.
   

20) Possessiveness. For financial and other reasons, cults will often go to great, sometimes illegal, lengths to retain members. The most extreme example of this was provided by the People's Temple Jonestown gulag, where members were physically prevented from leaving by Jim Jones' heavily armed goon squad. A less sinister example of this tendency is provided by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons. When a Mormon leaves the fold, the LDS Church never gives up its attempts to recover its lost sheep. It will track the apostate for decades, and it's not unusual for LDS representatives to contact former members 30 or 40 years after they left the church in an effort to talk them into rejoining.
   

21) A Closed, All-Encompassing Environment. Again, the classic example of this is Jonestown. Almost all cults attempt to provide a closed environment for at least some of their key members, and some attempt to provide it for all of their members. The less contact that members have with external reality, the more natural the hothouse environment of the cult seems, the more natural the very peculiar beliefs of the cult seem, and the more natural it seems that everyone should follow the orders of the charismatic leader or the controlling hierarchy. A closed, all-encompassing environment also makes members totally dependent upon the cult for social support, economic support, and a sense of identity; and this tends to make leaving the cult a terrifying prospect. To put it another way, cults are like anaerobic bacteria—they thrive in the absence of cleansing breezes.
   

22) Millenarianism. Many cults, especially Christian fundamentalist cults, prophesy that the world is coming to an end. One of the most prominent millenarian cults, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), is, however, secular in nature. Rather than prophesying a biblical Armageddon, the RCP prophesies a nuclear Armageddon unless, of course, it achieves power within the next few years. (The RCP, unlike the Jehovah's Witnesses, has at least had the good sense not to announce a doomsday date.) If members believe this, it's a powerful incentive for them to put in long, unpaid hours working for the RCP's hierarchy and its lider máximo, Bob Avakian.

Millenarianism also provides a powerful insight into the hold of cults over their followers. As mentioned previously, some cults, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, have had the bad judgment to prophesy the date of doomsday, yet almost all such cults have managed to retain a majority of their blindly believing followers despite their failed predictions. The Witnesses, however, seem to have learned from their past false prophecies, and have recently backed away from their prediction of doomsday in the year 2000. So, Witness faithful no longer have that date to look forward to. They simply have the assurance that doomsday is coming soon.
   

23) Violence, Coercion, and Harassment. Coercion is routine in cults. Many cults, such as the People's Temple, maintain(ed) goon squads to control their own members; and many, including Synanon, the People's Temple, and the Church of the Blood of the Lamb of God, have employed violence and even killings to intimidate and silence critics, and to keep members in line. The most famous recent incident of such violence was the rattlesnake attack upon attorney Paul Morantz by members of a Synanon goon squad in 1978.^xxxxxxi

Other cults, such as Scientology, utilize legal harassment. The Church of Scientology is notoriously litigious and has, on one occasion, gone beyond the filing of lawsuits against its critics. In that case, Church of Scientology members, including very high-ranking members of the Church's hierarchy, attempted to frame a critic, journalist Paulette Cooper, on felony bomb charges and very nearly succeeded. A Scientology agent who "befriended" Cooper during her ordeal reported to his superiors: "She can't sleep again . . . she's talking suicide. Wouldn't this be great for Scientology!"^xxxii Fortunately, Cooper escaped the Scientologists' plot—after years of torment— and several of those responsible for the conspiracy against her were even-tually sentenced to prison terms.

But the use of violence against nonbelievers is hardly a new phenomenon. Over 100 years ago, John Doyle Lee, the Mormon elder who was scapegoated and executed in 1877 for the 1857 massacre of 120 settlers (including many women and children) at Mountain Meadows, Utah, stated:
   

. . . the people in Utah who professed the Mormon religion were at and for some time before the Mountain Meadows massacre full of wildfire and zeal, anxious to do something to build up the Kingdom of God on earth and waste the enemies of the Mormon religion . . . The killing of Gentiles [non-Mormons] was a means of grace and a virtuous deed . . .

The Mormons believed in blood atonement. It is taught by the leaders, and believed by the people, that the Priesthood are inspired and cannot give a wrong order. It is the belief of all that I ever heard talk of these things . . . that the authority that orders is the only responsible party and the Danite [member of the Mormon equivalent of the KGB, the Sons of Dan] who does the killing only an instrument, and commits no wrong . . .^xxxiiixxxiv
   

An even older example of the bloodthirtiness of some cults was provided by theologian and papal agent Arnold Amalric at the Beziers massacre of Albigensian heretics in 1209: "Kill them all. God will easily recognize his own."^xxxv