How Do Cults Gain & Maintain Their Control?
Excerpt:
'...all the noise that life brings leads human beings to crave clarity. Many people join groups that they later discover are cults, because they believe they’re being offered solid, absolute answers for huge questions such as good vs. evil, religion, the meaning of life, politics - the list is endless.
Many cult leaders promote messages that are simple and on a surface level, seem to make sense. They offer calm amid the noise.
Cults use Black and White thinking, an “us” versus “them” mentality. The narrative promoted is that the outside world is bad, under devil control, or corrupt/impure versus the purity or truth offered by the cult. Eventually, this becomes an intrinsic belief that there is no prospect of living a good life outside of the cult or High Control Group.
Offering comfort in control
If everything outside of an individual's viewpoint is in chaos, then the controlling tactics and restrictive practices and beliefs espoused by high control groups and cults can provide reassurance, certainty and comfort.
As an extension of black and white thinking, if everything inside the cult is good, clean, proper and orderly, then everything outside is polluted, unholy, unclean, from the devil or worldly. There are a plethora of terms and tactics used here that all rely on building paranoia.
If you can convince members of the group that outsiders, including their families, government, outside organizations and institutions are “out to get” them while simultaneously offering them the “perfect” solution you can convince them that only the cult can provide safety.
Source: How Do Cults Gain & Maintain Their Control?
Excerpt:
'...all the noise that life brings leads human beings to crave clarity. Many people join groups that they later discover are cults, because they believe they’re being offered solid, absolute answers for huge questions such as good vs. evil, religion, the meaning of life, politics - the list is endless.
Many cult leaders promote messages that are simple and on a surface level, seem to make sense. They offer calm amid the noise.
Cults use Black and White thinking, an “us” versus “them” mentality. The narrative promoted is that the outside world is bad, under devil control, or corrupt/impure versus the purity or truth offered by the cult. Eventually, this becomes an intrinsic belief that there is no prospect of living a good life outside of the cult or High Control Group.
How do Cults and High-Control groups maintain their power?
To maintain this power, reductive “us” versus “them” thinking comes into play. Successful cults manage to isolate members from their former lives and identities, convincing followers that they are superior to people who are not a member of the cult. This conforms to the cult playbook as it is described by Dr Steven Hassan’s BITE model. Specifically through thought control, forbidding questioning of leadership resulting in stopping of rational thought processing through the explicit rejection of critical thinking.Offering comfort in control
If everything outside of an individual's viewpoint is in chaos, then the controlling tactics and restrictive practices and beliefs espoused by high control groups and cults can provide reassurance, certainty and comfort.
As an extension of black and white thinking, if everything inside the cult is good, clean, proper and orderly, then everything outside is polluted, unholy, unclean, from the devil or worldly. There are a plethora of terms and tactics used here that all rely on building paranoia.
If you can convince members of the group that outsiders, including their families, government, outside organizations and institutions are “out to get” them while simultaneously offering them the “perfect” solution you can convince them that only the cult can provide safety.
Source: How Do Cults Gain & Maintain Their Control?
