Anna Ranger (s8718346)
Professor J. Bradley
ENG1100-G
Discussion Group #2 (Aaron Kaiserman)
7 December 2016
Why the Fog Needs Lifting:
Cults and the Harm They Cause Individuals and Their Families
Famous destructive cults such as those of Charles Manson and Jim Jones have piqued public interest and contributed to the negative connotation associated with the word “cult”. What little is known about cults adds to the fog of secrecy and bewilderment that shrouds these organizations from the public eye. People hold a general definition of what a cult is, but after reading a chilling newspaper article of people committing mass suicide as an act of loyalty to their cult leader, most will be disturbed for a short time but then move on with their lives, unaffected. What people may not consider is the issue of how the families of cult members are affected, because they have lost a loved one–whether it be physically, mentally, or both. By clarifying what a cult is, why members join and so often have difficulty leaving, we can better understand the harmful effects cult membership has on an individual and on their families.
In order to understand the negative impacts cults have on individuals and their families, an attempt must first be made to understand what a cult is. Current scholar and former cult member, Janja Lalich defines the term “cult” as “either a sharply bounded social group or a diffusely bounded social movement held together through shared commitment to a charismatic leader. It upholds a transcendent ideology (often but not always religious in nature) and requires a high level of personal commitment from its members in words and deeds” (4). This means that central to cult organizations is adoration of and devotion to a charismatic leader, and members who are willing to do and say anything if it will benefit the cult. This would include leaving their real families in order to fully devote themselves to the “cult family”. Deviance is also a key concept in understanding cult behaviour, as the beliefs of the cult most often fall outside of accepted social standards and reject those of the outside world. This is evidenced by Dr. John G. Clark with his statement, “there is an inherent danger, from their techniques and from their doctrines of deviancy, that they can become destructive for the sake of destruction or intolerant beyond the capacity to negotiate” (281). What differentiates a cult from other social organizations, such as a church group or college sorority, is that a cult deeply impacts how the person understands the world and the order of the universe. The cult influences the person’s belief system in its entirety (Lalich 13). Thus, when the person is removed from the cult, they have lost everything and no longer know how to think in a world now alien to them. This is why extensive therapy will be necessary to former cult members if they are to live in harmony with society once again.
Equally important to understanding the nature of a cult is understanding why members join or what draws them in to these organizations. There is no specific psychiatric profile for those who join cults. According to Clark, “A great variety of persons from the early teens to the 50s, with a wide variety of personality strengths and weaknesses, have entered these groups” (279). Therefore it is not only the emotionally fragile or vulnerable that are subject to joining or being recruited into a cult. Rather, while there is a trend that a large portion of people who joined a cult had been very unhappy for many years and sought conversions many times, there are also normal, intelligent people who gave up years of their lives, if not their very lives, to cults and cultic thinking (Lalich 2). This is what makes the concept of cult conversion even more unnerving: the disturbing truth that anyone is susceptible. It is also important to understand why joining a cult is appealing to some people. There is no doubt that cults can be appealing organizations, especially when led by a charismatic leader. At times, it is even difficult for researchers to refrain from being drawn in. Lalich describes her experience as a cult researcher as “treading into charismatic environments. Many of these groups have great appeal – through the belief system, the activities and interactions, the members, and, of course, the leaders” (Robbins and Zablocki 135). Central to comprehending this phenomenon is the sense of belonging cult membership provides people with. The cult also provides a means of allowing members to accomplish their goals and to find meaning and purpose that they had not been able to find in any other aspect of life.
Because members believe their belonging to a cult will enable them to accomplish their highest goals, they rarely leave voluntarily. Recall that cults often call upon individuals to completely transform themselves and any prior ideologies they may have had when they enter the cult. Social psychologist, Kurt Lewin describes this transformative process as involving “‘changes of knowledge and beliefs, changes of values and standards, changes of emotional attachments and needs, and changes of everyday conduct [that] occur not piecemeal and independently of each other, but within a framework of the individual’s total life in the group’” (Lalich 12). The result then, of a successful conversion is a believer whose values align with those of the cult, which is what makes it difficult to leave the cult and give up cultic thinking. The individual is, effectively, a new person (Lalich 12). Because the person’s new sense of identity is rooted entirely in the cult, when they are removed from it, they have seemingly lost themselves. The cult’s ideologies then become all-encompassing and exclude all other possibilities until “eventually, life outside the cult becomes impossible to imagine” (Lalich 14). It is even more difficult to imagine life outside the cult for a person born into one, where the cult is all they have ever known, much like a baby born in a bomb shelter will not know how to act in the unfamiliar outside world. According to Furnari’s research cited in Matthews and Salazar, “Individuals born and raised in cults are more likely than others to experience physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; neglect; attachment disorders; lack of education and marketable job skills; lack of decision-making and socialization skills; and suffer from anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, low self-esteem, and suicidal ideation” (190). As one female participant in Matthews and Salazar’s study of people born and raised in a cult context who had managed to leave their cults stated, “It takes a lot of courage to leave and make something of your life. You have to have the courage to fight against your family and to face a world you have been taught is scary and evil” (199).
The practices that take place within the cult are equally unsettling, particularly concerning the way in which health problems are dealt with and the forms of abuse present. Magic and religion are central to the beliefs of many cults, which include the practices of faith healing. For this reason, most cults refuse to seek the help of medical professionals, even when it is urgently needed, for they believe any ailments caused to an individual will be better taken care of within the cult. Untreated injuries physicians have faced in cult members include “badly managed diabetic cases, broken bones that had been “prayed over”, or the kinds of infectious and deficiency diseases that result from unclean communal living, poor nutrition, and exposure” (Clark 280). Even when medical attention is sought out, compliance with the doctor’s orders is poor and follow-up often non-existent. Within a cult, decisions are made by the leader and followed without question by everyone else. “Any who questioned the leader’s authority became subject to possible humiliation and abuse (e.g., being yelled at or hit in front of others, publically called out or humiliated…)” (Matthews and Salazar 194). Another practice cults are well-known for is the process of brainwashing, and there exist many misconceptions surrounding this topic. “When brainwashing occurs, it is the result of a series of intense social-psychological influences aimed at behavior modification”, it does not happen in a moment when the person “snaps”, as is believed by many (Lalich 5). Brainwashing is not typically used during initial cult contact, nor does not occur in every cult. It is by no means foolproof, nor does it create a permanent state of mind, meaning the effects of brainwashing can be reversed. Therefore, not only are cults harmful to an individual psychologically, but physically as well.
When a former member is removed from a cult, viewed by their loved ones as rescue but by the individual as being ripped away from everything they know and believe in, it is extremely difficult for that individual to re-enter ordinary life after being removed from it for so long. Reasons members find it so difficult to leave their cult organizations include “peer pressure from other members, loss of contact and support from the outside world, fear of repercussions for leaving, …physical and emotional exhaustion, and the success of cult thought reform (i.e., brainwashing) and manipulation techniques” (Matthews and Salazar 189). During their time spent with the cult, through behaviour conditioning practices, members are subjected to sustained dissociative states, which they are still prone to slipping into upon exit from the cult. Thus, depression, loneliness, and indecisiveness are all qualities often observed in ex-cult members. Simple tasks and decision-making can take these once competent people inappropriately long amounts of time. It is therefore much more difficult for these individuals to find a job and form meaningful relationships outside of the cultic context they had grown accustomed to. Some have noted these effects as being extreme enough as to notice a double personality, what parents called “floating”. For the ex-members themselves, “the sense of guilt is most painfully double-edged guilt for their damage to parents and to themselves and for leaving the loving cult family” (Clark 280).
According to the research presented, it is relatively easy for anyone to be drawn into a cult organization. The possibility of utopian life is attractive to many who join cults believing the organization will provide them with this. Instead, individuals undergo behavioural conditioning procedures, sometimes as extreme as brainwashing, until their beliefs are no longer their own, but those of the cult. Should they act out against the direction of their cult leader, abuse ensues. It takes great courage to leave a cult, but doing so will deliver individuals and their families from the harm caused by these movements. Only then can individuals attempt to begin the extremely difficult process of re-entering ordinary life and for family members, the process of getting to know their loved one all over again.