Catch my entire post for today at Suzi Shumaker’s blog.  Suzi connected with me after reading several of my religious cult blog posts.  She runs a fabulous blog about her life in the notorious and controversial cult of the Followers of God.  Suzi is also working on a documentary of her journey in and out of that cult.

Here’s how my guest blog post starts…

What images come to mind when you hear the word, “cult”?  For me, it’s a sickening series of images from the Jonestown massacre.  Though cults come in various types, I will be discussing what characterizes a religious cult in this article.

My cult enthusiast friend, Peter Saint-Clair, defines universal cults as such:

CULT – Any group which has a pyramid type authoritarian leadership structure with all teaching and guidance coming from the person/persons at the top.  The group will claim to be the only way to God; Nirvana; Paradise; Ultimate Reality; Full Potential, Way to Happiness etc, and will use thought reform or mind control techniques to gain control and keep their members.

 

This definition covers cults within all major world religions, along with those cults which have no OBVIOUS religious base such as commercial, educational and psychological cults.  Others may define these a little differently, but this is the simplest to work from.

Steve Hassan, the cult expert author, says that destructive mind control can be understood in terms of four basic components, which form the acronym BITE:

I. Behavior Control

II. Information Control

III. Thought Control

IV. Emotional Control

Let’s examine each of these components to discover what makes a cult a cult…

Click here to read the rest of my article on Suzi’s blog.

My Related Posts:

1. How to Leave a Cult – PsychPod Studio Podcast
2. Religious Cult Survivor Manipulated to Relocate
3. Religious Cult Survivor Haunted by Church Secrets
4. Religious Cult Survivor Forbidden Critical Thinking
5. Fear as Cult Manipulation – PsychPod Studio Podcast