How to Identify Cults, a.k.a. High-Control Groups, Coercive Organizations

Greetings, readers. This post contains information to help you identify traits of a group which would make it a "cult," otherwise known as a high-control group or coercive organization.

High-control groups may be large (thousands of people) or small, in-home fellowships or meetings (just a few people).

I prepared this info from screens in a PowerPoint presentation I created when I gave talks to students and other interested groups. 

Screen 1. What is a Cult? 

First, a shift in worship from broad spiritual ideas to the person of a charismatic guru;

second, the active pursuit of a thought reform-like process that frequently stresses some kind of merger with the guru; and

third, extensive exploitation from above (by the guru and leading disciples)—whether economic, sexual, or psychological—of the idealism of ordinary followers from below.

♦ Source: Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and The Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry by Robert Jay Lifton. The New Press. 2019. (Pg. 4,5)

Screen 2. Cult or Religion?

Note: These traits vary across groups. This is a general guide only.

CULTS

  • Rush you into joining
  • Expect constant involvement
  • Adore leader with “direct” line to God
  • Control & monitor behavior
  • Use shame to enforce obedience
  • Claim bad things happen to you if you leave

RELIGIONS (I'm referring to long-established ones)

  • Give you time to decide
  • Don’t expect 100% attendance
  • Worship spiritual higher power
  • Don’t closely monitor followers
  • Guide rather than control
  • Respect freedom to leave church, freedom of religion

♦ Source: Interview, Janja Lalich, PhD, professor emeritus Sociology. Interview found here.

Screen 3. Cult Warning Signs
  1. Charismatic/Authoritarian leader with ideology
  2. Starry-eyed recruiting, “love bombing”
  3. Critical inquiry is considered “persecution”
  4. Belief that bad things happen to you if you leave
  5. Disrespect for people’s autonomy
  6. Exploitation: intellectual, emotional, sexual, financial

♦ Sources: International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), Michael Langone, Janja Lalich, Stephen Hassen.

ICSA website here.

Screen 4. What Is Fishy About The Way International? 

Note: I use The Way International as the example in my presentations because that's the group I was involved in for 17 years (1970-1987).

Hint about what makes The Way fishy: 

The unsubstantiated claim that The Way's founder, Victor Paul Wierwille (VPW), taught "the accuracy of God's Word." 

As of 2023, The Way continues to use his teachings.

The Way's website here.

Screen 5. Can You Challenge VPW’s Claim, which was:

“He [God] said He would teach me The Word as it had not been known since the first century if I would teach it to others.”

♦ Source: Elena Scott Whiteside, author, The Way: Living in Love. (Pg. 178)

Screen 6. Challenging Wierwille’s Claim

  • What does “The Word” refer to?
  • If “The Word” means The Bible, then which Bible? 
  • Which canon (accepted books) does he refer to? He doesn't say.
  • Example: The Douay Version has more books in the Old Testament than the King James Version.
  • Does God make such bargains? Whose God?
  • Why might Wierwille make this claim?

♦ Questions prepared by Charlene L. Edge, author, Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International.

Screen 7.   A - B - C - D: Talking with Recruiters 

Ask open-ended questions: not answerable with  “Yes” or “No.”

Be an attentive listener. Notice what recruiter does not say.

Challenge appealing promises.

Don’t tolerate deception, even from a friend.

♦ List created by Charlene L. Edge, author, Undertow.

 

Find my memoir about 17 years in The Way International at major booksellers and indie bookstores. Libraries can order it upon request! 

Amazon 

Barnes & Noble

and many eBook vendors like Kobo.

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