For decades, cults have been a prominent cultural concern. The dominant culture in 1970s America was strongly rejected by various groups of young people. Civil rights movements condemned widespread racism, feminists rebelled against gender discrimination, and hippies rejected urban, capitalist, and materialistic lifestyles.
Any form of rebellion against traditional norms was welcomed, and new experiences were encouraged—from drug experimentation to free sexual relationships, bizarre artistic creativity, and, of course, new spiritual and mystical practices, many of which were nurtured by emerging cults.
Yet, hundreds of large and small cults continued to attract disillusioned youth. Three years after the “suicide revolution,” followers of Osho purchased a 26,000-hectare farm in Oregon and established the new city of “Rajneeshpuram,” aiming to build life around love, kindness, and meditation. At the same time, the Heaven’s Gate religious movement was recruiting new followers into its new faith, promising to transfer them to higher planes of existence and achieve eternal life. Following ups and downs, the cult’s followers committed mass suicide in 1997, with 39 bodies found in a large rented house that served as their spiritual training center.
Such events raised profound questions: Why are young people attracted to these groups? What are the characteristics of these groups? And how do some of them persuade members to engage in extreme behaviors such as murder or suicide?
Psychologists, sociologists, scholars of religion, and other social scientists have conducted extensive research on cults.
Buzz Harrington, in an article in The Atlantic, emphasizes that we must first distinguish between harmless religious groups and extremist groups. Harrington is an investigative journalist who was himself a member of an extremist cult for years before he began studying and analyzing how cults operate.
According to Harrington, while any group may hold unusual beliefs or perform a variety of communal rituals, only a small fraction take extremist paths and become dangerous cults. Dangerous cults often share several traits, including:
- Suppressing dissent and demanding unquestioning obedience from members regarding the leaders’ words and decisions;
- Isolating members and punishing those who wish to leave the group, a practice crucial to the group’s radicalization;
- Attempting to construct a new identity for members by changing their names, separating them from previous family connections, and encouraging intellectual and behavioral conflict with societal norms.
Through these mechanisms, a rigid mindset develops within members, which can lead them to confront perceived enemies. Conversely, the more open a group is—and the less it seeks to make service to the cult the sole duty of its members—the less likely it is to become extremist or to cause irreparable harm to its followers.
Source:
Adapted from the editorial: “How Instagram Became a Cult Temple?” Mohammad Molaabbasi, Tarjomān Journal, Issue 21, Year 6, 2021, pp. 12–17.