07:42 Jul 07 2022
Times Read: 277
I would like to draw awareness of cult brainwashing in the vampire community and the signs its happening to you
Opposing critical thinking
Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving
Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture
Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders
Dishonoring the family unit
Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership)
They will also manipulate you and make you feel weak and ill
You will also be sleep deprived and unable to focus they do this so they can control you easier
If this is happening to you remember you are in control
They are only people like you or I
They aren't gods or goddesses as they may claim
They don't have power over you
I know it's difficult but once you get away from these people you will feel much better
A cult is a group with a particular and often dangerously fanatical ideology that has certain characteristics. The term 'cult' comes from the Latin cultus, meaning 'worship. This is reasonable: a cult must have a leader who is either worshipped or greatly revered by the cult's followers. A specific cult definition can be hard to pin down because in order to be a cult, a group must have a number of attributes. People often disagree about what makes a cult, meaning that the definition is fluid. This is true especially in the context of new religious movements: some of these movements have been called cults, while some people have argued against this for a variety of reasons. It is easier, generally, to get to grips with the characteristics of cults than to create a single, all-encompassing definition.
Experts have determined a long list of characteristics of a cult to help people determine whether they or someone they know is part of a cult religious practice or political group. The following cult criteria and cult behaviors are the best way to determine what makes a cult:
A charismatic leader: Cults always follow a charismatic leader, living or dead, whose teachings are considered of the highest importance. This leader may be considered a genius, or may be considered a religious figure like a messiah or prophet.
Ideological purity: Members are strongly discouraged from questioning the cult's doctrine and any doubts are met with shame or punishment.
Conformity and control: Cult leaders often exercise an extreme degree of control over members' lives, including dictating what they can wear and eat and what kinds of relationships they can have. Conformity is also enforced by group members who police one another.
Mind-altering practices: Sleep deprivation, chanting, meditation, and drugs are often used to break down individuals' defenses and make them more susceptible to cult ideology.
Isolation and love-bombing: It is common for people in cults to be encouraged to cut contact with outsiders, including close family members. Within the cult, new members are often subjected to love-bombing, a practice where new initiates are showered with love and praise to bring them deeper into the cult and foster a sense of belonging.
Us-vs-them mentality: Cult members are often encouraged to see the cult as superior to life on the outside and to feel that those outside the cult lack understanding or insight.
Apocalyptic thinking: Preparation for a supposed apocalypse or cataclysmic event is a major characteristic of many cults, especially cult religions.
Time and energy: Followers are expected to dedicate huge amounts of time and energy (and often money) to the cult to the exclusion of their own lives, interests, jobs, and families.
One thing to keep in mind when looking through the traits of a cult is that a cult and a religious movement are not the same thing. Most religious movements do not isolate their practitioners from family, engage in love-bombing, encourage illegal and dangerous behaviors, or attempt to strongly control their members. Some cults position themselves as religious groups, but the distinction is important.
Infamous cult leader Charles Manson, whose followers committed several murders
Charles Manson had many of the traits of a cult leader
How Do Cults Start?
It can be challenging to understand how cults start and how individuals join cults, especially when the ideology of a cult often looks nonsensical for those on the outside. Cults are started by charismatic individuals who are skilled at getting people to listen to them. They may have unusual ideas about reality, or they may even invent an ideology to promote.
Cult leaders typically target extroverted people who are generally successful but are currently feeling dissatisfied with their lives and feel that something is missing. These people are already looking for something, so they are primed for a cult to show up and give them what they think they need. As cults grow, they recruit more and more members, but only a few hundred at most are usually the hardcore believers.
Types of Cults
There are several different types of cults that function in slightly different ways. Despite these differences, cults can always be dangerous and harmful to the people participating in them and, in some cases, to people outside of them. There are religious cults, political cults, and self-improvement cults.
Religious Cults
Religious cults claim to be religious movements and are predicated on religious doctrine. They sometimes use existing religious doctrines and sometimes create entirely new ones. Examples of religious cults include:
Scientology: Not all sources agree that scientology is a cult, but those who allege that it is a cult (including ex-members) cite financial pressure on members, personal information gathering and blackmail, and instances of abuse.
Heaven's Gate: Heaven's Gate was a cult in America in the 1970s based on religious beliefs about UFOs. The cult's leader, Marshall Applewhite, led 39 believers to mass suicide in 1997.
Love Has Won: Recent cult news has included Love Has Won, a cult whose members allegedly mummified and displayed the remains of their leader, known as Mother God, upon her death.
Political Cults
What Is a Cult?
The word cult is defined as a system or group of people who practice excessive devotion to a figure, object, or belief system, typically following a charismatic leader. The term is commonly connected with highly unorthodox religious sects that take part in sinister practices and demonstrations. In some cases, this is true. However, cults can be non-religious too, with many examples popping up throughout recent history.
Cult Characteristics & Behaviors
So what makes a group a cult? One characteristic that we reviewed already is that there tends to be a leader that the group follows with unquestioning faith. The leader supports and preaches a particular doctrine, belief system, or ideology that members adhere to. Members are usually so committed to this belief system that they are easily persuaded to commit unethical if not illegal acts that have been deemed justifiable by the leader. Let's take a look at three examples that highlight some of these key characteristics of cult culture and their often dangerous behaviors.
In 1967, Charles Manson founded the cult known as, ''The Family.'' This is one of the few examples of a nonreligious but dangerous cult. Manson believed that the United States would soon fall into an apocalyptic war between the races. He recruited members and brainwashed them into believing that after the race war was over, they would be asked to lead the country into the dawning of a new age. This supposed war wasn't happening quickly enough for Manson and in order to speed up the process he successfully convinced his followers to commit a series of brutal murders. Eventually, they were caught, and Manson was sentenced to life in prison.
Another cult called ''Heaven's Gate'' was founded by Marshall Applewhite and had a belief system mixed with a UFO ideology and biblical scripture. Applewhite preached that the human body was only a vehicle to experience this plane of reality. He also believed that the world would be ending soon, in compliance with the book of Revelations from the Christian Bible. He slowly convinced his members that it was possible to leave this world behind and transcend to a higher realm. Applegate aligned this belief with the coming of the Hale-Bopp comet, which he thought had a hidden spaceship in its tail. In March of 1997, in conjunction with the arrival of the comet, Heaven's Gate made the news when 39 of its members committed suicide hoping to join the aliens within the spaceship.
Some cults can also be rooted in both religious and non-religious ideology. Perhaps the most profound and lethal example of a cult was the cult of the ''People's Temple,'' which was a cult that possessed a combination of secular leftist beliefs and Christian ideology preached by its founder Jim Jones. After going through periods of growth, contraction, and multiple controversies around the United States during the 1950s and into the 1970s, Jones and hundreds of his most dedicated followers fled to a Guyana jungle, where they established the now infamous Jonestown, which in 1978 resulted in the murder-suicides of over 900 people, making it the deadliest loss of American lives until September 11th, 2001.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is cult behavior?
There are several behaviors associated with cults. Someone who is in a cult might lose their sense of individuality, become obsessed with cult doctrine, cut contact with loved ones, or start engaging in unhealthy behaviors like self-starvation.
What are the qualities of a cult leader?
Cult leaders are charismatic, highly convincing, and good at getting people to listen to and follow them. They often build their image on lies and may display narcissistic behaviors.
What defines a cult?
It is difficult to define a cult, as there are many characteristics that cults must have. Essentially, a cult is a group of people who fanatically follow one person or belief system while also engaging in a number of dangerous practices.
What is the difference between a cult and a religion?
While some cults have religious beliefs, not all of them do. Cults often isolate their members from friends and family on the outside, punish doubts or questions, and require inordinate sacrifices and money from followers, who are closely controlled in a way that is out of step with most true religious groups
COMMENTS
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NikkiAidyn
13:33 Jul 17 2022
Nice