Why do people join cults?

In Brazil, the term worship is commonly related to an evangelical religious prayer group. But that is not the full meaning of the term. In the whole world, worship involves a group that follows a specific leader, commonly related to the sect or something. These leaders are charismatic and do not allow for internal questioning. On a worship, only those who blindly obey the group's rules, which can be written in an order book, remain.

O worship it offers salvation in many ways, and so it tends to attract those who are looking for answers and who are in a fragile situation. These are people who are easily convinced to join the group in search of spiritual comfort and who end up being extorted. the leaders of Cults end up being, for the most part, men looking for power, sexual dominance or money, or all three together.

This behavior peaked in 1978, when nearly a thousand people died in Georgetown, Guyana. They participated in worship Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, known as Jonestown. Influenced by a leader adored by all, women, men, the elderly and children took poison together in search of salvation. The case is considered the biggest mass suicide in modern history.

Characteristics of cults

After the Jonestown tragedy, the main characteristics of a worship dangerous modern. If a religious, political or even business group brings together the following aspects, it is good to be concerned:

Leader

Um worship is characterized primarily by having a personified leader, who attracts crowds usually on account of his charisma. This leader is usually male, with authoritarian and narcissistic personality traits. He is the go-to guy and likes toadies, and is willing to do anything to keep his followers loyal.

In general, there are three motivations for the leader. First the money, collected from the faithful. According to the sexual domain: leaders of Cults commonly use their influence to abuse the bodies of people who participate in the worship. Lastly, a leader moves by the sheer power of influencing people. And it is not uncommon for these three elements to be together in the same person, which makes them more dangerous.

the close circle

Another feature of Cults or sects is the presence of a group of people who advise the leader and make the bridge between him and the followers. They are people who guarantee the distance necessary for the leader to be even more unreachable. This makes the leader more powerful, as he becomes almost an entity within the worship.

The same inner circle of the leader is responsible for some of the dirty work. These people are responsible for enforcing internal rules, watching over who disobeys them and, of course, collecting money from the masses.

the rule book

Um worship it hardly clings to mundane questions, and is usually said to be the answer to essential problems of the human condition. One way to attract followers is to offer a solution to life's main questions, something that helps explain the problems a potential believer is experiencing.

That said, the worship stands out not only for offering the answers, but for dictating exactly how one must behave in order to achieve salvation. For this, it is common to have a rulebook with properly written guidelines. In some cases, this manual may be the bible interpreted in a fundamentalist way. In others, a worship can adopt its own set of guidelines created by the leader.

Control system

Within the worship It is very important to avoid disagreements. The behavior of the followers and the group close to the leader must always follow the booklet. There is likely to be a mechanism to deter inquiries, usually with punishment. For the leader, it is essential that everyone remains blind to the outside world, to the point of carrying out any order, such as the one that led to the death of hundreds of people in Guyana.

Recruitment

Um worship doesn't live long without new members, so the recruiting culture tends to be very strong. In Cults In modern times, the system of aggregating new adepts is usually organized in the form of a pyramid. The group next to the leader, the first to be formed in the worship, brings a certain amount of new members. And each new person is responsible for bringing in the same number of followers.

The effect generates an exponential increase in the number of new participants, making the worship grow quickly. It is also not uncommon for there to be internal awards and promotions for those who recruit the most people, as are commercial and illegal pyramid schemes.

There is also a target search method. As with famous buying groups with a similar structure, recruiters draw up a specific action plan to seek followers. It can sometimes take months for a person to be recruited, enough time to build trust between the parties. Therefore, the initial preference in three quarters of cases tends to be for family and close friends.

This lead time also helps create the perfect opportunity. People who have just lost someone important, been fired, and who are emotionally fragile in general are perfect targets.

vicious cycle

After entering the worship, a new member receives an indoctrination shock that leaves him feeling high doses of guilt, shame and fear. The person takes the impact of the leader's speech, receives the code of rules and begins to be controlled by the internal mechanism that prevents questioning. As it is natural that other known people are already in the worship, it becomes increasingly difficult to resist the bonds, increasing the chances of staying. A vicious cycle is created, and the new member can become a recruiter himself in no time.

A TED-Ed video well describes how this modern-day threat remains hidden in seemingly harmless groups. It's worth watching: