Cults

1
Cults

• By
• Dave, Casey, Matt, Carie

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What is a cult?

• a small group that wants to secede from its
  social origins, or the disciples of a heretical
  master.
• They gather around a leader or ideology, for
  religious or nonreligious purposes
• they use strict discipline and mind control
  methods organized around the master and a
  specific ideology

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Characteristics of the leader

• Charismatic
• Demanding
• Sexually Abusive
• Controlling
• In contact with God
• Claim Big event around the corner

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Types of Cults

• Doomsday/Destructive
• Satanic
• Religious
• UFO
• Non-religious

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Well-Known Leaders

• And
• Their Cults

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• Rev. Sun Myung Moon-The Unification Church, The
  Moonies
• David Koresh-The Branch Davidians
• Jim Jones-The Peoples Temple
• Shoko Ashara-Aun Shinri Kyo (Sacred Supreme
  Truth)
• Charles Manson-The Manson Family

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Cult Prospects

• People who have/had
• Experience deprived childhoods
• Confusion about religion
• Low and wandering self-esteem
• Been in search of new identities
• Felt alienated
• Gone through failure and personal crisis

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Recruitment
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Possible Tactics

• Milieu control an attempt to manage the inner
  communication control over all the person sees,
  hears, reads, and writes
• Mystical Manipulation extensive personal
  manipulation (mostly God centered or otherwise)
• Demand for purity dividing the world into pure
  and impure groups equals everything internal in
  the group is pure, everything outside the group
  is evil

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• Cultic confession of sins subjected to patterns
  of criticism and self-criticism by group members
• Sacred science an aura of sacredness around the
  cults doctrine
• Loading the language words are given new
  meanings according to the organization

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• Doctrine over the person the cults doctrine is
  more valid true and real then any aspect of human
  character and/or experience
• Dispensing of existence the idea that people who
  are not in the group cannot be enlightened or
  saved

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Ways to exit a cult

• Deprogramming
• Family Intervention
• Thought Reform Consultation
• Exit Counseling

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Discussion

• Whats your opinion of cults?
• past and present?
• Are there any questions?

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The End