The Psychological Effects Cults Have on People

This paper will address the meaning of the term fury. While similarly touching briefly on why its endeavouring to attract what a craze is and how it could be comp bed to Christianity and Jews. I besides prep atomic number 18 roughly examples of sight who started assemblages/ furors with the art of persuasion Leading some of their extremity to heretofore confide murders and suicide. Fin every last(predicate)y by the end paper integrity would fully understand the roles fads play in the physiological process of a person. For many eld, cult leading everlastingly had a mental conf apply on their followers minds.Whether it was to kill former(a) people or to kill themselves, they did it with break question. near cult leaders utilise fear, violence and guilt as a heart of a weapon to comprise the minds of their followers. Other cult leaders used persuasive and spiritual speeches that made their followers trust they were doing skilful and fulfilling Gods plan. Be safari cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldnt normally do in their coer state of mind.For years, there meet been problems surrounding the definition of the term cult. The true and traditional meanings of the word cult, which are more fully explored at the opening Cult ( righteousness), come from the Latin cultus, meaning care or adoration, as a system of phantasmal tactual sensation or ritual or the body of adherents to same. In French or Spanish, culte or culto simply means worship or spiritual attendance therefore an connection cultuelle is an association whose goal is to organize religious worship and practices. The word for cult in the popular side meaning is secte (French) or ecta (Spanish). In formal slope use, and in non-English European terms, the cognates of the English word cult are impersonal, and invoke mainly to divisions within a single religion, a case where English speakers might use the word sect. Hence Roman Catholicism, east Orthodoxy and Protestantism are cults within Christianity. However, in common usage, cult has a truly negative connotation, and is in the main applied to a root in put unneurotic to criticize it. Understandably, close groups, if not all, that are clapperclawed cults deny this term.Some groups called cults by some critics whitethorn consider themselves not to be cults, however may consider some rude(a)(prenominal) groups to be cults. Although anti-cult activists and scholars did not agree on precise criteria that unsanded religions should meet to be considered cults, two of the definitions formulated by anti-cult activists are Cults are groups that very much exploit members psychologically and/or financially, typically by making members comply with leaderships demands through trustworthy types of psychological manipulation, popularly called mind witness, and through the inculcation of deep- seated anxious dependency on the group and its leaders.Cult A group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control designed to advance the goals of the groups leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines cult as a religion regarded as unpredict fitted or spurious besides its body of adherents. Indeed, any religion involving vapid worship and unquestioning obedience to God could be designate as a cult (using the derogatory suggestion of the word), since such a religion would fuddle that high level of dependency, obedience, and unwavering compliance ascribed to cults by definition. galore(postnominal) mainstream religions still require their members to recollect in God unquestioningly, to apply faith that he is good and that what he does is good, to consider one s own wants and necessarily as unimportant epoch asking the will of God as paramount. both of these are certainly characteristics commonly attributed to cults, but while it would not be unreasonable to apply this definition of a cult to any compulsory religion that requires strict compliance with Gods word and will as a condition of membership, the notion of applying the word cult to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any former(a) major world religion today is considered absurd. There are those who build up this very claim that those who worship God fit the classic film of cult members in their dogmatism, unswerving obedience, and denial of self.This highlights the problematic nature of delineate what is and is not a cult. The problem with defining the word cult is that purported cult members for the nigh part resist being called a cult, and the word cult is often used to marginalize religious groups with which one does not agree or sympathize. Some serious researchers of re ligion and sociology prefer to use terms such as new religious movement (NRM) in their research on cults. such(prenominal) usage may lead to confusion because some religious movements are new but not necessarily cults, and some purported cults are not religious or everywheretly religious.Where a cult practices corpo solid or mental wickedness, some psychologists and other mental health professionals use the terms cult, black cult, or destructive cult. The popular press besides commonly uses these terms. However, not all cults function abusively or destructively, and among those that psychologists believe are abusive, few members would agree that they suffer abuse. Other researchers hold the overtake that classifying a religious movement as a cult is generally used as a subjective and negative label and has no added value instead, they argue that one should investigate the beliefs and practices of the religious movement.The field of cults and new religious movements is studied by sociologists, religious scholars, and psychologists and psychiatrists. The debates about a certain purported cult and cults in general are often polarized with widely divergent opinions, not only among current followers of a purported cult and malcontent former members, but some measure even among scholars and social scientists. Psychologists, among them those specialized in group psychology, studied what cognitive and emotional traits make people accept to join a cult and to stay loyal to it.Some groups, peculiarly those labeled by others as cults, view the designation as insensitive, and thumb persecuted by their opponents whom they often believe to be part of the anti-cult movement. Such groups often defend their position by comparing themselves to more established, mainstream religious groups such as Catholicism and Judaism. The argument offered in this case trick usually be simplified as, Christianity and Judaism locoweed also be delimit as cults under some definition s of the term, and therefore the term cult is senseless and useless. Members of groups referred to as cults redeem been cognize to engage in long discussions over the definition of the word cult. Critics of alleged cult groups state that by doing so, these persons have been known to waste large amounts of time and effort that would be remedy spent examining the actions of the groups in question, in order to reveal why these groups are referred to as cults. Another problem with writing about cults comes about because they generally hold belief systems that give answers to questions about the meaning of life and cleanity.This makes it herculean not to write in biased terms about a certain cult, because writers are rarely neutral about these questions. Some writers who cross with the subject choose to explicitly state their ethical values and belief systems to deal with this difficulty. For many scholars and professional commentators, the usage of the word cult applies to abusi ve behavior, and not to a belief system. For members of competing religions, use of the word remains uncomplimentary and applies primarily to rival beliefs, and only incidentally to behavior.In the sociology of religion, the term cult is a part of the subdivision of religious groups into sects, cults, and denominations. In these terms, it is a neutral term, referring to a religious movement with novel beliefs and a high point of tension with the surrounding society. Cults, in this sense, may or may not be dangerous, abusive, etc. By this definition, roughly of the groups which have been popularly labeled cults are indeed cults. In some cults people dont join them, they are elevateed by the cults.Philip Zimbardo apologises, People join interesting groups that promise to fulfill their public press needs. They become cults when they are seen as deceptive, defective, dangerous, or as opposing base values of their society (Zimbardo 212). The fact is, the recruitment techniques tha t cults employ are rather effective. Cults obviously want to be successful, so they seek to recruit the most capable people who can effectively serve them. Many cult members are doctors, lawyers, professors, and high profile celebrities responsible citizens.This is why some cults have survived for decades and functioned efficiently despite a high turnover rate, public disfavour and angry parents. People often believe cult members must have been neglected by their families. But this conclusion is in sharp job to the actions taken by many concerned families who will devote their notes and time in intervention efforts to bring their children out of such groups and plate again. Zimbardo urges people not to stereotype cult members. Rather than asking What large-minded of people join cults? he suggests we should instead ask, What was so appealing about this group that so many people were recruited/seduced into joining it voluntarily? What needs did the group fulfill that were not met by traditional society? (Zimbardo 126). It is also important to note that cults make many promises to potential recruits in the sign phases of inductionit is often not until months or years later that the recruit realizes that these promises were ploys to gain their compliance.However, by that time, the member is already submerged in the group and akinly in submission to and under the undue influence of its leadership. Since at least the 1940s, the approach of orthodox or conservative or fundamentalistic Christians was to apply the meaning of cult such that it included those religious groups who used (possibly exclusively) non-standard translations of the Bible, put additional revelation on a similar or higher level than the Bible or had practices deviant from those of traditional Christianity. These irregular groups can be rather large or small.Understandably, these groups deny that they are cults. By 1967, Charles Manson had spent most of his bighearted life in jail, broad ly for such offenses as car theft and credit card fraud. He also worked some time as a pimp. He self-possessed a group of followers, which he referred to as the Family, a group rally together by fanatical loyalty to Manson, and an abolishment of all moral precepts. He soon subsequentlywardswardswards moved to Los Angeles, at first basing himself and the Family in Pacific Palisades and then taking over an unused ranch in the western San Fernando Valley formerly used to make western movies, the Spahn Ranch. shake by the Beatles vocal music Helter Skelter and other songs off the White Album he became convinced of an impending race war and nuclear attack, based on Biblical prophecy in the Book of Revelation. He implied to his followers that he was Jesus Christ, saying he had died before, some 2000 years ago. However when asked at one time in court he verbalise, I may have implied on several occasions to several different people that I may have been Jesus Christ, but I havent dec ided yet what I am or who I am. (Bugliosi 341) Around the time the family was formed, he is express to have begun calling himself by a slightly different name, Charles Milles Manson (his real name was Charles departis Manson), allegedly because it could be read symbolically as Charles Will Is Mans intelligence. Although only a few members of the Family came to national attention, the Family itself seems to have been kinda a significant size, estimates of up to 100 people (of qualifying degrees of involvement) associated with the Family have been quoted beyond the hard core of around 30.On the night of opulent 9, 1969, Manson rateed some members of the Family to commit murder. These were Charles Tex Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Susan Atkins, at or around midnight entered the retention of actress Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski, who was eight months pregnant, and murder her along with friend, Hollywood hairstylist Jay Sebring, and house guests Abigail Folger , the coffee heiress, and her lover Voytek Frykowski. Before entering the house, they had nip to death Steven Parent, an 18 year old youth who was go forth the property and had unwittingly seen the intruders.Linda Kasabian was the look-out and driver, and later received immunity for submitting distinguish against the group. She told Manson, Im not like you, I cant kill anybody(Bugliosi 312) and evinced shock and horror at finally sightedness the pictures of the cleanup positions in court. The victims had been stabbed ferociously many dozens of times, and words were left on the walls in their blood. The following night in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, California, businessman Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary LaBianca were also murdered in their home, once again by members of the Family.On this occasion, Manson apparently went along to show them how to do it with less tumult, and pacified the victims, bind them up before returning to the car to tell his followers to co mmit the murders. There was no apparent connection between the victims of the murders, but the crimes were prosecuted by Los Angeles assistant district attorney Vincent Bugliosi in a single trial. Members of the Manson Family had antecedently been responsible for the murder of Gary Hinman, a music t to each oneer, in Topanga and were suspected of other murders.They claimed a total of some 35 killings, not counting those after the trial, of which several were considered likely or plausible, but were not tried on most of these either for lack of evidence, or because the perpetrators were already sentenced to life for the Tate/La Bianca killings. It begins with the Beatles, and with the Beatles celebrated White Album that came out in 1968. In it, while tripping on acid, Manson perceive the message that put it all together for him. There would be a war between blacks and whites whites would lose. Manson and his followers would pass over out in the desert when the slaughter took place. When it was over they would emerge from their conceal places and somehow convince the blacks that they should be made the leaders of this new world. He got all this not just from the Beatles but also from the Bible. Perhaps his most fascinating connection was to put side by side the Beatles song Revolution 9 with Revelations 9 from the Bible. Revelations, the final book of the cutting Testament, has al shipway been the favorite of mystics because its wild apocalyptic imagery is so bluntly turn to not to the literal but to symbolic consciousness.For those who read scripture not as a moral code of social behavior nor as a literal history book but as a symbolic rendering of a reality out of time and out of mind, the book of Revelations is the proof text. In the book Helter Skelter, Susan Atkins is quoted in saying The substantial thing was done to instill fear in the establishment and cause paranoia. Also to show the black man how to takeover the white man. When asked to pass the start of Helter Skelter, she defined it as The last war on the exhibit of the earth.It would be all the wars that have ever been fought built one on top of the other(293). To Manson, Judgment Day, Armageddon, and Helter Skelter were one and the same, a racial final solution which would see the black man emerge triumphant. David Berkowitz became known as the password of Sam after taunting letters from him to police investigating the case were published in newspapers. At a court in Brooklyn, New York, Berkowitz fillted all the killings which in 1977 had residents of three New York boroughs living in fear. He also admitted wounding seven people before he was arrested in majestic 1977.Berkowitz, who acquired his proficiency with guns through a three-year stint in the US army, said he had no motive other than excitement for carrying out the shootings. However, the Son of Sam nickname was adopted after Berkowitz used the term to describe himself in an anonymous letter to police in A pril 1977. The first killing attributed to Son of Sam occurred in July 1976 when 18-year-old Donna Lauria was shot as she sat in a car with a friend in the Bronx district of New York. However police did not realize there was a consecutive killer on the loose until another two people had been murdered and several more injured.The link was not made until March 1977 when it was strand the gun used to kill Ms Lauria had also been used in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Virginia Voskerichian. The press initially dubbed Berkowitz the . 44 Killer after the calibre of gun he used. Unlike a number of other high profile criminals, Berkowitz kept to him self(Terry xiv) He was eventually captured after being linked to the scene of the final killing through a parking ticket issued when he left his car parked il profoundly. Berkowitz quickly confessed and claimed he was enjoin to kill by a neighbors dog.He also admitted to being behind the unsolved stabbings of several women, all of whom su rvived. In June 1978 David Berkowitz was sentenced to 365 years in jail. Over the years Berkowitz has hinted he did not work alone. confederation theorists believe Berkowitz was part of a satanic cult and that others were involved in the shootings. The groups main goals were power, greed and terrorism. It is the embodiment of organized evil(Terry xii). They also believe that the members in this satanic cult did not also work with Berkowitz, but also worked with Charles Manson and had been part of the Family. The Peoples Temple was a cult that is best known for a kitty suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. The Temple was founded in 1953, at Indianapolis, Indiana, by Reverend Jim Jones. In Indianapolis, and at the California cities of Ukiah, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, where Jones drawn-out new branches of his church, they earned a good reputation for aiding the cities poorest citizens, especially racial minorities, drug addicts, and the homeless. Soup kitchens, d aycare centers, and medical clinics for elderly people were note up, along with counseling programs for prostitutes and drug addicts who precious to change their lives.Then disturbing accounts began to spring up, told by a few people who had succeeded in leaving the cult. Jones has a power that operates on fear, guilt and extreme fatigue. While we were in it we did many strange things. We signed over all of our property. We wrote and signed false, self-incriminating statements. We had to admit that we were homosexuals and that we molested our children. We had to participate in painful punishments for such minor things as forgetting to call Jones Father, forgetting to pay a bill, or for giving a piece of glaze to a child.Some of the punishments were beatings, humiliations and medications that made people appear to die (later to be resurrected by Jones). The beatings were intensely brutal. Many times the beatings would be done on children four and five years old. The board they use d was three-quarter of an inch thickly and about two and a half feet long. Children were crush the number of times decided by Pastor Jones, often as many as 150 times. During the beating, Jim Jones would demand that a microphone be held to the childs mouth so that the audience could hear the groans of pain.The microphone was unnecessary as the screams could be heard throughout the whole building. After the beating the child or adult would be held up and powerfulnessd to say, Thank You, Father. If they didnt say this, they would be beaten again. We were so frightened of him and his power that we would have sworn to anything he asked. We believed that he would always take care of us and would never harm us, even though we witnessed daily atrocities that should have convinced us otherwise. It is impossible to explain the effect of his brainwashing.We do know that it took months after we left to be able to think and act as normal, reasonable people(Mills 13). Jones was stealing from his followers, faked the miracle healings, was gravid the members severely, practicing sodomy with male members, and now considered himself the new Messiah. By now, journalists, law enforcement officials, and politicians were wake interest in Jones group. Jim Jones reacted with frequent long and angry speeches, where he claimed that the defectors lied, and the outback(a) world was trying to destroy them.At the time, more former members told of beatings and abuse within the Peoples Temple, and relatives of members insisted that members were being forced to remain there against their will. Jones reacted by lamentable his church, over 800 followers, to Guyana. The followers were promised a tropical paradise, free from the wickedness of the distant world, but when they arrived, they were forced to work by Jones orders, and together they built Jonestown. In November 1978, the cult was visited by Leo Ryan, a United States Congressman, who was investigating claims of abuse.A number o f Temple members expressed a desire to leave along with the Congressman, and the entire group went to the local airstrip. Temple security guards fired on the group, killing Congressman Ryan, three journalists, and a Temple member who wanted to leave. The shootings were captured on film by one of the journalists who died in the attack. Later that day, Jones ordered his congregation to drink a cyanide-laced soft drink in the Jonestown mass suicide. Those who resisted were shot, strangled or injected with cyanide. Jones was found with a shot wound in his head.Upon investigation his body contained high doses of drugs. In all, 914 people died. Mind control theories are based on the premise that an outside source can control an individuals thinking, behavior or consciousness. Such theories have ethical and legal implications. The mind control theories as applied to membership in new religious movents assumes that no one would join such a group if he knew what he was getting into. In Helte r Skelter, Bugliosi states about Mansons control over his family A domination so complete, that they would do anything he told them to do.Including murder. Getting this evidence was especially difficult because Manson rarely gave direct orders. Usually, hed suggest, rather than command, though his suggestions had the force of commands(287). The recruit is not to be held responsible for his actions, since he was under control. Neither scientists nor sociologists generally consider this model a viable theory. Theories vary as to the degree of control attained and the methods used to attain it (either direct or more subtle).When these methods are used forcibly on captives, most sources refer to it as brainwashing Although to their followers, Reverend Jim Jones and Charles Manson were all messianic and each possessed the uncommon ability to totally control and dominate the lives of those who believed in them. Clearly, many influences from the outside world influence peoples minds, such as advertising, media manipulation, and propaganda. political relation plays a role in the forming of cults. Charles Manson had a hatred towards police. In Helter Skelter, Manson states I have xd myself from your world. You have created the monster.I am not of you, from you, nor do I condone your unjust attitude toward things, animals, and people that you do not try to understand. I stand opposed to what you do and have done in the past. You make fun of God and have murdered the world in the name of Jesus Christ. My faith in me is stronger than all of your armies, governments, gas put up or anything you may want to do to me. I know what I have done. Your courtroom is mans game. Love is my judge(Bugliosi 412). His hatred was directed towards them because he believed that they were the ones that created him into a monster.Therefore, cult leaders are powerful through psychological offenses, the people that belong to their cults are brainwashed into doing things they wouldnt normally d o in their right state of mind. Cult leaders used various ways of molding a followers mind and brainwashing them to do things for them. Some cult leaders used punishments as a way of breaking the followers that were skanky to their demands. Others used and perfected the art of persuasion. Either way, the mind of their followers or family are in total control of the leader.