Many people feel that only run away.
teens, homeless, poor and people with no friends or family or even drug users join cults. Many people also believe that cults are mostly filled with women.
and whites. When in fact the majority of the people of "Peoples Temple" were older blacks. All of these preconceptions are wrong and I hope to bring knowledge of the fact that anyone can be brain washed into joining a cult or even may be in a cult and not even know it. I want to raise the point that not all cults are involved in killing or using drugs. A cult forms when a person or group have the power to shape members views and behavior. The cults usually make a separation from the members and their previous social support and surround them with other members of the cult. People have in mind that cults turn normal people into mindless people with no backbone but that is far form the truth. The same techniques that are used to influence people into joining a cult are in more ways similar then different from the techniques used by well-known organizations and groups such as Fraternity and sorority's members whom have reported that the initial "love bombing" of potential cult recruits is not unlike their own "rush" period. They pay special attention on the potential pledges and then darning the.
pledge period, the new members are some what isolated, cut off from old friends who are did not join that particular group. They spend time studying the.
history and rules of their new group. They suffer and commit time o its behalf. They are expected to comply with all its demands. And hopefully at the end they.
to can become a member of that group. The same goes for therapeutic communities for recovering drug and alcohol abusers. Self help groups form a cohesive " social cocoon", (Galanter, 1989,1990). So as you can.
see many people we know are even ourselves have participated in a cult like group. So we are all or can be victims of being brain washed or giving someone more power over the decisions we make then we have ourselves.
