The history of cults can be traced back thousands of years, and many different cults have emerged in different eras. Regardless of age, cults still exist, mainly because they all use similar techniques to convince many people that they are real. It is not too difficult to identify the authenticity of religion, but the difficulty lies in getting the believers who are addicted to the cult to pull out and let them see the truth clearly. If you look carefully, it’s not hard to see that cults have those few characteristics, and as long as you can stay awake, you won’t fall for them naturally!
#1 Cult
Looking across the sects that have been included in cults in recent decades, almost every one of them has the characteristics of a cult leader. These sect masters all claim to have special spells, and superpowers and therefore can serve as the only savior of the world. Of course, the so-called godfather can also be magical powers to heal, as long as the followers follow the instructions of the godfather to do, they can get rid of disease and fitness, avoid disasters, and ascend to heaven. Cult leaders will honor themselves as God, God’s spokesman, and savior, for example, the United States People’s Temple Cult leader Jones refers to himself as God’s spokesman, and later changed his claim that he is actually God; Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo Cult leader Akira Asahara calls himself the savior, all he has used have some magical power; South Korea’s Unification Church leader Moon distinctive couple claim to be the world’s true parents; China’s Falun Gong Li Hongzhi also boasts that he has the ability to read minds, control each other’s minds, invisibility and other magical powers, and more exaggeratedly can postpone the explosion of the earth and pointed out that it can let believers go to the Kingdom of Heaven. This kind of myth is incredible, but there are people who believe in it and worship it like a god and obey everything it says.
#2 Mind Control
In order to secure their sacred status, the masters will control their followers in various ways, the most common of which is brainwashing. In addition, the masters do not let their followers have too much contact with the outside world and try to form small communities of their own sects, living together without any contact with the outside world to do so. This not only allows believers to self-imposed closure of various foreign ideas, psychological and behavioral over time will also become lonely, which is also the purpose of the sect leader. As long as they are away from their families and society, and then indoctrinated with various lies and intimidating words, they will fall into a situation of extreme depression and obsession, further lose their sanity and personality, and not know how to distinguish right from wrong, and then be at the mercy of the master or the organization, which can lead to mental disorder or breakdown in serious cases. Once a believer comes to his senses and realizes that he has been duped and wants to leave the organization, he will be threatened, intimidated, or even kidnapped or murdered in order to prevent him from revealing the inside story.
#3 Deceiving the public
Cults will often take the name of a religion and twist its original teachings to make them their own, but in fact, they are just a patchwork of teachings from different religious sects. The most common one is of course the doctrine of the end of the world and the doctrine of human catastrophe, which makes people fearful of death and believe that the organization can solve the problem. Once believers buy into this doctrine, it’s easy to get followers to blindly follow these godfathers, to live for them and die for them, and to do anything they want.
#4 Deceitfulness
The reason why the masters will deceive the public is to collect more followers, when the organization is large to raise funds is easy. Each organization has its own way of raising money, some will ask for a monthly salary, and some boast of selling holy items, but in fact, those are junk items. In addition, there are also some organizations that will open all kinds of training courses, and then charge high tuition; or through psychotherapy to heal the heart, and then charge a lot of money for treatment. There are also some sect leaders who offer their own books, tapes, videos, gong practice items, and so on and make their followers buy them, believing that by owning these items they will become superior, and the sect leaders will profit from them and become rich.
#5 Secret Bases
Cults are not bright organizations, so they rarely open their doors in the streets to welcome their followers. Generally, cults start by establishing their core bases in secluded places, and followers communicate with each other in a special way. To develop cult members most of the believers bring believers, like a pyramid scheme, then there will be secret meetings, brainwashing, preaching, and even some violent acts will be carried out in a special hidden place, the purpose is to make it difficult for outsiders to detect, the police difficult to suppress. Once the number of believers has increased, it also means that the owner will be rich and may move his position or own his own property to become a place of joy.
#6 Society in crisis
Cult leaders basically each have their own selfish desires, which may be sexual, power, or money, either of which is harmful to society. Some cult leaders have obvious political intentions from the beginning, while others have political ambitions only after they have gained power. For those who can only control a group of believers in the dark, they want to extend their divine power to the whole country and the whole world. In order to achieve their political ambitions, they will do whatever it takes, even costing the lives of believers as sacrifices or political stakes, to attract more attention is of course the implementation of some crazy acts to make the world shocked by them. These are not only a threat to individuals but of course also a danger to the peace and stability of society.
It is not too difficult to distinguish between a religion and a cult, as long as your will is strong enough, the sweet talk of the cult will hardly sway you. Once you find yourself in a group you shouldn’t be involved in, make sure to use the help of others to help you get out, otherwise, you will only make yourself more miserable the deeper you fall.
