Areas of Cult and Non-cult Identification [Cult Myths]

^{Originally posted: Wednesday, April 13, 2022 at 10:52 PM. Some paragraphs have been added or modified.}

When filling a box up with valuable stones, if you fail to take out the small granite pebbles, then they limit the stones that matter from filling the box. That is why so many cult lists fail. The anti-cultist is so busy trying to catch cults in his figurative cult box with a bunch of identifiers that he forgets about what is not a dangerous or destructive cult so that the non-cults get caught in the box. Thus, in order to identify what is a cult, we must first take out the inconsequential pebbles by identifying what is not a cult.

In each cult identifier post, we will be considering the differences between what is reasonable and unreasonable and possible areas in between. Each post will clearly identify the effects of the related traits under discussion, whether positive or negative, or both. Some may seem to have a negative impact at first blush, but actually have a net positive result in the end, such as reasonably penalizing someone who breaks a rule, as when restricting the person from accessible privileges in the group for a time.

How These Posts Are Organized

Each post will start by considering a healthy practice that we should all like to see in a group if applicable, then consider any harmless trait that has no negative impact on the group, the individual or society. Then we will look at the gray area that could send up a potential red flag if not properly handled. Every group is going to have a couple of potential red flags. This does not identify a group as dangerous or destructive unless it actually does harm to anyone, but we will distinguish between what is actually harmful and what is an entitled person playing opossum. Finally, we will look at true dangers that always and consistently do harm. If a group practices even one of these things, then they are behaving in a dangerous or destructive way. But it does not always make the group irredeemable if they are willing to make changes to correct the situation. That also goes for red flags that tip into dangerous or destructive.

The posts will be written in a similar format to the clear reasoning of the Salvation vs. website. With each subject in a post, definitions will be provided, followed by clear, concise examples. Facts will be provided and analyzed, then a proper defense will be given of a positive or negative viewpoint. Then, relevant questions will be asked to incite the reader to seriously contemplate the information and what it leads to.

A careful effort will be made to eliminate biases. At times, you may be uncomfortable at first, only to discover that the facts point to no harm, while other times you may be confident in the harmlessness of an idea only to realize the damage it has done. One group you were certain was a cult you may find completely vindicated, while another group you considered innocent may be more guilty than the manson family, but without any mention of any particular group.

Areas of Identification

The posts are divided into eight areas of identification. These include:

Communication. This is essential for any group to share a common cause. But communication can be misused to go beyond sharing ideas and move into the area of stopping thinking, spreading misinformation, suppressing information, oppressing and even hypnotizing. It is important to identify things things in order to protect yourself from bad forms of communication.

Recruitment. Without recruiting new members, a group can only waist away. Money and influence dry up and it ceases to function as participation dwindles away. But recruitment can be used by evil groups as much as groups with purer motives. But with evil ends, they will not shy away from dishonest recruitment tactics like deception and even kidnapping along with fear tactics to retain their numbers.

Structure. Every group needs structure. Without structure, the group falls apart and nothing productive results to achieve the group's common goal. Strife can result and the group is left wide open for someone to come in and impose a structure on the group that they may not like. This section explores rules, facilities and attitudes of leadership that can help or harm a group.

Autonomy. Personal autonomy is the most important feature of human rights without exception. There are times when autonomy must be restricted to ensure the autonomy of others. For an extreme example, a person's autonomy to kill at will is curtailed by laws and imprisonment, or even death for violators. There is nothing cultic about this. So autonomy is limited, but should only be limited as much as absolutely necessary for the safety of the group and every individual in the group. These posts focus on the limits of these freedoms and restrictions and how not to let yourself be duped into joining dangerous or destructive groups.

Community Relations. Every group exists within a wider community, whether locally, nationally or internationally. How the group interacts with the larger community in these areas gives clear indicators as to the health of the group. If they are helpful to the community without nefarious ends, then they are healthy, but if their activity is harmful or causes the moral degradation of local communities, then they are unhealthy, even cultic in the dangerous or destructive sense.

Teachings. A groups teachings about improving the life of its members or the world shows the mindset they want their members to have. Promoting equality and member health is a healthy teaching. Not speaking on such things may be negligent, but not necessarily harmful, but can be a red flag. But teachings can reveal a lot about the dangers of a group to its members or the world.

Internal Conduct. How the group treats its members is an important indicator of its health. If it promotes peace and happiness among its members, then it may be a healthy group. But if its happiness is arbitrary (a facade) or it does harm to its members then it is sickly and disturbing. Abuse of any kind, as a result of group policies or permission should not be tolerated by any member.

View of Life. The group's view of life has a profound effect upon all their practices. If they value life, they will likely be very healthy, but if they promote involvement in violent acts or try to devalue anyone's life or view some as expendable, then the group's insidious nature could lead to atrocities.

Worship. So far, no one type of worship assures that a group is or is not a cult. This category is to show that the form of worship has no bearing upon the determination of whether a group is a cult or not, contrary to counter-cultists.

See the the post, Debunking Myths About Cults for a breakdown of each of the sections in the Cult Identifier Areas section.

Proposed Posts

Below is the list of planned subjects for identifying healthy, harmless, potentially harmful and absolutely harmful traits in alphabetical order by area. The titles may change and subjects may be added, moved or titles altered, but this is the current planned list of posts. After many of the titles are a list of additional traits considered in light italic parentheses.

Honestly consider how the points in these posts apply to groups you think may be dangerous or destructive cults.

Communication  

• Doctrinal Instruction From Healthy to Abusive (child training, "indoctrination" logic)

• Encouraging and Discouraging Questions (promoting seeking answers to honest questions, discourage dishonest questions, discourage honest questions, demonize honest questions)

• From Truth to Fabrication (propaganda, deceit)

• Instruction Before Membership

• Levels of Scriptural Support (steadfast adherence, selective interpretation, oral tradition, cherry picking, rejecting own scriptures)

• Limiting Information Access—From Transparency to Opacity (free access to all information, history, discouraging higher education, hiding information, forbidding education, historical revisionism, milieu control)

• The Problems of Foretelling and Interpreting (true prophecy, ambiguity, wrong expectations, false prophecy)

• The Problems of Rhetoric (tricks of language, logical fallacies, antisocial rhetoric, mentalism, control methods, neuro-linguistic programming)

• The Usefulness and Dangers of Language (appropriate terminology, unique terms and expressions, unusual and foreign words, cliches, loaded language, redefinition)

• Is It Wrong to Distribute Literature? (Uses and Abuses of Literature)

Recruitment  

• From Focus to Stockholm (process of conversion [education, restating, attending, building relationships, building trust, confessing faith], forced conversion [coercion,  programming, reprogramming, deprogramming or re-education], inducing Stockholm [isolation, threats and intimidation, rapport, abuse])
• Selective Recruiting (demographic customization, demographic targeting)
• Ways of Attraction (giving hope, promise of sense fulfillment, flirty fishing, bait-and-trap, bait-and-switch, deceitful recruitment)
• Savaging (dark pact, rough-housing, hazing, beatdown, dark act)

Structure  

• Between Sexism and Structure (Headship, sexual equality, Stepford obedience, polygamy, stolen wives)

• Direction From a Divine Source (scriptural guidance, divine guidance, inspiration, divine messages, spiritism)

• From Organization to Anarchy (hierarchy, charismatic or divine leadership, organs, compartmentalization)

• From Responsive to "Infallible" (willing to course correct, unerring leadership)

• How Donations Are Used And Abused (collection boxes, passing the plate, voluntary tithing, literature for a donation, literature for a fixed donation, leadership in luxury, prosperity gospel, fleecing the flock, "give until it hurts", demand property [enforced tithing, all property])

• Open, closed and Secret Meetings (reasonably open meeting, meetings for worship, secret society)

• The Reasons Churches Should Be Separate From States (state religion)

• Reasons for Facilities (churches, Facilities, communal living, monasteries  and compounds)

• The Road to Legalism (suggestions, guidelines, rules (laws), standards, and procedures, arbitrary rules, ancient/modern standards, dietary restrictions, dress code [also formal military trappings], behavioral restrictions (social), approval for personal decisions)

• From Syncretism to Parasitism (Orbital religion)

• The Use and Abuse of Rewards and Penalties (appointment, sanctions,  representational rewards and punishments, humiliation, corporal punishment)

Autonomy  

• Association Matters to Self-determination (avoiding critics, shunning [a.k.a. ostracism], expelling family, blacklisting)

• The Balance Between Self and Others (hedonism, self-interest, reasonably others before self, self-denial, self-abandonment)

• Between Independence and Domination (permissiveness, benefits and pitfalls of obedience, accept human error, promote relative obedience, encourage analytical self-determination, holistic, "totalism", promotes blind obedience, totalitarian, blind faith-testing)

• Confession is for Repentance (reasonably confidential confession, absolute confidential confession, reporting, thought confession, confession abuse)

• Cherish Your Ability to Think (freedom to think, reasoning, reasoning is evil, thought-stopping techniques)

• The Dangers of Isolationism (isolation [abandon family and friends])

• The Difference Between Hope-bringing and Doomsaying (hope of cleansed world, apocalyptic message, doomsday message, fear mongering, doomsday threatening)

• The Differences Between Temporary Partners and Perpetual "Buddies" (task partners, buddy system, accountability system)

• Does a Radical Personality Change indicate a Danger? (application, no change, pretense, zombification)

• Dominance Tactics (intimidation, forcing submission, verbal abuse, physical abuse)

• The Dark Side of Eastern Meditation (focused meditation, prayer, mindfulness and transcendental meditation)

• How Joy Can Be Used to Manipulate You (celebration, sharing, feeling loved, tempered joy, emotional suppression, allow only positive thinking, toxic positivity, manufactured happiness, artificial ecstasy [a.k.a. Rapture])

• Loss of Self in "Sexual Liberation" (sexual self-control, suppressing desires, sexual freedom, "sexual enlightenment", sexual abuse and exploitation)

• How Much Is Too Much? (singing, chanting, "excessive meditation and prayer, "excessive" singing, constant meditation, chanting, singing, prayer or preaching)

• The Morality of Activity Tracking (census, involuntary information collection [background checking, spying])

• Protecting Members From Government Overreach (unprotective)

• Standards of Membership (disqualification of criminals, membership for life)

• Staying Busy vs. Staying Exhausted (Self-denial, keep busy, major time commitments, sleep deprivation, food and water deprivation [40 day fasting])

• Using People as a Resource (random volunteering, qualified volunteering, paid workers, conscription and enslavement)

• Value Your Sense of Self and Your Potential (value identity, abandonment of self, identity rejection)

Community Relations  

• The Benefits and Dangers of Child Services (childcare latchkey programs, child counseling)

• Between Pacifism and Militancy (pacifism, non-violence, neutrality, relative non-violence, non-participation, uninvolvement, promote military volunteering, wartime propaganda, incite to violence, stockpiling weapons, day world assaults the devout, Jihad [Holy Uprising] Teaching)

• Environmental awareness or Destruction? (knowingly polluting with dangerous substances)

• The Claim to "True" or "More Right" Religion Is Assumed By the Group's Existence (denominations, sects, "true religion" or "orthodoxy", "heterodoxy" or "false religion", teach interference techniques)

• The Faces of Relief Ministries (genuine philanthropy, cultivating a reputation, false front)

• From Realistic to Poisonous Views of Society and Social Reform (socio-political reform gospel)

• It's a Long Road From Peace to Persecution (kindness to strangers, prohibit religious hatred, persecution forbidden, persecuting others not discouraged, persecution disavowed, litigious, persecution sanctioned, persecuting others demanded)

• Politics, Pride and Nationalism (respect for government, government opposition)

• Proper and Improper Uses of Public Ministry (door to door ministry, persecution awareness, inciting own persecution, pushy preaching, guilting, condemnation, browbeating, public protest)

• Relationship to Outside Groups (inside/outside, "them against God", "them against us", "God against them", "us against them", antisocial rhetoric, obsess over former group)

• Secular Acceptance, Nepotism and Exclusion ("no part of the world", views of the world, group employment)

• Should a Group Be Condemned for Historical Sins? (Historical Sins, Condemning for Historical Sins, Historical Pattern)

• When Good Deeds Go Wrong (cleaning neighborhoods, cleaning houses)

Teachings  

• From Equality to Genocide (racial acceptance, tribal calling, familial Selection, classes, elitism, bigotry, castes, segregation, racial purity, genocide)

• From Paragon to Corruption (encourage good behavior, high moral standards, demand for purity, guard against corruption, insufficient criminal prevention, promoting criminal activity)

• The Good Deeds Between Apathy and Perfectionism (good works, slave for others)

• Remove the Weight That Terrorizes (discourage scrupulosity, no judgment, implanting seguilt)

• The Value of Unity (cultivate peace, sense of community, demand for unity, polarization)

• How Good Health Is Viewed (promotes Good health, demand bodily fitness)

• What Importance Should Safety Have? (promotes safety, disregards safety, snortcuts, jeopardizes safety, endangers)

• Learn the Difference:

• Between Knowledge and Speculation (flat earth, conspiracy theories)
• Between Science and Pseudo-science (sacred science)
• Between Faith and Superstition (belief, credulity, blind faith, purposeful exposure to harmful creatures or substances)
• Between Psychiatry and Pseudo-psychiatry
• Between Medicine and Snake Oil (harmful diet, "faith healing", reject specific medications or treatments, reject all medical treatments, required or forced medical treatment or substance)
• Between Reality and Fantasy (reality testing, cognitive dissonance, fantasy-feeding, self-deception, mystical manipulation, unverifiable beliefs)

• 
  

Internal Conduct  

• Inflicting Pain Is Always Wrong (abuse of the body)

• Familial Bonding (brotherhood, loyalty-building, roughhousing, father/mother, loyalty-testing, threat-mongering)

• Family Lives of the Group (healthy family life, abusive family life)

• How Love Is Displayed (welcoming, forgiving, discipline, tough love, false flattery, love-bombing)

• Branding is for Commodities, not people (branding or tattooing)

• Recognize Gaslighting and Reject It (accountability: distinguishing who is to blame: the group, the family, the individual, guilting, blame-shifting, "you're crazy", identify the bad actor, pin down, hold your ground)

View of Life  

• Holy War or Cult Dominance? (stockpiling weapons)

• The Value of Life (protection of life, doctrine over person, authority to execute)

• The Value of Religious Freedom (all rights matter, sacrifice rights for greater good, "only our rights matter", "they have no rights")

Worship  

• Historical Types of Worship (monotheism, polytheism, animal worship, idolatry, cult of personality)

• Sacrifices from objects to people (money, objects, animals, people, babies)

There is some overlap between a small number of these posts, even some overlap between the areas of discussion, but mostly these posts have fairly distinct subject matter.

What Do You Want to See?

Which post would you like to see first? Comment below.

If you have suggestions or opinions on these subjects as they apply to cults and non-cults in general (Not to any one group), feel free to post here. Please avoid experience bias. We're going for hard data and commonly observable phenomena that can be shown to be healthy, harmless, or potentially or factually dangerous or destructive. Feel free to provide reading recommendations and links not focussed on any specific religion or other group. (Though we are not likely to approve comments with such, they will be considered.) A post's author is under no obligation to include any comment in any post written. Even if a comment is rejected, fair points may still be used from a rejected comment. All suggestions are considered fair use and any concepts used will not be credited. (Commenters are not authorities and truths are not copyrightable.) Please keep posts brief and to the point.