DISCOVER THE WARNING SIGNS.

Ask these questions:

Leadership or Control?

Is everything controlled and centralized by the leader or his deputies who act as his stooges?

Do all decisions have to be checked with this central authority?

What are the checks and controls?

Does the leader have a criminal record?

Is the leader glorified out of all proportion?

Does the leader see himself as some sort of “God?

Does he make sweeping statements like: “give me a thousand youth leaders and I can rule the world?” or “No revolutionary movement will be brought into being in the USA unless I bring it into being?”

Does the cult leader make plans to get bigger and expand in his search for more and more power?

Does the leader show signs of psychological instability?

For example burst out in an uncontrolled tirade of outpourings, abuse and wild fantasies then sink into whispers or long silences?

Does the leader show signs that he actually believes his own misinformation?

A destructive cult will always have a leader who enjoys great personal wealth. Is this wealth shared?

Doctrine:

1. Does the group’s doctrine publicly declare itself as one thing when it is in fact something else? Is it alright to lie because of the goals to achieve? In other words does it seem as if the end justifies the means?

Membership:

The most important warning sign is to do with recruitment, group maintenance and freedom to leave.

Is deception used to recruit new members?

People do not join cults. They are recruited unknowingly for life.

Are Front groups used to hide and confuse?

What hidden agendas

are employed so that new recruits will think they are coming for one thing and find out they are there for something else?

Is blind acceptance of cult leaders world view advocated through confusing arguments and unknown references to subjugate people? Are people told they are not to trust their independent thinking because all they have learnt is wrong?

Is there a neglect of physical or emotional needs of the individual?

Do recruiters appear as “friends” but really are finding out about potential “weak spots” to be used with other psychological techniques to bring people into the group?

Metacommunication:

Are key words and phrases that act as codes used to imprint subliminal messages? e.g. During a long lecture in which "the enemy" are described as a group of bankers wanting to control the world, a name is repeated such as "Leo Strauss, "the Jew" or the British institution called "The Tavistock" is quoted as an institute of mass brainwashing. This has the effect of making Jews and the British to be seen as a code for "the enemy.

Information control:

Is a person being fed on misinformation and denied all sides of the argument. “Deny a person the information he requires to make sound judgements, and he will be incapable of doing so.” ( a quote from the writing of Stephen Hassan).

Are special mind control techniques

used to break down, indoctrinate and then build up in the cult image?

Is there a radical personality change?

Chanting or Singing?:

Are there activities to introduce group repetition of mind narrowing chants or phrases?

Guilt?

Are people made to feel guilt, fear or shame about themselves if they don’t conform to the demands of the Organization? Are the wrongs of former life, interests or studies used as a way of inducing dependency and suggestibility?

Are there signs of radical Personality change?

Is the change dramatic, sudden and artificially manufactured?

Does it appear that the new recruit is a different person. His friends and family don’t know him anymore?

Is an attempt being made to deliberately encourage a break with family and former life?

Are there long exhausting work schedules with little time for privacy, friends or family?

Is there a large amount of time spent in group activities with very little time for sleep or private pursuits ?

Does there appear to be a loss of decision making powers? On the surface it looks as if cult members make decisions but in reality it is obvious that permission has to be asked from superiors which creates a dependency.

Attack on critical faculties.

Has the individual lost the capacity to judge what is in his best interest? Destructive cults cannot tolerate opposition of any kind.

Either people agree with them or they are seen as the enemy.

Is it difficult for the member to leave?

Destructive cults make you a psychological prisoner.

Are phobias and terrors planted into member’s minds to make it hard to leave the group? e.g. If you don’t join us to-day and work for our organization - tomorrow the world will be destroyed by a nuclear holocaust.

What use is made of shame and guilt to exercise emotional control over the individual to hamper any attempts to leave?