A few points about life inside cults

Steven Hassan's chilling, depressing and best-selling book Combating Cult Mind Control was written from personal experience. It provides independent confirmation of and supporting evidence for some of the material in various cult articles.

The first article inspired by this book is about people who join cults; this one highlights some of the things that Steve Hassan has to say about life inside cults. He provides a lot of disturbing information about how cults control their members, information that people should be aware of before even considering joining certain groups and organisations.

The four elements of mind control 
Steve Hassan says that cults control four key elements of their members' lives: their behaviour, the information that they are given, their thoughts and their emotions. 

This systematic and comprehensive approach makes sense and is very effective. It is designed to prevent cult members from leaving – or even wanting to leave.

Life as a cult member

In the worst cases, every aspect of cult members' day-to-day lives is controlled. 

They are ordered to eat less, sleep less and work harder. 

They are ordered to hand over their belongings and the contents of their bank accounts to the cult.

They are encouraged or instructed to break all contact with family and friends.

They are denied access to much non-cult reading material and information.

Cult members are systematically lied to and manipulated with fear and guilt. 

They are expected to lie to people in order to raise funds and recruit new members. 

They may have to confess past 'sins', which gives the cult information that can be used to blackmail them into staying.

cult members are programmed to believe that something terrible will happen to them if they leave the cult. They are implanted with the deep fear that they will not be able to survive in the outside world, that they will be destroyed if they defect. 

Such abuse is standard practice in a wide variety of cults; it is all done in the name of the cause. Alexander Herzen had something to say about this that is still very relevant.

More about life as a cult member
Steve Hassan says that after someone joins a cult, there is often a short honeymoon phase. Then comes the reality; then comes a life of sacrifice and pain.

Cult members must surrender their individuality and real selves in favour of an artificial identity; they become totally dependent on the group for emotional, practical and financial support and lose the ability to act independently of it. They are often induced to work at jobs that offer few if any opportunities for personal and professional growth. 

“Leaders of different cults have come up with strikingly similar tactics for fostering dependency. They transfer members frequently to new and strange locations, switch their work duties, promote them and then demote them on whims—all to keep them off balance.“

Strikingly similar says it all: such tactics are standard practice.  What Steve Hasson says about moving people around and keeping them off balance is very true: I have seen it for myself.

All this is very disturbing indeed. 

Let the buyer beware
Steve Hassan says that people should not be blamed for being recruited into a destructive cult: they are indoctrinated victims who were targetted, manipulated and deceived by people who took advantage of their ignorance, trust and vulnerability.

This could have been avoided. Prevention is far better than cure: it is much better to be cautious and sceptical than to end up an abused, exploited, damaged, robotic, mind-controlled slave who needs to be rescued from their psychological prison. 

It is of great importance to behave like a good, educated consumer in these matters and do a lot of research before joining any group. There are many key questions to ask before any commitment is made. 

As Steve Hassan says, knowledge is power.

Another edition of his bestseller: