Cult Checklist

by A. Orange

1. The Guru is always right.
1. You are always wrong.
1. No Exit.
1. No Graduates.
1. Cult-speak.
1. Group-think, Suppression of Dissent, and Enforced Conformity in Thinking
1. Irrationality.
1. Suspension of disbelief.
1. Denigration of competing sects, cults, religions...
1. Personal attacks on critics.
1. Insistence that the cult is THE ONLY WAY.
1. The cult and its members are special.
1. Induction of guilt, and the use of guilt to manipulate cult members.
1. Unquestionable Dogma, Sacred Science, and Infallible Ideology.
1. Indoctrination of members.
1. Appeals to "holy" or "wise" authorities.
1. Instant Community.
1. Instant Intimacy.
1. Surrender To The Cult.
1. Giggly wonderfulness and starry-eyed faith.
1. Personal testimonies of earlier converts.
1. The cult is self-absorbed.
1. Dual Purposes, Hidden Agendas, and Ulterior Motives.
1. Aggressive Recruiting.
1. Deceptive Recruiting.
1. No Humor.
1. You Can't Tell The Truth.
1. Cloning — You become a clone of the cult leader or other elder cult members.
1. You must change your beliefs to conform to the group's beliefs.
1. The End Justifies The Means.
1. Dishonesty, Deceit, Denial, Falsification, and Rewriting History.
1. Different Levels of Truth.
1. Newcomers can't think right.
1. The Cult Implants Phobias.
1. The Cult is Money-Grubbing.
1. Confession Sessions.
1. A System of Punishments and Rewards.
1. An Impossible Superhuman Model of Perfection.
1. Mentoring.
1. Intrusiveness.
1. Disturbed Guru, Mentally Ill Leader.
1. Disturbed Members, Mentally Ill Followers.
1. Create a sense of powerlessness, covert fear, guilt, and dependency.
1. Dispensed existence
1. Ideology Over Experience, Observation, and Logic
1. Keep them unaware that there is an agenda to change them
1. Thought-Stopping Language. Thought-terminating clichés and slogans.
1. Mystical Manipulation
1. The guru or the group demands ultra-loyalty and total committment.
1. Demands for Total Faith and Total Trust
1. Members Get No Respect. They Get Abused.
1. Inconsistency. Contradictory Messages
1. Hierarchical, Authoritarian Power Structure, and Social Castes
1. Front groups, masquerading recruiters, hidden promoters, and disguised propagandists
1. Belief equals truth
1. Use of double-binds
1. The cult leader is not held accountable for his actions.
1. Everybody else needs the guru to boss him around, but nobody bosses the guru around.
1. The guru criticizes everybody else, but nobody criticizes the guru.
1. Dispensed truth and social definition of reality
1. The Guru Is Extra-Special.
1. Flexible, shifting morality
1. Separatism
1. Inability to tolerate criticism
1. A Charismatic Leader
1. Calls to Obliterate Self
1. Don't Trust Your Own Mind.
1. Don't Feel Your Own Feelings.
1. The cult takes over the individual's decision-making process.
1. You Owe The Group.
1. We Have The Panacea.
1. Progressive Indoctrination and Progressive Commitments
1. Magical, Mystical, Unexplainable Workings
1. Trance-Inducing Practices
1. New Identity — Redefinition of Self — Revision of Personal History
1. Membership Rivalry
1. True Believers
1. Scapegoating and Excommunication
1. Promised Powers or Knowledge
1. It's a con. You don't get the promised goodies.
1. Hypocrisy
1. Denial of the truth. Reversal of reality. Rationalization and Denial.
1. Seeing Through Tinted Lenses
1. You can't make it without the cult.
1. Enemy-making and Devaluing the Outsider
1. The cult wants to own you.
1. Channelling or other occult, unchallengeable, sources of information.
1. They Make You Dependent On The Group.
1. Demands For Compliance With The Group
1. Newcomers Need Fixing.
1. Use of the Cognitive Dissonance Technique.
1. Grandiose existence. Bombastic, Grandiose Claims.
1. Black And White Thinking
1. The use of heavy-duty mind control and rapid conversion techniques.
1. Threats of bodily harm or death to someone who leaves the cult.
1. Threats of bodily harm or death to someone who criticizes the cult.
1. Appropriation of all of the members' worldly wealth.
1. Making cult members work long hours for free.
1. Total immersion and total isolation.
1. Mass suicide.

Well? How many did YOU count for SGI?

I counted 97 O_O

I wasn't sure about 41 and 42, about the mentally ill, because that doesn't really seem to fit for me, but 100 - no mass suicides as yet. The threats of bodily harm if you criticize or leave - it's more indirect within the SGI, but the threats that your life will become utterly miserable and bad things might even happen to you!! meets the cutoff, I believe.

Thanks, Agent Orange GREAT SITE

BTW, at the link above, each of those items is linked to explanations and resources. It's a terrific site!

Posted Jul 22, 2014, 12:03 AM UTC