Cults Essay Research Paper Cults Each year free essay sample

Cults Essay, Research Paper Cults Each twelvemonth, 100s of North Americans join one of the increasing, estimated 3000 irregular faiths that exist across North America. The increasing figure of cults, to day of the month in North America, is due to the fact that cults are a societal motion that attempts to assist people get by with their perceived jobs with societal interaction. Cult recruiters target those who perceive themselves as different from the remainder of society, and give these persons the sense of belonging that they crave. Cult literature lures possible cult members by appealing to their despairing demand to socially suit in. Cults provide a controlled household environment that entreaties to possible cult members because it is a remotion from the exterior society. Cult recruiters prey on those who see themselves as alienated from the remainder of society, and give these people the sense of conformance that they desire. A common method of recruiters, to obtain new members, is through confab lines o n the cyberspace. We will write a custom essay sample on Cults Essay Research Paper Cults Each year or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page A recorded conversation between a member of the Divine Light Mission, Fire-Shade, and an 18-year old male child, Jay 18, was obtained off of the site, IRC Teen Chat. Jay18: I am a truly great poet, but all of the childs in my category are reasonably warped about it. I fundamentally hide it from them because I don # 8217 ; t need that fuss. Fire-Shade: My household has a great regard for the creative person inside us all. I know you live in Michigan, and our household could ever utilize new secret agents all over the universe. You have to understand what our household is approximately, it is about ever suiting in and neer concealing the truth to be liked or cool. Are you interested? Jay18: Well possibly Fire-Shade: Give me your phone figure we truly shouldn # 8217 ; t speak about this here. Jay18: I would instead non give my phone figure out. You give me yours, I won # 8217 ; t be able to speak for long though. Fire-Shade: Trust is really of import in our group. Do you swear me? Y ou can # 8217 ; t name us, unluckily because we are non in a place to be accepting phone calls. Jay18: Well so you can merely email me. OK. Fire-Shade: [ gulfs ] 1 The cult member makes the immature male child feel as though he does care about his jobs, and wants to do this male child # 8217 ; s life better. Fire-Shade conveys his household as an entity non as many different persons. After experiencing entirely for many old ages the lone persuasion some persons need is the confidence that they will be portion of a society and accepted unconditionally. Cult members know what type of persons feel most anomic and entirely, says Dr. Lorna Goldberg, a New Jersey psychoanalyst. No 1 plans to fall in a cult unless they see that cult as a possibility for a household, or a better society. Cults mark people in passage # 8211 ; college pupils away from place for the first clip, people who have moved to new metropoliss for occupations, those who have merely been divorced or widowed. Usually persons 16 to 25 or 35 to 40. The huge bulk of members are simply looking for a sense of community and belonging, during a hard clip in their lives.2 Cults provide an substitute societal unit, which takes them in, raisings them and reinforces the cult # 8217 ; s worldview. By the clip that most cult members realize that this cult International Relations and Security Network # 8217 ; t what they had expected, it is excessively late, because they are already excessively afraid to go forth. Recruiters are non the lone manner that possible members are enticed into cults, frequently their literature is powerful plenty. Cult novels, booklets and web sites draw in possible cult members by appealing to their despairing demand to socially suit in. Often if a piece of cult literature is written right it convinces the most logical head of the most absurd logical thinking, like this booklet by the Heavens Gate cult. The by and large accepted # 8220 ; norms # 8221 ; of today # 8217 ; s soci eties # 8211 ; universe over # 8211 ; are designed, established, and maintained by the persons who were at one clip # 8220 ; pupils # 8221 ; of the Kingdom of Heaven- # 8220 ; angels # 8221 ; in the making- who flunked out # 8221 ; of the schoolroom. Legends and Bibles refer to them as fallen angels. The current civilisation # 8217 ; s records use the name Satan or Lucifer to depict a individual fallen angel and besides to # 8220 ; nickname # 8221 ; any # 8220 ; evil presence # 8221 ; . If you have experienced some of what our # 8220 ; schoolroom # 8221 ; requires of us, you would cognize that these # 8220 ; presences # 8221 ; are existent and that the Kingdom of God even permits them to # 8220 ; onslaught # 8221 ; us in order for us to larn their fast ones and how to remain above them or suppress them.3 This peculiar piece of celestial spheres gate literature can be found printed in non merely their booklets and novels, but besides on their web site. In this indiv idual transition this cult has enabled the anomic person to experience accepted and experience that they are non the lone individual who feels helpless, entirely and disliked by society. It non merely reassures the possible cult member that they are welcome someplace, but it makes them experience superior to the society that they feel has betrayed them their full life. Often, to to the full convert a possible recruit of their ideals, cult literature will diverge on continuously about how society # 8217 ; s thoughts and ethical motives are deranged and that the cults are sensible. In other words, they ( these infinite foreigners ) don # 8217 ; t want themselves # 8220 ; found out, # 8221 ; so they condemn any geographic expedition. They want you to be a perfect retainer to society ( THEIR society # 8212 ; of THEIR universe ) # 8212 ; to the # 8220 ; acceptable constitution, # 8221 ; to humanity, and to false spiritual constructs. Part of that # 8220 ; remain blinded # 8221 ; expression goes like this: # 8220 ; Above all, be married, a good parent, a sensible church departer, purchase a house, pay your mortgage, pay your insurance, have a good line of recognition, be socially committed, and gracefully accept decease with the hope that # 8216 ; through His caducous blood, # 8217 ; or some other every bit worthless spiritual principle, you will travel to Heaven after your death.4 It is at this point that, through their literature, unbeknown to the reader the cult begins to deprive off at everything the single believes in. The cult starts to show the person with the words that they want to hear, which are ; that they are normal, and that there is a topographic point where they are wanted. Although there are few distinguishable similarities shared between cults, the usage of communes is a unusually common trait. Cults provide a separate society that entreaties to possible cult members because it is a remotion from the exterior universe. Normally when in vitees visit for the first clip to a commune they witness shows of unconditioned fondness and kindness. In major metropoliss across throughout the universe, The Unified Family, sometimes called the Unification Church, has houses which are typically both communal life topographic points for immature, individual members, and meeting topographic points for a Sunday afternoon or weekday flushing meeting. A pleasant, lively circle of possibly 20 or 25 people, largely immature, will do the guest feel at place. He will be given a hymn book incorporating spiritual vocals in common people and popular manner. Person will play a guitar, and the circle will sing for some 30 minutes.5 This tranquil, peaceable scene, intentionally contrasts with that of the universe outside of the compound. In order for a cult member to be adequately convinced of a cults merits they must see how much more pleasant life will be inside the compound. Cults, like the Hare Krishna, remind members how helter-skelter the outside universe is, and maintain faultless order inside their compounds to keep pureness. The inside informations of life are closely regulated by the Spiritual Master. He insists that each fan take two showers daily, and take a cup of warm milk before retiring ; these imposts are conscientiously followed. Devotees live an idyllic rural, communal, devotional, and vegetarian life.6 In cults an persons day-to-day modus operandi is decided for them, their full life style is chosen for them, this entreaties to persons because they can’t make errors if they merely do as the leader instructs. In the society outside of the cult determinations must be invariably made, and society’s outlooks are that those who can non win in their determination devising are failures. The complexness and ambiguity of life is something that cult members do non desire to digest. Different physicians have changing sentiments on why people join cults. Dr. J.Gordon Melton is trying to turn out that cult members have non chosen to fall in cults, they have an existent medical upset. Melton has found that cult members are emotionally vulnerable and enduring from important emotional hurt. ? the mean cult member has been in three or four other groups, a mark of what he calls the â€Å"seeker syndrome, † a religious pursuit among immature people free to experiment. These â€Å"seekers† by and large move on every bit shortly as they become world-weary or disenchanted. Melton suggests cults serve as â€Å"holding tanks† for immature people arising against overprotective parents.7 Other experts belie ve that certain categories, races, and ages are peculiarly susceptible to the temptingness of cults. A study performed at the Bethany Hills School found that when asked ‘Would you join a cult if it would offer you what you believed to be a better life? ’ , 7 out of 24 respondents said that they would. Of these 7 respondents, 5 were between the ages of 16 and 19?8 This age group has been established as susceptible to cults because of the force per unit area placed upon striplings by their equals. â€Å"3 of the 7 respondents were members of a individual, employed, parent houshold.†9 Stress on a individual income household can potentially be greater than that of a double income household because of the potency for a higher net household income, and perchance less fiscal troubles. This household emphasis could inherently do an person to seek for a more stable place environment, and happen safety in a cult. These are the lesser known, and non as recognized theories o n why people join cults. The thought that any specific social-class is more susceptible to cult rank is false. As history has shown cult members’ societal category can non be generalized. Social Status is no index of susceptibleness and no defence against it. For case, while many of the dead a Jonestown were hapless, the Solar Temple favors the passenger car trade. Its adherents have included the married woman and boy of the laminitis of Vuarnet sunglass company. The Branch Davidians at Waco came from many walks of life. And at Rancho Santa Fe they were idols of the entrepreneurial category, so good organized they died in shifts.10 The ground for cult rank is evidently non wholly due to societal category. Different people are drawn to different cults, merely as different cults prey on different persons. The research done at the Bethany Hills School is besides non wholly accurate because the population is so little that 24 studies can non accurately represent most cult members . Although Dr. Melton’s research provides an interesting point of view, his claims are still being experimented and have neer been to the full substantiated. His claim that cult members are immature people arising against their parents is statistically inaccurate since 35 to 40-year-olds are one of the most common groups of cult members, and do up a big part of the 100s of work forces and adult females who join cults each twelvemonth. Cult enlisteers target those who view themselves as a pervert from the remainder of society, and give these persons a false sense of household. Cult literature lures possible cult members by converting them that society is an anomalous entity and that they are healthy and sound. The controlled household environment of cults entreaties to possible cult members because they have all of their determinations made for them, and do non put on the line failure. No 1 is beyond the possibility of fall ining a cult, appliers require merely a hopeless feel ing of societal insufficiency, a status apt to strike anyone at some point in life. Undoutably, many cults are malicious and violent, but they do direct a clear message that something is really incorrect when sane, healthy people would instead fire, toxicant, and shoot themselves to decease instead than populate another minute in society. Endnotes 1. Lacay, Richard. Macleans: The Lure of the Cult ( March 22 1997 ) 2. Graebrener, William. The American Record. Alfred A. Knoph, Inc. New York. 1982. 3. Applewhite, Marshall Herff. Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate, The Novel. Received off of their cyberspace site ( www.heavensgatetoo.com ) 4. Applewhite, Marshall Herff. Heaven # 8217 ; s Gate The Novel. Received off of their cyberspace site ( www.heavensgatetoo.com ) 5. Bright-Paul, Anthony. Stairway to Subud. Dharma Book Company, Inc. NewYork. 1965. 6. Swami, Bhaktivedanta A.C. Krsna Consciousness: The Topmost Yoga System. Iskcon Press. Boston. 1970. 7. Fennell, Tom. Time: Doom Sects [ False Prophets Attract the Vulnerable ] . ( April 7, 1997 ) 8. Lamaadar, Alia. Cults: Questionair. January 12, 1998. 9. Lamaadar, Alia. Cults: Questionair. January 12, 1998. 10. Muller, Bill. The Edmonton Journal: The Lure of Cults [ Why Ordinary Peoples Join Cults ] . ( April 1, 1997 ) Bibliography 1. Applewhite, Marshall Herff Heaven # 8217 ; s G ate, The Novel. Received off of their cyberspace site ( www.heavensgatetoo.com ) 2. Bright-Paul, Anthony. Stairway to Subud. Dharma Book Company, Inc. NewYork. 1965. 3. Bugliosi, Vincent. Helter Skelter. Bantam Books. New York. 1975. 4. Fennell, Tom. Time: Doom Sects [ False Prophets Attract the Vulnerable ] . ( April 7, 1997 ) 5. Graebner, William. The American Record. Alfred A. Knoph, Inc. New York. 1982. 6. Lacay, Richard. Macleans: The Lure of the Cult ( March 22 1997 ) 7. Lamaadar, Alia. Cults: Questionair. January 12, 1998. 8. Muller, Bill. The Edmonton Journal: The Lure of Cults [ Why Ordinary Peoples Join Cults ] . ( April 1, 1997 ) 9. Porter, Anne. Farewell to the Seventies. Thomas Nelson and Sons. Don Mills. 1979. 10. Smith, Michelle. Michelle Remembers. Pocket Books. New York. 1980. 11. Swami, Bhaktivedanta A.C. Krsna Consciousness: The Topmost Yoga System. Iskcon Press. Boston. 1970.