Cult Psychology - Part 1 - How Cults Work
By Leo Gura - January 8, 2019 | 19 Comments
Exploring mind control techniques used by cults
clem says: Hey Leo,
Your definition of what does or does not make an organization a cult is very comprehensive. Thanks!
However, I find your opinion, that the US Army/Military is not a cult, to be superficial. My first hand experience is much different than your narrow evaluation. While today’s youth may appear to have a choice to participate, it hasn’t always been this way.
In 1969 young men were invited to join the Army, but many of us were drafted into the military without consent. We were held captive against our will under threat of prison. Boot camp was a harsh brain-washing indoctrination regime designed to crush individuality and make us believe in the ideologies of the hierarchical organization. The all encompassing objective of this effort is to strip away all ability for an individual to think or act for themselves. Once an individual “snaps in” the boundary between committing murder and killing people in a war is dissolved. This cult has a figurative leader, the commander in chief, but the President is just another pawn in the chain of command. The real leaders of the Military Industrial Pyramid Complex are the faceless corporate billionaires that have the authority to control the banks, the government, and the media. This cabal is responsible for dictating the ideology of American exceptionalism (Gods people), and controlling the propaganda fantasy bubble that motivates their patriotic followers to contribute to the cause of building, maintaining, and expanding their materialistic empire of domination over other peoples of the earth. This murderous military cult hides its true face of destruction and manipulation behind a self-righteous flag that is said to symbolize Truth, Liberty, and Justice for All. This illusion serves the purpose of creating feelings of obligation and indebtedness to the national organization. This group mind construct compels parents to offer up their children on the alter of war as if it was a great honor. Any citizen who rebels against the cult is shamed, imprisoned, or executed for treason. They are lead to believe that the perpetuation of wars is a necessary action for the benefit of the world. Meanwhile the media/entertainment arm of the industry works at keeping people totally distracted in a collective digital fantasy while the cult leaders of the nation deploy their zombie soldiers to attack other nations with the purpose of killing and stealing away all assets.
While the true nature of this military cult is obscured in the modern day version of very sneaky recruiting tactics and hero worship, the ugly truth behind the curtain continues to be revealed.
The big question to be answered is, “when will this cult eventually self destruct?”
Jay says: Nailed it. I think that’s what we’re all waiting for next. Tensions just keep rising.
michael abitbol says: hey leo, just watched “American Gospel.” in your words….try not to Gawk….also check out Benny Hinn….gawk if you’d like
dj kim says: Hey Leo. I’m a Korean guy, and like most Koreans I can read English but am not good at hearing, in fact almost not at all. But I can ‘hear’ you because Youtube provides “auto-generated subtitle”, an excellent function. Unfortunetely, there are some videos which don’t provide “auto-generated subtitle.” I don’t know why some of your videos doesn’t provide it, but anyway I absolutely want to understand your videos, particularly about consciousness, awareness, contemplation and so on. Is there anybody to help me with that?
peter says: Read carl Young books
Xvearu says: Really interesting. Thanks for your hard work.
Laszlo says: Great video, I am surprised that Landmark hasn’t made it to the list. I had been personally involved in it for a bit and, as a result, I suffered a lot until I managed to break off it. I reckon it ticks all the boxes you mention here.
My girlfriend is going to a TM training in April. Should I discourage her about this? I might do some in-depth research into what it all entails to be a TM practitioner.
Laszlo says: Oh yeah, now it springs to mind that Landmark is actually listed as a cult in France and they cannot operate there.
Wilhelm says: Do you think that the Roman Catholic Church is a cult? They have the dogma of papal infallibility. As a Roman Catholic you are supposed to believe whatever the pope teaches ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals and nobody can ever change that.
And what about the dogma “extra ecclesia nulla salum” which the Church tought: You can not be saved outside the Catholic Church? Is that the hallmark of a cult? Note that the Church has become more ecumenical and religiously tolerant since Vatican II. It hardly talks about the Catholic salvation dogma these days.
Max Gron says: You don’t get to invent an unorthodox definition of cult, it’s not up to you for a cult to be anything you want, it’s up to the dictionary, it’s actually simple: a cult is just a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious, actualized.org is a cult because it’s regarded as false, Catholicism is a cult in the sense that it’s a system of religious belief and ritual, do you think anti-cults use ritual? They don’t. Christianity’s a cult in both senses of the word, because it’s false, Jesus wasn’t an extremist or a radical, being very gentle isn’t extremism, it’s misinterpreted. Furthermore cults make faith in your head that the leader is the one to worship, is God, and the only one you should serve. Cults are cool, but with their excellence it’s mixed with evil. All religions are cults because they’re all by one charismatic leader, therefore cult and religion is the same thing. I’m only watching this cultic mini-series to remind me of the danger of my life joining a cult and to reminisce about when I have my old identity back, I’m not smart enough to avoid being part of a cult, it’s happened twice!
Max Gron says: Despite all that I said, Leo’s telling the truth with everything about cults, he must’ve studied it. As for Mormons they think Mormonism is reality, they think this religion is honest and is what it is really, it’s not what it is, there’s nothing real about it, it’s silly stuff and all Christianities do this, that makes you look like a good, heavenly, weird, Godly, nourished, “healthy”, justice-like, “cleansed” person, it’s a parody of itself as trying to look moral and good, with lies and a false front, that’s what Christianity is, and Mormonism looks like that. Some Christians don’t have to wear black clothes and a hat but they dress like that, it’s unnecessary. Christianity seems to be a joke, like it’s different to the other religions, that’s a cult, a cult is doing weird things and is different to the other religions like Christianity and if not Christianity it’s radically different because it’s a cult, a cult is just making up your own religion like it’s important therefore it’s a religion, a religion is like it’s important, with enthusiasm and faith, that’s what Christianity does.
Max Gron says: School’s a cult, it hooks you into hectic outgoing lifestyle, following itineraries, going to parties, and being unoriginal and identical to everyone else, it’s a great devotion and a fad, to an idea. It’s really the cult of normality, hence it’s against being fancy because fancy is a minority group, it’s put there to conform and they get you by whinging how weird you are and causing trouble just for acting weird, that’s what the cult of normal does, it makes the wars, school is just a small sect of this cult, no, normality’s not a cult but if you’re obsessed with conformity the cult got you.
Max Gron says: I’m leaving all these cults Leo said forever, just to be lover of Australia, a hippie, and an optimist like I always have been, and I’ll also be a pessimist since conditions are so bad as to destroy the straight world for its own sake, getting back in the real world watching horror movies, black comedy, hippie films and being a Druid, drinking Moccona, and creating quirky things while not being different or strange from anyone else except these exceptions, man, and to get out of the commune, when I was a hippie there was never any commune, man, that’s my real beliefs, also watching witch films and adventure films and western thrillers like “Dad Savage”, and crime such as that, crime such as “Wolf Creek”, but not normal western thrillers or normal crime films. Also the fact that I didn’t eat animal flesh, I was a “vegetarian” because “meat’s bad for the soul, man”. Listening to the Doors, etc etc now that I’m no longer in those cults anymore. Thanks Leo.
Max Gron says: OK Leo you got me, dropping my old beliefs to serve you, I’m only doing this as a once off incase I’m back to being a slightly quirky (with very quirky creations I make, watch, joke about etc) hippie again, only because I wanted to drop all my beliefs to follow you, I did this 2 years ago and said I’ll do it, long before you taught it, I don’t need to be taught that, I know how to sacrifice beliefs for any recruitment, and I’m not doing it because you told me to, but because I want to.
Max Gron says: From what Leo really means by cult and not what he says he means, is a hierarchical religious organisation, Christian denomination, Catholicism, Mormonism, Judaism, or Islam, by any neurotic charismatic leader that imbues conformity, usually hyperconformity. He made a lot of allusions to the Christianity itself being a cult, he’s really talking about sects rather than religions.
Max the shithead says: I’m not about to misunderstand or criticise Leo, the Mormons won’t admit their religion’s a cult, a cult is a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious, I regard Angelici (the worship of angels, pronounced an-jell-uss-ee) as a cult, and much of smaller groups of fundamentalist Muslims as a cult, as for the majority of Muslims, they don’t care about your Muslim sect, nobody cares that you think other Muslims are false Muslims, they simply don’t care that you’re a Muslim and what it stands for. You should be glad they don’t care, therefore if you’re in a cult, who cares? Nobody cares about your cult, they also wouldn’t respect your cult, but if it goes on that it’s not a cult, it might be a cult, Jesus’s intention was to start a cult which is called a faith, his intention wasn’t to just make a religion, but a sacrificial, horrifying cult, the cultishness was intentional, it was meant to be very different because Judaism is very different, was Jesus conscious what he was doing? Oh yeah! He was conscious of starting a death cult, nasty, poisonous, founded on his death, extremely quirky, it’s an extremist religion. Today’s Christianity is from restorational sects if not cults and is an organisation that can indoctrinate you, not abuse you, religion is scary, people are afraid to admit that what they’re doing is religion, as cults are scary, but I wouldn’t call Kierkegaard’s aesthetic life in “Either/Or” a cult, it’s not very different to Christianity and it’s not a false religion, so it’s not a cult, it doesn’t use ritual, whereas a cult does. I had a dream that I was in a Christian cult, became an atheist and only just realised I was still in a cult (atheism’s a cult), when I woke up I was Christian again and all the strangeness disappeared. There are Christian cults that are extremist and violent, they lure you in and cause a death, which I find repulsive, Christianity from a cult like that is now rare, and it does do some terrible things, keep the children away from religion because they might take religion to mean killing people. Furthermore Puritanism isn’t a cult, but it’s unorthodox and Reformed, it’s still a strange and ugly religion, and a very strict religion, beware of these minority religions, ultra-Orthodox Jews is most certainly a cult, they want you to be a Jew like them. What I don’t like is Christian people with flyers forcing me into their religious rules, making me the Christian I became, it’s control to not be a Muslim, and I think I arrived at Islam from a truthful source, I don’t like any of this religious coercion, it’s a form of bullying.
Max Gron says: Going on that actualized.org isn’t a cult, well, it’s a cult, and furthermore, that ungrateful man, it’s not good or bad so that’s not good enough, fuck off, I like things that aren’t good or bad, what’s wrong with being neutral? Objectively speaking I’m not not good, likelihood to do evil, I don’t want what’s good, I think not bad is good enough, therefore I’m joining a fucking cult, and I hope it’s an ordinary religion that most people in the city of churches follow, Leo’s version of a cult is really Christianity, let the old men be lured into a “cult” (I think you mean Christianity), why not, Christianity’s so standard it’s not a cult anymore, cults are in small groups, Christianity’s a pseudo-cult, if you try devil worship you’re truly into a cult, and you don’t get to make up the definition, a cult is a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious, or a system of religious belief and ritual (Catholicism in this way is a cult), but so what? You think cults are cunts, they’re not, just Scientology and orthodox Islam because they’re evil. Although religion, and therefore cults, are interesting mainly to boring people, it’s ridiculous nonsense, read the Bible, if you will, but you don’t care about that, you think spiritual not religious is the truth! The truth? Truth is what’s based on facts, is it a fact what a cult should be to you? No! Just fuck off! I think Satan is who tests the religious, like me, by luring us into spirituality and not religion, get behind me Satan! Even to Satan’s rooting you in the arse since you kiss arse to all God and no religion, I think it’s false, as part of the system, why the different religions? Why can’t it be the Low Church, proper worship?, as result of the reformed Church of England?, and not proselytising shit you made up? That’s Leo a thousand times, I’m not asking him to join our Church, I’m asking him to stop preaching a false message.
Max Gron says: I already know when I’m in a cult, as with Christianity, your parents will guilt-trip you if you attack on Christianity, with scare tactics to not disbelieve again, that’s a sign of indoctrination, and cults often are led by feeling and believers that will brainwash you this way, as it is with the mainstream religions, not a cult? Your mother loses love for you if you disbelieve, reinforcing your belief and more prayers to God is one way your mother will stay in your life. Yes, I don’t know whether Christian Science is the sect I follow anymore, since I was discouraged from controlling powers I follow Kierkegaard and do what I want, yes, that’s how most of the public is convinced to believe in religion, discouragement of the freedom, or lack thereof, and discouragement of the wrong sect, or even the wrong religion when Islam and Christianity aren’t two separate religions, still, a Christian will coerce you out of Islam, and Islamists will coerce you out of Christianity, you can’t win with this coercion. With the freedom of belief I would’ve been in a Muslim sect but you don’t choose your beliefs, I’m out of the obscurantism to believe in atheism anymore, I can’t be an atheist anymore, scare tactics to warn you that atheism is devil-worship. Christianity is a pseudo-cult, it demonises non-Christians, and it gets even better, once you feel sad over their clinging to religion and your disbelief they’ve got you, you’ve become one of them, nothing wrong with that, it had to be done, being told that antitheism/atheism are evil, I’m only convinced that the religions they proselytise to you are necessary.