Anthony North

The world of cults

June 1, 2007 |  19 comments


Image Credit: The On 19 April 1993 tanks stormed the ranch of a Branch Davidian break-off group at Mount Carmel, Waco, Texas. In the resulting inferno, some 80 cultists died, including their leader, David Koresh.This was a stark image from a cult. A small group of people seemed to be against the world, and the world hit back. Such abnormalities as cults breed suspicion, which leads to fear, and the result can so often be Apocalypse.

They're not mad
The fate of the People's Temple was equally disconcerting. Headed by the Rev Jim Jones, this 1,000+ strong cult withdrew to Jonestown, a purpose-built complex in Guyana, but when their existence was threatened in November 1978, they committed mass suicide. Events such as the above lead many to the conclusion that cultists are mentally inferior, drop-outs, or plain mad. But as Professor Eileen Barker showed in a major study in the 1990s, most cult members are young, intelligent and middleclass. What seems to drive them to a cult is a search for meaning in a world that seems to deny the existence of spirituality. With only materialism to live by, it is not enough for an increasing number of searchers.

Subtle transition
If a searcher meets a cult guru, such as Jones or Koresh, the result can be transition, the searcher turning into a disciple. But how does the process of transition occur? Many commentators speak of 'brainwashing' and other absurd terms. The answer is more mundane. The first part of the process can involve a psychoanalytical trick known as 'transference.' Here, a confident guru takes upon himself the angst felt by the searcher, and in reflecting these feelings back to him, can ensnare him through pure empathy. Once this is achieved, the process can be completed by convincing the searcher that it is the 'outside' world that is responsible for how he feels. Known as 'psychological distancing', the process gives the searcher the knowledge that only the guru can know him and look after him. The searcher is now open to the 'reeducation' that is needed.How the guru is born
How can a guru achieve this so easily? The answer can be found in the life pattern of the future guru, which is amazingly similar in them all. It begins in childhood, and a feeling of alienation from the rest of society. The future guru is often an awkward child who becomes a loner. Due to this he turns in on himself, becoming the archetypal searcher, but the spiritual philosophy that can rise from this is extreme. Jones and Koresh, for instance, knew the Bible off by heart by their early teens. In early adulthood, life is a failure and a crisis comes when the person approaches mental illness. If he succumbs, he will be no one, but the guru is born when the illness sparks a religious experience that places him at the centre of a meaningful spirituality. This knowledge is all-encompassing, and the person who emerges is a confident charismatic, capable of defeating the will of any searcher through a process akin to hypnotism.

It's vampiric
This process is known throughout mythology and religion. In nearly all myth there is the 'hero' who walks a similar path, usually transforming society as he progresses. And nowhere is the process more obvious than in the life of the ultimate 'guru', Jesus Christ. Jesus grows up a troubled, questioning child, and this leads to a crisis. He goes off into the wilderness and is tempted by the Devil (a mental illness?), and the man who emerges is a charismatic who can influence people and do miracles. Sadly, the one important element that is left out of the Gospels is the fact that the guru's confidence is simply a mask, for underneath he remains a cauldron of insecurity and angst. In a real sense, the guru needs constant validation himself, and he feeds psychologically from his disciples as much, if not more, than the disciples gain their validity from him.

Heading towards danger
Here lies the danger of the cult. The psychological processes are such that a status quo arises between valid religious ideals, and communal self-destruction. If the cult becomes too insular, or is threatened, as happened with the Branch Davidians and People's Temple, self-destruction can be the result. But for most, this point is never reached, and many can go on to do good work and even grow and transform into a valid alternative religion. However, this aside, there is one vitally important thing we need to realize about cults. In the life pattern that leads to the guru, what we really have is an extreme version of the life pattern of the successful person, struggling to find his role as a youth, realizing his future through transition, and gaining the confidence to succeed. This is a message that tells us that cults are important to understand, for in a lesser way, the processes are vital to us all. And in understanding those processes, we could maybe learn how we, too, can so easily go off the rails and self-destruct.

http://beyondtheblog.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/cult-watch-2/

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http://anthonynorth.com/essays/the-unexplained

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