Why do people join cults? - Janja Lalich

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Too close to the history of the early church.

"Cults isolate you from society." "They try to control your relationships, possessions, and living arrangements." et cetera.

Gathering of Zion to Kirtland, Nauvoo, and ultimately Utah? Law of consecration? Polygamy? A charismatic leader who uses various methods to persuade married women to marry him?

Check, check, check, check, etc.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 23 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/frogontrombone πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 12 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies

"Often focusing on those new to an area. or those who have undergone some personal or professional lose."

Who else was told on a mission to make sure to teach those who had just lost a child about the plan of salvation, but to do it quickly while they are still grieving? Also a careful study of Joseph Smith's polygamy would also see that recent widows, children with broken or split homes or parents had died, made up a good portion of his wives.

So is there anyway to get the church in trouble for publicly teaching you should neglect the immediate physical needs to pay tithing?

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 15 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/ragin2cajun πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 12 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies

Growing up in Mormonism, I was taught "Live in the world, not of the world". This is intrinsically isolation from main stream society, even though we are not isolated physically, we can identify insiders and outsiders by the Coffee THEY drink, or the Alcohol etc.

Mormonism is a Cult. I hated that word and denied it for years. When the blinders come off, it's really easy to see. I guess it's the perception we are trained to have vs the one we've denied ourselves.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 14 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/TheNewNameIsGideon πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 12 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies

Just remember - TSCC is not a cult!

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 9 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/[deleted] πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 12 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies

What struck me about this was something I hadn't really noticed before. I joined Scientology in March 1978, and it was only later that the Jonestown stuff happened.

My husband was a campaign volunteer for Leo J. Ryan, so sometimes we visit his grave on the anniversary of the shooting.

Then the Heaven's Gate stuff happened before I left Scientology. Yet, all that time, I didn't think anything of it other than it was tragic.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 8 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/deirdresm πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 12 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies

Really good video.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 3 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/elderyoungbum πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 12 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies

Taking the arguments of this web video as basis for discussion, there is an argument that LDS movement started as a cult (as with greater Christianity itself,) but that the mainstream LDS church isn't necessarily so now because:

  1. it has integrated into society

  2. it doesn't have a leader who appears to be have explicitly dangerous motives (nor is charismatic )

But i am not objective (and neither or 99% of you) We should to be able to agree that whether or not mormonism is a cult is not a given

I do think using when exmormons in particular use the term to describe mormonism it is most often being used in a retaliatory manner and is counter to mutual respect.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 7 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/[deleted] πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 12 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies

This video is just so spot on with Mormonism, it's uncanny. How did I miss the signs as a TBM?

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 2 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/Agent_Orange7 πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jun 13 2017 πŸ—«︎ replies
Captions
When Reverend Jim Jones founded the Peoples Temple in 1955, few could have imagined its horrifying end. This progressive religious movement rose in popularity and gained support from some of San Francisco's most prominent politicians. But in 1977, amidst revelations of brainwashing and abuse, Jones moved with several hundred followers to establish the commune of Jonestown in Guyana. Billed as a utopian paradise, the colony was more like a prison camp, and when a congressional delegation arrived to investigate its conditions, Jones executed his final plan. On November 18, 1978, 909 men, women, and children died after being forced to drink poisoned Flavor Aid. That grizzly image has since been immortalized as shorthand slang for single-minded cult-like thinking, "They drank the Kool-aid." Today, there are thousands of cults around the world. It's important to note two things about them. First, not all cults are religious. Some are political, therapy-based, focused on self-improvement, or otherwise. And on the flip side, not all new religions are what we're referring to as cults. So what exactly defines our modern understanding of cults, and why do people join them? Broadly speaking, a cult is a group or movement with a shared commitment to a usually extreme ideology that's typically embodied in a charismatic leader. And while few turn out as deadly as Jonestown or Heaven's Gate, which ended in a mass suicide of 39 people in 1997, most cults share some basic characteristics. A typical cult requires a high level of commitment from its members and maintains a strict hierarchy, separating unsuspecting supporters and recruits from the inner workings. It claims to provide answers to life's biggest questions through its doctrine, along with the required recipe for change that shapes a new member into a true believer. And most importantly, it uses both formal and informal systems of influence and control to keep members obedient, with little tolerance for internal disagreement or external scrutiny. You might wonder whether some of these descriptions might also apply to established religions. In fact, the world "cultus" originally described people who cultivated the worship of certain gods by performing rituals and maintaining temples. But in time, it came to mean excessive devotion. Many religions began as cults, but integrated into the fabric of the larger society as they grew. A modern cult, by contrast, separates its members from others. Rather than providing guidelines for members to live better lives, a cult seeks to directly control them, from personal and family relationships, to financial assets and living arrangements. Cults also demand obedience to human leaders who tend to be highly persuasive people with authoritarian and narcissistic streaks motivated by money, sex, power, or all three. While a cult leader uses personal charisma to attract initial followers, further expansion works like a pyramid scheme, with early members recruiting new ones. Cults are skilled at knowing whom to target, often focusing on those new to an area, or who have recently undergone some personal or professional loss. Loneliness and a desire for meaning make one susceptible to friendly people offering community. The recruitment process can be subtle, sometimes taking months to establish a relationship. In fact, more than two-thirds of cult members are recruited by a friend, family member, or co-worker whose invitations are harder to refuse. Once in the cult, members are subjected to multiple forms of indoctrination. Some play on our natural inclination to mimic social behaviors or follow orders. Other methods may be more intense using techniques of coercive persuasion involving guilt, shame, and fear. And in many cases, members may willingly submit out of desire to belong and to attain the promised rewards. The cult environment discourages critical thinking, making it hard to voice doubts when everyone around you is modeling absolute faith. The resulting internal conflict, known as cognitive dissonance, keeps you trapped, as each compromise makes it more painful to admit you've been deceived. And though most cults don't lead members to their death, they can still be harmful. By denying basic freedoms of thought, speech, and association, cults stunt their members' psychological and emotional growth, a particular problem for children, who are deprived of normal developmental activities and milestones. Nevertheless, many cult members eventually find a way out, whether through their own realizations, the help of family and friends, or when the cult falls apart due to external pressure or scandals. Many cults may be hard to identify, and for some, their beliefs, no matter how strange, are protected under religious freedom. But when their practices involve harassment, threats, illegal activities, or abuse, the law can intervene. Believing in something should not come at the cost of your family and friends, and if someone tells you to sacrifice your relationships or morality for the greater good, they're most likely exploiting you for their own.
Info
Channel: TED-Ed
Views: 3,957,844
Rating: 4.9375792 out of 5
Keywords: TED, TED-Ed, TED Education, TED Ed, Janja Lalich, Globizco, cults, Jim Jones, Jonestown, kool aid, drink the kool aid, religion, business, politics, therapy, ideology, Heaven's Gate, cultists, ritual, isolation, indoctrination, coersion
Id: kB-dJaCXAxA
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 6min 26sec (386 seconds)
Published: Mon Jun 12 2017
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