Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 39
Book Reviews
Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults
Janja Lalich
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. ISBN 0-520-23194-5 (cloth),
$55.00 ISBN 9-520-24018-9 (paperback), $21.95
Janja Lalich, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico.
Her research and writing have focused on cults and controversial groups, with a
specialization in charismatic authority, power relations, ideology, and social control, as well
as issues related to gender and sexuality. Among her other publications, Dr. Lalich has
coauthored “Crazy” Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? (Jossey-Bass, 1996) Cults
in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995) and Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and
Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships (Hunter House, 1994). She served as the
guest editor of a special issue of Cultic Studies Journal (vol. 14, no. 1, 1997) entitled
Women Under the Influence: A Study of Women’s Lives in Totalist Groups.
Lalich‘s latest book, Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults, provides a
needed and important bridge between autobiographical accounts written by former cult
members and research-oriented analyses of cultic groups written by scholars. As an ex-
member of the Democratic Workers Party (DWP), Lalich describes her personal experience
as one of the inner circle of a radical political cult. After leaving the group in 1986, and
through advanced work in the discipline of sociology, Lalich gained both the distance and
academic tools she needed to examine the process by which a young idealist is transformed
into a true believer, willing to sacrifice everything for the cause. The author uses a scholarly
account of her own experience of the rise and fall of the DWP and an in-depth examination
of Heaven‘s Gate, the New Age cult that grabbed public attention in March 1997 with its
collective suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Lalich identifies the common elements in
the evolution of these cults to develop a theoretical framework she calls ―bounded choice.‖
Lalich examines the complex processes of conversion and commitment, which she describes
as ―inextricably intertwined in the cult context while also intersecting with other relevant
social phenomena, such as charisma, ideological control, and social-psychological influence‖
(p. 15). Charismatic commitment, as defined in her theory, refers to an ongoing process
that increases devotion while eroding the devotee‘s sense of self. Lalich identifies four
structural dimensions of cultic groups: charismatic authority, a transcendent belief system,
systems of control, and systems of influence. She then shows how these factors interact to
create a self-sealing system that holds the true believer within the group.
With this new theory, Lalich has made an important contribution to our understanding of
cultic groups. She has skillfully woven together a conceptual analysis of cult commitment
with empirical evidence to support her assertions. She has addressed her main research
question—How is an idealistic devotee transformed into a true believer so committed to the
cause that everything else, even as far as life itself, becomes insignificant?—with an
insider‘s knowledge and a scholar‘s critical eye.
Carefully examining the histories of the two groups and the patterns of individual response
to charisma, Lalich answers social critics who characterize cult members as weak-willed,
lazy, and ill-informed. On the contrary, Lalich argues that Heaven‘s Gate and the DWP
attracted people who were ―giving and idealistic, hardworking and loyal, trustworthy and
loving‖ (p. 261). She finds that cult members are generally attracted by a moral imperative
articulated by a leader they perceive to be both strong and wise. Participating in their own
personal transformation for a worthy cause is a rational choice for deeply devoted believers,

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 2005, Page 40
she asserts. These individuals challenge the status quo by their willingness to take action to
make the world a better place.
While some scholars have concentrated on individual deficits or vulnerabilities in trying to
explain cult affiliation (Bainbridge, 1999 Galanter, 1999 Goldman, 1999), others have
focused on the pernicious strategies employed by charismatic leaders to attract and retain
followers (Dawson, 1998 Singer, 1995 Siskind, 2001). Lalich goes farther by focusing on
the interactive aspects of the charismatic relationship. She contends that seekers are
attracted emotionally and intellectually to the group by a combination of factors that arise
from the leader and his or her ideas, goals, and promises. What sets Lalich‘s book apart
from other scholarly treatments of new religious movements is her understanding of the
complex interaction that begins with initial attraction and continues throughout affiliation.
One of the book‘s many strengths lies in Lalich‘s explanation of the transformative process
whereby a cult member becomes a true believer (or deployable agent) of the charismatic
leader. The interaction between the individual and the charismatic system is the key to
understanding bounded choice theory. The believer responds to the intellectual and
emotional pull of the group with commitment that is renewed through ongoing interaction,
and in the process develops a new self. The leader‘s vision of the path to salvation has
transformational power.
In the introduction, Lalich reviews high-profile cults that have attracted both popular
attention and scholarly study. Lalich points out that affiliation with a charismatic leader is
not as strange or pernicious as one might imagine from press reports about certain
notorious groups. An estimated two million Americans have joined cults in the past several
decades, and many of them are educated seekers striving to make the world a better place
and holding great hope for the future.
Part One of the book reviews the formative principles, sociocultural environment, and
spiritual influences of the Heaven‘s Gate cult. Lalich shows how Bonnie Nettles and Marshall
Applewhite formed a complementary partnership that shaped a transcendent vision of the
―Next Level‖ beyond this world. As Ti and Do, Nettles and Applewhite saw themselves as the
messengers of salvation and eternal life for their followers. The path to salvation led from
this planet to the stars. Committed members separated themselves from the world, cut ties
with family and friends, minimized their individualistic and human parts, and ultimately
ended their lives in collective suicide in Mach 1997. Lalich points out that the conformity to
group norms that so shocked outsiders when news of the Heaven‘s Gate suicides hit the
press is not so foreign, after all conformity to the pushes and pulls of one‘s immediate
society is, in fact, frighteningly normal (p. 89).
In Part Two, Lalich devotes four chapters to explicating the founding, growth, and demise of
the Democratic Workers Party, a Marxist-Leninist political cult under the leadership of
Marlene Dixon. From its radical feminist beginnings in 1974, the DWP evolved into a sealed,
tightly disciplined system created to bring about social justice for the American working
class. Predicting revolution, Dixon drove her followers to work urgently for socialist
principles as the means of salvation for the working class. The struggle to overthrow the
present capitalist system was the individual responsibility of DWP members who were
required to surrender their identities, possessions, ties, and any ambitions outside of those
instilled by Dixon. Descriptions of the atmosphere of criticism/self-criticism and the harsh
treatment meted out to ―erring‖ party members are particularly powerful. The final
confrontation between Dixon and representatives of her inner circle is chilling in its
intensity.
Lalich does an outstanding job analyzing the evolution of DWP and its final collapse under
Dixon‘s violent and capricious leadership. Once a trusted insider herself, Lalich provides a
tremendously informative description of the evolution and demise of a political cult. Not