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 The historical context (i.e., whether cult-related tragedies have occurred in the
country)
 The relationship between state and religion
 The privileges (if applicable) given to certain religious groups
 The presence or not of a state religion
 The state financing of certain religions
 The government‘s position regarding the cult phenomenon
 The impact of public and/or political pressure.
Cultural differences will influence governmental actions or inaction regarding the control or
suppression of cultic groups, the illegality of certain actions, the penalties for violations, and
the vigor with which a government may address the issue.
There are, however, certain areas in which cultural differences will play less of a role, given
that the society in question respects the basic human rights that are taken for granted in
most democracies. The primary area of such action is the education—inoculation, if you
will—of young people so as to make them less likely to be interested in, need, examine,
convert to, commit to, or become subservient to a cultic or extremist group.
There are several areas along the pathway to violence where the vulnerability of young
people to cultic or extremist groups could be decreased through preventive action.
Recommendation 5
Counseling and educational services designed to help young people develop more
effective coping skills to manage life challenges should receive greater attention and
support from governments and private foundations.
Comment: At 16 years old, a person is still considered a minor, a child, whose life is
regimented and directed by parents and other authorities. Only six years later (fewer
if the person does not attend college), that person will have graduated college and
may be expected to participate as an equal in the adult world of work, find a mate
and get married, and begin raising a family. That so many young people suffer from
feelings of inadequacy and depression is not surprising, given the stress they
experience moving so quickly from childhood to adulthood. During no time in life do
human beings assume so much increase in responsibility in so short a time span.
And yet, society pays relatively scant attention to the psychological needs of its
youth. An offering of more guidance and assistance to youth would not only reduce
their vulnerability to cultic and extremist groups, but would contribute to the
amelioration of many other social problems, as well.
Recommendation 6
Schools, religious institutions, and community organizations should support cultic
studies experts in the development of educational programs that make young people
in high school and college aware of the different types of cultic and extremist groups
they will encounter in the ideological marketplace.
Comment: So many groups present themselves as the ―only‖ pathway to God, the
―only‖ group led by a true prophet, the ―only‖ group that is truly doing God‘s work,
the ―only‖ group that can bring social justice to the world, the ―only‖ group that can
lead you to enlightenment in this lifetime. An educational program that discusses the
wide variety of groups in the marketplace and demonstrates how many of them
claim to be unique in virtually the same way and how many are not what they claim

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to be will make youth more informed consumers, more ―street-smart,‖ about the
―idealism‖ market. Such an educational program should NOT develop and discuss a
compendium of ―bad‖ groups. A ―black-list‖ approach is difficult to sustain because
groups change, and they exist on a wide spectrum from benign to highly destructive.
Moreover, any ―list‖ is sure to omit the majority of the thousands of groups that exist
and will become quickly out of date as new groups enter the marketplace. Instead,
the focus should be on a nonjudgmental presentation of the variety of groups,
movements, and organizations that young people will encounter in the ―ideological
marketplace.‖ The approach should be one of consumer education in which young
consumers are given advice on how to research and evaluate groups that might
capture their interest or attention. Conceptualizing the phenomenon as an
―ideological marketplace‖ will avoid religious freedom issues, for many of the groups
in this marketplace are political, educational, psychotherapeutic, or commercial.
Recommendation 7
Cultic studies experts need to further develop educational programs that help young
people in high school and college understand the subtle techniques of manipulative
socio-psychological influence employed by cultic and extremist groups and the
normal psychological processes, such as confirmatory bias, which can hinder their
capacity to make truly informed decisions.
Comment: Although some useful resources exist (e.g., Fellows, 2000), much more
needs to be done. It is especially important to place manipulative influence within a
broader cultural context and to link the educational efforts to social psychology
research (e.g., Cialdini, 1984). Young people need to better understand the ways in
which advertisers, for example, use influence techniques. They also need to better
understand how certain processes, such as confirmatory bias and rhetoric (in the
sense of persuasive communication), can interfere with the evaluation of
information.
Recommendation 8
Mainstream religions need to develop educational programs that improve spiritual
discernment among their members, particularly in regard to (a) the evaluation of
powerful inner experiences and how these can sometimes be engineered (b) the
processes of religious conversion and commitment building and how unscrupulous
leaders can mislead and exploit people who are experiencing religious change (c)
the recognition of arguments and appeals based on sophistry and (d) the
misinterpretation or misuse of scripture (e.g., the Bible, the Koran).
Comment: Programs that address issues of spiritual discernment will probably have
to be developed and implemented within religious organizations in countries that
have a sharp separation of church and state. In countries where this separation is
not so stark, governmental educational institutions may be able to take on this task.
Assistance
Usually the people who are most directly harmed as a result of an involvement with a cultic
or extremist group are the group members and their families. Helping professionals—
including mental health professionals, clergy, lawyers, and law enforcement personnel—are
sometimes indirectly distressed because they don‘t know what to do when families, former
group members, or current group members seek their assistance. The issue is complicated
by the fact that involved persons often do not conceptualize their problem as a ―cult‖ issue,
and they or their helpers may, as a consequence, neglect important dimensions of the
problem. Only a small percentage of former group members come to cult experts for
assistance, in part because there are so few cult experts. Therefore, the most efficient