Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, Page 12
―Now that I‘ve found God, Satan is everywhere trying to take me back.‖
―Satan acts through the ones you love.‖
―Now that you are on the Path, dark forces will attempt to dissuade and harm you. Your
own mind will rebel with doubts and counterarguments.‖
―It would be better for you to have never found the truth than to abandon it. Traitors will
suffer ten-thousand lifetimes, without another chance for redemption.‖
―If you reject the protection of the master, your karma will descend and you will be
vulnerable to accident, illness, and insanity. The dark forces will roost on you like ravens on
a corpse.‖
―The greatest tests appear when you are on the verge of victory.‖
Ah, the adventure of it all. Imagine life without all that drama. Totalist cult devotees cannot.
They are on a razor‘s edge of self-discovery and service. It is a thin line that sustains a loyal
circle around a leader‘s high demands. Like the tightrope walker, cult members fear falling
to personal harm without the group safety net. If they fail to serve well or if they express
doubts, the leader just might pull the net and sever their leash. They will spin out into the
social quagmire that only wants to swallow them into rounds of fast food, popular television,
mundane jobs, unbridled sex—and worst of all, they will become part of that ignorant mass
of clueless humans on their way to perdition.
Their immediate instinct will be to find a way back into the graces of the group and guru. If
they do return, they will be treated not like a prodigal son but more like a neophyte, with
suspicion and higher demands on their loyalty. Yes, every sane religion or ethical society
also will warn members of these same materialistic distractions to a good life. And, yes,
some ex-members do fall into a self-destructive lifestyle by living it up after they leave a
restrictive cult life. But most do not, and most become productive citizens after making
some difficult adjustments. But in all cases, the exit perils are very real, and not just
threats.5
Many members of totalist cults decide to leave the group years before they make a physical
break and announce it to the group. Why is this? Can they not just walk away? No, they
cannot because the exit costs are usually very high. Could you just walk away from your
promises, job, property, investments, closest friends, marriage, children, or God, even if
you had a good reason? What would it take? How would you prepare? When would you be
ready? During the process of deciding, how many times would your ambivalence kick in to
change your resolve? What are you prepared to lose? How would you know that the
alternative is any better? What if the guru is right? The very thought of going through with
such a decision could drive you temporarily insane. The guru warned you about that, did he
not?
Who can these questioning members trust for information about spiritual matters, career,
identity issues, or medical needs? For years they absorbed the cult‘s spin on all of that, and
now everything is in doubt. Who are they now, and what is their purpose in life? Those
same questions got them into this mess to begin with. Someone gave them ready answers,
or at least a way to find them—now what? Dare they ask those same questions again?
The reality of the closed system shows its power over members when they dare to defect.
Benjamin Zablocki suggests that brainwashing is most apparent when cult members
consider leaving the group or belief system.6 Their very life and mind are in peril when they
choose to leave a totalist cult. In some cases, death threats are literal, but most are
metaphorical. Cults that arbitrarily without due process decide who is saved and who is not,
or who has rights and who does not, ―dispense existence.‖ The dispensing of existence is
the last of Robert J. Lifton‘s eight themes that comprise a thought-reform milieu or process
―Now that I‘ve found God, Satan is everywhere trying to take me back.‖
―Satan acts through the ones you love.‖
―Now that you are on the Path, dark forces will attempt to dissuade and harm you. Your
own mind will rebel with doubts and counterarguments.‖
―It would be better for you to have never found the truth than to abandon it. Traitors will
suffer ten-thousand lifetimes, without another chance for redemption.‖
―If you reject the protection of the master, your karma will descend and you will be
vulnerable to accident, illness, and insanity. The dark forces will roost on you like ravens on
a corpse.‖
―The greatest tests appear when you are on the verge of victory.‖
Ah, the adventure of it all. Imagine life without all that drama. Totalist cult devotees cannot.
They are on a razor‘s edge of self-discovery and service. It is a thin line that sustains a loyal
circle around a leader‘s high demands. Like the tightrope walker, cult members fear falling
to personal harm without the group safety net. If they fail to serve well or if they express
doubts, the leader just might pull the net and sever their leash. They will spin out into the
social quagmire that only wants to swallow them into rounds of fast food, popular television,
mundane jobs, unbridled sex—and worst of all, they will become part of that ignorant mass
of clueless humans on their way to perdition.
Their immediate instinct will be to find a way back into the graces of the group and guru. If
they do return, they will be treated not like a prodigal son but more like a neophyte, with
suspicion and higher demands on their loyalty. Yes, every sane religion or ethical society
also will warn members of these same materialistic distractions to a good life. And, yes,
some ex-members do fall into a self-destructive lifestyle by living it up after they leave a
restrictive cult life. But most do not, and most become productive citizens after making
some difficult adjustments. But in all cases, the exit perils are very real, and not just
threats.5
Many members of totalist cults decide to leave the group years before they make a physical
break and announce it to the group. Why is this? Can they not just walk away? No, they
cannot because the exit costs are usually very high. Could you just walk away from your
promises, job, property, investments, closest friends, marriage, children, or God, even if
you had a good reason? What would it take? How would you prepare? When would you be
ready? During the process of deciding, how many times would your ambivalence kick in to
change your resolve? What are you prepared to lose? How would you know that the
alternative is any better? What if the guru is right? The very thought of going through with
such a decision could drive you temporarily insane. The guru warned you about that, did he
not?
Who can these questioning members trust for information about spiritual matters, career,
identity issues, or medical needs? For years they absorbed the cult‘s spin on all of that, and
now everything is in doubt. Who are they now, and what is their purpose in life? Those
same questions got them into this mess to begin with. Someone gave them ready answers,
or at least a way to find them—now what? Dare they ask those same questions again?
The reality of the closed system shows its power over members when they dare to defect.
Benjamin Zablocki suggests that brainwashing is most apparent when cult members
consider leaving the group or belief system.6 Their very life and mind are in peril when they
choose to leave a totalist cult. In some cases, death threats are literal, but most are
metaphorical. Cults that arbitrarily without due process decide who is saved and who is not,
or who has rights and who does not, ―dispense existence.‖ The dispensing of existence is
the last of Robert J. Lifton‘s eight themes that comprise a thought-reform milieu or process
