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was radically changed and transformed ...(The Unification Church) initiated what might
eventually prove to be one of the most ingenious, sophisticated and effective conversion
organizations ever devised. (Lofland, 1978, p. 10).
Several students who have studied this persuasion process first-hand have found current
tactics to be diverse, subtle, and compelling (see Zimbardo, Ebbesen, &Maslach, 1977).
We have been able to identify more than two dozen tactics employed by recruiters and their
organization during the initial contact stage, and several dozen more at later ―workshop‖
phases of the recruitment-conversion process. Each of several other cults we have had
acquaintance with uses some unique recruitment strategies and tactics, but also share some
basic approaches.
In the past, fascination with the ―psychology of the persuaders‖ and the surprising
effectiveness of their recruiting techniques has, paradoxically, led to a narrowness of focus
and, consequently, to a neglect of the interaction that takes place between recruiter and
prospective recruit. Thus, conceptual models have misdirected our attention to the
―sociology of the passive recruit.‖ The portrait drawn has been of the disturbed, socially
isolated youth from a broken home, seeking meaning in life, a sense of community, and a
transcendental awakening. There are too many instances where that prototype of passive
vulnerability does not match the attributes of prospective recruits or converts. Moreover,
even if the fit were good, we are left with an inappropriate and static conception of the
recruitment-persuasion process as one of strong recruiters, weak targets, and all-or-nothing
outcomes (conversion or failure to convert).
A ―new look‖ in the analysis of conversion to emerging religious movements, or cults, ―turns
the process on its head‖ by examining how ―people go about converting themselves‖
(LoMnd, 1978). Studies of the self-transformation of seekers (Strauss, 1976), and models of
the sequential stages of conversion and commitment to the occult (Lynch, 1978) are
beginning to reflect the dynamic interplay occurring between the several actors in this
dramatic exchange (see also Moscovici, 1980).
We believe that a fruitful direction for theory and empirical data collection should center
upon the reciprocal, often symbiotic, relationship between cult recruiters and prospective
recruits. The target of a cult recruiter may be a seeker of recruitment. His or her needs,
values, knowledge, and personal experiences may impel movement toward selection of
contact with certain kinds of cult recruiters. Predispositional variables may function to
increase the person‘s availability for cult contact. At the same time, cult recruiters are likely
to direct their initial contact efforts toward those individuals they predict will be most
receptive to more intensive conversion attempts. Whether a given contact results in further
affiliation depends, in turn, on many variables in the contact situation that build upon a set
of pre-contact characteristics of the person, and feed into that person‘s cognitive appraisal
of and affective reactions to the recruiter, cults, and prototypical conceptions of cult
members. In some instances, the outcome of such contact may not be the ―big decision‖
for subsequent exposure, but rather a readjustment of the person‘s attitude structure in the
direction of less negative affect, or assimilation of new pro-cult beliefs. That person may
then become part of a supportive, or at least non-hostile, social network which facilitates
the receptivity of other people to a recruiter‘s efforts. Or, individuals in a given category of
prospective recruits, such as high school students, may be contacted by a recruiter not with
the intention of making these adolescents convert at that time, but rather, of laying the
groundwork for favorable reactions to future recruiting efforts when they have the freedom
to become full-time converts.
We shall now outline our working model of the recruitment-conversion process developed
from an activist-interactional perspective. After sketching the main components of this
sequential model of contact-indoctrination-conversion, we will turn to the substance of our

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1 1985, Page 58
research--an empirical investigation into the nature and extent of the initial contact stage
between cults and high school students. The utility of our conceptual model will first be
assessed in terms of its predictive value in identifying a subset of adolescents likely to be
contacted or not approached by cult recruiters, and secondly, by predicting those likely to
be receptive, to or rejecting of further affiliation with a cult.
Model of Contact-Indoctrination-Conversion
Four distinct phases are identified in the sequence of events and activities that begin prior
to the Initial contact and lead up to a recruited member‘s final conversion into the new
organization. However, there is also feedback of later processes upon those in prior phases,
and some reciprocal interaction between these phases. Figure 1.1 provides a schematic
representation of the four phases within the overall sequence, along with the major
subcategories within each phase. [Figure 1.1 not available in this medium]
Our primary focus is on the first three phases, or the pre-conversion structure of the model.
In the final phase, the recruit is converted to the new ideology and becomes a recruiter who
reenters the system by directing contact efforts toward prospective members or by being
selected for contact by them. Group members who decide to ―exit‖ from the organization or
are ―deprogrammed‖ to change their acquired cult belief structure typically come from those
who are somewhere in this last phase. Although the process by which such transformations
into and out of this conversion mentality occur is inherently interesting, for the present we
have limited the scope of our inquiry to the earlier stages of this complex sequence.
Phase I includes the pre-contact variables, or the background characteristics and knowledge
structure of the potential convert and the recruiter. Phase 11 (recruitment) and III
(indoctrination) include the initial and developed contact variables, or situational factors,
mediational processes, and outcome measures of each contact.
The contact may be either selective or directed. Selective contact results when an
individual, perhaps out of curiosity, intellectual interest, personal needs, or ideological
distress, seeks, or makes him/herself available to the group member. Directed, or planned
contact, is initiated by individuals who, on their own or as representatives of a cult group,
intentionally seek to introduce new ideas to another person in order to achieve specific goals
defined for that encounter. However, the selective and directed roles are not exclusive of
one another: a recruit can simultaneously be a seeker and sought after, and so may be the
recruiter.
In Phase II an individual may come into mediated or direct (personal) contact with a group
member. Contact, for example, may be face to face or through exposure to the media‘s
presentation of information about the group. Thus, if the individual chooses to watch a TV
talk show featuring a cult group member or listen to a radio commercial advertising a
particular group‘s literature or meetings, he or she is selecting contact through mediated
channels.
While mediated channels are often more important in creating awareness or knowledge of
representative groups, direct channels are more important in changing attitudes toward
them. If, for whatever reason, the individual talks to a recruitment agent, recruitment can
occur. In such a case, (positive or negative) affective ties are developed between a potential
convert and the recruiter. Following this response, an individual may choose to attend or
may be invited to an introductory meeting, a dinner, or a film. On the other hand, either
actor may terminate the interaction following initial contact.
Accepting the offer for further exposure brings the potential recruit into Phase III. During
this period of indoctrination, more sustained compliance-gaining strategies are directed at
the recruit. In addition, increased efforts are focused on separating him or her from prior