76 International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2020
brainwashing by their Chinese captors during
the Korean War: milieu control, mystical
manipulation, loading the language, sacred
science, demand for purity, confession,
doctrine over person, and dispensing of
existence. These criteria have often been used
as the yardstick against which a group is
measured to determine if it earns the label
“cult.” Appendix A defines the eight criteria.
The reader is also referred to Langone’s list
of characteristics for a more complete picture
(Tobias &Lalich, 1994). Whether or not a
group is labeled a “cult” is less important than
whether and how a particular individual has
been harmed by it.
Historical Trends
Although sects/cults have been known
throughout history, some of the earliest ones
in the United States were founded by groups
of idealistic pioneers who wanted to
experiment with communal living and shared
resources (see “Oneida Community”).
However, the modern emergence of the cult
phenomenon in the United States dates from
the 1960s and 1970s, ushered in by the desire
of young people to throw off the gender and
sexual conservatism of earlier decades (Kent,
2001). Idealism was sweeping the country,
and the youth of America, disillusioned with
the sociopolitical establishment, searched for
something to believe in. Some of this
disillusionment crystallized in the civil rights
movement and protests against the Vietnam
War. There was a fascination with all things
Eastern as gurus such as Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi (transcendental meditation) entered the
American stage. The counterculture
movement was in full swing “free love” and
experimentation with drugs and alternative
lifestyles were the order of the day (Kent,
2001).
It was in this combination of forces that many
cults were born—some Eastern or religiously
based others therapy based a few politically
Oneida Community
The Oneida Community was a small utopian
Bible-based group founded in Oneida, New
York, by J. H. Noyes in 1848. Members
shared property and wives, rejecting
monogamy. Noyes became autocratic,
deciding who should be paired with whom.
Despite financial success, their practice of
“complex marriage” (free love) caused
hostility with neighbors, and the community
was abolished in 1881. Although the social
experiment ended, its manufacturing
company continued and today produces the
widely known Oneida silver plate (Singer,
1995).
based and some an amalgam of New Age
rhetoric, psychology, and religious doctrine.
These early cults had members from
throughout the world, and some groups
moved or expanded to new countries and new
continents as they grew.
This history is explored in sociologist
Stephen Kent’s aptly titled book, From
Slogans to Mantras (2001). As Kent states,
Where the late 1960s had been characterized by
explosions of youthful protest over social issues,
in the new decade many of those who had been
protesting were turning instead to new religions
or undertaking unorthodox spiritual disciplines.
Gurus, swamis ...and “enlightened souls”
attracted tens of thousands of baby boomers into
what often were unusual and controversial
practices. (p. 1)
In contrast to those earlier large movements, the
trend today is with smaller groups developing
around a particular charismatic leader—a pastor,
minister, rabbi, or New Age guru—who purports
to have a direct connection to an Ultimate Being.
The most recent trends in cult recruitment
come from the internet. A case in point is the
Executive Success Program, or NXIVM,
which appeals to college students focused on
professional success (see “NXIVM”). Many
of the White supremacist groups in the
United States and both Western and Eastern
brainwashing by their Chinese captors during
the Korean War: milieu control, mystical
manipulation, loading the language, sacred
science, demand for purity, confession,
doctrine over person, and dispensing of
existence. These criteria have often been used
as the yardstick against which a group is
measured to determine if it earns the label
“cult.” Appendix A defines the eight criteria.
The reader is also referred to Langone’s list
of characteristics for a more complete picture
(Tobias &Lalich, 1994). Whether or not a
group is labeled a “cult” is less important than
whether and how a particular individual has
been harmed by it.
Historical Trends
Although sects/cults have been known
throughout history, some of the earliest ones
in the United States were founded by groups
of idealistic pioneers who wanted to
experiment with communal living and shared
resources (see “Oneida Community”).
However, the modern emergence of the cult
phenomenon in the United States dates from
the 1960s and 1970s, ushered in by the desire
of young people to throw off the gender and
sexual conservatism of earlier decades (Kent,
2001). Idealism was sweeping the country,
and the youth of America, disillusioned with
the sociopolitical establishment, searched for
something to believe in. Some of this
disillusionment crystallized in the civil rights
movement and protests against the Vietnam
War. There was a fascination with all things
Eastern as gurus such as Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi (transcendental meditation) entered the
American stage. The counterculture
movement was in full swing “free love” and
experimentation with drugs and alternative
lifestyles were the order of the day (Kent,
2001).
It was in this combination of forces that many
cults were born—some Eastern or religiously
based others therapy based a few politically
Oneida Community
The Oneida Community was a small utopian
Bible-based group founded in Oneida, New
York, by J. H. Noyes in 1848. Members
shared property and wives, rejecting
monogamy. Noyes became autocratic,
deciding who should be paired with whom.
Despite financial success, their practice of
“complex marriage” (free love) caused
hostility with neighbors, and the community
was abolished in 1881. Although the social
experiment ended, its manufacturing
company continued and today produces the
widely known Oneida silver plate (Singer,
1995).
based and some an amalgam of New Age
rhetoric, psychology, and religious doctrine.
These early cults had members from
throughout the world, and some groups
moved or expanded to new countries and new
continents as they grew.
This history is explored in sociologist
Stephen Kent’s aptly titled book, From
Slogans to Mantras (2001). As Kent states,
Where the late 1960s had been characterized by
explosions of youthful protest over social issues,
in the new decade many of those who had been
protesting were turning instead to new religions
or undertaking unorthodox spiritual disciplines.
Gurus, swamis ...and “enlightened souls”
attracted tens of thousands of baby boomers into
what often were unusual and controversial
practices. (p. 1)
In contrast to those earlier large movements, the
trend today is with smaller groups developing
around a particular charismatic leader—a pastor,
minister, rabbi, or New Age guru—who purports
to have a direct connection to an Ultimate Being.
The most recent trends in cult recruitment
come from the internet. A case in point is the
Executive Success Program, or NXIVM,
which appeals to college students focused on
professional success (see “NXIVM”). Many
of the White supremacist groups in the
United States and both Western and Eastern
