Are You Involved In A Thought-Limiting Mass Movement? Understanding How Cults Are Built

Posted on by Brian Colwell

The purpose of this post is to provide information on building cults such that a guide is created for those questioning whether or not they, themselves, are involved in a cult or other thought-limiting mass movement. By having this discussion on cults, the hope is to remove their mystery and mitigate their danger.

How To Build A Cult In 7 Easy Steps

Building and maintaining a cult requires the skillful and systematic use of propaganda tactics, which can be boiled-down to the following basic steps:

  • Step 1 – Create your own social reality.
  • Step 2 – Establish a granfalloon.
  • Step 3 – Build commitment through a rationalization trap.
  • Step 4 – Enshrine the leader’s credibility and attractiveness.
  • Step 5 – Send members out to proselytize the unredeemed.
  • Step 6 – Distract members from thinking undesirable thoughts.
  • Step 7 – Fixate members’ vision on a phantom.

Step 1 – Create Your Own Social Reality

What is meant by “social reality” are the shared beliefs, values, and practices of a community created through social interactions. In order to create your own social reality, you must:

  • Create isolation and censorship
  • Create a new world view
  • Create your own jargon 

Create Isolation & Censorship 

The first step in creating a cult is to construct your own social reality by eliminating all sources of information other than that provided by the cult. To that end, cult headquarters should be isolated from the rest of the world. In the case where cult members cannot be physically isolated, they should be psychologically isolated (such as through chanting, reading cult literature, or working continuously for the cult). Further, cult members’ mail should be censored and families should be prevented from visiting members, establishing strict boundaries between the “true believers” and the “unredeemed” (everyone else). While censorship can be physically enforced, it is more effective to encourage member self-censorship and promote cult behavioral monitor-evaluators, with everything that is not “of the cult” being labeled as “of the devil”.

Create A New World View – The “Cult Doctrine” 

The next step in creating your own social reality is to provide cult members with a new picture of the world, also referred to as the “cult doctrine”, which is then used by members to interpret all events and happenings. The cult doctrine is the master key to all the world’s problems. This new reality need not be factual – it need only make sense of the world, perhaps for the first time in a cult member’s life, even if this new reality is bizarre, outlandish, or unverifiable. In fact, the very impracticality of a cult’s goals is an important part of its campaign against the present, and all cult doctrine’s belittle the present by depicting it as some sort of preliminary on the way to a glorious future – one which can be achieved only through cult membership:

  • To a religious movement, the present is a place of exile, a vale of tears leading to the heavenly kingdom.
  • To a social revolution, the present is a mean way station on the road to Utopia.
  • To a nationalist movement, the present is an ignoble episode preceding the final triumph.

An effective cult doctrine is a source of hope and self esteem, creating faith in a future prescribed by the cult. It is the certitude of his infallible doctrine that renders the true believer impervious to the uncertainties, surprises, and unpleasant realities of the world around him, and the devout are always urged to seek the absolute truth with their hearts, not their minds (“We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand”):

  • In order to be effective, a doctrine must not be understood, but rather has to be believed.
  • If a doctrine is not unintelligible, it has to be vague.
  • If neither unintelligible nor vague, a doctrine has to be unverifiable – one has to get to heaven or the distant future to determine the truth of an effective doctrine.

Create Your Own Jargon

One useful technique for constructing a new social reality is to create your own language and jargon. Through a battery of clichés any event may be quickly defined as good or evil, abruptly and efficiently terminating any critical thinking. Remember to repeat your messages over and over and over again. The repetition of simple messages, images, and slogans creates the cult member’s knowledge of the world, defining what is truth and specifying how he/she should live. Science fiction, if heard frequently enough, can come to be viewed as science fact. 

Step 2 – Establish A Granfalloon

The word “granfalloon” comes from the 1963 novel Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. In the book, Vonnegut defined a granfalloon as “a proud and meaningless collection of human beings”. Since 1963 the word “granfalloon” has been used by marketers and advertisers to refer to a group of people who share a false sense of identity or purpose and whose mutual association is, in actuality, meaningless.

A cult aims to infect people with a malady and then offer the movement as a cure. When applied properly, the granfalloon technique encourages in cult members fear of the “outside” world and enforces the belief that the cult is the only solution to one’s problems – cult membership is required for a happy life and life is impossible outside of the cult family. The granfalloon technique requires an “in” group of followers, an “out” group of the unredeemed, and the establishment of both new group norms and social identities:

  • Establish the “in” group
  • Rapport through love-bombing
  • Establish a new social identity
  • Establish the “out” group

Establish The “In” Group 

To be in the “in” group, to be a chosen one, a cult member must act in a certain way; those that do not are wicked and “out”. In order to secure this behavioral conformity and uniformity, cult members already seasoned serve as role models and guides to the broader community, applying peer pressure and constantly reminding other members of their purpose and how to act. By relentlessly reinforcing cult practices, such as “love-bombing”, these behaviors become group norms.

Rapport Through Love-Bombing 

New recruits are brought into the granfalloon with a practice called “love-bombing”. Here, a new cult member is showered with attention, approval, and support by the other cult members, touching on the member’s psychological needs. Cult recruiters should mirror the interests and attitudes of new members, thus establishing rapport and understanding. In order to keep this support and approval, however, the new cult member must conform to the norms of the group.

Establish A New Social Identity

Joining a cult represents a break from the “other” world and the acceptance of a new social identity. This new social identity representing the “we” is essential in establishing an in-group of true believers and many cults require some sort of initiation to indicate member acceptance of the new identity (such as the adoption of a new last name shared by all, distinctive clothing, or special diets). These outward trappings of the cult member all confirm that he/she is indeed a chosen one and part of the in-group; to retain this valued membership, all one need do is continue to grow in this newfound life and, of course, continue to obey.

The one-mindedness prized by every cult is achieved as much by imitation as obedience. Conformity is key. To ripen a person for self-sacrifice the cult member must be stripped of his individual identity, most drastically by complete assimilation of the individual in the collective body. The individual fully assimilated into the collective never feels alone; to be cast out from the group is the equivalent of being cut off from life. 

Establish The “Out” Group 

An “out” group is established to direct hate. Hate is easily accessible and common hatred tends to unite the most disparate groups, even enemies. Therefore, a great cult leader concentrates all hatred on a single foe – some sort of devil. Cults can rise and spread without belief in a God, but never without belief in a devil. The ideal devil is a foreigner; to qualify as a devil, a domestic enemy must be given a foreign ancestry. Those of the devil are in the out-group and evil – they are not the cult member’s true family; the cult is the family now. By defining the evil out-group, cult members gain a sense of belonging and elitism (“I’m glad I’m not like them”). Further, by hating those of the out-group, cult member fear is increased – resulting in better retention (“I don’t want to be like them”) and group support (“I can’t let them take over the world”).

Step 3 – Build Commitment Through A Rationalization Trap

Rationalization is a way to avoid guilt or self-consciousness from negative outcomes resulting from one’s actions, and the “rationalization trap” is a defense mechanism that involves using logical-sounding reasons to justify unacceptable feelings or behaviors. In order to build commitment through a rationalization trap, one must:

  • Build obedience through escalating commitments
  • Demand sacrifice
  • Spring the rationalization trap 

Build Obedience Through Escalating Commitments  

A cult ensures member obedience through escalating commitments – what at first seem to be simple, isolated requests, are in fact a series of commitments designed to become increasingly more and more demanding. Step-by-step the commitments increase but, in-and-of-itself, each step along the way is neither a huge nor ludicrous leap of faith from the step preceding it. In this way, both the resolution of dissonance and the maintenance of the cult member’s self-image as honoring commitments form a powerful rationalization trap.

Demand Sacrifice

Possessed of the cult’s vision of the past and the future, the true believer sees himself as part of something that stretches endlessly backward and forward, something eternal or immortal. Thus, the true believer can sacrifice his life because it is neither the beginning nor the end of all things. But, there is a need for some kind of make-believe for people to face death unflinchingly. One of the main tasks of the cult leader is to mask the grim reality of dying and killing by evoking in his followers the illusion that they are participating in a grandiose spectacle, a solemn or light-hearted dramatic spectacle, as dying and killing are easy when they are part of a ritual, ceremony, dramatic performance, or game.

Spring The Rationalization Trap

A cult member, after having made questionable commitments and reprehensible sacrifices for the cult, often experiences feelings of guilt stemming from the consciousness of an irredeemably blemished self. Feelings of guilt and the desire to escape the self returns the cult member to self-sacrifice for the cult and hatred for, and brazenness towards, those of the out-group. And then the cult member is faced with a dilemma: “How can I explain all that I have done to those outside of the group?” This requires the creation of a sensible, coherent justification that is not easily forthcoming – thus, the rationalization trap is sprung.

The most effective way to reduce cult member dissonance is to either minimize the humanity or maximize the culpability of the victim of the action in order to convince the members that the victims deserved what they got. Examples of rationalization include: 

  • Minimizing the situation
  • Making excuses
  • Blaming others
  • Comparing what you did to what others have done
  • Saying “I did it for God”
  • Saying “I know I shouldn’t have done that, but my boss made me”
  • Saying “If I hadn’t done it, someone else would have”

Step 4 – Enshrine The leader’s Credibility & Attractiveness

Without the leader there will be no cult – cults tend to be highly leader-oriented since the leader is the source of all sustenance. Because the leader is so important, he or she cannot be criticized or second-guessed. Cults are marked by little or no checks and balances on the leader’s power, and the leader is typically exempt from the rules of the cult. Further, rewards and punishments are used to maintain the leader’s power and dissent is immediately quashed. In order to enshrine the leader, one must:

  • Create the leader’s myth 
  • Surround the leader’s credibility and attractiveness in arrogance

Create The Leader’s Myth

Most cults have leader myths, or stories and legends passed from cult member to cult member concerning the life and times of the cult’s leader. What is the purpose of such myths? Well, cults require members to engage in extreme behavior – extreme behaviors which arouse dissonance. Cult members are more likely to comply with extreme requests if the leader is believed to be holy or blessed by a divine purpose. 

Surround The Leader’s Credibility & Attractiveness In Arrogance

The quality of one’s ideas seems to play only a minor role in cult leadership – what counts most is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinions of others, and the single-handed defiance of the world.

Step 5 – Send Members Out To Proselytize The Unredeemed

To “proselytize” is to attempt to convert someone from one religion, belief, or opinion, to a different belief or course of action – one that is advocated or promoted. More important than bringing in new members, though, the act of proselytizing the unredeemed and witnessing to the unconverted ensures that cult members are constantly engaged in self-generated persuasion, selling themselves on their own decisions to reduce “buyer’s remorse”:

  • Cult members convince themselves
  • Charlatanism is indispensable

Cult Members Convince Themselves

Evangelical activity tends to strengthen resolve and, in arguing to convince others, cult members actually convince themselves. Each attempt to sell the cult to outsiders is likely to elicit negative responses or an attack on the cult. In defending their beliefs cult members learn to refute attacks, eliminating dissonance and promoting cult norms.

Charlatanism Is Indispensable

Charlatanism is indispensable to effective cult leadership, as there can be no mass movement without some deliberate misrepresentation of facts. In regards to testimonials given to other cult members, many cults encourage members to embellish how bad their lives were before joining the cult. The worse, the better – and the more approval one receives from the cult. By constantly recounting these stories, cult members come to believe in the power of the cult to effect change and how hopeless their lives would be without it.

Step 6 – Distract Members From Thinking Undesirable Thoughts

Most cult doctrines are hard to take seriously, much less accept, and new cult members are likely to ask questions. How does a cult distract members from questioning its doctrine? A variety of techniques are useful in preventing cult member focus:

  • Deprivation
  • Disruption
  • Mind police 

Deprivation

Never leave new cult members alone to think for themselves – control their time and space by depriving them of food, water, and sleep. When the conscious mind stops functioning out of weariness, the cult’s propaganda will begin to seep into the cult member’s unconscious.

Disruption

Meditation, chanting, and singing disrupt counterarguing in a cult by preventing thinking. All that is, all that the cult member can see, hear, taste, sense, and speak, are the primordial vibrations of cult existence – there is no other, more worldly, concern. Nonstop activities such as proselytizing, working, cooking, and cleaning for other members also serve to limit cult member opportunities for careful thought or personal reflection.

Mind Police

By teaching that any “undesirable” thoughts are evil and from the devil, the cult may prevent scrutiny and thought on the merits of cult membership. In this way, cult members become their own mind police and learn to control their thoughts (or at least the expression of these thoughts).

Step 7 – Fixate Members’ Vision On A Phantom

Cults must fixate their members on the vision of a better world and promised land for the faithful. This phantom future, some sort of prize to be earned, establishes hope – a powerful motivator of human behavior – by providing a sense of purpose and mission. By fixating a member’s gaze on a future phantom, cults provide their members with a powerful incentive to maintain service to the group – true believers will be afraid to stop working for the cult and fearful that they may lose the desired prize if they take even just one small break from the cult and its mission.

Thanks for reading!