Sparsely, Sage and Timely
By David V. Mitchell
Some fatherly advice about cults Idyllic West Marin in the past 30 years has unfortunately had far too much to do with three cults. Their members killed a total of 14 people and attempted to kill two others. I’m, of course, talking about the "Church" of Synanon and two Manson Family-style cults – Glenn Helzer’s and Marcus Wesson’s. In 2000, the Helzer cult killed five people, including two in Woodacre and a third who was from Woodacre. In March 2004, nine members of the Wesson cult died in Fresno in a Jonestown-style murder-suicide. The cult had spent half its time on a tugboat in Marshall, where two victims had worked. The much-larger Synanon cult, which then was based in Marshall, did not kill anyone, but not for lack of trying. In September 1978 in Berkeley, followers of Synanon leader Charles Dederich used ax handles to beat an ex-member into a coma. In October, Synanon members planted a 4.5-foot rattlesnake in the mailbox of an attorney who’d won a suit against the cult; the snake bit him, but he survived. All this may create the misimpression that cults can be recognized by their violent ways. Most can’t. Indeed, non-violent cults were what came to mind when my eldest stepdaughter, Anika, moved from Guatemala to a Midwestern city, where she is working for a few months before college. Knowing that cults like to target people in her situation, I sent a fatherly warning, and Anika wrote back, "I had no idea that could happen. I really appreciate your taking time to warn me." She then agreed to my reprinting the warning. ‘Dear Anika, please allow me, as your stepfather, to offer a bit of advice: people in the situation you are in are the typical targets of cults. I bring this up because I’ve spent so much time doing research on and writing about cults. "Contrary to the popular misconception, people who join cults are not usually looking for someone to bring order to their lives. Rather, they are people whose lives are in transition, and you are right now in the middle of some of life’s biggest transitions. You are in a new city and cut off from your old friends, your classmates, the people you knew at church. You’re about to be in a new job just after having been a student. You’re in the process of finding a new group of people to be your friends. "Cults typically portray themselves as merely spiritual or social groups, but you soon find that taking part in such a group’s activities requires a significant commitment of time. Without intending to, you gradually take on the group’s point of view, and once that happens, they’ve got you. "You become not only a member; you do unpaid work for the group; you help recruit new members for the group; you help raise money for the group; you have few friends outside the group; your own needs become secondary; and it becomes difficult to act independently of the group. "So please be a bit wary of any organized group that shows an unusually friendly interest in you, your background, your activities. If you are not careful, it’s easy to be seduced by the lure of friendship, especially when it comes from a seemingly respectable group. ‘Some colleges for a while told new students how to recognize cults and explained how cults recruit members from among people new to their city. Since you haven’t taken an orientation session, I’ve taken it upon myself to tell you what you’d hear if you took one." ----------------------------- |
http://www.drphil.com/plugger/respond/?plugID=9833 In a cult and want out? SIGN UP DR PHIL SHOW ON CULTS all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men/women to do nothing-Danny Haszard Bangor Maine