Why do people join cults?

JH

Why do people join cults, even though some are very intelligent people? What religions do you consider to be cults?

Get yourself a copy of Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer" and you'll discover all you ever wanted to know about cults and who joins them. The book, very slim, covers religious, political, and social cults. You'll be glad you read it.

francois

JamesThomas

A few gems from "The True Believer": "The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause." "Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden...We join a mass movement to escape from individual responsibility, or, in the words of an ardent young Nazi, 'to be free from freedom.' It was not sheer hypocrisy when the rank-and-file Nazis declared themselves not guilty of all the enormities they had committed. They considered themselves cheated and maligned when made to shoulder responsibility for obeying orders. Had they not joined the Nazi movement in order to be free from responsibility?" "The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others. The creed whose legitimacy is most easily challenged is likely to develop the strongest proselytizing impulse."

"It is the true believer's ability to shut his eyes and stop his ears to facts which in his own mind deserve never to be seen nor heard which is the source of his unequalled fortitude and consistency ."

gumby

We join a mass movement to escape from individual responsibility

That says a lot!

I guess I need to get the book. I was getting this confused with "true believer" ....a movie with Martin Sheen. This isn't the same is it?

Gumby

Pleasuredome

they might be bored and want to have something to do in their spare time.

zucker

I have wondered the same thing myself many times.

Thanks Francois for the line on the book.

shera

For myself,it was feeling a lack of togetherness and lack of family togetherness.My father died when I was 14,before the Jw's beliefs,I believed my father must be in hell.They offered me hope to see my father again.

garybuss

Some people must wake up in the morning and say, "Life is going so great! I think I'll join a cult!".

I was raised in it. I had this thought one sunny morning, "I think I'll go along with this . . . . because if I don't, I will loose my home.".

Satanus

From what i heard, my dad got us all into the wt because there doctrines gave him ammunition against a meddling bible thumping mother in law.

SS

AjaxMan

Some, if not most, people are sheep, believe it or not.

Some people does it to feel accepted; to feel useful and being part of something.

Some others, like many of you, did not have any choice because you were born into it or because you were children and your parents made the decision for you.

But mostly, the reason is to fill an void in life, be it psychological, spiritual or political.

Why do people join cults?

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