I decided to tackle the question, “What makes people in cults do things that those of us on the outside find incomprehensible?”
JANJA LALICHSan Diego union-tribune
MARCH 17, 2022
Lalich is an author, researcher, consultant, professor emerita of sociology at Cal State Chico, and an authority on cults and coercion. She lives in Walnut Creek.
When the Heaven’s Gate deaths occurred in Rancho Santa Fe 25 years ago (for me, they were “induced suicides”), I was in graduate school about to start my dissertation research. Because I knew a lot about the group and had been in contact with former members as well as families of members, my adviser said, “Well, this is it. It fell right in your lap. This can be your dissertation topic.” I was hesitant at first when he added, “And it will be much stronger if you do a comparative study of Heaven’s Gate and the cult you were in.”
“Oh, dear,” I thought to myself, “do I really want to go back there?”
In 1975, when I was 30, I joined a left-wing revolutionary group, thinking I had found a serious organization that would give my life purpose and meaning. But — oh — it was a harsh and restrictive existence. I thought I was devoting myself to changing our country for the better. I gave up everything and went all in.
However, after 10-plus years of 18- to 20-hour days, no privacy, lengthy group criticism sessions and mindless activities meant only to enhance the leader’s reputation, I was worn out and disillusioned. Being in leadership and in the inner circle, I had seen too much. I knew too much. And at some point, I realized I was in a cult and wanted to leave. Fortunately, we all got out — but that’s another story.
For my dissertation, I decided to tackle the question, “What makes people in cults do things that those of us on the outside find incomprehensible?” Comparing the Democratic Workers Party (DWP) and Heaven’s Gate was a daunting task. On one end, you have a kind of New Agey UFO cult whose leaders and members claimed to despise this world, to not be of this world, and to be training and waiting patiently to leave Earth for their “home” — the “Level Above Human.” At the other end, you have a very down-to-earth Marxist-Leninist cult whose members were willing to work hard and fight to change this world. How different could two groups be?
In my research, I first learned that the social milieu of the mid-1970s, when both groups were recruiting, was ripe territory for both: The searching atmosphere of the New Age movement led some to Heaven’s Gate, while the end of the Vietnam War led others looking for a new cause to the DWP.
Then, through meticulous analyses of leadership styles, of documents, of internal behaviors and language, of mechanisms of influence and control, I discovered more commonalities than differences. In Heaven’s Gate, it was called “this” and in the DWP it was called “that” — but the purpose and effect were the same: coordinated indoctrination leading to blind loyalty and constant devotion. Indeed, cults are a variation on a theme — recruit, train, retain, isolate, change. Voilà, a true believer, living in a closed reality with an illusion of choice and an altered free will — what I call “bounded choice.”
Fortunately, the Democratic Workers Party ended in dissolution and not extinction. The story of Heaven’s Gate is a sad one that we can all learn from. Idealistic individuals, good decent women and men, trapped in an impossible dream, culminating in the largest “mass suicide” on U.S. soil.
The lessons: In these turbulent times, cults are having a heyday of recruitment. Don’t jump in too fast. Take your time before you take the leap. Don’t be pressured to act now. Do your research. Pretend you’re buying a car. You would never buy the first car you look at, right? Trust your gut if something doesn’t feel right.
If I’ve learned anything over the past 35 years of studying these groups and working with survivors and families — it’s that there are no gurus.
This essay is in the print edition of The San Diego Union-Tribune on March 18, 2022, with the headline, What makes cults — like the one I was in — appealing?
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