Awareness of harmsCults became front-page news after the catastrophe of Johnstown in 1978, which was the launchpad for discussions and debates in which academics, family members, activists, and others yielded different perspectives on how to approach those in cultic environments as well as concepts that existed in those settings such as "brainwashing" (Langone, 2015).
Survivors of these groups who encounter cult recovery professionals are typically those who have been harmed in a destructive group environment and are seeking resources. However, it is important to recognize that an individual's experience in groups is unique, and can range from benign to extremely harmful.
Unfortunately, those who have experienced destructive group settings are often stigmatized for their associations due to a lack of understanding of undue influence and coercive control. It is essential to be aware of why individuals join cults as provided by Cult Recovery 101:
"When ex-members had been polled (at ICSA Recovery Workshops) they consistently gave these reasons for joining their groups: Idealism, Friendship, Love, Freedom, Community, Mission, Sincerity, Salvation, Enlightenment, Spiritual high. People don't join cults. They get involved in groups they are led to believe represent these high ideals." — Rosanne Henry, MA, LPC
On November 18th, 46 years ago, over 900 individuals were victims of a mass-murder suicide who were members of the Peoples Temple cult. This event is most commonly known as the "Jonestown Massacre" which has been described as, "one of the largest mass deaths in American history".
On November 18, 1978, while investigating human rights abuses by a large cult led by James Warren "Jim" Jones (1931-1978), Congressman Leo Ryan (1925-1978) and several companions were murdered by Jones' followers.
Ryan had traveled to "Jonestown," the cult's compound in the South American country of Guyana, at the behest of his constituents, some of whom had family members in the cult. Following Ryan's murder, Jones ordered his followers to commit mass suicide; more than 900 bodies were later found, most having died by taking poison.
The FBI, charged with investigating violence against public officials, opened a probe into the murder of Ryan (hence the case name RYMUR) and provided other support and investigative assistance in relation to the mass casualties.
This release consists of material released previously and ranges from 1978 To 1979.
Synanon (1991)
1991 - Wikipedia: Synanon
Synanon is a US-founded social organization created by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich Sr. in 1958 in Santa Monica, California, United States. It is currently active in Germany.
Originally established as a drug rehabilitation program, by the early 1960s, Synanon became an alternative community centered on group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game," a form of attack therapy. The group ultimately became a cult called the Church of Synanon in the 1970s.
Synanon disbanded in 1991 due to members being convicted of criminal activities (including attempted murder) and retroactive loss of its tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) due to financial misdeeds, destruction of evidence, and terrorism It has been called one of the "most dangerous and violent cults America had ever seen.
Shakahola Massacre (2023)
In April 2023, 110 dead bodies were found in the Shakahola forest, near Malindi, Kenya. Rescued survivors stated that they had been ordered to starve themselves to death by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, leader of the Malindi cult. As of July 2023, the death toll has risen to over 400.
Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves.
Cultic Studies Review: Using the Bounded Choice Model as an Analytical Tool: A Case Study of Heaven's Gate (2004) (Janja Lalich, Ph.D.)
The purpose of this paper is to describe the "bounded choice" theoretical model and to illustrate how this new model can be used as a tool for examining and analyzing high-demand groups or situations, sometimes called cults. This new approach uses a conceptual framework of four interlocking dimensions that I submit are integral to the social dynamic found in cults. The four dimensions are charismatic authority, transcendent belief system, systems of control, and systems of influence. The dimensions involve both structure and process. That is, they make up the framework of the social system, and they include social processes that uphold and reinforce that social structure. The four dimensions are defined briefly as:
Charismatic authority: This is the emotional bond between leader and followers. It lends legitimacy to the leader and grants authority to his or her actions while at the same time justifying and reinforcing followers' responses to the leader and/or the leader's ideas and goals. The relational aspect of charisma is the hook that links a devotee to a leader and/or his or her ideas.
Transcendent belief system: This is the overarching ideology that binds adherents to the group and keeps them behaving according to the group's rules and norms. It is transcendent because it offers a total explanation of past, present, and future, including a path to salvation. Most important, the leader/group also specifies the exact methodology (or recipe) for the personal transformation necessary to qualify one to travel on that path.
Systems of control: This is the network of acknowledged, or visible, regulatory mechanisms that guide the operation of the group. It includes the overt rules, regulations, and procedures that guide and control members' behavior.
Systems of influence: This is the network of interactions and social influence residing in the group's social relations. This is the human interaction and group culture from which members learn to adapt their thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors in relation to their new beliefs.
The interrelated and interlocking nature of the four dimensions form a "self-sealing system," a social system closed in on itself and closed to the outside world. It is characterized by ideological totalism and processes of influence and control that may lead adherents to a high degree of commitment that I have identified as "charismatic commitment." Now the dedicated adherent becomes a "true believer" in the sense of being a deployable agent for the group or leader. Living within the bounded reality of the cultic social system, the cult member encounters no meaningful reality checks and becomes more and more enmeshed with and invested in the closed world of the group. For some, this may lead to a state of "personal closure," or the individualized version of the self-sealing system. The member's life and choices are constrained not only by the system but also, and perhaps even more powerfully, by the close-mindedness of the individual him- or herself who is functioning in alliance with that system. Now the dedicated adherent has entered a social-psychological state of being that I am calling bounded choice: in essence, life outside the cult has become impossible to imagine.
The exemplar group studied here is the Heaven's Gate cult, which came to prominence when the members committed collective suicide. On March 27, 1997, thirty-nine dead bodies were found in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The deceased were followers of Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite (known to their devotees as Ti and Do).2 In addition to the male leader, Applewhite, among the dead were twenty-one women and seventeen men. According to announcements by the local coroner's office, the deaths had been caused by ingestion of a mixture of drugs and alcohol, and suffocation by plastic bag over the head. Because the group's Web site (www.heavensgate [dot] com) garnered so much attention after the suicides, this group, previously known as the Bo Peep cult by those who had some familiarity with the group, came to be called Heaven's Gate.
The data for this study include interviews with former group members, sympathetic followers and believers, and families of members and other associates. Additional data were drawn from my content analysis of archival material including the group's written documents, Internet postings, and audio and video recordings. Also I relied on the work of Robert Balch and David Taylor, who have been studying and writing about the group since the mid-1970s, as well as reviewing other scholarly and popular articles and media reports."
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