To What Extent Does Destructive Cults’ Leaders Employ Mind Control Techniques to Recruit Members in Order to Achieve Their Aims?

Abstract

With the constant media attention that cultism receives today, people want to know “to what extent do destructive cults’ leaders employ mind control techniques to recruit members in order to achieve their aims?” The research question was developed and inspired by several books and television shows focused on cults. This research question was then investigated by evaluating numerous researches found in online libraries, journals, podcasts, and books. The researches were then compiled and important notes were marked. All the key definitions are mentioned as well as limitations of the research methods used in order to assess cults. In order to holistically address the question all the three levels of analysis were used: biological, cognitive, and sociocultural. The concepts are further clarified with explaining two major exemplar cults: Peoples Temple and Heaven’s Gate. The essay concludes that though there are some possibilities where mind control may be employed with admirable intentions, most of the evidence suggests otherwise. Moreover, individuals lose their identity in the cults. They are trained and conditioned and degraded from humans to mere pets. Cult leaders rob their members of the one thing that makes them human by entirely controlling them: higher cognitive thinking. All of them share one major trait: their need to control anything and everything. In terms of dependency, it is a two-way relationship since the members are dependent on the leader and the leader is dependent on the members as his/her power stems from the members’ vulnerability. Finally, to answer the research question it could be said that to a large extent destructive cults’ leaders employ mind control techniques to recruit members in order to achieve their aims.