Mark Vicente recently made a video of ‘What Is a Cult?’ FR did an edited version of his remarkable one-hour speech. To hear the complete talk “Whatis a Cult” visit: https://www.markvicente.com/thoughts/2023/5/15/what-is-a-cult

By Mark Vicente

Number 1 – PATHOLOGY

The leader of a cultic group often has Cluster B PATHOLOGY… at minimum malignant narcissism. This could go all the way to sociopathy or psychopathy.

Often it is covert.

They might have a veneer of goodness to use their followers’ dreams to entrap them. They appeal to their followers’ most cherished values – but, as the followers are reminded, the leader is the superior being.

They have a lot to do to reach his greatness.

Followers are left in a never-ending spiral of self-doubt, shame, and low self-esteem, while the leader gains fuel from their adoration and obedience.

Followers are usually well-meaning people with conscience. They cannot imagine their leader may not have a conscience. They have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to explain the leader’s sadistic and Machiavellian behavior.

‘Pollyanna Denial’ is the blind insistence that others have empathy because you have it.

I assumed Keith Raniere’s lack of emotion was indicative of his advanced emotional and spiritual state. It never occurred to me that I was dealing with a malignant pathological empty shell of a person masquerading as a human.

A defense followers use: “I’ve never seen these behaviors you allege. Our leader is nothing but kind.”

They may NOT have seen anything. Cult leaders with pathologies are strategic. They have a public persona and a private persona.

Another defense is Betrayal Blindness. The follower gets angry at the messenger trying to wake them up, because acknowledging betrayal and abuse is too much for their psyche to handle.

It’s easier to lash out at the person trying to tell the truth.

Number 2 – LOVE BOMBING

Entrance into a cult can be euphoric and seemingly transcendent. People report feeling finally belonging, finding purpose, finding their tribe or their people. You are showered with praise; idealized to the point where you’re enamored with the way they see you. You feel a sense of love and belonging which you yearned for all your life.

In a cult, existing members, on their best behavior, give the newbie an experience of community and high-vibe excitement. This will change once the newbie is in. Then devaluation and coercion sets in. The existing members don’t see what they’re participating in. Once the new recruit is in, the other members are told they need to get a newbie on the path of growth as quickly as possible. Most members rationalize the abuse as love, since they believe they are doing important work, while the newbie desperately holds on to the initial high of the love-bombing.

Number 3 – OBEDIENCE

The leader requires unconditional OBEDIENCE for themselves and to the ideology. There is a narrative: “To take you to enlightenment or ultimate awareness, you must relinquish control and your insistence on self-protection… you must let go of the ego.”

The follower, desperate to achieve the promise of greatness, surrenders to the psychopath. In Raniere’s case, he sold an idea that slavery is freedom. Yep – right out of 1984.

The follower does not necessarily think they’re an obedient automaton. They believe they have choice. If you asked if they could travel anywhere or associate with anyone, they insist they can. But that is not the case. They have some choice – within a narrow band of options. Can they serve anything other than the agenda of the cult? No. Can they choose which branch of activity to work in inside the cult? To some degree, yes.

Number 4 – INFANTILIZATION

The cult leader infantilizes the followers. Cult leaders are the parent or god of their followers, who in turn project attributes of mother and father onto the leader.

Not only is this prevalent in religious cults and corporations, but also in society. Many people tend to look at leaders as powerful all-wise parental figures and feel obedient to whatever they say.

Cult leaders will re-parent or reprogram followers to become great or holy or whatever they peddle. They want control. It’s part of a messianic complex.

Number 5 – ISOLATION

The cult is designed to break down followers, so they lose touch with friends, family, their own knowledge and intuition. They have to be isolated from their old support system, so they can bond to the leader and the system. The cult leader sees their old support system as a threat. It must be dismantled.

This isolation is achieved by convincing the follower that their friends and family do not have their best interest at heart and are actually holding them back. It’s a trap, because friends and family are usually deeply concerned and want to help – but every concern expressed is proof they don’t approve of the follower’s new life.

The followers defend this, saying they need supportive people around them, people at the same frequency, who hold similar values.

They buy into the paranoia of the cult leader, which is that their friends and family are trying to block them from their growth, dreams, and pursuit of a mission to save the world.

Number 6 – MISSION

The cult follower is told that this movement/group is bigger than them. This important MISSION requires devotion and commitment. It’s life and death. If they fail, humanity and civilization will fall. They must save the world! People who join cults are idealists. That’s how many get hooked. The mission they are offered mirrors their greatest hopes and dreams. They are utopia like a drug to the seeker who wants desperately to help the world become a better place.

There are many issues with this. Firstly, it’s the on-ramp to fascism and a totalitarian community. Secondly, it’s a lie. It’s the bait used to capture then enslave them to the ideology, and it makes it hard to leave. The follower begins to think the mission, their own values, and the great and noble leader are one and the same. To give up the group and the mission is to give up their most cherished values. They’d rather die. They become trapped inside their vision of goodness. Their defense to outsiders is, ‘Don’t you think it’s important to make the world a better place’?

Who’s going to say no to that?

To the leader, the “mission” is the perfect ruse. It’s flying the flag of service to enslave. This pattern can be seen in NGOs and charities run by Malignant Narcissists.

Number 7 – DOCTRINE OVER PERSON

In a cult, the mission or ideology is more important than the individual. You need to put aside your personal concerns, your need for comfort, even your need for self-preservation. The mission could be saving a species, saving the earth, saving sinners’ souls, or saving the world from dark forces.

The battle is so important. You are such a small cog who must sacrifice! Your humanity is flawed and far less than this great ideology. Your humanity is weak. In fact, your humanity is the problem. This promotes self-hatred. It causes cognitive dissonance, because you are told love of self is important, yet, also you are a piece of shit. It is unresolvable – until you exit the coercive environment of doctrine over person.

Number 8 – BREAKING DOWN BOUNDARIES

The leader will use the follower’s values to convince them that their resistance is their problem. Their inability to surrender hampers growth. Their boundaries cause limitations. This sets them up for physical, sexual, and financial abuse. The cult leader points out that discomfort is a sign that you are not healed. It’s a barrier to greatness. This further opens the door of abuse, because any resistance to what is being done to you is YOUR limitation. It’s extremely convenient for a leader who wants to walk all over your boundaries and do whatever they want.

Pretty soon, the follower feels that any resistance to anything is their problem. They become complicit in shattering their own boundaries and healthy sense of self. The followers defend this by calling it full transparency.

Number 9 – DATA MINING

To get leverage, the leader must look for weaknesses, fears, insecurities, and desires. Early in the induction process, there might be lengthy intake forms or sessions where followers divulge their struggles. This is for their own good, the leader says. To help free them. Secrets are unhealthy. This information will be later used to control them. One of the most useful questions in the data mining process is “What is your greatest fear?”

This will be brought up again when the follower is resistant. Don’t you want to get over that fear? Do you want to be ruled and controlled by your fear your whole life, or do you want freedom?

Your fears will not only be used to PUSH you, but to CONTROL you.

If your greatest fear is abandonment, one day when your conscience cries out and you resist something, the leader, knowing you have this fear, will force your hand. They might withdraw attention – or the affection of the group. The potential of being shunned for not complying is like death. In some case, whatever information they have on you can be used as straight-out blackmail. Because of data mining, they know exactly how to play you.

Number 10 – SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE

The cult leader promotes the narrative that he or she has special knowledge or abilities, and that these are gifted to the followers.

The leader, with an elitist or messianic complex, tells followers they are special or chosen. This can start as part of the love-bombing. The leader convinces them that only he or she understands reality; no one else does. The followers can understand it too, because they are in the group. It’s a shared fantasy detached from reality. It activates a narcissistic impulse in followers, which makes them feel superior to all others not in the group.

In some cults, there is the belief that they have a unique mathematical paint-by-numbers methodology to understand human psychodynamics. In other groups, the followers are told they are gods. In others, they are the chosen who will survive the coming cataclysm. This specialness bonds followers to the leader (the giver of this information), and creates a division between the cult and all society.

Number 11 – US vs THEM

Fear is a motivator. You bind a group by unifying them against a common enemy. Even if it’s fabricated and false. All that matters is that the followers believe.

First step? Paint a picture of the enemy. This is accomplished using keywords. Names. Suppressive, Terrorist, Communist, Radical, Subversive. Anyone who does not believe must be avoided and classified with the terms. The leader may give lip service to the idea that we must unify all people and all people should be loved – but in reality, there’s US and the great unwashed, unclean, deviant ignorant evil OTHERS.

While it solidifies followers into fervent devotees, it creates stress in their psyches. They cannot hold these two opposing thoughts in their mind, and become psychotic in their hatred of the enemy. On a societal level, you see this deranged behavior on social media. Highly intelligent and educated people who say they are committed to compassion and civilized conduct become vile to people they are told are the enemy. Us vs Them is the fuel that fires most, if not all, political campaigns.

Number 12 – ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH AT THE EXPENSE OF FOLLOWERS

Cult leaders are obsessed with wealth and power. They get wealthy followers to donate money, and to keep overhead low, the followers become the cult leaders’ workforce, volunteering time, effort, and life force. The cult leader convinces followers that volunteering for the mission is a privilege. The followers, whose self-esteem and self-worth have been worn down over time, become the unpaid workforce.

The leader will accumulate financial wealth, houses, cars, planes, expensive clothes, etc., while followers live in poverty, struggling to put food on the table.

The justification for this is that the leader needs to interact with the world at a high level to change it. The leader must look successful to materialistic people. When friends and family question the follower on their poverty, the response is “Money isn’t everything” or “Materialism is the big problem in the world” or “Would you rather me be happy or stinking rich…” None of these arguments make sense. But the follower has been programmed to reject materialism.

But the cult leader embraces materialism with vigorous lust.

Number 13 – CONSTANTLY BUSY

The cult members are constantly busy, with little time to think or engage in the outside world. This can involve hours of prayer or meditation, or being busy with work to the point of sleep deprivation.

There are committees to address new problems, impossible workloads, multiple job descriptions, endless tasks, needing to be present every time the leader wants to address the flock, spaces to be cleaned and reorganized, emergency tasks that require you to drop everything – BUT you are still held responsible for failing to do the thing you had to drop.

Sleep deprivation is key. The more tired, the less cognitive function to rationally question what does not make sense. Docile and irrational, the followers try to solve impossible situations or perform mindless tasks, convinced it has to do with the mission. They wouldn’t be asked if it wasn’t important. And there are always emergencies in a cult.

Either a real or perceived attack from the outside:

A suppressive on the inside.

A member who wants to leave.

Someone breaking a rule.

The followers have to work harder or commit more to resolve the emergency. Then there’s damage control… so much damage control – which the leader blames on the followers. If they had only worked harder and kept their eye on the ball, the leader wouldn’t have to deal with attacks from the outside world and dark forces out to get him.

Cult leaders instill fear and confusion in their followers because of the terrible threat out there… and then provide the answers. What followers don’t realize is that the leader created the problem either from sloppiness or on purpose. But nothing pulls people together better than a crisis that threatens the mission. And the crisis will usually arise when the leader is being questioned about something problematic.

Friends and family will notice this insane busy-ness. They may say things like ‘Why don’t we spend some time together hanging out…’ In the follower’s mind, doing nothing is sinful since it steals time from the mission. The irony is that while they are killing themselves, the cult leader is hanging out and relaxing a LOT.

Number 14 – RESPONSIBILITY WITH NO AUTHORITY

The followers, who are the cult workforce, are made to feel responsible for everything bad that happens, though they had no authority to change anything. Everything good is caused by the leader. Followers are told they are not devout enough, they have negative thoughts, they do not stand up for the leader enough, they are cowards…

It’s convenient. The cult leader may do stupid, immoral, or criminal things, and is not to blame. This erodes the self-esteem of the followers. Hopelessness sets in, and they just put one foot in front of the other, goalless, lacking in any ambition outside the cult.

Number 15 – REDEFINING MORALITY

In a cult, you learn there is societal morality and the superior morality of the group. To shift the follower from societal morality to the new morality, the leader must show issues with societal morality. It’s not hard to point out that society is full of shit. Leaders in society insist their activities are moral and righteous, but do immoral things. Pointing out these inconsistencies makes the job of the cult leader easy.

The idea is to get the follower to buy into the cult’s “more evolved” morality… By redefining terms and words, by giving them new meaning, you hack the person’s psyche. In NXIVM, ethics was defined as consistency and disassociated from morality. As long as you were consistent, you were ethical.

When you mess around with people’s beliefs of what is good and bad, it can cause abandonment of core beliefs. Now the cult can encourage behavior considered immoral or illegal, such as sexual exploitation, or criminal activities. The leader justifies these by claiming they are necessary to achieve the higher goals of THE MISSION, which include protecting the group from external threats.

Cults redefine morality to serve their interests, rather than the interests of members – or society.  They manipulate members into accepting their moral code, then use this as a tool for control. Cult members defend their new moral high ground by comparing it to societal corruption, which is unfortunately easy to do.

Number 16 – COERCION & CONTROL

One of the traits of malignant narcissists is a need for control. They try to control everyone. What you eat, who you spend time with, what you do, and what you think. At the extreme, it becomes a messianic fantasy. They want to be God.

In a cultic system run by such an individual, there is fear. There is always the prospect of punishment for stepping out of line. Examples are made of people who consider the narrative of defectors from ‘the mission’ – and everyone knows it.

Coercive Control is a term used in discussions on domestic abuse. Coercive control is a pattern of controlling behaviors that create an unequal power dynamic in a relationship, making it difficult for the victim to leave. It erodes autonomy and self-esteem through intimidation, threats, and humiliation.

Cultic coercion is coercive control on a larger scale. The cult leader abuses a large family. Everything and everyone is controlled and monitored. You are punished for stepping out of line.

Number 17 – SECRECY & LIES

A cult is like the NSA or CIA in the way it handles information. Information is on a need-to-know basis. There is a lot of compartmentalization.

The lower ranking cult members soon learn not to challenge this culture of secrecy. It also means no one has the full picture of what’s going on except the leader, and the entire system becomes an extension of the paranoid delusion of the leader.

To protect the mission, you are encouraged to lie to outsiders. In NXIVM, on day one, we were taught a class called Honesty and Disclosure.

It started with a series of questions:

What is honesty?

Is not honest dishonest?

Is dishonest bad?

Can one ever be 100% honest?

During the debrief from the head trainer, we were given an example from World War 2.

The Nazis come to your door to look for Jews. You are hiding Jews in your basement. When the Nazis question you, do you tell them the truth, or do you lie? Of course, you lie!

This becomes conflated with all authority. Because the cult educational model has already established that everyone outside the system is corrupt, immoral, and evil – lying is justified for a higher purpose. The mission and the leader must be protected. When a family asks a follower why all the secrecy and lies, the follower says they are an open book. “Ask me anything!” they say. But their responses are rehearsed talking points and circular word salad.

Number 18 – SPYING ON EACH OTHER

To have their finger on the pulse of their followers, the cult leader must create a system of reporting back up the chain of command. A system – where everyone checks on everyone else. On the surface, it’s called accountability or care or something benevolent. But it is a system where everyone is spying and reporting on each other.

In NXIVM, a coach tree system was used to disseminate information down to lower ranks, and to report problems up the ranks to the leader. In other cults, mentoring or healing sessions may be used to flag problems in followers. It becomes an environment filled with paranoia.

You don’t want to be the person who steps out of line and gets reported. When challenged by an outsider, the cult member insists this is about caring for others. A neighborhood watch of sorts. It’s definitely not that.

Number 19 – CONFESSION

When a follower strays from the path, and breaks the Orwellian rules, the cause of their error needs to be revealed so it won’t happen again. This is framed as good for the person and the group at large. A lack of transparency is seen as a flaw. Remember, you are not allowed to have boundaries. Private, unexpressed thoughts are a problem!

In Maoist China, Struggle Sessions or denunciation rallies were violent public spectacles where people accused of being “class enemies” were humiliated, accused, beaten, and tortured by people with whom they were close. Usually conducted at the workplace, classrooms and auditoriums where students were pitted against their teachers. Friends and spouses were pressured to betray each other, and children were manipulated into exposing their parents. Often, out of desperation, the targeted person would confess to things they never said or did.

Social media is the modern equivalent of a Maoist Struggle Session. Confess your transgressions or else. In a cult, a system of CONFESSION is used to gather secret information from the followers, to normalize not having privacy or boundaries, and to encourage self-punishment and self-hatred. This results in little to no self-esteem or ability to fight the cult system.

Revealing one’s innermost secrets is part of the culture. In NXIVM, if you failed or breached, you wrote a detailed breach report, then a breach plan of how you will fix it. Then you were required to apologize to all the people your failure affected. This could involve standing in front of the entire class doing a grand confession. In other words, ‘I’m sorry that I’m such a piece of shit – I will try harder.’

Number 20 – TRIANGULATION

In cultic communities, followers often have disputes. Some of it is normal human behavior. Some are instigated by the cult leader, who triangulates members against each other to keep them in conflict. One reason is to keep them distracted and exhausted. The other is to be the arbitrator and savior.

In NXIVM, Raniere had everyone at each other’s throats, and if they begged for help, he would arbitrate. It so happened that many of those at each other’s throats were his lovers. He instigated jealousy on purpose.

You can see triangulation used by malignant narcissists. They turn those around them against each other. Especially against the targeted person. On a societal scale, entire political groups are riled up against each other. They are so busy fighting that it camouflages what the leader or leaders are doing. As Sun Tzu said, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” A cult leader might add: “Let them fight each other.”

Number 21 – MYSTICAL SCIENCE

Another hallmark of a cult is that it has a spiritual or scientific understanding that unifies the TRUE nature of life and reality. The true cause and effect of the universe.

Maybe it’s:

Your thoughts create all reality

You are the only true architect of your life,

The frequency you are vibrating at attracts similar frequencies and experiences,

It’s your karma,

Every opinion you have is a projection,

You are causing your misfortune and illness,

You can live forever if you overcome your humanity and increase your vibration.

These theories may have some truth, but they are applied to all reality. This kind of thinking exists in all society. Having these ideas, theories or musings is not the issue. It’s when they get enforced as the one grand unified theory of existence that trouble starts. These dogmatic precepts direct the thinking and behavior of followers, causing them to make detrimental decisions. They become less reality-based and more delusional. There is often a simple explanation for why things are happening, but the follower, isolated from reality, clings to mystical ideology, as though their life depended on it. This worldview that they believe in often excuses the behavior of the cult leader. When things don’t make sense, the leader can refer to the mystical science as the explanation. The leader might insist they have a higher perspective and can see things followers can’t see or understand.  It becomes a form of institutionalized gaslighting.

When friends and family challenge the follower on their alleged science, the cult member can be dogmatic and assume an air of superiority. They are beyond these questions, they think. Their loved ones might be tempted to try to out-logic them – but the cult member is not using logic. They are using emotions. Their mystical science gives them relief from pain, confusion, or insecurity. The only person who benefits from this is the cult leader.

Number 22 – DARVO

It stands for Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim, and Offender.

This is the cult modus operandi. It’s a tactic employed by narcissists. The leader and ideology is never at fault – it must be the follower.  Any objection the follower has is turned around. They are actually to blame. Sometimes this is overt, sometimes covert. Sometimes this reversal is baked into the teachings. In NXIVM and other High Control groups, the concept of being AT CAUSE was introduced. You were taught that the more you recognize your responsibility in all things, the more power you have.

So the question is asked… how did you cause this thing you are unhappy with? Being AT CAUSE is recognizing as how you caused and created all things in your life. If you had a concern or were upset, you were prompted to find your responsibility in it. Maybe it was your thoughts, maybe it was your energy, maybe your doubt or disbelief. Maybe you harbored resentment against the leader, which you were told was your own projection.

This ideology is convenient, because it holds the abusive cult leader and system completely blameless. In a cult, every ‘problem’ is turned against the individual. Sometimes with syrupy sweetness, sometimes with passive-aggressive rage. Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim, and Offender.

Number 23 – GASLIGHTING

It’s related to DARVO. Gaslighting is not simply someone disagreeing with you. This word gets thrown around a lot. When someone responds with a contrary viewpoint that you don’t like – that is NOT gaslighting.

Gaslighting is a deliberate attempt to convince you that your perception of reality is in error.

Merriam-Webster defines it as “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage.”

This type of dynamic is designed to have the target question their reality. Maybe they are wrong. Maybe they did imagine it. He seems so sure of himself after all. It often ends in reactive abuse. In a cult, the followers may see things that are obviously immoral. The leader will explain to them that they did not see what they thought they saw. They are examining the event through their filters and immature projections. Eventually, the followers no longer trust their judgment and instincts.

As George Orwell wrote in 1984: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

A perfect example in society is when you watch a government spokesperson for an authoritarian leader flat-out lie about what is going on. They will use doublespeak to confuse the press and audience. If they are doing heinous and evil things they might describe it as forwarding the cause of freedom and democracy. The recipient of this narrative might know it’s a lie, but if that lie is repeated again and again, they begin to lose touch with actual reality.

Number 24 – INFORMATION CONTROL

For the cult to maintain its control over everyone, information must be carefully managed. There’s an official narrative put out by the leadership (which is often a complete lie) about what is going on inside the cult and outside. Think of it as state or corporate-controlled media. You are only fed information that benefits those seeking control. This narrative is used to maintain the Us vs Them mentality, and to keep followers away from sources of information that would be a threat to the leader’s control.

There is approved information that everyone is fed 24/7 and all other sources are to be feared, excluded, hated, ridiculed, and forbidden. If you dare bring up other sources of information, you will experience consequences.

You are forbidden to speak freely and openly about concerns you have with practices of the leader or organization.

Now here’s an interesting thing. The people on board with the narrative do not see any censorship. They believe the narrative so ardently, they never bump up against its boundaries. They have no idea why the fringe lunatics are causing trouble and being so dramatic.

In NXIVM, Raniere would talk about being in a war against hate. A war against people promoting hate. It turns out those people promoting hate were trying to warn us about him. Later, whistleblowers would become characterized as promoting hate.

Just because the leader labels people as terrible, it doesn’t mean those are actually bad. They may be trying to help. It’s important to know that if you bring something up in a group and there is a violent reaction to your thoughts or statements, you’re probably in a cult. You might believe you are free, but you are not.

For this all to work, all sources that oppose the official narrative must be poisoned.

Number 25 – THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN

In the cycle of Narcissistic Abuse, one of the last stages is the smear campaign. This is a way for the narcissist to avoid scrutiny and accountability. Similarly, this happens in cults at all scales. The leader has some activity they have done or are doing that they want kept secret – usually because if followers found out, they would be shocked and likely leave or even destroy the cult.

For the leader to maintain control, he or she must ensure followers stay in the dark. It can be hard to control the flow of information, but what they can do is manage the image of whistleblowers sharing that information. How do they do that? By poisoning the image of these truth speakers, so no-one trusts them.

Building on the Us vs Them idea, the whistleblower must be turned into THEM. A dangerous, unstable, hateful, bigoted, irresponsible, anti-humanitarian LIAR.

Whatever label is applied, it has to be something truly upsetting or scary to the followers. Something that goes against their most cherished values. They are so caught up in their own hatred of this person and what they supposedly stand for, they do not bother to question whether what they are being told is true.

Now, any information from this source is ignored, hated, and ridiculed. It’s usually vitally important information, but they are too far gone. They are an unconscious mob. No matter how much you try to convince them you are not this person, they cannot take it in. You are now Satan and their abusive cult leader – is God.

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