The cult takes over the individual's decision-making process, and plans and runs his whole life for him. The cult reduces the individual to dependence upon the cult for all important decisions, and even for minor ones. It is common for members of cults to even have to ask permission to go visit their own family, or to go to a parent's funeral.
Many cults reduce their members to such helplessness that they are incapable of making the simplest of decisions without asking their mentor or leader for guidance. In one of his anti-cult books, Steve Hassan advised parents to watch out for hesitation on the part of their children when they ask the children to come home for a visit. An answer like "I'm not sure, let me see, let me think about it for a while," really means "Give me time to ask my mentor for permission to visit my old family."
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