But in truth, the cult members still con themselves. It isn't like they can't ever see that something is fishy, that things are not what they are advertised to be, that the phony guru isn't delivering the goods, that the guru and his cult are dishonest. The members have to deliberately overlook a lot of contradictions and discrepancies in order to become and stay true believers. They have to rationalize and explain away a lot of stuff, and deceive themselves about what is really going on. So in the end, the cult members con themselves.
F.B.I. Agent Fox Mulder on the TV show "The X-Files" had a poster on his wall that read, "I Want To Believe." That is the national anthem of a lot of cult members. They just want to believe, in spite of any and all evidence to the contrary.
| Wanting to believe is perhaps the most powerful dynamic initiating and sustaining cult-like behavior. The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society, Arthur J. Deikman, M.D., page 137. |
Some of the things that cult members believe are so extreme that you can only conclude that they are insane. In Vernon Howell's ("David Koresh's") Branch Davidian cult, Howell told his followers that he was the son of God, and that he had to sexually take all of the women and girls in the cult and impregnate them, in order to produce the "Grandchildren of God", and the other male members actually believed it and handed over the women. Even more extreme, cults like the Branch Davidians, the People's Temple, Heaven's Gate, and the Solar Temple actually convinced their members that they should commit suicide. And they did it. Now that is undeniably nuts.
Some people want to know the truth, and some people just want to believe in fairy tales. Cult members choose to believe in fairy tales.
They like to think that truth is identical to belief. They like to imagine that their believing that something is true will make it so. They like to imagine that they are so powerful that their believing something will change the world.. They don't. Believing that the world is flat does not make it so.
Not all cult members are the same, of course. Some may be just a little deluded or a little confused, or "going to wise up eventually", or maybe even "just visiting".
But some cult members are pretty crazy, and they really want the con, the big illusion or delusion. Some people don't get seduced or conned by the phony guru -- they are eager to join the cult. It's love at first sight, because they love the black and white thinking, and the absolute declarations that "We are right and everybody else is wrong. We have the Truth and you don't, so there!" They will make remarks like, "This is just what I've always been looking for, all of my life. I've never felt so at home before." They love the grand feeling of being special, of being important, of being one of God's Chosen Children, and of being on a big mission to save the world. They love the spiritual make-believe, and they don't want to be bothered with mere reality or mundane, ordinary existence.
They tend to become very angry if you tell them the truth and try to convince them that the whole routine is all a big fat hoax. Watch for the Ad Hominems and Personal Attacks On Critics: "Oh yeh? Well you're just stupid and evil and an atheist and don't know anything. You're working for the forces of Evil, trying to defeat us in our great quest."
Or they react with fear, like, "Oh my God! If the Guru is a phony, then what will I do with my life? Who will tell me what to do? Where will I go? How will I get to Heaven? No, that can't be true. The Guru is a genuine saint."
Or: "I refuse to believe that I wasted twelve years of my life in a cult, practicing false teachings and worshipping a phony guru. You are wrong."
Often, those crazy true believers form the innermost circle of sycophants who surround a phony guru and act as his lieutenants, keeping the rest of the troops in line.
In extreme cases, the true-believer followers put up with incredible amounts of hardships, deprivation, suffering, and abuse, often at the hands of the leader, and they still won't leave.
When you are investigating a group, just look around and ask yourself how many of the members appear to be less than sane, and how many appear to be mentally healthy and relatively "normal." Any church can have a few neurotics, that is to be expected, but cults collect more than their fair share of the fruits and nuts...
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