Should we be aware of Cults?

The statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens where I was approached by 'Moonies'.
Members of Hare Krishna 'cleansing' Westminister, London with sound.


2005

By: Ali Ismail



aliismail_uk@yahoo.co.uk


Mobile telephone: 0778-842 5262 (United Kingdom)






SHOULD WE BE ON OUR GUARD AGAINST CULTS?

Cults cluster thickly only in the wealthy and prosperous countries


When I was living in South Kensington during the 1970s and 1980s I used to take walks alone in Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Occasionally, I was accosted by small groups of people who invited me to religious gatherings, which were run by the Unification Church, also known as ‘The Moonies’. I refused to go.
That was my introduction to the strange world of cults. Since then, I have had dealings of one sort or another with Scientology, the Hare Krishna people and the School of Economic Science (SES). All these outfits are, arguably, cults. But what exactly is a cult?
Experts on the phenomenon have given us five criteria to identify an organisation as a cult:
1. It uses psychological action to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members.
2. It forms an elitist totalitarian society.
3. Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma.
4. It believes ‘the end justifies the means’ in order to solicit funds and recruit people.
5. Its wealth does not benefit its members or society.
Now, the SES did use what could be used as psychological action akin to brainwashing to keep and render docile its members. It used an authoritarian power structure to keep people in line. Its leader, a man called McLaren, was a despot. It used unscrupulous methods to raise money and bring in new ‘students’. During the years I was there, I did not benefit from the SES’s wealth. Therefore, I think that in my experience, the SES may reasonably be described as a cult.
Experts on the subject also say that membership of cults can and frequently does lead to the following disorders:
Loss of choice and free will, diminished intellectual ability, vocabulary and sense of humour, reduced use of irony, abstractions and metaphors, reduced capacity to form flexible and intimate relationships poor judgement, physical deterioration, malnutrition, hallucinations, panic, dissociation, guilt, identity diffusion and paranoia, neurotic, psychotic or suicidal tendencies.
When I was studying ‘Philosophy’ at the SES, on one occasion one of the tutors instructed my class that, henceforth, we were not to make comparisons or criticise people. That is the sort of thing that is said to slaves; even servants are treated with more respect. The course of meditation at the SES was a variant of transcendental meditation (T.M.) and could well have led to mental problems with some of the students. Real T.M. is thought by many doctors to be one of the few cultural imports from the East which are worth their weight in gold in the West.
Jeannie Mills, an ex-member of The People's Temple, later found murdered had this to say: "When you meet the friendliest people you have ever known, who introduce you to the most loving group of people you've ever encountered, and you find the leader to be the most inspired, caring, compassionate and understanding person you've ever met, and then you learn the cause of the group is something you never dared hope could be accomplished, and all of this sounds too good to be true - it probably is too good to be true! Don't give up your education, your hopes and ambitions to follow a rainbow."
Cults tend to use mind control methods to retain and make docile their members. These are:
1. Hypnosis. This frequently takes the form of relaxation techniques or meditation.
2. Intensive peer group pressure made possible by an individual’s need to belong.
3. ‘Love bombing’ which often takes the form of extreme affection and flattery to which persons who lack affection in the family are susceptible.
4. Rejection of former values.
5. Confusing doctrine. This takes the form of long, abstruse lectures.
6. Metacommunication. This is the use of key words scattered through the long, confusing lectures.
7. Removal of privacy. This is the prevention of private contemplation by giving the victim no time to himself. Of this, the SES was not guilty, in my experience.
8. Time sense deprivation. The removal of clocks and watches is the hallmark of this.
9. Disinhibition. This is the encouragement of child-like behaviour by insisting on a certain kind of obedience.
10. Uncompromising rules. This usually takes the form of rigid rules, which must never be broken.
11. Desensitising. This takes the unpleasant form of foul and abusive language.
12. Sleep deprivation and fatigue. This happens when the victim is not allowed enough rest and sleep.
13. Dress codes. At the SES, the women were told to wear long skirts made of natural materials.
14. Chanting and singing. These activities have the effect of driving out non-cult ideas. The SES used various kinds of group chanting and so did Hare Krishna.
15. Confession. This is a very popular technique throughout the cults. Scientology uses ‘clearing’, for example which also doubles up as a form of mental therapy. If, however, the member goes against the movement, all that information is ready and available against him.
16. Financial commitment. This takes the form of encouraging the victim to donate all his assets to the cult in a fit of enthusiasm.
17. Finger pointing. The victim is made to gain a feeling of self-righteousness by finding fault with the outside world and other cults.
18. Promotion of the cult hierarchy. The victim is told that he will receive benefits within the cult in return for accepting its power structure.
19. Isolation. This is the grandfather of all brainwashing techniques.
20. Controlled approval. Psychologists call this ‘conditioning’.
21. Change of diet. The SES used a special vegetarian diet.
22. Games. Usually, in cults, they have obscure rules.
23. No questions. Penetrating questions are not allowed.
24. Guilt. The victim is made to feel that he was a great sinner before he joined the cult system.
25. Fear. Various threats are used against the victim. One ‘tutor’ at the SES told me that he could get me sacked from my (then) job if I ever became a problem.
26. Replacement of relationships. At the SES the ‘students’ were told not to form independent relationships with each other, particularly with the opposite sex. The SES often arranged marriages among them.

It is worth bearing in mind that most cults are picky about who they recruit. They prefer people of above average intelligence and education because they have more potential. They also want people with sizeable assets to milk. The average cult will not put up with or tolerate the sort of hanger-on seen in so many mosques and churches who is of low social value and is retained from a sense of charity. The reason for that, in my view, is that most cults are not really benevolent institutions. They are after wealth and power.
Scientology has come in for a great deal of criticism. It is officially listed as a cult and members of the public are warned against it. Students at universities who are found to have Scientology publications in their rooms are sometimes treated in the same way as if hard pornography or ‘hate literature’ was there.
The attacks on Scientology may be connected with the fact that it provides a form of mental therapy that rivals and possibly surpasses psychoanalysis, which is the therapy of preference of the medical establishment and is expensive. Also, Scientology claims that certain people are ‘suppressive’ which, not surprisingly, antagonises certain highly placed individuals who use the methods Scientology denounces, to get their way.
The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, was a highly educated science fiction writer who was not a racist and made his movement open to people of all backgrounds. No doubt, that put the back up many an elitist.
The Unification Church was founded by the Reverend Moon and promotes him as a sort of messiah. He was found to be a crook and was sent to prison for financial skulduggery. On one occasion, an acquaintance invited me to one of their meetings at Lancaster Gate, London and I noticed that the person in charge was using classic calming hand gestures on the congregation. That is indicative of cult status. The Unification Church is all about money and used to own a large fishing fleet.
My involvement with Hare Krishna was mainly centred on the café, which they run on Soho Street in London, not far from Tottenham Court Road. They were the least cash hungry of the cults I have come across and had an apparently genuine desire to help the poor and the under-privileged. They maintained an emergency food relief service for the down-and-outs in Central London that consisted of a decent rice and dal meal (I tried one), served from a van. The last I heard, they had discontinued the service because they lacked a van driving volunteer.
In South Asia we are not much troubled by cults. They are a phenomenon that troubles the prosperous West. The USA has many cults and Japan tops the league with an estimated approximately 300,000 cults. A culture of grinding poverty, deprivation and under-privileged lifestyles does not encourage the quest for spiritual advancement. In our countries, our religious life is pre-eminently focused on pleading with the Almighty for material benefits of one sort or another such as a secure means of livelihood, protection from social victimisation and health care. Cults cannot flourish there.
The Bangladeshi community in the United Kingdom has been faithful to Islam throughout its short history. As long as that continues, cults will not affect it much. However, British born Bangladeshis who have somehow won their entrée into the lucrative professions and businesses may have the money, leisure and intellect to nurse their fledgling senses of spiritual enquiry.
I am counselling Bangladeshi parents to advise their children that, in addition to making use of their educational facilities, they should beware of the sort of people who approached me in Kensington Gardens.


The End