Some Characteristics of Religious Cults 

•  The guru is always right
•  No exit 
•  No graduates 
•  Cult-speak 
•  Group-think 
•  Personal attacks on critics 
•  Denigration of competing sects, cults, religions . . . 
•  Indoctrination of members 
•  Instant community 
•  Instant intimacy 
•  Instant friendship 
•  Surrender to the cult and its ways 
•  Cloning --- You must redefine yourself and your life in cult terms 
•  Confusion, contradictions, hypocrisy, and out-right lies 
•  Personal testimonies of earlier converts 
•  Creates a sense of powerlessness, covert fear, guilt, and dependency upon the group 
•  Don’t trust your own mind, it is out to get you 
•  You owe the group 
•  You need the cult 
•  Black and white thinking 
•  Circular reasoning 
•  Thought-stopping language and thought-terminating clichés and slogans 
•  Disturbed leaders and mentally ill followers 
•  Mentoring /sponsoring
•  Intrusiveness 
•  Newcomers can’t think right 
•  Different levels of truth 
•  Appeals to “holy” or “wise” authorities 
•  Insistence the cult is “the only way” 
•  The cult and its members are special 
•  Dual purposes 
•  The cult implants phobias 
•  Confession sessions 
•  The cult takes over the individual’s decision making process 
•  Enemy making and devaluing the outsider 
•  Veneration of either living or dead leaders 
•  Vicious lies and rumors are spread about those who leave the cult