Cult activity and the fear that surrounds it

Throughout the last couple of decades more and more stories of illegal cult activity or murders by satanic cults appear on the news each night. This surge of reported cult activity has caused a spark in public interest. There has been a large increase in the fear that surrounds cults over the past couple of years. A cult is "a therapeutic or unconventional religious movement (McBride, 1985, 22)," and the more cults that fall beneath the public eye, the more serious the fear of cults becomes. Much of this fear has been sparked by major cult related incidents such as mass suicide by the People's Temple or the murder of Sharon Tate. These incidents, and incidents like them, grab the nation's attention and create widespread panic. But as the nation reads about these stories in the paper, the same questions seem to surface. Questions like

In April of 1993, the FBI became aware of man named David Koresh and the cult he led which was known as the Branch Davidians cult (Green, 1993, 38). He lived in a house on a Texas ranch with his followers who were known as "disciples." Koresh believed he was Christ reborn, and he would not allow any of his followers to come in contact with anyone outside of the cult. The FBI got involved when they discovered that the cult was stockpiling weapons. When the FBI discovered the Branch Davidians cult was heavily armed, they surrounded the Texas ranch with FBI marksmen and a fleet of tanks. Koresh refused to allow any of his disciples to leave, and the stand off lasted several days. This stand off ended, however, when a fire broke out in the ranch and twenty-four people burned to death (Green, 1993, 36). This occurrence helped spread the fear of cult activity because a number of the people that burned to death were children who really had no choice in joining the cult. If their parents joined so did they.

A highly publicized example of this occurred in Jasper County, in southwest Missouri. Three high school seniors Ron Clements, James Hardy, and Theron Roland II, were convicted of murdering Stephen Newberry. The three struck Newberry over the head with a baseball bat more than 50 times during a satanic ritual and then dumped the body in a cistern, which already had the remains of mutilated cats and squirrels. The three boys used their obsession with Satanism and devil worship as their defense during the trial (Futterman, 1989). Cases like these from all over the country hit headlines and widen the fear surrounding Satanism and Satanic Cults. Larry Jones, founder of the Cult Crime Impact Network, claims that Satanists slaughter 50,000 children each year (O'Reilly, 1993). With the quoting of statistics like these, it's no wonder that the alarm over satanic activity is on the up-rise.

The main goal of brainwashing is as follows: (1) to drastically alter a person's sense of reality, (2) to get the potential cult member to accept a new reality, (3) to alter the understanding of the potential cult member's past, (4) to get the potential cult member to accept a new belief system, and (5) to get that person to be a loyal member of the cult (Miller, 1990, 96).

Futterman, Ellen. (1989, February 5). Hints of Darkness: Satanism Reports Stir Worry. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, pp 1A+.

Green, Caroline. (1993, Febuary). The Far-out World of Cults. Focus Magazine, pp. 34-38.

A prime example of the recruiting and brainwashing process is Charles Manson's method. He used the girls in the Family as a recruiting method. He would allow men to have sex with any of his girls as much as they like. After they did it once, the men were his, they would do anything Manson said (Bugliosi, 1974, 120). The family stayed on a ranch that had no clocks and was isolated from the rest of the world. There was also much drug use by Manson and the Family. The average family member ate LSD at least 300 times while they were at the ranch, while Manson preached about Helter Skelter or orchestrated massive orgies (Bugliosi, 1974, 431). Occasionally he would feed the family LSD and reenact the crucifixion of Christ with himself as Jesus (Bugliosi, 1974, 120).

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