Successful techniques for establishing and maintaining a religious cult have changed dramatically since the cult heyday of the 1970s. Although the pool of gullible hippies from affluent families has shrunk, an increasing disillusionment with our consumption-obsessed society has left millions desperate to find answers.
While effective cult leaders have always been able to leverage the dreams of the dependent and co-dependent, the new millennium has opened up rare opportunities for those cult leaders with the boldness and vision to exploit them. The rise of cable television and the Internet provide rich media to supplement the word-of-mouth buzz upon which cult formation has always relied.
A Gurdjieff Work group proves useful as it is easy to twist and bend to your own needs and it has the added feature of being able to tell your students they are worthless, good-for-nothing robots who will achieve nothing unless they follow your every word, because that's what Gurdjieff would have done and said.
The Twelve Habits of Highly Effective Cult Leaders
Grooming
Your personal appearance must be polished at first. Only later can you degenerate into bad hygiene. You will seem more spiritual that way. But be careful, if you "go natural" too early in the cult's development, you will just be smelly, and will destroy your cult in its infancy.
Strength
You should be physically much stronger than everyone in your cult. This gives you the appearance of vitality, and makes others look up to you. It's also helpful in case of dire moments when you are unmasked as a fraud. To help preserve your relative strength, keep your followers on a low protein diet. And we mean low. This affects both muscle mass and brain function. But if that's physically impossible then the frail look works too, potential cult-members love to feel pity for their leader.
Delegation
Delegate all undesirable tasks. Learn to get the most from your disciples with the least effort. You should be doing absolutely nothing but sitting in front of your computer all day answering emails, advising your most needy female members, feeding your ego on facebook or playing your favorite computer games.
Time Management
Do not waste time on trivial personages within the cult, especially time burglars, who ask annoying questions about the holes in your
teaching. If it does happen you can easily justify it to the rest of the group by saying this person is negative and hateful and has no understanding of God and love. Throw in a touch of drama to make it seem more real: Subtly comparing yourself to the other persecuted prophets works well.
Humility
You must maintain the perception that you are the meekest, kindest, godliest person in your flock, despite the fact you drive an expensive car—bought with their money. Get a European sports car, the women especially love that. They may well be cleaning up your excrement as well. Do not let that trouble you.
Mind Control
Make your followers sleep to the sounds of a podcast playing your own infomercials. Controlling your followers thought's is important tool in maintaining your relative strength
Exclusivity
Vagueness by followers regarding activities and beliefs. No-one really knows what you are talking about anyway, they just want your approval and are desperate for the 'high' they get when you are nice to them.
Intimacy and boundary issues with followers. Call one of your followers into the office and make sure to say "I have never met anyone with so much potential". Make sure to tell everyone the same thing.
Alienation
All followers should naturally feel the need to separate from family, friends and society. You will 'predict' that their family will go against them and your prediction will almost surely go into fulfillment.
There should be a change in values and they should substitute the cult as the new "family" or "new criteria". You will know if this is working because there should be evidence of subtle or abrupt personality changes occuring. Your members will no longer love the things they used to, they will feel depressed and sad.
The best test of your success is when they leave their life behind with no understanding why or ability to explain why.
Exploitation
This can be financial, sexual or psychological; pressure to give money. You should never ask for money directly, you can lead them into it 'naturally' by saying something like: 'Nothing comes for free' or 'you will pay hundred fold for everything I give you freely'. Before you know it they will be begging to give you money, paying your expenses and travel fees.
Expect them to work excessive hours without pay and to engage in inappropriate sexual activities together or with you alone.
Sexual behaviour
Tell everyone you are celibate, and 'refuse' the occasional offer for sexual gratification, this keeps them coming back for more. Give them detailed accounts about ex-girlfriends and potential lovers, this is an effective means of increasing your desirability. They will be throwing themselves at your feet.
Use an electronic medium to promote your male ego (facebook, myspace, blogspots...) as this provides a steady and reliable narcissistic supply.
Totalitarian World view (we/they syndrome)
Make them dependent on you, promote goals of the group over the individual and approve unethical behavior while claiming goodness.
Repeat the same themes over and over again in your podcasts or essays, confuse your members with easy-sounding nonsensical rhetoric and if there is criticism, ridicule them, casually but clearly - you don't want to SOUND like a cult-leader.
Post a Comment
0 reacties: