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Religious beliefs don't have anything to do w/ education, and education doesn't have anything to do w/ intelligence, common sense or life experiences. That's really the long and the short of it. I've met a LOT of people over the years who were very bright, but had some crazy beliefs that didn't match up w/ how they actually appeared to be.
The people who head these cults are master of subterfuge and manipulation, so unless you've had experience w/ people like this it is very easy to get conned by them.
I think some people just have brains that make them highly susceptible to religious belief systems. I saw a survey recently that got my attention. A group of people who were involved with organized religion were compared with a group that had left. The group that belonged tended to have pronounced traits of loyalty, obedience, and the need to be part of something larger than themselves. On the other hand, the group that had left organized religion tended to value characteristics more like equality, justice, and independence.
Frankly, I think the same qualities that make people stalwart members of organized religions are the same qualities that render them susceptible to joining cults like Scientology or the Unification Church.
Ultimately, I think cults and organized religion thrive because of inner fears that many people have. There is fear of being alone. There is fear of what happens after we die. There is fear of where are lives are going in a complex and uncertain world.
The need to belong and emotional stuff overrides formal education and IQ very often.
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Originally Posted by Chowhound
I was thinking similar. I think also that maybe another factor might be is that they get a sense of purpose or direction in their lives too.
The vulnerable? I think we are seeing a LOT of younger people fall victim to all kinds of things in order to feel like they belong. I think part of the problem is the isolation that technology has produced. In desperation to "belong", to have a "community", they run into trouble sometimes, not all the time. Some get in too deep, those that are more emotionally vulnerable.
Not all groups that some would call "cults" are actually cults, as others have mentioned. I have even heard the Amish be called "cults", which is not true at all. I think some want to condemn a group of people just because they don't understand them, or can't imagine why someone would want to be a part of a certain group.
We have a lot of people these days that are lonely and depressed, and offering them "acceptance" will go a long way to sucking them into bad places. That chance to belong, to be loved for who you are, to have the sense of family and friendship...............in short, exploited to the max!
That whole Jim Jones thing? Yeah, I never understood that, but I have known people that have been sucked into some pretty crazy religious ideas, actually know some right now, and no amount of logic does anything to redirect them. Some of the supposed religious leaders aren't "praying", they are "preying"!
I just finished reading David Koresh who was the leader of the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX.
It shocks me to read of highly educated, wealthy people joining a cult like this, David advertising himself as the new Jesus Christ, and the predictor of the end times.
They were behind on taxes on their compound, and some wealthy Chinese cult member forked over $70,000 to pay the taxes. If David wanted a new motorcycle, a new bus, a new car, it arrived within days.
It's the highly educated part that baffles me!
Think for a moment.
Would a hypnotist desire a smart person, or a simpleton? Smart people are actually more pliable than simpletons. So, the next time to see 10 people on stage, you'll know the smart ones, as they'll be clucking like chickens whenever the "trigger" word is said. You'll also know the simpletons up on stage too. They'll be the one's watching the clock and looking aimlessly.
Well, the "powers" that a cult leader and a hypnotist are similar.
We have the primitive mind and the rational mind competing within in us. Even so called intelligent people can switch off in times of conflict and identity crises. They follow their supposed savior over the cliff just like lemmings.
Would a hypnotist desire a smart person, or a simpleton? Smart people are actually more pliable than simpletons. So, the next time to see 10 people on stage, you'll know the smart ones, as they'll be clucking like chickens whenever the "trigger" word is said. You'll also know the simpletons up on stage too. They'll be the one's watching the clock and looking aimlessly.
Well, the "powers" that a cult leader and a hypnotist are similar.
I know that you were trying to make an analogy with this but it was an unfortunately chosen one. That's not how hypnotism works. I know a number of people who are into hypnotism as a recreational thing (it's another "believe it or not they actually have annual conventions" situation.) I've been to a few hypno classes, because a friend wanted me to go, but it's really not my thing.
In order to be hypnotized, the subject must be willing. They have to be willing to go along, especially in the initial stages, or it won't work. Intelligence has nothing to do with it, but agreeableness and openness to new experiences do. A person that truly is not buying in, that is resisting the idea and process, simply will not be hypnotized. Now they can SAY that they don't believe in it, but if they are at least willing to play along and try, and see what happens...that can be enough.
Also there's something that the hypnotists teaching the classes said, that within each person is their "inner watcher." A part of the mind that can push you out of a trance state if you are in danger. That you cannot hypnotize someone into doing something that goes against their true deeply held beliefs...to, for instance, kill somebody or have sex with someone they don't want to or something they'd deeply recoil from... The subject will first exhibit signs of distress and then snap right out of trance. Hypnotism is not a full takeover of a human mind, it's just getting them very relaxed and willing to go along with suggestions, so long as those suggestions seem vaguely reasonable to them in that state.
When it comes to the chickens at the public shows, I always suspect that they are actors. But then...I'm a skeptic. Part of the reason why I wasn't really into it.
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