Cults: how do their messianic leaders learn the cult psychology rule book?

The first thing that children learn is how to influence other people. It’s simply an extension of that taken to an extreme. Through years interacting with people, sociopaths usually learn by experience what influences people certain ways, and how to illicit certain responses with frequent success.

And what do you mean by “environmental warrior cults”?

@incendiary_dan Thanks for the quick answer. I think you probably meant elicit instead of illicit, but I understand exactly what you’re saying, and it makes sense. I guess I’m just a real slow learner. For occupation, I always list. “Self employed as a cult leader—unfortunately, my recruitment techniques have so far proved singularly ineffective.”

Here’a a list of types of cults—including environmental ones and many additional types I didn’t list. And here’s more that is specific to the environmental genre, albeit clearly from the perspective of industries supporting unfettered access to natural resources.

I think anyone could do after reading this book. After I finished reading it I tossed it down and declared I could probably start my own cult now.

Yep, definitely did mean elicit. That’s what I get for typing fast at work.

I kinda suspected something of that sort. Problem is, militant environmental groups don’t really fit any definition cult, except for the one where people just use it to describe ideologies they happen to dislike. The biggest factor there is that they’re all completely decentralized. My experience with them is limited, but that much I can say for certain. It’s possible groups like ELF and Earth First! do recruit, but I’ve never seen it. And I likely would if it were happening, considering the groups I sometimes associate with.

Have you ever seen the Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame? I gather that the guy who came up with it did so in order to point out that the Neopagan groups he was involved with (of which I was formerly a member of one) aren’t cultlike in character by laying out what real cults are like. I met him once at a festival before he died. Nice guy, very silly. :)

I should mention for the benefit of all readers that this is part of researching cults for a novel I plan to write, in which I must deal with a cult in a totally believable and accurate fashion.

@tranquilsea That’s a book I really must read. Oh, Dog Training Methods. Crap. And here I thought I was about to get a great boost to my spectacularly unspectacular career as a great cult leader.

@incendiary_dan Please don’t read into the question details that all environmental activists are members of a cult. That is no more the case than thinking that because I mentioned meditation and religions,; all people who are religious or who meditate are cult members. But the fact is there are true cults fitting the definition of what constitutes a cult focused on all of the disciplines aI listed, including environmental cults. For more on what constitutes a cult and how that differs from innocuous special-interest groups, see Cults 101: Checklist of Cult Characteristics and Wikipedia’s Cult Checklist which has some great references to psychologists like Ri chard J. Lifton, Eileen Barker, Shirley Harrison, and Steve Eichel. I will be sure to follow that link. Thanks.

@ETpro Don’t worry, I didn’t read that into it. But the example you gave, and the vast majority of what gets labeled as “environmental cults”, is just hogwash. I’m sure there are some, but having studied the issue for a while, and being very familiar with identifying cults and cultlike behavior, I’ve never seen the term accurately applied to a single environmental group.

And several of the Wikipedia lists could easily apply to Americanism. :P

@ETpro It’s sort of a dog training book but it’s really a behaviour training book. Take this from the front cover, “This delightful, clear, and utterly helpful book is for anyone who wants to understand or change the behavior of an animal—whether the animal in question is a barking dog, a nosy neighbor, a hostile cat, or you and your own bad habits.”—Carol Tavris, Ph.D., author of Anger

I was serious when I said you could use it to train people. It was actually recommended to me by my psychiatrist when I was at the end of my rope when dealing with my youngest child’s out of control behaviour.

@tranquilsea One of the reasons I dropped my second major in college, which was Psychology, down to a minor is because I was kind of creeped out about how much psychological conditioning is used to manipulate people. But I at least learned enough of it to recognize it and counter it in some cases. Maybe I should go back and just get that second degree…

The nut-jobs running them often have the same or similar psychiatric make-up and have developed similar methods to cope with their existence and their chosen “missions”—and they can always take lessons from their predecessors.
@tranquilsea thanks for the book tip!

@tranquilsea Being a cat lover, I don’t want to challenge Cesar Millan as a dog whisperer. But is it has strong parallels to the thought reform techniques humans use on other humans, I will definitely read it.

@anartist Good point. I guess the very first cult leader way back in prehistory had to invent the methods all on his or her own. We see mention of cults in Ancient Greece, so it’s not like this is new technology.