Escaping Utopia

by Lalich, Janja; McLaren, Karla;

  Janja’s pioneering contribution to the understanding of cults is her renowned bounded choice framework and theory.4 This framework shows that all cults share specific features that help them control their members—and that cult leaders tend to capitalize on their members’ idealism, intelligence, utopian dreams, and intense dedication (rather than their ignorance or weakness, as the media would have us believe). The bounded choice framework reveals that cults are not bizarre, outlandish groups filled with zombie-like followers; instead, it helps us see that the social pressures and controlling structures that all cults share (and exploit to the fullest) are also found—to some extent—in every human relationship and every human group.

  That’s why cults can be so hard to identify. They’re not freakish, otherworldly groups that set off all your internal alarms right away—if they were, no cult could ever gather enough followers to grow and survive. Instead, cults often feel like intensely hopeful and promising utopian communities that just might save the world. In fact, that’s how many cults begin.

  Why Do We Use the Word Cult?

  A great deal of confusion and controversy surrounds the definition of the word cult and the use of it as a label for specific groups. Some people think that the word itself is insulting and should never be used, but as cult survivors, we strongly disagree. The two of us spent many years in cults, and we would have been spared many years of trouble and loss if we and/or our families had only known what a cult was and how cults work.

  If we had known what to look for, and if we had been able to identify specific cultic behaviors, we might have avoided a great deal of unnecessary pain and suffering. Janja might not have lost more than a decade of her life in an increasingly controlling and bankrupting environment, and Karla might not have ended up excommunicated and homeless at the age of seventeen. And if the parents and families of the sixty-five cult survivors who were interviewed for this book had known about cults, they might have been able to protect their children and themselves from decades of disruption, isolation, trauma, and despair.

  As social scientists, we understand that great care must be taken with the word cult because it can be used to belittle any group that people don’t like or trust. Nevertheless, the fact remains that a cult is a very specific kind of social group that uses similar methods to entice supporters, transmit its ideology, control its members, and put its worldview into practice. Once you know what to look for, you will see that all cults are very similar to one another, even though their stated goals, actions, and worldviews may be completely different. Identifying cults is not something we should shy away from; we need to understand them so that we can protect ourselves against cult indoctrination and manipulation.5

  Aren’t Cults Just Strange Religious Groups?

  No, they’re not. Many people mistakenly believe that cults and religions are somehow connected, that all religions are cults (or were cults when they started out), or that all cults promote religious beliefs. That’s one of the arguments used to defend the problematic use of the term new religious movement (or NRM). Some scholars are offended by the word cult, and fear that religious freedoms are being threatened—and they insist that all cultic groups be identified as NRMs instead. Some of these scholars have spent many decades trying to convince other scholars, the media, the courts, and the general public to banish the word from our vocabulary.6 Again, we strongly disagree. Not only does this tactic muddy the waters, but also it lets some unethical, harmful, or illegal groups off the hook. When scholars intentionally confuse religions and cults, or suggest that cults are young religions going through growing pains, they may grant First Amendment rights and protections to questionable groups that don’t qualify for or deserve the NRM title.

  True NRM groups exist all over the world; some are as small as an offshoot church that uses a member’s home for its weekly services, and some are as large as the American Buddhist Movement. Merely being new or religious doesn’t make a group a cult. For instance, Janja’s Marxist cult was atheist, while Karla’s cult called itself “spiritual but not religious”—and in this book, you’ll meet people from nonreligious cults that focused on such things as Transcendental Meditation, obscure philosophies, and martial arts training. Simply put, religious beliefs are not the key to identifying cults.

  When you understand modern-day cults clearly, you’ll realize that a cult is not simply a new religion, nor is any religion necessarily an old cult. In fact, the two may have nothing to do with one another. This mistaken connection between religions and cults is one of the reasons that so many cults are able to gather followers even today. Why? Because if people mistakenly believe that cults are always based on religious beliefs, then they’ll be on alert for and possibly protected from only one kind of cult—and they’ll be dangerously unaware of all the rest.

  Some cults may promote religious beliefs, while others may promote political change, racist beliefs, psychotherapeutic approaches, meditation, terrorism, revolution, esoteric philosophies, sexual freedom, celibacy, polygamy, spiritual enlightenment, New Age metaphysical and/or psychic beliefs, nutrition and dietary regimens, improved health or wealth, addiction recovery, self-actualization, yoga, belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, martial arts, management and leadership courses, communication techniques, and even multi-marketing schemes. Many cults promote a combination of two or more of these dogmas. And as seen in the infamous case of Enron, a wildly charismatic energy company that failed disastrously and lost billions of dollars, even a corporation can become a cult.7

  Cults are not defined by what the cult leader or its members believe. Rather, cults are defined by how those beliefs and goals are transmitted, who is transmitting them, and how much freedom and autonomy group members have.

  What Is a Cult?

  Our definition and understanding of cults comes not only from our own life experiences but also from Janja’s work and the work of contemporary researchers Robert Jay Lifton, Edgar Schein, Margaret Thaler Singer, Philip Zimbardo, Benjamin Zablocki, Bruce Perry, and Robert Cialdini, as well as scholars like Max Weber, Erving Goffman, Leon Festinger, Solomon Asch, and Stanley Milgram.

  Regardless of its beliefs or its size, a cult is simply this:

  A cult is group or a relationship that stifles individuality and critical thinking, requires intense commitment and obedience to a person and/or an ideology, and restricts or eliminates personal autonomy in favor of the cult’s worldview and the leader’s wants and needs.

  Janja’s groundbreaking contribution to the understanding of cults is her identification of the four specific features that all cultic groups share. We will explore them in detail in Chapters 2 through 5, and we will simplify her theory here so that you can quickly understand the features that cults of all ideologies and all sizes share (a cult doesn’t have to be large; it can be as small as a family unit).8 The four dimensions of bounded choice are:

  1.

  A Transcendent Belief System

  2.

  Charismatic Authority

  3.

  Systems of Control

  4.

  Systems of Influence

  We will focus more deeply on each of these dimensions, and we will contrast the many ways that cults employ them with the ways that healthy groups employ them. For now, the quick sketches that follow will allow you to grasp the basics of the bounded choice framework.

  1.

  The Transcendent Belief System

  Though not all groups organize themselves around transcendent beliefs in a higher power or a higher purpose, groups nearly always gather around some kind of ideology about the right ideas, the right approaches, and the right kinds of people. Healthy groups tend to support this sense of rightness in non-polarizing and relaxed ways, but in cultic groups, the need for purity and perfection is paramount and intense. In many cults, devotion to the transcendent belief system or the utopian ideal becomes the main focus of everyday living as members strive to transform themselves into better and more dedi
cated believers. This intense focus, which is a cult requirement, often leads to the enforced eradication of any behaviors or ideas that challenge the group’s (or its leader’s) beliefs. Also, total commitment to these beliefs often leads to fierce distrust and even hatred of outsiders. This us-versus-them polarization increases the feelings of unity and dedication inside the group, and makes it very hard for people to leave, since outsiders are seen at best as lost and in dire need of the group’s salvation—or at worst, as evil, or in the extreme, as worthy only of death.9 In short, the transcendent belief system instills group members with a deep, internalized knowledge that they are right and specially chosen, and that everyone else is wrong and unworthy unless they become believers themselves.

  2.

  Charismatic Authority

  We’ve all experienced hero worship or madly-in-love feelings that erased our good sense. In healthy relationships, these precarious moods tend to fade, and we become able to view our love objects in more calm and rational ways. However, cult leaders and/or leadership teams find ways to keep members exhilarated through electrifying displays of charisma, seductive utopian visions, demands for commitment, demonization of outsiders and less committed group members, and constant emotional manipulation. In many cults, favoritism, nepotism, or jockeying for position will create a leadership group of insiders (the inner circle) who develop and exercise their own kind of charismatic authority, known as “charisma by proxy.” This takes some of the stress off the leader while it makes the cult itself stronger. This way, when a cult leader dies, there will be someone to take his or her place and keep the cult going. Of the four bounded choice dimensions, charismatic authority is probably the most difficult to escape (as many of us may have experienced in our own dramatic and unhealthy love relationships) because it engages powerful emotional and biochemical reward systems that essentially turn the relationship with the cult into an addiction.10 When charismatic authority is present in a group, members can become so physically and psychologically addicted to the drama, intensity, and hero worship that leaving the group can feel like leaving all meaning, all purpose, all love, and all hope behind.

  3.

  Systems of Control

  Effective groups create social structures and rules that help them organize internally and distinguish themselves from other groups. In healthy groups, these systems of control tend to be non-coercive and tolerant. But in cultic groups, internal systems of control, strict rules and behavioral norms, and constant discipline enclose members inside a tightly controlled universe, or “bounded reality,” as Janja has called it. In some cults, every aspect of life is controlled, such that communication, education, diet, exercise, clothing, personal hygiene, sexual habits and partners, health care, family planning, child-rearing, and even friendships are monitored so that group members conform, are obedient, and eventually become isolated from any outside influences. These systems of control dovetail with the overarching belief system of the group and with each member’s sense of dedication, such that each member may come to see their behaviors as perfectly logical choices that they made intentionally and willingly. This tends to create in each member a false sense of free will and free choice.

  4.

  Systems of Influence

  In effective groups, social and emotional bonds are developed and nurtured to create a sense of belonging and unity. These systems of influence help people learn that they fit in, that they share core beliefs, and that they are in sync with other group members. In healthy groups, this bonding tends to be positive and compassionate, but in cultic groups, this bonding serves to reduce independence and autonomy. Through persistent peer influence, various types of monitoring, rigid expectations, and constant social and emotional manipulation, cultic groups make sure that the needs of the group outweigh the needs, ideas, and dreams of individual members. For instance, highly dedicated cult members may shun or shame anyone who steps out of line, and openly suggest or insinuate that the wayward person’s dedication is not what it should be. And when enough people are rooted in and dedicated to the cult’s systems of control, the systems of influence tend to arise from within the cult members themselves. Thus, the deep desire to live up to the cult’s ideals can create a group where members selfpolice and other-police and therefore have a very strong influence on each other. It is commonly understood that peer pressure is one of the greatest motivators for us humans, and cults capitalize on this to their benefit.

  With the help of the bounded choice framework, you can begin to understand not just what cults are, but how they form, how they grow, and how they affect their members psychologically and physically. These four dimensions of bounded choice are present, to some extent, in most groups—but in cultic groups, they take on a life of their own and are intricately intertwined and interdependent. In this book, we’ll help you understand how cults can gain a foothold in our lives, in the lives of the people we love, in our society, and on the international stage.

  We will also explore how each of these dimensions plays out in very different groups by sharing the stories of children and teens who were raised in cults. You will be able to observe the everyday life of cults and their members, and see into the thought processes and actions of children inside these cults. Children born or raised in cults have very different experiences and aftereffects than individuals who join as adults, and their stories can help you understand cults in valuable new ways.

  Of equal importance, we focus on the fortitude and resilience that helped these children resist, break free, and heal from mistreatment, loss, and trauma. These stories can help you understand how people can survive in and break free from controlling environments, and how you and your loved ones can apply these lessons of survival in your own lives. It is also our hope that this book will alert society and helping professionals to the kinds of resources and social services that are needed to support this growing population of survivors who were born and/or raised in cultic groups—because more and more of them are leaving every day.

  Understanding cults is vital to your understanding of human groups, human relationships, and the universal human longing for perfect and transcendent utopias. Cult behavior is human behavior. By looking at these very human behaviors with clear eyes and the support of the original, in-depth social science research and interpretation presented here, you can learn how to identify cults. In so doing, you can keep yourself and others safe from coercion, manipulation, and harm—and you can effectively support people who want to escape, or who have already escaped.

  In Chapter 1, we will highlight the stories of six of the sixty-five cult survivors Janja interviewed so that you can meet them and learn about their lives. Each of these people grew up in a utopian cult that their parents or grandparents (or even great-great-grandparents) chose to join, and each of them has a unique view of what life was like inside the closed world of their cult.

  Notes

  1.

  Glenn Close: Moral Re-Armament. Garrison Keillor: Plymouth Brethren. Winona Ryder: The Rainbow Commune. Lisa Marie Presley: Scientology. Leah Remini: Scientology. Toni Braxton: Pillar of Truth. Alexis, David, Patricia, Richmond, and Rosanna Arquette: Subud. Rose McGowan: Children of God/The Family. River Phoenix: Children of God/The Family.

  2.

  Harold Camping (1921–2013) was a Christian evangelist and president of the California-based Family Radio station, which broadcast in more than 150 markets across the United States. His fire-and-brimstone style and absolute certainty about the return of Jesus on May 21, 2011, garnered a great deal of media attention and millions of dollars in donations. Camping promised that the faithful would be raptured into heaven on May 21, while the damned would be consumed in plagues and fires until October of that same year, at which time the world would actually end. After May 21 came and went, Camping re-prophesied the true end of the world to October 21, 2011, but he had a stroke in June of that year and was fairly quiet on the subject for the rest of his life. Camping died in December 2
013. Family Radio suffered huge losses after the failed prophecy, and had to lay off staff and sell many of its stations. However, as of 2016 it is still broadcasting Camping’s sermons on eighty-six stations in the United States.

  3.

  End-time beliefs are found in Christianity (Catholic and Protestant), Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Baha’i, Norse religions, Rastafarianism, and Zoroastrianism. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_time.

  4.

  This framework was originally published in Lalich’s book Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), based on the findings from a comparative study of two cults with utterly dissimilar belief systems (her Marxist-Leninist cult and the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult, whose members committed mass suicide in 1997).

  5.

  Sociologists have written numerous articles concerning the difficulties of research on cults. See, for example, Marybeth Ayella, “‘They Must Be Crazy’: Some of the Difficulties in Researching ‘Cults,’” American Behavioral Scientist 33, no. 5 (1990): 562–77; Janja Lalich, “Pitfalls in the Sociological Study of Cults,” in Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field, Eds. Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001), 123–55; and Rob Balch, “How the Problem of Malfeasance Gets Overlooked in Studies of New Religions: An Examination of the AWARE Study of the Church Universal and Triumphant,” in Wolves within the Fold: Religious Leadership and Abuses of Power, Ed. A. Shupe (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998), 191–211.