Cults and Such

I wrote a rendition of the following in an email to someone tonight.
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I'm gonna address your statement regarding "cults." My thoughts may come out ambivalent, because my thoughts and feelings regarding "cults" can be ambivalent. Similar to my thoughts about whether or not a creator exist or a theist god exist. I don't know what I believe currently about the god thing. Perhaps some day I will, and perhaps not.

Anyway "cults." I'm going to simply ramble here. This ain't no dissertation or nuttin'. Just thoughts interlaced with any weirdness that comes through my finger tips. I will endeavor to make it somewhat coherent.

I knew The Way was called a "cult" when I became a Way follower. The "cult" label didn't bother me...much. At the time The Way was kinder than the "church" believers that I was involved with. The Way could answer my questions. My experience at Way fellowships was good and rich, real and tangible. My heart's desire was to know God...to "know"...to "know"....to "know." I had convinced myself that Jesus Christ was THE way to the Father (god). When I found The Way, I began to convince myself that the Biblical scriptures were perfect when "originally" given. I delved deeper into "crucifying the old man." That is declaring my flesh dead and worthless and my life in Christ vibrant and righteous.

Eventually that led me to what I call a soul suicide or soul murder. Any desire that was outside the doctrine of God's Word (the "original" intent of the Bible as The Way claimed to teach) was not of God. I was to renew my mind to the Truth of the Word, to destroy my human logic from the position I had exalted it and put on the mind of the new man; ie: the mind of Christ. In so doing I would know the depth and length and breadth and height of the love of God which passes all understanding. The eyes of my understanding would be enlightened. I would be one of the telios, the initiated.

As time went on, I no longer knew who Carol was. Carol was what the Word said she was. (Interesting I don't state "who" but rather "what.")

For me, that is the essence of cultic influence and harmfulness (for some followers). When one's autonomy is stolen or allowed to be stolen. And when one's interdependence with humanity is replaced with exclusivism; that those not enlightened to the truth (that is taught within the group) are ruled by their natural senses at best, the seed of the 'devil' at worst. (I do think that a follower of any cultic group, **who ends up harmed, most(?) much(?) of the time, holds part of the responsibility in the situation in which they find themselves. **Yet stating that, I get a bit foggy and not quite sure.)

As I figure you might agree, any group can be cultic. And how much so is on a continuum. Us humans don't live in a vacuum. I like what I read from part of a book by psychiatrist, Dr. Arthur Deikman: "Some degree of cult behavior can be seen in all groups, so instead of asking 'Is this group a cult?,' a more useful inquiry is: "How much cult behavior is taking place here?' "

I've read similar in other books written by various psychologists and sociologists and such. I find it a fascinating field - group dynamics. How many of the authors I've read consider themselves part of the anti-cult movement? I don't know, but I don't think many do. Rather they study group dynamics. What is healthy? What is unhealthy? How can we determine such?

How many people join cults? Is it increasing or decreasing? I don't know if we can measure that. How many folks suffer emotional and psychological abuse in groups or in one-on-one relationships? Lots. Is either of those increasing or decreasing? I don't know.

Well, that's a few of my thoughts regarding "cults." (Hmmm...I may put those thoughts on a blog entry. :-D )
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**I struck part of my words above, because I got to thinking about them and realized I really don't agree with what I had stated. It is like blaming a person who has been abused; the victim is not responsible for the abuse. That said, when a person joins a group, depending on influences utilized in how they joined (and there are variables and degrees), I think in many(?) of the cases the person holds (at the least) some responsibility for their choice to join and continue with the group. That too is variable, because influences from the group and vulnerabilities of the person while in the group will often fluctuate. If a person is born into a group, they really have no choice until later as an adult, and then it is extremely diffi-cult to leave.

I have a lot more thoughts on the subject, and then some foggy-headedness with it.

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