Cult techniques

[azurelunatic]

Have recently seen a cult in action, confusing and scaring a colleague to the point where they shut off all contact from friends, afraid there was something wrong with them.

I have the idea that this works only when people don't have close friends, who know the secret triggers to snap the person back to themselves and take a good close look at what's going on. If a person has no close friends who really know and love them, and a cult moves in to be that close friend, all non-close friends are going to get shut out...

...Thank gods they didn't get sucked in.

Comments

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

I agree. Thank goodness said person came to their senses, and realized isolation from the people who could most help her was a bad idea. As it was, it was close.

[azurelunatic]

Darkside is my sanity-check. Anyone that tries to pry me away from him is Bad News. Of everyone out there, he's the only person who's not a parent of mine who unfailingly puts my safety and health before their comfort.

[azurelunatic]

Every time I hear about something like what happened to that person, or something that was a problem that could have been solved if someone had had close friends who kept tabs on someone's well-being and stepped in when something was Wrong... I thank my lucky stars for Darkside and the other friends I have.

Also, E pointed me at a link about cults, and how to pry someone away from them.

[azurelunatic]

From what those resources said, the cult tries to take the role of Most Trusted Friend, and once they have that foot in the door, less-trusted-friends will see what a mess they're making, point it out... and get slammed in the face because they're trying to come between the new recruit and their Most Trusted Friend, the cult.

I know that Darkside's a healthy Most Trusted Friend for me because he doesn't try to push me away from friends that I have, even though he does point out when relationships are really doing a number on me. He points out that something's a Really Bad Thing when I come in half the mornings crying about it... and then don't notice it the other half.

Re:

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

It was easy to doubt, when that person's head was messed up. She even cut off her Most Trusted Friend, misreading some advice he offered, when that was not the case. It took a while for her to figure it all out.

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

Actually, it was several Most Trusted Friends. The aforementioned one, a pretty old local Most Trusted Friend, I understand she allowed herself to take advice the wrong way, and cut herself off. Another Most Trusted Friend, and his roommate, I understand she didn't even tell either of them what happened, until it all came out at dinner one night. Another local Most Trusted Friend, said, call me, and she would not.

And then she cut herself off from her non-local Most Trusted Friends, not to mention her parents. I understand she was free of the cult, physically, but still had such a mess going on in her head thanks to them that she couldn't be sure of herself, and chose to shut herself out, which was a most unhealthy thing to do.

I understand now she's recovered enough to be angry, and is taking action, to get them for what they tried to do.

[azurelunatic]

So cults cause confusion and exploit fear of telling Weird Shit to friends.

I hope she kicks their asses, or causes their asses to be kicked.

[azurelunatic]

Oh, and she may be interested to know that I posted a summary of the situation to my Guardian list, thus spawning a few flames about the cult in question, and a Rather Large Debate over the ultimate fate of Atlantis (since that particular cult is evidently the Worst Thing since the [random obscure crackpot theory about the demise of Atlantis]; the crackpot theory being what spawned the debate).

Re:

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

Oh my. :)

[azurelunatic]

Yep.

Lovely people, lots of fun. I'm the one who actually seriously entertained the idea of making my little branch of Guardianhood ISO-9000 compliant...

Re:

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

That does sound like a fun bunch of folks. :)

[azurelunatic]

Yep. Sure are. Listmom is iroshi.

Re:

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

Oh, well, there you have it. :)

[azurelunatic]

Damn straight.

[azurelunatic]

So you can see, I'm at least as much of a crackpot as any of the rest of them.

[azurelunatic]

Cults are bad, mkay?

Re:

[tyrantmouth.livejournal.com]

Mkay. :)