Cults

Cults

“It’s Not a Cult, It’s a Lifestyle!”

Let’s get something straight from the jump: nobody joins a cult. People join “a movement,” “a higher purpose,” “a path to enlightenment,” or “a group of like-minded thinkers.” The word cult only shows up after the mass suicide, tax evasion, sex trafficking, or attempted insurrection. Until then, it’s just folks “asking questions” and “thinking for themselves” in matching outfits while wiring their life savings to some sweaty guy with a messiah complex.

But cults are everywhere, yes, even now. You don’t need to be on a commune in Oregon or drinking Kool-Aid in Guyana. Some of them have rebranded as self-help seminars. Some are online rabbit holes. Some got tax-exempt status and now have marble buildings and parking lots the size of an airport. But the psychological blueprint? Still the same.

So why do people fall for them? And more importantly, where do we draw the line between a “cult” and a “legitimate religion”?