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A cult checklist is a group of factors proposed to identify objectively which groups, cults, or new religious movements are spurious, or likely to abuse or exploit or otherwise harm its members.
Several checklists of "cult behavior" have been circulated by members of the anti-cult movement. These lists vary by the terminology they use, and how they group the behaviors they describe.
The check lists for problematic groups and new religious movements that are generally not labelled "cult checklists" and that have been made by people or organizations not associated by the anti-cult movement, such as sociologists and scholars of new religious movements are treated here too.
See also: Problems surrounding the definition of a cult
Eileen Barker
A checklist, allegedly based on empirical research, was made by professor Eileen Barker, in which traits of groups that can evolve to be dangerous are described. These traits include:
- A movement that separates itself from society, either geographically or socially;
- Adherents who become increasingly dependent on the movement for their view on reality;
- Important decisions in the lives of the adherents are made by others;
- Making sharp distinctions between us and them, divine and satanic, good and evil, etc. that are not open for discussion;
- Leaders who claim divine authority for their deeds and for their orders to their followers;
- Leaders and movements who are unequivocally focused on achieving a certain goal.
Barker does not describe how she created the above list.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service - Report # 2000/03 on Doomsday Cults
A report* by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, dated December 18, 1999, regarding Doomsday cults include the following apocalyptic cult checklist:
Characteristics
Apocalyptic Beliefs- dualism
- the persecuted chosen
- imminence
- determinism
- salvation through conflict
Charismatic Leadership
- control over members
- lack of restraint
- withdrawal
Actions by Authorities
- lack of comprehension
- unsound negotiation
- hasty action
- spiral of amplification
Threats
Weapons Acquisition- firearms
- explosives
- chemical / biological weapons
Institutional Infiltration
- political
- business
Criminal Activity
- crimes against individuals
- transnational crime
Early warning signs
- Intensification of illegal activities
- Humiliating circumstances
- Relocation to a rural area
- Increasingly violent rhetoric
- Struggle for leadership
The author does not describe how s/he created the above list.
Shirley Harrison
In her book "Cults - the battle for God", Shirley Harrison has a list of the characteristics of a potential destructive cult:
- A powerful leader who claims divinity or a special mission entrusted to him/her from above;
- Revealed scriptures or doctrine;
- Deceptive recruitment;
- Totalitarianism and alienation of members from their families and/or friends;
- The use of indoctrination, by sophisticated mind-control techniques, based on the concept that once you can make a person behave the way you want, then you can make him/her believe what you want;
- Slave labour - that is, the use of members on fundraising or missionary activities for little or no pay to line the leader's pockets;
- Misuse of funds and the accumulation of wealth for personal or political purposes at the expense of members; and
- Exclusivity - "we are right and everyone else is wrong".
Steve Eichel
In his "Building Resistance to Manipulation", the psychologist Steve K.D. Eichel created a checklist of signs of a sect designed to brainwash its members into loyal followers:
- Isolate them in new surroundings apart from old friends or reference-points;
- Provide them with instant acceptance from a seemingly loving group;
- Keep them away from competing or critical ideas;
- Provide an authority figure that everyone seems to acknowledge as having some special skill or awareness;
- Provide a philosophy that seems logical and appears to answer all or the most important questions in life;
- Structure all or most activities so that there is little time for privacy or independent action or thought, provide a sense of "us" versus "them";
- Promise instant or imminent solutions to deep or long-term problems;
- Employ covert or disguised hypnotic techniques.
James R. Lewis
In his book Cults in America, a scholar named James R. Lewis describes a number of properties he would expect a dangerous sect to have:
- The organization is willing to place itself above the law. With the exceptions noted earlier (in the full document linked below), this is probably the most important characteristic;
- The leadership dictates (rather than suggests) important personal (as opposed to spiritual) details of followers' lives, such as whom to marry, what to study in college, etc.;
- The leader sets forth ethical guidelines members must follow but from which the leader is exempt;
- The group is preparing to fight a literal, physical Armageddon against other human beings;
- The leader regularly makes public assertions that he or she knows is false and/or the group has a policy of routinely deceiving outsiders.
Lewis does not describe how he created the above the list.
Isaac Bonewits
Isaac Bonewits provides an "Advanced Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame" * (first published in his book "Real Magic" in 1979) intended to evaluate the degree of resemblance of a given religious or secular group to what the observer using this tool might consider a "cult." As he puts it, "The purpose of this evaluation tool is to help both amateur and professional observers, including current or would-be members, of various organizations (including religious, occult, psychological or political groups) to determine just how dangerous a given group is liable to be, in comparison with other groups, to the physical and mental health of its members and of other people subject to its influence."
His checklist, known as the ABCDEF ("Because understanding cults should be elementary"), allows the user to evaluate groups on a scale of 1–10, on the basis of 18 factors:
- internal control
- external control
- wisdom or knowledge claimed by leaders
- wisdom or knowledge credited to leaders
- dogma
- recruiting
- front groups
- wealth
- sexual manipulation
- sexual favoritism
- censorship
- isolation
- dropout control
- violence
- paranoia
- grimness
- surrender of will
- hypocrisy
The ABCDEF is available in multiple languages, including German, French, Italian, Polish, and Portuguese, on Bonewits's website. It was used by the FBI in its special "Meggido" report on apocolyptic Christian cults. It was also referrenced by a committee of the Union of South Africa as part of their efforts to reform that nation's marriage laws, which had previously recognized only marriages within the official state church.
Anthony Storr
Anthony Storr, a psychiatry professor in the United Kingdom, discusses common traits of good and bad gurus in his book, Feet of Clay - A Study of Gurus.
Storr defines the term guru as people having "special knowledge" who tell, referring to this special knowledge, how other people should lead their lives. He applies the term "guru" to figures as diverse as Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Gurdjieff, Rudolf Steiner, Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jim Jones and David Koresh.
He argues that most gurus promise followers "new paths to salvation", share common character traits (e.g. being loners without friends) and that some suffer from a mild form of schizophrenia. He also wrote in the book that the gurus who are eloquent, authoritarian, or interfere in the private lives of followers are the ones who are more likely to be unreliable and dangerous. He further refers to Eileen Barker's list to recognize dangerous situations in religious movements.
Storr does not describe how he created the above criteria.
See also
References
- Steve K.D. Eichel. "Building Resistance to Manipulation". The Journal of Professional & Ethical Hypnosis, 1, (Summer 1985), pp. 34-44.
- Lewis, James. Common Signs of Destructive Cults. Available online
- Lewis, James R. Cults in America ISBN 157607031-X (1998)
- Shirley Harrison. "Cults - The Battle for God" ISBN 0747014140 (May 24, 1990)
External links
- The Rational Enquirer Article about cults cult checklist by the skeptic Barry Beyerstein
- Dr. Robert J. Lifton's Eight Criteria for Thought Reform from Robert J. Lifton's book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism Chapter 22 (Second Edition, Chapel Hill, 1989) Chapter 15 (First Edition, New York, 1987) on the website of former members of International Churches of Christ, first published in 1961.
- How to determine if a group is a destructive cult from the anti-cult website factnet.org
"Cult checklist"