How Do You know You Are Not In A Cult?

[SLPCCC]

If you were to find out that a religion was not true then I think that wouldn't guarantee a religion be a cult, so contra-positively if the religion were guaranteed to be a cult then it wouldn't guarantee that the religion was true, either. Therefore I think that a true religion is not necessarily going to be a cult. Hopefully not!

I think all religions start out as being a cult. I think Christianity started out that way. Those that grow and become accepted are called religion. Those that are not widely accepted don't get the title of "religion".

 

[SLPCCC]

There appears to be an implicit assumption that you shouldn't be in a cult. So I'd think I'd like to know: Why are cults bad?
And if there are so many out there... then how do you know there are so many out there? And why are there so many of them (if they are bad)?

Looks like @oldbadger beat me to the obvious questions.

I'll just add that I've heard there is some sort of movie-going cult and that they watch a collection of movies known as "Cult Classics". (I'm pretty sure there's an inside group that understands the truth of these films and an outside group that doesn't).

There's a wide spectrum of cults. So are harmless and some are downright dangerous. Some just want your money; some want your soul. Some want both. Some might even be living next to you trying to convert you. What they all have in common is that they want to be able to control your mind. Would you prefer to live a life free of mind control whether the cult is harmless or not? There are many more people free of cults; those are the ones the cults are after. Knowledge is power.

If you research cults and get a list of them, you might be surprised to find some that you didn't expect to be listed.

 

[SLPCCC]

If one was in a cult, would it automatically mean it (the faith/religion) cannot be true?

I think it can start out as being true, but the leader(s) eventually start to want more control of you. To do so, they indoctrinate you to their own twisted teaching and using bad logic.

 

[rational experiences]

Everyone is wrong. Human life started out as being a group, a natural group. A natural group of family, spiritual, aware, loving kind and caring and the Elder were the wise in their community, who cared for the young whilst the healthy worked.

That circumstance was removed in occult sciences, technology of the temple and pyramid trans mutation use. What a fake group is....a coercive reason to believe in the destruction and attack on God O Earth the origin, and then all supportive Nature.

What the OCCULT is...hence the name CULT came from the use of UFO mass, sun radiation to force God to convert like the Sun originally had. In a one of bursting released attack.

So science claims that event was the Big Bang, for Earth science after all is just Earth science. Even though their cult behaviour says I know it all....is coercive, claims that the use intelligence in science makes you higher in life than anyone else...hence humans harmed want to be involved in being quantified as "special" and above and beyond everyone else. Cult mentality.

Religious spiritual organization took over from our attacked life, and tried to implement scientific reasoning against believing that God the stone should be allowed to be forcibly changed by machines. And those teachings are ignored.

Therefore the first evil was human being scientists as the CULT...why today mind contact/mind coercion, scientific reasoning, bullying is the CULT tactic about reasoning why the spiritual self is innocent and everyone else is out to get you mentality...for that form of psyche information is being communicated into everyone's mind/brain....due to modern day technological sciences.

Why it is easy to apply a CULT behaviour based on using ancient creation scientific information, for guess what no one originally owned stories about science.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I think all religions start out as being a cult. I think Christianity started out that way. Those that grow and become accepted are called religion. Those that are not widely accepted don't get the title of "religion".

By cult do you mean small or do you mean controlling and unhealthy? The term cult has multiple uses, so cult and cult are not the same depending upon what they mean in the moment of expression.

 

[SLPCCC]

By cult do you mean small or do you mean controlling and unhealthy? The term cult has multiple uses, so cult and cult are not the same depending upon what they mean in the moment of expression.

All cults whether they are small or large. They all have one thing in common. They want to indoctrinate you. Their religious teachings are usually unusual to the point where their members, including their children, suffer in many ways. They have a leader or group that you have to look up to as if he/they are being used by God. If one tries to leave, they would get shunned and lose all their family and friends.

 

[SLPCCC]

This is what happens when a cult member first hears the truth. They experience Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance Defined

 

[Deeje]

I wondered if a person who is in a cult can find out if their in a cult through reading and learning about cults. A friend of mine who was in a destructive cult said that she never knew she was in a cult until she read about mind control. She saw the similarities like love bombing visitors, shunning, and everyone dressing the same (shirt and tie, dresses), and not questioning the leaders, etc.

Several people that I read about never knew that they were in a cult either .....it was called early Christianity and the cult leader was a man named Jesus. They were urged to "love bomb" their visitors. It was actually in their law to "love your neighbor as yourself". (Jesus and all the first Christians were Jewish and under Jewish law.)
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica.....“in ancient Israel, hospitality was not merely a question of good manners, but a moral institution . . . The biblical customs of welcoming the weary traveler and of receiving the stranger in one’s midst was the matrix out of which hospitality and all its tributary aspects developed into a highly esteemed virtue in Jewish tradition.”
Hospitality

Jesus reiterated that standard for his disciples. (Matthew 22:35-40)

Those first Christians shunned those who committed wrongs against God's law unrepentantly, as well as those who tried to cause division in the congregations by bringing in their own ideas. No one was permitted to be a free thinker....but I would hardly call it mind control....unless that is what you think God requires...?

During Jesus’ earthly ministry the synagogues served as courts for trying violators of Jewish law. The Sanhedrin was the highest court. The Jewish synagogues had a system of excommunication, or disfellowshipping, that had three steps or three names.
The "niddui"...the "herem"....and the "nezifah".

Herem (censure) - Wikipedia

The Christians carried on the same principles. Some of the offenses that could merit disfellowshipping from the Christian congregation included fornication, adultery, homosexuality, greed, extortion, thievery, lying, drunkenness, reviling, spiritism, murder, idolatry, apostasy, and the causing of divisions in the congregation.

The apostle Paul commanded: “Quit mixing in company with” such a one; and the apostle John wrote: “Never receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13; 2 John 9-10) Sounds like shunning to me. It was a form of discipline. Since it was part of God's law, apparently he has no problem with it.

And the Jews had to dress in a certain manner by law. (Numbers 15:38-41; Deuteronomy 22:12)
The people had to wear fringed garments with a blue thread above it. It identified them as Jews. Dressing in a way that did not identify them was highlighted in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. The man who was set upon by thieves had even had his garments stolen, which did not allow the passing Jews to identify him as a fellow Jew, so they passed him by even though he was injured and in need of help....they probably imagined that he was a hated Samaritan. But it was the hated Samaritan who showed love to his neighbor....he simply saw a fellow human in need of help.

As for questioning the Leaders.....what happened to those in Moses' day who dared to question God's appointment of his chosen leader? What of those who dared to question the authority of the apostles? How does an organization function if it has no directors? If God is directing the ones he has chosen for the job in this time of the end, then why would we need to oppose them if what they tell us is backed up by the scriptures, and they are not causing us any harm? You think God can't direct his own directors?

Paul said that satan has to power to 'blind' people's minds, but he said it can only happen to "unbelievers". (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

The only people who can be fooled, are those to whom God has not issued an invitation for entry into the Kingdom arrangement. (John 6:44; 65)
There are only "sheep and goats" at the end.....so all of us are either one or the other.....Jesus is the judge, so let him do his job.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I think all religions start out as being a cult. I think Christianity started out that way. Those that grow and become accepted are called religion. Those that are not widely accepted don't get the title of "religion".

We don't have accurate records. There are some very different theories that can't be easily eliminated, and Romans are notorious for being willing to toss their own history in order to embrace a fictional one that is more universal to all ethnic groups. Their own historians openly tell us that this is so. The Roman historians tell us that Rome's history is fictional, that the original history has been replaced. They believe that all histories are all the same, so long before 0CE they opt to have the best possible all encompassing history. The Romans are fine with that and are not concerned with their actual detailed History. I wouldn't put it past them to rework their national religion the same way and invent a history to suit it. The real history of Christianity must I think be found in what causes the Romans to convert. Do they convert? Are they real Christians like the texts describe? I look for the reasoning both moral and emotional and the history of those. None of the writers can be trusted in any ultimate sense. They can be studied and facts checked, writers checked against one another and against copies. They are Romans though, so if they don't like the History then maybe they'll just change it? Perhaps in their minds its the same as changing what actually happened.

All cults whether they are small or large. They all have one thing in common. They want to indoctrinate you. Their religious teachings are usually unusual to the point where their members, including their children, suffer in many ways. They have a leader or group that you have to look up to as if he/they are being used by God. If one tries to leave, they would get shunned and lose all their family and friends.

 

[SLPCCC]

Several people that I read about never knew that they were in a cult either .....it was called early Christianity and the cult leader was a man named Jesus. They were urged to "love bomb" their visitors. It was actually in their law to "love your neighbor as yourself". (Jesus and all the first Christians were Jewish and under Jewish law.)

The bible's teaching and those of cults' are different. Look at one example. The practice of shunning. A common trait among cults and destructive religious groups is the practice of “shunning” members even if the members just simply walk away. Cult members are even required to “shun” the family members and friends who walked away. There is no honorable way out of a cult. While these groups often assert that the practice of shunning is a “loving” form of spiritual punishment, it is not a bible teaching. Yes, they shun those who "sin and don't repent" but it's not scripturally the same. Compare and contrast.

1) CULT DISCIPLINE - Disfellowshipping or Shunning Even If There Were No Sins Commited:

· Reading Anti-Cult literature

· Criticizing the teachings of the Cult

· Communicating with Ex-Cults

· Gambling

· Smoking

· Dating a non-Cult

· Many other offenses not mentioned in the Bible.


BIBLICAL DISCIPLINE - Only Expelling Sins – 1 Corinthians 5:11; Titus 3:10; 2; Thessalonians 3:6:

· Fornication

· Greed,

· Idolatry

· Reviling (insults, slander),

· Drunkard

· Extortion (theft)

· Walking disorderly (an idle or unruly life)


2) CULT DISCIPLINE - Disfellowshipping or Shunning Sins:​

• An unrepentant cult member is disfellowshipped without the input of the congregation. A member who commits “unclean conduct” according to the cult’s guidelines is disfellowshipped by elders or a “judicial committee” made of up three cult elders. This decision is made behind closed doors without the input of others in the congregation.

BIBLICAL DISCIPLINE

• An unrepentant Christian member is expelled from the congregation/church only after he has refused to listen to:

1. The rebuke of at least two Christisn and the congregation or church as a whole
2. If he refuses to listen even to the church, 2 Corinthians 2:6 (congregation as a whole)

3) CULT DISCIPLINE - Disfellowshipping or Shunning Sins:

• Ex-cult members who commit no sin but disassociate themselves from the cults church or organization are shunned along with those who were officially disfellowshipped for wrongdoing.

BIBLICAL DISCIPLINE

• There is no command in Scripture to shun those who leave the Christian faith (1 John 2:19). While those who cause divisions (Romans 16:17) or promote false doctrines (Titus 3:10) are to be watched and “rejected” if they do not repent after being warned, there is no command to stop communicating with ex-believers.

4) CULT DISCIPLINE - Disfellowshipping or Shunning Sins:

• Unless the member is appointed as a qualified “elder,” all communication between cult members and Ex-cult persons is strictly prohibited. Sometimes referencing 2 John 10 to support this practice, the cult takes this passage out of context. This verse speaks of not greeting/welcoming false teachers into the first-century “house” churches to proclaim their false gospel message to church members. This passage has nothing to do with how to treat a disfellowshipped member or a member who simply just walked away.
  
  BIBLICAL DISCIPLINE

• While “association” with an expelled member is limited (2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14; 1 Corinthians 5:11), they are still allowed to be spoken to and “admonished” to turn from their sinful ways (2 Thessalonians 3:15). There is no indication in any of these Scriptures that only “elders” are allowed to communicate with expelled “brothers.” or those who just walked away. James 5:19-20: “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

5) CULT DISCIPLINE - Disfellowshipping or Shunning Sins:

• Disfellowshipped members are not to be considered “brothers” in the faith, they have lost their salvation and have no hope of future resurrection unless they return to the cult organization before their physical death.

BIBLICAL DISCIPLINE

• Expelled members are “loved,” (Luke 6:27-37), and are still considered “brothers” in the faith who can still be saved regardless of whether they return to the church fellowship. 2 Thessalonians 3:15: “Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”

*** Jesus said that His true followers would be recognized by the “love” they have among themselves (John 13:34-35). Although the Bible allows for the act of expelling a Christian believer from church affiliation if they practice immoral behavior, this discipline is to be administered in humility and love for the sake of the sinful believer’s eternal destiny (Romans 14:1; Galatians 6:1; 1 Corinthians 5:4-5). It was not done in the scornful, way that the cult leaders by completely cutting off all unnecessary communication with them, especially those who commit no sins but just simple only walked away.

 

[SLPCCC]

This is a sad story of a child growing up in a cult.

 

[Deeje]

As usual, your interpretation is very twisted, but we expect that from apostates.....(John 15:18-21) You can believe whatever you wish.....just let us know when you find the true religion and we can all join.....OK?

 

[Vinayaka]

By cult do you mean small or do you mean controlling and unhealthy? The term cult has multiple uses, so cult and cult are not the same depending upon what they mean in the moment of expression.

Here's an example of the multiple uses, one that's quite outside the usual connotation. I'm a proud member of this one.

The Murukan cult in Mauritius

 

[SLPCCC]

As usual, your interpretation is very twisted, but we expect that from apostates.....(John 15:18-21) You can believe whatever you wish.....just let us know when you find the true religion and we can all join.....OK?

If you are getting upset because I'm putting information and discussing cults, then you must be in a cult experiencing cognitive dissonance. This is not a debate thread. Just discussing cults and the methods they use to indoctrinate. Cult members will feel uncomfortable discussing this topic. Knowledge is power, but it will cause cognitive dissonance in cult members.

 

[Deeje]

If you are getting upset because I'm putting information and discussing cults, then you must be in a cult experiencing cognitive dissonance. This is not a debate thread. Just discussing cults and the methods they use to indoctrinate. Cult members will feel uncomfortable discussing this topic. Knowledge is power, but it will cause cognitive dissonance in cult members.

But you could never suffer from cognitive dissonance yourself....could you? The devil could never fool you....right?

If he can misrepresent the son of God, resulting in his own people clamouring for his death, (Matthew 27:25) then what hope do his true disciples have? (John 15:18-21)

I think you are completely missing the point, but it’s your choice. You can believe whatever you want to believe.....

So let’s just see where your acquired ‘knowledge’ gets you.....? We can see who you are listening to.

We will all know who was telling the truth sooner rather than later I think......

Bye.....

 

[SLPCCC]

But you could never suffer from cognitive dissonance yourself....could you? ..

We all experience it. But I think what's important is to try to recognize it when it happens.

 

[SLPCCC]

As usual, your interpretation is very twisted, but we expect that from apostates....

You called me an "apostate". so I did some search and this is what I found.


Apostates Are "Corrupted In Mind!"

I don't consider myself as an apostate. But I hear what he says.

 

[Ponder This]

There's a wide spectrum of cults. So are harmless and some are downright dangerous. Some just want your money; some want your soul. Some want both. Some might even be living next to you trying to convert you. What they all have in common is that they want to be able to control your mind. Would you prefer to live a life free of mind control whether the cult is harmless or not? There are many more people free of cults; those are the ones the cults are after. Knowledge is power.

If you research cults and get a list of them, you might be surprised to find some that you didn't expect to be listed.

You would still just be living under the illusion that you aren't being mind controlled. That's the most dangerous illusion of all: that you actually believe that you aren't being influenced and only believe that other people are being influenced.
You may be better off figuring out which cults you are in (and which cults you want to be in or not in) as opposed to pretending that you aren't in a cult and then suddenly finding out the hard way.

 

[rational experiences]

Several people that I read about never knew that they were in a cult either .....it was called early Christianity and the cult leader was a man named Jesus. They were urged to "love bomb" their visitors. It was actually in their law to "love your neighbor as yourself". (Jesus and all the first Christians were Jewish and under Jewish law.)
According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica.....“in ancient Israel, hospitality was not merely a question of good manners, but a moral institution . . . The biblical customs of welcoming the weary traveler and of receiving the stranger in one’s midst was the matrix out of which hospitality and all its tributary aspects developed into a highly esteemed virtue in Jewish tradition.”
Hospitality

Jesus reiterated that standard for his disciples. (Matthew 22:35-40)

Those first Christians shunned those who committed wrongs against God's law unrepentantly, as well as those who tried to cause division in the congregations by bringing in their own ideas. No one was permitted to be a free thinker....but I would hardly call it mind control....unless that is what you think God requires...?

During Jesus’ earthly ministry the synagogues served as courts for trying violators of Jewish law. The Sanhedrin was the highest court. The Jewish synagogues had a system of excommunication, or disfellowshipping, that had three steps or three names.
The "niddui"...the "herem"....and the "nezifah".

Herem (censure) - Wikipedia

The Christians carried on the same principles. Some of the offenses that could merit disfellowshipping from the Christian congregation included fornication, adultery, homosexuality, greed, extortion, thievery, lying, drunkenness, reviling, spiritism, murder, idolatry, apostasy, and the causing of divisions in the congregation.

The apostle Paul commanded: “Quit mixing in company with” such a one; and the apostle John wrote: “Never receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13; 2 John 9-10) Sounds like shunning to me. It was a form of discipline. Since it was part of God's law, apparently he has no problem with it.

And the Jews had to dress in a certain manner by law. (Numbers 15:38-41; Deuteronomy 22:12)
The people had to wear fringed garments with a blue thread above it. It identified them as Jews. Dressing in a way that did not identify them was highlighted in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. The man who was set upon by thieves had even had his garments stolen, which did not allow the passing Jews to identify him as a fellow Jew, so they passed him by even though he was injured and in need of help....they probably imagined that he was a hated Samaritan. But it was the hated Samaritan who showed love to his neighbor....he simply saw a fellow human in need of help.

As for questioning the Leaders.....what happened to those in Moses' day who dared to question God's appointment of his chosen leader? What of those who dared to question the authority of the apostles? How does an organization function if it has no directors? If God is directing the ones he has chosen for the job in this time of the end, then why would we need to oppose them if what they tell us is backed up by the scriptures, and they are not causing us any harm? You think God can't direct his own directors?

Paul said that satan has to power to 'blind' people's minds, but he said it can only happen to "unbelievers". (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

The only people who can be fooled, are those to whom God has not issued an invitation for entry into the Kingdom arrangement. (John 6:44; 65)
There are only "sheep and goats" at the end.....so all of us are either one or the other.....Jesus is the judge, so let him do his job.

Jesus was not any cult......it was a natural self awareness in life attack.

Today it would be qualified that the UFO victim had to join a group support as no one would believe that they were so evilly attacked. Which involves biological and emotional/spiritual support in that group activity whilst trying to convince the public that the UFO attacks are real, whilst the science who uses the UFO knows its real, but does not want the awareness published or agreed in the community.

Same old story as before, same exact human mentality and chosen life self expressions, with humanity claiming attack being ridiculed whilst the elite science community causing it owns the circumstance like Rome owned the elite social controls and trade using the trans mutation temple/pyramid sciences before in an organization who withdrew from it.

It is historical proof that the male communities most harmed by utilising the UFO....named as Exodus or hijirah….were hit by the UFO causation use of Temple control and technology pyramid in Jeru salem, as jeru was where the circuit turned...so it was an important land holding in using the technology of transmitted relays...radio wave signals. Why Temple floor plans looks like the inside of a radio transmitter...what spiritual memory vision advice I had been given, as human warnings.

As a spiritual healer I used to dream for other peoples life history and problems to assist them to overcome their mental conditions. And many of my visions were relevant warning advice, as reactivated modern time gas/vision causes. As if old atmospheric memory had been reactivated, as owned and caused by humans in science.

Having suffered the brain prickling radiation gas burning event and saw the wispy black smoking presence outside as I sat inside crying, I realised what being life sacrificed meant....radiation fall out. And that situation is not cult reasoning, it is science reasoning, which is what the Jesus review is.....science reasoning of the OCCULT...the causes of the UFO radiation mass burning, when it was factually held Sun mass frozen and held in cold space conditions. Science activates its burning to force God O stone to change/convert.

Science is Satanism, and that history is the first CULT.

 

[SLPCCC]

You would still just be living under the illusion that you aren't being mind controlled. That's the most dangerous illusion of all: that you actually believe that you aren't being influenced and only believe that other people are being influenced.
You may be better off figuring out which cults you are in (and which cults you want to be in or not in) as opposed to pretending that you aren't in a cult and then suddenly finding out the hard way.

That's why I started this thread. Everyone should ask themselves this question and learn about mind control and indoctrination. If you feel uncomfortable discussing it, you just might be in one. Education is a powerful tool.