LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cults: World
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Cults offer the allure of an ordered world that is easily understood. Clear rules of behavior are enforced and nagging questions about meaning and purpose are dispelled by the leader, who defines members' lives in service to the cult's interest. It is probably most useful to examine the phenomenon of cults without dwelling on the sensationalistic practices of the flamboyant, the infamous, and the suicidal. When a psychologist examines a cult and its dynamics, what is actually observed is the mental condition of the member; in other words, what is it about the individual that allows them to willingly relinquish themselves to such rigid and dogmatic ways of thinking and living?
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As it will be seen, the Commission was at the first confronted with the difficulty in defining the term of "cults" to delimit its field of study. Nevertheless, it chose not to be deterred by what is actually only one false obstacle, and to follow with perseverance an empirical step that some could judge insufficiently ambitious but whose modesty hides a preoccupation of realism and an effectiveness. So it is that without a systematic spirit [? esprit de systÂme], without a fixed mental image of any kind, and taking great care not to proceed with some amalgam abusive nor to fall into paranoia, without showing of other-worldliness or, at least, naivety, that the Commission tried to appreciate contours of a phenomenon which, although difficult to understand, seems to develop, before noting that it reveals itself in diversified forms and is often characterized by dangerous practices, and, finally, to release the means of a response adapted to this danger.
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The common denominator of all the modern cults is an emphasis on community and on direct experience of the divine. In a cult, participants often find a level of social support and acceptance that rivals what may be found in a nuclear family. Cult activity, which is often esoteric and defined as direct contact with the divine, generates a sense of belonging to something profound and of being a somebody. The modern cult may be viewed as a cultural island that gives adherents an identity and a sense of meaning in a world that has somehow failed to provide them these things.
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Sarin gas in Tokyo's subway, cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in Guyana, the World Trade Center attacks: these and similar evils are the legacy of cults. What forces could foster such unthinkable acts and drive formerly right-thinking humans to carry them out? Discover the truth in this intriguing feature-length documentary from THE HISTORY CHANNEL®.
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[T]here is a positive side to cults. One gets love, a sense of belonging, of fulfilling a special purpose, of being protected, of being free from the evils of the world, of being on the path to eternal salvation, of having power. If the cult did not satisfy needs that life outside the cult failed to satisfy, cults would probably not exist.
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The following characteristics of cults and sects are based upon the cult classification systems of the world’s leading cult experts like, Singer, Langone Lifton and Hassan. An organization doesn’t have to have all of these characteristics to be a cult, and variations on the characteristics are many, it just has to have a good number of them to be a cult or moving in the direction of becoming one.
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