Why do some people find cults appealing?

The recent mass suicide of thirty-nine members of the Heaven's Gate cult has sparked off a plethora of discussions and theories on cults. Their nature, formation, potential danger, and most importantly, their allure, has come under scrutiny.

Conventional notions of cults are largely unsympathetic and damning. While images of Black Masses and bacchanalian orgies sometimes arise from distortions by a sensationalist media culture, most cults frequently use subversive tactics. These may include indoctrination, the threat of physical violence or spiritual suffering and peer pressure, resulting in overdependence and an inability to break away.

Many cults also present a potential danger due to their engagement in violent or illegal activities, possibly on the pretext of glorification of the sect. These can, and have included substance abuse, such as the usage of Benzedrine and other amphetamines to induce 'spiritual highs' by many quasi-religious groups in the 1960s. In addition, cults often adopt a veneer of ritual and spirituality to justify their actions, such as the various groups of self-professed Satanists in Singapore even today. While some argue that faith and worship are individual freedoms and should be left as such, the common usage of 'rituals' involving blood sacrifice (of animals), self-mutilation and sexual magic offend both basic notions of legality and decency.

Considering such offensive actions, it may seem rather surprising that cults have gained the popularity they enjoy today. The temptation is to portray cult members as naturally evil people seeking only physical gratification and the promotion of disorder. However, the Aum 'Supreme Truth' cult which gained worldwide notoriety with its sarin gas attack in the Japanese subway system was host to many normal individuals, albeit discontented ones, from a multitude of professions and backgrounds, many highly educated. Clearly, natural tendencies are an inadequate explanation for the appeal of cults.

On a basic level, personal ignorance and the 'packaging' of cults can contribute to the initial attraction. The leader of the Heaven's Gate cult, like many other heads of sects, was an articulate, charismatic ex-preacher whose eloquence doubtlessly held the attention of those listening. Similar channels, such as the numerous websites on the internet which are home to various orders, sects and cults, combine attractive promises and descriptions of their activities and aims.

However, the fact that only certain individuals feel sufficiently convinced by these to join the cults is evidence of a personal inadequacy or deprivation which they believe the cult will fill. Frequently, this takes the form of social acceptance denied them by other institutions and organisations. Cults, with their open membership policies, and disregard for social status and financial position emphasized by groups like recreational clubs, often provide a surrogate community for disenfranchised individuals. By protecting and according fellowship to those society has bypassed, such as the unemployed majority of the Heaven's Gate cult, these groups appear to perform a function many people require.

As Robert Altman, chronicler of counterculture, remarked, "After all, what's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a religion." Many cults and their 'religious' aspects fill the need in all of us for belief and spiritual comfort. With a recent (1995) opinion poll showing that twenty percent of Americans viewed the Catholic Church as over-commercialised and too political in nature, there has been a resurgence of neopagan groups and alternative systems of belief reminiscent of the fervour over Eastern mysticism in 1950s America. The fact that both the Aum cult, with its claims to truth and prophecies of Armageddon, and the Heaven's Gate's promises of ultimate salvation through an alien spaceship and the Hale-Bopp comet, contained theories of spiritual fulfillment suggests that, however fantastic, this is a major aim. Consequently, this contributes greatly to the allure of cults.

Membership of cults has also been linked with a backlash of discontent with mainstream society and culture. The desire for alternative elements is reflected in the popularity of the Erisians. Also known as the Discordians, they worship Eris, mythical goddess of discord, and their 'Bible', the Principia Discordia, mocks conventional order and established faiths.

Clearly, the mass suicides show the extent to which the precepts of a cult can hold sway over peoples' lives. Even now, there is argument that it is self-righteous to condemn them as foolish and misguided. 'They died willingly, for a cause which they believed was true and important,' argues a recent letter to 'Time' magazine, 'and even now we do not know if they succeeded.' Whatever the issue, it is clear that the allure of cults reflects upon the inability of society to provide adequately for all its members as much as it does upon the fundamental nature of cults.

Content: 25/30, Language = 15/20, Total = 40/50 (A1).
Interesting, well-illustrated and insightful.