[ScientificSorcerer (OP)]

            What is cult psychology?
                         

I have always had a small fascination with the concept of a "cult" some cults are outright dangerous and scary. Dangerous cults still exist today but if you involved in a killer cult you wouldn't know it until they make you drink the Koolaid and by then it's too late.  It seems like something that shouldn't actually exist, it seems too bizarre to be real but it is.

What makes me curious about cults is the illogical nature of them. You see Normal logical people join cults believe it or not, it's not just for freaks on the loonitic fringe, you too could become a victim despite how logical you think you are.

You might be thinking, I would never fall for stuff like that because I am an agnostic scientist (or something like that).  Cults seem illogical and unscientific but cult leaders are usually well versed in the science of psychology and use it like dark masters.  I like to think of them as the "madd scientists" of psychology. They know how the mind works and can make even the most logical among us believe in nonsense and warship at the feet of some psycho guru.

How it possible? What makes people do things like warship some guy in a robe and believe in nonsense, shave their heads and live secluded on a remote ranch compound.  It's crazy but it happens, what I want to know is WHY and how.

But crazy killer cults are very uncommon.  Greedy cults are more common and are perhaps what you should really worry about. Greedy cults are probably not so threatening to you life but can be a serious danger to your mind.

A greedy cult looks a bit like this small wannabe guru's scam featured in this video link.

He calls it "Matrix Energetics" and you can see quite clearly that what he is talking about is crap, he even dose that old "power to trust fall trick" were actors pretends to be effected by some kind of mystic power that the guru has.  It's a simple trick but through magic tricks he is able to make his crowd believe that what what he is talking about is real.  SO THEY BUY HIS BOOK and attend $30 seminars.  It's that simple but those people in the crowd don't know that and thus a con man makes his bread and butter.

I thought that crazy cults and greedy cults would be very similar but I don't see a connection. do you? If you Know psychology please reply.

[yor_on]

People that want a reason for their lives, finding science to be to tedious possibly. You have a opposite in people believing that one type of logic, which then might be represented by unknown preconceptions or bias, should decide a logical behavior, aka some scientist defining it as no problem if we can't continue living on this earth, defining it such as all we need is a isolated dome, self sufficient and keeping us alive.

[Ethos_]

Cults are usually born out of a desire to be part of something larger than oneself. Those individuals that possess a low self esteem are especially at risk. And in modern society, the confident individualist is becoming less prominent. This trend is the result of social idealism causing people to become more and more dependent upon others for survival. Those that have learned the freedom that comes from being self dependent rarely fall victim to such insanity. The true individual has no need to worship the ideals and goals of these manipulators because they are sufficiently confident and secure with their own agendas.

[cheryl j]

Cults may use same of the same techniques as gangs, abusive partners, and other exploitative groups - things like physical stress, sleep deprivation, overt and implied physical threats, isolation from previous relationships ("you're nothing without us/ no one else cares about you") and a phenomenon called traumatic bonding, where people irrationally feel the abuse or humiliation  can't have been all for nothing, and must mean that the group or the relationship is worth suffering for and belonging to.

[ScientificSorcerer (OP)]

I see, In my research into the chemicals of emotion and addiction I found out that it is very possible to be truly addicted to a person or group even if they are abusive.

at first the subject of cults seemed hard to wrap my brain around because I am so used to logic. But as yor_on mentioned some people don't think logically, I failed to look at the subject from the perspective of a superstitious person.

As a magician I should have known, I used to trick superstitious people all the time with petty magic.

But at what point does someone become an object of warship?  It seems like a powerful tool to be so charismatic that people basically throw away any concept of logic and believe in illogical concepts.

I would like to use Christianity or Islam as examples, they are technically cults worshiping Jesus or Muhammad but how did they get so big and powerful?

[PmbPhy]

You might be thinking, I would never fall for stuff like that because I am an agnostic scientist (or something like that).  Cults seem illogical and unscientific but cult leaders are usually well versed in the science of psychology and use it like dark masters.  I like to think of them as the "madd scientists" of psychology. They know how the mind works and can make even the most logical among us believe in nonsense and warship at the feet of some psycho guru.

Actually I know damn well that I'd never fall for that kind of thing. Everything that enters my ears first gets pasted through a bullshit detector. I've been exposed to a lot of this kind of thing in my life but I've always seen through their illogical crap. Why? Because I'm well aware of how the mind works. I've seen and listened to countless religious people tell me why they believe what they do and I've always been shocked at why they can't see the illogic in their beliefs.

So in my case, I'm immune to it. Not to mention being trained as a scientist and having studied psychology and the philosophy of science including pseudoscience (my favorite part of that course). And I continue to be on the lookout for it. I just don't tell anybody when their beliefs are nonsense because I'd have to explain either how ignorant they are or how stupid they are. But then again (and I hate to phrase it like this but I'm not the kind of be ashamed of his intelligence) my IQ is at the level where I'm more intelligent than 90% of the people on the planet.

[PmbPhy]

Cults are usually born out of a desire to be part of something larger than oneself. Those individuals that possess a low self esteem are especially at risk.

Cults may use same of the same techniques as gangs, abusive partners, and other exploitative groups - things like physical stress, sleep deprivation, overt and implied physical threats, isolation from previous relationships ("you're nothing without us/ no one else cares about you") and a phenomenon called traumatic bonding, where people irrationally feel the abuse or humiliation can't have been all for nothing, and must mean that the group or the relationship is worth suffering for and belonging to.

That's what I love about the both of you too. You're both brilliant!