Noone deliberatley joins a cult just for the sake of it! They join it because they believe they may be able to seek the fulfillment of life and the means of existance and whether or not such groups are related to churches, research groups, personal development courses, Bible studies, etc.there are such myths of why people allow themselves to listen to mind changing ideas, become involved within a formal dress code, odd practices and so on... Here are a few of what believers have thought to be true:
Myth - Cultism is no different than Christianity.
At first glance, this appears compellingly true because of the religious nature of both, but this is simply not true as well. Cults demand submission to their authority structure, preach that their revelation or insight is the only Truth that will enlighten or save the world, and develop doctrinal positions completely contradicting historic Christian claims - mainly that one must earn God's grace by their cult-mandated works. The orthodox Christian Gospel clearly points to a relationship with Jesus Christ, "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), as the only way to enter into right relationship to God, and not a trust in any organizational association or personal labors within them. While the moral absolutism and exclusive nature of Christian truth claims are mimicked by cultic religion, it is far from being the same as the Christian admonitions to faith in Jesus alone.
What is rather odd, is what peole who join believe themselves as being one of Jesus' followers! The only logical explaination that could be thought, is if that they truly believe they are one of his diciples/followers or that intelligent 'brain-washing' techniques are being used. Many leaders attempt to push the 'Truth' out as far as possible to make their followers understand that they only way to gain a place in Heaven is to hold a strong relationship with their leader who may/not have 'strong contacts' with Jesus or God himself!
Myth – Cult doctrine is easy to spot and recognize.
We WISH. This is probably the slickest myth of all. It just isn't true. False doctrine is very difficult to discern due to the ability of cult leaders to mingle enough sound doctrine with it to make it appear orthodox and inspiring. The dangerous aberrancy of skewed "knowledge" is very cleverly combined alongside brilliant and sometimes even profound insights into a subject that the cultic teaching's truth claim presents. It wouldn't BE deceptive if it was served up to the masses any other way! The doctrinal and practical claims of cultic organizations that clearly set it apart as unorthodox and questionable are also very well hidden beneath engaging deliveries by appealing, charismatic figures that introduce a purely personal and subjective factor into the mix that makes detecting them even more difficult.
Who could believe that that charming, well-dressed person with a room full of starry-eyed people leaning on their every word could possibly be WRONG?
Antoher myth is that memebers stay in cults because they feel too weak or vunerable to leave therefore staying within the cults gives the leader more power and control over them! They are told that there is no toher way of reaching the true meaning of life, the reason of the purpose of why they join in the first place.
It actually takes enormous amounts of personal courage and self-determination to remain committed to a group.
The members of Heaven's Gate were determined to stay within their surroundings and to announce the word many times to others to persuade them to join to reach another level above human. The Jonestown leader seemed to slowly become weak as many of his followers bravely left the group one by one. It does take a lot of personal courage for each member to stand up for themselves and for them to believe in what is right and wrong.
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