7 signs that you're in a cult

*Certification services provided by the Cult Awareness Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Church of Scientology.

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And who exactly has certified CAN?

The former owner of the trademark.

I suspect it works more like natural selection: there are many potential cult leaders, but the only ones that manage to recruit and maintain a following for more than a very short period of time are the ones that stumble upon this particular set of socio-psychological tricks.

What the heck is wrong with almond scented kool aid? Unusual flavor yeah, but itā€™s delicioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

NYT link gives further details on the affair.

I wonder if he realizes the inherent contradiction between #2 and #7? Isnā€™t saying ā€œSeparating from the church is a sign youā€™re in a cultā€ a method of penalizing people for leaving your own particular religion/cult?

I think there is some sense to be made of it. A lot of cults play on existing religions, and a lot play on the most prevalent existing religions. If you are hanging out with a group of people who talk about what Jesus wanted for us and they tell you to stop going to your church, that might be a sign that they are a bit culty (not enough in itself), same with a group of Muslims that wants you to stop going to your mosque. I think heā€™s looking at things from a Christian perspective, but Iā€™m not sure thereā€™s really a contradiction there.

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