Dangerous Cults Research Paper

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Samantha Gutierrez Sociology of Murder April 10, 2015 Cult Killings A cult by definition is a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. Today many people correlate the word cult with extremist group who is held together by a charismatic leader with one goal in mind. In my opinion those types of cults can be viewed as dangerous cults. Theses dangerous cults are infamous for using methods such as mind control and deception to control their members. Cults are able to be successful by targeting vulnerable, lonely people who need someone to help them feel like they belong. More often then not a cult has the ability to have such power over their members where they can take away the members ability…show more content…
Singer believed that dangerous cults exhibited the dangerous cults would have an authoritarian leader who claimed a special mission and both Manson Family and Heaven’s Gate’s leaders sought to save themselves and their members from the end of the world. Singer’s second characteristics was a dominant leadership style both Manson and Applewhite had complete control over the entire group, enough so to get them to commit murder on themselves and on others. Singer describes the term an “ends to justify the means” as one of the main traits of a dangerous cult and even though the “ends” for the Manson family and Heaven’s gate were different, they both believed that killing was the only way to save themselves from what was to come. Both Manson and Applewhite showed complete allegiance to the group, which increased their follower’s dedication to the cause. It is obvious that Manson held complete ideological and behavioral control over the members because he was able to get them to commit the murders on their own. And Applewhite clearly had control over his member’s thoughts and behaviors, as he was able to get them to believe that killing themselves was the only right answer. Margaret Singer’s description of dangerous cults seems to be very much spot on because both Manson Family and Heaven’s Gate showed signs of every single one of the characteristics she

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