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Cult members commit crimes, sacrifice friends, families; even take their own lives, at the urging of their leaders.  How could a person gain such control over others?     I don’t know, but it would certainly be interesting to explore if you had a villian or victim who were involved with a cult.

The following notes, taken from History Channel Documentary: Cults, Dangerous Devotion, October 24, 2007, may provide some clues.  

Using a guise of faith and selflessness, cults breed in an environment of fear and obedience.  Leaders recruit members through deception and thought reform.  They strip the identity of an individual using drugs, sex, and abuse to break down defenses and then rebuild. “In Betweeners” or young adults in search of a future are particularly vulnerable.  

Charles Manson used drugs and sexual abuse to break down the women who joined his “Family”. He then used the girls to lure men into the group.  He convinced the girls he was Jesus Christ and the world was on the verge of Armageddon, which would begin with a race war.  Impatient for the end to come, Manson planned to ignite the fire of hate. According to Paul Watkins, a former family member, Manson said “blackie never did anything without whitey showin’ him how,” he said, “[I]t looks like we’re gonna have to show blackie how to do it.”  He sent Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, Linda Kasabian, and Patricia Krenwinkel to randomly selected homes, where they brutally murdered the occupants and left bloody words meant to encourage an uprising.  Even after they were separated from Manson, the girls continued to look to him for guidance, emulating his bizarre behaviors, carving X in their foreheads and shaving their heads.

Paul Shafer was a German Baptist Minister who was denounced from the Church because he molested children.  He fled Germany and went to Chili, where he and his followers built an orphanage, providing him with unlimited access to children.  He was extremely strict with his followers.  Cult members were held captive, they worked long days and resistance was met with beatings or electric shock to various parts of the body.  Shafer’s most violent and sadistic behaviors were directed at women and young girls. Children were used for experimentation.

The Branch Dravidians believe the world must be destroyed before God will bring true believers home. David Karish claimed he was prophet and a lamp of God who could unseal the seals on the seven scrolls which would bring about Revelations.  Like Charles Manson, David Karish believed it was his duty to bring about the Apocalypse.  He demanded his followers’ worship, exploiting others to fill his own need for control.  He had sexual relations with women and children in the community. The parents didn’t intervene, believing God had given Karish permission to indulge in his desires. Rumors of abuse, drug use and illegal weapons brought the ATF to Waco, TX.  Authorities were unaware their actions would be interpreted as a beginning to the end.  In the end, 76 Branch Dravidians, including Karish, were killed in the siege.