Cult Religions

Anthony North: Occasionally the most tragic of events can hit the headlines. When it happens, we all wonder why. But all too often a cult can explode into violence upon itself, the result being mass suicide. Why does it happen? What social forces are involved in this will towards self-destruction? This essay is an attempt to understand. And we need to begin with a few examples. Order of the solar temple: For instance, on 22 December 1995, sixteen corpses were discovered on a plateau in the French Alps in the shape of a star. This was the second mass suicide of the Order of the Solar Temple, a cult formed by fraudster Joseph di Mambro and homeopath Luc Jouret. The first had been fourteenmonths earlier, involving infernos in two Swiss chalet complexes, proceeded by the suspicious deaths, by fire, of five members including a young mother and child in Canada.

The Solar Temple was based on a mix of Knights Templar mythology and new age mysticism, with a distinct apocalyptic nature that would lead to a new spiritual existence. But what brought their apocalypse so soon? It is interesting that Di Mambro had a daughter called Emanuelle, known as a Cosmic Child. However, the child that died in Canada was a boy called Emmanuel. Di Mambro was known to be affronted by this boy being named after the Cosmic Child, branding him the antichrist. Whether out of revenge, or the naming being a signal for Armageddon, the suicides seem to be mixed up with the boy. Heaven"s gate: Such are the mad reasonsfor mass suicide. The Higher Source computer cult, better known as Heaven"s Gate, killed themselves over three nights in March 1997 in their ranch near San Diego. Made up of short-haired, zombie-like computer wizards, they went out for a final meal and then helped each other to take vodka and drugs aided by strangulation. They were led by elderly, white haired Marshall Appplewhite and his wife, known together as Bo and Peep. He had met her in 1975 after she nursed him through mental illness, and they had set up many cults previously.

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A member of the International Church of Jediism has received an apology after being kicked out of a job centre.The Jedi believer was asked to remove his hood and was thrown out when he refused to do so, he now intends to sue the job centre for discrimination despite receiving anapology.

A Jedi believer has won an apology from a UK employment centre which threw him out for refusing to remove his hood. The Sun reported Star Wars fan Chris Jarvis, 31, was told he would have to leave if he didn"t remove his hood.

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Authorities in Turkey are holding the Iranian leader of Iran"s Raelian movement, Negar Azizmoradi. In Iran the Raelian beliefs are considered to be a rejection ofreligious faith, a crime punishable by death."The Turkish authorities say they are discussing what to do with an Iranian atheist who says she fled persecution in Iran.

Negar Azizmoradi, who is the leader of the Raelian movement in Iran, wasarrested after she arrived in Turkey last week."

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Anthony North: My research on cults has convinced me they are full of elements endemic to society in general. Cults, it seems, are nothing more than an extreme example of the influences within society. For instance, who joins a cult? The easy and most popular belief is that cult disciples are inadequates of low intelligence. But in her extensive study of cults, sociologist Eileen Barker has found the opposite. Profile of a disciple: The normal cult member is of above average intelligence and comes from a well-balanced, middieclass background. What appears to be happening is that, as modern life becomes more secular and materialist, an increasing number of intelligent people are finding lifeunfulfilling and meaningless.

Intelligence requires purpose, and if established religions fail to appeal to this increasing minority, then spiritual values are found in fringe cults - of which there are well over a thousand in Britain alone. And once hooked, the follower"s search for meaning, combined with the guru"s charisma, leads to a psychological process that guarantees obedience. Brainwashing?: Ian Haworth, who formed the Cult Information Centre in Britain, would put it more forcefully. A leading member of the anti-cult movement, he would argue that once a cult has been formed by a guru, individuals who feel a lacking in life are sucked into the madness of cultism through psychological coercion, brainwashing or mind control. People joining cults usually argue such techniques would not work onthem, but the favoured methods of meditation used by cults, combined with forms of sleep deprivation and bombarding the initiate with information, inevitably lead to, first, sensory overload, and second, obedience to the whim of a guru. Clearly cult membership also leads to a rejection of family ties as the cult becomes the new family. Fears rising in the natural family of the member has led to the rise of the exit counsellor such as Haworth, who see it as their mission to ‘de-program" members and return them to their loved ones.

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