Why seemingly quiet and proper individuals would go on a shooting spree of killing others, blowing bombs in a crowd, or amassing wealth by scamming others and taking advantage of elderly and ill?

Branch Davidians (David Koresh) cult

What happens to an individual when they are radicalized or influenced to join a harmful movement?

Source: Families Against Cult Teachings Organization Site

Have you ever wondered how people get in cults?

Source: Scarydad podcast

If you ever wondered about that, maybe we can look at it together and try to figure it out and educate ourselves and each other in the process. It is my hope that through this discussion we can make the world a better place - your input is greatly incouraged. I will be open to your thoughts because I want to know the answers to all questions above.

I do feel I owe you an explanation of why am I interested in such a topic... If you go on my blog there is nothing on it that may suggest I do - I've dribbled with various topics and things on here trying to figure out the platform and learning to walk before I take of running (so to speak). But nothing so far suggests about having deep conversations...so why?

First and foremost, I've been a cult member myself for a decade. Coming out of the cult had been tough as I found on my own experience (and through experience of others like me) our society is completely unprepared to deal with this kind of personal crisis - no mental health professional is trained to address that particular issue.

The biggest and the most usual problem of a former cult member is anxiety. After I left the cult and tried to navigate myself in a real world oftentimes I felt grossly overwhelmed while making even simple decisions.

Most people cant relate to that on their level. So many times former members are ridiculed for having panic attacks over such simple tasks as making a shopping choice or decision on what piece of clothing to wear...

See, the cult ideology and group-think provides its members with ready-made prescriptions and schemes for living. Some of them are so intrusive, they dictate daily dietary or clothing choices. I must mention that there is certain appeal in this and I will get to that a little bit later. But now let's go back to the question of why am I talking about this and why I think this conversation is very important.

Especially today.

When I left the cult I was able to meet others just like me. They've been marginalized by the cult so the insiders would abstain from questioning. Many of former members had been shunned and cut off from the families and friends that still were in the organization.

When I left the cult I became one of the marginalized bunch.

In our new community of former cult members we shared our day to day experiences of dealing with mental garbage we've been fed and got affected by for years (some for decades, some for almost a lifetime...). Community had provided us with understanding and support.

We've learned to find a ground beneath our feet and to learn about our own self-identity. We learned to separate it from group identity and get to know the true Self. And that's been very though - cult takes it away from you and destroys it. If there is any environment where social justice and personal identity need to be addressed that would be a cult or a high-demand group environment.

But if everything is that harmful then why people join in the first place? Don't they see?

The short answer to this is: they don't. There are so many other factors in place when an individual is making decision to join.

The biggest on is going through a personal crisis already.

For example if we take cults that operate on university campuses. Do you know of anyone that had NOT been overwhelmed by thinking about life after college? Students today (especially today!) are worried about their future employment and career as never before: student loan weight on millennials is just unprecedented, employability in field of study after college is beyond questionable especially for those of us in liberal arts and that has nothing to do with quality of education - millennials are highly educated. The problem is inability to accommodate this highly educated workforce - there are simply not enough jobs with education-level pay grade for someone freshly out of college. Due to high level of anxiety and uncertainty this group of population is highly susceptible to cults of any kinds. Cults provide sense of direction, remember?

Another group of people that get sucked into cults is people that recently had experienced a serious life-changing event. Loss of a partner or a divorce, loss of employment or sudden decline in health - all those are favorable for cults and very unfortunate for everyone involved. Cult does provide support. But it takes payments in your self-identity as you more and more become part of the group. Until you live and breathe cult ideology.

I think this conversation is especially important today because the world is rapidly changing. It is very easy to become confused and cling to a group that provides sense of direction. Remember above I was talking about prescriptions and schemes for living? Cults give those and they are appealing when you feel confused.

The question is: what can we do about it.

The main remedy is to create a strong community around you where self-expression of all members is embraced and encouraged. To be honest, this is one of the reasons why I chose Steemit platform. Another reason is a possibility to hear opinions without trolling - on a deeper level. It is my hope we can have this dialogue together and see what we can do.

I will love to hear your thoughts. Please resteem if you feel this topic needs more exposure - more input makes us better informed. And in turn, better information makes us better citizens and better humans. Share if you care!

Thank you very much for taking your time and reading! Please leave your thoughts - they are incredibly valuable to me!

Until next time!