CULTS AND THE MEANING OF LIFE Judy D. Saltzman, Ph.D. Philosophy Department Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

The recent events have led us all to reflect on religious cults and their significance, and why people join them. There is a proliferation of off mainline groups as the Millennium approaches. In order to under stand this phenomenon we must first be clear regarding what a cult is, and then realize that precise definition when it comes to changeable social phenomena is often quite impossible. First of all, the word ìcultî is always used in the pejorative sense in contemporary discourse. Speaking in Judeo-Christian terms, members of a majority mainline denomination, such as one of the large Protestant groups, may regard some smaller group which has beliefs quite different from his or hers as a ìcult.î The word ìsectî is often used to denote a group which may be not in the mainstream, but is longer established, larger, and has some characteristics of those in the mainstream, such as Pentecostals, Mormons and Jehovahís Witnesses. However, these latter groups have often been labeled as ìcults.î In other words, someone who does not like the religious ideas of another organization may simply label them as a ìcult.î It may also be noted that most groups we could define as cults are not dangerous in any life threatening sense, as were the Branch Davidians, the Solar Temple or the Heavens Gate. I would also like to note that some people ignorantly think of groups outside the Judeo-Christian mainstream of American culture as cults. This is quite an absurd view, since Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, ancients faiths with followers all over the world, are just as established as churches, and have long records of helping and nurturing people. This does not mean that cult-like groups do not arise within them, as they have in Christianity and in Judaism. Generally, our use of the word ìcultî has been filled with our own cultural biases.

From my studying, I would like to offer a working definition of the word cult, which is partially derived from Robert S. Ellwood Jr.ís definitive work on New Age Religions,Spiritual and Religious Groups in Modern America. According to Ellwood, an overwhelming characteristic of cults is their charismatic leadership, their smallness and deviance from the norm. . This does not mean that groups which are not cults are without such leadership. However, the crucial point is how the charisma is used to control and how the word of the leader or leadership can override any previous sacred text, teaching or even what they said the week before. A cult then is an organization of religious or spiritual seekers who are headed by a charismatic individual or individuals who demand total commitment to them personally, even though they may point to a teaching or to a Higher Being or Beings. They are usually Apocalyptic and claim that the end of a great cycle of age of history is coming soon. They are negative about this world, its people and their prospects, and point to a better one coming, either here or in another world. They make the cult member feel that he or she is among the ìelect and chosen, î one of the ìchildren of lightî who must be free from and struggle against the ìchildren of darkness.î Although studies by scholars in the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion show that people enter into cults and stay voluntarily, the overwhelming psychic aura of the group may actually be causing them to say and to do things that they would not ordinarily do in other circumstances. However, so called ìcultî members who have been interviewed claim that they are there of their own free will and vastly resent deprogramming attempts by family, friends and professionals. Most people are not successfully ìdeprogrammed.î Continue