Marks of a Cult

Marks of a cult:

1. Lots of attention in the beginning
2. They "love" newcomers more than their own family. Your conversion is important to them to be happy.
3. They categorize people by whether someone is in or not in the group
4. They may bombard you with lots of information and scripture so fast and not let you have adequate time to think about it.
5. They avoid your questions and distract your with new thoughts.
6. The group wants to take up a lot of your thoughts and time
7. There is strong pressure to attend their meetings or services
8. They want to be your friend immediately
9. Lots of peer group pressure to conform
10. Tell you not to be judgmental (they judge you for judging them - hypocrisy)
11. Pressure to attend services and functions
12. More intense brainwashing techniques
13. They don't tell you their full beliefs, just hint at them and teach through behavior
14. Their appears strong conformity within the group to a certain appearance
15. Loss of identity in the cult.
16. Life focus is on the group. They talk about it alot.
17. Lots of praise of cult leaders.
18. They use your fear of rejection to get you to conform
19. They want you to silence all your doubts and believe them without proper investigation
20. They discourage reasonable investigation
21. They avoid questions about the group and try to distract you
22. They make rules for you that they don't follow
23. They use psychological conversion
24. They do a lot of preaching - monologue with no opportunity for questions

Signs you have joined a cult

1. Things that use to be very important to you no longer are. Change happened quickly.
2. Major personality changes
3. Lack of love for family members
4. Major changes in lifestyle
5. Making big decisions quickly without enough time and consultation
6. Giving everything to a group: money, house etc