Cults Today (could also apply to Scientology) The concept of religion has been used in the U.S. to shut down rational discussion of cults.

There is a difference between cults today and cults twenty years ago, when Klaus Karbe wrote his book. For one thing, the cults' main source of income no longer comes from the bank accounts of people who have been herded off the open street. Instead, a major portion of their money comes from companies. Some of this money goes to influence congressmen to make laws more favorable to cults. For instance, state laws have been passed at cult urging which make it illegal for the government to put undue burden upon a "religion" in California and in Florida. (George W. Bush, according to the Washington Post, doesn't need any urging from a cult. He thinks that religions/cults which run "charitable" mental institutions should not be subject to the same government standards as "for-profit" mental institutions.)

Typically, a cult originates in the U.S., harvests recruits there which are used to set up variations of pyramid scams overseas, then launders the money back to the U.S. This has not gone unnoticed in foreign countries. For instance, all 41 members of the Council of Europe voted in favor of cult information centers, while some U.S. congressmen oppose anything which contains the word "cult."

The weapon used by the cult to enforce compliance is not the garrote or the gun, but "religion." Churches, for cults, are departments which program society to make it more responsive to cult stimulations. On the personal level, for example, recruits are programmed to believe that criticism of the cult, regardless of truth of content, is "proof"

of anti-religious hostility. On the social level, pro-cult academics have argued that the mere use of the word "cult" is more indicative of an attribute of the speaker than it is the group in question. Finally, the most obvious defense cults have in the U.S. is the constitutional guarantee of practice of religion. As long as religion is not legally defined or restricted in the U.S., harmful actions up to and including death are protected if done for "religious" purposes. As Gordon Melton has pointed out, Americans mistakenly have the understanding that all religion is good. That is coming from Melton, a cult sympathizer.

Klaus Karbe's book is available at http://cisar.org/trn1080.htm.

US vs. Europe on cult information: http://cisar.org/990623d.htm A rational discussion of cults Is a group a cult or is it not a cult? Where can I find a list of cults? Several thousand years ago, man discovered that not everything was black and white, that there were also various shades of gray which needed to be taken into consideration to resolve problems. This was called "rational" thinking. The word "rational"

is related to the word "ratio," which can mean "different degrees."

Modern cults have a tendency to define a "destructive cult" in a black/white way as a group in which all the members commit suicide.

Unsurprisingly, according that scale, none of the surviving modern cults are "cults." There are other scales, however, such as this one developed by Dr. Georg Schmid (Zurich University, Switzerland).

Generally speaking, groups which exist in the first four stages are groups, not cults:

Stage 1: The feeling of being something special is normal for any human community, for state churches, political parties, sport associations, etc.

Stage 2: Man and wife a not only something special, but better than the others - that is also normal: but if I were to find that my state church or political party were not better than the others, I would no longer be a part of them. The others also belong to a community which they believe to be better than the others.

Stage 3: I belong to the best group of all which all others should emulate: there is a sense of mission and a missionary pressure towards recruitment for one's own group. Not the state churches as organizations, but probably the currents within them could be counted as part of this: the non-denominational churches demonstrate extensive recruitment operation and emphasize membership in step 3, for instance with their Christ testimonials, in that everybody should believe in Christ the way they do.

Stage 4: (Fundamentalism step): one has sole salvation and has divine truth (even if not exclusive). The teaching is perfect and comes from heaven. He who teaches and believes as I do also stands in the truth - he who teaches or believes differently is being ruined by his own or demonic thoughts. He who does not cooperate "is lost."

Fundamentalists worship their teachings; fully developed sects have even deified the group itself.

[...] The state churches are no longer in this category, but once were (large communities can also deviate into the high sect stages). Sect step 4 is reached by many people, including psychological groups. [...] Stage 5: "We alone can make people happy and are the only ones in heaven": Other people are objects of missionary work or thoroughly worthy of damnation; people who do not believe are to be avoided. Their non-belief is demonic.

Stage 6: The group tries to ban non-believers from their field of vision - it begins with the separation from the world: only the sect has the right to life on earth (key word: persecution complex); not everybody has a right to it, for those people destruction is certain: they will burn anyway - so why not help them along a little bit? The "divorce"

from other people manifests an inquisitional manner of thinking in the form of psychic inquisition. [...] Anybody who leaves a group which is in this stage is seen (even by relatives) as non existent - the people in the village look the other way when they pass him by.

Stage 7: The delusions of the sect turn into persecution complex when operating externally and, at the same time, into megalomania internally ("If I think a thing is, then it is"). [...] Without criticism, megalomania develops almost automatically.

Anyone who takes note of the delusion becomes (thanks to the persecution complex) an arch enemy.

The persecution complex develops from the ever-growing unawareness of the outside world. The sect begins to demonize any criticism from the outside world; the consequence is Stage 8: A trigger leads to a catastrophe by which the group, but not the world, perishes. Megalomania and persecution complex meet and collectively run amok.

Central criteria for the tendency to go in the direction of the dynamic are internal discussion and open debates:

these are guaranteed and stay with the group in the lower stages; if they are eradicated, it drives the group upward. The connection between the possibility of having internal discussion and the the degree of sectarianism is easily recognizable.

--- The above taken from http://cisar.org/990702a.htm Joe Cisar: http://cisar.org/rfs0100.htm Overview of Scientology in Germany: http://cisar.org/overview.htm Why would Gottfried Helnwein, one of the world's leading Scientologists, lie? See http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News/has00.htm

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