Scott's Health Tips:
Cults
Health Tip #30, 30 April 1997

I noticed the other night that a regular old news program received one of those new-fangled TV ratings, a TV-14. This is the news, people! Non-fiction! What is going on in the world around us has received a rating that advises parents to keep their kids away! Well, it sucks to have to admit that they might even be right. What kind of stuff is on the news these days? Murder, shootings, suicide, accidents, natural disasters, war, famine, gang violence, car-jacking, rape, hate crimes, torture, abuse, molestations, bombings, drugs, terrorists, blah blah, blah blah blah..... In the words of C3PO, "Will this never end?"

What�s the latest in media hype? Cults. Heaven�s Gate, to be specific. The journalists were reporting to death (pun not intended) this "tragedy" of thirty people killing themselves because of the Hale-Bopp comet and the UFO that was flying along behind it. If you listen to the media, there are cults in every suburb or waiting in every chatroom who desperately want to snatch up you or your kids. Now, I can�t quote any statistics on this, but the problem is not as great as the media makes it out to be. Still, there is a problem. There are dangerous cults out there.

The definition of the word cult — refers to a group of people polarized around one individual who is often a magnetic personality. This individual has his or her own understanding of truth, who God is, man's relationship to God, the existence of heaven and hell, as well as a number of other issues of faith. In most cases such individuals incorporate some degree of biblical truth into their teachings in order to gain a certain amount of credibility and in order to deceive the unwary.

Ignoring the fact that this definition can be applied to most "legitimate" religions as well, we can see this at work in perhaps the most famous cult group, Satanism. In this case, the "magnetic personality" is Anton Szandor LaVey (shown above), the famous San Francisco resident who started the First Church of Satan in 1966. He describes Satanism as "a blatantly selfish, brutal religion. It is based on the belief that man is inherently a selfish, violent creature... that the earth will be ruled by those who fight to win."

This sense of fight and power is what often draws young people to this religion. Members make a pact to take their own lives at a particular future date so that afterwards they will be able to be reincarnated as a stronger, immortal being who will rule with Satan himself once he becomes flesh again at the turn of the millennium. On average, fourteen young people commit suicide a day because of this belief.

Typical cult-member: white, middle to upper-middle class family, bright and does well in school; but also bored and not challenged to full potential, low self-worth, unable to distinguish between right and wrong, family problems, doesn�t relate well to other people, drug use, sexually promiscuous, abused as a child. The three main points of his / her mental profile: Rebellion, Boredom, Low Self-Worth.

Warning Signs: drop in grades, burglary, drug use, physical and sexual abuse, mind control, animal mutilation, Increased hatred, murder, suicidal, avoiding family members, change in friends, becoming secretive about activities, loss of interest in extra-curricular activities, personality changes, unusual interest in occult books and movies, use of drugs and alcohol.

Individuals are enticed into recruitment by the following: free drugs or sex, companionship, power, money, pornography, personal choice. Initiation may involve personal mutilation (severing of finger or toe) or some sort of unholy communion. Tattoos can include inverted crosses, goathead, skull, pentagram, black rose, or swastika.

If you suspect somebody to be involved with a dangerous cult, the best thing to do is to be sure the parents are aware of the reasons why you believe this, and then to insist that they seek help through some kind of psychological counseling that would get to the root of the problems that led this person to be susceptible to the cult in the first place.

By the way, if you don�t believe that this can happen to anybody you know, read the web-article by Isaac Bonewits, former-Satanist and current-Druid, in which he describes how he was led into LaVey�s cult at the age of seventeen while a student at U.C. Berkeley.

Sources:
"My Satanic Adventure", by Isaac Bonewits.
"Satanism & the World of the Occult", by Probe Ministries.