Talk:Issues in Interdisciplinarity 2019-20/Truth in Cults

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Brainstorming and instructions for writing members STRUCTURE : - Data or facts about cults (showing why it is interesting to work on this) - general definition : Cult is used in reference to a social group defined by its unusual religious, spiritual or philosophical beliefs. Moreover, the people who are part of a cult generally are interested in a common personality, object or goal. The followers live in a community, under the guidance of a charismatic leader worshipping rituals and veneration. To what extent can truth account for the ‘unusual’ aspect of cults in social sciences, law and religion ? - why are the 2 disciplines linked to cults - Outline where the interdisciplinary issue actually is, how does truth create a tension INSTRUCTIONS : - How the issue chosen plays out in 2 disciplines facing a topic - Showing how truth plays a role in 2 disciplines (for ex ; sociology, law, religious) creating a tension in the definition of cults - The tension caused by truth between the disciplines specifically with regarding cults practice
 * In intro, define truth. What is truth? Can truth be found when studying cults, or is there (theoretically) just an 'optimal' definition which most accurately defines cults. Can there be 'truth' in this topic, or are there just a multitude of subjective viewpoints? This could lead to clashes between disciplines upon studying cults.

In Literature Cult Literature -	‘cult’ literature is rarely defined in literary crit. -	Attracting a cult following, attract a particular community of readers ‘independent of their qualifications’ o	JRR Tolkien’s the Lord of the rings, Franz Kafka’s the Castle -	Catcher in the rye as a ‘personal manifesto’ for many in America in the 60’s and 70’s o	Literature embodies the tendencies and beliefs of a group of people -	Deviance from norms to protest- jackkerouac on the road, chuck palahniuk’s fight club o	applies to baby boomers and Generation X

In Psychology
- Psychological effect of terms used, for example, ‘alternative religious movements’, differing definitions of cults relate to individual perceptions on what a cult is. ‘everyone “knows” that cults and satanic cults exist. They have strong negative feelings regarding cults, and even stronger feelings against satanic cults. By contrast, their feelings regarding alternative religious movements, while not being “positive,” are less negative than their feelings towards cults and satanic cults’

Psychological research investigates how cults are formed from the perspective of the individual person and the group dynamics between people in cults. Psychologists have investigated the following questions: What distinguishes a cult from other forms of communities? What distinguishes cults from other What are the psychological characteristics of people who are attracted to cults and of cult leaders? What techniques are used to persuade people to join and stay in cults? What are the long-term psychological effects of being in a cult?

Psychological definitions of cults involve that members (a) have a shared belief system, (b) a high level of social cohesiveness, (c) are strongly influences by the group’s behavioural norms, (d) impute charismatic or divine power to its leaders and (e) are alien and deviant from the values of the culture that the group lives in. Some psychologists have argued that the psychological processes observed in cults are a continuum from those observed in other groups of people. Arthur Deikman compared the thinking patterns relevant for cults to those people use to function in everyday life. He concluded that distortion of perception, biased thinking, and the inoculation of beliefs and values of others, are commonly in everyday life and that these mental processes set people up for behaviours that are typical for cults: dependency on a leader, complying with the group, avoiding dissent and devaluing outsiders. Given that only some people join cults, it is therefore of interest to investigate psychological risk factors. Curtis and Curtis identified a psychological profile of susceptibility including emotional vulnerability, dissociative states, poor family and other support, and periods of high stress. Clark reported that 60% of people who joined cults had a long history of psychological problems beforehand. For the other 40%, aggressive recruitment techniques were identified as a factor.

West highlights that it is difficult to study the psychological techniques used by cults to recruit members and prevent them from leaving as scientists are not allowed into the cult and thus cannot observe the processes directly. Interviews of people who left cults suggest that mind-control techniques, deception and alienation from families and friends are common. Recruitment processes include a mixture of deception and affection. The introduction is gradual and starts with flattery; overpowering techniques such as love-bombing, offering free meals or medicines, flirting. The recruits are then required to unconditionally surrender to the recruiter or cult leader, isolated from other contacts and outside information and subjected to punishment and abusive behaviour modification techniques.

The psychological profile of cult leaders is more difficult to study as these can usually not be interviewed directly. High charisma associated an authoritarian and narcistic personality have been suggested as a common traits. A case study also highlighted an ability to persuade others with pseudo-logic arguments.

People who leave a cult can have long-lasting psychological distress that may require treatment (Clark JG. Cults. JAMA. 1979; 242(3):279-281.). However, the percentages of persons experiencing clinical symptoms vary widely between studies, from 27 to 95%, and depend on the practices of the cult and the duration of involvement.

- Psychological affect of terms used, for example, ‘alternative religious movements’, differing definitions of cults relate to individual perceptions on what a cult is.

-‘Everyone “knows” that cults and satanic cults exist. They have strong negative feelings regarding cults, and even stronger feelings against satanic cults. By contrast, their feelings regarding alternative religious movements, while not being “positive,” are less negative than their feelings towards cults and satanic cults’

- Perception based on whether people have been in contact with cults or asked to join etc. - psychology Studies questions such as why are people attracted to cults? What techniques do cult leaders use to make people stay in a cult? What are the long-term negative psychological effects of being in a cult? -	Easy messages that are not difficult to follow provide people with a conclusive outlook on life: of (one) truth that is definitive to follow in life. -	Affected by low self esteem levels-> those with lower self esteem are more likely to join/ remain in a cult. This is because it is more easy to ‘break down and build back up (those with low self esteem) in an effort to teach them that the cult is the supportive environment they’re looking for’ -	Neurological effect/psychological effect: receiving lots of positive praise -	effect of being in a cult: giving up money, personal possessions, only interacting with other cult members. Achieved through: o	Social isolation – idea that cult members are superior to former friends o	Humiliation/ having to write down evidence of failure and mistakes o	Being fed false experiences and ideas. REPETITION causes these ideas and beliefs to appear more true. o	Making one think that they are not in a cult- > Dr Margaret tala singer argues people don’t understand what a cult is (i.e. it could be something other than a religious group) Who joins cults? Demographic studies - All backgrounds are effected equally (need data for this) -	empirical truth: women 70% of cult members around the globe o	behavioural interpretation/ interpretive truth gives multiple possible social and cultural explanations of behaviour (psychology) David Bromley Virginia university- women attend more social events, so more likely to actively participate in cults. Sociological reason female oppression by man in history- idea of male authority figure, waiting for guidance. - Perception based on whether people have been in contact with cults or asked to join etc. Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 15:16, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

Lukas Ehlers table

Figure 1: Psychological Research on Cults

Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 16:43, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

extra references: Ogloff JRP, Pfeifer JE. Cults and the law: A discussion of the legality of alleged cult activities. Behavioral Sciences & the Law. 1992;10(1):117–40.

https://www.onlinepsychologydegree.info/what-to-know-about-the-psychology-of-cults/

(need to find actual article citation) Author: Ana Sobral. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401208512_005.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332602954_Opting_out_deviance_and_generational_identities_in_American_post-war_cult_fiction Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 17:10, 6 December 2019 (UTC)

In Anthropology
- Anthropology and archaeology have similar viewpoints, in a descriptive focus on what cults are/ should be: the processes, the material symbolism. Focuses on precise description of the cultural practices of the cult. BUT: archaeology unable to see gestures and actions of individual humans, only material remains. - Colin Renfrew: - anthropology studies ACTIONS in response to religious beliefs, so may disagree with psychology on why the beliefs occur (i.e religious belief and that in the occult or the spiritual). o cults use attention focusing devices, repeated symbols, places with special functions but also : o rituals both public and hidden o gestures and prayer o wealth and resources put into the ritual practice i.e. in sacrificing something - idea of the sacred deeply bound to the cult leaders, e.g. Shaman’s. - debate in anthropology: Levi Strauss argues that there is no such thing as totemism (define)- ‘not a single phenomenon’. The idea that anthropological observation is biased and led in the face of many assumptions and factors. Are our ideas about cults culturally constructed? Types of Cult: - Cargo cult- idea that end of the world is occurring, which you need to prepare for (Captain Cook) - Witchcraft - Shamanism - sacrificial cults - rites of passages in cults - ASPECTS and practices of religion (religious studies intersecting with anthropology) can be deemed as ‘cult-like’ Such features are : o charismatic leaders e.g. David Koresh of the Branch Davidians o 'us versus them' mentality and alienation from others o hierarchy and obedience o violence: Aum Shin Rikyo cult gas attack on Tokyo subway system 1995 - Comparative anthropology or ethnography may help us determine to what extent ‘cult’ is ‘simply used in common parlance or as a controversial term’ for different groups, and to what extent we are really dealing with the cult. o Idea of ‘self and other’ highly debated and studied in social anthropology  These ideas are mirrored in the way outsiders view cults negatively, and the cult members see the cult as ultimate truth or necessity o since we find it hard to determine what exactly are cult is, a comparison of cultures Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 22:45, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

How did we, as a group, contributed to this Wikibook ?
-[14 November 2019 19:08] Created a Messenger group with all team members to coordinate and plan our Wikibook. -[15 November 2019 13:38] First group meeting during the lecture and discussing about studying Power in Global Surveillance, Censorship, and Cults. Billyhf and Lukaseelurs very interested in Cults and Anthropology, Calixta.henrion and Gabrevon on Global Surveillance. -[15 November 2019 14:00] Calixta.henrion created a Google Doc containing our first brainstorming ideas. -[15 November 2019 14:00] Discussing Lukaseelurs reference on Louis Theroux and cults, watching the documentary found by Gabrevon and his case study. -[19 November 2019 12:00 to 14:00] Meeting with Calixta.henrion and Gabrevon in the BASc common room : creating the Wikibook "Power in Public Surveillance, Censorship and cults" -[19 November 2019 13:30 to 14:00] Billyhf added more references on the Google Doc. -[21 November 2019 18:00 to 19:30] Meeting with Billyhf, Calixta.henrion and Gabrevon in the Student Center. Discussing about changing topics after Gabrevon's view on how Power was used as an issue in our topic, and not as an interdisciplinarity issue. We previously did not consider Power at the levels of disciplines, and we were heading in a wrong directions. After agreeing with Lukaseelurs on Messenger and his research on cults through the initial stages we felt it was more relevant to treat truth as an interdisciplinary issue concerning cults. Identifying what different disciplines, such as Sociology, Law, Psychology and Religious Studies consider true or not about cults is a real issue for an interdisciplinary researcher that is more appropriate to the Approaches To Knowledge syllabus than Global/mass surveillance and power. New Wikibook, Truth in Cults is created by Gabrevon. Six tabs are put into place during our meeting "Introduction", "Truth about cults in Sociology", "In law", "In Psychology", "In Religious Studies", "Conclusion" -[21 November 2019 19:30] More content found after borrowing books in the Science Library by Gabrevon -[23 November 2019 14:30] End of the brainstorming -[26 November 2019 16:32] Coordinated and divided works along with the existing tabs ; Calixta.henrion worked on the introduction, the conclusion, and on Sociology. Billyhf worked on Psychology, Law, and on the introduction. Billyhf's contributions were uploaded by other team members. Gabrevon worked on Religious Studies and Law. Lukaseelurs worked on Psychology, definitions, literature, social anthropology, law.. -[1 December 2019 17:09] Lukaseelurs migrated his contributions from the old Wikibook to the new one. New tabs, Psychology, how Anthropology and Literature considers legitimate a cult or not, have been added by Lukaseelurs. Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 16:47, 6 December 2019 (UTC) Notes and paragraphs for distinctions between social anthropology and archaeology, which could combine with sociology, psychology research paragraphs with references, as well as further notes from research on psychology throughout the project was added, all referenced. Work on 'cult' literature, and work on law was also added. Most of this had been on our original wikibooks page that we created, as this new page was not available for Lukaseelurs. See edit history for both. Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 16:47, 6 December 2019 (UTC) -[3 December 2019 15:41] More content, structure and references added by all team members. Started doing the word count. Calixta and Gabrevon will develop the Sociology tab, Gabrevon will reduce Religious Studies and Billyhf and Lukaseelurs reduce Psychology. Law will be edited by all team members during our next meeting. -(6 December 2019 16:57) Looking to cut down the amount of words - introduction has been drastically reduced by Billyhf with help from Gabrevon and Lukaseelurs. Gabrevon (discuss • contribs) 15:41, 5 December 2019 (UTC) - (6 December 2019 17:14) - Discussed individual edits we would make: Calixta.henrion: Sociology refining her work, and adding in Lukaseelurs work on Anthropology and Archaeology as an example of interdisciplinary conflict, Billyhf work on introduction and conclusion. Lukaseelurs shorten and combine his works on psychology and combine with Billyhf paragraph, Gabrevon further working on his religious studies section and combining his and Lukaseelurs contributions on Law. Cutting down wordcount and adding pictures Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 17:21, 6 December 2019 (UTC) Fixed conclusion as it was vague from my point of view. Tried to conclude what made these issues of Interdisciplinarity. Brought my psychology down from 1500 words to around 300 and made table of all major findings/ behaviours and added due to word count contraints. Also added sentences comparing psychology to law and sociology and their impacts on each other. Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 15:03, 7 December 2019 (UTC) - Calixta.henrion : Modified the Sociology paragraph and finalized it. Reviewed the conclusion. (6 December 2019) - Calixta.henrion : Reduced the introduction for the word limit as well as the conclusion and Sociology. (8 December 2019) sent Calixta.henrion my changes to her sociology paragraph, cutting down the word count from 276 to 234 and sending comments. cut down paragraph for psychology from 400 (excluding table) to new goal of 288. Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 15:54, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

made my table creative commons and added this to the Wikibook. Lukaseelurs (discuss • contribs) 16:46, 8 December 2019 (UTC)

Quickly skimmed over various sections to ensure wording, spelling and grammer was correct.