View source for Warning Signs of a Cult

The word "cult" has taken a negative slant at the same time that its definition has expanded to seemingly include any group of people with a common goal or liking.<ref>http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult Merriam-Webster definition of cult</ref> Ti's roots lie in the Latin term, ''cultus'' meaning worship, from where the term culture is also derived. [[Gaslighting]] is however at the core of what today we understand to be a ''cult''. 

==Signs of a Cult Organization==
#If your spiritual/religious group tells you this information is the only way to reach any level of spiritual truth, or is the only way to go all the way to enlightenment, [[Expanding Consciousness]] or achieving [[Ascension]].
#If you are told that donating money, grants will give more favorable circumstances in your life, or that you will have good karma if you donate lots of finances to their wishes, or will get more good karma by serving the particular groups wants/needs.
#If your group says that leaving the group or 'guru' will make bad things happen to you or grant you horrible amounts of karma.
#If your group says that the guru controls of all your future lives and [[Timelines]].
#If your group says that it is necessary to have a guru in order to reach any level of complete God realization<ref>[recognizing-false-or-corrupted-systems, ES Forum]</ref>
#If your group is infiltrated with [[Negative Ego]] dominating personalities that wield [[Aggression]], Superiority complexes, [[Lack of Empathy]], shaming and blaming, [[Victim-Victimizer]] games, and no one takes personal responsibility for ego wounds and projections, the need for clearing shadow, and ignoring the need for group [[Accountability]]. 

==Spiritual Leadership Pitfalls==
A Spiritual leader under a Guru or Wise One archetype, even when working with working with positive forces, may be [[Dark Force Manipulation Methods|manipulated by dark forces]] from the blind sight of mishandling their own [[Negative Ego]], and may succumb to these dark forces. Usually the person in the leadership position of [[Group Consciousness]] with an unchecked ego may start to abuse power, act from hidden or unseen motivations, start to control other people, manipulate group resources or people to achieve a selfish goal. For more clarity to discern these [[Negative Ego]] behaviors, see [[Emotional Manipulation]], [[Gaslighting]] and [[Leadership Vs. Tyranny]]. Leadership should never be confused with tyrannical behavior.

==Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups==
Source: ''Janja Lalich, Ph.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.'' <ref>http://www.csj.org/infoserv_cult101/checklis.htm CSJ.org Cult Checklist</ref>

* Concerted efforts at influence and control lie at the core of cultic groups, programs, and relationships. Many members, former members, and supporters of cults are not fully aware of the extent to which members may have been manipulated, exploited, even abused. The following list of social-structural, social-psychological, and interpersonal behavioral patterns commonly found in cultic environments may be helpful in assessing a particular group or relationship.
 
* Compare these patterns to the situation you were in (or in which you, a family member, or friend is currently involved). This list may help you determine if there is cause for concern. Bear in mind that this list is not meant to be a “cult scale” or a definitive checklist to determine if a specific group is a cult. This is not so much a diagnostic instrument as it is an analytical tool.
 
* ‪The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.
 
* ‪Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
 
* ‪Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

* ‪The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).

* ‪The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).

* ‪The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.

* ‪The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).

* ‪The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).

* ‪The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.

* ‪Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.‪ The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
 
* ‪The group is preoccupied with making money.

* Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
 
* ‪Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

* ‪The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.

==Accusations of Being part of a Cult==
Any accusation of being in a cult will always be a delicate matter. Both the person making the accusation and the person at the receiving end should always act in a loving and kind manner, knowing that it is a very sensitive issue. Discussions on the subject should be open, clear and respectful at all times. Unfortunately many times the accusations made against someone for being in a cult are in themselves an attempt to manipulate that person into diverting their efforts to the accuser's benefit, which certainly undermines the efforts of those trying to extract loved ones from nefarious groups or schemes. 

Anybody willing to level such an accusation should be informed about the group in question and be prepared to have an open and respectful discussion. Both sides should also be mindful of [[Dark Force Manipulation Methods]], [[Mind Slides]] and [[Mind Control]] issues.

==Letter from Lisa Renee==
<blockquote>
Dear ES Family,

It is no secret that one of the greatest spiritual fears that is circulated on planet is to suppress spiritual knowledge, [[Self Awareness]] and the expansion of one's [[Consciousness]] by the labeling or branding of esoteric learning environments or spiritually based organizations as a "cult".

For all of us in ES community, as a online learning environment for the [[Ascension]] process, learning about the energetic context of planetary dynamics that influence us personally, we have chosen to be here either directly engaged or indirectly engaged to share and access parts of [[Ascension]] knowledge through the content offered on this website. We are constantly reminded of our personal responsibility that our collaboration with this information, is to only take what is resonant for ones personal spiritual growth, and to discard the rest. Each of us much personally choose what we participate with, have accountability to be clear in our intent, consent and authority, as directed by our highest personal expression, the inner God Spirit. Thus, as we learn to [[Expanding Consciousness|expand consciousness]] we learn how to be of service to the whole, which is a [[Service to Others]] principle. We must shed our individualistic egoism, selfishness and learn how to acknowledge our interconnectedness as divine human beings. This information is not given to the public, and we have been brainwashed to believe the academic version the [[NAA]]'s artificial reality and artificial timelines, so we can be controlled, enslaved and not personally educated to learn how we claim our personal sovereignty. It is very difficult to find the essence of truth, when the inhabitants of this earth have been [[Mind Control]]led to believe that delusions, deceptions, [[False Gods]], [[Religious Violence|Violent Religions]] and the [[Archontic Deception Strategy]] is the basis of our true origin. 

As a result of the many lies and deceptions being propagated to the human race for many millennia, we have inherited incredible amounts of Shadow, Pain, [[Fallen Angelics]] on this planet, along with a false identity that uses the same [[Predator Mind]] of the Negative Alien [[Artificial intelligence]], in order to influence us to think and believe the same anti-human belief systems of the [[NAA]]. If we use the mind they have downloaded to us, we self enforce the enslavement of our brothers and sisters on this earth. We must learn how to stop this infection from infiltrating and corrupting our bodies, mind and spirit. 

As most of us know, there is an [[NAA|agenda]] to suppress public access to a esoteric knowledge truth base, and as such, there is a tremendous effort to obfuscate, manipulate and create fear and chaos in groups of people studying about esoteric subjects, such as [[Ascension]]. This is perpetrated as a psychological operation to not only confuse all parties involved, but to promote schism of separation through fear and ego based judgment through varying techniques of [[Emotional Manipulation]] and Fear mongering. This "divide and conquer" [[Victim-Victimizer]] agenda is designed to disrupt the process of unifying groups with a common spiritual-energetic focus, such as unifying for "humanitarian" purposes, and promoting ideas such as [[World Humanism]] based on [[Law of One]] principles. We may notice the same kind of hostile behavior that is generated to create division in groups; fear, intimidation, bullying, accusations and "thug mentality".
'''
Clearly we need to be aware that "Cults" and dangerous "Cult leaders" do exist. We should be aware of their profile and learn to discern the difference.'''

I would like to establish this information for our ascending community to educate us to increase our skills with:
#learning the characteristic and profile of what a dangerous "cult" actually is
#developing improved discernment and confident language to express the difference between an community organization and an actual "cult".
#Not letting outside people intimidate you with attacking, bullying or aggressive words because you are accessing information and spiritual knowledge that they are not yet comprehending.
#discerning the difference between compassionate and non-controlling [[Leadership Vs. Tyranny]]. Leadership should never be confused with tyranny or Guru-Disciple archetypes in a group setting. Leadership is the act of [[Service to Others]], and it is a skill set and quality that must be earned by building trustworthiness through clearing [[Negative Ego]] and demonstrated humanitarian ethics. 

When people do not understand something or they feel that the information threatens their perception of reality, they will relentlessly attack that source of new information or discovery. We have seen this happen many times before in recent human history. Many people that were and are humanists, innovators, visionaries and responsible for new scientific discoveries were at the time of their discovery, ridiculed, persecuted and ostracized. I would like us to research more of those people, as history will dictate what we are attempting to move past in the current time. One can always ask, who is benefiting from preventing new discoveries and spiritual knowledge from being made available to the public? Additionally, we can see there is an agenda to prevent certain groups access to free energy devices and educational information sources, why are these technologies continually refused access to the public?

The dark resistance and [[Negative Ego|ego fear of change]], stunts spiritual evolution and consciousness growth from the [[NAA]]'s [[False King of Tyranny|tyrant-controller mechanism]] of [[Mind Control]]. As many of us realize, there are people that do not believe in evolution or that the [[Soul]] exists. This [[Ascension]] material discusses an array of topics dedicated to biological spiritual evolution of the human species through [[DNA Activation]] and [[Expanding Consciousness]], which will be met with great hostility from people educated to be either darwinian evolutionists, or [[Jehovah]]-[[Yahweh]] God creationists. (See [[Religious Violence]])

Here is more that describes that fundamental argument: [[Wikipedia:Creationism]]

I am sharing this pre-written article for a start to this thread, which may be of immediate assistance and support to learn and discern these behaviors.

Here in ES we encourage everyone to think for themselves, feel for themselves and to act in accordance to the highest expression of their divinity.

So what are the characteristics of a cult?

How can you improve your neutrality when someone accuses you of being in a cult, because they are afraid of the ES Ascension material?

May we continue to empower ourselves to comprehend with deep clarity the ambiguous nature and complexity of accusing language used by others in fear or in convenience, in so that we each are very clear about what we are engaging with here. This is an exercise in the development of one's own clarity of thought, personal accountability, better communication skills and learning how to be compassionate and loving with conflict resolution, with those who are combative to the ascension material. Most of these people that are combative have made little to no effort to actually study or factually verify their accusation. This is common as in "jumping on the bandwagon" of a consensus to neatly compartmentalize information one does not comprehend, nor want to know about, because knowing the truth is disruptive to the 3D mentality way of life.

Much love to all, Lisa
</blockquote>

==References== 

<references/>

==See Also==

[[Emotional Manipulation]]

[[Aggression]]

[[Twilight Mastery]]

[[NAA]]

[http://www.icsahome.com ICSA]


[[Category: Ascension]]

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