Valuetainment - January 01, 1970


“Cash, Agilation and Sexual Favors” - Cult Expert REVEALS The SINISTER Blueprint Of Cult Control


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

146.76387

Word count

1,644

Sentence count

105

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

How do you start a cult today? Is it easier than it was 50 years ago, pre-social media? What are the characteristics of a cult leader? How do you know if you are a member of a destructive cult?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 His question is very innocent.
00:00:01.640 Some may call it a dumb question, but they say there's never a bad question.
00:00:05.360 He said, how does one start a cult today? 0.95
00:00:07.220 He's interested in starting a cult today.
00:00:09.280 He wants to have a cult like Fallon.
00:00:10.880 He wants people to be crazy about him.
00:00:13.100 And he's wondering, if you wanted to do that, how do you do that today?
00:00:16.040 Well, the times have changed.
00:00:18.480 And so if you wanted to start a cult today, you would do it online.
00:00:23.280 This is the new way in which cults thrive and recruit people and raise money.
00:00:28.500 So you'd have your social media accounts, X, Facebook, TikTok.
00:00:36.020 You'd stream.
00:00:37.520 You would have websites.
00:00:39.220 You'd have a YouTube channel.
00:00:41.100 You might book a retreat through Airbnb.
00:00:45.360 And all of these things that I'm describing have, in fact, been done by cult members,
00:00:50.700 excuse me, cult leaders to pull in members.
00:00:54.620 And so they recruit online.
00:00:56.320 They get money online, you know, PayPal, Vemo, and everything happens online.
00:01:03.520 And that is the new world of cults.
00:01:06.500 Almost any of the old cults that were established have now reinvented themselves or rebranded themselves
00:01:15.280 online.
00:01:15.960 And people who are aspiring to become cult leaders begin typically online.
00:01:22.700 So, okay.
00:01:23.880 And I want to talk about that because the question that becomes, is it easier to be a cult leader
00:01:28.540 today or 50 years ago, pre-social, pre-cell phones, pre-all that stuff.
00:01:32.960 But prior to that, is the word cult, where does the word cult come from?
00:01:37.840 Does it come from culture?
00:01:39.200 Because it's a bunch of different words that it comes from.
00:01:41.340 What does cult come from?
00:01:42.720 Well, you know, it's, I believe, you know, from a language standpoint, it would go back
00:01:49.800 to Roman times.
00:01:51.020 But the word cult has a range of meaning.
00:01:57.600 So, for example, you could have a cult following.
00:02:01.080 You could have a podcast and have fans that are very devoted to you.
00:02:05.140 And that could be called a cult following, like Taylor Swift and the Swifties.
00:02:10.200 Or you could be obsessed with shopping at Trader Joe's.
00:02:15.920 And that could be called a kind of cult following.
00:02:19.660 But when we use the word cult, typically what we're talking about is a destructive cult.
00:02:26.200 And there are three core characteristics that form the nucleus of virtually every definition
00:02:31.620 of a destructive cult.
00:02:33.620 And that would be, number one, that you have this dictatorial leader who becomes an object
00:02:39.600 of worship.
00:02:40.820 And that leader is the defining element and driving force of the group.
00:02:44.880 So it could be like David Koresh, Keith Raniere, Jim Jones, Charles Manson.
00:02:52.600 And whatever the leader says is right is right.
00:02:55.100 Whatever the leader says is wrong is wrong.
00:02:57.220 And the leader dominates and controls everything.
00:03:01.240 And then number two, that leader uses identifiable techniques of coercive persuasion and thought
00:03:07.160 reform to gain undue influence over his or her followers.
00:03:11.500 And then once they have that undue influence, they use it to exploit and do harm to the people
00:03:18.720 that follow them.
00:03:19.780 And that varies by degree from group to groups.
00:03:22.560 Not all groups are mixing the Kool-Aid, as they say, to poison and kill their members through
00:03:30.440 some kind of mass suicide or engage in criminal activity.
00:03:33.780 Most cult leaders are really interested in cash, adulation, and maybe sexual favors.
00:03:41.460 So that is what defines a destructive cult.
00:03:45.100 Those three core characteristics.
00:03:47.600 Cash, adulation, and sexual favors. 0.98
00:03:51.020 Yeah. 0.57
00:03:51.840 All right, Humberto.
00:03:52.540 There you go, buddy. 0.96
00:03:53.120 All right, so cash, adulation, and sexual favors.
00:03:59.020 Okay, so the word cult comes from culture.
00:04:02.740 The word by itself is not a bad word. 0.97
00:04:05.940 It's the people who use their cult-like following to harm and take advantage of people rather
00:04:14.880 than those.
00:04:15.660 Like, I would say Joe Rogan's got a cult-like following.
00:04:17.680 I'm sure you would agree.
00:04:18.660 Yeah.
00:04:18.860 I would say, you know, Rinaldo has a cult-like following, right?
00:04:22.860 A massive cult-like following.
00:04:24.700 There are many actors and singers and comedians that have cult-like following.
00:04:29.060 Podcasters have cult-like following.
00:04:31.880 But what's the switch?
00:04:33.780 Like, if you look at the pattern of a guy that uses their influence and their cult-like following
00:04:39.320 to turn it into hurting somebody, harming somebody, what is that switch?
00:04:44.600 Where are those guys willing to go to that others with high influence don't?
00:04:51.540 What's the difference?
00:04:52.660 What's the place they're willing to go to?
00:04:55.380 Where we're going is that basically the leader takes control of critical thinking and decision-making
00:05:03.840 and value judgments.
00:05:05.140 And the followers become increasingly socially isolated because the leader influences them
00:05:11.340 to cut off family, old friends, and to embed in this, if you will, bubble or alternate reality
00:05:19.220 controlled by the leader.
00:05:20.840 So as the leader takes his following further and further away from their moorings, their family,
00:05:32.040 their community, and isolates them, they become very easily influenced because they have no other
00:05:40.900 frame of reference.
00:05:42.460 And everyone around them, by a deliberate process, is a member of this group.
00:05:48.920 So if, for example, you look at someone else and say, hey, I think what the leader is saying
00:05:54.000 sounds kind of crazy, the person next to you, what are you talking about?
00:05:58.560 He's all powerful, he's wonderful, we should just go along with him.
00:06:04.080 So there's no way to get accurate feedback as you become more and more embedded.
00:06:09.900 And then once you lose your friends, your family, you're socially isolated in this group, and the
00:06:18.740 leader starts telling you that the outside world is evil, everyone is really negative, they're
00:06:26.040 awful, and only the people within this group are right and good.
00:06:32.740 And we need to protect ourselves.
00:06:36.160 We need to defend ourselves against the persecution and the onslaught from the outside world.
00:06:42.600 This is when it starts getting very dark.
00:06:45.380 And then the leader can say things like, let's attack the Tokyo subway system, which Shoko Asahara,
00:06:52.860 the leader of Aum Shinrikyo, did.
00:06:54.840 And thousands of Japanese in the 90s were hospitalized.
00:06:58.660 Many died.
00:06:59.840 Or you can have a situation which recently happened in Kenya, where the leader of this group called
00:07:06.880 the Good News International Church, Paul McKenzie, told his people to fast and pray because the
00:07:13.540 end of the world was coming, and over 400 bodies have been recovered in Kenya.
00:07:20.780 How did they die?
00:07:22.320 How did they take their lives?
00:07:23.260 They died from starvation, and hundreds of them were children.
00:07:28.860 And so not only did the adults fast and pray and starve to death, but their children did
00:07:34.740 as well.
00:07:35.660 And this is one of the most horrible things about destructive cults.
00:07:39.540 Can you pull up the picture of the leader?
00:07:41.780 Please continue.
00:07:42.460 Go for it.
00:07:42.720 This is one of the most horrible things about destructive cults, is we can talk about the
00:07:50.680 process of undue influence and coercive persuasion and how people are bent to the will of the
00:07:57.020 leader.
00:07:58.000 But, you know, their children are simply brought in by their parents who think the group is
00:08:04.640 good, and the children then become captives, if you will, of the cult.
00:08:10.200 And many times, children are hurt terribly.
00:08:14.420 I recently have been involved in helping the children of a group called Lev Tahor, which
00:08:20.880 is a spinoff of ultra-Orthodox Judaism.
00:08:24.960 This is a group that has members from New York, from the United States, Canada, and Israel.
00:08:31.840 And after fleeing multiple investigations for child abuse, they ended up in Guatemala, and
00:08:40.940 they created a compound outside of Guatemala City.
00:08:44.680 Eventually, the authorities rescued over 150 children from that compound who were being horribly
00:08:51.320 mistreated and sexually abused, physically abused, not receiving proper care, food,
00:09:01.260 food, medical care.
00:09:02.980 And this is what happens in destructive cults, is the children suffer because they were brought
00:09:10.800 into this group or born into this group, and they have no other choice.
00:09:14.600 Yeah, but what I want to know is, what is the, everything you said at the beginning,
00:09:19.180 you know, they tell you the world is negative, stay positive, you know, so, okay, that to me
00:09:23.860 could be a Tony Robbins.
00:09:26.080 That could be some motivational guy.
00:09:27.300 You know, you have to protect yourself from negativity from the outside.
00:09:31.320 Sometimes your own family doesn't want the best for you.
00:09:34.320 You know, it's not about, you know, the family isn't just about blood.
00:09:39.880 It's about who's with you today when you have big dreams and you want to do something.
00:09:43.100 Okay, all of this stuff we've heard a million times from a lot of different people, right?
00:09:47.860 Okay.
00:09:48.880 So, all that's good.
00:09:50.180 Some of that stuff has some truth behind it.
00:09:52.520 You know, when you're going out there, people, even parents would probably teach that
00:09:56.060 to their kids, but what is the point where they go to now sacrifice your life, and what
00:10:03.240 were the three words you said?
00:10:04.780 Cash, adulation, and sexual favors. 0.98
00:10:08.000 What is that tipping point?
00:10:10.160 That tipping point is when you become so socially isolated within the group.
00:10:15.660 Unlike a motivational speaker, you go to their seminar, you leave, you rejoin the world,
00:10:21.940 you take with you whatever principles they may have taught you, and to some extent, some
00:10:28.300 of the themes used by cults can be seen in other areas in the world.
00:10:35.000 And that's part of the facade of destructive cults, is that they are going to project a
00:10:40.800 positive image.
00:10:41.780 They're going to put forth a kind of mask that doesn't let you see what is behind the door,
00:10:49.000 what the more dark demands might be of the group.
00:10:53.020 Hi, I'm Rick Allen Ross, cult expert, intervention specialist, author of the book,
00:11:00.340 Cults Inside Out.
00:11:02.280 You can find me on Manect.
00:11:04.700 If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
00:11:07.460 And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.
00:11:10.240 So thank you.
00:11:11.000 Thank you.