For more than ten years now I have been intrigued about how some people seem capable of getting anyone to do anything. I had a number of burning questions. I always wondered what made people take on radical views? What made people suddenly decide to join a faith? What made some politicians so influential? What makes someone suddenly willing to die for a belief?

There are many aspects to effectively influencing people. Many people reading this probably think that there is no way they could ever be manipulated into doing something against their will. They are probably thinking that it can only happen to weak people. In reality anyone can be convinced to do something they wouldn’t normally do. In many cases it doesn’t really take much. People have a willingness to do what they are told by authority figures. This is something that is learnt throughout your life. You do what your parents tell you, you do what your teachers tell you. Most people don’t ever question what is being asked of them they just accept it.

Most children feel a certain level of anxiety when they are in a situation with an authority figure like a Doctor or a Dentist. This programming that takes place throughout childhood often affects people in adulthood. People find it difficult to stand up to their boss, they still feel a little nervous with Doctors or Dentists and many adults also feel intimidated when they are in the presence of police officers.

All of this anxiety makes people more compliant. Many con artists take advantage of this automatic compliance by putting on uniforms that people will respond unquestioningly to, like security uniforms or inspector uniforms. As long as the con artist acts confidently ‘as if’ they really do hold the position they claim to hold, and they keep the person in a slightly confused state not giving them enough time to step back in their mind and assess the situation fully they are likely to be successful with the con.

Before I explain how people can have their beliefs radically altered I just want to explain that in my opinion there is nothing inherently wrong with most religions, groups or cults. In this article I will talk of cults. I am using this term to describe religions and group followings that expect followers to share the same beliefs.

As I have mentioned above there is nothing inherently wrong with most cults. Belonging to a cult or group can be a healthy thing. They can often meet many of the emotional needs that all humans have.

These emotional needs include:

· To give and receive attention (e.g., socialising)
· The mind body connection (e.g., not sleeping can lower the immune system)
· To have purpose and goals (e.g., having an aim in life)
· Belonging to a wider community (e.g., joining a group or a religion)
· The need for stimulation and creativity (e.g., working at achieving your goals)
· The need to feel understood and emotionally connected to others (e.g., having a close group of friends, having a loving partner)
· The need to feel a sense of control & independence (e.g., knowing what is in your control & making decisions)
· To feel a sense of security (e.g., financially, within a relationship)
· Having a sense of status within a social group (e.g., holding a specific position in a company)
· Having a sense of competence & achievement (e.g., being good at your job, meeting your targets/goals)

How people are drawn into a cult or a specified belief

There has been a lot of talk in the media about teenagers being drawn into becoming suicide bombers. What there hasn’t been is much on what to look out for, and who would be most likely to have a radical change of belief. This doesn’t just apply to people becoming suicide bombers. It could be equally as likely to apply to people likely to turn to drugs, serious crime, or any other radical change.

The important point to remember when reading this is that it is a significant change in the pattern of behaviour that you would be looking out for and preferably over a reasonable time period. It is important to remember that everyone is different. For example; some people like spending lots of time alone whereas other people want to spend lots of time in the company of others.

These changes will happen in the areas of getting emotional needs met. Generally if all of the emotional needs are met in healthy ways then there is a far lower chance of the person needing to get any needs fulfilled elsewhere. It doesn’t eliminate the chances of someone being convinced to change long held beliefs but it does reduce the risk of this occurring.

Getting part of some of your needs met by a group or cult is perfectly healthy as long as the cult doesn’t hold any extreme or dangerous views. Sometimes it can be hard to know whether a specific cult has extreme views because they can have a tier system in place where you have to meet certain criteria before you are allowed access to another level of information.

Joining a group or cult can allow you to get a sense of belonging to a wider community, it can give you an added sense of purpose, and a belief in something greater than yourself. As long as you have a balanced life then the cult will be fulfilling an appropriate level of your needs. Unfortunately most people that turn to cults do so at a time when their needs aren’t being met. Many people ‘find’ cults at a time when they have serious issues in their lives, or when they are depressed, or at a time when, for one reason or another their life is lacking meaning.

This is the very time when you don’t want to get involved with a cult because you will be almost powerless to stop it from controlling you. This is the time when you need to find help elsewhere, perhaps from friends or family, or by approaching a Doctor. If you get involved with a cult whilst you are in a vulnerable state you are likely to be very easily sucked in.

The reasons why you will be so much easier to suck in are because they can meet, or promise to meet all of the needs that you don’t have being met. If as a parent, friend or family member you see someone in a position where they perceive the situation that they are in as one that doesn’t meet their needs fully then this is the time to get in their and help them. Notice what needs aren’t being met and help them to get those needs met. You might just save them from becoming stuck in a cult that they can’t escape, and perhaps even from ruining their life completely.

Another reason why people that are depressed or in a highly emotional state are easier to get sucked into a cult, is because highly emotional states automatically put you into a trance state. When you are in a highly emotional state you view the world through that emotion. If someone is angry their whole focus is on what they are angry about. Anything else that interferes with that anger is likely to add to the anger and become part of the anger. The angry person will only see their point of view, everyone else is wrong. When someone is depressed they will believe that anything good that happens was nothing to do with them, when anything bad happens it was totally to their fault. They will see the world through their depressed view. Unfortunately the depressed view is the same view most cults install; the view that something else is responsible for all of the good things that happen to you.

This one view is often enough to draw people in if they ‘discover’ the cult at the time they are in this state of mind. They are likely to be told about how this ‘specific’ thing that is responsible for all the good that has happened to them is able to grant them more of it if they agree to form a relationship with it, so that they ‘deserve’ to get the good experiences, that ‘there is a way out’ of the current situation, often an eternal life of peace and happiness, or some similar promise. Who wouldn’t want this if they were feeling depressed?

Once the cult has dropped the line and ‘hooked’ you all it needs to do then is ‘reel’ you in. To do this the cult will very quickly show you how it can meet ‘ALL’ of your needs. Obviously they won’t get out a checklist and tick them off as they show they can meet them. It will be implied by the way that they talk to you and the things that they do.

To give and receive attention

As soon as you join everyone will seem especially nice to you. People will rally round for you. They are likely to be incredibly supportive and understanding. They will listen to what you have to say and feedback how supported you will now be.

The mind body connection

They will often offer you ways to relax, like meditation or praying, both of which are likely to involve closing your eyes and breathing calmly for at least ten to twenty minutes in each sitting often many times a day. This will naturally calm the mind and relax the body, all of which will improve sleep (as will worrying less due to a change in beliefs now that you have joined the cult).

To have purpose and goals

The cult will tell you about all of the wonderful things you will gain from being a member and what you can achieve long term, like eternal life of a prime position in heaven. They will tell you how you can achieve this building up a compelling picture and motivation in your mind, and all of the steps you will need to do. Cults easily rival many £300 weekend goal setting business courses.

Belonging to a wider community

You will be invited to larger meetings, you will regularly see the same people at your local meetings, you will have time to talk with each other and socialise. You will also have a sense that you belong to something larger than yourself because you are participating in promoting a specific group, cult or god.

The need for stimulation and creativity

You maybe asked to input ideas and views, many of which are likely to be commented on favourably as good ideas even if they are not used in the end. There is likely to be events either held by the group or cult or celebrations that you will be asked to help with. Often it is actively encouraged that people volunteer to take on tasks at such events. You are also likely to have regular ‘study groups’ or meetings where you will discuss a topic to do with the cult to show you understand or to learn more. It could be that you are learning more about common questions people ask, or common objections people come up with when recruiting others into the cult.

The need to feel understood and emotionally connected to others

Within the cult it will appear that everyone understands you, that many of them went through similar to what you went through. Due to having a higher belief that you all share it is only natural that you will feel a special connection emotionally to many members and to the cult leader or god.

The need to feel a sense of control & independence

This is probably the biggest illusion that you would face in a cult, and if you questioned how much control and independence you really have then you are likely to realise that it is less than you think. The cult will make out that everything is your choice, you can worship god and have eternal life or not worship god and be damned to eternal pain and suffering in hell, it’s up to you? What you find though is that the options really are not that fair and even.

To feel a sense of security

The cult will appear to rally round for you when you need it. It will seem to always be there for you. The cult and its members will become the only people you feel you can rely on. You will feel safe when you are at the cult meeting place because you are surrounded by ‘friends’.

Having a sense of status within a social group

In many cults they will have a structure. As you stay in the cult longer you will be given more responsibility and perhaps more knowledge. It could be that you become responsible for encouraging new recruits, or for teaching the ways of the cult to small groups, as you continue to progress your status will continue to grow. Sometimes you can be convinced that certain acts will increase your status considerably, even in some cases to a saint-like status. This promise can, for some people, be difficult to turn down. For example; if they believe that by dying they will be worshipped by millions of people, and they believe that death will lead to the most incredible afterlife, and that their god will also be proud of them then these things will out weigh the fact that they will no longer have a physical body.

Having a sense of competence & achievement

Cults have a habit of continually praising their members for things they do that benefit the cult. This coupled with the progression and gaining of knowledge leads to an increased sense of competence and achievement. This sense of competence and achievement can also be gained by increasing confidence as you start to do things perhaps you had never done before, like standing in front of a group and speaking, or approaching people to talk to them.

Just because the cult has a person ‘reeled’ in doesn’t mean that that person would suddenly be willing to completely go against previously strongly held beliefs. The person may struggle to break free from the cult and to gain back a level of free will. To make people completely go against their previously held beliefs the cult will need to use some psychological techniques to create change. In most cases by the time someone is ‘reeled’ in they will have experienced so much of the psychological manipulation (especially in the first few months when they were perhaps depressed or in some other vulnerable state) that most people are likely to be fairly pliable to the cults ideas, beliefs and commands.

It is important to point out at this time that all of these techniques and skills I am about to describe are used by hypnotists and effective therapists in a positive way to create change in people. Hypnotists and therapists aren’t in a position to create strong negative change, even in some of the most vulnerable patients, because they don’t see the client as much as a cult sees a follower. This also means that if the hypnotist or therapist tried to manipulate the client, because the client wasn’t first made reliant on the therapist to meet all of their needs they would notice (either consciously or unconsciously) that they were being manipulated in a direction other than to resolve their issues and would leave therapy and probably feel so uncomfortable with the therapist they wouldn’t go back.

It is also important to point out that approximately 20% of people (irrelevant of intelligence or other factors) are naturally highly suggestible or hypnotisable. This means that when a cult uses hypnotic techniques (knowingly or unknowingly) 20% of people are very likely to respond to them strongly. So in a room of 300 people, about 60 of them are likely to respond strongly to any suggestions or manipulation. It is actually likely to be higher over time because the least suggestible people are often more likely to drop out of the cult as their life sorts itself out, leaving the more suggestible followers there.

Although I have said that hypnotists and therapists can rarely negatively manipulate people there is an exception and that is therapists that hold workshops. There are many workshops held on subjects from communication skills to stress management. Some of these are used to manipulate people into wanting to attend more courses. Some are run like cults and gain cult followings that helps to make large amounts of money for the organisers. Obviously there are also those courses that are run to benefit the participants.

Many large training organisations operate like cults. I have known of hypnotherapy, psychotherapy and counselling organisations that will get attendees on training courses to have to sign up for ‘compulsory’ therapy as part of the course, the therapy that they attend is usually with people that have previously trained with that organisation. When the participant is trained up they will also be sent new participants to attend therapy with them. Many organisations are also often unwilling to divulge areas of their training to people without them paying large amounts and attending courses. This has led to many organisations that advertise saying things like ‘learn the secrets of top sales people’.

Research seems to show that you don’t need to undergo therapy yourself to become a therapist, you only need to undergo therapy if you have a problem that needs to be worked on. It can actually be counter-productive for therapists to receive unnecessary therapy as it can create psychological problems. To be an effective therapist you need to be able to concentrate on helping the client so you need to not have any serious psychological issues of your own at the time.

Daniel Jones is the author of The Psychology of Big Brother

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