LIFE LESSONS | HISTORY IN PLAIN SIGHT

5 Steps Our Ancestors Used To Start A Cult

These are the same steps modern-day cult leaders use

The science of charlatanism is a term coined to describe the practices of charlatans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

They mastered the art of cult-making. Their time was a time of massive transformation as we are experiencing now. For them, organized religion was losing support, and science was on the up and up.

Everybody was looking for a new cause or faith, and the charlatans seized the opportunity. They started peddling health elixirs and shortcuts to acquiring wealth.

The charlatans moved quickly from town to town, city to city, to spread their message focusing on small groups first. Then they stumbled upon a truth of human nature — The larger the group, the easier the deception.

When human beings are gathered in larger crowds, their emotion feeds on each other, and they cannot reason. Larger crowds mean more emotion and less reasoning.

The charlatan realized they could more easily peddle stupid nonsense to a crowd than each individual. The collective intensity of emotions makes it almost impossible for any individual to be a skeptic in a crowd. Even bad ideas of the charlatan are hidden behind the veil of the masses.

The crowd develops a passion for the message. They take the message as their own. They become such enthusiasts of the message that they would violently attack anyone who attempts to spread doubt about their message. The charlatan has now achieved what he set out to achieve.

The start of a cult to carry the torch. The validity of the message matters no more. Mass adoption has been activated.

The charlatans have been studying this dynamic for centuries and can sometimes adapt to changes in the dynamic as it happens. They perfected the science of attracting and holding a crowd, molding the crowd into followers and the followers into a cult.

There are modern-day charlatans among us, and they have consciously or subconsciously studied the methods of the charlatans in sixteenth and seventeenth-century Europe.

The cult-making method of the charlatan has five steps. Here are the steps sprinkled with contemporary terms for our sanity, lest we become accidental students of the charlatans of old.

1) Always be vague and simple.

First, attract attention. Massive attention. Use a Twitter account if you can. They like followers. Do nothing through action but rather through words.

Actions are too precise and readable. Words can be hazy and deceptive.

Your speeches, conversations, TV interviews, and tweets must always have two parts. The first part must promise something great and transformative. The second part must be clad in total vagueness.

These two parts are a lethal combination. They stimulate all kinds of crazy dreams in your listeners/readers. The vagueness allows the listeners/readers to make their own connections and see what they want to see.

Always use words of great resonance but cloudy meaning. Words filled with the fire of enthusiasm. You can fake enthusiasm if you have to.

The use of fancy titles for simple things is helpful. So is the use of numbers and words that enhance vague concepts. This creates the impression of specialized knowledge. It gives you a veneer of sophistication and a leg up on the intellectuals.

Remember. If you talk too vaguely, you lose credibility. When you speak too specific, it will be dangerous. How will you satisfy your cult if you cannot deliver the detailed benefits you so eloquently described?

Keep it simple but vague.

2) Forget Intellectual. Make the message visual and sensual.

Once you start to attract people, two dangers will present themselves — boredom and skepticism. You need to amuse the former and ward off the latter.

This story by James Thurber is a good illustration.

“Once upon a starless midnight there was an owl who sat on the branch of an oak tree. Two ground moles tried to slip quietly by, unnoticed. “You!” said the owl. “Who?” they quavered, in fear and astonishment, for they could not believe it was possible for anyone to see them in that thick darkness.

“You two!” said the owl. The moles hurried away and told the other creatures of the field and forest that the owl was the greatest and wisest of all animals because he could see in the dark and because he could answer any question.

“I’ll see about that,” said a secretary bird, and he called on the owl one night when it was again very dark. “How many claws am I holding up?” said the secretary bird. “Two,” said the owl, and that was right. “Can you give me another expression for ‘that is to say or ‘namely?’” asked the secretary bird. “To wit,” said the owl.

“Why does a lover call on his love?” asked the secretary bird. “To woo,” said the owl. The secretary bird hastened back to the other creatures and reported that the owl was indeed the greatest and wisest animal in the world because he could see in the dark and because he could answer any question.

“Can he see in the daytime, too?” asked a red fox. “Yes,” echoed a dormouse and a French poodle. “Can he see in the daytime, too?” All the other creatures laughed loudly at this silly question, and they set upon the red fox and his friends and drove them out of the region.

Then they sent a messenger to the owl and asked him to be their leader. When the owl appeared among the animals it was high noon and the sun was shining brightly. He walked very slowly, which gave him an appearance of great dignity, and he peered about him with large, staring eyes, which gave him an air of tremendous importance.

“He’s God!” screamed a Plymouth Rock hen. And the others took up the cry “He’s God!” So they followed him wherever he went and when he began to bump into things they began to bump into things too.

Finally he came to a concrete highway and he started up the middle of it and all the other creatures followed him. Presently a hawk, who was acting as outrider, observed a truck coming toward them at fifty miles an hour, and he reported to the secretary bird and the secretary bird reported to the owl.

“There’s danger ahead,” said the secretary bird. “To wit?” said the owl. The secretary bird told him. “Aren’t you afraid?” He asked. “Who?” said the owl calmly, for he could not see the truck. “He’s God!” cried all the creatures again, and they were still crying “He’s God!” when the truck hit them and ran them down.

Some of the animals were merely injured, but most of them, including the owl, were killed. Moral: You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.”

THE THURBER CARNIVAI , JAMES THURBER , 1894–1961

Fooling too many people too much of the time is the curse of the cult.

3) Structure the group like they do in organized religion.

Your following is growing. It is time to organize it. Religion, or more specifically, organized religion, is the masters of large followings. Authorities rarely question the size of their following.

The holy associations of organized religion can be endlessly exploited. Even if a religion has faded, its form still resonates with power.

Create rituals for your followers. Create a hierarchy. Rank them. Give them names and titles. Ask them for sacrifices and offerings that will make you rich. Talk and act like a prophet to emphasize your gathering’s quasi-religious nature.

You are not a dictator, right? You are a priest, shaman, guru, sage, or anything BUT a dictator.

4) Never show your real income source.

Your following has grown. Your churchlike structure is in place. Your followers are showering you with money but never let them see you as hungry for money and the power it brings.

Right about now (sic), you must disguise the source of your income. Buy Bitcoin or something. Always let your followers believe that good things will come their way if they follow you.

If you surround yourself with luxury, you become living proof of the soundness of your belief system. Never reveal that your wealth comes from your followers’ pockets; instead, make it seem to come from the truth of your methods.

Followers will copy you step by step, hoping it will bring them the same results. Their imitative enthusiasm will blind them.

No questions asked. No answers given.

5) Use the Us vs Them Dynamic.

Your followers are now large and thriving and attracting more followers. Your group is growing at a tremendous rate. Be careful at this point. If you allow inertia to set in, time and boredom will hinder the further growth of your group.

To keep your group united, you have to do what all religions do. Create an us versus them dynamic. First, make sure you and your followers are part of an exclusive club unified by a common goal. At least create the illusion that this is the case.

Then, reinforce this bond, by manufacturing the notion of an enemy out to ruin you. Emphasize that this enemy is evil and part of a group of nonbelievers trying to stop you.

Every time anybody tries to reveal your charlatan nature, you describe that person as a nonbeliever. In the unlikely situation where you have no enemies, create one.

Your followers now have a cause to believe in and infidels to destroy.

Final Thoughts.

Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived. NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, 1469–1527

He should know; he was the personification of an evil mind. There is nothing more dangerous to society than the formation of cults. Once one is aware of the broad framework to assemble a cult, it becomes easier to recognize one and therefore more equipped to help dismantle one for the common good of society.

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