Wisdom without Zealotry - Cults

Are you in a cult? Do you know anyone in a cult? Are cults harmful? What is a cult?

According to many websites, it generally is any religion or social organization with bizarre or unusual practises and beliefs.

According to the Oxford dictionary from 1952 is: A system of religious worship; devotion, homage, to person or thing. Fairly innocent and can be applicable to many things and does not sound harmful.

The modern definition has changed and is located on the Oxford dictionary website:

1.1 A system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object;

1.2  A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or as imposing excessive control over members;

1.3 A misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular thing. 

2  A person or thing that is popular or fashionable among a particular group or section of society.

So using the above definitions, are you in a cult?

Combining the first and the forth sub-definitions, many of my friends enjoy things that might be labelled as a devotion or homage to a person or thing in a particular group or section of society, but it is not religious. I know lots of who are proud of their knowledge of their section of the geek empire but I would not say it is misplaced or excessive (third sub-definition).Cultish but not excessive. For most

Looking at the first definition, religious veneration and devotion directed towards a figure or object is not harmful in and of itself. Many families and friends are devoted to one another and this is not harmful unless emotion rules over logic (for instance defending a sibling who committed a crime and you know they committed this crime). The religious part can potentially be harmful, especially if the religion is based on total unquestioning faith with no logic and can have at its core strange and imposing excessive control with misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular thing.

In my opinion, it is the second and third definitions that make a cult harmful. In particular, the imposing of excessive control over members and misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular thing combined seems like a recipe for disaster.

It is the excessive devotion to beings that are immaterial and themselves ineffectual that I am concerned about. People who follow a person or being that tells them to hate and kill in their name. I feel that definition 1.2 should have the word small removed.

So where does the wisdom in this post come from? It is by acknowledging that a cult exists, that it is potentially harmful, and can it be left behind.

-Knowing a thing is a cult. It creates a target for your efforts to be rid of it. Knowing can lead to...

-Analyzing if the cult is harmful. This can be based on time spent on it, harmful influence or interaction, money or a host of other things. If you know a thing can be a cult and don't like what it is doing to your life then you...

-Plan to leave the cult activity behind you and do it. Get help to do this, especially if it was an activity that consumed your life and time. It will be hard but others have done so before. Once you are no longer influenced by the cult activity...

-Remind yourself of what you were like before. This will be what hurts the most but retrospection will help you not repeat returning to that activity. Same as an old scar. If you received it doing a stupid act, it is a wake-up call to not do it again.

In conclusion: know the warning signs, determine the harm, plan to leave it behind and do it, then remind yourself where you were before the activity.