#cults

Cult recruiting methods based on dosing victims with the brain chemicals released during capture bonding would make cults even more of a problem than they are now. ↗

— Keith Henson

#bonding #brain #capture #chemicals #cult

A piece of advice: if you want to remain in control of a doomsday cult, don't give a date for the end of the world unless you're really, really sure it's going to happen. Being wrong tends to undermine your authority. ↗

— Jennifer Bosworth

#end-of-the-world #dating

Mother goddesses are just as silly a notion as father gods. If a revival of the myths of these cults gives woman emotional satisfaction, it does so at the price of obscuring the real conditions of life. This is why they were invented in the first place. ↗

— Angela Carter

#cults #does #emotional #father #first

Professor Langdon,' called a young man with curly hair in the back row, 'if Masonry is not a secret society, not a corporation, and not a religion, then what is it?' 'Well, if you were to ask a Mason, he would offer the following definition: Masonry is a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.' 'Sounds to me like a euphemism for "freaky cult." ' 'Freaky, you say?' 'Hell yes!' the kid said, standing up. 'I heard what they do inside those secret buildings! Weird candlelight rituals with coffins, and nooses, and drinking wine out of skulls. Now that's freaky!' Langdon scanned the class. 'Does that sound freaky to anyone else?' 'Yes!' they all chimed in. Langdon feigned a sad sigh. 'Too bad. If that's too freaky for you, then I know you'll never want to join my cult.' Silence settled over the room. The student from the Women's Center looked uneasy. 'You're in a cult?' Langdon nodded and lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. 'Don't tell anyone, but on the pagan day of the sun god Ra, I kneel at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consume ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh.' The class looked horrified. Langdon shrugged. 'And if any of you care to join me, come to the Harvard chapel on Sunday, kneel beneath the crucifix, and take Holy Communion.' The classroom remained silent. Langdon winked. 'Open your minds, my friends. We all fear what we do not understand. ↗

— Dan Brown

#freemasonry #religion #secret-society #religion

The history of the Church of Rome is a constant leakage of members into such breakaway cults, which go on splitting. ↗

— Mary Douglas

#constant #cults #go #history #into

People under the influence of cults is similar to that we observe in addicts. Typical behaviour for both includes draining bank accounts, neglecting children, destroying relations with family and losing interest in anything except the drug or cult. ↗

— Keith Henson

#anything #bank #behaviour #both #children

Cults, or related social movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, result in massive military expenses. ↗

— Keith Henson

#cults #expenses #massive #military #movements

Even small cults are a serious cost on the world economy, to victims, their families, employers, friends, and credit-card companies. ↗

— Keith Henson

#cost #cults #economy #employers #even

I suspect that a substantial fraction of human problems in the world today, not just cults, result from the mismatch between the current environment and the environment in which we evolved. ↗

— Keith Henson

#cults #current #environment #evolved #fraction

You can look at anything as a cult. Churches are cults in their own way. ↗

— Philip Seymour Hoffman

#churches #cult #cults #look #own