The Diffrent Types Off Cults

[Culchi]

Cult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.[1]

The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices. The narrower, derogatory sense of the word is a product of the 20th century, especially since the 1980s, and is a result of the anti-cult movement, which uses the term in reference to groups seen as authoritarian, exploitative and possibly dangerous.

The definition of "cult" according to the Wiki.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult

[Eddiesilence]

...one of the sisters was my granny. dont know too much about them, since she had my father out of marriage, so we were all obviously shunned...

'Religious shunning' is one very common feature of a destructive cultic group. It also occurs in non-religious cultic groups; whether religious or secular it is vital for the cult hierarchy to maintain the ideological purity of the group. Dissident ex-members and troublesome family members concerned about a loved one are thus censored from view. Scientologists call it 'disconnection'...

[Comrade Stoker]

God Bless them though, cos when I handed in my notice they gave me a bible to help me find my way :fuckyou:

Did you find it?

[distracted]

Meaning of a Cult from the OED:

1. Worship; reverential homage rendered to a divine being or beings. Obs. (exc. as in sense 2).

1617 COLLINS Def. Bp. Ely II. ix. 371 You tell vs most absurdly of a diuine cult..for so cult you are, or so quilted in your tearmes. Ibid. 380 You..referre it to the cult that you so foolishly talked of. 1657-83 EVELYN Hist. Relig. (1850) II. 39 God, abolishing the cult of Gentile idols. 1683 D.A. Art Converse 92 That Sovereign Cult due to God only.

2. a. A particular form or system of religious worship; esp. in reference to its external rites and ceremonies.

1679 PENN Addr. Prot. II. App. 245 Let not every circumstantial difference or Variety of Cult be Nick-named a new Religion. 1699 SHAFTESBURY Charac., Inq. conc. Virtue I. III. §2 In the Cult or Worship of such a Deity. 1850 GLADSTONE Homer II. 211 While she [Proserpine] has a cult or worship on earth, he [Aidoneus] apparently has none. 1859 L. OLIPHANT China & Japan I. xii. 242 They are devoted in their attentions to the objects of their culte. 1874 MAHAFFY Soc. Life Gr. xi. 350 The cult of Aphrodite.

b. Now freq. used attrib. by writers on cultic ritual and the archæology of primitive cults.

1901 A. J. EVANS Mycen. Tree & Pillar Cult 25 Aniconic Cult Images. Ibid. 77 Cult Scenes relating to a Warrior God and his Consort. 1903 Folk-lore Sept. 264 The image of the patron deity, usually a simple copy of the cult statue. Ibid. 269 Inscriptions found at various cult-centres. 1904 Hastings's Dict. Bible V. 118/1 The female Divinity must be represented by the female animal, in order to carry out the mythological tale or the cult-act. 1906 D. G. HOGARTH in Proc. Brit. Acad. 1905-6 375 Small objects dedicated in that temple, among which are several cult-figurines of the Goddess. 1928 PEAKE & FLEURE Steppe & Sown 104 Already in Early Minoan times the double axe had become, not only a symbol of authority, but a cult object. a1930 D. H. LAWRENCE Apocalypse (1931) vii. 117 Cult-lore was the wisdom of the old races. 1950 H. L. LORIMER Homer & Monum. vi. 349 The earliest cult-image of the goddess. 1950 Scott. Jrnl. Theol. III. 368 The rôle of the king in the great cult-drama at the beginning of every new year. 1957 Antiquity & Survival II. 167/1 Near it a cult mask, made of clay, was still lying on the floor... In a further room, we discovered a unique cult-standard..made of bronze, with a tang to fasten it to a pole.

3. transf. Devotion or homage to a particular person or thing, now esp. as paid by a body of professed adherents or admirers.

1711 SHAFTESBURY Charac. III. i. (1737) I. 281 Convinc'd of the Reality of a better Self, and of the Cult or Homage which is due to It. 1829 A. W. FONBLANQUE England Under 7 Admin. (1837) I. 238 These cults are generally to be found in the same house. 1879 Q. Rev. Apr. 368 The cult of beauty as the most vivid image of Truth. 1889 John Bull 2 Mar. 141/2 An evidence of the decay of the Wordsworth cult.

DRAFT ADDITIONS MAY 2004

cult, n. and adj.2

* A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister.

1927 Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Crescent 10 Oct. 18/1 Evidence that the strange burial of a youthful ‘priestess’ of the religious cult..may have been preceded by ritualistic and unreported burials of other cult members..sent investigators today to widely separated spots in the mountains of southern California. 1957 Amer. Sociol. Rev. 22 561/2 An opportunity to study public reaction to a man whose small band of followers regarded him as Christ (and who himself acknowledged that status) arose... We were able to..facilitate fairly systematic study of this embryonic cult. 1976 Newsweek (Nexis) 14 June 60 Unlike the Eastern cults that form around gurus, the Moonies make it psychologically difficult for their followers to leave. 1980 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 85 1377 Cults.., like other deviant social movements, tend to recruit people with a grievance, people who suffer from some variety of deprivation. 1994 W. SHAW Spying in Guru Land (1995) p. xi, He introduced many of them to ‘astral travelling’; in mild trance states they would ‘leave their bodies’ and return with more dreams and myths to add to the growing lore of the cult.

* Designating cultural phenomena with a strong, often enduring appeal to a relatively small audience; (also) designating this appeal or audience, or any resultant success; fringe, non-mainstream. Hence: possessing a fashionable or exclusive cachet; spec. (of artistic figures or works) having a reputation or influence disproportionate to their limited public exposure or commercial success. Freq. in cult figure, cult status.

1961 R. HEPPENSTALL Fourfold Trad. II. ii. 145 This is asking a lot of the general reader and helps to keep Ulysses in its curious position as a cult book. 1968 Punch 3 July 32/2 There has been a small cult-following for [Nathanael] West. 1970 Times 5 Nov. 14/6 There is some part of her in all of us, so that whatever our reaction to her, it cannot be one of indifference. It is easy to see how she could diminish into a fashionable cult-figure. 1976 Scotsman 20 Nov. (Weekend Suppl.) 3/1 The fact that it became something of a cult book should not be held against its author now. 1985 Music Week 2 Feb. (Advt. Suppl.), Bauhaus..achieved the highest level of cult success in the UK from '81-'83, with four silver albums. 1991 Twenty Twenty Spring 92/3 Tolkien's Lord of the Rings..became a major publishing phenomenon when its late Sixties Ballantine paperback edition attained campus cult status. 1993 Boulevard Spring 25 Eraserhead was a midnight cult movie, but Blue Velvet was the movie that made Lynch famous. 2000 F. WALKER in J. Adams et al. Girls' Night In 39 Last year's pop sensation Ruby ‘Red’ Richmond had been supposedly in lurve with cult actor Slim Tim Gorman for several weeks.

[Guest grandad]

iv'e started to watch a facinating video i downloaded about masons.

the freemasons go way back to ancient egypt, during the time of the phaoroh, they believed in democracy hence the secrecy. the vid takes you through the centuries up until GEORGE BUSH, who happens to be a mason, the ancients talked of a powerful new nation in the distant future, who will take there democray to places ruled without democracy until it becomes a one nation planet ruled by democray. now that rings some bells in my head.

[Guest grandad]

though the egyptian people worshipped the sun as a god, the high priests worshipped the wind that blew through the sun. but the more elite worshipped ICARUS, the star icarus was at its brightest during the time of famine and disease in egypt, and was worchipped because of its power of destrucion. george washington was a freemason, he laid the first cornerstone, the buildings were built in the shape of an oblisc (bad spelling) around the whitehouse, many presidents and senaters were masons.

[mokum777]

'Religious shunning' is one very common feature of a destructive cultic group. It also occurs in non-religious cultic groups; whether religious or secular it is vital for the cult hierarchy to maintain the ideological purity of the group. Dissident ex-members and troublesome family members concerned about a loved one are thus censored from view. Scientologists call it 'disconnection'...

yeah, i read that in a piece of blue sky, its incredible how far the scientologists take it when someone is declared a suppressive person. splitting up families, husband and wife, its also a good way to eliminate dissenting voices. the rehabilitation project force would easily be seen as illegal, if they didn't have the fake respectability of their religion hiding the crimes. funny, its been a while since i saw any of their "free personality test" bollocks on the streets, hopefully thats a good sign.

[Guest daviie]

I've been associated with what some may call cults, i.e. School of Economics Science, Gurdjieffian Groups, and in fact early scientology when it was Dianetics. I would never regard any of them as cults, only people 'outside' of them do.

[callywally]

sounds like one of the conspiracy videos ive watched grandad, think the star you're talking about is Sirius.

[mokum777]

i'm sure you could say that about all of these groups. if you're involved, its going to seem perfectly normal, they are good at manipulation and control.

[Guest daviie]

i'm sure you could say that about all of these groups. if you're involved, its going to seem perfectly normal, they are good at manipulation and control.

You have some personal experience of this, Mokum?

[mokum777]

i'm sure you could say that about all of these groups. if you're involved, its going to seem perfectly normal, they are good at manipulation and control.

You have some personal experience of this, Mokum?

i did know a guy who ended up getting involved with the scientologists in edinburgh, and noticed quite a change in him, but i haven't been a member myself. but it must require either a suspension of disbelief, or being influenced by others, to accept the whole dianetics scam as in any way normal. the harrassment of former members, over-zealous litigation, virtual imprisonment and punishments by the rpf, pseudo science of their psycho-galvanometer e-meters, hatred of any psychiatry, profiteering,the sci-fi nonsense about xenu, the deaths, stealing court papers, the list of scientology crimes is endless.

[Guest daviie]

i'm sure you could say that about all of these groups. if you're involved, its going to seem perfectly normal, they are good at manipulation and control.

You have some personal experience of this, Mokum?

i did know a guy who ended up getting involved with the scientologists in edinburgh, and noticed quite a change in him, but i haven't been a member myself. but it must require either a suspension of disbelief, or being influenced by others, to accept the whole dianetics scam as in any way normal. the harrassment of former members, over-zealous litigation, virtual imprisonment and punishments by the rpf, pseudo science of their psycho-galvanometer e-meters, hatred of any psychiatry, profiteering,the sci-fi nonsense about xenu, the deaths, stealing court papers, the list of scientology crimes is endless.

I was interested in Dianetics as a possible psychology, studied it, more to the point, studied the adherants, and after some time, decided it was, for me, not relevant, and left. Scientology is just a very bad joke.

[mokum777]

in a lot of cases, its been a dangerous joke. been many ruined lives caused by it, and only a few countries have stood up to them.

[Comrade Stoker]

I have not seen them out in London for a while but then again I have not been in town as much. Used to be awash with them peddling the stress tests. I stopped a few times to talk to them and told them everyone is stressed, its Central London, I didn't need to hold two metal cylinders to know that. It does look like a complete sham. I gather from someone in the know they have £billion upon £billions stashed, they didn't win that on scratch cards did they?