Alex Castillo – Conversation 4

I chose an article from CultRecovery101.com called “Who Joins Cults, and Why”. I chose this article because it intrigued me what type of people join cults and why. I previously believed people who joined cults were mentally ill or in a personal crisis. The latter is the case most of the time. There are cults of many beliefs, so finding people to join is not as hard as one might think. As stated in the article, “No one type of person is prone to become involved with cults”. This becomes clear later on in the article when they speak about the way people are coerced into joining a cult. These people are targeted by recruiters who manipulate a person who is going through something. For example, after a breakup or divorce, people tend to feel lonely or lost. This anxious feeling makes them more susceptible to being convinced to join a cult. Therefore, no matter what age a person is, as long as the personal and situational circumstances are right, anyone can join a cult. The article states there is no single profile that characterizes a cult member. This means that as long as the person is in a state of anxiety or discomfort they can be convinced to join if the situation is right. I learned that there isn’t any one type of person that would join a cult, but instead it depends on the state of the person mentally at the time of their recruitment. This along with a cult’s persistent manipulation shows that no one is immune to joining a cult.