"a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit"         (James 2:15-16 NKJV)

· Intensification of illegal activities

· Humiliating circumstances

· Relocation to a rural area

· Increasingly violent rhetoric

· Struggle for leadership

· A powerful leader who claims divinity or a special mission entrusted to him/her from above;

· Revealed scriptures or doctrine;

· Deceptive recruitment;

· Totalitarianism and alienation of members from their families and/or friends;

· The use of indoctrination, by sophisticated mind-control techniques, based on the concept that once you can make a person behave the way you want, then you can make him/her believe what you want;

· Slave labour - that is, the use of members on fundraising or missionary activities for little or no pay to line the leader's pockets;

· Misuse of funds and the accumulation of wealth for personal or political purposes at the expense of members; and

· Exclusivity - "we are right and everyone else is wrong".

· Isolate them in new surroundings apart from old friends or reference-points;

· Provide them with instant acceptance from a seemingly loving group;

· Keep them away from competing or critical ideas;

· Provide an authority figure that everyone seems to acknowledge as having some special skill or awareness;

· Provide a philosophy that seems logical and appears to answer all or the most important questions in life;

· Structure all or most activities so that there is little time for privacy or independent action or thought, provide a sense of "us" versus "them";

· Promise instant or imminent solutions to deep or long-term problems;

· Employ covert or disguised hypnotic techniques.

· milieu control (controlled relations with the outer world)

· mystic manipulation (the group has a higher purpose than the rest)

· confession (confess past and present sins)

· self-sanctification through purity (pushing the individual towards an unattainable perfection)

· aura of sacred science (beliefs of the group are sacrosanct and perfect)

· loaded language (new meanings to words, encouraging black-and-white thinking)

· doctrine over person (the group is more important than the individual)

· dispensed existence (insiders are saved, outsiders are doomed)

· Behavior Control

· Regulation of individual's physical reality

· Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals

· Need to ask permission for major decisions

· Need to report thoughts, feelings, and activities to superiors

· Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques -- positive and negative)

· Individualism discouraged; "group think" prevails

· Rigid rules and regulations

· Need for obedience and dependency

· Information Control

· Use of deception

· Access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged

· Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines

· Spying on other members is encouraged

· Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda

· Unethical use of confession

· Thought Control

· Need to internalize the group's doctrine as "Truth"

· Use of "loaded" language (for example, "thought-terminating clichés"). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding, and can even stop thoughts altogether. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words."

· Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.

· Use of hypnotic techniques to induce altered mental states

· Manipulation of memories and implantation of false memories

· Use of thought-stopping techniques, which shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts

· Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism. No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate

· No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful

· Emotional Control

· Manipulate and narrow the range of a person's feelings

· Make the person feel that if there are ever any problems, it is always their fault, never the leader's or the group's

· Excessive use of guilt

· Excessive use of fear

· Extremes of emotional highs and lows

· Ritual and often public confession of "sins"

· Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader's authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.

Source: Wikipedia free encycopedia