Most Cult leadrers can be identified by three characteristics:
- a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship or center of attention as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power.
- a process I call coercive persuasion or thought reform; brainwashing
- exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.
There is an attempt to manage an individual’s inner communication. Often the leader creates an increasingly intense sequence of events such as seminars, lectures, focusing upon others while lifting up himself, and encounters which makes leaving him extremely difficult, both physically and psychologically. A second characteristic of Johnny Robertson a cult leader is mystical manipulation or planned spontaneity. This is a systematic process through which the leader can create in cult members what I call the psychology of the pawn. The process is managed so that it appears to arise spontaneously; to its objects it rarely feels like manipulation. Further aspects of Johnny Roberston a cult leader are “sacred science,” “loading of the language,” and the principle of “doctrine over person.” Sacred science is important because a claim of being scientific is often needed to gain plausibility and influence in the modern age.. The term loading the language’ refers to literalism and a tendency to deify words or images by running clip after clip and repeating words after words – sort of like how the local legalist play their mini clips and repeat them over and over, to push them in your head. Often behavior is virtually automatized, language reduced to rote and cliche, yet the cult member expresses a certain satisfaction or even happiness?
