Why the world needs cults | Jamie Wheal for Big Think

Humans are highly conscious of social status. We are tribal primates who are wired to seek the "silverback" among us. This makes us prone to cult-like behavior.

This is especially true today with the rise of social media influencers, like those on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.

But the question is: can cults actually be an ethical and positive force for good?

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About Jamie Wheal:
Jamie Wheal is the author of the global best-seller and Pulitzer Prize-nominated Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs and Maverick Scientists are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work and the founder of the Flow Genome Project, an international organization dedicated to the research and training of ultimate human performance. Since founding the organization in 2011, it has gone on to become the leading voice of evidence-based peak performance in the world, counting award-winning academics, legendary professional athletes, special operations commanders, and Fortune 500 business leaders among the hundreds of thousands of people in its global community.

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Read more of our stories on cults:
The thin line between conspiracy theories and cult worship is dissolving
4 psychological techniques cults use to recruit members
Is Atheism a cult?

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[bigthink]

Do you think we need "ethical cults"?

[Ash_Rahmani]

This dude has a calm soothing voice. Makes me want to join his cult.

[j.v.]

As someone who is working with an online community to build an "ethical culture", I really appreciate this video.

We are building a secular 12-step recovery community and many of us are survivors of religious trauma and/or culty cults. Thank you for this wonderful clarification and communication that there is hope - we can maintain our personal autonomy and have community. I've known this for some time now and still struggle with the words to explain to others.

Much gratitude and appreciation for your willingness to share this.

[MachFiveFalcon]

I'm very aware of how much damage religion has caused throughout history and in my own life, so the idea of attempting to start new ones in an ethical way is something I'm still extremely cautious about. The entire problem I had with religion in my own life is blind faith in belief systems and hierarchies that create power imbalances. I prefer people acting as individuals joining together in acts of charity to better the planet, but I don't judge people who pursue concepts like faith.

[cesarlorenzo_._]

“EVERYBODY IS A GURU!” From food to spirituality…everybody nowadays is kind of an expert…on something without even studying the matter…
Ridiculous…

[sacredkinetics.lns.]

💫 I don't feel the necessity to cult.
I'm autonomous.

[sudamericuencano]

The simple solution. Become a free thinker, question everything and follow logic and reason. With that there would be absolutely no need of cults

[dynamikausa]

That strange need for worship, I do not think I had one yet. It actually feels alien.

[TobinTempleman]

Cults are bad and should not be reinvented. For those who don't know, research BITE Model to distinguish if you or someone else is in a cult.

[jacksonfurlong]

The One Ring analogy is more apt than he realizes. There is no ethical way to wield the power of a cult leader over people.

[glovere]

I think that ‘ethical’ and ‘cult’ are 2 words that do not belong together. You might say that they are mutually exclusive. I suppose it’s theoretically possible to have an ethical cult, but why call it that? It’s the worshipping part that negates the ethics of it and there is nothing ethical about surrendering your will in the way cults require. I was in a culty cult for over a decade. My high school hippie friends all started following a guru in the early 70s and I joined it, too, mostly out of peer pressure and probably because I was looking for a father figure since mine was absent. I got so into it I dropped out of college and joined the ashram, which was where the cultiest members went for the full experience of surrendering your life to the guru. It was more of an innocent time then in terms of cultural trends. The Beatles had a guru and it was a trendy thing to do for the counterculture movement. Many “holy men” from India found a great way to make a lot of money by coming here to gain followers. Basically, they were the Indian version of Joel Osteen. The religion/cult business is very lucrative and there was a huge country full of disaffected youth to exploit in America. Sri Chinmoy, Bagwan Shri Rajneesh, Guru Maharaj Ji the boy guru (he was mine), and many others did extremely well posing as gurus. They did have things to offer like meditation techniques, but the bottom line was the adoration. I wouldn’t exactly call it worship, but that is a distinction without much of a difference. In the ashram, we started each day singing a song about how the guru was everything to us. That message was constantly reinforced to fully brainwash you into the cult. There were good things I took away from those years, so I can’t say it was an entirely destructive experience, but I did miss out on a significant chunk of my formative years. The meditation discipline was a good thing to learn, but I could have done that without such a total commitment. Cults are not something we need. The exist because we are out of balance. They are a symptom of a greater dysfunction, and depending on the behavior of the leader, joining one can do great damage to your life. For some it has led to their death. In fact, in a cult you stop living your own life and follow the dictates of another. Your critical thinking is shut down and that’s not a good thing under any circumstances.

[KMR]

Spiritual... Tribalism, even very strong tribalism, I'll go with that.
Cult?
No. Not even cultish about not being cultish.

I don't know if you fully understand what it means to be apart of a cult.. True to the definition it is the extreme of extremes of manipulation, controls, and authoritarianism in the name of a religion.

I think you're going to confuse a lot of people with this

[joetheperformer]

I think this is false. If we are to have a separate word for ”cult”, “ideology”, and “religion”, then there must be subtle separate meanings for each.
We can’t just take the root word and assign that meaning.
We have to consider the context and connotations of each word according to the modern interpretation.
Otherwise, we would be allowing racists to say “I am a white supremacist because I am proud of my race.”
It really loses the context of what that word means to modern society.

Therefore, (in my opinion) we cannot say “Everyone cults, the question is how do we cult ethically?”
No, because some people cult. Some people follow religions. Some people follow ideology. Some people both cult and follow religion. Some people follow ideology and form cults out of it.
But not “everyone cults”.

Edit: word (‘have’ to ‘am a white supremacist’)

[ongoingsky]

Ethical cult??? No. That’s like saying there can be a benevolent dictator. Or a loving devil.

[carbon]

I knew the jazz reference for ethical cults was coming. The one thing I have to consider though, especially after having spent several years in BOTA and AMORC, this is sort of like bringing back things like the Greek mysteries or making some more open form of Masonry. The trouble though - this situation, ie. an ethical cult where you're responsible for your own spiritual work, is still something very few people would be able to participate in, maybe 5-10% of the population, because I think most people just want social networking, teach the kids values, CYO sports, all of the accoutrements of Roman Catholicism and other mainline Protestant denominations. Overall we're pretty basic critters, making copies of ourselves is the main goal, and almost everything revolves around that. True occult, mystic, neurohacking or psychonaut nerds are rare and likely always will be. This is where we probably need strong traditional cults like Roman Catholicism or even Eastern/Russian/etc. Orthodox but with an initiatic branch for the nerd herd who would have been alchemists or kabbalists back in the Renaissance.

[luvyatubers]

People are brainwashed to believe their cult is an ethical one

[johnleo]

Brilliant video. Any cult that demeans the individual and expounds submission to an external authority, be that a priest, god, guru or political 'strongman is profoundly damaging to the individual's self worth and society as a whole. As a species we need cults that elevate humanity.

[bntagkas]

i would join a cult that stands for helping all life flourish, reducing suffering>>increasing pleasure(pleasure will naturally come to a healthy individual who is whole, has basic needs met and not in pain and fear constantly) and discovering the truth of the universe

[totalfreedom]

*_1_* When there is love there is peace; wars end both.
*_2_* Freedom is the opposite of slavery.
*_3_* Scientific knowledge ends ignorance, superstition, and religion.
*_4_* The first and last casualties of war are children.
*_5_* When love is, the self is not. The self causes all wars and problems.
*_6_* Without love life is meaningless.
💕 ☮ 🌎 🌌

[simongore]

"I love the chosen one. Loving him is fun, fun fun"