Do you think that people in cults should be deprogrammed?

Question

Or do you think they should be left alone with their beliefs? Sometimes finding out the truth and being deprogrammed can drive you crazy. You spend the rest of your life ..with "hindsight" and "trying to figure it out" and "wondering how you were so blinded". Sometimes I think it's better just to leave them alone.

(I'm not talking about the part where children are abused in that cult.)

Answer 1

I suppose it depends whether you think it is okay for vulnerable people to be exploited or not.

Cult leaders are not so much interested in what people believe as exploiting them for their money or labor or using them to recruit new people to fleece.

Answer 2

I think people of any religious beleifs should be deprogrammed.

I know that a lot of people are not going to like that, but all religion is based on brainwashing and fear campagns.

Answer 3

From a legal perspective this is a very tricky question. The standards of mental health say a person can be committed if they are an immediate threat to their self or others. This is usually restricted to meaning they have a gun to their (or someone else's)head but also if they tell you of plans of immediate harm. So taking someone from a cult against their will is kidnapping and many people have been prosecuted for this crime. As you might imagine this goes somewhat against the ethics of many professions and people.

I do not support anyone being exploited. I also have some ethical concerns about people who do deprogramming.

Yes, discovering that you have some control and must take responsibility for your behaviors and life can be very hard.

However, I agree with Capt. Kirk (Star Trek Reference) that did not want his regrets and pain taken away because those were part of what made him who he was.

I do think where possible people should be helped.

I don't know if ESP is required for cult leader but certainly many are good at finding and exploiting weaknesses in people. They are probably also skilled in putting people in suggestive type states be this calmness like hypnosis or whipping them into a frenzy like Tony Robbins (motivational speaker). Of course brain washing techniques like sleep deprivation, low nutrition, constant exposure to a message, etc. are well known techniques and if one could prove this was happening legal authorities could take action (unless of course the US Military is the one doing these things).

Just my thoughts.

Psi

Answer 4

I don't like cults, and I don't like how a lot of people act within them, but there is a problem with what you are asking, not nothing personal though on my part.

The term "cult" as you are using it is fairly broad and a lot of people have a tendency to believe that any belief that dosen't co-relate to thier own is a cult, or retains the possiblity of being a cult.

Also there is the basic premises of "free will."  Do we actually have the right to tell another person that they can't believe in a certain way because we don't agree with it, or do we even have the right to even assume that we are so much greater than they that we can literally force them NOT to believe or act in a certain way because we ourselves don't agree?

Catholicism can be considered a cult.  Pagenist can be considered cult members, Jews, Muslims, Pentecostals, Amish, Mennanites.  I do understand what you are asking but the questio in itself is so completely broad that there is really no right or wrong answer in the end.  At least not in my personal opinion.

Anybody who depends on the belief of a higher power, who is raised on that belief and it being a critical part of thier foundation since babyhood would indeed be lost.  There would be no personal happiness.  For those that are raised to be more open minded it would not be as damaging to thier personal psche.

In some cases it is better to leave them alone and in some cases it isn't.  My older brother was at one time part of a church that was in every classic definition a "cult," although he didn't see it that way at the time.  My parents were frantic with worry, nagging, riding his back about it constantly.  That is the worse possible thing that you can do.  In the end his moment of enlightment was when a young gentleman commited suicide on a motercycle by swerving into his lane on the way to the church and ran into his van head on.  His world collapsed because for the longest time he blamed himself although he did no wrong.  Rather than turning towards his Dad though (my step-father) he came to me.  He came to my great grandmother, and we told him that the answers that he was looking for, the forgivness, ciouldn't come from ANY church or religion but from within himself.  She is hardcore Baptist, and I am a practicing Pagen/Catholic.  He did have mental issues for a bit afterwards but he found the answers in time.

So I do have to agree with you sometimes other than in the most sever of causes it is indeed best to just leave them alone.

We are each given the ability to choose to believe, worship, and not believe.  In any religion it is the people themselves who are bad though, not always the religion themselves.

I do have to say though, this has been one of the most straight forward questions that I have found on this subject.  You left it open for each individual to answer it without being influenced by the questioner.  That is really, really good.  Kudos.

Answer 5

All people from cults should be set free. They are there against their will. Men have many women and children. They all work like slaves, for free. There's one leader who says he's a prophet and program them. After getting out, they can be help out of all that by special people.

The best is that they get out.

Like everybody they must have their freedom.