Cult specialist details three ordinary places organizations will try to recruit you
There are a few surprisingly ordinary places where you could find yourself being approached by someone trying to recruit you into a cult, and you might not even realize what's happening at first.
A cult expert with more than 40 years of experience has warned that recruitment can happen in some of the most mundane places imaginable.
According to Rick Ross, a cult intervention specialist who has worked with hundreds of people in the US and internationally, it isn't necessarily the most vulnerable or least intelligent people who get caught up in destructive groups.
"It can happen to anyone," Ross told UNILAD.
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Ross began his work in 1982 and has since carried out hundreds of interventions, including cases involving people connected to the Branch Davidians before and during the Waco standoff, as well as members of NXIVM, the organization led by Keith Raniere.
He has also worked with highly educated professionals who he says had become involved with destructive cults.
So while the word 'cult' might bring to mind isolated compounds and infamous leaders, Ross' experience suggests the first step can look considerably more ordinary.
"There's a huge amount of deception involved, you're really being conned," he said.
Three ordinary places you could be recruited to a cult
The person approaching you might not tell you what the group actually demands or expects. Instead, Ross said, the invitation could be disguised as something as innocuous as 'an exercise club', 'a yoga and meditation group', 'a therapy group', 'a self-help group' or even 'a Bible study'.
But the approach does not necessarily happen somewhere associated with religion, politics or fringe groups, with Ross identifying three everyday locations you could be targeted: college campuses, malls and even stores like Costco.
College students have traditionally been a long-time target for recruitment, Ross said, with recruiters working on campuses to find potential new members.
"I get inquiries all the time from people who say they were approached while shopping, at a mall, or at a community event by someone they didn't know, who invited them to an event," he said.
He also specifically mentioned discount retailers such as Costco as places where people have told him they were approached.
Counting on the circumstances, he said, even a diet program or multi-level marketing company could be used as the initial guise.
"Depending on where you are in your life, if you're vulnerable, and depending on who's making the pitch, you can be had," Ross said.
"Really, it comes down to circumstance: being vulnerable at the wrong time, and bad luck."
When do cults target recruits?
Ross said there is often a combination of vulnerability and trust behind an initial approach.
That could mean somebody has just lost their job, gone through a breakup or experienced the death of someone close to them.
In that situation, an invitation from somebody they already trust can sound completely harmless. "It could be someone they trust: a coworker, a relative, a close friend involved in some group," Ross explained.
"They're invited to a meeting or activity without really understanding what they're being invited to."
The person extending the invitation might simply say: "I think this could help you, I know you're going through a tough time."
Ross said the combination of trust and vulnerability can create an opening for recruiters, particularly when the person being approached believes the invitation is coming from somebody who genuinely wants to help.
Ross has testified as an expert witness in court cases and written the book Cults Inside Out, which examines destructive cults, intervention and recovery.
How cult members are 'deprogrammed'
According to Ross, helping someone get away from a cult is less about breaking someone down and more about giving them the full picture.
He'll sit down with the person and their family and start by examining whether the group's leader genuinely fits the profile of a destructive cult figure, before walking through the specific tactics of coercive persuasion and thought reform, and whether there's evidence the group has been using them.
Family plays a central role throughout the process, with loved ones asked to explain exactly what changes in behavior first raised their concerns.
A key part of the approach, Ross said, is surfacing information the person may never have been told. In the case of Branch Davidian leader David Koresh, for example, he said very few members were aware that Koresh had been accused of child abuse, a fact that undermined his claim to be a prophesied messianic figure once it came to light.
"You also discuss what secrets exist within the group that they don't yet know, and whether they should be more fully informed before deciding whether to continue with it," Ross explained.
One warning sign of a destructive cult is the treatment of the group's leader.
"If a group is managed that way, so that there's no valid basis to question what the leader says you must do, that's a warning sign," Ross said.
He also advises people to look at whether their relationships outside the group are changing.
"Are you still seeing old friends, spending quality time with family?," he asked.
If someone is becoming increasingly isolated while spending more and more time with the group, Ross said that can be significant.
Another step is to look outside the organization itself. Ross recommends checking whether former members have repeatedly made complaints or alleged that they were hurt or exploited.
And then there is what happens when somebody decides to leave.
A group that treats former members as enemies or tells current members to avoid them can be another warning sign, according to Ross, as these characteristics can begin to form a bigger picture of an authoritarian or destructive organization.
What type of people can be recruited for a cult?
Perhaps one of the most important points Ross makes is that intelligence does not necessarily provide protection.
"I've deprogrammed five medical doctors, one an orthopaedic surgeon, another an anaesthesiologist, highly educated, sophisticated people who were nevertheless brainwashed by a destructive cult," he said.
He added that he has worked with graduates of universities including Penn, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale.
"It's absolutely possible for someone highly intelligent and sophisticated to be pulled in by a destructive cult."
The reason, he explained, is partly because manipulation can happen gradually.
"You don't get to the extreme part overnight, it happens in increments," he said. "You're being spoon-fed, you're being led, and you don't fully understand where you're being led to."
Ross compared the process to an escalating abusive or controlling relationship, saying it can begin with what appears to be unconditional affection or 'love bombing' before demands and isolation increase.
Once someone is socially isolated, they can lose access to people who might otherwise challenge what they are being told.
"You're not getting accurate feedback or an alternative perspective, you're just being reinforced over and over, day after day," Ross said.
For Ross, cases like these sit at the extreme end of a process that can begin much more quietly.
And that is why, he argues, paying attention to changes in someone's relationships, behavior and level of dependence on a group can matter.
"If you're in a group and you notice parallels with these criteria, you may be dealing with a potentially unsafe group trying to control your life," Ross said.
Topics:Â Psychology, Mental Health, True crime
Thomas Bamford