James Richardson, a professor of sociology at the University of Nevada, notes that the term ‘cult’ emerged as a way to describe a group that holds beliefs contradicting mainstream religious practices.
Everyday life for 8-year-old Dhyana Levey seemed no different from that of her peers.
She went to school on the weekdays, played with other kids her age in downtown Santa Barbara, and read books with her parents at the kitchen table on the weekend. To her, this was normal. It was the only life she had ever known.
But as she grew older, fractures in her story emerged.
When her schoolmates talked of going out to the movies, Levey failed to relate to their recounts, as seeing movies were banned in her household. The kids she played with were never outside a controlled group of close proximity neighbors. The books she read with her parents were irregular – they preached strange ideas about Eastern religion that contradicted what she learned in school.
The breaking point arrived in her teenage years. At 13, Levey’s world was shaken when her local newspaper published a shocking exposé — a series of articles unraveling a web of money laundering and infidelity. The subject of the scandal was one of her most trusted mentors, a figure she had once viewed as a guiding light in her life.
Suddenly, her life changed. Neighbors she had known since birth disappeared almost overnight as they moved away en masse. She felt more uncomfortable than ever discussing her home life with outsiders.
At 18 years old, Levey left her home in Santa Barbara and moved to Oregon to pursue a college education and a career in journalism. For a while, she enjoyed the straightforward, practical nature of reporting and chose to mentally block out her strange early years. But in time, the uncertain nature of her past called her back. She was compelled to seek more answers.
“I dug up the newspaper articles. I found the reporter who did all the articles, and I talked to her. That’s when I really understood what weird stuff was going on,” Levey said.
By then, the truth was clear. Levey had been raised in a cult.
Uncovering realities
“The building we went to on Sundays was just called ‘the lodge,’” Levey said. “We would go there on Sundays and read these books or put on these plays. It didn’t promote itself as anything other than a search for the truth.”
The place where Levey spent her Sundays was actually the Santa Barbara branch of the United Lodge of Theosophists (ULT), a worldwide religious movement characterized by its blend of Eastern religions with esoteric Christianity and Western occultism. The mentor of Levey, who was exposed by the local journalist, was the leader of the Santa Barbara branch of the ULT, and he had been embezzling money from members.
Levey had been born into this group, which her parents had avidly followed from its beginning.
“A lot of the group’s ideology was about being of the higher mind,” Levey said. “There was also this very uptight atmosphere of ‘you’re not allowed to do anything.’ Nobody drank. No movies. No posting online. No certain books. Of course, everyone rebelled later.”
While cults are often associated with infamous groups like Jonestown or Heaven’s Gate, where devoted followers live in isolation, united by a singular leader and a shared pursuit of transcendence, the reality is far more complex. According to cult specialist Steve Eichel, who spoke with CBS News, many cults are smaller, more discreet, and even secular, with an estimated 10,000 operating in the United States today.
To an unsuspecting eye, nothing about the ULT seemed suspicious.
“No cult promotes itself as a cult. A cult often has religious connections, but to me, they’re mostly just cons,” Levey said. “They’re any organization that isn’t what they claim to be on the surface.”
The ULT commune didn’t fit the typical image of a secluded cult hidden away from the world. Instead, it blended into a quiet neighborhood in downtown Santa Barbara, its presence nearly indistinguishable from the homes around it.
What set it apart, however, was the way entire houses had been donated to the organization and placed under the leader’s control. With this power, he decided who lived where, further reinforcing his authority over every aspect of his followers’ lives.
In cultic groups, leaders wield an almost unchecked influence, bending reality to their will. In this case, that meant an entire neighborhood shaped to serve their purpose.
Cult leaders often share the defining trait of extreme narcissism, defined as excessive self-importance and lack of empathy, which exacerbates their ability to manipulate their members.
“Cult leaders may not experience emotions the same way a normal person would. They may not feel guilt or shame or sadness like others,” said Ashlen Hilliard, a former member of a Church of Christ sect she considers a cult and now director of the support group People Leave Cults.
Hillard says that these leaders who are driven by a thirst for power, seeking control through sex, money, or public influence, are able to create a grip on members that is so strong that they devote their lives and financial resources to a single organization, even when it defies societal norms.
“People believed that this leader was a ‘great teacher’ like he was otherworldly and the reincarnation of Krishna,” Levey said. “And so, followers believed his words. He would say awful things. He could be very cruel, and people still believed him.”
Levey explains that the leader of the ULT wielded fear as a weapon, routinely warning that followers would “burn in hell” if they disobeyed him. This fear kept members obedient and compliant.
Some groups take manipulation to even more extreme levels: low-frequency tones are played during hours-long meetings, members are forced to lie on the floor, and access to the outside world is restricted to a designated space.
“Cults try to inflict stress on you so that you have some sort of emotional response. Then they’ll frame the emotional response you’re having as a spiritual breakthrough,” Hilliard said.
One of the most insidious methods used by cult leaders to maintain control is gaslighting, which is the distorting of reality to make followers question their perceptions of truth.
“Gaslighting is something that is used as members are first coming into the groups,” said psychologist Colleen Bannister Shoop. “It causes them to question their reality. When you have someone you trust telling you one thing, it causes you to suspend critical thinking. You no longer know what’s true and what’s not, so you freeze.”
What may seem as obviously corrupt to outsiders is carefully masked in the early stages of cult recruitment.
New members are also met with a tactic known as love bombing, which is an overwhelming display of praise, affection, and validation from leaders and other members. This flood of warmth and acceptance hides the harsher realities that will emerge once the person is fully established in the group.
“Kindness is not bad when you enter a new club, church, community group, or relationship, but it’s the hyper outpouring of ‘let’s surround you with gifts, and let’s go to dinner immediately and tell us all of your dreams’ that is concerning,” Hilliard said. “Why would you have any red flags when people are making you feel really good and that’s exactly where they want you to be?”
This love bombing stage comes as a way to prime potential members for the new information the cult leader will present.
“We are excited to absorb new information. But what happens over time is cults co-opt that information and turn it on its head,” Hilliard said. “When you are exhausted, burnt out, and you’ve given money to the group and they keep asking for more, you don’t see the suffering they inflict as a red flag. You now see it as suffering for the cause. And it’s worth it to you — to be poor, to support the group. It’s worth it because you fell in love with it.”
When the target of recruitment eventually submits to the cult’s way of thinking, the love bombing stage ends, and high-pressure situations take their place.
“It is actually very similar to an abusive relationship. The abuser will isolate them and cut them off from their friends and family, “ Shoop said. “Once that isolation happens, it makes a person dependent on them. When negative things start happening, they feel as though they have nowhere to go. They may already be financially dependent and usually will become emotionally dependent.”
This dependence makes it extremely difficult for many individuals to leave cults and start new lives.
“It absolutely destroyed some people to leave ULT, it was horrible. It ruined some people’s lives. It was a nightmare,” Levey said, recalling the conversations with former members she had interviewed. “They were convinced by this leader that if they left, they would undergo some sort of spiritual attack, and they would die somehow, or something else horrible would happen to them.”
According to Levey, this threat wasn’t just for leaving but it could be as little as talking to someone not approved by the ULT. One former member went to a therapist; she was so terrified that people would find out that she was paranoid of being followed.
“People developed eating disorders. Some people who were raised in the group had financial problems after leaving because some of our parents did not provide a lot of help trying to help us go off and live our own lives,” Levey said.
This pressure exerted on people is a process known in professional spaces as coercive control.
“Coercive control is a pattern of abusive behavior that takes place over a period of time. It’s very slow, so people don’t realize they’re being controlled, abused, or manipulated until all of a sudden, they’re underwater, and they feel overwhelmed. Then they finally see all the red flags,” Hilliard said. “It’s sort of a breaking point for them.”
Hilliard gives the analogy of a mental shelf of realizations in the back of our heads. In a cult, one slowly puts doubts on this shelf during their time in the group, and at a certain point the shelf collapses.
According to Hilliard, the collapse of this mental shelf in relation to a cult can happen for many reasons, whether it is a major event like discovering the leader’s abusive relationship with a member or something smaller like seeing a friend suffer. The cognitive dissonance in these high-stress environments builds over time, even if someone appears fully committed.
In reality, anyone can become a target of manipulation and coercive control. Shoop underscores the fact that those who feel a deep-seated lack of belonging or a sense of purpose in their lives are particularly vulnerable to indoctrination.
Contrary to the popular misconception that those indoctrinated in cults are mentally inferior, in reality, cults tend to recruit young, smart people, as their curiosity and creativity give them the ability to wrap their minds around and rationalize the beliefs the cults impose on them.
“Cults look for the best and brightest among us,” Hilliard said. “Stupid people don’t end up in cults.”
As a result, one of the most popular places for cults to recruit is college campuses, which is legal under the First Amendment’s right to freedom of religion. Historically, groups like the Unification Church and offshoots of the International Churches of Christ disguise themselves during college fairs and invite students to be a part of bible study sessions. Levey identified this recruitment tactic as crucial to indoctrinating ULT members, given its close proximity to the University of California, Santa Barbara’s campus.
Hilliard also identifies people with neurodivergence as especially susceptible to cult recruitment.
“People with neurodivergent brains love structure. We sometimes have hyper-fixations where we’re really interested in one topic for a period of time,” Hilliard said.
Recovery and connection
Hilliard’s role is to support former cult members when they reach a breaking point. When individuals begin questioning whether they are in a coercive control situation, she encourages them to seek help in rebuilding their mental well-being and to explore the difficult questions they may have previously felt afraid or ashamed to ask.
“I think it’s important to ask the question, ‘What would happen to me if I decided to leave? Would they wish me well? Would they still stay in touch? Will they try to pressure you to stay?’ All of those things can be red flags,” Hilliard said. “Advocating for what you need as you change as a human being is really important.”
One of the most profound impacts of the psychological tactics used by cults is the erosion of personal identity, leaving many members with a complete loss of self. This is especially true for those born into cults, who have never been given the chance to develop a sense of autonomy in the first place.
According to Shoop, the psychological term for this is disassociation, a mental process where a person feels disconnected from their sense of self, often as a response to overwhelming stress.
“People can go in and out of disassociation, but the moment of realization is the time when someone comes back into their mind or their body and realizes that this is not where they want to be,” Shoop said.
Once someone snaps out of disassociation and realizes the gravity of their living situation, it isn’t an easy process to make a decision to leave.
“There was a structure of hierarchy within the cult, where people who were closer to the leader were treated better than others, so people were always jockeying for the positions closest to him. After years and years and years, that affects you,” Levey said. “All of a sudden having that structure fall apart does a lot to you psychologically.”
Not only does the mental strain of leaving a cult weigh heavy on members, but so do external factors, like future standards of living and familial relationships.
“Leaving can come with a lot of really complex decisions, and you’re kind of putting everything on the line. Maybe they’ve given all their finances to the group. Maybe they have a marriage in the cult. Some groups may want to sue you if you leave and talk badly about them. You may lose children if you have children who are still in the cult,” Hilliard said.
Factors such as restricted access to public education and systemic mistreatment of women often push members to consider leaving. More extreme practices, like polygamy, have also been a hallmark of certain cults. Groups such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) have been notorious for engaging in illegal polygamy, prompting numerous women to speak out about their traumatic experiences.
Another major part of Hilliard’s job includes working with people who suspect that a loved one is in a cult. While every situation varies, Hilliard says that family members and other individuals are concerned with having a loved one in a cult because they often notice them slipping away from their past selves.
Hilliard recommends continuing communication with loved ones, even when it is hard, to establish rapport. By gaining a better understanding of where a person’s mind is on the timeline of cult indoctrination, loved ones will be in a better and more empathetic position to help.
“We want to seem interested, non-judgemental, and curious. We want them to be in a safe space where they can vocalize when they start having doubts and concerns,” Hilliard said.
Cult rehabilitation programs like People Leave Cults use patient, trauma-informed approaches, such as guided self-reflection and personalized counseling, to help indoctrinated members recognize their harmful situation and reach a point where they are ready for change.
Acknowledging the truth of one’s reality is only the first step — integrating into mainstream society is by no means easier.
Both Hilliard and Levey experienced this challenge firsthand. Having been born into their respective cults, they had never known a life outside the organization’s control, prior to their disengagement. Their entire worldview, relationships, and daily routines had been shaped by the group, which made the prospect of leaving feel overwhelming.
“You’re with these other people who are all part of this community, and you’ve become convinced, the cult is the way, that this group is the most important thing,” Levey said. “If I do life differently than this, it’s wrong, then something bad is going to happen to me. You become so focused on the group and everyone in its perception of you, it’s all you can think about.”
Hilliard compares the emotional ties that one can have to their coercive controllers to a rollercoaster-like spectrum.
“They love it. They hate it. They’re broke because of the cult, but they feel happy because they may find a romantic relationship in the cult,” Hilliard said. “They hate it because they’re getting emotionally abused, but they love it because there’s a retreat coming up this weekend, and they’re really excited.”
In today’s world, finding support for cult-related trauma has been made easier by digital media. Groups like People Leave Cults are accessible online through a quick Google search. Facebook groups and online anonymous support rooms give a degree of accessibility to those searching for help.
“Before, you would have to go to a cult recovery conference back in the ’80s or the ’90s, and now you can just hop online, search for former members, and instantly be connected and see that you’re not alone,” Hilliard said.
The digitization of investigative reports by major publishers has helped bring national attention to worrisome cult groups and enable their takedowns, such as in the case of NXIVM, a sex cult that operated for 20 years before a harsh public trial brought down the group’s leadership.
Although some of the most gruesome stories of cults seem to be a thing of the past, cult veterans like Levey suspect that the 21st century will not see the end of cultic activity.
“Cults are going to continue. I feel like part of it is human nature. People dominate each other, and certain people, if you let them take advantage, will,” Levey said. “But I think if people cultivate less of a stigma by talking about cults more, and there’s more information out in the open about people’s personal experiences, others may be more on alert of being brought into a cult.”
