Cults and the final countdown:
An inside story
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The following article appeared in the Vancouver Sun
on Saturday, December 3, 1994:
"It is with boundless love, unspeakable joy and no regret at all that we leave
this world," wrote a member of the Solar Temple cult in Switzerland just before
the group self-destructed on October 4, 1994.
~The writer (as quoted in the Montreal Gazette) went on to proclaim: "Thus with
a clear mind we do leave this Earth for a dimension of truth and perfection.
There, away from obstruction, hypocrisy and hostility, we shall give birth to
the seed of our future creation."
~L'Express International of Paris included an even more revealing quote:
"Mankind, do not cry over our fate, but cry over yours. May our love and our
peace be with you during the terrible trials of the Apocalypse that await you."
~The Solar Temple cult members were well-educated, financially successful people.
How, then, could they be so transfixed by their belief in the Apocalypse that
they would take their own lives, or agree to have others kill them? Many
commentators have posed this question, calling it a baffling mystery that may
never be solved.
~I do not find the question so mysterious. I am familiar with the apocalyptic
mind-set and the extremes of behavior that can result from it. For 10 years,
from 1976 to 1986, I, too, was a cult member. I believed that the world would
soon be completely "restored." I believed that within my lifetime, all humanity
would honor Sun Myung Moon as the Messiah, and his followers would be elevated
to the highest ranks of world leadership, while his opponents would be cast down
into the utmost despair and regret.
~These ideas demonstrate the three main themes that run through apocalyptic
beliefs, no matter how the end or transformation is envisioned: first, it will
happen very soon, usually within a score of years at most; secondly, believers
will receive positions of honor in the transformed world, or in the spiritual
world that replaces it; and finally, those who oppose the believers will suffer
terribly, perhaps eternally, for their obstruction. All of these themes are
also expressed in the parting letter of the Solar Temple cult.
~Such beliefs are not necessarily extreme or radical. Many Christians also
believe that the Apocalypse will occur within their lifetimes. However, in the
case of the Solar Temple and similar groups, the apocalyptic mind-set has been
exploited by a cult leader to create a closed system in which the mounting
opposition to the cult only reinforces their beliefs.
~Like a computer program gone haywire, the members are locked into an eternal
"logic loop" where any public scrutiny or antagonism to the cult is taken as
proof that the world is becoming more evil; hence, the cult members must
redouble their efforts.
~Here's an example of how this works. Beginning in 1977, I spent nearly a year
in Maryland and West Virginia selling various products at inflated prices for
Moon's Unification Church. Often, I was dropped off in a shopping mall parking
lot to peddle these wares. Every day I encountered people who wanted to get to
their cars without being accosted by a grinning "Moonie" with an armful of fake
jewelry (or whatever), and they told me so - loudly and angrily.
~Much of their resentment was due to the fact that fund-raisers like myself would
try to conceal where the money was going. However, being berated or insulted
did not cause me to change my tactics.
~In fact, I believed that such opposition was an indication that the "Satanic
media" had spread lies about Moon, and I must be even more evasive the next time
I spoke to someone. Or, I might simply decide to run even harder through the
parking lot, as I strove to bring more money to "Father" so that he could
"restore the world."
~I'm not comfortable with lying, and this evasiveness was never something I was
happy about. But I did it anyway, because older members (who were supposed to
be wiser) recommended it. "The end justifies the means" could have been the
motto of our fund-raising teams. This attitude is typical to most cults:
gradually, cult members take on the sociopathic character of their leader.
~Cult leaders are unmistakably sociopaths: they have an intuitive sense of what
to say in order to get people hooked on their ideas. Their teachings are aimed
at gaining the desired effect, but they suffer no pangs of conscience when these
ideas cause harm to individual followers.
~Cult leaders view people simply as raw material to be manipulated; even more
than money or sex, they long to have control over others. For example, Luc
Jouret, according to a former member of the Solar Temple (quoted in Paris Match)
had his pick of the cult's women, "and married couples were not spared," but
this should not be taken as proof that he was merely obsessed with sex. Rather,
he did this to assert control - to show that he could ask for anything, and it
would be given to him.
~For the same reason, Moon often holds engagement ceremonies where his followers
meet their future spouses just hours before the wedding ceremony, and in some
cases don't see them again for many months or years.
~When this happened to me, I agreed to it because I figured "True Father" knew
best who would make an ideal wife. (I was, however, never permitted to live
with my wife, and our "marriage" failed two years later.) I now realize that
Moon did it simply because he wanted to exercise control.
~At what point can this demand for control become lethal? I believe that mass
suicide could happen in any cult, because the craving for control by cult
leaders has no theoretical limit; however, it rarely actually occurs.
~When it does, it is because the cult leader feels that "the jig is up." Civil
authorities are closing in, and he must either renounce his control over his
followers, or beckon them to go with him into a ghastly apotheosis of murder and
suicide. At that point, the circular logic of cult belief turns on itself
with such fury that it becomes a vortex, dragging the members down into death.
~In the closed world of cultism, the opposition of the world, even to the cult's
criminal activities, is seen as an impediment to the new, better world to come.
This paranoia then causes the members to become still more resentful of
authorities and resistant to common sense - and no-one is immune, not even the
educated, successful people who followed Luc Jouret.
~When Jouret was convicted of trying to buy illegal handguns, and then realized
that his money-laundering activities were under investigation, he knew that it
was only a matter of time before he and other leaders (such as Joseph Di Mambro)
would be faced with criminal charges that would likely destroy the cult. He
decided that it was time to summon his followers to the Apocalypse. I am not
really surprised that at least some of them willingly agreed to go. I remember
how important I felt as Moonie, because I believed that my work was going to
change the world permanently for the better. Who wouldn't like to believe that
his or her life could have such eternal significance? Jouret's trick, however,
was to convince his followers it could only be achieved through death.
"Come to Switzerland to die," entreated the words on a scrap of paper found
among the charred ruins of a Solar Temple chalet. The writer of those words
probably believed that this invitation would echo like thunder down the
unimaginable corridor of time.
~Instead, it was merely a whisper among the babble of such invitations that have
been issued throughout history, as humanity trudges down that corridor - not
knowing when, if ever, it will lead us to the courtyard of our collective
destiny.
Gordon Neufeld: [email protected]
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