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  • This man promised his followers the world...

  • then led them to their deaths.

  • This man was once part of a cult's inner circle

  • and now works to prevent others from doing the same.

  • I went from Stephen Hassan, who was a college student writing poetry,

  • and I became a right-wing fascist.

  • We look at what happens when leadership turns bad

  • and how to avoid becoming caught up in a cult.

  • Port Kaituma, Guyana:

  • in 1978, 918 people died here

  • and in the country's capital.

  • This is Jim Jones, an American religious leader.

  • He founded an organisation called the People's Temple in the US.

  • He took many of his followers to Guyana,

  • building a settlement called Jonestown, near Port Kaituma.

  • Soon there were reports of beatings, disease and other abuse.

  • Jim Jones' mental and physical health became worse.

  • November 18th, 1978:

  • temple members attacked a plane on this airstrip.

  • It was carrying a team investigating Jonestown.

  • Five people died. Eleven were injured.

  • In Jonestown, the remaining cult members

  • drank or were forced to take poison.

  • Men, women, children and babies died.

  • This pattern has been repeated.

  • Political leaders, like Kim Il-sung and Stalin,

  • had cult-like followings and were responsible for many, many deaths.

  • What gives a leader like this such control over their followers?

  • A cult-type leader is typically someone

  • who claims to have all the answers needed

  • to solve the world's problems and that includes

  • whatever problems the individual they're attempting to recruit faces as well.

  • As a result of this, they demand absolute commitment from their followers

  • and encourage them to escalate their commitment to the group

  • until a point is reached, where absolutely every waking moment,

  • and all the emotional, and intellectual,

  • and financial resources of the person concerned,

  • are committed to and involved in the group.

  • Cult leaders like to claim to be able to solve the world's and your problems

  • and they want your complete devotion.

  • Cult leaders are not necessarily easy to spot.

  • At the beginning, they are approaching you in a friendly spirit:

  • they claim to be offering just some interesting ideas about politics,

  • life, religion or whatever,

  • and they will only become clearly cult leaders for most people

  • after a period of time, when the person concerned

  • has already escalated their commitment to the group

  • beyond any point of reason.

  • Cult leaders are not always easy to spot.

  • They can appear very friendly at first.

  • Well, if we take Jim Jones as an example,

  • he staged miraculous faith healings,

  • in which he claimed people were being cured... cured of cancer,

  • that the blind could see and the crippled could walk,

  • but he didn't necessarily begin

  • to influence people by showing them these things.

  • At the beginning, most people wandered into

  • what seemed to be very warm and inviting church services,

  • where they felt welcomed in a way

  • that many of them hadn't been welcomed before,

  • and it was only after some period of time that they...

  • they then were exposed to these deceptive techniques to convince them

  • that Jones was a man with amazing powers beyond the norm.

  • Leaders like Jim Jones go to great lengths to welcome in new people.

  • We can call this being 'love bombed'.

  • Most of us are vulnerable to the lure of cult leaders

  • at various points in our lives,

  • particularly after we have had some kind of stressful experience,

  • such as maybe going through a divorce or losing our jobs.

  • For example, if you look at the Jonestown group,

  • many of the people who joined it had suffered from racist abuse

  • in the past, which traumatised them.

  • Many others were returning veterans of the Vietnam War,

  • who were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder

  • and were looking for some kind of idealistic community or group,

  • to which they could join and which would make them feel welcome.

  • Leaders promising all the answers

  • can seem attractive when we are vulnerable.

  • So, how can we recognise these leaders?

  • The first thing I think we need to do

  • is to require people making extraordinary claims

  • to offer a great deal of evidence in support of them.

  • Beyond that, if we think we are in an environment

  • where we're being subjected to pressures that we don't like,

  • that are asking us to constantly escalate our commitment to those groups

  • and where criticism of the leader is forbidden

  • or discouraged in various ways,

  • it is best to try and get out of that environment as quickly as is possible.

  • If you are feeling controlled by someone else, it is best to leave.

  • This isn't always easy to do,

  • so try to get support from others if you can.

  • Dr Stephen Hassan knows all about cults.

  • In the 1970s, he became a senior figure in the Unification Church

  • more commonly known as the Moonies.

  • The Church was set up by a Korean called Sun Myung Moon.

  • He claimed to be God's messiah,

  •   but members were often cut off from their previous life,

  • prevented from seeing family and friends.

  • Steven now works to stop others from becoming a victim of cult leaders.

  • My personality changed dramatically.

  • That's one of the tell-tale signs actually

  • of being in an authoritarian cult

  • is what we refer to as a radical personality change.

  • So, I went from Steven Hassan, who was a college student writing poetry,

  • who had a ponytail and wore dungarees,

  • to a man with a short haircut, a three-piece suit

  • and I became a right-wing fascist,

  • essentially throwing out my poetry,

  • cutting off from my family and friends

  • because they raised concerns about my membership.

  • So, Steven Hassan's personality

  • changed dramatically when he became a Moonie.

  • How did he view the leader, Sun Myung Moon?

  • So, it's very important to understand that

  • I was already programmed to look at him

  • as the greatest man in human history,

  • so naturally I had my... my blinders on already,

  • when I actually met with him and experienced him.

  • I've heard many people see him speak and they'd say:

  • 'He has no charisma. Like, how could you see anything in him?'

  • So, that's an interesting phenomenon that...

  • that somebody who feels that

  • the person's emanating great charisma and power,

  • could leave somebody else completely dry.

  • Steven admired Sun Myung Moon, but he had been programmed

  • or brainwashedto be. Others saw him differently.

  • How did this inform Steven's view of leadership?

  • First of all, I consider myself, before the Moonies, a...

  • a bookworm introvert!

  • When I got into the cult and I was pushed into leadership positions

  • and recruiting strangers on street corners,

  • I became very extroverted in my cult identity.

  • In fact, I was told to become a small Sun Myung Moon,

  • and think like him, and walk like him, and talk like him.

  • And when I got out of the cult, I didn't want any leadership;

  • I didn't want to influence anybody and...

  • and yet, I knew what I knew,

  • and I knew that I had a contribution to help others.

  • Steven realised he had a leadership role to play

  • in preventing others from joining cults.

  • So, how does his leadership differ now?

  • I want people to ask me questions

  • and I answer honestly and responsibly,

  • and often people will challenge me and say:

  • 'We don't agree with this point or that.'

  • And I think about it and if I realise they're right,

  • I apologise and I change my point of view.

  • So, the key... the key is humility, I think.

  • Steven encourages people to challenge his views

  • and he is willing to change his mind.

  • So, how easy is it to fall for a cult these days?

  • Social media is intentionally

  • going to use information that's gathered about you,

  • from all of your activities, all...

  • there are some 5,000 data points

  • on every human being, I'm told

  • and these are going to be oriented in algorithms towards you.

  • So, what I say is: you need to be really sceptical

  • and if you're curious about something,

  • really do a consumer-awareness approach

  • it's saying they're making this claim

  • it sounds outrageous; I need outrageous level of proof.

  • Be sceptical, or wary, of claims being made online

  • and check them out thoroughly.

  • So, people who make grand promises

  • and demand complete loyalty from you

  • are likely to be cult-like leaders.

  • Even online, question their claims, check their facts.

  • If they are authentic, they won't mind.

This man promised his followers the world...

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The dark side of leadership

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 12 月 07 日
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