- Oppose and vilify critical thinking
- Isolate members from former friends and family and openly punish them for leaving: you are left without an identity/ in-group, because you lost both friends & family and your cult.
- Use a common religious scripture (such as the Bible) and add new interpretations that suit your cult view. (Satan hates group sex!)
- Demand complete and total loyalty to those higher up in the hierarchy, and offer a path to grow in ranks.
- Dishonor the family unit and society in general. Point out that these are enemies trying to shut down the cult.
- Seperate people from more established religions and institutions. You need to win the war of the minds, and the Church is already very powerful.
- Punish or ridicule independent and skeptical thought / debate.
- Portray former members as liars, fakes, weaklings, subversives.
- Instill paranoia and uncertainty in the minds of followers, so they latch on to your clear and simple demands.
- Make the cult part of every day life of your followers: Control news they read, sex they have, their finances, jobs, politics.
- Put the leader above the law of the land/government. Blur the lines between legal and illegal by making the doctrine more important than local laws. The leader, by virtue of being the leader, can not break the law.
- Slowly indoctrinate and brain wash your followers, by depriving them of sleep and using repetition.
- Make the cult feel like a special elite group. Your self-worth grows as you get part of the cult.
- Do not be transparent about how you use your followers donations, but talk of generalities.
- Create rituals and rites of passage to hijack this part of the human brain. Rituals are powerful.
- Do not tolerate questioning. Translate doubts into a lack of faith.
- Blackmail your followers, record confessions of homosexuality and other secrets, and threathen to expose them if they don't fall in line.
- Use celebrities as the face of your cult, to create social proof.