New gurus, new sects

A real sect is inevitably characterized by:

• The use of money, of donations in kind, or of work (not or poorly paid) from the postulants or from the members, in exchange for one or several events among the following ones:
  • A spiritual or would-be spiritual teachings.
  • The authorization to participate in rites, rituals, meditations or common prayers.
  • The promise of an upper status or spiritual level (promise of "salvation", of redemption, of "eternal life", of spiritual glory, of awakening to an upper awareness or reality, to access to the paradise, to quick spiritual evolution, to physical transfer to an other planet, to be an "elect", to have one's "karma" removed, or even to be liberated from the cycle of reincarnations, etc).
  • The access to an upper (social or hierarchical) rank, status or level.
• All the four following practice, in any form:
  • Proselytizing using some of the following ways (non-exhaustive list):
    • door-to-door selling,
    • missionary activism,
    • books,
    • magazines, newspapers, periodicals,
    • getfolds,
    • direct mail advertising,
    • Email,
    • Internet,
    • phone,
    • radio,
    • television.

    This proselytizing is particularly reprehensible when one pay to undergo it, such as the obligation, for a postulant or a member that wish to follow a teaching, to pay a magazine published by the sect or by the association that underlie it.

  • Mechanism of "conversion" of the postulant to an active member, thanks to some of the following ways:
    • Flattery of the postulant who is for example called "highly spiritual", future "elect", or even imminent "realized man". Warm welcome, without clashes, with smiles and show of friendship. Psychological manipulation. Persuasion...
    • Picture of moral strictness and of virtue that encourages the postulant to impose the same discipline on him because he hopes to reach the same results, so he is more easily indoctrinated.
    • "Brainwashing" (consisting in the destruction of the personal values, own ideas and critical mechanisms of the postulant) that is made easier notably by:
      • special diets,
      • lack of sleep,
      • chanting or saying "mantras", prayers or religious texts.
  • Physical or mental "imprisonment" of the member using some of the following means:
    • Complete or partial surveillance of his movements.
    • "Luxurious prison".
    • Forced reclusion or imprisonment in a small space (cell, area).
    • Making guilty.
    • Making afraid or scared (fear of being disliked, fear of more or less painful disciplinary or spiritual measure, or even fear of missing a major progressive opportunity), by means of threat, psychological pressure, or any other tried and tested or new way.
    • Bringing the mental or the intellect into disrepute (knowing that without the mental, there is no possible judgment).
    • Asking for an absolute faith in the guru, the religion or the doctrine.
    • Asking for an absolute and blind devotion to the guru or to the sect.
    • Asking for break with the family and friendly environment, break that often causes a dependence on the guru or on the sect because of a mechanism of affective transfer.
    • Asking for break with other aspects of the past concrete life, such as the profession, to better unsettle,
    • Etc.
  • Mechanism of exclusion, in some of the following forms:
    • Sectarianism, racism or intolerance.
    • Non-acceptance of persons likely to reassess the values, the ideas, the doctrines or the life of the sect.
    • Elitism, with some of the following criteria, for example:
      • money,
      • social position,
      • profession,
      • intellectual level,
      • supposed or would-be spiritual value.