Have you ever known someone who was manipulated to join a cult?

r/

I know someone who was coerced into one.

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  2. amante_de_gatos Avatar

    Yes, I know such a person. After he joined the sect, his mother got cancer, and he forced her to take some mushrooms and herbs for a long time. When she finally got to the hospital, no one could help her.

  3. Babygall99 Avatar

    All religion is cult so I do know some folks who were raised in such environment essentially being coerced

  4. Dragonfly_Peace Avatar

    Ummmmm. Trick question?

  5. HaveNoFearDomIsHere Avatar

    I think most of us in the US know a few at least by now.

  6. CloudRvnWalker Avatar

    Wow, talk about a ‘cult’ following! I hope they at least got a cool robe out of the deal. I mean, who doesn’t want to be stylish while sipping on that Kool-Aid?

  7. Pure_water_87 Avatar

    I know several Trump supporters, yes.

  8. DanishWonder Avatar

    Both MAGA and MLMs. Pretty similar. Most won’t realize they are in a cult until they are banktupt.

  9. crispysheman Avatar

    A few growing up. We were in a pentecostal church and a few members met some ‘prophet’ named carol brown and we lost a ton of people to them. ‘The Storehouse of Gods Inheritance’. My bff from 6th grade got stuck in it for years, she only just recently started talking to her own mother again and Im 34 now. I was almost coerced into it but I was way too social and had no discipline so never ended up following through. I miss my bff from 6th grade. 🙁

  10. SonnySmilez Avatar

    My dad got roped in to Amway back in the 90s.

  11. Md655321 Avatar

    I’ve known a handful of people who got suckered into MLM’s such as Amway. One of the guys at a previous job would sometimes sleep in his car at work because Amway kept him out too late.

  12. freebaseclams Avatar

    I joined a cult, but I wasn’t manipulated, I did it on purpose

  13. Braincyclopedia Avatar

    My sister in law was manipulated by her partner to join jehova witness

  14. DexterCutie Avatar

    Yeah, Trump supporters that are Catholic

  15. Mewchu94 Avatar

    Not a cult but I knowingly joined an MLMi was like 19 and in college and I started having severe symptoms from a congenital spinal cord disease. I was terrified my future would look almost exactly like it had turned out. Where I am too disabled to work and have no hope of being able to support myself. I saw a guy with a bmw who was making money from it and thought if I could make it work it could be a way for me to make money and even though I knew it wasn’t super ethical and all the MLM shit my fear got the better of me and I tried it out.

    Basically instantly I knew I was not cut out to, basically, scam people. I quickly said fuck it but yeah I did try it out.

  16. MomoZero2468 Avatar

    Yes I know a few. I have close family who are in the trump cult. It makes me sad.

  17. Manofthehour76 Avatar

    Most of the world actually. Religions are just highly successful cults. Maybe some are less extreme than what people normally think of as a cult, but it’s how they all started.

  18. sbocean54 Avatar

    I have 2 friends who were raised in 2 different cults. I helped one friend realize she was in a cult, supported her emotionally as she left it, and listened as she processed her childhood and life. That was 42 years ago, when she was 26, and we remain bff.

  19. Adorable_Ad_7639 Avatar

    Not manipulated but my ex step mother’s boyfriend is in a hippy commune type cult. I could totally see her getting manipulated into it. Despite her narcissistic tendencies she’s easily manipulated

  20. ninjesh Avatar

    I grew up mormon. There’s a case to be made that mormonism is itself a cult, but I also have an aunt that believes some crazy, culty stuff even for mormon standards

  21. I_love_Hobbes Avatar

    Yes. All the Trumpers.

  22. allislost77 Avatar

    Yes: 77.7 million Americans

  23. ChumpChainge Avatar

    Yes. My mom was a widow by age 20. My eldest brother had all kinds of serious health problems and there she was in the early 50s as a single mom, one child with disabilities. The Jehovah’s Witnesses came to her door and promised her that in a few short years the world would end and if she was a JW when that happened, her son would be miraculously healed and “made perfect”. Then the whole family would live “in a paradise earth”. She stayed in it until her death in 2020 always glued to the idea that just one more year and it would all come to pass, even though she had already lived through dangled and retracted dates like 1975. So now, all the way out to her great grandchildren and soon to be great great grandchildren, the majority of the family has stayed in it, lives ruined. Dreams squashed. All because one cult lady visited my mom on a vulnerable day back in 1952.

  24. Efficient_Smilodon Avatar

    75 million in the us… you can identify them by their red hats, usually..

  25. Asian-Eggroll-17 Avatar

    Yeah, my friend’s mom was in an MLM. I asked my friend if she knew about it and she said to not say anything about the company being an MLM around her mother. My friend ended up joining for a millisecond when she turned 18, but I think she quickly dropped it when she realized that people weren’t buying the products.

  26. ThrowAwayExScn Avatar

    Grew up in one so that may count?

    I have met quite a few that joined Scientology but most didn’t end up sticking with it, probably due to how easy it is to discover the truth these days. Scientology just can’t overcome the internet age. I personally recruited a few into Scientology when I was in it sadly

  27. ingipingu Avatar

    I have an entire side of the family that love their cults. Anything, anywhere, anyhow, it’s cult time! Nouveau Facism guided by pretty specific Christian beleifs is their go-to.

  28. HeWhoFoughtMonsters Avatar

    There is a “religion” that originated in the Philippines called “Iglesia Ni Cristo”. Dated a girl whose family was a part of that “church”. Text book cult. Got shit for not wanting to join. Threatened to ex-communicate her and her family because I asked questions and was labeled a “non-believer”.

  29. DeicideandDivide Avatar

    Not counting the maga brainrot, yes. Had a few friends get suckered into an MLM scheme. The thing I noted is that every one of them were Christians.

  30. OldFuxxer Avatar

    Yeah, a bunch of people I know follow this long-haired dude. They keep saying he is coming back.

  31. Yourecringe2 Avatar

    Yes. We knew a young woman who ended up in Hillsong. She met a guy there, married and they were assigned to a church in England. Lost track of her then.

  32. PrettyRetard Avatar

    A ton! They like to call it things like multi level marketing and religion though instead of what it is.

  33. 8amteetime Avatar

    Yes. The Church of Fox News has many members..

  34. Midnight1899 Avatar

    Before I got to know him, my uncle was a member of Scientology.

  35. IvanBliminse86 Avatar

    There were definitely some in the cult I was in

  36. agent007g Avatar

    Every democrat

  37. CarlsbadWhiskyShop Avatar

    Everyone brought to church as a child

  38. Melodic_Pattern175 Avatar

    It’s very vague now but back a hundred years ago, in my clubbing days (1980s), I bumped back into a girl I’d known in high school. She was a year older so I hadn’t known her well but she was super friendly and so whenever my friends and I saw her, we’d all hang/dance together/drink etc. There was some cult around that wore orange clothing, no idea what they were, but this one guy attached himself to her, and then she stopped coming. Next time (last time) I saw her, I had gone to someone’s flat and she and the guy were next door. She was dressed all in orange clothing/robes and wouldn’t even look at us, let alone speak to any of us. It seemed like a really weird situation, and if that was me now I’d have tried to speak to her, or gone back another time when he wasn’t there to see if she was okay, but I was 19, dumb, and let it go. I’ve often wondered what happened to her.

  39. BIRD_OF_GLORY Avatar

    Everyone in my family except myself and my mom are diehard Trump supporters

  40. maxxxwell8 Avatar

    All religion is a cult. Kindness is a choice. Science is truth. It’s that simple.

  41. underdabridge Avatar

    Everyone on Reddit