For people wondering why people in cults do appearingly 'abnormal' things, there's science to this madness.
One is escalation of deviant behavior. Which means over long periods of time behavior slowly becomes deviant after past behaviors become normalized.
So no, people dont just join a cult on day 1 and on day 2 they kill themselves. It's a slow ramp up. It might start with singing and songs, or lectures about the after life. It might then escalate to giving everything up to the leader. Like money, possessions, etc. It then might lead to abnormal norms like dressing up and or acting out sexual fantasies that at first seemed a little strange but over time normalizes. By the end of a 3 year run you can have all kinds of horrific acts that appear completely normal to people on the inside but horrible to outsiders because we didnt come along for the ride.
I can dig up my college notes and books if anyone is interested.
One is escalation of deviant behavior. Which means over long periods of time behavior slowly becomes deviant after past behaviors become normalized.
So no, people dont just join a cult on day 1 and on day 2 they kill themselves. It's a slow ramp up. It might start with singing and songs, or lectures about the after life. It might then escalate to giving everything up to the leader. Like money, possessions, etc. It then might lead to abnormal norms like dressing up and or acting out sexual fantasies that at first seemed a little strange but over time normalizes. By the end of a 3 year run you can have all kinds of horrific acts that appear completely normal to people on the inside but horrible to outsiders because we didnt come along for the ride.
I can dig up my college notes and books if anyone is interested.