Studies reveal many methods that particular cults practice to influence supporters with their authenticity, ranging from psychological to physical. Cult leaders and active followers employ a mix of these cult persuasion strategies to entice members and boost their loyalty.
Several popular physical routines utilized by cults consist of hyperventilation, repetitive motion and body manipulations. In contrast, mental techniques include trance, hypnosis and guided imagery.
Hyperventilation needs constant over-breathing which triggers carbon dioxide levels circulating in the bloodstream to decrease. This particular physical activity creates respiratory alkalosis, the abnormal condition of elevated alkalinity in the blood and tissues. In the milder stages, hyperventilation induces disorientation or faintness. Suffice to say, more continuous over-breathing can cause anxiety, muscle cramps and convulsions. Cults regularly have members do constant loud screaming, chanting or singing to create this state, which they construe as possessing a psychic experience.
Likewise, constant swaying movements, assiduous clapping or nearly every recurring movement aids to alter a follower’s normal state of awareness. A painless spin could already create wooziness; visualize the effects of tenacious spin dancing and continuous swaying. Cult leaders either recognize these motion effects as psychological levels of consciousness or proclaim these as euphoria.
There are also a multitude of body manipulation procedures executed in many cult factions. Based on former followers of a cult, the leader would walk from one person to another then squeeze on their eyes until eventually the tension in the optic nerves triggers these people to perceive flashes of light. This method is known as “bestowing divine light.” These same cult members were habitually told to intently push on their own ear lobes until they perceived a buzzing or humming sound, that they interpreted as listening to the “divine harmony.”
In contrast, several other cult chiefs use hypnotherapy and trance to set people into an altered state of consciousness, which makes them more compliant. Strategies that cause enhanced levels of hypnotic trance incorporate prolonged meditation, singing, chanting along with phrase repetition. In doing so, the cult leaders could sway their own supporters to perform almost anything, usually without these supporters knowing the act.
To take out supporters from their normal frames of reference and haul them to oblivion, cult chiefs also use several different guided-imagery rhythms such as long in-depth graphic tales that may absorb the audience in a trance like state and make them much more vulnerable to suggestion and influence. Guided imagery is likewise utilized in another efficient method favoured by therapy cults to drag members back to the anguish and loneliness of previous situations like heartbreaks, traumas and tragedies. It is typically shown in films and sometimes even performed live in certain TV programs.
These kinds of real and mental processes have been in existence for ages. Due to man’s relentless pursuit for a increased level of bliss, the art of persuasion will continue to be practiced for many years to come.


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