The evolution of the methods of pseudo-religious indoctrination
Three common characteristics of pseudo-religions
Study to protect yourself

When I was in the third grade of elementary school, I received a flyer in front of the school. The flyer was about a "free cake making" class. I wanted to make a cake, so I took my younger sister's hand and got into a black van in front of the school and went to a mysterious place.

When I got there, they taught me the song <Pretty Baby Bear> and made me make a cake by throwing sponge cake at me. What I remember vividly is that there was a person's face on one side of the wall. When I saw the oversized face of the man, I had a gut feeling even at a young age. This is a strange place! This is my first pseudo-religious memory of being caught by cake in an unknown pseudo-religious group.

The way of indoctrination of "late" (my time) was like this. Times have changed, and the methods of indoctrination of pseudo-religions are evolving with the changing media. Recently, promotional posts of pseudo-religious groups, which were heavily covered in the Netflix documentary <I am God>, appeared in my YouTube algorithm.

After watching one video, a series of related videos followed. I felt the seriousness of the situation when I saw that the indoctrination videos of pseudo-religions that could shatter a person's life and family were being exposed so easily. Various kinds of "pseudo-religions (cults)" are spreading mainly on YouTube.

Not only the pseudo-religions that we easily know, but also New Age pseudo-religions that promote meditation, self-development pseudo-religions that claim that certain actions lead to success, and sex pseudo-religions that claim to achieve enlightenment through orgasms are diverse and extensive.

In this column, I want to talk about the characteristics of pseudo-religions that we need to know in order to be discerning about these easily exposed sectoral pseudo-religious contents, protect ourselves, and the stages of brainwashing, modern methods of indoctrination, and how to protect ourselves from pseudo-religions.

First, pseudo-religions have three common characteristics. The first is a charismatic leader. There is always a leader in pseudo-religions. The leader is a person who deifies himself and shows narcissistic tendencies.

The second characteristic is Mind control. Pseudo-religions have brainwashing programs. To carry out this brainwashing program, they intentionally create a closed environment, blocking communication with the outside world. The third characteristic is The commonality of exploiting followers. Exploitation usually occurs in the form of financial, sexual, or labor exploitation.

For this column, I watched all the pseudo-religious documentaries on Netflix around the world, and I realized the three common characteristics above. Usually, the cult leader "acted" as having divine authority and power to show charisma.

A cult leader who claimed to have the power to heal diseases put raw chicken intestines in his mouth beforehand and spit them out, showing that the disease was cured. A cult leader who claimed that he could see light when he prayed shone a laser on a blind follower to create light. These are all ridiculous scams, but because they are in a group and everyone has the same reaction, they believed in it.

The most important task for mind control, the second characteristic of pseudo-religions, was to cut off the followers from their existing families and friends. In the documentary, scenes of families appearing and complaining of their pain appear frequently. Someone who truly loves you will try to bring about harmony in your precious relationships. But pseudo-religions tend to cause division, isolate followers, and make them dependent on the pseudo-religion.

Financial exploitation was carried out by connecting money to salvation and gaslighting followers into donating everything. Sexual exploitation is a bit more gruesome, often brainwashing followers into believing that sex with the cult leader is a glory or that they need to touch their bodies for treatment purposes. Labor exploitation was the most common type of exploitation, where followers provided endless labor within the pseudo-religious organization without receiving any money.

It feels foolish to be taken advantage of by such absurd things in pseudo-religions. The reason why they were subjected to this was because they were brainwashed. So how does brainwashing happen? The Netflix documentary <Explain: The Trap of Faith> explained brainwashing in 7 steps. First, they target people who are going through a difficult journey of change. Targeting people who are physically and mentally weak is the first step.

Second is the stage of gentle persuasion. It is a stage where they identify and fulfill the needs of the person, like giving candy. If the target has a need to learn piano, they will put someone in the organization who can play the piano next to them to fulfill their needs.

Third, they isolate the person in a closed environment. They block communication with the outside world and isolate the person so that they can only communicate with other members of the pseudo-religious group.

The fourth stage is to make the leader of the pseudo-religion the most important relationship target. In a state of isolation, it is natural to consider the leader of the pseudo-religion who gives them all kinds of sweet things as their most important relationship target.

Fifth, they create an external enemy to solidify the leader's position. If there is an enemy on the outside, a protector is needed. The leader is set up as the protector, and the follower is made to depend on the leader psychologically under the guise of protecting them from the enemy.

In the sixth stage, they put pressure on the person to conform through the organization. It makes it difficult for a person to say 2 when everyone else is saying 1.

The final seventh stage is to make the person comply with the whims of the sociopathic narcissist. The first six steps are ultimately for the seventh step, and an example of the most bizarre execution of the seventh step is the "Jonestown Massacre" in which 918 followers committed mass suicide on the orders of the cult leader.

So far, we've looked at the characteristics of pseudo-religions and the process of brainwashing, but let's also look at some of the popular methods of recruitment used by pseudo-religions these days. The hottest way to recruit these days is through Daangn Market. One way is to post items very cheaply on Daangn Market, then meet the target, make small talk, and recruit them. Another way is to gather people by offering free personal color tests on Daangn Market, organize them into teams, and systematically recruit them. One team moves in an organized manner, with A failing, then B, and if B fails, then C.

Another popular method is to create a hobby Instagram account, hold cooking classes, and recruit people, and it is also common for pretty and handsome followers to infiltrate dating apps and use dating as a guise for indoctrination. Be careful of free gatherings. There may be traps hidden in free things.

When will pseudo-religions collapse? While watching numerous pseudo-religious documentaries, I found the people who played the biggest role in their collapse. It was journalists. Most pseudo-religions were exposed by journalists, who revealed their atrocities to the world, and as a result, the truth was revealed and they slowly collapsed.

The role of the journalist's "pen" was enormous. Along with journalists, the role of whistleblowers who escaped from pseudo-religions and found the courage to speak out was also great. Generally, pseudo-religious empires collapsed due to the collaboration of whistleblowers and journalists. That's why large pseudo-religions sometimes take over influential media outlets. To silence them and maintain their power.

Numerous pseudo-religions are being created and their territories are expanding on the internet. Even if they don't wear the cloak of religion, if someone claims that you can make money by just believing in me, or that you can go to utopia by just believing in me, and people blindly follow that, it is a kind of pseudo-religion. Beware of the demagogue creators.

You shouldn't become a slave to a narcissist. Content is a vessel that carries thought. Look closely at the "message" that the content you are currently watching and the person who created it is giving you. Online leaders of the new generation attract virtual followers through social media. Social media can quickly spread information to a large number of followers, and the weak are likely to get lost.

※ The author of this article is me andan article in the Woman Economy newspaperhas been moved. Some parts of the article can be found in the original text.