Netflix's documentary In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal follows several Korean cults that flew the most sacred of banners while committing the most degrading of acts. To the general public their behaviour may look utterly absurd, but the truth is that these seemingly unthinkable acts quietly follow a certain logic drawn from psychology.
Cutting off the outside world to build an island society
It is not hard to notice in the series that these cults all share one thing in common: each builds an isolated society, severing its followers' ties with the world outside and confining all of their social contact to the church. This creates intensely close bonds between members and forms a sealed, enmeshed society (Enmeshed Society).
You might think that as long as you keep your rational mind intact, you wouldn't easily be swayed by others. But as social animals, how could human beings have no need for group identity and approval at all?
Research has found that the brain's response to social rejection can be even stronger than physical pain. And within these cults, there is only one way for a follower to be accepted by the society: to obey the leader's will. Anyone who fails to follow instructions is cast out. This stirs up the human craving for social acceptance, and over time followers lose their ordinary sense of social judgement and their own values. Victims even turn into perpetrators, rewarded with a higher position within the church — in reality by recruiting more female followers to provide the leader with "sexual service". This is precisely one of the reasons that, in the documentary, Yeo Hyung and a large group of women under the cult leader Jeong Myeong-seok were sexually assaulted.
Destroying individual self-esteem, replacing it with group pride
To the followers, the leader feels closer than even their own parents. They regard the higher-ranking "clergy" within the church as people of importance, opening up their hearts to the leader and pouring out the words they have left unspoken.
The Empty Chair Technique (Empty Chair Technique) is a method/tool often used in counselling or therapy. The therapist faces an empty chair and imagines an important person there, voicing the things they have not dared to say. Used appropriately, this technique can draw out suppressed emotions and help a person work through a relationship anew.
Many cult leaders use strikingly similar techniques to get followers to open their hearts, drawing out the fears or pent-up frustrations they normally suppress. This gives the cult an opening: in the name of comfort or salvation, it plants the cult's values deep in the followers' hearts, making them feel that the collective glory of the church matters more than their own personal honour or disgrace.
When a follower's original values are overturned, even shattered, the leader appears in the posture of a saviour, while the group's fervour becomes a lifebuoy that the followers cling to tightly. The collective spirit and the cult's values naturally take the place of their own, leaving them utterly convinced that simply by joining they will be saved. In this state, all sorts of things that are hard to make sense of suddenly seem to have a thread of logic to follow.
The church also demands that its congregation do things ordinary people would struggle to understand — things that may be cruel, or beyond reason. Take the kindergarten cult leader Kim Ki-soon mentioned in the documentary: within the "kingdom" she built, she had a kindergarten cult member beat their own child to death with their own hands. Heard from the outside, such acts are horrifying; but inside the cult they are the rules, a duty, even a measure of success. All of these phenomena reflect how, under the force of an enmeshed society, individual self-esteem and society's moral standards can be quietly displaced by the values of a small circle, robbing a person of independent thought and judgement, and of free will.
Mad behaviour and unreasonable demands
Some of a cult's wildly absurd demands and behaviour also play a part in brainwashing. These acts can trigger a follower's cognitive dissonance (Cognitive Dissonance) mechanism.
Cognitive dissonance refers to the tendency, when a person's behaviour does not match their beliefs, to adjust those beliefs so that they fit the behaviour. For example, the girls assaulted in the cult convincing themselves all the more that they loved the leader and the leader alone is an expression of cognitive dissonance.
Being assaulted by the leader without reason is indeed a very hard thing to accept; but if you shift your line of thinking and persuade yourself that you truly love the leader, it suddenly seems much easier to accept.
The Foot in the Door Technique (Foot in the Door Technique) is another method cults often use: first they make a slightly absurd request, and once you comply they follow up with a bigger one. This lets the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance operate gradually, step by step, until before you even realise it you have come to identify with their values.
There are many such examples within these churches: it starts with a few simple rules, slowly turns into demands that are hard to accept, and ends in sexual assault. So what is it that gives cults their opening? Nothing other than modern people's insecurity and disillusionment with this society. Even so, there are a few things we can keep in mind to stop these tragedies from happening to ourselves or to those around us.
- Keep up your self-awareness and your capacity for independent thought at all times, to avoid having your emotions, beliefs and behaviour controlled.
- Set clear personal boundaries, hold on to your personal autonomy, and firmly refuse any unreasonable demand.
- Affirm your own self-worth, build healthy relationships, and strengthen your willpower to resist social pressure.
- Avoid seeking solutions to psychological distress from them; instead, turn to a professional for help.
How can you help a friend who has fallen into a cult?
What someone who has joined a cult needs is not criticism, but understanding. Listen patiently first, understand their difficulties, gently encourage them to share more of their inner feelings or any doubts they have about the group, and walk them through a rational analysis and judgement together.
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