Why People Join Cults -Benjamin Zulu
So everyone is scratching their heads at the news reaching us from the Coast that one man managed to convince tens of people- sixty bodies have been exhumed from shallow graves so far – to starve themselves to death in the name of religion. All along while he remained well fed and fat himself.
When you saw him at the court mentions and police custody with his plain and emotionless face, who came to mind? The slain serial children killer Masten Wanjala? Or the sensational thugs of yester years the likes of Wanugu and Wacucu? Or the fallen criminals of the terrifying Gaza gang?
No. Most likely you got carried away by his religious coat and how he mentioned the name of Jesus at every opportunity. And that’s the catch with religious psychopaths – they mix charisma with religious fervour to deceive even otherwise rational people!
Okay, let’s get to the psychology of the whole issue.
This type of disorder is called psychopathy. It’s a personality disorder and, unlike mental disorders and mood disorders, they’re not excusable by law. This is because they’re a lifestyle choice, not an illness or imbalance of chemicals in the brain or a malfunctioning of a part of your brain. That’s the mechanism of mood disorders and mental disorders.
Your personality is your conscious choice, even if it stems from childhood trauma and unhealed wounds. If you feed your mind on people’s pain and stories of death until that’s what entertains you, that’s your choice.
And those who play horror movies for family evenings, ask yourself what energy you’re putting into your children. Personality disorders are abnormal habits and ways of life, and they’re all learned.
I digress.
So psychopathy is marked by two major traits – a near total lack of concience or empathy – and deriving pleasure from other people’s suffering and death. When the disorder advances, the person may join armed careers like the police where they relish watching offenders suffer while incarcerated, or religious institutions where they can brainwash and cause people to suffer or die.
Most serial killers and mass murderers are psychopaths, as opposed to sociopaths and narcissists who carry out their destruction within interpersonal relationships and usually not in a mass killing way.
So what makes people fall for such extreme teachings like these? One word: psychological void. Many people are unhealed, and they’re unaware of it. They just walk around with a gnawing disturbance for something they don’t know. They have no inner peace. Or they may believe that they’re deeply flawed and they need some form of rescue. So when the cultist presents a message of extreme purification and self-sacrifice, they fall for it.
In short, you should heal your feelings of insufficiency and resolve any issue that makes you feel unhappy with your life. If you don’t, you may find yourself unable to tell when someone you trust started going overboard.
Remember, it’s almost impossible to deceive a person who is happy and contented with their life. Heal until you get to that place.
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