Who is vulnerable to cults?

Everyone has the potential to be susceptible to cult recruitment and coercion at particularly vulnerable points of their life.

Transitional times tend to increase vulnerability:

• During a vacation
• First year away at school
• A year "off" or after graduation
• A job change or loss
• After suffering any loss
• Upon reaching new life stages
• Following the break-up of a relationship
• Soon after moving to another city or country
• During a search for meaning, or to "find oneself."
• Lonely, without, or away from friends or family

The recruit can be almost anyone including:

• From middle to upper socio-economic family backgrounds
• Sixteen to senior citizen
• Of average or above-average intelligence
• Usually well educated, including college graduates
• Intellectually curious
• Idealistic or seeking meaning or purpose in life
• Most vulnerable between high school and college, and between college and career
• When temporarily unattached

Cult recruitment is usually done by a very friendly, charismatic, and persuasive person, who recruits new members in order to move him, or herself, up the hierarchy within the cult.

Recruiters are persistent, seem very interested in you, don’t take "no" for an answer; and try to convince you that you are failing yourself or the world if you decline the offer to get involved. They will avoid responding to your questions while simultaneously pressing you for personal information.

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