Philip G Zimbardo, PhD, in the APA Monitor titled: "What messages are behind today's cults?" He is professor of psychology at Stanford University:

"...cult leaders offer simple solutions to the increasingly complex world problems we all face daily.(For every difficult problem, there's a solution that's simple, easy-to-understand, and worthless in the real world.) These leaders offer the simple path to happiness, to success, to salvation by following their simple rules, simple group regimentation and simple total lifestyle. Ultimately, each new member contributes to the power of the leader by trading his or her freedom for the illusion of security and reflected glory that group membership holds out."

All religions insist to some degree that its members conform to the creed and general beliefs of the organization. The slightest deviation from freedom of thought is that same amount of slight deviation into mind control. As a society, we tolerate quite a lot of deviation, in the name of tolerance. Even within the part of the spectrum regarded as mainstream, there's quite a difference--from Unitarian to Roman Catholic, or Mormon--choose your own set of extremes. You can use the list below, in your own mind, to place any set of beliefs into the spectrum. I trust that The GAIA CHURCH will sit comfortably near the free end of any scale.

A too-simple popular definition of a cult seems to be: "Any small new church that thinks and does things differently." Wrong. Just because it's small and new doesn't mean it's a cult--and just because it's big and old doesn't mean it's not a cult! It can be the biggest, richest and oldest, and still be a cult. It is said that one person's cult is another person's religion, and vice versa. However, there are many ways to differentiate. One definition of a Mind-Control group is:

"A religious group that engages in extreme spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional manipulation of its members in order to control closely their beliefs, thoughts, emotions and behavior."

• Political Power, external political influence desired or obtained. (INternal: see below)
• Recruiting pressure, emphasis on attracting new members, to lessen their fear of being alone. Lots of proselytizing.
• Front Groups, subsidiary groups using different names.

Members must:

• uncritically accept its teachings.
• conform to their behavioral restrictions.
• make a permanent commitment to remain. Leaving threatens their beliefs.

1. A heavy plea for donations of money and/or property.
2. A we/they mentality. All those outside the group are somehow negative or not equal; one must be a member. Partial commitment or belief is not tolerated.
3. Isolation. Everything outside of the group is evil. Visualize the universe as an interconnected web of conspiracies.
4. Life Control. Almost complete or total domination of the participant's time by the group. Little if any time is left for family, old friends, or other interests. There is often a restriction of sleep, a restricted diet, a restricted sexuality, and a requirement of endless repetition of prayers.
5. Behavior Control by:
   • public shaming and humiliation.
   • requiring personal confessions.
   • the threat of loss of their only remaining social and emotional support. Fear of being shunned. ...that even God will abandon or punish them if they leave or fail to obey.
6. Divine Authority. Claim that they're the "Chosen People" ...that they've had visions or other messages directly from God. ...that they are the wave of the future. "People don't know yet, but they will soon, and will all join us."
7. Dogma. Rigid concepts; doctrinal inflexibility.
8. Placing the leader or his orders above the Law. A dangerous power to give your leader!
9. Censorship. control over member's access to outside opinions on group.
10. A Claim of Infallibility of the leader; (Usually by the leader) members are expected to have total trust in his decisions.
11. Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s); control over sex lives of members.
12. Dropout Control. Great efforts to prevent or to retrieve dropouts. Excommunication, (formerly, beheading!) Death-threats. Condemnation to hellfire for disbelief in that particular sub-set of beliefs; which is, in effect, an after-death threat!
13. Endorsement of Violence, External or internal, when used by or for the group or its leader.
14. Paranoia. A focus on fear concerning real or imagined enemies--and of perceived power of opponents. This and the next item may tend the members toward suicide.
15. Grimness. Disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or leader(s). There is no conversation allowed that may question the group and its leaders. Such criticism may even be characterized as satanic. The group discourages questions concerning its leaders or doctrines. Doubt may be equated to an attack by the devil upon the follower's mind.
16. Surrender of Will. An emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions. They will be made for you; this is very attractive to susceptable people. (This is also a problem in abusive marriages/relationships.)
17. The systematic, extensive use of ritual helps the leaders attain power. A ritual is about abandonment of the self--it could be a Zen-like letting-go of thought, to deeply explore your universal feelings. In such a way, rituals could help us meditate. Unfortunately, the letting-go-of-thought routine too easily became a path to power by the priesthood elite (of any religion). The first abuse was doubtless prehistoric. The abandonment of the self dictum let the authority maintain their own heirarchy. With that training of young minds to abandon self-reliant thought--to some degree--by almost all organized religions--cults find well-prepared and fertile ground to take that vunerability much further. But then we must ask: which one--or both--is the cult? Is it only a matter of degree?