-The #1 Bestselling Guide to Protection,
Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults-

The classic work by Steven Hassan as discussed by Pierre S. Freeman

In many ways, Steven Hassan and I had very different experiences of destructive cults disguised as spiritual organizations. Still, AMORC and the Unification Church were both groups that situated themselves in the absolute center of spiritual reality of the known universe. Of course, to the human ego, the center of spiritual pride and self-centeredness, being in the center of the universe is very appealing. But to balance the hubris that might develop in a person feigning to be a spiritual elite, it is valuable for a cult to match that elitism with the demand that the elite to be at the command of some type of absolute authority.
            Hassan points out how members in the Unification Church during his time were “made to feel part of an elite corps of mankind.”  They were made to believe they were going to participate in a supremely important moment in human history that would lead mankind out of the darkness into a period of spirituality and enlightenment. This was a moment of destiny. This was an elite willing to come out of the shadows, but always at the call of their leader, Sun Myung Moon. I call the Moonies a noisy cult.  In Hassan’s day, they wanted everyone to know what they were.
            In AMORC, there was no such Grand Moment necessarily but there was an extraordinary identification with the Order as the supreme connection with God throughout all of human history as the one real organization of its type. We were bonded to AMORC through the grace of an egregor, a kind of group consciousness that transcended the confines of space and time. We, as AMORC members, were the power behind the flow of human history. Powerful as we were, we still operated behind the veil of history, invisible sometimes for cycles of many years. We were a very quiet elite.
            In many of my discussions, I have stressed how cult recruiters and cult recruitment techniques stress preying on human vulnerabilities. So a job loss, a relationship breakup, a death of a significant friend or family members, a failure in schoolwork, etc.- can propel one into the arms of a cult recruiter.
            But there is another human vulnerability I have not really emphasized- and that is human pride, that is a sense of self that flourishes through self-exaltation, by the strong belief that an individual it is more important, more significant than other people in the world.  Many fascist and racial supremacist groups utilize this vulnerability for recruiting. Think of the Nazis and the Japanese Empire during World War II or the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Nation.             Now, imagine a spiritual elite whose qualities are not based on skin color or ethnicity, but rather on having been given a special calling from God- whether from Jesus Christ himself, as Sun Myung Moon supposedly was or H. Spencer Lewis, whose Order received the sanction from F.U.D.O.S.I., a federation of sacred esoteric orders whose supposed lineage went back to ancient Egypt and Atlantis. 
            Why do these spiritual groups, posturing themselves as a divinely chosen elite, flourish from time to time? Generally, I believe it is because they cater to people who are unwilling to accept that simple dictum, “We are all equal in the eyes of God” and strive for some supernormal status in the Universe. I do not mean that there could not conceivably be a group of persons or even a leader that is not inspired by some relationship to God.  But if they or that leader can exist, I would think that ego gratification would be the farthest thing from their minds. They would be, first and foremost, positioned to serve God and humanity in a truthful and straightforward way.