Rachel Bernstein on How to Know If You're in a Cult

   

Let’s call 2020 the year of the cult. TV shows, documentaries, bestsellers, and podcasts flood popular culture with stories of charismatic leaders and their brainwashed followers. And audiences are gobbling it up.

Many in the media now use the word “cult” to describe Donald Trump and his conspiracy-loving acolytes. Groups like QAnon see Trump as a messiah sent to earth to “save the children.”

But what is a cult? How do they work? Why do otherwise normal people become involved in them? Our guest is therapist Rachel Bernstein LMFT, an expert in cultic groups who counts over 80 former cult members as clients. Rachel is also the host of the terrific podcast Indoctrination, which features interviews with former cultists.

This topic is particularly resonant for me as I am a second-generation cult member. Nobody ever joins a cult or believes the group they are in is a cult. Quite the contrary, they often think it’s the outside world that is brainwashed and in the dark about true reality. Hopefully, this podcast reaches people like me who were simply trying to live a more purposeful life only to find themselves stuck in a maze of manipulation that is difficult to escape.