Modern guru marketing is a clone of classic cult recruitment.
Though new outreach tools (like social media bots) exist, and traditional entry points vary (seminars vs webinars etc.) the psychological tactics, and general approach is nearly identical.
By the way, the process is also virtually identical for MLM recruitment.
Here's how it goes:
STAGE 1 - TARGET THE MIDDLE, NOT THE BOTTOM
When the light turns green, you drive. You don't look left because you have a green light. You have the right of way. Therefore, why worry about that '98 Dodge Dakota carrying that late-for-work driver who hit the gas instead of the breaks to catch the light?
What I'm saying is,
your guard is down. And because it's down, you're vulnerable. So you don't wait that extra second to avoid becoming a breaking news story for channel 5.
Everybody thinks they'd never fall prey to a dangerous cult.
That's exactly why they do.
You believe only psychos or the mentally unstable would join a dangerous cult. But why would a cult want mentally unstable members? How many psychos do you know who are doing big things in life? Not many. It's hard enough with your head on straight.
So cults target the middle, not the bottom.
They aim for the vulnerable. Intelligent individuals. People with a degree. People without a degree. People who think outside of the box. People who conform. People who don't conform. People with money or skills. People others follow. People who all believe they'd never get sucked up into a [cult, guru funnel, MLM]. These are the easiest people to convince to join a cult.
The cult gets to know these people extremely well
[target marketing].
Then it puts its feelers out.
Traditional cults recruit through direct contact
just like MLMs do. An individual finds others and invites them to
[read this book, join this seminar, watch this video, take this course] after all, it's free!
Guru marketing systems use Facebook or other paid ads to get in front of you. They use SEO targeted blog posts that hint at solutions to pains you search for. They form Facebook groups or get you to sign up for email lists based on specific criteria designed to weed out psychos, and pull in
vulnerable, valuable, potential contributors.
Then they invite you to their free
[webinar, ebook, blog post, video training, masterclass].
STAGE 2 - CONTROL WHAT THEY KNOW (AND WHEN AND WHERE THEY GO)
There's no harm attending a free [insert whatever] or so you think.
You are wrong.
Cults capitalize on what Robert Cialdini defines as a
privileged moment -- a moment when they have your undivided attention. During the seminar, the information flow is FROM the speaker TO you.
This is not an open discussion.
They control the information you receive.
Why?
Because by controlling information, they can influence how you think, feel, and even how you behave.
This is a process of mind control.
Not only do they control the flow of information, they control WHAT information is shared. That means they set the
context and
frame for whatever is being discussed. By doing this, they can say exactly what you need to hear and avoid probing questions that might reveal red flag truths.
If you're on a webinar, you'll be asked to put away cell phones, and close out of other browsers. You'll be asked to
make sure you are free from all outside distractions. Whether it's a cult or guru marketing, both aim to take advantage of this privileged moment when they have your
focused attention.
For those who don't know,
focused attention is how you induce trance.
This probably happens to you every time you buy groceries with a credit card. You put the card in the slot and wait to punch in your PIN. Your attention is focused on the the machine. If a sinister cashier (not saying I've tried this, just sayin' ..........) interrupts your focus, you will
go into a trance.
If said cashier then suggests how delicious a conveniently placed dark chocolate bar might taste with that conveniently placed creamy peanut butter over there...there's a good chance you'd imagine how tasty it would be,
right before you go ahead and add both to your bill.
Cults purposely use seminars because it's easy to eliminate outside distractions. Plus they control your behavior by telling you to hold bathroom breaks and questions until the end (by which time you've probably forgotten about both). After that, the speaker gets to work. He uses trance induction techniques ranging from
open loops and
vague language to long, boring speeches with confusing stories and talk of transformation.
On a webinar you eliminate distractions on your own. You probably wear headphones. You might take notes. While you write, the guru talks and talks and talks and says exactly what you want to hear.
They never reveal the goods, but they give you just enough to keep you wanting more. The entire process takes about an hour. That's an hour of filling you with every kind of psychological manipulation tactic in their tool box.
In the most advanced cult and guru funnels,
EVERYTHING is carefully considered and controlled.
• Font size and positioning
• Webinar background images and their intended effect based on the words being spoken
• Copywriting
• Slide presentation order
• Vocal speed, pitch, and tonality
• Body language (if the guru is visible)
•
Psychological Triggers
• How to present credibility in the most effective way
•
Liking, scarcity, reciprocation & concessions, consistency, social proof
•
Pre-suasion techniques
•
Neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy
• Emotional highs and lows
During this free event, something strange happens. You don't know why or how, but eventually you start to feel:
1) Like the guru is making some kind of sense (he must be because other people seem to agree)
2) Like you are someone leading a life of lies and there's certain changes (read "shifts") you need to make.
The combined
group-think social techniques and
guilt and/or shame tactics are enough to move you forward to stage 3 of your recruitment.
STAGE 3 - INVITE 'EM TO THE AFTER PARTY, IT'S FREE!
By the end of the free event, you
WILL be invited to go deeper...
Cults often invite members to some kind of weekend or week long party or advanced seminar. Gurus and MLMs invite you to speak with them privately to
"find out if they can help you."
Both seek to
isolate you from other people who haven't just spent the last hour or 10 in a controlled trance, for obvious reasons...because those people would tell you to...
...GET THE F*CK OUT!!!!!!
But when you reach this point, you've already
pre-qualified yourself as a cult member, and you've
invested quite a bit of your time. Plus there's always that chance these guys
"are the real deal."
So you again you think, what can it hurt?
Dangerous cults will say anything to get you away from other people and alone with them. Gurus will
IMPLY anything to get you alone with them. If you go forward after that, there's a VERY STRONG CHANCE you will become a cult member regardless of how aware you may be.
Once you're alone, (or on the phone for a discovery call) they move in for the kill...ahem...
sale.
We talked about that previously, so let's continue...
STEP 4 - ONCE YOU GOT 'EM...KEEP 'EM
If you go away for the weekend with a cult, you probably won't come back anytime soon (maybe ever). While you're away, you're still in the
honeymoon phase. Forgot to mention that earlier...
Until you're officially a cult member, and even for a short period afterward, you'll be
praised and showered with love by other members who want you to join. They'll talk about how great their life is and how freeing it is. They'll continuously tell you all the things you want to hear.
Beach Body "personal trainers" on Instagram do this all day long. They talk about what "great things" becoming a Beach Body Coach has done for them. They focus on their fitness, and on how tasty Shakeology is. They
imply they travel a lot and lead extraordinary lives (think
Tai Lopez tactics). Then they talk about all the people in the "6 Figure Club" --
and even though they aren't there yet, they're on their way!
Beach Body is an MLM...
It operates like a cult, and coaches are constantly recruiting all day every day.
#BEACEO
#OWNYOUROWNBUSINESS
#WORKFROMHOME
Cults use praise to pump you up and motivate you, despite how tired you are from everything you've been through up to this point. It's not unlike how car dealerships keep you on the lot as long as possible to wear you down for an easy sell. Once you're alone with a cult, the entire world focuses on keeping you there. At first through praise, then through
guilt, shame and ultimatums (we'll talk about that in a minute).
Gurus invite you into their inner circle, inner Facebook group, "Triple Platinum Alliance" or whatever. There you meat other group members who praise you for making the decision to join, and welcome you to the inside. Once you're in, you get to relax a little despite the $10,000 you just put on credit. At least you're around other people who did the same, and it seems things worked out for them! Whew...you might be okay after all...
(by the way I meant to use "meat" instead of "meet" in that last paragraph because you are "fresh meat" once you step inside)
As fresh meat you have to learn the ropes. Cults don't want to scare you off so they wrap praise guilt and shame together in a nice little package until you learn the
"right" way
.
If you do something that doesn't fit cult norms, they'll say or do things that make you feel shameful, while playing it off as a little thing. For instance, if you wear your shoes in the house, another member might giggle and say,
"What are you stupid? We don't wear shoes inside because it represents the repression of our natural affinities by capitalist pigs over the last 10,000 years.
Since you're still a new member, you're
unenlightened, therefore you don't understand what the f*ck they just said, and can't possibly interpret it. And it doesn't make you think they're nuts, it makes you
feel like you're too stupid and unenlightened to know what they mean at this point, so you just accept it while feeling shamed.
In Guru cults the same thing happens. Current members will guide you and if you step out of line, they'll chastise you. They'll make you feel stupid or unenlightened in much the same way. At the same time, they're
teaching you how to behave the right way....their way.
In dangerous cults it gets much worse later on. The longer you're with the cult, the harsher the guilt and shaming can be. You'll be expected to do things, for instance recruiting, and if you fail or choose not to help, you'll be made to feel like a terrible person until you give in.
If at any time you consider leaving the cult, you'll also be made aware that if you leave, you can
NEVER return. In spiritual cults this indicates you can
NEVER be one of "God's children" or whatever deity they worship. It also indicates you will suffer eternal damnation for your choice to leave.
Since the cult obviously has your best interests at heart...they must
go to any lengths to stop you from leaving, because that's how they save you. This can be spun in many other ways, but it always comes down to an ultimatum. If you leave, you're cast out for good. As a "brother" or "sister" of theirs, the other members cannot allow that to happen.
Guru cults sometimes use a similar tactic in which if you leave the group, or ask for a refund, you may
NEVER be invited back or allowed to join again. You may
NEVER discover the secret to millions. You may
NEVER achieve success because you need them. So you think long and hard before you leave.
STEP 6 - IDENTITY CHANGE COMPLETE -- WE ARE NEGAN!
From start to finish, everything up to this point has involved an
identity change process.
In the beginning you were your own person. Curious. Naive maybe. Vulnerable. You just wanted to solve some problem you had. But over the course of a day or a week or maybe even years, the person you were was lost. At some point it was replaced by a
new identity.
The military uses an incredibly similar process. It goes like this:
• Unfreeze
• Change
• Refreeze
1) UNFREEZE
Before you adapt a new identity, you first must release the old one. Thus, the guru's
5-shifts webinar and all of their marketing materials constantly promote the shifts you
must make before you get what you want.
This is where
mind control techniques come into play.
Remember earlier I said if you control information flow, you control how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. And in my last post I said if you control any one of those 3, you can influence the other 2. Now, here's a secret...
if you control all of 3, you can unfreeze a person's identity.
So the military, and also cults, start by controlling your environment. In doing so, they control the information flow. You show up at basic training or at the cult center. Then they push you physically (pushups, running, flutter kicks or other labor tasks). You're always tired, so you're always just trying to make it a little further.
Your entire day is controlled. You have no time to yourself. You're yelled at. Shamed. Guilted.
Eventually, you break down.
The U.S. Army (when I went through) called this "Red" phase. There's also a "White" and a "Blue" phase, which align with the "change" and "refreeze" parts of this process.
Gurus do this by getting you to put yourself in their webinar. From there they control the information flow. They also control your behavior by only guiding you down
their funnel path. They also control the context and frame and therefore control how and what you think. In doing that they can also manipulate your feelings and emotions.
All of this leads to you unfreezing the person you are, in order to be open to becoming the person you'd like to be.
2) CHANGE
Now you've lost your identity. You are not who you were before. You don't know who you are yet, but you're not the old person. Life is not the same. Every second of your day is controlled. Everything is different and there's no turning back.
Your only choice is forward.
Here the military sends you through endless classes (cults send you through seminars, and gurus put you through their course). Some are outside where you learn to shoot, move and kill. Others are inside, where you watch boring a$$ powerpoints or videos or listen to instructors drone on in your half-awake, more asleep state.
(Gurus accomplish this through
goal setting and other homework activities and instructing meditation that takes up your time.)
So now you're exhausted mentally and physically. You've been in a constant trance. Your entire world was flipped upside down, and now you just want to
adapt and survive.
Therefore, you begin to accumulate a new way of thinking.
You start to pick up the military's way of doing things. You learn how cult members operate. You stop doing things that lead to negative outcomes and start adapting behaviors that get you treated well. During all of this, you are adapting a new way of life,
their way.
What I'm saying is...
who you are begins to change.
3) REFREEZE
In the final stage you receive your new identity. In the Army, this is a glorious ceremony in which you're awarded your new identity in front of a large spectator audience. You are no longer the pathetic, weak brokeass fool you were before. Today, you're a
United States Soldier.
With a handshake, and a salute from a guy you barely know...
your identity transformation is complete.
NOTE: None of this is to claim that military is a dangerous cult. Just stating parallels.
Cults often give people
new names to complete their identity shift.
Gurus give their members
fancy titles.
In any case, it doesn't matter what you're called. You are no longer who you were. Instead...
YOU ARE NEGAN!!!
From here on out you are
EXTREMELY open to whatever the group, cult, or guru desires.
You've committed too much. Invested too much. Altered your identity. To go against this path would be to turn against yourself. To quit would be to quit yourself. To not invest $30,000 for the super inner platinum millionaire alliance retreat special seminar, would be to fail yourself, the group members, and the leader.
So you just continue forward...
because that's all you can do.
And this, my friends, is where we end for today,
because this is the point of no return.
