Behind The Smiles: How Cults Manipulate, Recruit, and Retain Members

Exploring the manipulative tactics cults use to lure and trap their members, as exposed by insiders and experts.

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Tobi Adegboyega, 44, leader of the “Salvation Proclaimers Anointed Church” and cousin of Star Wars actor John Boyega, has now lost the right to reside in the UK and is due for deportation according to The Telegraph.

Adegboyega’s downfall is deeply entwined with allegations of financial exploitation and manipulation within his church. Former members of his church testified that impoverished young people were pressured to donate money through loans, social benefit fraud, and even selling their blood, according to GB News.

While church members endured financial strain and hardship; reports suggest Adegboyega and fellow leaders of the church maintained lavish lifestyles; which suggests that the church was not as centered around spiritual salvation, but focused on monetary gain.

While Adegboyega’s church has been labelled a fraud, its alleged practices of manipulating members and asserting control over their livelihoods mirrors practices often seen in groups labelled as “Cults“.

George Chryssides, A British academic and researcher on new religious movements (commonly known as cults) elaborates on how they form:

Adegboyega’s case is just one of many examples of how such organizations prey on people’s vulnerabilities. The number of active cults in the UK, according to BACP, are on a decrease—from an estimated 1,000-1,500 in 2013 to 500-1,000 today according to an article by the University of Salford.

However, they continue to remain present via methods of recruitment and retention, accompanied by a strong central charismatic leadership. This is key to understanding how cults like Adegboyega’s operate.

Recruitment of Members

Richard Turner, a former cult member who now runs Cult Psychology Consultancy “To Think Again” was a prominent member of a charismatic Bible cult in the heart of Liverpool.

Richard was recruited into the cult initially as a support worker. It was only after two days, he was then hired as a full-time member of staff.

During times of change, stress, uncertainty; or when “when routines wobble” as Turner puts it, people often start searching for deeper meaning or a sense of purpose. Challenging times create a heightened sense of desire for community, where one feels safe and loved in.

George Chryssides explains how this is a key part of how many cults recruit:

Cults usually exploit this vulnerability, presenting themselves as the solution to life’s challenges, offering a sense of belonging, direction, and clarity.

Matt Chubboy, a survivor of the Heaven’s Gate cult elaborates how a fellow member nicknamed “Orion” used to exploit this via the “list of instructions” (manifesto) of the group:

Recruitment for Gain

According to Turner, cults usually target people based on what they can obtain; either be it through resources such as money to fund cult activity, or a specific skillset they can utilise to grow the cult and in return, its future prospective membership. Once a person is recruited, cults usually ask for a forfeit of everything that tied them to their old livelihoods.

Matt Chubboy explains how this unfolded in Heaven’s Gate:

Once cults successfully recruit members, the next stage is retaining members.

Why Its Hard To Leave

One of the primary methods, as Turner explains, involves initially “chipping away at your self-esteem”.

The cult will systematically erode independence and character of a newly recruited member, creating a gap in a person. It will then present itself as the only solution to the insecurities it has cultivated, and use tactics such as love bombing to gradually create an increasingly stronger sense of dependency, which makes it psychologically harder to break away from the group.

One of the factors that retains members is through the strong central charismatic leadership of group leaders.

“If you’re a charismatic leader,” Chryssides notes, “you need to maintain your charisma. Sometimes, sociologists talk about charismatic maintenance, so if I’ve got my following and I’m a religious leader, I need to make sure that following continues, and people don’t get brassed off with me and leave, and so maintaining control and others don’t take over.

If we talk about [Heaven’s Gate] you need to make sure other members don’t also start claiming they can talk to extraterrestrial life and claim that something alternative to what the leader is being said to them.” This serves as a good analogy to demostrate how control of members in all areas is a vital aspect to retention.

The video below shows Marshall Applewhite, the leader of Heaven’s Gate, prophesying the impending ‘recycling’ of the planet . This underscores the key role cult leaders have in creating dependency within their groups via manipulating the principle of Gnosticism to frame their teachings as the only way to access “hidden salvation”.

This approach gives members a sense of exclusivity and strengthens their loyalty to the group. As Chubboy explains:

Applewhite’s charismatic authority and the cult-like devotion of his followers ultimately convinced them to end their lives on March 26th 1997.

This is important to understand as it reflects how cult leaders use charisma to reinforce their causes and effectively bind cults together, which leads to cases such as Adegboyega’s, where members were repeatedly exploited.

Understanding the methods of how members are recruited and retained is crucial in recognizing the dangerous grip cults can have on individuals and communities.

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