Group organization as cult: characteristics, criteria, and social dynamics

Manson Family

Was the Manson family a religious cult? In this essay, the author will prove this by examining the Manson Family as a political cult and the leaders use of mind control love bombing, the role of Manson as a group leader and his role within the group, and teachings and/or beliefs of the group. While the group did not in the opinion of this author exhibit all of the aspects of religious cultism, it is certainly very much in the genre.

Its ties to and emergence from the sixties counterculture blurs this a bit, it is a cult nonetheless. As we will see in the body of this essay, a number of salient facts stand out that define a cult. One is a dominating personality. Secondly, secret and esoteric beliefs and liturgies, usually at the extreme edge of human behaviors. Finally, mind control use and tactics are endemic.

What is a good definition of a cult? Usually one needs to define cults by looking at case studies of past cults, ones in which Manson's group definitely falls. The following definition is good and covers all of our bases:

…a cult is known as an undesirable group of people characterised by outlandish religious beliefs, involved in depraved activities and are led by a charismatic but dangerous leader (Olson, 2006). This public understanding of cults is the result of a number of notorious cases in history that have involved mass suicide, murder, sexual abuse and violence. Although these examples are useful in their own respect they are not an accurate representation of cults as a whole. The extreme behaviour exhibited by groups such as Heavens Gate, Davidson and Solar Temple (Bohm, 2001), have elevated any group labelled as a cult into something inherently evil. These ideas are not useful in any empirical body of work as they mystify the existence of a social arrangement, albeit a sometimes dangerous one, that would normally be easily scrutinised within any other setting (Walsh, 2001). A much more useful and academically-agreed upon meaning of a cult is a group of people in "a religion regarded by the majority culture as spurious or unorthodox" (Richmond, 2004).

Cults represent a complex combination of socio-psychological features that culminates into a highly controversial and ambiguous notion.

Where would Manson's group fit in the general cult scene? According to Stark and Bainbridge, Manson's religious doctrine was based upon a hatred for conventional society that was reinforced by his followers. He was influenced by Native American beliefs. Also, his skills developed in prison in encounter groups gave him experience in how to control and individual and shape their mind. "Love bombing" the women helped to bond them to him and to make them integral members of the cult. Manson "proved his views" from the Bible and what he believed were messages in the Beatle's White Album.

What motivated Manson to murder mindlessly a group of innocent victims selected at random what kind of hold did he have over the young women who carried out his orders? According to Religious Tolerance.org, the Manson Family was a cult, a group with Christian beliefs. Charles Manson was a very powerful person with a dominating personality. Manson assembled a messianic doomsday cult around himself that at its height numbered in excess of 100 individuals. His followers referred to him as "God" and "Satan" while he claimed to be a guru and a reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Though he was not believed to have ordered any of the murders directly, he ordered his followers to commit horrific murders.

In particular, the messianic and end time aspects of his beliefs stand out. By 1969, he come to believe that Armageddon was unavoidable and would come about in the form of a race war, one which he believed he was destined to have the ultimate benefit from it. He called this conflict Helter Skelter after a Beetles song in an attempt to use pop music as a control mechanism. He convinced his followers that there was a secret underground under the California desert where the cult would wait out the war. For this purpose, they stocked up supplies. In this conflict, Blacks would war, but would be unable to rule world through lack of experience. The Manson Family would emerge from their hideaway and run the world for them benevolently with Manson as its head. By 1969, he stopped believing that they knew how to initiate the war and that he would have to show them how to start it by performing a series of murders. Even outside of prison, his followers continued to follow him. After Manson's arrest Lynette Fromme a prominent and obedient follower, took command of the Family in his absence. During the trial with a group of other followers she stood on the foot steps of the Los Angeles courthouse during the trial with shaved heads in solidarity with Manson. On September 5, 1975, Fromme failed in her attempt assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in Sacramento, California. His followers as well as others continue to buy his CDs and the Family's record albums.