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How To Know If You Are In A Greed Group (aka a Capitalist's Cult)


  • if your group shares anything in common with a particular Group that has aliens, volcanoes, dc-70s without propellers, and spirits that must be cleared from the soul.

  • you have a section in your seminar that specifies "This is why we are not a cult"

  • if the volunteer to paid employee ratio is greater than 2:1

  • if recruiting people is the most important goal at the end of your seminar(s)

  • if on googling the group, in addition to your corporation's site, you get hits on cult debunkers, Skeptic's Dictionary and Apologetics Index.

  • if your wikipedia page has a "The neutrality of this article is disputed." warning.

  • if your founder is a disgruntled higher up from aforementioned Group that features aliens, volcanoes, etc.

  • if your group has the nasty habit of drawing many national investigative reporting specials on your cult-like behaviour, and/or governments denounce you as a cult.

  • if you actually pay cult experts to say you are not a cult

  • if while your informing people about your group you have to say "it's not a cult"

  • if you have people who have no other training than the course itself, doing very deep and possibly damaging psychological treatment (i.e. "Tell me about the worse and most emotionally scarring thing that's happened to you and that is haunting your life righ tnow", also see, the Group That Features Aliens Etc).

  • if your group is basically selling the Coles Notes to grade 11 high school 'World Religions and Philosophy : a Primer'.

  • if you are sworn to secrecy abot these Coles notes, formally known to the group as 'technology'.

  • if you have to sign a waiver for psychological and physical damage before the seminar.

  • if bringing out fear and vulnerability is done in your 'seminar'

  • if you ever say "no one would ever have to do drugs if they knew about this!"

  • if you find yourself using very specialized language to define your life.

  • if at any time, your seminar features carefully staged and executed public humiliation.

  • if the leader of the seminar speaks in such a way that would get him slapped, slugged, or worse in public.

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Comments

GuruTruth said…
What a funny post! This and the last post really bring some well-needed humor to the controversial issue of "Greed Groups" and "Capitalist's Cults" as you put it so well. We have added you to our blogroll, over at:

The Truth about Human Potential Seminars
2:52 AM
Niteowl said…
Awesome blog you got going there. A bit freaky on the avatar though :O

I've linked you. You don't have to keep me on your blogroll. These are only 2 posts on Landmark. It isn't really what my blog is about. :)
12:19 PM
GuruTruth said…
Thanks for the link!

As our blog moves along, we will spend more time on various groups and methodologies. However we've removed you from the blogroll, and added this particular post to "Questions to Ask", which contains lists of questions and other helpful things to think about when first encountering Large Group Awareness Training organizations.

The Truth about Human Potential Seminars
9:20 PM
Rory Bowman said…
Nicely done. Another big one is if the group wants a lot of money up-front.

I've thought about this a little and basically decided that the word "cult" is a marketing term used within the religion/spirituality industry.

http://rickross.livejournal.com/2016.html

Good luck with your writing!
10:35 AM
Niteowl said…
Hey, thanks for the positive response! Just curious, how did you find this post?
12:54 PM
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