Believe it or not, there are a lot of people out there who truly believe the Catholic Church is a cult. Almost as many say the U.S. military is also a form of a cult.

The truth is, anyone who makes such comments is dangerously lacking in the facts about how real cults operate, which could leave them vulnerable themselves.

For instance, cults rarely if ever tell you what they’re about when you’re first invited to attend, unlike the Church or the military that spells out exactly what’s involved in membership. True cults also use threats and violence to prevent people from leaving. People join and leave the Church every day without incident, and leaving military service requires nothing more than discharge papers. Members of the Church and the military are not cut off from their families and have complete access to the media, reading material, telephones and computers; whereas cults almost always impose restrictions in these areas.

Because there are literally thousands of cults in existence throughout the world today, and many of them like to change their name whenever too much has been revealed about them by former members, using a list of cults might only be accurate for a brief period of time. A much better way to protect yourself is to understand how they operate.

The following checklist should prove useful to you in this regard. It was published in the book, Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships (Berkeley: Bay Tree Publishing 2006) by Janja Lalich, Ph.D. and Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.

-The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system, ideology, and practices as the Truth, as law.

– Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

– Mind-altering practices (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, and debilitating work routines) are used in excess and serve to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

–  The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel (for example, members must get permission to date, change jobs, marry—or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, whether or not to have children, how to discipline children, and so forth).

–  The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity).

–  The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.

–  The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious denominations).

–  The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying to family or friends, or collecting money for bogus charities).

–  The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt iin order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.

–  Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with family and friends, and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group.

–  The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

–  The group is preoccupied with making money.

–  Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.

–  Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

– The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.

Some or all of these qualities may be present in a program, which is why Father William Kent Burtner, O.P., an expert on cults, advises people to evaluate programs on a case by case basis.

“When you get to Moon and his Booneville, California, training camp, there is no question about the subterfuge and trickery going on there,” Fr. Burtner says in “Cults and Kids.”

“But when you look at some of these fringe ‘human potential’ groups, then you get into this really fuzzy zone. Within this gray area, there may be a case and time where an individual’s freedom is totally betrayed and another case where an individual’s freedom, given slightly different circumstances, is not. You really have to judge it on a case by case basis.”

What a person needs to beware of are groups that use psychological techniques to convert and control followers. “I don’t care whether it’s someone leading a Catholic charismatic prayer group or if it’s Sun Myung Moon – whether they’re into a ‘socially acceptable’ form of spirituality or not – if they start using methods that deprive individuals of their ability to make a free choice, they’re acting in a tremendously destructive way towards the person,” he says.  “And that, to me, is an objective evil.”

Send your New Age questions to newage@womenofgrace.com