Students susceptible to cults' lures

by Laura Withers
Staff Writer

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a three-part series examining the effects of cult experiences.

ALBANY — College students must be aware of many issues, including binge drinking, sexually transmitted infections, stress, anxiety and cults, Clinical Counselor and cult expert Ron Burks said.

“Cults usually recruit on college campuses,” Burks said. “Be advised, you're a target.”

Burks has spent the greater part of his life helping cult victims restructure their lives through intensive counseling at Wellspring, a cult recovery retreat and resource center.

On March 1 and 2, cult prevention educator Stephen Martin will lead a workshop about the characteristics of mind control and manipulation at the Central Avenue United Methodist Church, 73 Central Ave. The workshop is open to anyone who is seeking information about cults and how they operate, he said.

With Wellspring located just 20 minutes from Athens, Ohio University students have access to a large amount of information about cults.

Paul Martin, director of Wellspring, said he would like to create a relationship between Wellspring and OU. He said students would benefit from participating in workshops and seminars about how cults recruit on college campuses and how to avoid being controlled by them.

Burks said many of his clients were recruited in college and experience a great deal of distress after leaving because they have to make up for the years they lost while they were in the cult.

“We see people literally everyday who were recruited in college,” he said. “The lost years are hard to get over.”

College students are targeted for cults because they are vulnerable, Director of Development at Wellspring Liz Shaw said.

People are vulnerable at different times in their lives, such as after getting divorced or leaving home for the first time, she said. For this reason, college students are at high risk of being targeted for cults when they feel pressure to make friends and fit in.

College freshman are at a higher risk of being recruited because they are separated from their family and friends for the first time, Shaw said. Older college students also are targeted however, sometimes when they have recently experienced a traumatic event.

College students often are recruited into cults through interpersonal connections with other students, Burks said.  At first students might not recognize a harmful relationship. Cult leaders entice students into joining their group with free benefits such as weekend ski trips.

“Often when you sense that this is too good to be true, generally it is,” Burks said.        

Cult leaders use a technique of manipulation called “love bombing”, Shaw said, which includes lavishing someone with attention and praise in the beginning of a relationship to attract them to a cult.

In this case, Shaw tells students to “run, don’t walk” from the potentially harmful situation.

Cult workshop leader Larry Pile, who has worked with clients at Wellspring since 1988, said cult leaders take advantage of vulnerable students and use stressful times as an opportunity to lure them into the cult.

“People don't wake up one morning and say ‘I'm going to join a cult today,’” Pile said. “People who join cults are temporarily vulnerable.”

Many college students have qualities that cults want to take advantage of, Shaw said

“College students have everything that a cult wants,” she said. “Their energy, intelligence and willingness to work hard are all things that cults want to harness.”

Once cult leaders successfully recruit members, they start demanding more time, money and dedication, Shaw said. They demand that the victim drop all of his or her personal goals and dreams to adopt those of the group and they try to break the victim away from family and friends outside of the cult.

 “They really get their foot in deep when they get you to disown your family,” she said. “They will over-emphasize problems you have so you start looking at them through a magnifying glass. They have other plans for you, believe me they do.”

Burks said the best way for students to avoid being targeted for a cult is to be informed and aware of what is going on around them. Students should not be afraid to constantly ask questions of people who seem suspicious.

“The antidote to this is critical thinking,” Burks said. “Cults don't like people who are constantly thinking and asking questions.”