Joe, your post is phenomenal. It's scope encompasses so much, that it deserves so many responses, mini-threads, and spin-off threads to fill up the forum's entire first page.
I just wanted to comment on one of your points, that being in a cult is similar to being an addict. I think Cynthia brought it up before, and if people think it's worth discussing, I'm game.
I'm a gratefully recovering addict whose drug of choice was cocaine. I've been clean since July 11th, 1994. During the height of my addiction, I was blowing well over a hundred dollars a night to get high, without actually getting high, because the fun had long since vanished. In it's place something else appeared: incessant, mindless, repetitive activity.
There are similarities between cult membership and drug addiction. Perhaps the two converge most closely when the "buzz" disappears, and getting high becomes a necessary daily chore, and not a once-in-a-while activity. Even though it was never as good as the first few times, my brain would not let me stop using. It literally tricked me into using day and night.
After flipping out and getting hospitalized more than once, a nurse convinced me that I was at a crossroads; either kiss goodbye my core identity and move on to even harder drugs like heroine, or leave it all behind and suffer through the process (i.e. exit).
Quitting drugs might be similar to exiting a cult. For me, in my mid-twenties I needed to move back home, away from my newfound city. Also, I needed mature people like yourselves who were willing to attend support groups and freely share their recovery experiences. Most of all, I needed to establish trust in other people, to let them help me, because I had already proved many too times that quitting drugs was not something I could handle alone.
Sound familar? You tell me.
[This is solely my perspective, and not representative of any group or organization.]
