omotes individualism causing difficulties in group bonding; the human need for existential explanations and social associations thereby goes unmet making individuals targets for cults.
According to Melton (1993), there are about 700 cults in America today with most of them located in ports of entry such as New York, Boston, Miami, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. Melton reports that in terms of social control and influence over the individual, this grows stronger the longer the person remains in the cult.
Regarding the exertion of social influence, Melton (1993) states that the cult operates by weakening the follower through making him or her depend upon the group to solve problems. Many followers desire to improve society and are attracted to cults because they promise to do this; however, analysis of their operation, according to Melton, shows that they exist primarily to perpetuate their own material survival.
Schwartz (1991) states that the essence of the cult is an exertion of power using the methods of persuasion and control techniques that are common to other social phenomena such as political campaigns. At the individual level, Schwartz states that the essential components of cult indoctrination are depersonalization, deindividualization, and an appeal to the individual's desire for happiness. Conversion is said to incorporate a number of elements, the most notable of which are proselytization and commitment.
Singer, Temerlin and Langone (1990) report that one method whereby many cults exert social influence at the individual level is through the use of thought reform to bring about indoctrination and behavior change. The authors feel that this mode of control is particularly characteristic of the psychotherapy cults such as EST. They characterize this form of cult as an outgroup of leaders' (some professional psychotherapists, some not) multiple, controlling roles over their "pa...