Addendum: cults
Oct. 19th, 2004 06:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaneramosI know how addicts feel. Years later they might one day crave the feeling of relief from a cigarette or a glass of liquor.
In a cult you are addicted to belonging. You're not an individual, and your mind feels safe in its communal way of thinking. You can count on others to tell you how to handle any circumstance.
Breaking away is like a birth, learning to breathe for the first time.
Years later you meet someone at the grocery store or at an art show, and it reminds you how alone you are. There's no question of going back, but from the bottom of your solitude you feel a tug of insecurity. You crave belonging.
A cult denies your individuality. To recover from its control, you must embrace both your self-identity and its attached loneliness. You have no one to answer all the questions for you. You have to make your own decisions. Being a human means being separate from other people. We may share profound intimacy, but the healthy soul recognizes boundaries between itself and others, and knows it must trust ultimately in its own resources.
In a cult you are addicted to belonging. You're not an individual, and your mind feels safe in its communal way of thinking. You can count on others to tell you how to handle any circumstance.
Breaking away is like a birth, learning to breathe for the first time.
Years later you meet someone at the grocery store or at an art show, and it reminds you how alone you are. There's no question of going back, but from the bottom of your solitude you feel a tug of insecurity. You crave belonging.
A cult denies your individuality. To recover from its control, you must embrace both your self-identity and its attached loneliness. You have no one to answer all the questions for you. You have to make your own decisions. Being a human means being separate from other people. We may share profound intimacy, but the healthy soul recognizes boundaries between itself and others, and knows it must trust ultimately in its own resources.
