Below is a list of ‘Red Flags’ and key indicators of coercive high-control groups.
- Love bombing. Too friendly too quickly
- Charismatic leader – a person with “special super human qualities”
- Group is preoccupied with making money
- Utopian type of community
- Members encouraged to recruit
- Isolation-example: classes lasting 10-12 hours or retreat center with difficult access
- Rejection or shunning if member is not on board with it all
- A mission that is the focus of all the members
- Questions are discouraged or even punished
- Leader details the values of the group-what is right/wrong and what is good/bad
- Group is elitist, claims to know more
- There is an US vs THEM mentality. There is an outside world
- Leadership induces guilt in member in order to control
- Members are encouraged to spend a lot of time with the community
- Deception, secrets and lies supported by members to uphold the leader and organization as a whole
- If there is a problem, IT IS YOU- It is always you!!!!!!!