http://creepyhollowsawareness.wordpress.com/cult-like-business-practices -Dr.

Margaret Singer, Cults in Our Midst [Destructive business practices are often the result of cult-like activities and recognizing them can provide a means to fight against them and restore productivity.] Indoctrination Cult experts often refer to the analogy of a frog in boiling water. It is said that if you try to boil a frog by placing it in boiling water, it will just hop out. But if you place it in lukewarm water and slowly increase the heat, it will not try to escape. The frog will stay still until the water is boiling around it and it is cooked. Similarly, cult-like manipulation takes place incrementally and over time. New entrants to the cult are shown only the most acceptable and positive aspects of the business or practice when they first join. After the initial emotional or spiritual bonding that takes place within the group, the intimidation, coercion, and control can begin. Businesses as Cults As Dr. Margaret Singer points out in her book, Cults In Our Midst, many cults operate as businesses, with their tactics focused around financial success instead of religion or spirituality. Charges of cult-like methods have been aimed at Amway and many other multi-level marketing organizations for years. It is also possible to combine spiritual and business elements together. This combination can make for an extremely effective indoctrination, as the leader of the cult can appeal to both the need for financial success and the need for spirituality of their targets. [This is very common in business. A person claims spiritual superiority to cultivate trust. But is actually just using this trust for political manipulation. In the business environment, this manipulation is to benefit the few at the expense of the many.] Cult-Like Methods There are many weapons that cult leaders use when targeting their audience. Ive listed 5 major ones below, but there are many more that psychological manipulators have at their command. Targeting the Vulnerable Jennifer Burrows was a 24-year-old 3rd year dental student in 2002, enrolled in a

school in North Carolina. At this point in her life, she was deeply in debt from 6 years of student loans, and worried about her career prospects once she graduated. At a school function, she met Bryan Landers, a 35-year-old author and former dentist, and leader of a group called Enriched Dentistry. Landers seemed very successful, and ran social and networking groups that Jennifer thought would be very helpful to her career. Some of these social groups met at long, weekend retreats in the rural part of the state, and they were very social, fun events. Looking back, Jennifer recognizes that it was her financial vulnerability and fear of instability that led her to stay with Landers and Enriched Dentistry even once things started taking a more ominous turn. No one plans to join a cult, says Lorna Goldberg, a New Jersey therapist who helps clients with cult-like experiences. Cults target people in transition college students away from home for the first time, people who have moved to new cities for jobs, those who have just been divorced or widowed. [A Mentor often obtains power by bestowing apparent kindness and concern for the Mentee; teaching them the ropes. But in actuality the actual methods be which the system operates is kept from the Mentee and they are led to believe the system is corrupt and uncontrollable. The Mentor manipulating the system at the Mentees expense to support Empire Building.]

Claims of Special Knowledge Jennifer was a Christian, as were Landers and his students, and this made for a good fit. Jennifer discovered that Enriched Dentistry acted as a kind of business network for dentists and dental students on the East Coast, and it made sense to Jennifer that people in the same profession, with the same beliefs, would want to help each other. Jennifer quickly bonded with the group, and over the course of the next few months she found herself spending much more time with them, being invited to more and more religious retreats and late-night get-togethers. Landers had self-published books on the role of Christianity in medicine and health, and he would hold sessions at his house that would stretch long into the night. Dialogue was discouraged; it was Landers who held sway at the meetings, speaking about his knowledge of Gods will and the correct way to live.

[When a person claims special knowledge that they can not reasonably possess, consider them as a minimum self-deceived, and at worse destructively manipulative. Be guarded against these people because they will repeatedly attempt to develop peer pressure to force you to act contrary to reason. Con-artists often pose as preachers and leaders. Which one is correct, they each say something different? They construct pretty words that have no real reference. Painting a picture that in isolation seems beautiful. But when the details of how to support that environment comes to light, those beautiful words are found to be self-serving and ultimately self-destructive to the followers. Using Peer Pressure (cult) to exact behaviors from you that would otherwise be obvious as self-destructive. For instance shunning a business associate based upon their look, rather than interactively being productive.] He also appealed to the financial concerns of his students. He told us that by being involved with him, we were part of something very special, that we would be successful if we stayed close to him, Jennifer says. He was doing very well for himself, and he was very clear about his beliefs. It made sense that we all wanted to be like him in one way or another. Jennifer described that first year as the most exciting period of my life. I respected and loved everyone in the group. [Frequently evaluate the actual costs, reasonable benefit, and your desired long term impact on everything. If you were still around in 500 years, what would you like to be able to see, do, and share? The following are tools to extract reason from rhetoric: Ethics_10_step_method.pdf in the free Ethics Kit Predicting_the_Future.pdf Result Management directory Search for Critical Thinking online Become involved with Debate to learn for yourself the thought processes]

Distancing From Family/Friends As time went on and Jennifer neared her graduation and her entry into the wider world, her personal life was being narrowed. In her last year of school, she was much more involved with Landers and the group, and she spent large amounts of time volunteering at Enriched Dentistry events.

She recalls one of her early friends in dentistry school expressing concern that Jennifer might be being taken advantage of. She also heard similar concerns from her family. She was not in a position to appreciate what they were saying at that time. It just made me angry, said Jennifer. I thought that no one could understand the great things Landers was doing. No one knew the bond our group had. No one bashing him knew the great things he was doing in the world. When people brought up the comments of outsiders in their group meetings, Landers laughed about the judgments of nonbelievers. Jennifer was encouraged by Landers and the group to cut ties with the negative influences in her life; these were the people holding her back from true success. [In a business, these cults are cliques. Usually one person is at the center of the clique and manipulates the participants into Empire Building. One of the first signs of being manipulated is realizing that the clique exists and at the same time that the clique is engaged in questionable activities. Not necessarily wrongful activities, but activities that do not benefit everyone. Debate is needed to determine whether or not these cliques are beneficial overall. In some cases, cliques form the basis of fighting corruption. In other cases cliques are the largest source of self-destructive business practices.]

Financial Manipulation Jennifer learned that Landers was offering a sort-of franchise operation to his friends and associates. These businesses were set up in a six-state area in the Southeast. The dentists or soon-to-be dentists of Landers group would incorporate their businesses with Landers being a main partner. The range of services provided by Landers included business consulting, website design, brand sharing (with Enriched Dentistry), and client referral. Virtually everyone in Enriched Dentistry was signing up for this partnership; it seemed a no-brainer to Jennifer and to many others. Landers and his associates were obviously successful; sometimes Landers partners would speak to the group about their practices and their current success. Before graduating, Jennifer signed a contract with Landers making Landers a quarter partner in Jennifers first practice. The fine print, which, admittedly, Jennifer should have read more carefully, ensured that Landers would receive, at the very least, $20,000 from each of Jennifers first four years in business. It was

the bond she felt with Landers and her trust that he was a spiritual man that made Jennifer not as cautious as she should have been. Members may be asked to make phenomenal contributions of money to the group, says Frank Schneider of the non-profit group Cult Watch. Besides making the leader and the group rich, this money ties the member ever more deeply to the group. [In business, an employee, vendor, or contractor becomes involved with a Mentor, and is asked to be involved in questionable activities (which may not be obvious). This becomes a tool to draw the Mentee into the covenant. As time progresses, greater and greater inappropriate behaviors are fostered to where the Mentor is the only person allowing that Mentee to retain their employment. The Mentees self-respect suffers and they mentally become dependant upon their Mentor. The Mentee becomes a disposable stooge. While the Mentor takes on the appearance of an altruistic benefactor that in reality is pulling the strings of the stooge.] Intimidation In addition to his psychological manipulation skills, Landers was a very physically imposing man. He spent many hours every day in his personal gym, and told his group that physical fitness was very important in doing Gods work. Many cult leaders are insecure and are making up for early feelings of inferiority, says Mary Miller, a California psychotherapist. This can be manifested as intellectual or physical overcompensation. Sometimes a leader will stress their extreme intellectual capabilities; other times they will stress their physical capabilities; other times they will stress their spiritual capabilities. Sometimes you will see someone overcompensating so strongly that they rely on all three. Later, Landers would use his physicality when negotiating with Jennifer and other Enriched Dentistry members. He would stand close to his students and go from his soft style of speaking to a hard, demeaning approach. Landers would emphasize how difficult a time his group members would have in the real world without his help, and how they would most likely fail miserably if they were to go it alone. [A protection against bully manipulation is to develop and maintain a safety net. Family and friends provide a means to risk failure to achieve greater gains. At worst, you go live with family until you get back on your feet. And you provide family and friends with a similar safetfriends with a similar safety net.

This does not mean giving each other money; rather, the essentials of an actual place to live and food to eat. Never lend money unless it is for cold hard business. Business and employment are both filled with opportunities to fail. But failing is a tool used by others for manipulation. As long as a person has a safety net, they can not fail; they can only have temporary setbacks. So when someone attempts to bully your submission, realize you do not need them. They are a tool for you to use to attain what you want, not the other way around. We are all each others tools (resources) to be used for out collective benefit. No person should be self-destructive for the benefit of others. Everyone shares the burdens.] He also used guilt, which is one of the strongest weapons for cults. He would reference the past bonds and good feelings that they shared, and use those feelings against his friends, manipulating them into seeking his favor again. It was like a complete change of face for him, said Jennifer. Before the contracts were signed, he was like a father figure. It was all about trust and doing the right thing. After he got what he wanted, he really treated us like we were very far below him. [In business, a legitimate Mentor has faults. These can take on many different forms from personal laziness, lack of broad insights, to chronic ethical bad judgements. Their intent only becomes apparent when they contradict themselves over some period of time. Intent can be found in contradictions in what they say, their efforts contradicting their words, rationalizeing using small loops of circular logic with no basis of broad applicability, and/or they are in-general self-destructive. This requires actively paying attention and attempting to remember. Use Critical Reasoning and Result Management to help determine your own best path. The person that wants to make a Mentor responsible for their own future, is as bad and worse than a business cult leader; because these people attempt to manipulate others to provide support for their own destructive activities (lack of productive cooperation).] Epilogue Over the next 4 years, as Jennifer established her own practice, she incurred a debt to Enriched Dentistry of over $100,000. As of this writing, Jennifer has been free of the groups influence for 3 years and is currently in litigation with the

group. She realizes now how nave she was in trusting someone like Landers implicitly. I should have known to ask questions, Jennifer says now. It was my fault in the end. I was too trusting. Id like to help others not make this same mistake I had the highest opinion of him. In the end it was all an illusion. [This is an unusually strong statement which seems to resonate a result that blindly following a Mentor can generate. Jennifer throughout those years enjoyed a social life that in her own words were the happiest in her life. But at what long term expense? Indeed, one can read the long term depressive change that took place as a result of these self-destructive behaviors. A person must act within an ethical environment to provide long term desireable outcomes for themselves. See Predicting_the_Future.pdf in the Free Ethics Kit.] These kinds of manipulations are common in todays new-age business cults. Leaders like Landers initially use trust, good will, and their own self-proclaimed spirituality [self declared ethical superiority] to create strong personal bonds. Later comes intimidation and fear, but by then it is too late for the many who have already signed elaborate and deceptive legal contracts, or given away large amounts of their money. [A common Contractor scheme is to provide a quote for services for many different quotes. Get funding up front. Do part of the work. Ask for more funding for the next phase. Begin working another job and never return to finish any of the jobs. The continual bidding on new work provides more funds overall than finishing any of the jobs provides. Upon threat of jail, they leave the state and repeat their activities. After the statute of limitations passes, they return and repeat their unethical abuse of unknowing victims. No more than 2 days of materials should be paid for upfront; and no labor until the job is finished unless the project can reasonably be broken down into phases that different contractors can provide. Specify standards for materials and workmenship with penalties for default. Provide a written agreement for the method of assessment to determine when the job is finished. Minimize your losses if the contractor stops at a moment and never returns. Never Ever listen to hard-luck stories. Call and get quotes from your local suppliers. Use duediligence to make it difficult for people to steal from you.] Warning Signs You shouldnt have to be afraid of falling into a situation as horrible as Jennifers. The large majority of organizations are benevolent groups that have their members best interests at heart. All that is required to be safe is to ask questions

and keep an eye out for some key warning signs. However, within any organization there are likely individual Empire Builders that will attempt similarly to gain influence through these cult-like activities. Hostile Relationships Find people who have been associated with the group for some time. See how they are doing financially as well as psychologically. If the group is turning on past members and there is evidence of major ill will and aggression, that is a warning sign that things are not what they seem to be. [There are reasons for how people act. Do not dismiss them. Use Result Management and Thought Mapping to attempt to construct the Process Flow for a given Organizational Chart. If the Managers have integrity and Act Consistently in regards to what they ask of others, then in that environment there is likely little chance a subordinate will have any headway in Empire Building. Take them aside, explain the need for collaboration and acceptance of diversity, and fire them if they can not keep from being destructive. Be careful not to fire stooges, instead of the Mentors who are cultivating the Empire Building activities. These Mentors are causing counter-productive noncooperative efforts that destroy company productivity.] Pressure to Donate Time/Money Many groups will try to recruit you to donate your time or money to their cause. Many will do it under the guise of helping society or serving God. Many groups are truly non-profit, but a red flag should go up for you once it is requested of you. Study any document very, very closely before you sign it. Ask specific questions of the group or individual about any contract you are considering. [Be on guard for non-profits whose administrative costs are the larger portion of cash flow. Legitimate non-profits provide an outcome; not self-serving personal profit. Some grants are administered with the intent of generating another grant from the successes of the present grant. Instead, business enterprise shoud be used to provide sustainability of the grant objectives through ignition by the grant provided resources. Write business incubation into the grant application.] Pressure to Not Ask Questions This is by far the most important warning sign. If you feel pressured not to ask questions, and if you are made to feel unwelcome just for being curious about how the group operates, that is a sure sign you are in a bad situation.

If any of the above scenario sounds remotely similar to your situation, or to the situation of a friend or family member, I would recommend doing more research on the group in question. Asking questions about the groups and the people around you will serve to keep you safe from any possible psychological and financial manipulation. [Businesses often claim an open-door policy. But very often managers ignore anything provided by sub-ordinates. Even pseudo-managers who claim superior position do not listen to their peers. Those managers have agenda they have no intention of modifying; most commonly because they themselves are mentally stressed, being manipulated, and do not want to incur any further complications in their life. Find the source, and influence them. The intermediate stooge is simply a victim to take the fall when things go badly. Some managers are waiting for retirement, even twenty years away from being eligible. Active consistent effort must be applied to revitalize their interests; or they must be demoted or dismissed. Doing things just because it has always been done that way cost companies millions of dollars annually in unmitigated waste.]