Directions:
Must use citations and have a work cited page as well.
Find your High Demand Group. This is chance to look at the deleterious side of religion and religious beliefs. High demand groups may be religious or may claim scientific innovation as their foundations. I recommend listening to the podcast “A Little Bit Culty” or any of the documentaries about cults that can be found on nearly every streaming platform to choose your group. There are many famous religious cults, like Aum Shinrikyo, Jim Jones, the Manson family and ones that do not claim to be religious. There is a current glut of excellent documentaries on High Demand Groups. Again be very thoughtful when choosing your group to pick something you don’t find traumatic.
Once you chose your group, research the leader (prophet). You will consider some of the features that gives them power. What are the sources of their charisma? Is the charisma in the prophet or in their core followers? Are they claiming religious authority or different form of authority? If it is a different kind of authority what is its source? How do they communicate and maintain power over believers? How “successful” are they? What is the nature of what they are promising their followers? What makes this leader exploitational?
Consider the techniques they use to initiate members into the group. How does the group keep members as leadership escalates the demands and sacrifices from the members. What techniques are used in your particular case study to increase power and control of members? What do members think they are buying into? What is it that they are actually buying into? This is a question of the bait and switch aspect of high demand groups.
Reflections. After researching your “culty” group, what do you think the difference is between your group and accepted forms of “religion.” What questions are raised for you in researching your group? Can you see in your group cultural relativism being transformed into moral relativism which is to say are they using the fact that different society’s have different religious ideologies to break down members learned sense of right and wrong. Why is it useful to learn about the techniques of High Demand Groups?
Format:
Write your research paper. This paper should be at least 1200 words. Be sure to give citations for your research. This can include the podcast or documentary where you learned about the group.
When you are prepared, hit submission upload a docx or pdf file (do not use google files).
Plagiarism check is on so be sure to write in your own language and when using citations, quote and reference. This needs to be your own independent research and needs to be composed using your own perspective. AI written work is included under plagiarism as it has not been written by you.
