Warning signs of a potentially unsafe Group/Leader

[xanthas]

[size="2"][color="#0055aa"]Potentially unsafe groups or leaders "come off very nice at first, they go for [color="#5500ff"]vulnerable people who are looking for answers, lonely, what you'd call 'normal people.'[/color]

[color="#5500ff"]They're very good at what they do and can get people to believe anything[/color]. You might think you'd never get taken in, but don't bet on it. "[/color][/size]

[b]-- Margaret Singer, Ph.D.[/b]

[size="2"][color="#0055aa"]Ten warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader.[/color][/size]

1. Absolute [color="#0000ff"]authoritarianism without meaningful accountability[/color]. 
2. [color="#0000ff"]No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry[/color].
   
3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
   
4. [color="#5500ff"]Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.[/color]
   
5. There is [color="#5500ff"]no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil[/color].
   
6. [color="#ff0000"]Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances[/color].
   
7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.
   
8. Followers feel they can [color="#0000ff"]never be "good enough"[/color].
   
9. [color="#0000ff"]The group/leader is always right[/color].
   
10. [color="#0000ff"]The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable[/color] or credible.

[color="#0055aa"][size="2"]Ten warning signs regarding people involved in/with a potentially unsafe group/leader.[/size]
[/color]

1. [color="#0000ff"]Extreme obsessiveness regarding the group/leader resulting in the exclusion of almost every practical consideration[/color].
   
2. Individual identity, the group, the leader and/or God as distinct and separate categories of existence become increasingly blurred. Instead, [color="#0000ff"]in the follower's mind these identities become substantially and increasingly fused--as that person's involvement with the group/leader continues and deepens[/color].
   
3. [color="#0000ff"]Whenever the group/leader is criticized or questioned it is characterized as "persecution". [/color]
   
4. [color="#0000ff"]Uncharacteristically stilted and seemingly programmed conversation and mannerisms, cloning of the group/leader in personal behavior[/color].
   
5. [color="#ff0000"]Dependency upon the group/leader for problem solving, solutions, and definitions without meaningful reflective thought[/color]. A seeming [color="#0000ff"]inability to think independently or analyze situations without group/leader involvement[/color].
   
6. Hyperactivity centered on the group/leader agenda, which seems to supercede any personal goals or individual interests.
   
7. [color="#ff0000"]A dramatic loss of spontaneity and sense of humor.[/color]
   
8. Increasing [color="#0000ff"]isolation from family and old friends[/color] unless they demonstrate an interest in the group/leader.
   
9. [color="#0000ff"]Anything the group/leader does can be justified no matter how harsh or harmful[/color].
   
10. [color="#ff0000"]Former followers are at best-considered negative or worse evil and under bad influences. They can not be trusted and personal contact is avoided.[/color]

Hint: There's more from where this came from...
 
Not interested? Don't care? Oh well, keep sleeping then...

http://www.rickross.com/warningsigns.html