Nobody in their right mind would deliberately sign on with a cult, right?

So how is it that people end up pledging their lives to groups that make extraordinary,

even bizarre demands on them, set up an us versus the

rest of the world mentality, and make it really, really hard to walk away.

Not only are cults far more common than most of us realize, they're actually hiding in

plain sight in every community, and there's a better than average chance that you're

part of one.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. My guest was raised in a cult that mixed

physical and sexual abuse, labor, exploitation, and religion. When she escaped as a young adult

and joined the military, she was stunned to discover similarities between how the children of God kept members in line and how the army convinced recruits to do whatever they were ordered to do.

She eventually went to Harvard to become an organizational psychologist, and she has come to a fascinating conclusion.

Rather than a binary with evil cults on one side and worthy, admirable groups on the other,

pretty much every organization falls somewhere along a spectrum of cultiness.

Daniela Mestinek Young is a cult survivor, U.S. Army veteran, and Harvard-trained organizational psychologist.

Her latest book is The Culting of America. What Makes a Cult and Why We Love

Them? Danielle, welcome back to think. Thank you so much for having me back, Chris.

I have to say, when it comes to, like, salacious documentaries or podcasts, there are the true crime

people and the sex scandal people. I gravitate toward stuff about cults. And this book

helped me realize why we think of cults as something far outside our range of experience,

but they actually rely on elements of control that are familiar to just about everybody.

Yes, I think that's so true.

And I think one of the things that cult survivors have struggled to communicate is the

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