Besides Mind Control, threats psychology are also often used. I
am not familiar with other cults such as Scientology , Mormons,
except to based them on what i read online but i am quite familiar
with the True Buddha School which incidentally is being termed
as
” New Age Religion ” by the experts. In other words, it is a
“cult”. The experts also called it a “controversial school”.
Lu Sheng Yen used many Mind Control and threats Psychology in
his teachings. He convinced his followers that he is the Amitabhva
Buddha, the former reincarnated Kong Hai Japanese famous monk, one
of the Qing Dynasty emporer and many other forms.
You can read it in his books and articles.
Although Lu Sheng Yen claimed to have many teachers in his
various lineages, he never put up their photos in any of his
temples, not even the 17th Karmapa. He is just name dropping and
using it to fool the ignorant. He didn’t bother to respect any of
his so called teachers but HE expects his follower to die for him
and to listen to every word that he says with 100% belief. This is
Mind Control.
The word was first used in the early 17th century denoting
homage paid to a divinity and derived from French culte or Latin
cultus ‘worship,’ from cult- ‘inhabited, cultivated, worshiped,’
from the verb colere ‘care, cultivation’.[citation needed]
The popular, derogatory sense of the word has no currency in
academic studies of religions, where “cults” are subsumed under the
neutral label of the “new religious movement”, while academic
sociology has partly adopted the popular meaning of the
word.2[4]