A totalitarian religious group is a religious denomination or cult whose members or adherents are not free to think on their own or to leave the group or criticize it. Outsiders accuse such groups of controlling the thinking and behavior of its members by regulating their conscious life down to the minutest details without their prior agreement or the possibility of a free choice.

Totalitarian groups are predominantly to be found among fringe denominations and fundamentalist groups, but they can also stick to a "normal" theologian framework and are problematic only with respect to the treatment of their membership. They may be large, well-organized bodies or just small circles.

Table of contents
1 Characteristics of totalitarian groups
2 Totalitarian control
3 How can I find out whether a group is totalitarian?

Characteristics of totalitarian groups

The following characteristics need not all apply to every case but the more of them do apply the more likely this is a totalitarian group:

  • The group has a firm hierarchical structure and is led by one person or a small group of people who rule absolutistically
  • The leader or leading body is not accountable to anyone (on earth).
  • The leaders claim to have a special mission.
  • The group has a clear view of their enemy.
  • The leaders direct admiration, reverence and maybe even worship to themselves.
  • The group exerts a total control over its members. Thinking and behavior in everyday matters is prescribed.
  • The group applies a double standard (behaves differently towards their own group and towards outsiders).
  • The group portrays itself as something new and exclusive or as the only true version of a larger religion.
  • The teachings of the group are (at least in part) not open to the public but only to members or even only to some inner or advanced circle.
  • New members are introduced to the teachings only gradually.
  • There is a discrepancy between the way the groups presents itself to the public and the way it is seen by neutral outsiders.

Totalitarian control

This has four basic aspects:

  • Control of behavior and activities: The way of life is rigidly laid down in detail (dress, food, contacts, rites to be observed) and members are kept so busy that little spare time remains.

  • Thought control: Members are taught techniques to stop thinking processes involving questions or doubts immediately. Criticism is labelled unethical or sinful.

  • Control of emotions and feelings: Members are kept under control by means of feelings of guilt and fear which supposedly can only be relieved by means of the group.

  • Information control: Access to independent information, education and culture is reduced or forbidden. Contact with former members is forbidden.

These techniques make a mature, critical reflection of one's attitudes and the one-sided information given by the group largely impossible.

How can I find out whether a group is totalitarian?

This is not easy for the average person because the teachings and practices of a group often are presented incompletely or euphemistically and maybe the individual member is not conscious of the totalitarian control. There are a few points, though, which are relatively easy to examine, for example in a discussion with a member, and which at least provide a first clear indication that freedom of opinion might be suppressed:

A group that has friendly contacts with former members, that has differing views about its teachings, that accepts criticism of teachings and leaders and whose leadership openly acknowledge that they are not perfect - such a group will certainly not be totalitarian. If contacts with former members are reduced, if there is only one opinion and no room for criticsm - then freedom of opinion is most likely to be limited in this group, whether its members are aware of it or not.

No religious denomination will call itself totalitarian (just as no politically or psychologically orientated group will do). One also has to keep in mind that there is a wide continuum from total control to total freedom and there are countless possibilites between these extremes. But there are clearly some groups which are more often accused of having totalitarian structures than others, among them the following (see their individual articles for details):

See also: Mind_control