I think that any religion...and I do mean ANY...could easily be seen as a cult by people who didn't belong to it. And why not? But what does that say about religion? Nothing. It just says that people have a resistance toward stuff other people believe if it's different from what they believe or they just are ignorant of it. They tend to judge divergent and unfamiliar forms of belief in a negative manner.

Is Leninism a religion...or a cult? Darned right it is! But it's not a religion or a cult about God, it's a religion and a cult about dialectical materialism.

Are multi-level marketing sytems cults? Yeah! But they are cults, in the most basic sense, about making money through a pyramid scheme.

Are political parties cults? Damn right they are! That's my
opinion. They are complex and highly powerful cults which manipulate the public in order to secure political power for an elite few.

Then you've got the Masons and various other smaller organizations. More cults. They all have their ow particular beliefs, their own power structure and hierarchy, and they are all a mystery to people who don't belong to them.

The only people who won't join cults are people who refuse to join anything at all, in my opinion. So...if you want to join something in oder to give your life more meaning, just find the cult that best suits you, join it, and stop fretting about all the other cults that don't suit you. They aren't there for you, they're there for somebody else, obviously.

If a religion (cult) makes you happier and improves your life, then it's clearly useful for you, isn't it?

Dave's Wife - Regarding the Process: Sorry, I have no real information to offer at this point, I just remember running into their people on the street numerous times, and glancing at some of their flyers.

SINSULL - I read about half of Travolta's Ebook. It appears to be mostly just common sense to me. I don't think I'll bother reading the 2nd half.