Definition of "cult"

Werner Erhard's highly successful est cult is partly derived from Scientology. Erhard had some experience with Scientology in 1969. Then he worked for a while in Mind Dynamics, itself an offshoot of Jose Silva's Mind Control.

1985, Rodney Stark, Religious movements: Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, Paragon House Publishers, page 167

There are scores of modern religious cults and sects that have been influenced by Hinduism to varying degrees. Werner Erhard, founder of 'Landmark Education's 'The Forum',' and 'est' seminars, which have about 700,000 graduates, was influenced by Hinduism through Swami Muktananda, one of Erhard's principal gurus.

1996, John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, Harvest House Publishers, page 216

Outsiders often criticize the extreme commitment of group members. But what is really happening is that leader and followers are conspiring to realize a vision that is falsified daily. For the cult is not paradise, and the leader is not God. Hence the follower is embattled; to squarely confront the many failings of the leader and the group is to call into question one's own great work. Only by daily recommitting himself can the follower continue to work toward his ultimate goal. Each follower works out a secret compromise, acknowledging some things while denying or distorting others. Clearly this is a high-risk strategy that may go awry.

1997, Len Oakes, “Followers and Their Quest”, in Prophetic charisma: The Psychology of Prophetic Charisma, Syracuse University Press, page 137

The difference between a cult and an established religion is sometimes about one generation.

1998 June 17, Scott McLemee, “Rethinking Jonestown”, in Salon.com‎

If Jones' People's Temple wasn't a cult, then the term has no meaning.

1998 June 17, Scott McLemee, “Rethinking Jonestown”, in Salon.com‎

Another potent element of the new cult milieu was the therapy sect, which offered believers the chance to achieve their full human potential through personal growth and self-actualization by taking total responsibility for one's actions. The prototypical movement of this kind was est (Erhard Seminar Training), in which intense and often grueling sessions forced followers to confront a new view of reality.

2000, Philip Jenkins, Mystics and Messiahs : Cults and New Religions in American History, London: Oxford University Press, page 180

He sounds like a cult leader about to demand his followers drink poison. And it frankly doesn’t help that he looks like Jim Jones to a genuinely creepy degree.

2016 November 6, “Multilevel Marketing”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 29, John Oliver (actor), via HBO

Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist who has become one of Silicon Valley's most outspoken opponents of regulation, has described people who warn of existential risks from AI as a cult, no different from other millenarian movements that warn of impending social disasters.

2023 November 25, Richard Waters, John Thornhill, quoting Marc Andreessen, “Tech's philosophical rift over AI”, in FT Weekend, Big Read, page 6

To a certain extent, the cult movie and the classic are opposites, appealing to vastly different audiences. Whereas a film can become an instant cult, and then forgotten, a film cannot become an “instant classic”, which is only critical shorthand for “excellent”.

2008 August 8, Ronald Bergan, “Don't confuse cults with classics”, in The Guardian‎

Monte Hellman, whose terse action films, epitomized by the 1971 road movie “Two-Lane Blacktop,” made him a cult hero of the American independent film movement, died on Tuesday in Palm Desert, Calif.

2021 April 21, William Grimes, “Monte Hellman, Cult Director of ‘Two-Lane Blacktop,’ Dies at 91”, in The New York Times‎