Why can college students easily fall victim to a cult?
Reason 1: Weak sense of self-protection
Because college students are less experienced in society, they tend to trust others more easilly. Moreover, they are easily cheated by the cult fallacies such as “extraordinary science” and “special powers” due to their strong interest in new environments and ideas.
Reason 2: strong pervasion of cult organizations
Cult organizations attempt to “display performance” and increase influence by attracting more scientifically literate college students. What’s more, they want to brainwash the college students whose world outlooks and values haven’t been fully established yet, so that the college students can be totally loyal to them.
Cases of college students cheated by the cult organization
Case 1: Zhang Fan, a principal criminal of the Zhaoyuan murder case
One of the principal criminals of the Zhaoyuan murder case which rocked the nation is a graduate from the Communication University of China. She joined the Church of Almighty God out of curiosity when she was a college student. She was subsequently brainwashed by the cult’s fallacies and finally became the chief criminal in the murder case.
Case 2: college students as members of Christian Gospel Mission
Christian Gospel Mission developed the “elite signboard” in the guise of a well-designed association and preached that membership could contribute to a more successful life. As a result, many college students, especially female college students, were tempted into this cult organization. More than 3000 female college students were brainwashed after they joined this cult and reduced to the “playthings” of the cult leader MingxiZheng(???)。
Anti-cult tips for college freshmen
Prepared for college freshmen and their parents
The back-to-school season is the active period of many cult organizations. To protect yourself against any fallacies, please keep in mind these anti-cult tips for college freshmen.
Some tricks of cult organizations:
① Cheat you into joining the cult by pretending to make friends
Cult members attempt to win favor from or make friends with you by chatting or introducing you to some interesting topics, and then get you gradually brainwashed and entice you into the cult.
② Take chance to entice you into the cult by showing excessive attentiveness
Cult members offer “warm” help at railway stations, school gates or dormitory buildings to win trust from college freshmen and take a chance to entice them into the cult.
③ Disguise their real intentions in the guise of associations
They conduct misleading publicity and seduce college freshmen into the cult in the guise of clubs or associations, and prevent the members from quitting the cult organization
④ Huge amounts of information available everywhere
They distribute booklets and promote the cult-related information via social platforms including QQ, WeChat and many websites
Anti-cult tips for college freshmen
① If someone preaches a doctrine on college campus and claims their membership can ensure your safety and give you benefits, you must be mindful of their real intentions and should not believe their words.
② If you find someone distributing brochures with cult-related information, you should report the case to the school’s security department.
③ If a stranger appears excessively warm-hearted to you, you must not be cheated by his or her fallacies.
④ When a school association recruits new members, you should have sufficient information about the association and make it clear whether the association has been approved by the school authorities.
⑤ You should not visit the cult websites on college campus or read, propagate, listen to and believe the cult fallacies.
