ABSTRACT
Any person experiencing an identity crisis or involved in a serious spiritual quest is theoretically vulnerable to the seductive outreach of the cults, but some are more vulnerable than others. There is increasing clinical evidence of a syndrome of seduction and mental subversion involving cult converts. This is a matter of both great human concern and professional interest. This chapter argues that psychologically persuasive techniques and the dynamics of spiritual seduction combine with group force and processes to cause youth caught up in the cults to accept ideas, attitudes, and behaviors quite foreign. The transformation of personality and thinking that occurs in the cults includes, as already suggested, a highly seductive process involving individuals who are already quite susceptible. Cultists have an uncanny ability to single out such individuals in a crowd; they seem to sense those who are ripe for the plucking.
