About this site

Our principles

• Behaviour, not belief. We never call a group harmful because of its religion, politics, lifestyle or ideas. We look only at how people are treated.
• Every direction. High control turns up in religious and secular settings, on the left and the right, online and offline, in businesses, wellness spaces and relationships. Our examples reflect that on purpose.
• No group named. We don't list or accuse specific groups. The self-check is for you to apply to your own situation.
• Your privacy first. No cookies, analytics, accounts, contact forms or third-party scripts. The self-check runs entirely on your device.
• Respect for choice. Adults have the right to join demanding groups. Our aim is informed, freely made choices, never coercive "rescue".

Important limits

This site is for education and awareness. It is not a diagnosis and not medical, legal or psychological advice. The self-check is informed by research but has not itself been clinically validated. If you are in danger, contact emergency services.

Sources & further reading

The warning signs and self-check paraphrase ideas from the following work. All credit goes to the authors.

• Robert J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism (1961). Eight criteria of "thought reform", including milieu control, loaded language, sacred science and the dispensing of existence.
• Steven Hassan, Combating Cult Mind Control (1988; rev. 2015) and the BITE model of authoritarian control (Behaviour, Information, Thought, Emotional control). Widely used, though some researchers dispute how cleanly its four areas separate.
• Janja Lalich, Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults (2004), and Lalich & Madeleine Tobias, Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships (2006).
• Omar Saldaña, Álvaro Rodríguez-Carballeira, Carmen Almendros & Jordi Escartín, "Development and validation of the Psychological Abuse Experienced in Groups Scale", European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context 9(2), 2017.
• William Chambers, Michael Langone, Arthur Dole & James Grice, "The Group Psychological Abuse Scale", Cultic Studies Journal 11(1), 1994.
• Isaac Bonewits, the "Advanced Bonewits' Cult Danger Evaluation Frame" (ABCDEF). Written by a Neopagan author and religious-freedom advocate to separate harmful control from merely unusual belief.
• Evan Stark, Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life (2007). The concept behind coercive control laws in the UK and elsewhere. Note that the England & Wales offence (Serious Crime Act 2015, s.76) covers intimate partners and family members, not groups.
• Marlene Winell, Leaving the Fold (1993) and her work on religious trauma.
• Alexandra Stein, Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems (2017).
• International Cultic Studies Association, online library of research and survivor accounts.

Corrections

We check that every helpline number is correct when it's listed, but services change. If a number is wrong, please let the service itself know as well.

Contact

For corrections, suggestions or organisations who'd like to be listed: hello@isitacult.com.

Please don't send personal details about your situation by email. We aren't a support service and can't respond to crises. If you need help, please use the helplines and services listed here. If someone else can read your email, remember that sent messages stay in your Sent folder.