This article explains how to get a cult-like following based on the 48 Laws of Power book. In a world of skepticism and uncertainty, captivating people’s attention and earning loyalty can pose a daunting challenge. You must find a way to draw them in, becoming the center of their desires and beliefs rather than feeling like an impossible task.
With a captivating cause to pursue, people often find themselves adrift and disconnected. They long for something to believe in, something that provides their lives with purpose and direction. Without such a driving force, they experience a sense of powerlessness and aimlessness.
This blog post empowers you to become a beacon of hope and ignite your movement. We’ll show you how to present people with a fresh belief system.
You’ll discover the art of keeping your words enigmatic yet full of promise, emphasizing enthusiasm over rationality. You can amass incredible influence and power by providing your new disciples with rituals to perform and requesting sacrifices on your behalf.
Law 27: Play On People’s Need to Believe To Create A Cultlike Following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, and ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.
Robert Greene
Key Insights
Crafting a Cult: Your Loyal Army of Admiring Fans
Building a cult is similar to building your squad of die-hard fans, something straight out of a movie. You’re on a mission to gain incredible power with the least effort possible.
When you have a group of highly loyal individuals who admire you and recruit new members to join your exclusive community, you are accessing a new level of influence.
You won’t need to break a sweat or resort to tricky tricks to get your way. You become a legend, someone they think can do no wrong.
The Human Hunger for Belief
Building a dedicated following might seem like a massive task, but it’s easier than you think. You see, humans have this deep need to believe in something. It makes us open to new ideas because we hate long periods of uncertainty or feeling empty without something to think about.
So, when you dangle a fresh idea, a get-rich-quick plan, or the hottest tech trend or art craze, we all rush in like a school of fish going for the same bait.
The Science Behind Cults: How To Get A Cult-like Following in Five Steps
Step 1: Keep It Vague; Keep It Simple
To kickstart your following, the first thing you’ve got to do is get people’s attention. But here’s the secret sauce: Don’t do it with apparent actions. Instead, use words that are mysterious and not so clear. When you talk in the beginning, in your conversations and interviews, make sure you’ve got two things going on:
- Promise something incredible and life-changing.
- Keep things fuzzy and unclear.
This combo will get people’s imaginations going, and they’ll start dreaming up ideas and connections on their own.
Vagueness as an Art Form
To make your vagueness captivating, use words that sound profound but are unclear in meaning. Choose words that are full of passion and excitement.
Giving fancy names to simple things can work wonders, sprinkle in some numbers, and create new words for mysterious concepts. This will give the impression that you possess some specialized knowledge, making you appear incredibly profound.
Also, aim to make the subject of your cult seem fresh and novel so only a few people truly grasp it. When you get it just right, blending vague promises, enigmatic yet enticing ideas, and heaps of enthusiasm, you’ll stir people’s souls, and a group will naturally form around you.
Promise Simple Solutions
In addition to keeping things vague, your message should be easy to understand. Many people’s problems have super complicated causes, like deep-rooted psychological stuff, tangled-up social factors, or issues that have been around for ages and are a real puzzle to solve.
But here’s the thing: Only a few people have the patience for all that complexity. Most people want to hear that there’s a simple solution to fix their problems. You’ll gain much power and gather a following if you can offer that.
So, instead of getting into all the intricate details of real-life problems, go back to the essential solutions our ancestors used, like good old home remedies or mysterious cure-alls. This will make your message resonate with people.
Step 2: Emphasize the Visual and the Sensual over the Intellectual
When you start attracting people, you’ll face two significant hurdles:
- Boredom. It can make people wander off to something else.
- Skepticism. It might give people a chance to think about what you’re offering, see through the haze you’ve created, and realize what your ideas genuinely are.
So, to keep things rolling, you’ve got to keep the bored folks entertained and find a way to engage the skeptics.
Engage All Senses
You’ve got to put on an actual performance, like a grand theatrical production or something equally spectacular. Surround yourself with luxury, overwhelm your followers with jaw-dropping visuals, and create a captivating spectacle.
This isn’t just about hiding weaknesses in your ideas or beliefs; it’s about drawing more attention and gaining followers. Engage all the senses by using:
- Aromatic incense for incredible scents,
- Soothing tunes for their ears,
- Vibrant charts and graphs to catch their eyes.
You could even tickle their intellect, maybe with cutting-edge tech gizmos that give your cult a pseudo-scientific vibe – make sure it doesn’t lead anyone to overthink things.
Add a dash of exotic flavor, like tales from far-off lands and quirky traditions, to craft a show that turns the most mundane into something truly extraordinary.
Step 3: Borrow the Forms of Organized Religion to Structure the Group
For ages, organized religions have held unquestionable authority over many, and they still do, even in our modern, supposedly secular world. Even if the actual religion has faded somewhat, its structures still carry immense power.
Organized religion can be a powerful source of inspiration and guidance. You can do the following:
- Craft rituals for your followers
- Establish a hierarchy with different levels of holiness and give them names and titles that carry religious weight.
- Request offerings and sacrifices that fill your coffers and boost your influence.
To highlight the quasi-religious nature of your gathering, act and speak like a prophet. You’re not a dictator, after all; you’re a priest, a guru, a wise sage, a shaman, or any other term that conceals your true power beneath the veil of religion.
Step 4: Disguise Your Source of Income
As your wealth starts to grow, thanks to your followers’ contributions, it’s crucial that you don’t come across as someone who’s just hungry for money and power. This is when you need to hide where your income is coming from.
Your followers want to believe that good things will come their way if they follow you. By surrounding yourself with luxury, you prove that your belief system works. But don’t let on that your riches come from your followers’ pockets.
Instead, make it seem like your wealth naturally flows from the success of your methods. Your followers will copy everything you do, thinking it’ll bring them the same results. Their eagerness to imitate closes their eyes to the fact that your wealth is built on deception.
Step 5: Set Up an Us-Versus-Them Dynamic
To unite your followers, take a page from the playbook of religions and belief systems: create an “us-versus-them” dynamic. This is how you do it:
- First, ensure your followers believe they’re part of an exclusive club bound by common goals and values.
- Then, to reinforce this bond, invent the notion of a cunning enemy bent on sabotaging your mission.
- Convince your followers that there’s a force of non-believers who will stop at nothing to undermine you. Anyone from the outside who tries to expose the fraudulent nature of your belief system can be painted as a member of this scheming force.
If you don’t have real enemies, fake one. Giving your followers a common enemy to rally against will make them even more tightly-knit. They’ll have your cause to believe in and “infidels” to confront.
Meet the Mountain Doctor: A Cult Mastermind
In today’s world filled with influencers, thought leaders, and self-proclaimed gurus, the story of Dr. Michael Schüppach, a Swiss doctor from the mid-1700s, stands as a timeless source of wisdom on how to create an unwavering and almost cult-like following.
A Healing Maverick
Nestled within the pristine landscapes of Langnau, the enigmatic “Mountain Doctor” practiced a form of medicine deeply rooted in the healing powers of nature. News of his unconventional treatments traversed far and wide, attracting individuals from every corner of Europe. Yet, it wasn’t solely his herbal remedies that lured them in; the captivating aura of mystique and hope enveloped his practice.
The Art of Crafting Mystique
At the heart of every charismatic figure lies an aura of magic. Within Langnau, Schüppach’s apothecary became a sacred destination. Unlike other apothecaries who labeled their medicines in Latin, his concoctions bore evocative names such as “The Elixir of Joy” or “Heart’s Embrace.”
However, what truly set him apart was his diagnostic prowess. He claimed to unravel ailments solely by examining urine samples dispatched from across Europe, solidifying his image as a healer endowed with almost supernatural abilities.
The Pinnacle of Belief
At the core of any dedicated following lies an unshakable belief. Schüppach’s patients didn’t merely place their trust in him; they believed in him. Their faith ran so deep that many felt healed before consuming his remedies.
This belief system evolved into Schüppach’s most potent asset. Rather than challenging their convictions, he embraced and amplified them, transforming skeptics into sincere believers.
Lessons from the “Mountain Doctor” on Cultivating Devotion
The Magnetism of Mystique: To foster an unwavering following, one must offer something distinct that appears almost transcendent. Schüppach’s unconventional diagnostic techniques and evocative remedy names cultivated an aura of mystique that magnetized people toward him.
Engaging and Affirming Beliefs: Rather than undermining or dismissing his patients’ beliefs, Schüppach validated them. This approach turned casual visitors into ardent disciples.
Crafting a Profound Journey: The pilgrimage to Langnau, traversing Europe’s breathtaking landscapes, transformed into a profound journey. This expedition, both literal and metaphorical, heightened the healing experience.
In an era dominated by fleeting digital connections, the narrative of the Mountain Doctor serves as an enduring lesson in authentic engagement and the cultivation of an unwavering following.
Whether you stand as a healer, a leader, or an influencer, remember that it’s not merely about what you provide but how you make individuals feel.