Former cult member warns students

"A cult is essentially a psychological con job," said Janja Lalich of Alameda, Calif.

"You're being taken for a ride and you don't even know it," she added.

Lalich told a 40-person crowd at the Newman Catholic Student Center that cults rely on a "power" relationship between leaders and members.

"Nobody looks to join a cult," she said. "You're just drawn in."

She knows this firsthand.

Lalich said she was a member of a "political, left-wing, feminist" cult in the San Francisco Bay area for 10 years.

She joined when she was 30 and decided to leave when, after her mother died, other members wouldn't allow her to attend the funeral.

She said she defied them and went to the funeral anyway.

"I have no memory of my mother's funeral," she said. "I was terrified the entire time because I had defied the group."

Lalich added, "It took about three and a half years for me to get better. I was very paranoid, I was very afraid. After about five years I felt like I was me again. I could make my own decisions. I could trust people again."

Once she was better, Lalich said she began working with other former cult members to help them rebuild their lives. She also began speaking and has appeared on television shows such as "Meet the Press" and "CBS News."

"I took a bad thing and turned it into a good thing," Lalich said.

She defined the cult as a "power relationship that has certain characteristics," often including:

Excessive devotion to a self-appointed leader who claims to have some kind of secret knowledge.

A "top-down, authoritarian structure" between the leader and the members. Often, there is a double standard, as the leader lives differently (often better) than the members are expected to live.

A hidden agenda with some type of deception. "You don't know what the bottom line is when you join the group," said Lalich.

"A coordinated program of thought reform," she said. "You don't realize the way in which you are being changed."

Lalich estimated there are between 3,000 and 5,000 active cults in the U.S. today, with between 1 million and 3 million active members.

"Most are small, nomadic, no-name groups," she said.

People are most often recruited into a cult by a family member, friend, co-worker or acquaintance.

"It's all very calculated and planned out," she said.

Lalich added it's a myth that only young people join cults. She claims many cult members are from 30 to 40 years old.

University of Arizona medical student Gretchen Hull said she was intrigued by the speech.

"I have an interest in cults," she said. "My parents get involved in these things, I've been exposed to lots of it."

Father Albert Felice-Pace of the Newman Center was also impressed with Lalich.

"I think it was very informative," he said. "She did it in a way that didn't offend anyone."

If you do know someone who is involved in a cult, Lalich said the best way to help them is to "give them the understanding that they know they can always come home. Keep the door open."