In the first paragraph of the reading, Strozier immediately gets to his point that the strength of a group relies on its members’ conviction in the cause as opposed to what that cause actually is. This plays off of the confidence and charisma of the group leader, whose personality and aura can define the nature of the group itself.  There are a few skills that a successful cult leader must encompass. First of all, they must be able to convey ideas with the utmost conviction (meaning many of these leaders can be extremely paranoid, resulting in their overly confident belief that what they believe is the truth). Second of all, a strong [cult] leader must be able to cover up the harshness of death and violence by convincing followers that they are acting in favor of a ‘bigger picture,’ (often gaining the trust of paranoid people who are instilled with a fear of the imminent apocalypse).

I thought this tied in well with Stroziers argument that religious conversion correlates with a person experiencing an element of doubt/identity crisis. This implies that many people who are part of a religious cult were often psychologically unstable prior to their membership, making it easy for a charismatic leader to draw them into a group. This is especially true for a person who is depressed and questioning life; why not join a group that believes in the apocalypse and gives you immunity to it?

Strozier also discusses paranoia and the role it plays in a persons’ view of life. He claims that a paranoid person lacks humor, creativity, and wisdom, though is also usually smart. Sometimes being paranoid can be beneficial to someone who is exposed to actual danger, but in religious situations paranoia often represents an individuals “inner sense of evil.” Paranoid people can accept violence more easily due to the fact that they feel an obligation to rid the world of what they deem as evil. This is another example of the type of person who could be drawn into a cult group and who would blindly follow a charismatic (and paranoid) leader. Strozier briefly touches upon how nuclear power has altered our view on religion – something I will be discussing in my research paper.

I looked at the Heaven’s Gate website after reading the Fundamentalist Mindset essays, and I am really glad that I did that. Instead of just passing off the creator of the site as clinically insane, I tried to put their mindset into Stroziers’ perspective.  This didn’t cause me to believe anything that was written, however I did enjoy reading about how the “soul” is separate from the body and that too many people are attached to humanity.  When I imagine people who are looking to take on a religion, I can’t see this view as being extremely popular. As soon as the writer said he came to Earth int he 1970s and took a 40 year old mans body as a vehicle, I had to doubt the guys mental state. Though I cannot deny that his story was oddly intriguing…