User:Rp2006/sandbox/CultLeader

When publishing:
 * add categories
 * link from Peter Dinklage page

How to Become a Cult Leader is a 2023 documentary released on Netflix which examines how cult leaders recruit followers and control all aspects of their lives.

Description
How to Become a Cult Leader is narrated by Peter Dinklage and looks "inside the cult leader’s playbook for achieving unconditional love, endless devotion and the power to control people's minds, bodies and souls."

The series consisted of six episodes of between 30 and 34 minutes, with each episode featuring a different cult, and highlighting the historic use of one of the six rules the series claims is needed to form a successful cult. The episodes are:
 * 1. Build Your Foundation: Embrace your calling and reinvent yourself by studying the life of petty criminal and folk rock troubadour-turned-murderous legend Charles Manson.
 * 2. Grow Your Flock: Build a fervent following by retracing the steps of Jim Jones, whose messiah complex turned a small healing grift into a dangerously loyal congregation.
 * 3. Reform Their Minds: Return to Buddhafield and unlock the mastery of manipulation with Jaimie Gomez, a failed actor who built an army of servants by promising enlightenment.
 * 4. Promise Eternity: Apocalypse, anyone? Create credible danger and consolidate power by studying the spiritual, sci-fi narrative of Heaven's Gate leader Marshall Applewhite.
 * 5. Control Your Image: Leverage media coverage to cultivate a pious image like Shoko Asahara, who built the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo on positive PR and deadly methods.
 * 6. Become Immortal: Avoid unhappy endings and cement your legacy by studying Sun Myung Moon, who transformed the Unification Church into a still-thriving economic machine.

Reception
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that How to Become a Cult Leader is "a follow-up in tone, style and structure to 2021’s How to Become a Tyrant" in that it follows the tongue-in-cheek format used in Tyrant of instructing viewers on how to achieve cult leader status. Regarding the final episode's attempt to summarize its thesis, the Reporter says that was disappointing because there was no "call to action", such as including information provided on cult awareness networks or deprogramming organizations. The review also decried the omission of episodes on L. Ron Hubbard or Donald Trump speculating that those would result in lawsuits and outrage on Truth Social," and said the series "makes dark subject matter occasionally fun, but it might owe its audience slightly more.

Decider reported that the series "unveils a morbid guidebook for those who are fascinated by the villainy of famous cult leaders and want to know the nitty-gritty details of how they operate. In the process, the series will challenge everything viewers know about the topic and hook even those most critical of the genre." The review concludes "The true crime genre clearly has plenty more gas in the tank, but, How to Become A Cult Leader stealthily argues, it might be time to get out of the car."

Writing for Glamour, former Children Of God 'sex cult' member Bexy Cameron reviewed the series with an insider perspective on the subject, and centered her article on how this subject pertains to women, who she says are "at the most risk of coercive control." She says "Strip it back, and it is coercive control that is what really makes a cult. Without it, it's just beliefs." She writes "The bones of cults are patriarchal, the structure needs someone (usually women) to be vulnerable." Cameron also tackles the question "Do women have what it takes to start a cult?" concluding that "When you look at the psychological makeup of most cult leaders, two things in abundance are: narcissism and megalomania, but only 25% of people with narcissistic personality disorder are women, so already the odds are against you." Cameron concludes "enjoy the show, but burn the Playbook after reading. (Please, We do not need more cult leaders.)"