Cults
and
Sex

Sex, as all men of wisdom understand, is solely the most potent manipulator of the human mind. Ergo, it is an indispensable part of any successful doomsday cult. There are two divergent approaches to sex which a cult can adopt, and each is well suited for different audiences. A cult that is hedonistic will encourage lewd abandon and obscene excess. This will attract a generally younger audience and drifters seeking an easy outlet. Free Love cults are usually more popular during times of sexual repression. Running a brothel service is an easy source of income, but the problems of law enforcement and members more interested in worshipping flesh than worshipping you might develop. Charles Manson, Aleister Crowley, the Oneida Perfectionists, 14th Century Adamites, the Hellfire Club and the Agapemonites in 19th Century Britain, and the cult of Carpocrates of 1st Century Christendom all took this approach to varying degrees of success.

On the spectrum’s other end are cults that demand sexual purity. Their target audience consists of more conservative individuals who see celibacy as a symbolic victory above immorality and man’s innate carnal nature which leads to perdition. Abstinence is also a powerful psychological mechanism whereby one chooses to forego something pleasurable and endure suffering to prove the vigor of his faith. Lent, ritual scarification/flagellation, and the Yom Kippur fast are more common examples of this principle in action. Abstemious cults can easily levy strong taboos against desertion and exert strong control over the will of the followers, but risk boredom, stagnation, and less media coverage and attract a smaller demographic. The Puritans, the Shakers, the Roman Catholic Church, and Heaven’s Gate nevertheless successfully implemented this strategy.

A doomsday cult will only attract radical zealots if it is in itself radical. Therefore, it must always adopt a polar stance on any dividing issue. One cannot simply condemn abortion; it must be inveighed against as slavish whoredom to Satan. However, the most successful cults will be those that learn how to simultaneously embrace both extremes of any argument and reconcile the blatant paradox by couching it in bizarre and absurd allegory. Cult ideology must promulgate both hate and love, fear and confidence, mercy and retribution, always in their darkest extremes. The sex question is best approached with such doublethink: simultaneously both promoting indulgence and sexual control.