The Science of Charlatanry: How to Build Your Own Cult in 5 Steps

Each of us carries an unstoppable urge to believe in something. To find footing in a world that changes faster and faster, brimming with uncertainty.

Since the dawn of time there have been people who played that urge skillfully, turning us into their followers — as if into a sect, a cult.

How does it work?

Let’s run a thought experiment: I’ll lay out an algorithm for building your own cult, drawn from Robert Greene’s ideas in The 48 Laws of Power. Then we’ll pick the conclusions apart. This is not a how-to guide!

Step 1: Find a fresh subject that almost no one understands yet. Promise big changes, but very vaguely. Everything should stay hazy and abstract. Not deeds — words. Use bright epithets with no specifics. If you promise concrete benefits and actions, people will start expecting them, and that’s dangerous. Stoke enthusiasm and fantasy. Add a dash of science or pseudoscience. Reach for vague but hope-soaked words and phrases.

Step 2: Lean on the visual and the emotional, not the intellect and reason. Pull people in with bright effects, borrowings from distant, ancient or exotic cultures; use special effects, gadgets, and so on. Exalt emotion above rationality and clear thinking. Entertain the bored and weed out the skeptics.

Step 3: Borrow forms from the classic religions to give the group structure. Create rituals, initiations, hierarchies; hand out names and titles; ask for donations. Carry yourself like a guru, a prophet, a shaman. Make yourself the object of worship. Call on your followers to “bring” sacrifices for you. Sacrifices strengthen the faith!

Step 4: Hide the link between your income and the cult. Don’t show any thirst for money or power. Let the followers see that your luxury is a reward for the true path and good deeds — not something paid for out of their pockets. Become living proof that with you, the world will be kind to them too.

Step 5: Build an “us against them” dynamic. Your followers should feel like part of an exclusive club, bound by shared goals. Invent an enemy who wants to tear it all down. The infidels, say — ready to do anything to stop you. Anyone who asks an uncomfortable question can now be filed under that group. The followers will close ranks against the common enemy and defend you, carrying out any request of yours willingly, even acting without an order.

Pull these steps off, and you’ll become the focal point of human passion and longing, offering people your new faith to follow. But be ready to reel in your lines fast, the moment the crowd realizes it’s been fooled — because they’ll be ready to tear you apart.

…

Personally, I’ve noticed that in one form or another these concepts are at work everywhere: in states, religions, businesses, clubs, communities.

Which of these steps have you run into?

We can’t fully shield ourselves from them — and we don’t need to. What matters is at least being aware of where and how we’re being worked on, how far we give in to that influence, and for what reasons. And sometimes, as they say, if you can’t beat it — lead it.

Most of the social structures around us are instruments of influence!

Here’s to a “clean” eye on the manipulations all around us! 😎