magnocrat:

This message board is not focused on beliefs, but rather behavior.

This is not a place to discuss doctrines or teachings of various religions.

There is a great distinction made in Joan Ross and Michael Langone's book: Cults,What parents Should Know, between Harmful and Adaptive Conversion:

Adaptive Conversion
- The convert is motivated primarily by internally generated searching.
- The new belief system is at least relatively open and tolerant of other views.
- The convert’s critical faculties remain intact or are enhanced.
- The convert’s autonomy remains intact or is enhanced.
- The convert is well integrated, in that various aspects of his life (values, social relationships, personal history, talents, goals, educational achievements, and the like) are coherently incorporated into the new outlook and behaviour.


Harmful conversion
- Provoked by manipulation and pressure from outside forces
-New belief system is simplistic, absolutist, and intolerant of other views.
-Critical thinking is denigrated, and the convert’s critical abilities are impaired.
- The convert’s autonomy is diminished
- The convert is poorly integrated, that is, has undergone a radical personality change in which parts of the self are rigidly compartmentalised, has severed ties with past friends and family, denies or diminuishes the importance of personal history.
- The convert is exploited financially or psychologically by the group