Charismatic Leaders

In the winter of 1972, I arrived in London, England, alone and hell bent on suicide. I was standing in a line at the American Express Office when I noticed a young woman, just ahead of me in line, that seemed to be a mirror of myself. She was exchanging English currency for American dollars, a cue that she was returning to the states. My eyes must have bored a hole into her back for she abruptly turned and stared straight back at me. Her eyes slowly descended, taking note of my brand new backpack and hiking boots. Hers by comparison were old and worn. She looked up at my face and smiled, "Would you go get a cup of coffee with me?" The sound of her California accent was soothing to my heart.

Within minutes we were sharing our deepest darkest secrets, as only two strangers ever do. First I divulged the wreckage of my life, then she spread before me the horrors that took her on the same suicidal trip a year earlier. She had been a follower of Charles Manson, imprisoned for attempting to smuggle him a weapon. After her release she "pan-handled" her way to Europe to get away from his power.

I trembled as I listened to her tale. I knew too well about Charles Manson. I was living in Los Angeles during his reign of terror. But somehow I could not reconcile those gruesome images with the beautiful young woman whose kind words were floating out towards me.

Ultimately we became good friends. In fact, she is why I am still alive today. For years after she returned to the states, we continued to correspond. Then she began to write about going back to Charlie. One day her letters stopped. What happened to her? Why couldn't she be free of him? She had admitted enumerable times that she did not want to go back to him, yet like an addiction, she could not resist.

Through the years I have watched family and friends get pulled into cults or cult like groups. People of all ages, intellectual levels and income brackets seemed to be vulnerable. In fact, it has been reported that around twenty million people have been involved in cults just in the last couple of decades. (Singer & Lalich, 1995 p.5) Almost 1200 people have died in notable mass suicides or cult-related deaths in that same time period.

The cult leader can be defined as a 'transformation leader,' or a person that can inspire followers to transcend their own needs in the interest of a common cause. They emerge during times of crisis and change, and although they have popped up across the strata of human history, the tragic mass-suicide-murders, tainting the last few decades, seem to be unique if not more numerous than before.

Past cults appealed to marginal groups, but ever since the 1960's, the disenfranchised have actually come from the mainstream of culture. There was a massive break from traditional societal values that necessarily left many people vulnerable. Then another phenomenon began which I think sheds some light on this unique time. At the end of every century our mortality is felt and a rash of doomsday prophets predict the worlds end. What we saw though, was not just a century's end but a millennium's end. Transformational leaders were appearing in record numbers never seen before.

I wanted to know what the characteristic of such a leader are. And I wanted to know who was vulnerable to their deathly message. Is it 'them' or could it be me or you? How can followers be manipulated to perform horrendous actions? Research to appear in a separate blog.