Cult Structures

Elena: I'm including all this information because for those of us who are serious about understanding the problem, it is all relevant even if it is based in France. It gives us a great look into what needs to be done in other countries and the power of the different cults. It "systematizes" the information giving us a guideline to follow. 

The Cult Structures

The number of movements listed by the DCRG and answering one of the criteria of danger indicated above amounts today to 172 for the "organization-mothers." The inclusion of the "subsidiary companies" in the study makes it possible to note the existence, in France, of a veritable "cult nebula" numbering more than 800 satellites.
A study of the geographical distribution of the sects shows that the phenomenon is not uniformly distributed over French territory.

1. Mother sect
2. Mother sect and subsidiaries
3. Mother sect, subsidiaries and independent followers?

The Cult Followers

If it is difficult to carry out a precise figuring, it is more difficult to distinguish the true follower from the occasional disciple or of the simple sympathizer. General Information estimates at 160,000 the number of at least occasional followers, and at 100,000 the number of sympathizers.
It is however necessary to refine these results while making the point that 80% of the movements gather less than 500 followers, nearly 60 sects number even less than 50 followers. One thus notes a concentration of the cult phenomenon in forty movements, which one will see, in addition, that it is those which generally answer a great number of criteria of danger.
The following lists present, classified alphabetically and in sections by number of followers, those movements which can, using the yardstick of the defined criteria, be described as cultish.
- Cult Movements of Less than 50 Followers: 

- Cult Movements with from 50 to 500 followers:

- Cult Movements with 500 to 2,000 followers:

- Cult Movements with 2,000 to 10,000 followers:
Association Lucien J. Engelmajet
CEDIPAC SA (ex-GEPM)
Chevaliers du Lotus d'or [Knights of the Lotus of Gold]
Communauté des petits frères et des petites soeurs du Sacré-coeur [Community of the little brothers and little sisters of Sacred Heart]
Eglise de scientologie de Paris [Church of Scientology of Paris]
Eglise néo-apostolique de France
Eglise universelle du royaume de Dieu
Energie humaine et universelle France - HUE France
Institut de science vedique maharishi Paris - C.P.M. - Club pour méditants ( " Méditation transcendentale " )
Mouvement Raëlien français
Shri Ram Chandra Mission France
Soka Gakkai internationale France
Lastly, the number of Jehovah's Witnesses can be estimated at 130,000.

Dynamics of the Cult Phenomenon

One could a priori think of appreciating the dynamics of the cult phenomenon by comparing the two assessments drawn up with thirteen years of interval by General Information ().
A certain number of reasons, however, prohibit us from being able to draw significant conclusions from such a comparison. Indeed:
- the investigation of 1995, unlike that carried out in 1982, does not incorporate the results of the investigation (in progress) in the DOM-TOM;
- the least sensitizing of the investigators to the specificity of the cult phenomenon had not been able, in 1982, to make it possible to include in the study the "masked subsidiary companies";
- the qualification of certain movements considered as cultish in 1982 (Christian dissidents, anthroposophie [humanism?], esoteric groups) was re-examined in 1995. Conversely, new movements were qualified as cultish in 1995 whereas they did not seem such in 1982 (Lucien J. Engelmajer Association, said "the Patriarch"). the question remains hanging in addition for groupings recently appeared, which were not retained in 1995 (Grouping, Herbalife).
Only of main tendencies can thus be released, which can be synthesized in the table hereafter:

	1982	1995
Number of movements	~ 190	~ 170
Number of subsidiaries	N/A	~ 800
Number of followers	~100.000	~160.000
Number of above who are Jehovah's Witnesses	75.000	130.000
Number of sympathizers	" 50.000	" 100.000

Most significant seems to be the multiplication of the "subsidiary companies" of the cult movements, much more today than those detected in 1982, even if a precise enumeration had not then been carried out. Like it was already known as, the phenomenon of the "hidden satellites" was embryonic at the time and, in a general way, the cultts definitely were more disseminated than today. As an example, one will mention that, according to DCRG'S, nearly 60 subsidiary companies are attached to the Church of Scientology.
The increase in the number of cult movements is undeniable. Typology study (cf. infra) shows that this increase is due to some extent to strength of the current "New Age," which saw the number of its structures increasing considerably, even if those gather only one low number of followers.
The progression of the number of followers and sympathizers is considerable since it is 60% for the former and 100% for the latter.
Even if it cannot be measured with a scientific exactitude, cult dynamics is thus significant, whatever the criterion selected to appreciate it.
This appreciation is corroborated by more indirect observations, more indirect of the experts who have studied the cult phenomenon.


2.- Evaluation by Different Experts
Two great associations have today as an aim the fight against the cult phenomenon.
The oldest is the National Union of Associations for the Defense of the Family and the Individuals (UNADFI), which gathers twenty local associations, whose first was founded in 1974.
Seven years later the Center for Resources, Education, and Action Against Mental Manipulation (CCMM) was formed on the initiative of Roger Ikor, following the death of his very young son, a victim of a cult.
It is to be announced that other experts have a recognized competence on the cult phenomenon: doctors, academics, men of the church, journalists, they belong to the most various horizons.
The table hereafter recapitulates the estimates provided on the number of followers of certain cults by certain a shade of works published between 1977 and 1987. It shows clearly that in the space of these ten years, the supposed number of the followers of each one of them increased considerably, except the Mission of Divine Light.
UNADFI in addition communicated to the Commission an estimate, for 1995, of the number of followers of principal cults established in France. This partial census reveals, for only about thirty cults quoted, which does not include Jehovah's Witnesses, a number of followers higher than 120,000. This estimate thus seems appreciably higher than that of General Information, which estimates at 160,000 the number of followers of the some 172 groupings that they recognize as cults.
The same variation is perceptible for the number of cultish structures, generally evaluated between 200 and 300 (one of the interlocutors of the Commission has even advanced the figure of 1,000).
The following statement, made before the Commission, correctly translated the estimated importance of the cult phenomenon at the same time as the difficulty of apprehending it.