We all have best friends, those people we spend all of our time with, those people we would do anything for. With those kinds of close relationships, we tend to develop special mannerisms within the group. They're special things that we say or do that only mean something to each other. They're feelings and beliefs that you commonly share and situations that have entirely different meanings when you're together. These qualities can indicate a very tight knit group of best friends or a cult.
1. Isolating Members
In all friend groups, there is a fair amount of picking on each other. Each member goes through it. They each have their turn to get mercilessly picked on. One member of my friend group spent the first three months another friend's 22nd year of life playing Taylor Swift's "22." Now, if that doesn't scream cult, I don't know what does.
2. Emphasizing Special Doctrines Outside Of Scripture
Cults tend to create their own "religion" and their own lore, often resulting in their own belief systems. In friend groups, we discuss inside jokes or inside lore. You make up your own stories about certain things. Every group has their own set of "rules." For instance, in my friend group, we have several silly rules revolving around each of our apartments. Every time that we play Nintendo Land Luigi's Ghost Mansion, we have to play with a blanket covering our entire bodies everytime that we are the "Ghost."
3. Opposing Critical Thinking
Cult groups usually oppose critical thinking by pushing their own belief systems. They often are very vocal about how their viewpoints are the correct ones. You can't honestly tell me that your friend group hasn't had a heated argument about differing viewpoints and how one is better than the other.
4. Creating And Implementing Codes
There are code words and secret messages that are used in the cult world to keep things quiet and to keep their secrets from getting out into the world. In each friend group, there are things that you can say that mean absolutely nothing to anyone other than your friends. Saying a certain word can mean that there's a hot guy/girl ahead or the code phrase could mean: "This person is super annoying." You'd be lying if you said that you didn't have any odes.
5. Relationship Control
In cults, the leaders are in charge of the relationships that the members hold. They have the final say on who you see and what kind of relationship that you have with them. Your friends are the people who have final say on your relationships, as well. I mean, there is such a thing as the best friend seal of approval, after all.
6. Information Control
Those who control the information control the person. In a cult, any information from outside the cult is considered evil, especially if it is opposing the cult. In your friend group, if someone says something rude or degrading about one of your friends, that is a red flag. You basically put your friends over anyone else and cut off the people who speak badly of them.
If your friends are anything like this, then you're probably in a cult. Good luck.
