The final criterion for judging a group is the members’ freedom to leave. To put it simply, members of destructive cults are psychological prisoners. As I have explained, destructive cults plant phobias into members’ minds so that they fear ever leaving the group. By doing this, they shut the door on free choice. People had the freedom to join, but people don’t have the freedom to leave a destructive group. In fact, in the eyes of a destructive cult, there is no “legitimate” reason for a person to ever leave the group.
