Cult psychology and the end of the world

Issue 9: On why people stick with cults, even after they are proven wrong; flattery inflation and cults of personality; conspiratorial beliefs; and how to think clearly.

Ten years ago, Jay gathered with our friends Wil (left) and Dave (right) to mark an inauspicious occasion. On what turned out to be a beautiful spring evening, they raised their glasses to salute the end of the world.

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and we feel fine.

According to preacher and Christian radio host Harold Camping, May 21, 2011 was, “beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Judgment Day. At around 6 pm (Jay’s time), Camping claimed, the earth would be shattered by earthquakes and the Rapture would begin. "There would follow five months of fire, brimstone and plagues on Earth, with millions of people dying each day, culminating on October 21, 2011, with the final destruction of the world."

And that would, for our terrestrial existence at least, be that.

Admittedly, Jay and his compatriots were skeptical. Contrary to Camping, they believed that the earth’s history extended farther back than 11,013 BC (the rather precise year to which Camping dated the creation of the world) and …