Based on media reports, it appears that there has been an exponential gain in religious cults throughout the world. But who are these ersatz religions and what are they up to. This important book illuminates their activities, backgrounds and aims.A great weakness about religion is that its practices can be easily counterfeited. Most cults create a religious atmosphere where recruits are unlikely to suspect anything devious. The deceits of destructive cults give cults that initial, if not permanent, advantage over the recruit.Information is of critical importance in forewarning others, particularly of the cult's hidden agenda that destroy personalities. This work is most informative about cults, particularly about cult intrusions on the religious scene. The infiltrations are revealed in this book through an in-depth look at major areas of religious concern (i.e. fundamentalism, fanaticism). Many procedures seen in conventional religions have been adopted by cults. For example: doomsday statements have been turned into signals for mass suicide; absolute doctrines have served to isolate members from any outside influence; and visions of Satan have been used to promote insurmountable distrust.The search for remedies to the cult problem finds scarce resources available. Individual case histories are presented and offer a measure of hope in breaking free from a cult. The best resource for counter acting cults would seem to come from the religious community itself. Among a number of disturbing issues the disruption engineered between the recruits and their families continues to be of paramount concern.