Salamanca is not an exception, nor is it an isolated case when it comes to sects, he assures Miguel Perlado, clinical psychologist and sect specialist with more than thirty years of experience.
The capital of Tormes will be the scene in March of a conference focused on analyzing a phenomenon that, in the popular heritage, usually mistakenly associate with hidden points, eccentric leaders or gruesome crimes. However, reality differs from this ‘simplistic’ scheme; sects really move with discretion, adapting to the demands of the new times, operating in calculated form and trying not to raise suspicions even in everyday environments.
The conferences, which are held in Salamanca as part of a journey that changes venues every year, do not respond to a specific alarm, but to a clear strategy: extend knowledge about these groups wherever its presence is detected. Like, for example, in Salamanca.
They do not operate in visible, recognizable or identifiable at first glance as sects, but rather they are camouflaged under alternative therapy centers, proposals of confusing spirituality or growth initiatives.
Adhering to these precepts, there are around ten sects that have been identified in Salamanca, to which are added others that operate in the digital field, which makes them more difficult to track, locate and quantify.
This, explains Perlado, means that the sects no longer are defined by a specific aesthetic or by a recognizable religious idea, but for its dynamics.
A sect can be defined as such if the following points are met: a charismatic and self-proclaimed leader from which uncritical devotion is required, a highly cohesive group that uses techniques of excessive influence and a final result that always implies harm. Psychological, emotional, economic, physical or even sexual harm. When those pieces fit together, the risk is real and tangible, although from the outside it may be difficult to appreciate it.
The truth and truth is that the phenomenon has evolved in parallel to society, becoming a kind of reflection of the current times.
This means that, although in the seventies the discourse was communal and political, today it is individualistic and emotional. It is said that everything revolves around well-being, energy, personal improvement, vibration, healing.
The sects are well aware of the current social context and take advantage of it to attract followers: loneliness, uncertainty, emotional precariousness and strong pressure to “be the best version of yourself”. In return, sects offer a group, belonging and closed answers in a world plagued by doubts and uncertainties. The first connection, Miguel warns, is not ideological, but affective. Feel heard, welcomed, validated. The rest comes later.
As far as Salamanca is concerned, it is a particularly sensitive city. Its university population, and its implicit constant vital transitions: The entry into adult life, the change of city or personal crises are ideal moments for sects to deploy their weapons of seduction. Changes of city, family breakups or personal crises are favorable moments so that these groups do the same. The curious thing is that they do it not from a threat, but from a promise without apparent rush, although the pressure to decide quickly ends up arriving. “It is now or never”, “this opportunity will not be repeated”, “if you doubt it is your ego speaking”. The language is different, but the logic is always the same.
One of the great errors that remains entrenched in the brains of those of us who make up society, the specialist insists, is automatically associating the concept of sect with criminality. However, most do not start like this because the process is slow, almost invisible, a slow cooking that ends up eliminating its own route.
This concludes with the victim convinced that he freely chose to be a participant in an organization. whose networks are based on manipulation.
It is for this reason that we should not be surprised at all that, in a court, an adult arrives even to defend his guru, denying having been coerced.
The damage, therefore, often It is inconspicuous from the outside but, on an internal level, it destroys everything in its path. Everything known, established and taken as correct.
That is why when a victim manages to leave a sect, the impact on a psychological level is usually devastating: anxiety, fear, guilt, anxiety, loss of identity and a extreme distrust towards those around you and even towards yourself.
Many former members, Perlado continues, report a feeling of strangeness, something as if the world were governed by codes foreign to their own existence and condition and of something not one’s own.
In fact, the first year after abandonment is especially sensitive and critical and, therefore, in some cases the suffering becomes unbearable and drives the victim to return to the group; not out of conviction, but more out of relief from emptiness.
The conferences held in Salamanca, through conferences by professionals, testimonies from family members and people who have left these groups, aim to offer information, context and tools.
The message with which Perlado concludes is not always comfortable, but it can be crucial for those who form, or they are about to form part of a sect: doubting is healthy and taking time is also healthy. Lean on close people, listen even to those who say things you don’t like and distrust any proposal that Demand immediate decisions or total surrender. Because sects do not usually present themselves as prisons, but as refuges.
