CULT WARNING SIGNS

• "Gut feelings" tell you something is wrong.

• The group or its leader possess the total and only truth.

• Pressure to cut ties with family members, friends and other attachments.

• Extreme, immediate and/or inappropriate attention or friendliness.

• Not answering questions or turning them back on the questioner.

• Jargon or language that makes no sense outside the group.

• A hard sell for commitment.

• Secrecy or inappropriate "confidentiality."

• Lack of privacy. You're required to constantly be with group members or be busy with group activities.

• Ends justify the means. It is OK to lie for the cause.

• Your strengths are criticized as weaknesses.

• Those who leave are shunned, or become enemies or objects of pity.

• No criticism is allowed of the group or its leader.

• Deception. What you get turns out to be entirely different than what you expected when you joined.

MORE INFORMATION

• "Inside Out: A Memoir of Entering and Breaking Out of a Minneapolis Political Cult," Alexandra Stein, North Star Press of St. Cloud, $16.95. Web site: http://www.alexandrastein.com.

• American Family Foundation Web site: http://www.csj.org. Provides information on cults and psychological manipulation.

• "Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives," Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich, Jossey-Bass Publishers, $19.95.

• "Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships," Madeleine Landau Tobias and Janja Lalich, Hunter House Publishers, $14.95. Web site: http://www.hunterhouse.com. Phone: 1-800-266-5592.