Inspiration

The interest for my project derives from my research I have done in the field of propaganda and religious cults already. During my first stay in San Francisco I bought a book simply called Propaganda. It was written by Edward Bernays in 1928 and for all its years it is still kind of a "bible" to people in the Public Relations business. Bernays is a nephew of Siegmund Freud and he is also referred to as the father of P.R. It is said that Propagandaminister Joseph Goebbels kept a copy of this book in his shelves and that he learned a lot about the techniques on how to control a mass from Bernays.
What strikes me most about Bernays's book is his ability to explain complex techniques by having simple examples for his theories. Here is a little excerpt from his book:

It was one of the doctrines of the reaction psychology that a certain stimulus often repeated would create a habit, or that the mere reiteration of an idea would create a conviction. Suppose the old type of salesmanship, acting for a meat packer, was seeking to increase the sale of bacon. It would reiterate innumerable times in full-page advertisements: "Eat more bacon. Eat bacon because it is cheap, because it is good, because it gives you reserve energy."
The newer salesmanship, understanding the group structure of society and the principles of mass psychology, would first ask: "Who is it that influences the eating habits of the public?" The answer, obviously, is: "The physicians." The new salesman will then suggest to physicians to say publicly that it is wholesome to eat bacon. He knows as a mathematical certainty, that large numbers of persons will follow the advice of their doctors, because he understands the psychological relation of dependence of men upon their physicians.

taken from this page where you can read the whole book online

Bernays writes that a mere reiteration could result in a conviction. This simple conclusion represents for me a core element of a cult phenomenon. Not only cults work by repeating their message repetitively and letting their devoted followers repeat the main doctrines but all major religion work in a similar way. The other important aspect in this excerpt is the use of people with authority to spread your message. Scientology for example uses their celebrities like Tom Cruise or John Travolta to advertise for Scientology.
Bernays book gave me a good insight about the structure of propaganda and more specifically about Public Relations. I find a lot of parrallels between the work of a P.R. agency and the way Scientology communicates through modern media. For my futher research I will probably mention Bernays book a few more times.