Knowledge can save people from evil cults

TV grab taken from CCTV shows Zhang Lidong accused of killing a woman at a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan city in East China's Shandong province on 28 May 2014, stands trial at the Yantai Intermediate People's Court in the province's Yantai city in this 11 October 2014 file photo. In his latest book Cults In and Out, Rick Alan Ross, an expert in the study of cults, says destructive cults have sprouted in the United States because they exploit religious beliefs, and some even define themselves as "religions" to get special protection and tax exemptions. Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi, according to Ross's book, has also told his adherents that they will appear younger and the elderly will have fewer wrinkles, which will eventually disappear, if they follow his teachings. Yet why do people fall prey to destructive sects such as Falun Gong or the East Lightning cult?