"I would just start up an open, friendly, noncommittal conversation and move around to talking about the group,"Ruth said. "If the person I was talking to was having troubles in life I would say, ŒWhat worked for me was this great outfit that I hooked up with. It really turned my life around. We've got a meeting coming up ...' It was really a soft sell type of deal."

Ruth, a former cult member who is now the president of Cult Information Services of Northeast Ohio, said cults tend to recruit new members around college campuses, so people need to be aware of their presence.

"There are a lot of groups in the area, both religious and nonreligious, that are of concern,"Ruth said. "Do we need to get out the swat teams? No, but people need to be aware, not afraid, but aware of the cult-like groups that exist around nearly all college campuses."

Shelby Black, a staff member with Late Night Christian Fellowship, said she was approached in the Kent Student Center by cult members a week before spring break this year.

"A large number of students are being contacted here every week,"Black said. "Last year at this time there was a problem with students baptizing others in the bathrooms."

Some might think these people are just a bunch of religious fanatics, Black said. But the members of Kent's Campus Ministry Organization said their organization does not participate in these or any types of cult-like activities, she said.

"It is not my job to get anyone into heaven or save anyone,"Black said. "I'm not about stalking students, and among (Campus Ministry Organizations) there is no one pressuring you to live and be a certain way."

Religious cults require members to live specific ways, demanding complete time and attention and fully taking over someone's life, Black said.

Members of religious cults must go through a discipler to make all life decisions, including whom to date and eventually marry, with no personal choices involved, she said.

"A cult is a collection of individuals with a philosophy, an organization and a system of beliefs which support their world view,"Joseph Martin, a counselor at White Hall counseling center, said. "The problem with this definition is anything could be a cult. What sets a cult off from mainline organizations is the brainwashing effect, where individuals lose their sense of self identity and take on that of the cult leader."

When a person conforms to this external authority, they lose their personal freedom and right of regress from the organization, Martin said.

The Rev. Chuck Graham of United Christian Ministries, said part of what defines a cult is this taking away of personal freedom.

"A cult is a group that is not honest and straightforward,"Graham said. "They are deceitful, impacting behavior negatively by dictating personal associations, dominating time and painting the world in a black and white language where doubts and questions are not tolerated.

"The body and soul need variety,"Graham said. "If you get into unhealthy organizations every waking moment is scheduled for you."

Graham said people often get caught up in stereotypes, appearances or the association a group's name may have with a cult. Graham said by doing this a person sets themselves up to get sucked into a cult-like group not yet labeled a cult.

Graham said cult members look like people who are not in a cult.

"There are no flashing strobe lights with people standing on their heads chewing carrot sticks,"Graham said. "The issue is not the content of the beliefs of the group. What makes a cult destructive is not religious or theology. Any group practicing ŒX' behaviors can be a cult."

When a group's behavior crosses the line from allowing individual freedom and choice to controlling an individual's life, problems arise, Graham said. Mind control, also called brainwashing, is a behavior that crosses that line, he said.

Martin, who is also a counselor with the JANUS partial hospital program at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna, said mind control often occurs on a retreat, where the recruit is required to listen to nonstop indoctrination while being continuously monitored by a cult member.

Martin said recruits are attracted by a process he calls Œflirty-fishing' were cult members befriend people in a crisis, offering them the hook of ŒI can help ... there are some friends I want you to meet.'

"People who are most likely candidates for a cult would be like most people we know - well meaning, intelligent people, but in a time of crisis and weakness, become candidates,"Martin said. "Likely candidates have a void they want filled - a pain taken away, are unsure of themselves, are feeling isolated or have little peer association."

Ruth, who is also a lab manager at the Liquid Crystal Institute, said although his comments may sound self-serving, cults recruit generally intelligent people in a vulnerable position.

"Cults don't want junk,"Ruth said. "They want talented, bright people who can dream, imagine a better future, are willing to look at changing their lives and are not set in their ways. These people are most likely to respond to the destructive group's trainings."