Spirituality that cuts itself off from religion can go totally astray and become entangled in the worst networks of deception, illusion, and power. We are all aware of the horror stories of individuals whose minds have been taken over by cults and sects. These individuals are offered emotional warmth and belonging. The price is the handing over of the individual mind. Cults are instinctively adept at mind altering. They seduce and exploit the natural longing for the spiritual. Unlike a great religious tradition which demands and requires the critical loyalty and inner opposition of its theologians, a cult has no theology. The counter-questions are neither invited nor allowed. The cult manages to hold you prisoner while making you feel and believe you are liberated and free. You could even feel pity and worry for those outside the cult, the lost ones who have not yet seen your light. The cult operates an efficient dualism, which separates mind and heart and splits self and society. It snares your longing in a sinister trap. The rise of cults testifies to the awful loneliness of post-modern culture. They are attractive because they seem to present a way of belonging that offers consolation, certainty, and purpose. Even though they do not actually deliver any of these possibilities in any real or truthful sense, their followers certainly invite us to look at the crisis of belonging in our society and religions.