Page 15 of Atlas
“Thank you.” I plunked down in my chair and fired up my laptop. “That was considerate of you.”
“Do you even know what city this is? You keep traveling so much.”
“Well, it’s not like we have a huge group of former cult members for me to interview here in Chicago, is it?”
“No, but what’s wrong with Skype or Messenger? Why do you need to fly around like a manic person?”
I ignored Brian’s question. He’d already asked me the same thing several times. I liked traveling and meeting new people. In my first month, I’d already been to Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington State. Visiting all fifty states had been on my wish list since I was a child, and if C.M. Research was willing to pay my plane tickets for me to go around the country to talk to people, I wouldn’t complain. At least not as long as I was single.
“So, did you learn something interesting?” Brian got up and moved some boxes around. The space around his desk always looked a bit chaotic.
“This week, I went to Utah and interviewed people who used to be part of the Unification Church, Children of God, and Jonestown. And I’m starting to see a pattern.”
“Interesting.”
“What’s interesting?” Diane walked in with her bag over her shoulder and her many little braids hanging down her shoulder for once.
“Good morning.” I smiled at her. “I was just telling Brian that after interviewing more than forty former cult members and going over a dozen memoirs from others, I’m starting to see a pattern.”
“Really?” Diane took off her jacket and set down her bag next to her desk. “We’ve never been able to pin down what demographic is more susceptible to being drawn into a cult. It seems to be poor, rich, old, and young, and they come from all types of backgrounds and races.”
“Yes, I agree, but if you peel all those outer criteria away, the pattern that emerges connects to their souls.”
“Their souls?” Brian scoffed and used his fat fingers to twist his mustache and run through his thin curly brown hair. “Don’t tell me you’re a religious nutter too. If you begin to talk about angels, warn me so I can take a coffee break, because there’s nothing more depressing than seeing a woman’s beauty fade as she rants about religion.”
Diane shook her head at Brian. “And you wonder why you’re still single. Jeezus, the things that come out of your mouth.” Turning back to me, she motioned for me to go on.
“The pattern between the people I’ve interviewed isn’t based on demographics or intelligence, but rather the fact that they all felt an emptiness inside before joining. The cults offered them a sense of connection to a group that cared about them and took away their feeling of being lost and alone. And what’s more, the cults offered instructions on how to live and what to think. That sort of rigid doctrine might repel you, Brian, but the people I interviewed got sucked in because, for the first time, they didn’t feel overwhelmed by the world. The cult leader had all the answers they needed, and they chose to believe that if they just followed that person, they would be fine.”
Diane walked over to get herself a cup of coffee. “Yeah, Atlas said something similar. It makes sense.”
“He did?” I felt disappointed because I’d hoped to impress him with my observation.
“Oh, speaking of the devil.” Brian reached out a fist to Atlas, who entered bringing a whiff of expensive cologne with him. “Don’t leave me hanging, boss.” Brian looked to his outstretched fist bump.
Atlas frowned a little but still fist-bumped Brian before nodding to Diane and me. “Good morning.”
“You’re early. I didn’t think you’d be here until this afternoon.” Diane reached out the cup of coffee in her hands to Atlas. “Do you want a cup?”
“No, thank you. I already had a large cup on my way here. Do we have time for a status meeting?”
“Sure.” Diane went back to her seat and rolled her chair to the edge of her desk. Brian, who had been standing, lowered himself to the side of his desk, while I followed Diane’s example.
“Great.” Atlas removed his fashionable jacket and scarf and took a seat himself. “I’d love a quick update from each of you.”
“Oh, can I start,” Brian asked. “My first test group will be here in less than twenty minutes, and I have to prepare the room.” When no one objected, Brian continued, “Today, I’m doing another round of the attractive hustler experiment. So far, the test results are in alignment with the Halo experiment. The test people are attributing positive characteristics to the attractive people in the video. There’s little variation in whether or not the attractive person in the movie is male or female.”
“And what about their judgment when it turns out that the attractive person is a hustler?” Diane asked.
“Well, in general, the higher the level of attractiveness that they’ve rated the hustler at before knowing his or her tricks, plays a factor in their judgment of that person.”
Atlas crossed his arms and pushed his glasses in place. “So, our hypothesis that people are more lenient toward people they find attractive turned out to be true?”
Brian tilted his head from one side to the other. “It seems that way, but we’ll need a larger group of test subjects to conclude anything.”
“All right, keep it up. And what about you, Diane? How is the experiment on group dynamics going?”
Diane sighed. “I’m sorry to say on behalf of my fellow human beings that we’re fooling ourselves by thinking we’re in control. Out of forty-five test subjects, only seven reacted to the smoke test so far.”
