The same reasons perfectly intelligent people join and remain in actual cults. Honestly, there are so many factors involved in it's hard to enumerate them all

The same reasons perfectly intelligent people join and remain in actual cults. Honestly, there are so many factors involved in it's hard to enumerate them all in an HN post. For those who are intrigued by actual cults, I strongly recommend the podcast "Cults" on the ParCast network. It can come off as a little dry at first, but stay with it, they not only tell the story of the cults they cover they also reference real, mainstream psychological researching explaining the motivations of the cult leaders and members. It will change the way you think about all organizations, not just fanatical religions.