That is correct. The original poster was saying that generally cults will be rather unpleasant for most mid<->lower level members, but are pleasant for the peo

That is correct. The original poster was saying that generally cults will be rather unpleasant for most mid<->lower level members, but are pleasant for the people at the top (generally by extracting value from those lower-level members, whether it's labor, money, or sexual favors). This seems a bit counterintuitive, of course - "if it's unpleasant, why the hell wouldn't they leave?". Usually cults have coercive tools that either make it difficult for someone to leave, or manage to brainwash them into believing they would be more unhappy outside of the cult.