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Episode 33 - Cults
Creating a definition of what exactly is a cult is very difficult because they have so many incarnations in the world. But there is a way to define some of their properties. Four of these properties are present in all cults and there are some additional properties are only present in some cults.
1) The primary property of a cult is that of an additional influence on the social hierarchy in that the leaders of the cult are always elevated in relation to the followers. This property is always present (but is difficult to distinguish from other social hierarchies).
2) There is always a set of rules that is not being instituted by the society/community that the cult members live in. Sometimes these rules are well defined and sometimes they are somewhat ambiguous or shifting. These rules generally are used to elevate the leaders of the cult and gain/maintain control over the followers.
3) The leaders of a cult will always make a claim to knowledge that is unavailable to the followers. Sometimes this takes the form of having access to a higher being, sometimes it is more mundane knowledge. This property always works to elevate the importance of the leaders.
4) There is always an act of blocking or discrediting outside sources of information. This is primarily done to gain or maintain a greater control over the followers.

Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview