Every couple months a new member in our Discord server drops a familiar question into the chat: “Are you a cult?”
While the question often comes from someone looking to provoke a reaction, answering it directly helps clarify what a cult actually is, how the Church of Body Modification operates, and why the two are fundamentally different.
What Defines a Cult?
Sociologists who study high-control groups define a cult by patterns of behavior, authority, and manipulation. A cult is defined by how it treats its members rather than unusual beliefs alone. Four common warning signs of a high-control group include:
- Authoritarian Control: Power rests entirely with a single, unquestionable leader or small elite circle whose authority cannot be challenged.
- Isolation from Society: Members are encouraged or forced to sever ties with family, friends, and outside information sources to create total dependence on the group.
- Financial or Personal Exploitation: Leaders demand significant financial donations, unpaid labor, or complete control over members’ personal decisions, careers, and relationships.
- Pervasive Fear and High Barriers to Exit: Leaving the group brings severe psychological pressure, shunning, harassment, or threats of spiritual harm.
Historical and modern groups such as the Peoples Temple, Heaven’s Gate, and NXIVM fit these definitions. In those organizations, leaders exerted total control over members’ daily lives, isolated them from loved ones, and punished dissent.
Why the Church of Body Modification Is Different
Measured against these criteria, the CoBM does not exhibit these high-control traits.
Shared Governance Without a Dictator The CoBM has no single charismatic figurehead claiming divine absolute authority. Leadership consists of a Board of Directors and ministers who serve as mentors,facilitators, and guides. Their goal is to support members on their personal journeys rather than dictate how anyone must live.
Integration, Not Isolation Members live regular lives within their own local communities. They hold jobs, attend school, maintain diverse personal relationships, and engage fully with the outside world. The CoBM encourages critical thinking and independent decision-making.
Zero Coercion or Exploitation Participation is completely voluntary. The CoBM does not demand tithes, require financial surrender, or instruct members on how to spend their money or time.
An Open Door Policy Joining or leaving the CoBM is straightforward and free of consequence. Members move in and out of active participation based on their personal life stages and needs. Anyone who chooses to walk away faces no shunning, retaliation, or harassment.
What the CoBM Actually Is
Once you get past the knee-jerk reaction to the word “cult”, it becomes easier to see what the Church of Body Modification is actually about.
The CoBM functions as a spiritual community focused on bodily sovereignty, self-ownership, and personal growth. Members believe that physical transformation through tattoos, piercings, scarification, and other modifications can serve as meaningful rituals for healing, personal growth, and spiritual balance.
The CoBM provides a community where people can explore their own spiritual paths, learn from one another, and make their own decisions while respecting the sovereignty of others.
We understand why people ask the cult question. The word carries weight and history. Our hope is that this explanation helps you see the difference between high-control groups and a community built on consent, autonomy, and mutual respect.
To offer a broader perspective, we posed this question to our community in our Discord server. Here is how some of our members described their experience:
Jolene wrote:
A cult will typically tell you that they have the answer to your life questions, but the way we operate is the opposite. We operate believing that each person is their own expert and knows what they need or don’t need. Maybe guidance will help, but it is never forced, only available upon request, without judgement.
It’s one of the things that originally drew me into membership here. In my line of work, I was taught the concept of ‘person-centered services.’ It’s basically the concept that my job is to honor that person’s autonomy and free will while ensuring baseline health and safety.
Patrick wrote:
One of the things I believe in and appreciate about the Church of Body Modification is the emphasis on personal choice, bodily autonomy, consent, and individual spiritual growth. I don’t feel like I’m being told what I have to believe about every spiritual question or what I have to do with my own body.
Instead, I see CoBM as a community where people can learn from one another, receive guidance when they want it, and explore the spiritual meaning of body modification while still making their own decisions.
To me, there’s an important difference between guidance and control. A healthy spiritual community can offer guidance while still allowing people to question things, disagree, say no, and ultimately make their own choices.
