ROBERTA, you wrote to me,

Jacob, just based on personal observation of people attracted to cults -- and it's a small sample -- the initial attraction seems, at least in part, to an imposition of order and structure that imparts meaning (otherwise lacking for them) to their lives. And the same seems to be true for some people drawn as adults to "activist" religious groups.

Sounds logic. Again the principle of order. You probably know that the Second Law of Thermodynamics (considered by some as the 'Supreme Law') is about entropy, the natural tendency to disorder. Living organisms use energy to counteract entropy.
Delving on "meaning" is more problematic. I feel more inclined to think along scientific lines, when possible. The mere fact that some people are compelled to do something eccentric in order to feel relevant, points to an individual mental problem. The difficulty resides in determining if the problem is neurotic
, the result of mental ("psychological") conflicts, or from a
neuronal
(brain related, structural or fuctional, i.e., biochemical) disturbance.
Remember the Cartesian doubt: don't just believe, reason! Cultists lack specific neurons necessary for logical reasoning; as a result, they need somebody to tell them how to think. fMRI will show that prefrontal brain areas are underdeveloped.

OK, I'll exercise a little Cartesian doubt here. :-) How large are the studies demonstrating this connection? Large enough and sufficiently validated to support a general conclusion? How do these studies tie in with the 'brainwashing' techniques employed by some cults to secure the loyalty of their members?

I said "studies will show"; I was just extrapolating from other type of studies on people with structural damages of prefrontal areas of the brain... As for the 'brainwashed,' they are willing "victims."

Most people find some degree of order attractive. The degree of order that they desire, and the extent to which they're willing to surrender freedom of thought and action to attain it, vary. Cultists may simply occupy the extreme end of the range.

It figures; however, there is the intangible of being exposed or not to an agent of the cult. Different types of cult will be found to be determined by the type of prefrontal neuronal defect (usually genetically determined by point mutations).

Now you really have my Cartesian doubt going. I'd like to read more. Where should I be pointing and clicking?

Genes are large and complex molecules, susceptible to localized modifications (point mutations) or breaks (deletions). The resulting abnormal proteins cannot function correctly. Take, for instance, the protein that I discovered --Folate Protein Binder -- required for the entrance of the vitamin Folic Acid into the cells. There are already known several mutations, one of which is so severe that the vitamin is prevented from entering the cells. You probably don't know that memory is probably based on specific proteins. Since memory is the stuff of the mind, i.e., the soul, you can guess what happens to the soul when those proteins fail. The time is arriving fast when people will have to know more neuroscience in order to opine about matters of the brain in respect to its function as the site of the mind, which is the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious manifestations of the brain.