Sex cults harm targets through psychological, physical, financial, and social tactics designed to break autonomy and enforce dependency, often escalating from grooming to outright abuse. Psychological Harm Leaders use love bombing followed by gaslighting (“You’re imagining the abuse”), isolation from family (“They’re jealous of your growth”), and thought-stopping phrases (“Doubt is the devil”) to erode self-trust, inducing shame, PTSD-like flashbacks, and identity loss.[discovermagazine +1] Physical and Sexual Exploitation Drugging (GHB/Rohypnol mid-ritual), forced branding (NXIVM), starvation drills, or ritualized rape frame violations as “enlightenment,” causing STIs, injuries, and dissociation.[academicworks.cuny +1] Financial and Social Ruin Demand asset surrender, unpaid labor, or prostitution (“flirty fishing” in Children of God), then shun defectors with smear campaigns, leaving victims destitute and ostracized.