Hopefully some of the popular misconceptions have been overcome in this article. People don't join cults. They are recruited. People are recruited by a method not a message. People do not stay in cults because they have nothing better to do with their lives, but because psychological coercion holds them there.
Cults intend to retain a hold on people for life, or for as long as they are valuable to the cult.
It is not a fad or a phase. Normal people from normal families are recruited into cults. Cult leaders should be blamed for the problems caused, not the individual members, ex-members or their families. It can happen to anyone. Cult members are sincere.