Are There Religious Cults?

Many aserious cults are, many senses, very religious. They propagate the idea of a new society of a new way of doing things. You could see the hippies a bit like that. But there's one other thing to bear in mind, and that's goffman's concept of a total institution. These are institutions which change you completelya captive. So i can't easily distinguish between groups who come together for a philosophical aim, and what we would describe as a cult.