Comment by wiredfool

It's really worth reading up on the techniques from Large Group Awareness Training so that you can recognize them when they pop up.

Once you see them listed (social pressure, sleep deprivation, control of drinking/bathroom, control of language/terminology, long exhausting activities, financial buy in, etc) and see where they've been used in cults and other cult adjacent things it's a little bit of a warning signal when you run across them IRL.