When I was a kid in Hebrew School in the 70's, there was a lot of concern in the American Jewish Communities over teens new to college or universities being mentally and emotionally sandbagged by what were later called "cults."
(I still don't like using that word in the newer context, it is easily misunderstood when applied to various orders and sub-orders in religious groups that engage in ritual specialized to their beliefs and practices. For example "The Cult of Mary." And in that older context, I am affiliated with a cult-like order within our religious organization.)
ISKCON (The International Society of Krishna Consciousness), Dianetics/Scientology, the following of Bagwan Sri Rajneesh (the guru who now goes by the name Osho), "Jews for Jesus," The Unification Church (Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the "Moonies") and a handful of others found especially young secular-leaning half-assimilated Jewish kids to be laughably easy targets.
I attended three or four annual seminars coordinated through the synagogues in our area, weekend retreats called Shabbatons, where we engaged in group exercises, role-playing, Q&A sessions on brain-washing, social engineering and manipulation, traditional or deliberately misleading or inaccurate translations of the Hebrew in the Tanakh (the 5 books of Moses, Apocrypha, Prophets, Writings,) and role-playing sessions on dealing with pushy, "nice" or intense evangelicals and missionaries.
Among the valuable lessons we learned:
* These people spend hours or their lifetime engaging in work like this. Just because you had a weekend talking about it doesn't mean you're going to be able to out-think these people.
* You were taught to be polite and nice to others. They will use that to get you into their circle - after all, they invited you to dinner! That's so nice! How can you say no?
* The best, fastest and safest way to deal with this is to say "Thank you for your concern" and walk away. Or shut the door. Or cut off all conversation in a way that leaves no possible doubt or opening.
* DO NOT GO TO WEEKEND RETREATS. DEX found this one out the hard way, sort of, in college he and a friend had a mutual friend who wanted to get involved with this group. He recounted to me how they kept everyone up late, fed very little (most meals were cottage cheese raisin sandwiches on whole wheat toast,) and learned first-hand that the combination of low blood sugar, sleep deprivation and "love bombing" is a really powerfully manipulative combination.
There was more, but the lesson that stuck with me most and best was "Thank You For Your Concern." Like I've said, I love the back-and-forth and discussion/debate with those who are able to think and not simply parrot what they've been indoctrinated with, but I am also capable of using that tool as a shut-off switch.
By the way, this has been a delightful thread! I loved reading everyone's contributions. Thank you for starting and continuing with it!