https://cultrecovery101.com/cult-recovery-readings/checklist-of-cult-characteristics/

Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel.

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members

The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.