What is a cult?

I have heard a lot about cults about them killing themselves and burning themselves and setting fire to stuff and casting spell etc ect. ... but is any of that true??? what is a cult and what do they do ???

they're people that start this little group doing weird stuff, but aren't big or cool enough to be a religion

A cult is a religion too new to be accepted as legitemate by most people.

Cults are religious in nature. Their beliefs are outside of the traditionally accepted religions. A cult is not necessarily a bad thing. They are only bad when they have a bad leader or overzealous followers. The things that make them dangerous are when you are separated from your friends and the leader or their followers censor family and everything about the world outside of the cult. When this happens you have no way of checking the validity of their statements. In this kind of environment the leader can become intoxicated on the feeling of power over others and become abusive and dangerous.

it's just a group of people
and thats about it

It's not that they're new, I think. They are often short-lived and don't get the chance to become 'legitimate' because they depend on one charismatic leader and tend not to survive after he/she dies.

But on the other hand, Christianity was seen as a Jewish cult for a while, and Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesess are seen as cults, and they've been around for a while.