The psychologist Margaret Singer argued that at any given time around 2.5 million people in the US alone are members of cults known to use brainwashing techniques. As a result, the cult members will always feel tired, rendering them powerless to resist the dictates of cult ideology. On the 20th anniversary of the Aum Shinrikyo sarin nerve gas attack, the Japan Times interviewed a former cult member, who described “eating one meal a day and sleeping a couple of hours each night” while working on an attempt to get the cult’s leader elected to parliament.