The point of the cult? i.e. what do they (Dr. Joseph) have to gain?

I wondered the same thing, maybe he leads each lot of followers into thinking he's gonna kill himself with them, then just doesn't, but it's not like they can tell anyone he's a fake cos they're already dead. Then he gets a new batch of followers.

from the last video we can conclude that joseph already died and ask them to follow him (which is pretty noble from a cult leader) but you can interpret the movie symbolically were the cult is islam, but on this level the movie is still pretty critical of the demoralizing of the american society too.

http://i.imgur.com/fZcxG5i.gif

We've met before, haven't we?

They were a sucide cult kind of like Heaven's Gate in California & The Reverend Jim Jones in Giana. They found peace through death which is what the video showed. Hope this explains things for you!

Yeah, I don't think they lied about their goal: letting go and leaving pain and suffering behind.

Everybody's vulnerable, scared or wounded or missing loved ones, and looking for a purpose in their lives (we're going to call this The Problem). Dr. Joseph's cult offered a clear solution to The Problem. I find it entirely plausible that the Dr. bought into it as well.

This kind of thing is the main ingredient in many (if not all) established religions. The difference between an established religion and a cult is that the latter is more erratic, more eccentric, less thought-out and less likely to appeal to a truly large number of people.

And the difference between a random cult and a suicide cult is that the latter is much shorter-lived  - that's the price to pay for a quicker solution to The Problem.

there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder