Hey Floh!
As I said on one of the endless earlier threads, I have never been able to make a satisfactory distinction. "Religions" have "cultish" aspects and "cults" have "religious" aspects. The line is completely blurred because it is all a matter of perspective.
Are you being brainwashed against your will or is it your will to stay? Two different people might give a very different answer. Who gets to decide which answer is right.
It seems that lots of people start throwing around the "cult" word when they perceive a certain mode of spritual belief/practice to be dangerous and scary. That's not a definition I find particularly helpful.
I look at "religion" and "cult" as, for all practical purposes, synonymous terms.