I sympathize with Rand for reasons that will not be fully expressed here. Her thoughts are very powerful and, I think, get to the root of our nature. I do not agree with her entirely though.

People fell under her will because they did not understand the thing she was expressing (contextualize this with current happenings). She understood more than they did. She understood that understanding is very circular and because of this, certain priorities as an individual should be established. Her 'cult' members were close to the idea, but clueless. She may have played along with this, but her intentions are irrelevant. At least for the sake of this post.

I do finding striking parallels with Rothbard's description of a cult and some of my surroundings here in Madison:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard23.html

Ultimately, it is your choice.