Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults

by Steven Hassan

Children typically receive an inferior education, if any. Like their parents, they are taught that the world is a hostile, evil place, and they are forced to depend on cult doctrine to understand reality. Although they may be regarded as the future of the group, they are also usually seen as a hindrance to the immediate demands of the cult’s “work.”

Many of the former cult members I know have become doctors, teachers, counselors, inventors and artists. Imagine what so many cult members could accomplish if they were all set free to develop their unique talents and abilities. What if they channeled their energies into problem solving, rather than trying to undermine the world’s freedoms with some warped totalitarian vision?

citizens are better protected from sales pressure at a used-car lot than they are from organizations whose intent is to hijack their minds and hearts. Until the law sets restrictions on such practices and recognizes the existence of modern mind control techniques, people are mostly left to protect themselves.

we are all vulnerable. The most we can do to protect ourselves is inform ourselves thoroughly about the ways in which destructive cults operate, and be “good consumers” when approaching any group we might be interested in joining.

here. Be a good consumer about any group that interests you, before you make any commitments.

Under the influence of mind control, a person’s authentic identity given at birth, and as later formed by family, education, friendships, and most importantly that person’s own free choices, becomes replaced with another identity, often one that they would not have chosen for themself without tremendous social pressure.

I think of brainwashing as overtly coercive. The person being brainwashed knows at the outset that they are in the hands of an enemy.

Mind control is much more subtle and sophisticated. The victim typically regards the controllers as friends or peers, so is much less on guard. They usually unwittingly participate by cooperating with their controllers, and by giving them private information that they do not realize will be used against them.

Instead, hypnotic processes are combined with group dynamics to create a potent indoctrination effect. The individual is deceived and manipulated—but not directly threatened—into making the prescribed choices. On the whole, the victim responds positively to what is done to them.

Destructive cults commonly induce trances in their members through lengthy indoctrination sessions. Repetition, boredom and forced attention are very conducive to the induction of a trance.

The audience will exhibit slowed blink and swallow reflexes, and their facial expressions will relax into a blank, neutral state. With people in such a state, it is possible for unscrupulous leaders to implant irrational beliefs.

The political experience of World War II, in which thousands of apparently normal people operated concentration camps in which millions of Jews, Romanies, Slavs, blacks, gays and communists were killed, provoked considerable interest among psychologists. How was it that people who had led ordinary lives prior to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power became involved in a deliberate attempt to exterminate whole groups of people?

The result of these studies has been the consistent demonstration of the remarkable power of behavior modification techniques, group conformity and obedience to authority. These three factors are known in psychological terms as “influence processes” and demonstrate that situations often determine human behaviors, often more than the values and beliefs of the individual.

We are unconsciously wired to adapt and conform to promote our survival. When we are confused or not sure what to do, we look to others in our environment and especially to people we deem to be legitimate authority figures.

one cannot begin to understand mind control without realizing the power of behavior modification techniques, as well as the influences of conformity and obedience to authority.

We ned to teach ourselves and our children intelligent disobedience .

“cognitive dissonance theory.” These components are control of behavior, control of thoughts and control of emotions. Each component has a powerful effect on the other two: change one, and the others will tend to follow. Succeed in changing all three, and the individual will be swept away.

I have added one more component that is vital: control of information. If you control the information someone receives, you restrict his ability to think for himself.

In 1950, Festinger summarized its basic principle this way: “If you change a person’s behavior, his thoughts and feelings will change to minimize the dissonance.”

people need to maintain order and meaning in their life. They need to think they are acting according to their self-image and their own values. If their behavior changes for any reason, their self-image and values change to match. The important thing to recognize about cult groups is that they deliberately create dissonance in people this way and exploit it to control them.

Obedience to a leader’s command is the most important lesson to learn. A cult’s leaders cannot command someone’s inner thoughts, but they know that if they command behavior, hearts and minds will follow.

Deny a person the information they require to make sound judgments and they will become incapable of doing so.

By using deception, cults rob their victims of “informed consent” and in the case of religious cults, this lack of honest disclosure most certainly violates people’s individual religious rights.

Thought control, the third major component of mind control, includes indoctrinating members so thoroughly that they internalize the group doctrine, incorporate a new language system, and use thought-stopping techniques to keep their mind “centered.” In order to be a good member, a person must learn to manipulate their own thought processes.

In totalistic cults, the ideology is internalized as “the truth,” the only map of reality. The doctrine not only serves to filter incoming information, but also regulates how the information can be thought about.

All that is good is embodied in the leader and the group. All that is bad is on the outside. The doctrine claims to answer all questions to all problems and situations.

Since language provides the symbols we use for thinking, using only certain words serves to control thoughts. Cult language is totalistic and therefore condenses complex situations, labels them, and reduces them to cult clichés. This simplistic label then governs how members think in any situation.

The cult’s clichés and loaded language also put up an invisible wall between believers and outsiders.

The newbies think they merely have to study harder in order to understand the truth, which they believe is precisely expressed in this new language. In reality, though, loaded language helps them learn how not to think or understand.

Another key aspect of thought control involves training members to block out any information that is critical of the group.

If information transmitted to a cult member is perceived as an attack on either the leader, the doctrine or the group, a defensive wall goes up. Members are trained to disbelieve any criticism.

Paradoxically, criticism of the group is used to confirm that the cult’s view of the world is correct. Because of thought control, factual information that challenges the cult worldview does not register properly.

Thought-stopping is the most direct way to short-circuit a person’s ability to test reality. Indeed, if people are able to think only positive thoughts about their involvement with the group, they are most certainly stuck.

Guilt and fear figure mightily. However, most cult members can’t see that guilt and fear are being used to control them. They are both essential tools to keep people under control.

Fear is used to bind the group members together in several ways. The first is the creation of an outside enemy, who is persecuting the group and its members.

Some groups claim that nuclear holocaust or other disasters will result if members are lax in their commitment.

In order to control someone through their emotions, feelings themselves often have to be redefined. For example, everyone wants happiness. However, if happiness is redefined as being closer to God, and God is unhappy (as He apparently is in many religious cults), then the way to be happy is to be unhappy. Happiness, therefore, consists of suffering so you can grow closer to God.

Loyalty and devotion are the most highly respected emotions of all. Members are not allowed to feel or express negative emotions, except toward outsiders. They are taught never to feel for themselves or their own needs, but always to think of the group and never to complain. They are never to criticize a leader, but to criticize themselves instead.

Together, they form a totalistic web, one that can be used to manipulate even the most intelligent, creative, ambitious and strong-willed person. In fact, it is often the strongest-minded individuals who make the most involved and enthusiastic cult members.

One particularly effective hypnotic technique involves the deliberate use of confusion to induce a trance state. Confusion usually results whenever contradictory information is communicated congruently.

Sensory overload, like sensory deprivation, can also effectively disrupt a person’s balance and make them more open to suggestion. A person can easily be bombarded by emotionally laden material at a rate faster than they can digest it. The result is a feeling of being overwhelmed. The mind snaps into neutral and ceases to evaluate the material pouring in. The newcomer may think this is happening spontaneously within themselves, but the cult has intentionally structured it that way.

During the changing phase, all this repetition focuses on certain central themes. The recruits are told how bad the world is and that the unenlightened have no idea how to fix it. This is because ordinary people lack the new understanding that has been provided by the leader. The leader is the only hope of lasting happiness. Recruits are told, “Your old self is what’s keeping you from fully experiencing the new truth. Your old concepts are what drag you down. Your rational mind is holding you back from fantastic progress. Surrender. Let go. Have faith.’’

The formal indoctrination sessions can be very droning and rhythmic—a way to induce hypnotic states. It is fairly common for people to fall asleep during these programs.

For the average person, talking with an indoctrinated cultist is quite an experience. You’ll probably never meet anyone else who is so absolutely convinced that they know what is best for you. A dedicated cult member also does not take no for an answer, because they have been indoctrinated to believe that if you don’t join, either you are evil or they are to blame.

The first and most important task of the new person is to denigrate their previous sinful self.

During this phase, an individual’s memory becomes distorted, minimizing the good things in the past and maximizing their sins, failings, hurts and guilt. Special talents, interests, hobbies, friends, and family usually must be abandoned—preferably in dramatic public actions—if they compete with commitment to the cause.

The real identity deep down—the hardware (self) beneath the mind control virus—sees and records contradictions, questions, and disillusioning experiences.

Occasionally I am asked whether there is some kind of typical problem family from which cult members tend to come. The answer is no. Anyone, regardless of family background, can be recruited into a cult. The major variable is not the person’s family but the cult recruiter’s skill and the recruit’s life situation.

For example, many people have a genuine impulse to work together with others as a team for a variety of social or religious causes. Relatively few communities, though, offer such organized activity to idealistic people. Cult life gives them just such an opportunity,

Doctrine is to be accepted, not understood. Therefore, the doctrine must be vague and global, yet also symmetrical enough to appear consistent. Its power comes from its assertion that it is the one and only truth—and that it encompasses everything.

Since mind control depends on creating a new identity within the individual, cult doctrine always requires that a person distrust their authentic self. The doctrine becomes the “master program” for all their thoughts, feelings and actions. Since it is the “Truth,” perfect and absolute, any flaw in it is viewed as a reflection of the believer’s own imperfection. They are taught that they must follow the prescribed formula, even if they don’t really understand it. At the same time, the cult member is told that they should work harder and have more faith, so they will come to understand the truth more clearly.