More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Confession of past sins or wrong attitudes is also a powerful device for emotional control. Of course, once someone has publicly confessed, rarely is their old sin truly forgiven or forgotten. The minute they get out of line, it will be hauled out and used to manipulate them into obeying. Anyone who finds themselves in a cult confession session needs to remember this warning: Anything you say can and will be used against you.
The most powerful technique for emotional control is phobia indoctrination, which was described in Chapter 3. Members will have a panic reaction at the thought of leaving the group. They are told that if they leave they will be lost and defenseless in the face of dark horrors. They’ll go insane, be killed, become drug addicts or commit suicide. Such tales are repeated often, both in lectures and in hushed tones through informal gossip. It becomes nearly impossible for indoctrinated cult members to feel they can have any happiness, security or fulfillment outside the group.
Each component of the BITE model: behavior control, information control, thought control, emotional control—has great influence on the human mind. 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.
On the surface, the process of gaining control of someone else’s mind seems quite simple. There are three steps: unfreezing, changing and refreezing.
Destructive cults today have the added advantage of many decades of psychological research and techniques, making their mind control programs much more effective and dangerous than in the past.
To ready a person for radical change, their reality must first be shaken up. Their indoctrinators must confuse and disorient them. Their frames of reference for understanding themselves and their surroundings must be challenged and broken down. Upsetting their view of reality disarms their natural defenses against concepts that challenge that reality.
Unfreezing can be accomplished through a variety of approaches. Disorienting a person physiologically can be very effective. Sleep deprivation is one of the most common and powerful techniques for breaking a person down. In addition, new diets and eating schedules can also have a disorienting effect.
Unfreezing is most effectively accomplished in a totally controlled environment, like an isolated country estate, but it can also be accomplished in more familiar and easily accessible places, such as a hotel ballroom.
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.
if a person is kept in a controlled environment long enough, and is repeatedly fed such disorienting language and confusing information, they will usually suspend their critical judgment and adapt to what everyone else is doing.
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.
A double bind forces a person to do what the controller wants while giving an illusion of choice.
Another example of a double bind is, “If you admit there are things in your life that aren’t working, then by not taking the seminar, you are giving those things power to control your life.” The message is: Just being here proves you are incompetent to judge whether or not to leave.
Exercises such as guided meditations, personal confessions, prayer sessions, vigorous calisthenics and even group singing can also aid unfreezing. Typically, these activities start out quite innocuously, but gradually become more intense and directed. They are almost always conducted in a group. This enforces privacy deprivation and thwarts a person’s need to be alone, think and reflect.
At this stage of unfreezing, as people are weakening, most cults bombard them with the idea that they are seriously flawed—incompeten...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Changing consists of imposing a new personal identity—a new set of behaviors, thoughts, and emotions—to fill the void left by the breakdown of the old one. Indoctrination in this new identity takes place both formally (for instance, through seminars and rituals) and informally (by spending time with members, reading, and listening to recordings and videos).
Repetition, monotony, rhythm: these are the lulling, hypnotic cadences in which the formal indoctrination is generally delivered. Material is repeated over and over and over. If the lecturers are sophisticated, they vary their talks somewhat in an attempt to hold interest, but the message remains pretty much the same.
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.’’
When I was a lecturer in the Moonies, I remember discussing this policy with others involved in recruiting. I was taught this analogy: “You wouldn’t feed a baby thick pieces of steak, would you? You have to feed a baby something it can digest, like formula. Well, these people (potential converts) are spiritual babies. Don’t tell them more than they can handle, or they will die.”
JWs - solid food belongs to mature people.
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. When I was a cult lecturer, I was taught to chastise people and made them feel guilty if they fell asleep, but in fact they were merely responding well to hypnosis. Even while lightly dozing, a person is still more or less hearing the material and being affected by it, with their normal intellectual defenses down.
Another potent technique for change is the induced “spiritual experience.” This is often contrived in the most artificial manner. Private information about the recruit is collected by the person’s closest buddy in the group and then secretly passed to the leadership. Later, at the right moment, this information can be pulled out suddenly to create an “experience.” Perhaps weeks later, in another state, a leader suddenly confronts a recruit about their brother’s suicide.
A common technique among religious cults is to instruct people to ask God what He wants them to do. Members are exhorted to study and pray in order to know God’s will for them. It is always implied that joining the group is God’s will and leaving the group is betraying God. Of course, if a person tells the cult leader, “I prayed, and God told me to leave,” this will not be accepted.
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. This creates a lot of pressure on them to succeed.
People are deliberately organized into specific small groups, or cells.
JWs had bookstudy groups.
But the changing process involves much more than obedience to a cult’s authority figures. It also includes numerous “sharing” sessions with other ordinary members, where past evils are confessed, present success stories are told, and a sense of community is fostered. These group sessions are very effective in teaching conformity, because the group vigorously reinforces certain behaviors by effusive praise and acknowledgement, while punishing non-group ideas and behaviors with icy silence.
The first and most important task of the new person is to denigrate their previous sinful self. The worst thing is for the person to act like their old self. The best is for them to act like their new cult self, which is often fully formed within a few months, or even days.
JWs talk about being made new. This is actually a bible quote. Were bible writers cult leaders? Did they know what they were doing?
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. Confession becomes another way to purge the person’s past and embed them in the cult.
New members are paired with older members, who are assigned to show them the ropes. The “spiritual child” is instructed to imitate the “spiritual parent” in all ways. This technique serves several purposes. It keeps the “older” member on their best behavior, while gratifying their ego. At the same time, it whets the new member’s appetite to become a respected model, so they can train junior members of their own.
Was the "Pioneers Assist Others" an attempt at this?
The group now forms the member’s “true” family; any other is considered their outmoded “physical” family.
To help refreeze the member’s new identity, some cults give them a new name. Many also change the person’s clothing style, haircut, and whatever else would remind them of their past. As mentioned, members often learn to speak a distinctive jargon or loaded language of the group.
Great pressure is usually exerted on the member to turn over money and other possessions. This serves multiple purposes. First, it enriches the cult. Second, donating one’s life savings freezes the person in the new belief system, since it would be too painful to admit that this was a foolish mistake. Consistency is an important aspect of influence. Third, it makes financial survival in the outside world appear harder, thus discouraging the person from leaving.
JWs have a myriad of donation strategies such as indemnity plans.
Sleep deprivation, lack of privacy, and dietary changes are sometimes continued for several months or even longer. Often the new member is relocated away from familiar surroundings and sources of influence, into a new place where they have never been anything but their new self.
Is this the purpose of Bethel. Is Bethel the pinnacle of the JW cult, with regular JWs being fringe members?
The new member is typically assigned to proselytizing duty as soon as possible. Research in social psychology has shown that nothing firms up one’s beliefs faster than recruiting others to share them. Making new members do so quickly crystallizes their new cult identity.
Which is why JWs put such an emphasis on preaching.
After a novice spends enough time with older members, the day finally comes when they can be trusted to train other newcomers by themselves. Thus, the victim becomes victimizer, perpetuating the destructive system.
Given freedom of choice, people will predictably always choose what they believe is best for them. However, the ethical criteria for determining what is best should be your own, not someone else’s. In a mind control environment, freedom of choice is the first thing that is lost. The cult member no longer operates as an individual. They have a new artificial cult identity structure, which includes new beliefs and a new language. The cult leader’s doctrine becomes the master map of reality.
Members of a mind control cult are at war with themselves. Therefore, when dealing with a cult member, it is extremely important to always keep in mind that they have two identities. This applies even to people born into destructive cults—they too have an authentic, private self and a cult self.
For the sake of convenience, we can call these dual identities John or Jane (when the person is most themself) and John-cultist or Jane-cultist (when functioning as a cult clone). Ordinarily, only one of these two selves occupies the person’s consciousness at a time. However, the personality on duty most of the time is the cult identity.
It is essential for family members to sensitize themselves to the differences between the two identity patterns, in terms of both content (what the person talks about) and communication patterns (the ways they speak and act). Each looks and sounds distinctively different.
When John or Jane-cultist is talking, speech is robotic, or like a tape recording of a cult lecture—what I call a “tape loop.” They will speak with inappropriate intensity and volume. Their posture will typically be more rigid, facial muscles tighter. Their eyes will tend to strike family member...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
On the other hand, when the authentic John or Jane is talking, they will speak with a greater range of emotion. They will be more expressive and will share feelings more willingly. They will be more spontaneous, and may even show a sense of humor. Their posture and musculature will ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
It’s an eerie experience to be talking with someone and sense that, mid-sentence, a different identity has taken over their body. As you will see in later chapters, recognizing the change and acting appropriately is the key to unlocking the person’s real self and freeing them from the cult’s bondage.
The cult identity will try to bury former reference points and submerge the person’s past. Yet, over time, the old self will eventually exert itself and seek ways to regain freedom.
an essential part of helping counsel a cult member involves bringing that person’s own experiences into the light, so that they can process them consciously with their real self.
this real self is responsible for creating the frequent psychosomatic illnesses that cult members experience. I have met people who have developed severe skin problems, which excused them from the normal grueling work schedule and gave them a chance to sleep. I have seen people develop asthma and severe allergic reactions in order to seek outside medical attention and help.
Is it possible that Mom and Natalie's illnesses are side-effects of mindcontrol?
People’s real selves have also been responsible for generating thematic dreams. I have met hundreds of former members who reported having nightmares over and over again while in cults. These dreams typically involved being lost, hurt, or trapped, of being choked or suffocated, or of being imprisoned in a concentration camp.
I like to use the metaphor that there is hardwiring in our DNA that influences our bodies and minds to move away from harm. The real self resists conditioning and indoctrination and any attempt to suppress wellbeing.
And despite all that I know about psychology and influence, there are still experiences that have happened in my life that I can’t just chalk up to coincidence or confirmation-bias, and which I prefer to believe as mysterious and mystical.
It's ironic that someone so educated about and familiar with the human mind and the perpetuation of false belief systems, still believe in the myth of god.
So, in my own life of faith, I choose to believe that God did answer my mother’s prayers. Of all my injuries and what could have happened in the crash, the main injury was indeed that my leg was broken. I believe that on some deep unconscious level, the real me was influenced by my mother’s love to fall asleep and wake up at precisely the right moment. Of course, there is no way I can prove this. But I have heard of others being involved in accidents that led them eventually to freedom.
With so many people involved in cults and religion, coincidences wil occur. Same for praying: pray often enough and something is bound to match up at one time or another.
No matter how long a person has been involved with a destructive cult, there is still hope that they can be helped. I have talked with an 85-year-old grandmother who left a destructive cult after 15 years of membership. Tears came to her eyes as she described how wonderful it was to be free again.
It took lots of time, energy, and money to recruit and indoctrinate a member, so we tried not to waste our resources on someone who seemed liable to break down.
Not an issue with JW fringe members. The recruitment costs to the GB are next to zero. The members do the work.
