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

by Steven Hassan

Mind control is any system of influence that disrupts an individual’s authentic identity and replaces it with a false, new one.

In most cases, that new identity is one the person would strongly reject, if they had been asked for their informed consent. That’s why I also use the term undue influence—“undue” because these practices violate personal boundaries and human integrity, as well as ethics and, often, the law.

a system that disrupts an individual’s healthy identity development.

The essence of mind control is that it encourages dependence and conformity, and discourages autonomy and individuality.

Mind control involves little or no overt physical abuse. 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.

People who are hypnotized enter a trance-like state that is fundamentally different from normal consciousness. The difference is this: whereas in normal consciousness the attention is focused outwards through the five senses, in a trance one’s attention is usually focused inwards. One is hearing, seeing and feeling internally.

being in a trance is usually a pleasant, relaxing experience, so that people wish to re-enter the trance as often as possible. Most importantly, it has been clinically established by psychological researchers that people’s critical faculties are diminished in the trance state. One is less able to evaluate information received in a trance than when in a normal state of consciousness.

The power of hypnosis to affect people can be considerable. People who are “high hypnotizables”—can be put into a trance very quickly and perform remarkable feats.

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. Looking at a group in such a setting, it is easy to see when the trance has set in. 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. I have seen many strong-willed people hypnotized and made to do things they would never normally do.

Thousands of social psychological experiments have been conducted since World War II, yielding great insights into the various ways people are influenced, both as groups and as individuals. 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. One of the most remarkable discoveries of social psychology is that people are hardwired to unconsciously respond to social cues.

mind control can be largely understood by analysis of the three components described by psychologist Leon Festinger, in what has become known as the “cognitive dissonance theory.”83 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. However, from my experience in researching destructive cults, 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.

Cognitive dissonance theory is not as forbidding as its name might sound. 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.”84 What did Festinger mean by “dissonance?” In basic terms, he was referring to the conflict that occurs when a thought, a feeling or a behavior is altered in contradiction to the other two. A person can tolerate only a certain amount of discrepancy between his thoughts, feelings and actions, which after all make up the different components of his identity. Festinger’s theory states—and a great deal of later research has confirmed—that if any one of the three components changes, the other two will shift to reduce the dissonance.

Behavior control is the regulation of an individual’s physical reality. It includes the control of their environment—where they live, what clothes they wear, what food they eat, how much sleep they get, and what jobs, rituals and other actions they perform.

three steps apply just as well to other forms of mind control as they do to brainwashing. As he described them, unfreezing consists of breaking a person down; changing constitutes the indoctrination process; and refreezing is the process of building up and reinforcing the new identity.

As much as cult indoctrination attempts to destroy and suppress the old identity, and empower the new one, it almost never totally succeeds. Good experiences and positive memories rarely disappear entirely. 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. This process is speeded up by positive exposure to non-members and the accumulation of bad experiences the person has while in the group. The real identity deep down—the hardware (self) beneath the mind control virus—sees and records contradictions, questions, and disillusioning experiences.

There is no room in a mind control environment for regarding the group’s beliefs as mere theory, or as a way to interpret or seek reality. The doctrine is reality.

The most effective cult doctrines are those “which are unverifiable and unevaluable, in the words of Eric Hoffer.”

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.

Members are made to feel part of an elite corps of humankind. This feeling of being special, of participating in the most important acts in human history, with a vanguard of committed believers, is strong emotional glue that keeps people sacrificing and working hard.

The rank-and-file member is humble before superiors and potential recruits, but arrogant to outsiders. Almost all members are told when they are recruited that they, too, will become leaders one day. However, advancement will be achieved only through outstanding performance or political appointment. In the end, of course, the real power elite stays small. Most members do not become leaders, but stay among the rank and file. Nevertheless, cult members consider themselves better, more knowledgeable, and more powerful than anyone else in the world. As a result, cult members often feel more responsible than they have ever felt in their lives. They walk around feeling as though the world sits on their shoulders.

An interesting dynamic of cults is that they tend to change people’s relationship to their past, present and future. Cult members tend to look back at their previous life with a distorted memory that colors everything dark. Even the most positive memories are skewed toward the bad.