SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND GROUP DYNAMICS |
Studies
have shown that today's cults use a stronger form of control than those
of 50 years ago. The advent of new psychological experiments in the
60's and 70's have produced the modern methods of mind control which
are far more sophisticated than the BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES
and THOUGHT REFORM developed by the Chinese. To understand mind control you need a basic understanding of BEHAVIOUR MODIFICATION TECHNIQUES. What is "behaviour modification." Simply described, it is "reward or punishment for actions" association. It was used on you as a child whenever you were being commended or otherwise for your behaviour. Taking away a privilege is usually a sure-fire method
to persuading a child to change its behaviour when that child is old
enough to understand the process. Praising a child for doing good
is another method of changing behaviour, especially in the child who
is anxious toplease. When behaviour modification techniques such as these
are applied in a loving, caring and consistent way, the child changes
their behaviour without holding feelings of resentment. However, if
these techniques are perverted in any way, damage is done to the child's
psyche, their COGNITIVE DISSONANCE Leon Festinger is a psychologist who studied groups
that predicted the end of the world. He found that most members became
stronger than ever when the prophecy failed. His investigation revealed
that members had to find a way to cope psychologically with the failure.
They needed "CONTROL OF BEHAVIOUR" - "CONTROL OF THOUGHTS" - "CONTROL OF EMOTIONS" Each component has a powerful effect on the other two: CHANGE ONE AND THE OTHERS WILL TEND TO FOLLOW. When all three change the individual undergoes a complete change. Festinger summarised the basic principle: "If you change a person's behaviour, his thoughts and feelings will change to minimise the dissonance." When there is a conflict between thoughts, feelings or behaviour, then those in conflict will change to minimise the contradiction. This is because a person can only tolerate a certain amount of discrepancy between these components which make up his identity. In cults this dissonance is created to exploit and control them. Steven Hassan, author of Combating Cult Mind Control, added a fourth component to Festinger's: "CONTROL OF INFORMATION" By controlling the information one receives you can control and restrict the individual's ability to think for himself. You limit what he is able to think about. BEHAVIOUR CONTROL - The control of an individual's physical reality. This can include control of where he lives, what he eats, his clothing, sleep, job, rituals etc. This is why most cults have a stringent schedule for members. There is always something to do in destructive cults. Each cult has its own distinctive set of behaviours that bind it together. This control is so powerful that the cult member will actually participate in their own punishment and come to believe he actually deserves it! No one can command a person's thoughts but IF YOU CAN CONTROL BEHAVIOUR THEN HEARTS AND MINDS WILL FOLLOW. THOUGHT CONTROL - The control of an individual's thought processes The indoctrination of members so thoroughly that they will manipulate their own thought processes. The ideology is internalised as "the truth". Incoming information is filtered through the beliefs which also regulates how this information is thought about. The cult has it's own language which further regulates how a person thinks. This puts a great barrier between cult members and outsiders. Another form of control is "thought stopping" techniques. This can take many forms: chanting, meditating, singing, humming, tongues (some even pay money to learn it), concentrated praying, etc. The use of these techniques short-circuits the persons' ability to test reality. The person can only think positive thoughts about the group. If there is a problem the member assumes responsibility and works harder. EMOTIONAL CONTROL - The control of the individuals emotional life This manipulates a person's range of feelings. Guilt and fear are used to keep control. Cult members cannot see the control by guilt and like other abuse victims are conditioned to blame themselves when things are wrong, even grateful when a leader points our their transgressions. Fear is used to manipulate two ways. The first is to create an outside enemy (we vs them) who is persecuting you. The second is the fear of punishment by the leaders if you are not "good enough." Being "good enough" is following the ideology perfectly. The most powerful emotional control is phobia indoctrination. This can give the person a panic reaction at the very thought of leaving the group. It is almost impossible to conceive that there is any life outside the group. There is no physical gun held to their heads but the psychological gun is just as if not more powerful. INFORMATION CONTROL - The control of the individuals information sources Deny a person the information needed to make a sound judgment and he will be incapable of doing so. People are trapped in cults because they are denied both the access to the critical information they need to assess their situation. The psychological chains on their minds are just as powerful as if they were locked away physically from society. So strong is this psychological process they also lack the properly functioning internal mechanism to process any critical information placed in front of them.THE EIGHT MARKS OF MIND CONTROL : "TOTALISM - ALL OR NOTHING" Mind Control is a PROCESS of eradicating former beliefs and instituting new beliefs in their place through the use of COERCIVE persuasion. It is a PROCESS which is designed to break a person's independence and individuality and replace it with the ideology clone. The Chinese called this process "thought reform" which was poorlytranslated into English as "brain-washing". BRAIN-WASHING Brain-washing is now considered to be a different process to thought reform or mind control. In brain-washing the victim knows who is the enemy. An example is American Patty Hearst who was kidnapped by a terrorist group. Through physical abuse she finally became a member of the group and took part in terrorist activities and bank robberies. THOUGHT CONTROL Thought control is more subtle. The victim doesn't know who is the enemy because the enemy seems like their best friend who only has their best interests at heart. Cults practice a more refined form of thought control
than that used by the Chinese. Leading psychologist, Dr Margaret Singer,
said cults do it better than the Chinese because it is easier to get
people to do what you want through manipulating them with guilt and
anxiety. The process of thought control has been documented
by Robert J Lifton who researched what happened to the American prisoners
of the Communist Chinese. He labelled the steps which have become
the standard by which to judge whether a group is using "brain-washing"
or "thought Robert J Lifton's research showed that - "These criteria consist of eight psychological
themes which are predominant within the social field of the thought
reform milieu. Each has a totalistic quality; each depends upon an
equally The eight marks noted by Lifton are: 1. MILIEU CONTROL - Control of the Environment and Communication The control of human communication is the most basic feature of the thought reform environment. This is the control of what the individual sees, hears, reads, writes, experiences and expresses. It goes even further than that, and controls the individuals communication with himself - his own thoughts. Everything other than their beliefs is excluded. The
organisation appears to be omniscient. They seem to know everything
that is going on. Reality is their exclusive possession. In this environment
the individual is deprived of the combination of external information
and internal reflection required to test reality and to maintain a
measure of identity separate from his environment. The individual
can feel victimised by his controllers and feel the hostility of EXAMPLE - Jehovah's Witnesses are a classical example of a closed community living within and mixing with the wider community. Because they are so well known we have used them as an example. e.g. - In Jehovah's Witnesses - You could "go beyond the 'truth' - beyond what
they taught. This showed you were thinking for yourself and put yourself
above leadership. Those moving ahead of the Organisation are counselled 2. MYSTICAL MANIPULATION - The Mystique of the Organisation This seeks to provoke specific patterns of behaviour
and emotion in such a way that these will appear to have arisen spontaneously
from within the environment. For the manipulated person this assumes
a near-mystical quality. This is not just a power trip by the manipulators. rationalize these deceptions. Members are kept in a frenzy of cult related activities. There is little time or energy to think about their lifestyle. "The psychology of the pawn" - This person
feels unable to escape from forces he sees more powerful than himself.
His way of dealing with this is to adapt to them. He learns how to
anticipate problems with the organisation and to manipulate events
to avoid incriminating himself. e.g. - In Jehovah's Witnesses - "Theocratic strategy" - If you don't have
a right to know the truth it is OK to lie to you. (See "Insight"
under 'Lie') 3. DEMAND FOR PURITY - Everything is black & white Pure and impure is defined by the ideology of the
organization. Only those ideas, feelings and actions consistent with
the ideology and policy are good. The individual conscience is not
reliable. The philosophical assumption is that absolute purity is
attainable and that anything done in the name of this purity is moral.
By defining and manipulating the criteria of purity and Under these conditions the individual expects humiliation,
ostracism and punishment because of his inability to live up to the
criteria and lives in a constant state of guilt and shame. Since the
All impurities are seen to originate from "outside"
(the world). Therefore, one of the best ways to relieve himself of
the burden of guilt is to denounce these with great hostility. The
more guilty he e.g. - In Jehovah's Witnesses - Dress and grooming have been laid down at various
times. No pantsuits for ladies No beards or moustaches Short hair
on men No coloured shirts for men No gold rimmed glasses Certain styles
of clothing 4. CULT OF CONFESSION - Reporting to leadership This is closely related to the demand for purity.
Confession is carried beyond the ordinary religious, legal and therapeutic
expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself. In totalist
hands, confession becomes a means of exploiting, rather than offering
solace for these vulnerabilities. The cult of confession has effects quite the reverse of its ideal of total exposure; rather than eliminating personal secrets, it increases and intensifies them. The individual becomes caught up in continuous conflict over which secrets to preserve and which to surrender, over ways to reveal lesser secrets can be revealed and ways to protect more important ones. The cult of confession makes it virtually impossible to attain reasonable balance between worth and humility. e.g. In Jehovah's Witnesses - Confessing infringements to an Elder. 5. SACRED SCIENCE - Absolute "Truth" Their "truth" is the absolute truth. It is sacred - beyond questioning. There is a reverence demanded for the leadership. They have ALL the answers. Only to them is given the revelation of "truth". The ultimate moral vision becomes the ultimate science
and the person who dares to criticise it, or even think criticism,
is immoral, irreverent and "unscientific". This gives sense of security to the member. They are confident they can get the answer to the most difficult problem or question. e.g. In Jehovah's Witnesses you can be disfellowshipped
(kicked out) for daring to question what is taught in their publications. 6. LOADING THE LANGUAGE - Thought terminating cliches Everything is compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorised and easily expressed. There are "good" terms which represents
the groups ideology and "evil" terms to represent everything
outside which is to be rejected. Totalist language is intensely divisive,
all-encompassing jargon, unmercifully judging. To those outside the
group this language is This effectively isolates members from outside world. The only people who understand you are other members. Other members can tell if you are really one of them by how you talk. This narrowness of the language is constricting. The individual is linguistically deprived because language is central to the human experience and his capacities for thinking and feeling are immensely restricted. While initially this loaded language can give a sense
of security to the new believer, an uneasiness develops over time.
This uneasiness may result in a withdrawal into the system and he
preaches even harder to hide his problem and demonstrate his loyalty.
It may also produce Either way, his imagination becomes increasingly disassociated from his actual life experiences and may even tend to atrophy from disuse. e.g. - In Jehovah's Witnesses - Theocratic strategy - "ark of salvation"
- "new light" 7. DOCTRINE OVER PERSON - Doctrine supersedes human experience The ideological myth merges with their "truth" and the resulting deduction can be so overpowering and coercive that is simply replaces reality. Consequently past events can be altered, rewritten or even ignored to make them consistent with the current reality. This alteration is especially lethal when the distortions are imposed on the individual's memory. They demand character and identity of a person be
reshaped to fit their clone of mentality. The individual must fit
the rigid contours of the doctrinal mould instead of developing their
own potential and personality. The underlying assumption is that the
doctrine - including its Absolute sincerity is demanded by the group yet this must be put to one side when changes take place the individual has to deny the original belief ever existed. Personal feelings are suppressed and members must appear to be contented and enthusiastic at all times. Some cults believe that all illness is a result of lack of faith and evidence of sin in your life. These things have to be prayed away and medical attention is ignored as a "sign of faith." e.g. - In Jehovah's Witnesses - "There is no life outside the organisation"
so when they see people who have made a life outside they revert back
to doctrine over what they see. 8. DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE - Who is worthy to live They have the right to decide who is worthy of life and who isn't. They also decide which history books are accurate and which are not. Those in the organisation are worthy of life; those outside worthy of death. The outsiders can be permitted to live if they change and become an insider. Members live in fear of being pronounced "dead". They have a fear of annihilation or extinction. The emotional conflict is one of "being vs nothingness". Existence comes to depend upon creed (I believe, therefore I am), upon mission (I obey, therefore I am) and beyond these, upon a sense of total merger with the organisation. Should he stray from the "truth"his right to exist may be withdrawn and he is pronounced "dead". e.g. - In Jehovah's Witnesses IN SUMMARY The more clearly these eight points are obvious, the greater the resemblance to ideological totalism. The more an organisation utilises such totalist devices to change individuals, the greater its resemblance to thought reform. Remember ..... A group does not have to be religious to be cultic in behaviour. High demand groups can be commercial, political and psychological. Be aware, especially if you are a bright, intelligent and idealistic person. The most likely person to be caught up in this type of behavioural system is the one who says "I won't get caught. It will never happen to me. I am too intelligent for that sort of thing." |
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