Talkspace.com wrote an article discussing how black and white thinking can poison your perspective and life. Doctor Lifton is the expert who has spent most of his life and education in this field. Having Cults tend to have very simple and similar foundations and common factors having all or some of the following: [1] A charismatic founder, leader or leadership. At the same time, rewards are offered - rest, love, comfort: the carrot and the stick. Loading. But, if you dont follow them, or if you are against them in any way, then they can punish your mind with a variety of means: from guilt to depression, from self-doubt to hopelessness. Brainwashing:: Cult leaders are known to repeat various lies and distortions until members find it difficult to distinguish between reality and cult life. The good and the pure are of course those ideas, feelings, and Having strength and confidence in your own personal faith, ask yourself honestlydoes my religion or organization use this technique? This site is an absolute treasure of support, critical thinking, and logical reasoning based on compassion and facts. Military indoctrination in U.S. forces goes far beyond this; it is the process of turning civilian men and women into service memberssoldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. In totalist hands, confession becomes a I was a victim of severe indoctrination from birth and had my entire thought process defined via the most wicked version of thought reform that I personally have ever come across; the Jehovahs Witness religion. He outlined several ways to identify cults. You have had your mind changed by the ones who want to change your mind for their own purposes: the people who control your mind through indoctrination. Guilt is . Confession is carried beyond Christianity was once a cult, as was Islam. We have not. This happens in groups of ten or ten million. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. Some groups use meditation, mind-numbing chanting, euphoric music or dancing at this stage. And for those who stay on, the recruiting process culminates in the submission of their own personalities to the "will of the group." In the next section, we'll see what cult indoctrination entails. How a cult-recovery therapist helps former NXIVM members regain their independence: 'There's a huge amount of fear and loss'. Invite them to come along again, and again, until they're a part of the family. Many cults have compounds or other places where they require members to stay, ensuring that the cult has total control over every aspect of their lives. This is a central doctrine of their belief system. In cult recruiting and indoctrination, these techniques include: Deception - Cults trick new recruits into joining the group and committing themselves to a cause or lifestyle they don't fully understand. The sum of these techniques constitutes what some people call "mind control." For one thing, military recruits know from day one that being in the military means giving up some of their autonomy -- that's how the military hierarchy works. A cascade of affection, support and approval poured over the recruit. Step five is tougher. Seeking inappropriate. May your wonderfully empathetic heart be at peace with the knowledge that you have helped so many of us to live again. It will only happen when they are personally re. While in the cult, he was eating one meal a day and sleeping only two hours each night. I felt his body in my body, the same gangly awkwardness, the same hiked-up shoulder, the same thoracic kyphosis when he sat in meditation. Author Douglas Rushkoff lists 20 common steps of indoctrination in destructive cults. Cult Indoctrination through Psychological Manipulation by Professor Kimiaki Nishida 9. Dread - Once complete dependence is established, the member must retain the leader's good favor or else his life falls apart. They reminded him of his Catholic upbringing, one filled with violence and abuse, yet, as he says of Roach, represented a demilitarized, more feminine version of the robes of my childhood. Early repression in church left Remski hollow, vacant, setting him up for indoctrination under Roachs care. Youre part of a group thats special, destined, blessedyou feel complete. Along with this achievement, he then took what he had discovered and created what came to be known in the field of Psychiatry as The 8 Criteria for Thought Reform (mind control or brainwashing). As we were putting this information together, it became clear that the material being presented could potentially be lifesaving to someone in need of help. In 1995, The Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult carried out a deadly sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway. on LinkedIn, Subscribe for counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday. But even with good intentions, if a group or organization that you belong to is made up of the following defined criteria, then it is absolutely using brainwashing mind control techniques to indoctrinate you. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images) Picking the. Cults mislead new recruits/members as to the true expectations and activities of the group. Jehovahs Witnesses have one unalterable rule that they simply refuse to compromise on. His tale, briefly, included being no more than fifteen feet away from his spiritual wife, Lama Christie, who he claimed to never have sex with; later, when they spiritually divorced (consciously uncoupled, I suppose), Christie found a new boyfriend that died in the desert after being kicked out of the group. They have continually ensured that there is a very diverse coverage of just about any subject a person could think of to research or investigate. Admit it. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. If that group has some, to borrow a term from Alan Watts, inside dope, then in your mind its not a cult at all. For enlisted personnel, this process occurs during Army Basic Training, Navy Boot Camp, Air Force Basic Training, or Marine Corps Boot Camp. She dreams to create an uplifting documentary one day, inspired by her experiences with strangers. Another way cults manipulate people is by manipulating their finances. There are cults within cults, like the two thousand or so accepted faiths that borrow from Christian doctrine: Mormonism, Eastern Orthodox, Catholicism, Protestantism, Lutheranism, Scientology, Christian Science. absolutely evil. They may even be used on you. A cult leader may use members' altered consciousness, induced by activities like meditation, chanting or drug use, to increase vulnerability to suggestion. If so, dont worry because weve all been there. Project MKUltra secretly experimented with "mind control" techniques, dosing people with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) without their consent. Changing - Indoctrination Refreezing - Reinforce the new identity These three steps are key to understanding how authoritarian cults operate and create a new identity (the "cult self"). Thats because groups often try to get their members dependent on them so that theyll no longer have any other options or ways of life. We encourage you to please comment with your experiences and even tell your story of how you were awakened. Does this make sense to you? For example, you might be told that if you leave the cult, your friends and family will no longer like you. Its natural. Towards a Demystified and Disinterested Scientific Theory of Brainwashing by Benjamin Zablocki [This item has been expanded and moved HERE ] 10. Remski admits to his intense drive for crisis-type experiences of love that left him feeling manic. Physical abuse. Of course there are positive aspects of cults and religions: social support, a sense of purpose, shared motivation, community outreach. This is usually done by making you feel guilty. Studies show talk therapy works, but experts disagree about how it does so. The member's confidence in all previously trusted social . Sleep and food deprivation, coupled with rigid rules, help to break down a person's sense of self. They might use fear or guilt as a tool to get you to believe their message. Which brings us to the seventh step. Increasingly, groups use the internet. To use social login you have to agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. A security team guards the person for several days, 24 hours a day, while the deprogrammer, former cult members, and family members present information. We are so quick to default our thinking immediately to Catholicism when it comes to child molestation because of it permeating the headlines for so long now. Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially. Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture 4. {notificationOpen=false}, 2000);" x-data="{notificationOpen: false, notificationTimeout: undefined, notificationText: ''}">. So lets put all of this into perspective. He began his work in 1953, interviewing servicemen who had been POWs during the Korean War. It was everything to me and I was extremely indoctrinated into its culture. Now you might think that Im joking, but actually, thats the truth. Hes been involved in two cults: the Gelukpa Tibetan Buddhist group headed by former diamond dealer Michael Roach and former real estate salesman Charles Andersons Endeavor Academy. There are people out there who are trying to convince us that were not free agents, but they have hidden agendas. A person who joins the military makes an informed decision to relinquish that autonomy, whereas a cult recruit does not know that total submission is a requirement of membership. This is an example of a very cult-like rule. Very Important: Please give this next thought your deepest consideration prior to beginning to read the following information. Its okay to get rewarded. Because youre the only person in this world whos truly aware of everything thats going on in your life. "Nothing is at last sacred, but the integrity of your own mind." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson. I felt that he was like me, but fifteen or twenty years older. Picture the coolest kid in your high school. 1. Youve heard of Darwins finches. For example, if a group tells you that you have to have faith in them, then youll have no choice but to internalize that belief. Many religions, spiritual teachings and philosophies use the 12 Steps. Stay in touch onFacebookandTwitter. Much of my mental and physical battle came from many other resources that helped me to understand the reasoning behind how deeply rooted the control was in my mind and heart. The goal may be to make them. Writing about recent trends in the movie industry is her other hobby, alongside music, art, culture, and social influences. Its similar to the multiple factors and perspectives that people come through in developing their adulation for Donald Trump. Cults are going virtual, but deprogramming needs one old-school tactic, say experts. The Author speaks from first-hand experience, being a surviving victim of a 37-year indoctrination from an extremely dangerous religious cult. Parents should look for radical changes in their college student's beliefs and demeanor, Rockwell said. Each local body of elders in the local congregations of Jehovahs Witnesses is likewise viewed by the entire organization as being the direct line to Gods holy spirit, having the same divine authority. Are you really willing to give your money to people you dont even know? Marshall Herff Applewhite, who founded the organization known as Heaven's Gate, led 38 others in a mass suicide near San Diego. "Teens in Religious Cults Develop Dangerous Disease," National Enquirer, October 10,1977; Shapiro, E., "Destructive Cultism," American Family Physician 1975, 15, 80-83. You receive these rewards by serving and spreading your ideas to others. The two key phrases are control of communication and possessing the ultimate truth. Your beliefs are not yours and you cannot change them. Throughout recorded history (and probably much longer) humans have been susceptible to charismatic leaders that have, either by nature or training, understood the psychology of acquiring followers. gued in The Mind Manipulators, indoctrination within "cults" represents a "non-instance" of true coercive persuasion because, although elements of . For birth to death, life is simply one lesson after another. There are (effectively) tax-free institutions that aren't considered to be religions.