Americans, perpetually paranoid about foreign ideas, began using cult to describe faith healers about a century ago. Questions and doubts are systematically "turned around" so that the doubter feels wrong, worthless, "evil" for questioning. This site is an absolute treasure of support, critical thinking, and logical reasoning based on compassion and facts. The truth is youre the one whos in charge of your actions. Continuing control relies on absolute obedience and members being afraid to leave. Mr. Liftonif somehow you manage to read this article, I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to you. Stay in touch onFacebookandTwitter. Showing great attention and love to a person in the group by others in the group, to help transfer emotional dependence to the group. Theres something about the peak experience and the drive towards it that is a sign of something brokenthe simplicity of daily rhythm is not enough because you were just not able to enjoy it. 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). This is done by taking money from them without their consent or knowledge, or by blackmailing them. People are indoctrinated without leaving their bedrooms. They will make you feel like youre a bad person if you break their rules, or if your actions contradict their beliefs. Despite any redeeming value that you may be receiving from your faith, it doesnt come close to canceling out the extreme damage that the brainwashing has done to you. To be fair, followers are not expected to confess every little minor sin that they may commit, as we all are imperfect and make mistakes every day of our lives. Ultimately, feelings of worthlessness and "evil" become associated with independence and critical thinking, and feelings of warmth and love become associated with unquestioning submission. The assumption underlying total exposure is the environments claim to total 8) separation of existence - members of the group have the right to life and existence, the rest ones - don't have it, i.e. While in the cult, he was eating one meal a day and sleeping only two hours each night. above, it seeks to provoke specific patterns of behavior and emotion in such a For example, you may be punished for not being able to speak or communicate with your loved ones. I chose The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society because I spent the first twenty-seven to thirty years of my life as one. She dreams to create an uplifting documentary one day, inspired by her experiences with strangers. This rule of theirs has become rather famous as of lately in the world. Spread the Love - Share this Post! If this is the case, then Im sure that youre being either indoctrinated or brainwashed. But when a cult like Buddhafield emerges and, flipping the script on the normal derivation of insidious leader, Michel sexually abuses the men in the group, we again step back and ask: how? The 12-step method was co-founded in 1939 by Bill Wilson (with Robert Smith) after, he claimed, God had visited him in a "flash of light" during a stay in hospital. 4 "Cults Insist On Reprogramming The Way People See The World." Cults insist they are the only ones that know the truthabout society. They might use fear or guilt as a tool to get you to believe their message. Usually, group indoctrination and self-indoctrination sessions demand many hours of members' lives. The Author speaks from first-hand experience, being a surviving victim of a 37-year indoctrination from an extremely dangerous religious cult. Groups can form around almost anything. NPR's Tovia Smith took a look inside the practice of deprogramming. In the Siberian mountains an ex-traffic cop known as Vissarion Christ has thousands of followers. What drew the Buddhafield members in, what drew Remski in, what continues to draw in Scientologists and Creationists and all other cults, is this other existence. Since then it has taken on a negative meaning, essentially reserved for any ideology I dont subscribe to.. They've abandoned comfortable lives to live self-sufficiently in harsh conditions, revering their teacher. 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. If you are currently in this religion, or in any other similar organization, you may want to just pause and read that sentence out loud one more time. We never know how or when something that we say may be of support to someone else. At the time of this writing, Doctor Lifton is still alive and well. They may only be allowed to speak with long-committed members for a period of time. being changed a step at a time. 9. 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. Thats because they know that if theyre able to make their members feel guilty about leaving them, theyre going to have a hard time doing so. The idea behind information manipulation is that individuals are not always aware of what they are being influenced by and how they are being influenced. Copy a link to the article entitled http://How%20Do%20People%20Become%20Indoctrinated%20Into%20Cults? Even the most intense religious indoctrination can be overcome. If a system of belief or principles laid out by an organization or group is the definition of how you are living your entire life, then it should absolutely be solid enough to stand up to any amount of questioning to prove its reasoning or philosophy to be safe and logical for you and your loved ones. Written down, the signs seem clear: 1. The member's confidence in all previously trusted social . A cult answers to no one. Most cult ideologies have a profound loathing for that description of the human condition. The member may believe that only group members are "saved," so if he leaves, he will face eternal damnation. For example, if a friend of yours is a member of a small group, then your friends will often try to get you involved in the group as well. 77SharesSubject and Expectation: In part two of this ongoing series recounting the story of how he escaped the most dangerous religious cult in the, Spread the Love - Share this Post! Heres a look at the Civil War work of Mathew Brady. Answer (1 of 3): "Deprogramming" implies an outside initiative. Does this make sense to you? Nato is a writer and a researcher with an academic background in psychology. The immediate hurdle is recognizing youve been indoctrinated. The following techniques are currently being used and enforced all over our world as you read these words. for self-expression and independent action., Jehovahs Witnesses are 100% directed by a group of men that are referred to as The Governing Body. If neutrinos have mass, where are all the slow ones? It was like he was me, but perfected in this way that I imagined. By morning almost a thousand members of the People's Temple had died, many of them children. 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. 81 minutes | Jan 25, 2023. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. Rigid rules and rituals may be introduced. on Twitter, Share How Do People Become Indoctrinated Into Cults? Discussing the documentary film, Holy HellWill Allens harrowing inside look at the West Hollywood Buddhafield cult led by actor and hypnotist Michel (still active in Hawaii)Remski told me theres no easy answer regarding indoctrination. Those robes were also part of what drew Remski in. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him. The sum of these techniques constitutes what some people call "mind control." This table demonstrates the major similarities falling into each of the three categories. 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. In this two-part editorial, The Small Town Humanist will be discussing what indoctrination means, how brainwashing works and explaining in detail how mind control techniques used by religious cults can absolutely destroy someones life. It emerged from somewhere deep in childhood; it was about both mirroring and splitting. As most people would agree, life is anything but black and white anymore. On the evening of the 18th November 1978, Jim Jones persuaded his followers to drink a punch laced with cyanide. Project MKUltra secretly experimented with "mind control" techniques, dosing people with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) without their consent. "Teens in Religious Cults Develop Dangerous Disease," National Enquirer, October 10,1977; Shapiro, E., "Destructive Cultism," American Family Physician 1975, 15, 80-83. Do you entirely understand the meaning of the word internalization? A person who joins a cult thinks he can leave whenever he wants, but in reality, his commitment to the group is supposed to be indefinite. This leader then informs the members. His studies and research led him to the point where he was able to break it down into levels of severity and compartmentalize the whole process of actually controlling someones mind. Cults are dangerous because they typically rely on . Have you been told that if it wasnt for them, youd be lost? The ensuing information is not for the faint at heart to consider. Cults typically instill the belief that "outsiders" (non-cult members) are dangerous and wrong. Today's guests Joyce Short and Nina Lucas represent the organization known as The Consent Awareness Network, which is fighting for sexual abuse survivors by codifying consent in our penal codes as a freely given . Have you ever been told that if you leave the cult, youll be punished? as in all situations of ideological totalism, the experiential world is sharply . In a classic deprogramming scenario, a cult member is physically abducted and held at a secret location or forcibly detained while visiting home. is apt to be relegated to the bad and the impure. Studies show talk therapy works, but experts disagree about how it does so. Judaism, Buddhism, the countless local faiths now lumped under the term Hinduismall cults. 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. makes it virtually impossible to attain a reasonable balance between worth and The 12 Steps is very much seen as a practical program for a spiritual way of life and not an indoctrination of religious beliefs. 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