Articles on Cults

What messages are behind today's cults?

Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D.
APA Monitor, May 1997

Cults are coming. Are they crazy or bearing critical messages?

This article was written by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a renowned social psychologist at Stanford University who is currently a candidate for the presidency of the American Psychological Association. The article applies Dr. Zimbardo's understanding of social influence processes to the question of cults. He says, for example: "Whatever any member of a cult has done, you and I could be recruited or seduced into doing--under the right or wrong conditions. The majority of 'normal, average, intelligent' individuals can be led to engage in immoral, illegal, irrational, aggressive and self destructive actions that are contrary to their values or personality--when manipulated situational conditions exert their power over individual dispositions."

How do we make sense of the mass suicide of 21 female and 18 male members of the Heaven's Gate extra-terrestrial "cult" on March 23? Typical explanations of all such strange, unexpected behavior involve a "rush to the dispositional," locating the problem in defective personalities of the actors. Those whose behavior violates our expectations about what is normal and appropriate are dismissed as kooks, weirdos, gullible, stupid, evil or masochistic deviants.

Similar characterizations were evident in the media and public's reaction to other mass suicides in The Order of the Solar Temple in Europe and Canada, murder-suicide deaths ordered by Rev. Jim Jones of his Peoples Temple members, as well as of the recent flaming deaths of David Koresh's Branch Davidians and the gassing of Japanese citizens by followers of the Aum Shinrikyo group. And there will be more of the same in the coming years as cults proliferate in the United States and world wide in anticipation of the millennium.

Such pseudo-explanations are really moralistic judgments; framed with the wisdom of hindsight, they miss the mark. They start at the wrong end of the inquiry. Instead, our search for meaning should begin at the beginning: "What was so appealing about this group that so many people were recruited/seduced into joining it voluntarily?" We want to know also, "What needs was this group fulfilling that were not being met by "traditional society?"

Such alternative framings shift the analytical focus from condemning the actors, mindlessly blaming the victims, defining them as different from us, to searching for a common ground in the forces that shape all human behavior. By acknowledging our own vulnerability to the operation of the powerful, often subtle situational forces that controlled their actions, we can begin to find ways to prevent or combat that power from exerting its similar, sometimes sinister, influence on us and our kin.

Any stereotyped collective personality analysis of the Heaven's Gate members proves inadequate when tallied against the resumes of individual members. They represented a wide range of demographic backgrounds, ages, talents, interests and careers prior to committing themselves to a new ideology embodied in the totally regimented, obedient lifestyle that would end with an eternal transformation. Comparable individual diversity has been evident among the members of many different cult groups I've studied over the past several decades. What is common are the recruiting promises, influence agendas and group's coercive influence power that compromise the personal exercise of free will and critical thinking. On the basis of my investigations and the psychological research of colleagues, we can argue the following propositions, some of which will be elaborated:

No one ever joins a "cult." People join interesting groups that promise to fulfill their pressing needs. They become "cults" when they are seen as deceptive, defective, dangerous, or as opposing basic values of their society.

Cults represent each society's "default values," filling in its missing functions. The cult epidemic is diagnostic of where and how society is failing its citizens.

If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. As basic human values are being strained, distorted and lost in our rapidly evolving culture, illusions and promissory notes are too readily believed and bought--without reality validation or credit checks.

Whatever any member of a cult has done, you and I could be recruited or seduced into doing--under the right or wrong conditions. The majority of "normal, average, intelligent" individuals can be led to engage in immoral, illegal, irrational, aggressive and self destructive actions that are contrary to their values or personality--when manipulated situational conditions exert their power over individual dispositions.

Cult methods of recruiting, indoctrinating and influencing their members are not exotic forms of mind control, but only more intensely applied mundane tactics of social influence practiced daily by all compliance professionals and societal agents of influence.

What is the appeal of cults? Imagine being part of a group in which you will find instant friendship, a caring family, respect for your contributions, an identity, safety, security, simplicity, and an organized daily agenda. You will learn new skills, have a respected position, gain personal insight, improve your personality and intelligence. There is no crime or violence and your healthy lifestyle means there is no illness.

Your leader may promise not only to heal any sickness and foretell the future, but give you the gift of immortality, if you are a true believer. In addition, your group's ideology represents a unique spiritual/religious agenda (in other cults it is political, social or personal enhancement) that if followed, will enhance the Human Condition somewhere in the world or cosmos.

Who would fall for such appeals? Most of us, if they were made by someone we trusted, in a setting that was familiar, and especially if we had unfulfilled needs.

Much cult recruitment is done by family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, teachers and highly trained professional recruiters. They recruit not on the streets or airports, but in contexts that are "home bases" for the potential recruit; at schools, in the home, coffee houses, on the job, at sports events, lectures, churches, or drop-in dinners and free personal assessment workshops. The Heaven's Gate group made us aware that recruiting is now also active over the Internet and across the World Wide Web.

In a 1980 study where we (C. Hartley and I) surveyed and interviewed more than 1,000 randomly selected high school students in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, 54 percent reported they had at least one active recruiting attempt by someone they identified with a cult, and 40 percent said they had experienced three to five such contacts. And that was long before electronic cult recruiting could be a new allure for a generation of youngsters growing up as web surfers.

What makes any of us especially vulnerable to cult appeals? Someone is in a transitional phase in life: moved to a new city or country, lost a job, dropped out of school, parents divorced, romantic relationship broken, gave up traditional religion as personally irrelevant. Add to the recipe, all those who find their work tedious and trivial, education abstractly meaningless, social life absent or inconsistent, family remote or dysfunctional, friends too busy to find time for you and trust in government eroded.

Cults promise to fulfill most of those personal individual's needs and also to compensate for a litany of societal failures: to make their slice of the world safe, healthy, caring, predictable and controllable. They will eliminate the increasing feelings of isolation and alienation being created by mobility, technology, competition, meritocracy, incivility, and dehumanized living and working conditions in our society.

In general, cult leaders offer simple solutions to the increasingly complex world problems we all face daily. They offer the simple path to happiness, to success, to salvation by following their simple rules, simple group regimentation and simple total lifestyle. Ultimately, each new member contributes to the power of the leader by trading his or her freedom for the illusion of security and reflected glory that group membership holds out.

It seems like a "win-win" trade for those whose freedom is without power to make a difference in their lives. This may be especially so for the shy among us. Shyness among adults is now escalating to epidemic proportions, according to recent research by Dr. B. Carducci in Indiana and my research team in California. More than 50 percent of college-aged adults report being chronically shy (lacking social skills, low self-esteem, awkward in many social encounters). As with the rise in cult membership, a public health model is essential for understanding how societal pathology is implicated in contributing to the rise in shyness among adults and children in America.

Our society is in a curious transitional phase; as science and technology make remarkable advances, antiscientific values and beliefs in the paranormal and occult abound, family values are stridently promoted in Congress and pulpits, yet divorce is rising along with spouse and child abuse, fear of nuclear annihilation in superpower wars is replaced by fears of crime in our streets and drugs in our schools, and the economic gap grows exponentially between the rich and powerful and our legions of poor and powerless.

Such change and confusion create intellectual chaos that makes it difficult for many citizens to believe in anything, to trust anyone, to stand for anything substantial.

On such shifting sands of time and resolve, the cult leader stands firm with simple directions for what to think and feel, and how to act. "Follow me, I know the path to sanity, security and salvation," proclaims Marshall Applewhite, with other cult leaders chanting the same lyric in that celestial chorus. And many will follow.

What makes cults dangerous? It depends in part on the kind of cult since they come in many sizes, purposes and disguises. Some cults are in the business of power and money. They need members to give money, work for free, beg and recruit new members. They won't go the deathly route of the Heaven's Gaters; their danger lies in deception, mindless devotion, and failure to deliver on the recruiting promises.

Danger also comes in the form of insisting on contributions of exorbitant amounts of money (tithing, signing over life insurance, social security or property, and fees for personal testing and training).

Add exhausting labor as another danger (spending all one's waking time begging for money, recruiting new members, or doing menial service for little or no remuneration). Most cult groups demand that members sever ties with former family and friends which creates total dependence on the group for self identity, recognition, social reinforcement. Unquestioning obedience to the leader and following arbitrary rules and regulations eliminates independent, critical thinking, and the exercise of free will. Such cerebral straight jacketing is a terrible danger that can lead in turn to the ultimate twin dangers of committing suicide upon command or destroying the cult's enemies.

Potential for the worst abuse is found in "total situations" where the group is physically and socially isolated from the outside community. The accompanying total milieu and informational control permits idiosyncratic and paranoid thinking to flourish and be shared without limits. The madness of any leader then becomes normalized as members embrace it, and the folly of one becomes folie & agrave; deux, and finally, with three or more adherents, it becomes a constitutionally protected belief system that is an ideology defended to the death.

A remarkable thing about cult mind control is that it's so ordinary in the tactics and strategies of social influence employed. They are variants of well-known social psychological principles of compliance, conformity, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, framing, emotional manipulation, and others that are used on all of us daily to entice us: to buy, to try, to donate, to vote, to join, to change, to believe, to love, to hate the enemy.

Cult mind control is not different in kind from these everyday varieties, but in its greater intensity, persistence, duration, and scope. One difference is in its greater efforts to block quitting the group, by imposing high exit costs, replete with induced phobias of harm, failure, and personal isolation.

What's the solution?
Heaven's Gate mass suicides have made cults front page news. While their number and ritually methodical formula are unusual, cults are not. They exist as part of the frayed edges of our society and have vital messages for us to reflect upon if we want to prevent such tragedies or our children and neighbors from joining such destructive groups that are on the near horizon.

The solution? Simple. All we have to do is to create an alternative, "perfect cult." We need to work together to find ways to make our society actually deliver on many of those cult promises, to co-opt their appeal, without their deception, distortion and potential for destruction.

No man or woman is an island unto itself, nor a space traveler without an earthly control center. Finding that center, spreading that continent of connections, enriching that core of common humanity should be our first priority as we learn and share a vital lesson from the tragedy of Heaven's Gate.

Reflections on Post-Cult Recovery

by Michael D. Langone, Ph. D.

On July 22-24, 1994, AFF conducted an "After the Cult" workshop at the St.Malo Retreat Center in Estes Park, Colorado. Carol Giambalvo, Nancy Miquelon, Hal Mansfield, Roseann Henry, and I organized the workshop and served as presenters, as did David Clark. It was the first in the Denver area and was extremely well received by the participants. The insightful and moving discussions inspired me to write down some of the reflections inspired by the workshop. I wish to share these with you.

As the workshop participants made very clear, the subjective essence of the cult experience is psychological abuse, and betrayal in particular. Cults ostensibly offer to fulfill commonly experienced human needs for understanding, certainty and self-esteem. They provide an absolutist triad of black-and-white answers to life's problems, a refusal to entertain doubts about those answers, and a promise of being superior to everyone outside the group. Youth and individuals experiencing stress (which includes nearly everyone at some point in their lives) are most likely to be attracted to groups offering this triad. If vulnerable persons encounter a sufficiently persuasive or seductive cultic group at the right time in their lives, they may indeed join, (I presume that there is a range of groups varying from mildly to extremely persuasive and that people will differ in their susceptibility to particular group >pitches'.) When they join, the members expect benevolence, respect, love, help, etc. What they receive is very different.

The reason is twofold. First, the absolutist triad is an illusion. It moves people away from reality and genuine human connections. It is the opposite of what one could call the adaptive triad: a questioning mind possessed of a healthy measure of doubt (discernment), tolerance of ambiguity (no black-and-white answers), and a humble yet critical openness to the meaning systems of other people. Thus, to the extent cults try to deliver the absolutist triad (and they try very hard), they come into conflict with the inexorable demands of the human condition.

The second reason cults don't deliver the benevolent results they promise is their tendency to manipulate and exploit their members (groups that aren't manipulatively exploitative are not cults). Cults employ subtle processes of thought reform (also called coercive persuasion and mind control) to recruit members and to maintain them in systems that exploit members' needs while promising to fulfill those needs. Thought reform is not all-powerful, as some sensationalized media imply. Nor do all groups employ it to the same extent. But it can be remarkably successful in causing large numbers of persons to spend years in social systems that are harmful and sometimes extremely abusive.

Most persons ultimately leave cults, or are ejected from their groups. Research suggests that members leave when they become disenchanted with the group's inability to deliver on its promises, become disillusioned with the hypocrisy or fraudulent practices of the group's leadership, are separated from the group for a period of time, or are able to discuss doubts and concerns with an intimate. A majority appears to be troubled by the experience, while some are devastated. We can only speculate on how many are troubled but unable to acknowledge or recognize their own pain.

The core of this distress is the sense of having been abused by persons thought to be benevolent, that is, of having been betrayed. When they leave their groups many members feel 'spiritually raped,' violated at the core of their beings. With physical rape, it severely damages the capacity to trust -- oneself, others, and God. Ironically, ex-cult members find themselves most in need of the illusory comfort of the absolutist triad when they realize that they have been betrayed by those promising this triad (that is why, perhaps, so many persons will join a cultic group after leaving another.) If they have insight sufficient to resist the lure of the absolutist triad, they will understandably feel empty, depressed, guilty, and painfully unsure of what or who is real and trustworthy and even how to discover what or who is real and trustworthy. In the most extreme cases they are in a state of psychological bankruptcy in which all feelings are tinged by the sourness of betrayal. They must begin anew when they have nothing to grab hold of and no idea about where to turn for help.

That so many do indeed recover is a testament to their courage and enduring capacity to love. Although some manage to pull themselves together without substantial outside assistance, the sharing at the after-the-cult workshops highlights the value of knowledgeable support. The ex-members who have made it out of psychological bankruptcy say to those still suffering: "There is a way out. You can trust again. Hold my hand." Instead of the absolutist triad of black-and-white answers, they offer the adaptive triad of discernment, tolerance, and humility. Instead of giving abuse and humiliation, they give respect and love. Instead of advocating unrealistic standards that guarantee failure, they advocate and model a humble, step-by-step approach to solving problems. This step-by-step approach is the pathway out of distrust and paralyzing doubt.

Ex-members' first step on this pathway is often to reconnect to their pasts by reflecting upon those times when they did trust themselves and others. If they can also watch, record, and review their progress, and especially if they hold on to loving, understanding hands, ex-members can, over time, come to believe in the predictability of their self-respect (i.e., the tendency to treat oneself as deserving of kindness instead of guilty recriminations) and competence (including their imperfect capacity to judge what is real and good) -- they will come to trust themselves. Increased trust in oneself makes it easier to trust others because the latter requires discernment, and discernment presupposes confidence in (trust in) one's own cognitive competence. But developing trust in others is also vital to increasing trust in oneself, for the affirmation of respected others is the most effective antidote to the sometimes crippling self-doubt ex-cult members often experience. That is why many ex-members needs to lean on others (e.g., family) for a period before they can begin to show signs of independence.

Developing trust in others may be viewed metaphorically as developing a well-differentiated array of concentric circles representing the varying levels of closeness into which a discerning self allows others. These circles express the psychological boundaries that distinguish a person from others. In a cult these boundaries are dissolved as the individual is pressured to identify with and merge into the group persona. Once out of the cult, ex-cult members must learn not only how to reestablish boundaries, but how to reestablish (or for some people, establish for the first time) appropriate boundaries. Who should be allowed into the inner circle? Who into the mid-range? Who should be kept at the periphery? Who should be excluded? These decisions require discernment and the courage to experiment in a social world that, though not nearly as abusive as the cult, contains abuse as well as respect and love. Having the help of caring and knowledgeable people who model discernment and courage and offer understanding and a helping hand can be invaluable to ex-cult members hesitatingly trying to reach out to others.

Reestablishing trust in God can be even more difficult than reestablishing it in oneself and other. (The following reflections may not apply to those persons who feel no need for a relationship with God, for example, because they do no believe in God or are agnostic. However, at AFF workshops many, if not most, ex-members consider spiritual issues to be the most pressing of all.) First of all, God is often associated with religion, and most ex-members who have approached clergy or religious institutions for help have been deeply disappointed. Secondly, ex-cult members have had a compelling personal experience of evil, and they angrily ask how a loving God could have permitted their spiritual rape while they sought Him so fervently. Religions do not convincingly answer the problem of evil, of which the ex-cult member's experience is a special case, mainly because the explanations they offer tend to presume a faith in the God whose existence the experience of evil calls into question. The explanations may satisfy believers, but they offer little consolation to those whose contact with evil has left them doubting God's existence.

Thus, ex-cult members frequently feel abandoned by God or turn away from Him when they most need Him. Their tendency is to place their suffering before the "God who might be there" and say: "If you exist, and if you are indeed a loving and merciful God, you'll understand why I cannot trust you now. I have been savaged by lies, and more than anything I need truth, even if only one crumb at a time. As much as I would like to believe and trust in you, I will not allow myself to be deceived again. So please give me time. If you can't respect this, then you don't exist." It appears that as their trust in themselves and others increases, most ex-cult members eventually reconcile with God, although nearly half, according to a survey I conducted, still
tend not to identify with any religious denomination.

Those ex-cult members who do not lose their faith in God have a divine hand to hold during their struggle to rebuild trust in themselves and others. The "God who is there" is there for the psychologically bankrupt as well as the psychologically affluent. Thus, ex-members tortured by free-falling self-doubt can humbly turn to God and pray for the courage and discernment to reach out to those whom they hope genuinely care without strings attached.

A bit of trust in God can lead to a bit of trust in oneself, which in turn can lead to a bit of trust in others. But the growth of trust is not unidirectional. Trust, whether in God, oneself or others, breeds further trust -- provided that the ex-cult member has the courage and wisdom to move one step at a time and the good fortune to move toward people who behave respectfully and with understanding. That first, vital spark of courage must come from the mysterious depths of the ex-cult member's soul. But after that first, lonely courageous step, caring, knowledgeable others can give the encouragement that motivates ex-cult members to quicken their pace and move forward more and more confidently.

Pitfalls To Recovery
By Paul Martin, Ph.D

Each person suffering from trauma or injury usually has the capacity to recover. In this chapter, I will point out some pitfalls on the road to recovery from the trauma of cultic involvement, and then provide some guidelines for speeding up the recovery process...

[I want to state the myths surrounding the cultic experience] ... because it is very important for recovering ...[former members] ...to recognize them. If one leaves a cult and surrounds himself or herself with some well-intended people trying to help but believing in one or more of these myths, the recovery process may be delayed or sidetracked.

The Six Myths About Cultism

Ex-cult members do not have psychological problems. Their problems are wholly spiritual.
Ex-cult members do have psychological disorders. But these people come from clearly "non-Christian" cults.
Both Christians and non-Christian cultic groups can produce psychological problems, but the people involved must have had prior psychological problems that would have surfaced regardless of what group they joined.
While normal non-Christians may get involved with cults, born-again evangelical Christians will not. Even if they did, their involvement would not affect them quite so negatively.
Christians can and do get involved in these aberrational groups, and they can get hurt emotionally, but all they really need is some good Bible teaching and a warm, caring Christian fellowship.
Perhaps the best way for former cult members to receive help is to seek professional therapy with a psychologist, psychiatrist, or other mental health counselor.

As parents ... [or as an ex-member] ... who has left a cult, it is crucial that you do not subscribe to these myths. If you or anyone connected with [an ex-member] holds these false beliefs and communicates them, there will be a double sense of victimization. The first sense of victimization is from the cult itself. The ... [ex-member] ... feels hurt, betrayed, confused, angry, violated, anxious, and perhaps depressed as a result of their cult experience. The second sense of victimization comes when friends, helpers, or family perpetuate the myths about cultism. These myths work themselves out in everyday conversation in such questions and comments as:

I certainly could think of some others who might join a cult, but you were the last person I would have expected.
Why go to counseling? You know you were deceived in your spiritual walk. What you need to do is repent of your sins so that the deceiver cannot tempt you...
People who join these groups are troubled or have come from dysfunctional homes. I guess I was wrong in assuming you didn't have those problems...

When one who has left and is trying to stay away from a cultic group hears these statements, the message that comes through is, "Something is wrong with you." "You must have some psychological problems." ... If the ex-cultist hears and believes these messages, recovery is all but impossible until the erroneous thinking is corrected. Regardless of one's spiritual or psychological health, whether one is weak or strong, cultic involvement can happen to anyone.

Exit Counseling and Confronting Denial

...It takes quite some time for those leaving cults to know what happened to them, and they still operate under shame and guilt over their cultic involvement. One must realize that cults use powerful techniques of manipulation. ...The major problem for those not undergoing some form of exit counseling is denial. Many continue to believe they were somehow responsible for their fate. It is difficult for them to accept that their lives were not always completely under their own control. Denial shows itself in withdrawal from family and friends, statements that "I'm fine," defensiveness about the group's problem, and refusal to seek help. Such denial must be countered by clearly showing the realities of cult dynamics. Former cult members need to see how they were lured into the movement, what vulnerabilities the cult exploited, and how the principles of mind control were used to keep them in the cult.

Emotional Needs: Cults lure people for many reasons, but perhaps primarily because of the relationships that the experience offers. The involvement is an intensely personal experience. ...The therapist, counselor, pastor, and [family] must be able to relate to the ex-member's emotional needs for acceptance, belonging, friendship, and love. ...In recovering from cultic life, one of the things that takes the longest to resolve is the search for the love, fellowship, and caring that was experienced while in the group. It is extremely important that a trusting relationship be established between the former member and the helper. ...[The] tremendous fellowship and warmth that the ex-member often longs for is an "artificial high." ...group experience felt great. [Were these highs] really more like the feeling of euphoria produced by some drugs?

There are many group processes that can make people feel euphoric. These "highs" can be psychologically and spiritually unhealthy, because the experience produces in the member a strong sense of dependence on the group and its leaders.

Recognizing Floating

These "highs" are part of what is known as altered states of consciousness—states between waking and sleeping "that differ from those usually experienced in the world of everyday reality." Included are states such as those induced by creative work, meditation, drugs, sleep, alcohol, and hypnosis. When an ex-cultist returns to the "high" after leaving a cult, it is called "floating." It is also called "floating" when one snaps back into the shame-based motivations experienced while in the cult and believes anew that the cult was right. Floating is handled by discovering what triggers the episodes and then dealing with the triggers.

Types of triggers include:

Verbal—songs, jargon, Scripture verses, slogans, types of laughter, mantras, decrees, prayers, tongues speaking, curses, [rhythhmic speaking, accents]
Visual—certain colors, pictures, hand signals, symbols, smiles
Physical—touches, handshakes, kisses, hugs
Smell—incense, perfume of leader, foods
Tastes—foods

The first step in recovery from floating is to identify these triggers and the loaded language that gives meaning to the visual trigger. For example, the visual trigger may be a book that has been forbidden by the cult. Seeing the book causes thoughts like, "This is the work of the devil." Loaded language is any thought-stopping cliché that is used in manipulative groups to prevent critical thinking. For example, simple tiredness is reinterpreted as "running in the flesh," and is used to discourage people from claiming fatigue or stress. Not wanting to go to every scheduled meeting is labeled "rebellion" and as possessing a ..."independent spirit." ... Such loaded language is not easily forgotten even after exiting a cult. It sidetracks critical analysis, disrupts communication, and may produce confusion, anxiety, terror, and guilt.

Undoing the language of the cult requires a hard look at what words and phrases mean. The mind must be taught to rethink the meaning of language. Because cults misuse words and use loaded language, one ex-cultist recommends concentrating on crossword puzzles and other word games as an aid to regrounding one's conception of the true sense of words. In addition, ...[ex-members] ...must learn to challenge the factual claims of loaded language phrases.

Former cult members must ...[learn to] ...identify such words and phrases that have a special or loaded meaning to them. ...One simple way for ex-cultists to help themselves is to look words up in a dictionary and then compare those meanings with what the cult taught. The member should be encouraged to spend a good bit of time reading in areas unrelated to the former cult.

Such exercises are crucial for any ...[former cult members] ...who feel powerless because they do not know how language was used to control them. Empowerment and control are essential ingredients to recovery from cultic involvement.

The Use of Mind Control in Religious Cults (Part One)
By David Henke

Do you remember the pictures in the media of the suicide deaths of 900 People's Temple members in Jonestown, Guyna?

Or, do you remember the more recent reports of the suicide deaths by members of the Heaven's Gate UFO cult?

And, why would the Branch Davidians stay in their compound if they thought it meant death?

Somewhere in the mind of each person in each situation there was a life or death decision they thought they had to make. Given their perceived circumstances they thought death was the only honorable, or viable, choice. Of course we know differently. But, what is it in the cult milieu that leads to such stark alternatives?

Many in the counter-cult community believe it is attributable to the influence of mind control techniques.

Some disagree with that model as an explanation. There is no attempt here to defend one model against another.

Rather, the purpose here is to explain the process of undue influence that can occur in the mind control model, and to consider the objections.

POWs and Freshmen

At the end of the Korean War Americans learned a new word, brainwashing. Many of the American POWs had experienced a very thoroughgoing process of thought reform. The Communists had imposed a rigorous process of punishment and reward together with indoctrination that led some of the POWs to express a desire to remain in the Marxist country. Among those who returned all quickly reverted to the worldview and value system in which they were raised. In other words brainwashing does not last if it is not maintained.

All the principles of thought reform used by the communists have been used by most cults. There is however, a vast difference in them. The communists used severe physical punishments and deprivation, even the threat of execution. Cults hold out a much less severe, and more subtle, form of reward and punishment which people cooperate with because they believe it to be what is good for themselves.

The term brainwashing is used when the process begins with an adversarial relationship, and is externally imposed with coercive methods. We use the term mind control when it begins with a friendship, is very subtle and persuasive, and leaves coercion out until control is achieved. Both are categorized as thought reform.

Even though our soldiers viewed their jailers as the enemy, they succumbed to the process. Cult recruits see the leaders as friendly, supportive and caring. This is the greatest single difference. This difference is an advantage to the cult because the recruit lets down his guard to a friend, whereas his guard is up to a perceived enemy. But without a support network, as well as knowledge of truth, even our guard can be overcome.

College students are often a target for cults because they are isolated from the support network of family, friends, and church. It isn't unusual to be lonely and homesick. The cult recruiter comes along with an idealistic message offering friendship and significance. A student may lack the knowledge that would enable him to discern the trouble he faces.

Any emotionally traumatic experience can create a vulnerability to deception.

Dr. Robert J. Lifton conducted a thorough study of our returned POWs to discover the process used to reform their thinking. His findings are published in his book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Though his focus was on prisoners of war the criteria carry over to the cult mind control model. Let's look at them. As you read the descriptions of each criteria think of the old Soviet Union and what you know of their Cold War practices. That model serves as an excellent example of mind control attempted on a large scale.

Milieu Control: Milieu is the environment in which we live. It includes all our interactions on a daily basis. It includes the information we take in and the information we give out. It includes the people, places, events, and ideas that pass through our daily life.

If these can be controlled the individual will become isolated from his support network and therefore vulnerable to influence. For example the Soviet citizen could get his news only from a Party affiliated source because western broadcasts were jammed.

Christians are to be salt and light in the world. We must be in the world but not of it. That implies interaction, not isolation. The Truth will stand any test.

Mystical Manipulation: In any cultic group, or Marxist government, there is a higher calling, an almost utopian goal for which the group strives. The follower accepts that his group is the only one that is equipped to achieve this goal. With that assumption this mystical ideal can be achieved if they will give their all in its pursuit. If they fail to give their all they will fall short of their goal. This is a powerful incentive for religious cults, as if God Himself were directing their actions.

Lifton makes the point that such manipulation requires a level of trust that is difficult, if not impossible, to maintain for a long time. When trust is lost the followers see through the manipulation and cease to respond.

Among the cults a demonstrated false prophecy can put an end to the leaders ability to manipulate followers on to greater effort. The dismal statistics in the Watchtower's own Yearbooks after their 1975 false prophecy illustrates this dramatically.

Manipulation is completely out of place for the Christian. Sometimes admonition and exhortation are replaced with manipulation. Where this happens it should be resisted.

In the political arena the utopian goal can be achieved by actions consistent with ideological purity. In the religious arena ideology is called doctrine. To achieve the utopian goal anything impure must be removed. The leaders get to decide what that purity is in totalistic systems. The followers strive mightily until they fail. Then their failure is written off as an example of the impurity that held the group back from achieving its goal. As Christians we know that the Ten Commandments are pure and true but man is unable to obey them completely. Our "purity" is Christ's purity imputed to us through faith in His blood.

In totalistic systems the leaders exhort the followers to search themselves for anything impure that would hold the group back and defeat them. This causes the followers a lot of self doubt leading to a rigid adherence to the rules of the system. The Pharisees are an excellent example.

An example in communist history is the Chinese Cultural Revolution and also the Cambodian experience under Pol Pot where everyone was forced into agrarian work, an ideological ideal, according to the Khmer Rouge. Phnom Penh became a ghost town.

Cult of Confession: Closely related to the above is confession. Not legitimate confession to God, or someone wronged, but improper confessions. Any personal weakness, bad thought, failure to give 100% to the group, must be confessed. Even wrongs not committed can be confessed to help the group achieve purity. Our innate sense of guilt because of Original Sin makes people vulnerable to this.

Confession can have a cathartic effect on the person confessing. It can also provide leverage to use on the person in the future as often happens in cultic systems. Open confession sessions can create a sense in the group of personal uncertainty. If a seemingly strong person is confessing the weaker followers will feel less sure of their own purity. Public confessions can eliminate the sense of boundaries we need to maintain our individuality.

In the communist world, especially China, when a political dissident is tried and found guilty he will frequently make a public confession of his "guilt." This justifies the political system that will then kill him to purify the "workers paradise".

Christians should only confess actual wrongdoing to God and the one wronged.

Sacred Science: Lifton said, "The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic dogma, holding it out as the ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence" (page 427). It is beyond questioning. To question it is to blaspheme. It is this questioning that must not be allowed in such a system. To allow questions implies that an issue is unsettled, and therefore uncertain. Questioning will also spread to others and undermine the hold of the leadership.

In the Soviet Union the Party was the ideological master. In every military unit there was a "zampolit", or political officer, who kept everyone in line with the Party ideology. When Gorbachev instituted "glasnost" (openness) outside sources of information could now be accessed. The sacred science of the Party line could now be questioned. The people were now empowered and as a result the communist system had to go. This is what every cult leader must fear most. The Watchtower calls it "independent thinking" and condemns it as an "evidence of pride" (Watchtower, 1/15/83, page 27).

For a Christian questioning is not a sin. It is not even doubt, but unbelief, that is sin. The examples are many from Genesis to Revelation that God wants a two-way relationship with His own (Job 9, 10 and 38).

Lifton's Eight Criteria

Milieu Control - The control of the environment including information, associations, time, and energy work to exclude any opportunity for opposition while also promoting the 'party line'.
Mystical Manipulation - This is the 'higher calling' for the follower to be a part of a utopian goal which requires his full devotion. The followers see the leaders as having achieved this higher calling hence they are worthy to be followed.
Demand For Purity - The utopian goal can only be achieved by purity of devotion. Any failure to succeed means impurity exists somewhere and will be searched out by those in control.
Cult of Confession - Failure to succeed means confessions must be made. Any weakness or failure, real or perceived, are to be confessed for the sake of the group. Even confessions where no wrong was actually done can spur the group to more purity.
Sacred Science - The ideology, doctrine and mission of the group are so sacred that they must not be doubted or questioned. To do so is one of the worst offenses possible. However, without the option of questioning, a lie cannot be uncovered.
Loading the Language - Certain words and phrases are so loaded with meaning that stark choices are implied leading to the end of critical thinking.
Doctrine Over Person - What you see, hear or think is irrelevant in the face of the groups doctrine. You must submerge your opinions in the group's worldview.
Dispensing of Existence - Only those who are committed to the group are valued. Those who oppose or betray the group can be dismissed, defamed, disfellowshipped, or killed.