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AnonymousJuly 13, 2015 at 12:02 PM
Healing Intensive Workshop or Retreat
One former member's description of an introductory weekend illustrates why such an impressive process works:
"On the surface it seems simple enough: come to a weekend workshop, learn about some new ideas, try them out; if you don't like it, leave. But a lot more than that is happening. When a person is isolated, he is not in a good position to discover that he is being deceived. Deception and isolation reinforce each other. It begins with physical or geographical isolation.
Perhaps more importantly, you are isolated from your own mind. How can that happen?
If your day starts at seven a.m. and ends at midnight, and is extremely active and filled with group events, it becomes difficult to turn inward and reflect.
By the end of the day when your head hits the pillow, you just do not have the energy to stay awake. In the workshops there is virtually no privacy.
You are intensely pressured to identify with the group. The whole is much more important than the individual….You are put in the position of competing with the interests of the whole, which generates guilt…
The workshop lectures are an emotional rollercoaster and an intellectual barrage. To deal adequately with the concepts explored in a workshop would take months and months, if not years and years. By the end of the workshop, you have been through an intense period of no reflection, constant activity, no privacy, immense pressure toward identification with the group, suspicion of your desires to be separate from the group, roller-coaster emotions, and a barrage of ideas that have left you confused and unsure of yourself."
In addition to these overt examples, certain common and socially accepted interactions might be part of the bag of tricks used by schmoozers, con artists, and cult recruiters to manipulate, influence, control, and, in the end, get recruits to say yes, come back for more, sign up, and make a commitment.
For example, a good recruiter knows that people will respond to certain buzzwords, such as love, peace, brotherhood. He might explain that these idealized goals can be attained if the recruit behaves "properly." In most cases, the desired behavioral change is accomplished in small incremental steps; conversion to the new worldview is a gradual process.
Some methods used during cult recruitment and indoctrination are similar to hypnotic techniques used in various clinical or therapeutic contexts. In a cult environment, however, this type of manipulaton has a dual purpose:to instill deep hypnotic suggestions that are meant to change behavior and patterns of thinking; and to maintain control of the individual.
Recruiters use similar tactics in their mirroring of the interests and attitudes of recruits.
By striking a responsive chord, the recruiter, like the hypnotist, paces the subject from a psychological beginning point, slowly and carefully leading the person to the next stage. If successful, the recruiter will now be able to define the recruit's reality.
A skilled recruiter establishes an environment in which the recruit is made to feel special, loved, among new friends, and a part of something unique. While the recruit is in a susceptible state, verbal and nonverbal messages are directly and indirectly conveyed about proper behavior and thinking patterns.
"It cannot be stated strongly enough," writes Jesse Miller, a clinical psychologist, "that the process of pacing and leading recruits is not only part of the initial indoctrination but is also, along with elaborate reinforcement schedules and the merciless manipulation of guilt and humiliation, an ongoing feature of cult membership."
Cults can exert significant control over the individual, ultimately influencing his mental processes and daily activities and actions, even while he is physically away from the group.
Take Back Your Life
by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias
pages 24-26
AnonymousJuly 13, 2015 at 12:02 PM
Healing Intensive Workshop or Retreat
One former member's description of an introductory weekend illustrates why such an impressive process works:
"On the surface it seems simple enough: come to a weekend workshop, learn about some new ideas, try them out; if you don't like it, leave. But a lot more than that is happening. When a person is isolated, he is not in a good position to discover that he is being deceived. Deception and isolation reinforce each other. It begins with physical or geographical isolation.
Perhaps more importantly, you are isolated from your own mind. How can that happen?
If your day starts at seven a.m. and ends at midnight, and is extremely active and filled with group events, it becomes difficult to turn inward and reflect.
By the end of the day when your head hits the pillow, you just do not have the energy to stay awake. In the workshops there is virtually no privacy.
You are intensely pressured to identify with the group. The whole is much more important than the individual….You are put in the position of competing with the interests of the whole, which generates guilt…
The workshop lectures are an emotional rollercoaster and an intellectual barrage. To deal adequately with the concepts explored in a workshop would take months and months, if not years and years. By the end of the workshop, you have been through an intense period of no reflection, constant activity, no privacy, immense pressure toward identification with the group, suspicion of your desires to be separate from the group, roller-coaster emotions, and a barrage of ideas that have left you confused and unsure of yourself."
In addition to these overt examples, certain common and socially accepted interactions might be part of the bag of tricks used by schmoozers, con artists, and cult recruiters to manipulate, influence, control, and, in the end, get recruits to say yes, come back for more, sign up, and make a commitment.
For example, a good recruiter knows that people will respond to certain buzzwords, such as love, peace, brotherhood. He might explain that these idealized goals can be attained if the recruit behaves "properly." In most cases, the desired behavioral change is accomplished in small incremental steps; conversion to the new worldview is a gradual process.
Some methods used during cult recruitment and indoctrination are similar to hypnotic techniques used in various clinical or therapeutic contexts. In a cult environment, however, this type of manipulaton has a dual purpose:to instill deep hypnotic suggestions that are meant to change behavior and patterns of thinking; and to maintain control of the individual.
Recruiters use similar tactics in their mirroring of the interests and attitudes of recruits.
By striking a responsive chord, the recruiter, like the hypnotist, paces the subject from a psychological beginning point, slowly and carefully leading the person to the next stage. If successful, the recruiter will now be able to define the recruit's reality.
A skilled recruiter establishes an environment in which the recruit is made to feel special, loved, among new friends, and a part of something unique. While the recruit is in a susceptible state, verbal and nonverbal messages are directly and indirectly conveyed about proper behavior and thinking patterns.
"It cannot be stated strongly enough," writes Jesse Miller, a clinical psychologist, "that the process of pacing and leading recruits is not only part of the initial indoctrination but is also, along with elaborate reinforcement schedules and the merciless manipulation of guilt and humiliation, an ongoing feature of cult membership."
Cults can exert significant control over the individual, ultimately influencing his mental processes and daily activities and actions, even while he is physically away from the group.
Take Back Your Life
by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias
pages 24-26