Mind Control Techniques In Cults
For ex-members of cults, understanding the mind control techniques used to recruit them and keep them in the group is an important part of their recuperation.
Remember people do not deliberately join cults. They are recruited!
It takes time
The recruitment process is exactly that, a process, new members are recruited step-by-step. Cult membership has been likened to a marriage, with the initial seduction, increasing commitment, falling in love, and fully committing.
Smooth Talkers
Many people believe that cults use harassment and arguments to pressure people into joining. Nothing could be further from the truth. The mind control techniques used by cults nowadays have evolved and frequently soft talk, charm and appealing topics are used to flatter, entice and even seduce people into making commitments.
But the combination of mind control techniques means that the seduction can cause bonds and commitments that are even more powerful than normal relationships.
Mind Control Methods Used To Change The Personality: A new personality
The mind control methods used in cults are designed to create a pseudo-personality in the members, a clone of the leader, that thinks and makes decisions in the same way, based off of the taught doctrine which acts like a master code.
Unfreezing
People can arrive in a cult 'unfrozen'. When people have a major trauma in their life, a move away from home, loss of a loved one, loss of a job, a change from school to university, their reality has changed significantly. They may be questioning their lives, they may be wondering how God can allow such things to happen, they may distrust the system, and in some cases the things they've depended on up to now, are no longer trustworthy. They may distrust themselves and they may distrust the world. They are looking for answers, reassurance or help to relieve their misery.
This puts them in a very vulnerable position. Remember, people do not join cults. They are recruited using mind control methods!
Cults are actively looking for people at vulnerable times in their lives because it makes their task so much easier. A person whose world has just fallen apart is very susceptible to compliments, offers of help and the possibility of easy solutions to their enormous problems. Cult members are trained to be on the lookout for people in such situations because they are easy targets.
The Process
Those who are conned or deceived into joining a cult will be put through an unfreezing process. Every group has their own manner and particular tools for doing this but there are many common mind control methods to achieve it.
The basic idea is to distance people from their past, to make their past bad, or the source of all their problems.
Some mind control methods
It's very common to take new members to seminars and courses in remote areas. In their time off, there's no place to go and so they literally spend 24 hours a day in the cult environment. This gives the leadership strict control over the person's environment. Some more modern cults choose remote, beautiful locations that give the false perception of freedom.
A seminar running late at night mean’s there is little time for sleep, and a tired person is a more compliant person, less able to think critically. Control of mealtimes and control of the food is another way to alter somebody's physiology.
Hypnosis and hypnotic mind control methods are particularly effective tools for limiting a person's ability to think critically.
For faster mind control hypnosis works a treat!
What is hypnosis?
It's useful to think of hypnosis in terms of states of consciousness. Everybody has a waking state, a state when they know they're awake, they're alert, alive and in the world. And we have different states of consciousness throughout the day. For example, if you are lying in a warm bath you feel a little bit sleepy; your mind might begin to wander, drifting lazily from one idea to another. This is an altered state of consciousness, or a trance state. Another example is staring at the movements of fish in a big fish tank. What happens is your attention becomes more and more focused and your awareness, as your surroundings diminishes.
This is typical of hypnotic trance states, more and more of your attention becomes focused on what's happening inside and less on what's happening outside. So you become much more aware of your own thoughts, internal images and feelings, and less aware of things going on in your environment. Normally, it is very pleasant for most people, very relaxing and enjoyable.
Effects
One important factor here is that in trance states people's ability to think logically and critically, diminishes. They tend to simply accept any information that is given to them, without thinking if it is rational and reasonable or not. This means that people in hypnotic trance are suggestible; they accept uncritically any suggestions given to them. This means that even strong willed people can be hypnotized and made to do things that they would not normally do.
What the manipulators say...
It's interesting that many cult leaders will often claim that people cannot be made to do things against their will, even using mind control hypnosis. There are two important issues here:
First of all, the members of the group are programmed to accept whatever the leader says. Therefore they will tend to accept this idea.
Secondly, implicit in the idea is that if the person does something, they are doing it of their own volition; it is their own decision to do so.
When we make our own decisions, we believe more firmly, and are more committed to the result. The actions and effects of our decisions last longer.
This is a very subtle but potent idea.
Another thing to keep in mind is that hypnosis is not always a closed eye process. It is not necessary to have your eyes closed to be in a trance. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and when you reach your destination you don't remember much of the journey? You were in a trance!
So the important things to remember are that:
Hypnosis is simply an altered state.
We naturally enter lots of altered states or trances ourselves every day.
It's not necessary to have your eyes closed.
Hypnosis can be induced without words and most importantly it reduces critical faculties and the ability to evaluate information.
Meditation what can you say? Instant trance!
Covert destructive manipulation
Destructive groups and individuals will use hypnotic mind control in a variety of little known ways too.
Long seminars and lengthy speeches, especially if they go on late at night, are a way to induce trance, sometimes because of boredom, sometimes because of tiredness, or both! Again, cult leaders may not know they are doing hypnosis but they are smart enough to recognize the benefits of such techniques for themselves.
So after unfreezing, the next bit…
Changing
Remember that mind control is a process. It takes time.
There will be overlap between unfreezing, changing and freezing. Some of the same mind control methods used for unfreezing will also be used for changing. Hypnosis is an obvious example.
Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, is very important in indoctrination. It's the same message over and over and over again. In some groups they may sound like different stories, different teachings, but it's always the same basic idea and stories. The cult leaders are basically 'one trick ponies'.
We have THE WAY...
The old values, old ideas, old beliefs and old mindsets are criticized and blamed for life's problems, but now new solutions are offered. The message is: Accept the group’s ideas, take on the new beliefs and values and everything will be okay, it’ll be a miracle from one day to the next. It will all work out the way you want.
Time to refreeze
The new pseudo-identity is forming. More and more it represses and dominates the pre-cult identity. (It never fully destroys the pre-cult identity, and very often the conflicts and contradictions in the member are due to an ongoing struggle between the two identities).
There is an age old method that is used here as part of the mind control methods. Reward good behavior and punish bad behavior! A reward can be something as simple as spending time with the leader, a kind word or a compliment from him, especially in public. Or it can be something more powerful, like permission to leave the group to go and visit family, or to make a phone call to friends or family.
Re-indoctrination: Keeping the egg boiled
A favorite mind control method used in cults to maintain the pseudo-personality in place, is to put the members through the indoctrination process again and again. Some do it every few months, or every few years but certainly within five years because they've realized that after five years the pre-cult personality begins to appear again.
Some groups, for example, insist that the members attend a workshop once a year to 'keep up to date' with the group ideas and/or to maintain the 'qualifications' awarded by the group. This simply means the leader gets to indoctrinate them again.
Keeping members in awe of the leader. A wonderful person, clever, enlightened, caring, charming etc. etc.
Once this is complete you will feel ready to take on your important mission again: Fill in the blank!
Some points to conclude
Recognize conditions in which you are vulnerable. Major life events, loss, grief, depression, after failing exams, losing a job and so on.
Don't be pushed into making a decision. Reserve the right to defer a decision or say no.
You should hear warning bells and see flashing lights when someone emphasizes your freedom of choice to the alternatives they have offered.
Be very careful if you seem to be making a lot of very good friends very quickly in a new group. If everybody makes you feel special, intelligent and repeatedly tells you that you will do well with them, or that you have potential, you need to reassess what's actually happening if you are to stop mind control early in the process.
If you are being offered simple, complete answers to complex problems it should be treated as a warning sign. "Just do this thing and your life will be different!"
If you're told that you need to get out of your mind, or that your problems are based on your thinking, be careful that it’s not simply a way of creating a state of passive acceptance.
The leader doesn't want adoration! At least that's what he or she says. In reality, they are cultivating an environment in which they are all powerful and anyone who does not demonstrate adoration may be punished. Or more commonly, they are not given benefits or rewards. And a reward may simply be getting to spend time with the leader!
Very often in destructive groups they teach that family, friends and loved ones will not understand, are not evolved enough, and will try to hamper the person's attempts to better themselves. Consequently when the family does try to intervene, the leader's warnings are confirmed and the pseudo-identity feels a need to protect itself.
Fortunately, with expert care, these effects of cult psychology can usually be undone.
For ex-members of cults, understanding the mind control techniques used to recruit them and keep them in the group is an important part of their recuperation.
Remember people do not deliberately join cults. They are recruited!
It takes time
The recruitment process is exactly that, a process, new members are recruited step-by-step. Cult membership has been likened to a marriage, with the initial seduction, increasing commitment, falling in love, and fully committing.
Smooth Talkers
Many people believe that cults use harassment and arguments to pressure people into joining. Nothing could be further from the truth. The mind control techniques used by cults nowadays have evolved and frequently soft talk, charm and appealing topics are used to flatter, entice and even seduce people into making commitments.
But the combination of mind control techniques means that the seduction can cause bonds and commitments that are even more powerful than normal relationships.
Mind Control Methods Used To Change The Personality: A new personality
The mind control methods used in cults are designed to create a pseudo-personality in the members, a clone of the leader, that thinks and makes decisions in the same way, based off of the taught doctrine which acts like a master code.
Unfreezing
People can arrive in a cult 'unfrozen'. When people have a major trauma in their life, a move away from home, loss of a loved one, loss of a job, a change from school to university, their reality has changed significantly. They may be questioning their lives, they may be wondering how God can allow such things to happen, they may distrust the system, and in some cases the things they've depended on up to now, are no longer trustworthy. They may distrust themselves and they may distrust the world. They are looking for answers, reassurance or help to relieve their misery.
This puts them in a very vulnerable position. Remember, people do not join cults. They are recruited using mind control methods!
Cults are actively looking for people at vulnerable times in their lives because it makes their task so much easier. A person whose world has just fallen apart is very susceptible to compliments, offers of help and the possibility of easy solutions to their enormous problems. Cult members are trained to be on the lookout for people in such situations because they are easy targets.
The Process
Those who are conned or deceived into joining a cult will be put through an unfreezing process. Every group has their own manner and particular tools for doing this but there are many common mind control methods to achieve it.
The basic idea is to distance people from their past, to make their past bad, or the source of all their problems.
Some mind control methods
It's very common to take new members to seminars and courses in remote areas. In their time off, there's no place to go and so they literally spend 24 hours a day in the cult environment. This gives the leadership strict control over the person's environment. Some more modern cults choose remote, beautiful locations that give the false perception of freedom.
A seminar running late at night mean’s there is little time for sleep, and a tired person is a more compliant person, less able to think critically. Control of mealtimes and control of the food is another way to alter somebody's physiology.
Hypnosis and hypnotic mind control methods are particularly effective tools for limiting a person's ability to think critically.
For faster mind control hypnosis works a treat!
What is hypnosis?
It's useful to think of hypnosis in terms of states of consciousness. Everybody has a waking state, a state when they know they're awake, they're alert, alive and in the world. And we have different states of consciousness throughout the day. For example, if you are lying in a warm bath you feel a little bit sleepy; your mind might begin to wander, drifting lazily from one idea to another. This is an altered state of consciousness, or a trance state. Another example is staring at the movements of fish in a big fish tank. What happens is your attention becomes more and more focused and your awareness, as your surroundings diminishes.
This is typical of hypnotic trance states, more and more of your attention becomes focused on what's happening inside and less on what's happening outside. So you become much more aware of your own thoughts, internal images and feelings, and less aware of things going on in your environment. Normally, it is very pleasant for most people, very relaxing and enjoyable.
Effects
One important factor here is that in trance states people's ability to think logically and critically, diminishes. They tend to simply accept any information that is given to them, without thinking if it is rational and reasonable or not. This means that people in hypnotic trance are suggestible; they accept uncritically any suggestions given to them. This means that even strong willed people can be hypnotized and made to do things that they would not normally do.
What the manipulators say...
It's interesting that many cult leaders will often claim that people cannot be made to do things against their will, even using mind control hypnosis. There are two important issues here:
First of all, the members of the group are programmed to accept whatever the leader says. Therefore they will tend to accept this idea.
Secondly, implicit in the idea is that if the person does something, they are doing it of their own volition; it is their own decision to do so.
When we make our own decisions, we believe more firmly, and are more committed to the result. The actions and effects of our decisions last longer.
This is a very subtle but potent idea.
Another thing to keep in mind is that hypnosis is not always a closed eye process. It is not necessary to have your eyes closed to be in a trance. For example, have you ever driven somewhere and when you reach your destination you don't remember much of the journey? You were in a trance!
So the important things to remember are that:
Hypnosis is simply an altered state.
We naturally enter lots of altered states or trances ourselves every day.
It's not necessary to have your eyes closed.
Hypnosis can be induced without words and most importantly it reduces critical faculties and the ability to evaluate information.
Meditation what can you say? Instant trance!
Covert destructive manipulation
Destructive groups and individuals will use hypnotic mind control in a variety of little known ways too.
Long seminars and lengthy speeches, especially if they go on late at night, are a way to induce trance, sometimes because of boredom, sometimes because of tiredness, or both! Again, cult leaders may not know they are doing hypnosis but they are smart enough to recognize the benefits of such techniques for themselves.
So after unfreezing, the next bit…
Changing
Remember that mind control is a process. It takes time.
There will be overlap between unfreezing, changing and freezing. Some of the same mind control methods used for unfreezing will also be used for changing. Hypnosis is an obvious example.
Repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, is very important in indoctrination. It's the same message over and over and over again. In some groups they may sound like different stories, different teachings, but it's always the same basic idea and stories. The cult leaders are basically 'one trick ponies'.
We have THE WAY...
The old values, old ideas, old beliefs and old mindsets are criticized and blamed for life's problems, but now new solutions are offered. The message is: Accept the group’s ideas, take on the new beliefs and values and everything will be okay, it’ll be a miracle from one day to the next. It will all work out the way you want.
Time to refreeze
The new pseudo-identity is forming. More and more it represses and dominates the pre-cult identity. (It never fully destroys the pre-cult identity, and very often the conflicts and contradictions in the member are due to an ongoing struggle between the two identities).
There is an age old method that is used here as part of the mind control methods. Reward good behavior and punish bad behavior! A reward can be something as simple as spending time with the leader, a kind word or a compliment from him, especially in public. Or it can be something more powerful, like permission to leave the group to go and visit family, or to make a phone call to friends or family.
Re-indoctrination: Keeping the egg boiled
A favorite mind control method used in cults to maintain the pseudo-personality in place, is to put the members through the indoctrination process again and again. Some do it every few months, or every few years but certainly within five years because they've realized that after five years the pre-cult personality begins to appear again.
Some groups, for example, insist that the members attend a workshop once a year to 'keep up to date' with the group ideas and/or to maintain the 'qualifications' awarded by the group. This simply means the leader gets to indoctrinate them again.
Keeping members in awe of the leader. A wonderful person, clever, enlightened, caring, charming etc. etc.
Once this is complete you will feel ready to take on your important mission again: Fill in the blank!
Some points to conclude
Recognize conditions in which you are vulnerable. Major life events, loss, grief, depression, after failing exams, losing a job and so on.
Don't be pushed into making a decision. Reserve the right to defer a decision or say no.
You should hear warning bells and see flashing lights when someone emphasizes your freedom of choice to the alternatives they have offered.
Be very careful if you seem to be making a lot of very good friends very quickly in a new group. If everybody makes you feel special, intelligent and repeatedly tells you that you will do well with them, or that you have potential, you need to reassess what's actually happening if you are to stop mind control early in the process.
If you are being offered simple, complete answers to complex problems it should be treated as a warning sign. "Just do this thing and your life will be different!"
If you're told that you need to get out of your mind, or that your problems are based on your thinking, be careful that it’s not simply a way of creating a state of passive acceptance.
The leader doesn't want adoration! At least that's what he or she says. In reality, they are cultivating an environment in which they are all powerful and anyone who does not demonstrate adoration may be punished. Or more commonly, they are not given benefits or rewards. And a reward may simply be getting to spend time with the leader!
Very often in destructive groups they teach that family, friends and loved ones will not understand, are not evolved enough, and will try to hamper the person's attempts to better themselves. Consequently when the family does try to intervene, the leader's warnings are confirmed and the pseudo-identity feels a need to protect itself.
Fortunately, with expert care, these effects of cult psychology can usually be undone.