Essay On Destructive Cults

07 December 1989

Webster's New World Dictionary defines a "Cult" as a group of followers. Which means all of us are cult members to some degree. All of us belong to something, or follow some line of thinking or belief.

Where two are gathered together, any one of three things may happen: If both are leaders, a state of war develops. If both are followers, a state of confusion develops. But if one is a leader and one a follower, a new cult develops.

And so, cults are nothing to be unduly concerned about.

But according to author Steve Hassan, when cults develop and grow by implementing components that result in total control of their members' minds, the cult is said to be destructive. Hassan, who holds a master's degree in counseling psychology from Cambridge College, is the author of "Combatting Cult Mind Control", and a former member of the Moonies. Much of the information in this editorial is extracted from his book.

Mind control is not brainwashing. Brainwashing is coercive. The victim knows from the start that he is in the hands of an enemy, and usually complies only to gain relief from some type of oppression, and then attempts to justify the compliance by changing his beliefs to fit his action. The effect is usually not lasting, and disappears once the threatening force is gone.

Mind control is more sophisticated and subtle. Victims are manipulated and deceived instead of being directly threatened. They respond to prescribed choices and never realize what is happening to them. Mind control is more permanent and more devastating than brainwashing.

There are four recognized components of Mind Control, according to Hassan: control of behavior, control of thoughts, control of emotions, and control of information. All destructive cults employ these four components in order to gain "voluntary" compliance from their members.

Once a leader can regulate a person's physical reality (control behavior), including where he lives, what he wears, when he sleeps, or what jobs he does... then that person begins to think that what is happening to him is what is supposed to be happening to him. Bingo... control of thought is automatic.

Thought control in most destructive cults is reinforced by the foundation of a new language system and an absolute doctrine that allows no gray area, but develops a bipolar attitude about reality. Everything is "in or out", "black or white", "us or them".

Thought-stopping rituals are employed by most destructive cults to block out negative thoughts. After all, if the leader is perfect, and the doctrine is perfect, then any negative thought about them must be a defect in the follower. So he puts the thought out of his head. Before he starts feeling guilty about thinking it...

Because if he does, he's sucked into the next level of Mind Control... emotional control. Since the leader is perfect and the doctrine is perfect, a destructive cult member feels guilty if he doubts. And he fears that his doubts will become exposed and earn the wrath of the group. He also fears that if he doesn't live up to the group's expectations, he will be the cause of their failure, and subject to whatever bogeyman the group has devised to punish such failure.

Finally, if a destructive cult member has no access to external information, he has nothing by which to judge his situation. Many cult members shun external information sources, because the leader and the doctrine are perfect... so why bother with anything else? Often, even information about the cult itself is controlled from within. The higher levels are confidential, or the inner circles are unknown to those in the outer circles. A destructive cult prospect doesn't know what all he is buying until he's trapped. If it were all laid out to start with, nobody would join. That's why information control is necessary to the success of destructive cults.

By this point, a recruit is deep into the quagmire of Mind Control and will protest vehemently that he is not a victim of "brainwashing." And he's right, nobody brainwashed him. But the results are the same, and they last longer.

Destructive cults actively recruit new members, often through deceptive "front" organizations.

Destructive cults claim to offer absolute Truth. Their teachings are not (to them) mere theory or speculation. The most effective cult doctrines are those which are unverifiable and unevaluable.

Destructive cults reduce everything to a bi-polar attitude: "for us, or against us."

Destructive cults generate some kind of external "pet devil" with which to threaten their members if they should doubt, or fail, or ever leave the group.

Destructive cults lead their members to believe they are somehow superior to all other humans on the earth.

Destructive cults put the will of the group above the will of the individual. This is often reinforced with simplistic games or rituals of some type designed to make the individual subservient to the group.

Destructive cults teach that the end justifies the means.

Destructive cults teach strict obedience to superiors and encourage the development of behavior patterns that are similar to those of the leader.

Destructive cults offer acceptance by the group for good performance, and conversely, withhold it for poor performance.

In destructive cults, fear is a major motivator. Guilt is a close second, and shame is third. Only the cult leader is perfect, so everyone below is fearful that those above will find out their shortcomings. Cult members feel constantly guilty for having those real or imagined shortcomings, and are ashamed that they haven't worked harder to get rid of them.

Destructive cult members swing from emotional highs, to emotional lows regularly. Lows are not long tolerated, and result in more indoctrination, or even ejection from the group if they last too long.

Destructive cults tend to re-write their members' past, manipulate their present, and distort their future. Disrupting time orientation is an honored technique of all such cults.

And, finally, there is never a legitimate reason for leaving a destructive cult. The only reason members leave a perfect system, is because they are imperfect in some respect, and will be punished for it.

No matter which destructive cult you choose, the above 13 items will almost universally apply.

Study the methods of est, LaRouche, Transcendental Meditation, Truth Station, Nichiren Soshu (Soka Gakkai), The Way International, Children of God, Temple of Set, Synanon, Scientology, The Peoples Temple, Unification Church, Hare Krishnas, House of Judah, Ramtha, Garbage Eaters, Rajneesh, ECK, Church Universal and Triumphant, Elan Vital, Posse Comitatus, or any of the others.... they use the same techniques, even though each of them claims unique and absolute ownership of the "truth."

You'll notice that not all destructive cults are religious in nature. There are, in fact, destructive cults in several arenas: Religious, of course, but also Political, Psychotherapy / Educational, and even Commercial. Still, the overriding principles of their success are the same thirteen items above. The more faithfully they adhere to those principles, the more successful they become.

See how easily the 13 techniques of Mind Control are implemented with regard to our current problem in this area:

Scientology has it's many front orgs (Narconon, Criminon, Concerned Businessmen of America, Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Education, and most recently the Save Our Society campaign, among many, many others.) all recruiting for the cause.

Scientology's doctrine is absolute truth to Scientologists. It is also extraordinarily unverifiable and unevaluable, often confusing inscrutability with wisdom.

Scientology reduces reality to the bi-polar "us against them" attitude: Persons opposed to their drug treatment program are obviously (to them) drug pushers.

Scientology tells it's members that it is the "Road to Total Freedom" and without their training, persons are doomed to life after aberrated life with no hope of freeing the Operating Thetan (god) trapped in this parade of physical bodies throughout eternity.

Scientology teaches its members that they are the most superior humans on the planet. Members have an arrogance, a truculence about them that belies this training, and insulates them from the reasonable world.

Scientology teaches that the goal and purpose of its existence is to "Clear the Planet." Everyone in Scientology is working for the goal of the group. Group dependency is developed through the early training steps called TR's and similar repeated drills throughout a member's career in Scientology.

Scientology's history of break-ins, frame-ups, harassment, and intimidation confirms that anything that furthers the ends of Scientology is an acceptable means.

Scientology requires strict obedience without question by all its members, and has developed a complicated structure of enforcement agencies to insure compliance, such as the Ethics Office, Finance Police, Guardian's Office (now the Office of Special Affairs), Religious Technology Center, and others.

Scientology pays it's staff members based on production. The more recruits, the more they get paid. Performance is rewarded, failure to perform up to "stats" might result in a stint on the "Rehabilitation Project Force" doing laundry or chipping paint.

Scientologists fear reprisals from their superiors, but recognize it only as their own failure to come up to expectations of the group. They think there is something wrong with them if they can't produce the expected result, which fosters guilt and shame. They also fear being thrown out and facing an eternity of reincarnation without ever attaining "Total Freedom". To a believer, this is a worse fate than any offered by "outside" beliefs.

Scientologists have been dumped when they became ill, or were otherwise unable to perform for the group. Others are routinely RPF'd to menial tasks when they have an attitude problem. Low attitude is not tolerated for long without some kind of official sanction being taken. Highs are reinforced through constant "auditing" to produce "wins" for the members. Hassan compares this process to post hypnotic suggestion.

Just about every recruit into Scientology in the past 30 years has been told that with his or her help, Scientology could "Clear The Planet" in this decade. But the decades have come and gone, and the older ones are still telling the younger ones the same thing. Members view their pre-Scientology life as unbelievably bad, and see the future outside of Scientology as unbearable, all reinforced with continual "auditing".

The only right way to leave Scientology is to become "Totally Free" like founder L. Ron Hubbard, who, they say, "causatively" left his body to go to a higher plane of existence. "Causatively" means he was in charge of his body and determined when he wanted it to die.
In simpler terminology, he was the cause of his own death.

Can we assume, then, that suicide is at the end of the "Road to Total Freedom"?

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