Cult Indoctrination Techniques – Part One

As I understand it, the majority (though certainly not all) of those who have experienced false memories of historic sexual abuse were seeing a counselor or therapist at the time.  My situation is a bit less-common.  It was my romantic partner who convinced me my father had molested me.

(I do want to point out here that in my reading, I have seen statements to the effect that “Modern Psychotherapy has become a cult”, etc., as if all psychotherapists will, intentionally or unintentionally, implant false memories of childhood sexual abuse.  That is simply not true, any more than it would be true (or fair) to make a blanket statement about “All Christians” or “All non-Christians” or “All men” or “All women”.   There are ethical therapists who do not advocate Recovered Memory Therapy and who are careful about situations in which false memories can be created.  I would venture to guess that there are probably more of the second type than the first.)

For many years, I had assumed that my situation was more isolated than it evidently was.  That belief continued until very recently, when I finally realized that I had not yet fully dealt with my own feelings about what happened and the hurt it caused my family, as well as the missed years.  I recently began to do more reading on the topic and have become aware of what a widespread problem this has been, and unfortunately, still is.

I’ve seen phrases like, “The cult of recovered memory” many times in my reading, and the use of the word “cult” caught my attention and surprised me because when my family was going through our estrangement, my mother and sister began to do quite a lot of research on cults.  (They had no idea, at the time, just what was happening to me.)  When they initially told me this after our reconciliation, my first reaction was to think they’d overreacted and blown things out of proportion.  Next came my understanding that they hadn’t known what to think.  It is only after this recent reading I’ve begun that I finally understand just how close their line of research was to the truth of what was happening.

Both my mother and sister kept journals of what they’d learned, who they’d spoken with, and their thoughts and feelings about what was happening.  My sister and I have had some long conversations in the last month or so about this, and she showed me her journal.  In it, she mentioned having spoken with a police detective whose specialty was cult activity.  He recommended some books on the topic, which she either purchased  or found in the library.  One book in particular that she purchased, she told me years ago and again recently, listed 20 techniques or indicators of cult indoctrination.  She said that as far as they knew of the situation, based on my behavior and things I had said to them and to friends, 15 of the 20 listed items directly related to me and my situation.

My sister isn’t able to find her copy of that book anymore.  I began looking online for something that contained a similar list, and I found the YouTube video below.  It’s done somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but covers essentially the same items my sister remembered from the book she had, plus a few more.

My mother and sister began to follow the cult theory in part because my ex was into a non-Christian religion.  In reality, her behavior wasn’t due to her religious beliefs per se, but she herself was a master manipulator who was fascinated with cults and brainwashing techniques.  Both of her parents were alcoholics when she was growing up (this was confirmed by her mother, who we lived with, and who had stopped drinking when my ex was a teenager).  My ex learned early on how to get attention and manipulate to obtain what she wanted.  As she got older, she began to read about and study cults, and she never missed an airing of Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones on TV.

Although it took me a long, long time to admit that many of the techniques she had learned were used on me, it’s plainly clear when I look at the steps listed in the video.

I’ve typed out the points listed in the video, along with some of the examples given by the various characters, in parenthesis.  They appear below the video, in this entry.

In several future entries, I will take a few of these points at a time and explain how and if they apply to things my ex did, and later, how variations of some of the points may apply to the Recovered Memory movement.

Points Mentioned In Above Video:

1.  Structure your cult like an onion, with the most benign and helpful features on the outside and the most controlling, kooky and evil parts at the secret, inner core. Use deception.  Don’t tell them who you really are.  Lie.  Leave out important information or distort information.

2.  Establish Front Groups (“We’re a Bible study group”, “We’re a management course”, “We’re a meditation center”, “We’re a world peace organization”, “We’re a personal development center”, “We’re a drug rehab center”)

3.  Promise to fulfill their dreams (“Don’t you want a world of unconditional love and brotherhood?  We have the secrets to self improvement.  You can join us and be special.  Join our elite mission to save the world.  We can teach you special powers . . .”)

4.  Offer them something free and get them to feel obliged to give you something in return.  You could tell them time is running out and that they must make their decision now or it will be too late.

5.  Don’t give them time to think.  Diminish doubting commiseration by separating your new recruits from each other.  Surround them with happy, true believers, so when in doubt, they will tend to do what everyone around them is doing and believe that is normal.

6.  Start with a prolonged period of love-bombing.   Surround them with unconditional love and attention . . . (This next part appears after # 7 in the video, but I have separated # 7 from this section because the ways in which Jane used the information she gathered warrants its own topic of discussion here.)  Gradually, over time, you’ll begin to shape the recruit’s behavior by granting or withholding this love and attention.  After they’ve bonded, slowly start making your demands upon them, the message being: “Nothing in this world has value unless it relates to the leader or the ultimate purpose”.

7.  Get information and hone their weak spots . . . and then use this information to manipulate them. 

8.  Control their behavior.   (“Come live with us”, “Wear these clothes”, “Eat this food”, “All you need is two hours’ sleep”)

9.  Prescribe a rigid schedule.  Keep them active, and with as little sleep as possible.

10. If you can, restrict their eating habits to low protein food.

11. Control their thoughts.  (“Our ideology answers all questions to all problems”, “Let our doctrine think for you”)

12. Control their emotions.  Induce guilt.  (“The United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima”, “People are dying of starvation”, “You are not living up to your potential” . . .)  And fear.  (“The enemy will electroshock you, torture you, kill you, or carry you off to hell.”)

13. Control information.  Keep them from knowing all the workings of the cult.  Block out any information which is critical of the group.  Encourage members to spy and report on one another.  Separate the recruit from himself by attacking the self and inducing a mental breakdown disguised as a spiritual awakening.  When they start to freak out, have side effects, or hallucinate, tell them they are flushing out the bad stuff inside.

14. Make them paranoid about their own bodies or thought processes.   (“Your body is detoxifying”)   Tell them that there is a part of their mind that they must eliminate in order to find happiness.  (“You must eliminate the toxic mind”)

15. Claim authority.  It can come from a divine source, bogus scientific research, or special knowledge.  Make up stories about yourself to boost your importance . . .  Start slowly.  A good con man takes a little bit of truth and a lot of lies and pulls the wool over the eyes of the ignorant.

16. Induce trance states and self-hypnosis by practicing thought-stopping rituals and repetitive acts like dancing, spinning, singing, over-breathing, and chanting.  Practice prolonged hours of meditation.  In these trance states, they are more receptive and suggestible.  Revert them back to childhood dependence and mindless obedience.

17. Encourage separation from their family.  (“Your friends and family probably won’t understand”, “It doesn’t sound like your family and friends really love you if they can’t support your new decision”, “Maybe you should stay away from them.  It’s unhealthy for you to be around unenlightened people, anyway”, “If you can’t recruit your friends, cut off from them”, “Stop wasting time with non-believers”)

18. Encourage dependency and conformity and discourage autonomy and individuality.  (“The whole purpose must be the focus” . . .)

19. Have confessionals where people demonize their early lives and only praise their life in the group.  Rewrite the past as terrible, even if it was great.

20. Isolate them from the rest of the world.  Make them feel part of a special elite group with an important mission. Tighten your group’s bond by establishing scapegoats and enemies. Demonize outsiders as less-than-human, biased, corrupt, or conspiring against the group.  Develop an “Us vs Them” mentality, fighting resistance.  Tell them their critical thoughts are evidence that they have committed crimes against the group.  Start investigating them and make up crimes.  Make them feel guilty.  (“We’re doing important work here”, “You expect saving the world is easy?”, “We’re all called up0n to make some sacrifices for the cause”, “Just when things get tough, you want to give up”, “You’re weak” . . .”What’s more important, our mission, our family, eternal salvation, or your petty grievances?”, “You’re being negative”, “Ignorant”, “Selfish”, “And sinful” . . . “There must be something wrong with you”)

21. Indoctrinate with fear.  Tell them they could be possessed by evil spirits, or suggest that if they ever leave, something bad could happen to them.

22. Make it easier for them to die for you by calling their bodies “containers” that are shed before they evolve into higher life forms.

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