For previous sections of this series go to: Captive Hearts, Captive Minds/Take Back Your Life
A NOTE regarding the book. The book is being revised and updated and will get a new title; Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships (previously titled Captive Hearts, Captive Minds and this is the title I am working with) by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias"
Chapter 3: Understanding Thought Reform Part 3
Cult Conversion – Deception, Dependency, and Dread
I have seen this description of DDD before but have never really looked into it. So here’s my chance to find out more – and yours. Originally the 3 Ds represented debility, dependency and dread. But Lifton demontrated that debility was not always present. Deception was more likely to be used rather than debility. So many people are angry at themselves for getting involved in a cult. We know it isn’t because they are stupid people. Many are bright intelligent people but they still got sucked in. Understanding how you were misled is really important to letting yourself off the hook.
Deception
As we read in the Contract for Membership, if we knew all the terms of the group we probably would not have joined. The authors state:
Rarely are the true purpose, beliefs, and ultimate goals of the group spelled out. (p. 41)
Cults use a wide variety of tools to find recruits, including "… publishing enterprises, financial appeals,… Bible study groups as front organizationsto lure potential new members into the recritment web." (p.41)
The authors go on to describe the initial phase of group recruitment as a "kind of courtship’. They dangle the normal desires of people. If they join they can have it all. A paradise earth sounds pretty good to a lot of people as does the resurrection hope where they get back those who died.
Dependency
Over time the new recruit is slowly made dependent on the group. The group is identified as the source of rewwards and friendship. They are encouraged to give up various behaviors that would prohibit their progress in the group. Information is fed to them in a progressive manner. They receive just enough information to hold their interest and they are "tricked and psychologiacallycoerced (usually via guilt or fear) into making further commitments to the group or relationship; they are never pushed so far as to cause undue discomfort or outright suspicion." (p. 42)
As the recruit meets long-term members of the group model which behaviors are acceptable to the group. The authors state:
The superiority of the group is firmly established through the combination of peer pressure and constant reminders of the new member’s weaknessness and vulnerablilities. The new member begins to rely on the beliefs of the group or leader for his or her future well-being. Having been successful in capturing the interest of the recruit, the group can now lead the person into desired frames of thought and types of behavior that meet the cult’s needs and goals. (p.42)
As the recruit becomes increasingly involved with the group the pressure increases for further involvement. The introduction of the "sacred science" increases the belief that the group is the sole path to salvation and "proofs" are provided to support their claims. As the recruit continues the involvement with the group they begin to limit their contacts with non-group members. Family and friends who notice the changes may try to discourage the recruit which only adds credence to the cult’s claim of persecution. As the contact with the group members increases the new recruit begins to accept the doctrines and teaching of the group, leaving old beliefs behind.
As always the more the recruit does within the group the greater the pressure to conform. Old ways of behaving are criticized and the person is pressured even more to conform. As the person becomes more involved with the group and less involved with old friends and family they begin to believe the group is always right. "Doubts and dissent are actively discouraged, if not punished" (p. 42)
Dread
"Gradually the cult insinuates a feeling of dread in the recruit’s mind, which further isolates the memmbers and prevents defections from the group. This is accomplished by increasing dependency on the group through escalated demands, intensified criticism and humiliation, and in some cults, subtle or overt threats of punishment…(p. 43)
Continued involvement with the group will often provide exposure to how dissents are treated and act as a warning to the recruit that compliance is essential. The authors continue:
Threats of excommunication, shunning and abandonment by the group become powerful forces once members become fully dependent on the group and alienated from their former support network. (p.43)
The group leaders will also begin to devlop phobias about leaving the group. Death threats, doom messages that a person cannot have a successful life without the group and leaving the group equates with turning your back on God are all used to enforce allegiance to the group.
I was hoping to finsh the chapter with Part 3 but I will post the end of the chaper in Part 4