Of all the things I have read on this board, I never really thought of JW's as being a cult,
Just some paragraphs out of Combatting Cult Mind Control by Steven Hassan, the perspective for me has changed.
pages 69, 70 and 71.....selected paragraphs.
Sensory overload like sensory deprivation, also effectively distrupts a person's balance and makes him more open to suggestion. A person can be bombarded by emotionally laden material at a rate faster than he can digest. The result is a feeling of being overwhelmed. The mind snaps into neutral and ceases to evaluate the material pouring in. The newcome may think this is happening spontaniously within himself but the group has intentionally structured it that way.
Changing
Changing consists of imposing a new personal idenity-----a new set of behaviors, thoughts and emotions---to fill the void left by the breakdown of the old one. Indoctrination in thi snew identiity takes place both formally (as in seminars and rituals) and informally (by spending time with members, reading, and listening to tapes and videos). Many of the same techniquies used in the unfreezing phase are also carried to this phase as well.
Repetition, monotony, rhythem: these are the lulling, hypnotic cadences which the formal indoctronation is generally delivered. Material is repeated over and over and over. If the lecturers are sophisticated, they vary their talks somewhat in an attempt to hold interest, but the message is the same every time.
During the "changing" phase, all this repetition focuses on certain central themes. The recruits are told how bad the world is and that the unenlightened have no idea how to fix it. This is because ordinary people lack the new "understanding" that has been brought by the leader. the leader is the only hope of lasting happiness. Recruits are told, "your 'old' self is what's keeping you from fully experiancing the 'new truth' Your 'old concepts' are what drag you down. Your 'rational' mind is holding you back from fantastic progress. Surrender. Let go. Have faith."
The formal indoctination sessions can be very droning and rhythmic--a way to induce hypnotic states. It is fairly comon for people to fall asleep during these programs. When I was a cult lecturer I chatised people and made them feel guilty if they fell asleep, but in fact they were merely responding well to hypnosis....Even while lightly dozing, a person is still more or less hearing the material and being affected by it, with his normal intellectual defenses down.
A common technique among religious cults is to instruct people to ask God what He wants them to do. Members are exhorted to study and pray in order to know God's will for them. It is aways implied that joining the group is God's will and leaving the group is betraying it. Of course, if a person tells the cult leader that God is warning him to leave, this will not be accepted as valid.
Perhaps the most powerful persuasion is exerted by the other cult members themselves. For the average person, talking with an indoctrinated cultist is quite an expericance. You have probably never met anyone else, friend or stranger, who is so absolutely convinced that he knows what is best for you. A dedicated cult member also does not take no for an answer, becuase he has been indoctrinated to believe that if you don't join, he is to blame. This create alot of pressure on him to suceed.
Human beings have an incredible capacity to adapt to new enviroments. Destructive cults know how to exploit this strength. By controlling a person's enviroment, using behavior modification to reward some behaviors and suppress others, and inducing hypnotic states, they may indeed reprogram a person's identity.
The first and most important task of the "new" person is to denigrate his previous self. The worst thing is for the person to act like himself--unless it is the new cult self, which is fully formed after several months. An individual's memory becomes distorted, minimizing the good things in the past and maximizing the sins, the failings, the hurt and the guilt. Special talents, interests, hobbies, friends, and family must be abandoned---preferably in dramatic public actions ---if they complete with commitment to the cause. Confession becomes another way to purge the person's past and embed him in the cult.
The group now forms the member's "true" family; any other is just his outmoded "physical" family.
Its like hitting yourself on the head.........Wow, I could have had a V8. I understand how it happened, absorbing it all like a sponge. But those are problems I had before ever "putting on the new personality" Those issues I will talk about some other time.
Insulate, don't isolate.
purps
edited to add: Is the bible one big cult book? What do you think?