Maybe this discussion has already taken place on this forum, or maybe some of you may scoff at this observation as just stating the obvious, but I think it may be worth while to post this for those of you who have yet to discover this paralell. I was involved in a MLM business in the Insurance industry from 1993 - 2000. This Life Insurance Agency was started in 1977 by just a few individuals and had grown by recruiting average working class people to become part-time sales agents and sold them the American Dream. In just a few years time, this agency entered every state and grew into a sales force of roughly 200,000 people, part time and full timers, and by 1984 had become the #1 seller of Life Insurance in the Country for approximately 15 years straight. This company developed and promoted an alternative Insurance and Investment concept which was unique from what other more Traditional and well established Insurance Companies offered. This concept took the insurance industry by storm in the early 1980's because this agency was replacing the insurance policies sold by the well established more TC (Traditional Companies) who's names you would all recognize.
Needless to say, the TCs were not happy about their policies being replaced by a group of rag tag part time inexperience sales people who had little if no professional sales training and who were out selling their more polished, professionally trained sales force. Something smelled foul. Controversy surrounded this MLM company as they were accused of all kinds of deceptive sales and recruiting practices by the TCs. To make a long story short, the bad publicity and multiple law suites prompted the agency to be sold at which time, leaders broke off and started their own agencies and promoted similar but different concepts and the original MLM companies sales force was cut in half but still remain a top selling insurance sales force.
Through my tenure with this agency, I have no question this Organization used mind control techniques. There are stunning similarities in the techniques used by this Organization and the WTBS. Now, the similaries are not unique to just the WTBTS but I do believe that most other religious organizations do not engage in the mind control techniques used by some MLM companies and the WTBTS society. Although I never read his book, Steve Hassan I believe touches on this phenomenon in his book, "releasing the bonds", but I'm not sure.
In my MLM business, we would first have a one on one presentation with a potential client interested in reducing their expences on their life insurance plan. We would review their current policy and 90% of the time, they would have a Tradition policy sold by one of the TCs. We picked it apart item by item and explained that this policy was sold to them by a Rich Big Bad Insurance Company who are only interested in profits for them and their Agents who sold this to them under the guise of selling them protection for their family. We would explain to the client in the simplest way, that our business offered them an opportunity to make a good part time income that would eventually meet and exceed their current income with the opportunity to build a business that would provide the life style their family deserves. They no longer had to deny themselves this right just to be tied down to a dead end job that offered no security and no gaurantee of financial freedom.
These are the similarities. The MLM company would indoctrinate new recruits over time by specifically targeting people with no sales experience(THEOLOGICALLY IGNORANT). They openly taught new recruits to ignore recruiting experience insurance agents because they just wouldn't be interested and to only read training materials recommended or provided by the MLM Company(NO CRITICAL LITERATURE ALLOWED). They would bad mouth Corporate America, especially the TC Insurance Cos., (CHRISTENDOM) for being concerned only about growth and profits and screwing their clients while portraying it's own sales force as family oriented people who help and encourage each other. They would tell us to stay away from DREAM KILLERS (OPPOSERS) who will only discourage you from fulfilling your dreams. They would label people who quit the business as LOSERS (APOSTATES) who never had what it takes to make it. It trashed TC INSURANCE AGENTS (CLERGY) as being greedy decievers who cared nothing about their clients. They had ONE ON ONE'S (SHEPARDING CALLS) with people who were discouraged and ready to quit. If you didn't show up to a training meetings, your upline would call you or visit you unannounced to try to convince you to stay. A new recruit would be asked to make appointments with family and friends for presentations for potential sales or recuits while you watched and learned. Many people would prospect in pairs by going door to door or to shopping malls to recruit people by striking up casual conversations and trying to get phone #'s to call later. This particular MLM had many broken families because of all the pressures and time commitments involved in getting their business off the ground. It encouraged people to make commitments of money and time, who had little of either, for conventions and buying materials while dangling the carrot of financial rewards. One thing they always said at every sales meeting was, "If you don't make it here, you wont make it anywhere because whatever stops you here will stop you anywhere". Sounds similar to "Where else would we go?" We were told and came to believe, while we were there, that this was the best business opportunity in the world (THE TRUTH).
I originally joined this company just to supplement my income because I was married, had 2 kids and I just wasn't making enough cash even with a lot of overtime at work. I was desperate and I was interested in how business and finance worked. I was good with numbers and people so I thought it would be a good fit, at least to work part-time and learn the business. Most people who joined, including myself, were not looking to become millionaires, we just needed to supplement our income to provide for our families. Somewhere down the line, we were sold something that we weren't looking for but bought it all anyway. Eventually, many people, including myself, would go bankrupt buying into an unrealistic business venture and sacrificing time and money chasing a dream that I never had when I first joined. I finally quit that particular business because I was exhausted and broke. I went through depression and withdrawls believing that I just didn't have what it takes. I'm still in the insurance business doing just fine financially but that experience taught me just how powerful and subtle mind control can be and should never be underestimated.