I have had this below viewpoint since I left the WT back in 1991. People always ask how did you stay in this cult that was so abusive. Actually its not only the JW's that have this problem but ALL cults. Below is a discussion I posted about what I call the Ahtihophel Syndrome. The Ahtihophel syndrome goes beyond the aspects of mind control. It tell us why we stayed in these cults. I hope you enjoy the material. A lot of good information here.
This post goes into a conversation about this topic.
Joe Rizoli
The Ahithophel Ayndrome is actually taken from the Bible. 2 Samuel
2 Samuel 1622 So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house; and Absalom went in unto his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.
23 And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.
Ahithophel was King David's counselor. He was an older man who was trusted to know the answers to all problems.
Unfortunately he went a little to far. In this Biblical example Ahithophel told David's men to go against their own Hebrew upbringing which stated against immorality to commit sexual sins and took Ahithophels advice to commit sin with David's concubines. These "biblical" men KNEW what was right but chose the man who was the ORACLE of God, Ahithophel to be their conscience. Similar to how the WT tells its members to abstain from blood and not celebrate birthdays and all the other controlling things it barks out. In other words the WT is the ORACLE of God.
Thus the Ahithophel Syndrome. When a group person or organization becomes the spokesman or oracle of a group and makes ALL discussions for group members even in the smallest detail. Decisions of even life or death, who to marry, what to eat, how to dress, who to associate with, the list goes on....
understand exactly which "symptoms" you are looking for.
Also in my instance I did end up leaving when the conflict of conscience
became too much, it just took a while. Did that make it less of a cult
Compared to this set of standards?
I am really curious here :o), could you tell a little more?
Thanks
Malene>
JoRiz
>> Believe me, I use this Ahithophel Syndrome to test any group that appears to have cultic tendencies, and it works. It is the touchstone of all errors for identifying what makes a group a simple belief system or a destructive cult. You prove my point. Unless some outside force or dilemma wakes one up one will stay in a group possibly forever.
Actually the Ahithophel Syndrome fits nicely with other cult related books on the subject. One in particular a book called Snapping:
Quotes from the book +SNAPPING+ Americas Epidemic of Sudden Personality
Change by Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman pp 247 and 259 Available through
Stillpoint Press 1-800-488-8040
This book was VERY interesting because it doesn't just deal with the "cult"
issues of sudden personality change. Today, everyone is vulnerable to
Snapping, even if he or she has never considered participating in a cult, sect or self help therapy.
Snapping is defined as:
A term which designates the sudden, drastic alteration of personality in all
It's many forms. It depicts the way in which a person stops thinking and
feeling for himself, when he breaks the bonds of awareness and social
relationships that tie his personality to the world and literally loses his
mind to some form of external or automatic control. In that sense, the moment
of snapping, when the mind shuts off, remains a moment of human decision. It
takes place as some invisible switch is thrown in the infinitely flexible
human brain, whether voluntarily and in good faith or unwittingly and in a
state of confusion, as personality is surrendered to some religion,
psychology, ideology, technology or other recipe for living that requires no
real conscience and no consciousness, no effort or contention on the
Individuals part.
My Comment:, JoRiz
>>The reason why I bring this material up is because when I was a devoted JW I
would have done anything for the Watchtower. That devotion is made in the
deep regions of the brain and after reading this material from this book I
see how it happened. My mind was actually altered by this Snapping
phenomena. I let the Watchtower become my conscience, my life and my
salvation, what a mistake!
Snapping fits nicely with the AH syndrome because it gets to a point of no return for the cult member. It the book Snapping the Conway's compare this with a downward spiral once your caught it its clutches it is very hard for one to leave on their own unless some outside force or change of thinking comes over one to leave a destructive group. Usually this is in a way of personal conflict with the morals or leader of the group and the way the group has diverged from its original purpose.
People who reach the AH syndrome are in a very dangerous situation even though they think they are trying to save the world, like Scientologist or the JW's.
Their devotion to the group becomes fanatical to where they literally loose the ability to think for themselves unless it comes spoon fed from the perspective groups or leaders. They literally like the Biblical Ahithophels look to their groups or leaders as "gods" and like little puppies follow the groups without question.
I'm not trying to preach here but sometimes the Bible can be used for people in Biblical cults to wake up and realize that they don't have to obey everything a group teaches. In other words they can put the brakes on when the groups actions or request border on insanity.
The following information was written form a perspective from my former group but the group can be replaced by any of the hundreds of other groups out there.
Loyalty to God or an Organization
The Watchtower organization is always stressing that each and every
Jehovah's Witness be loyal to their organization. This scripture is used
quite frequently: [nwt 2 Samuel]
22:26 With someone loyal you will act in LOYALTY; With the faultless, mighty one you will deal faultlessly;
. From the April 1, 1988,_Watchtower,_ page 30:
"Jehovah does not expect us to show blind credulity.
He does not want from us the kind of obedience that a
trainer gets from a beast with a bridle or a whip.
That is why he told David: "Do not make yourselves
like a horse or mule without understanding, whose
spiritedness is to be curbed even by bridle or
halter." (Psalm 32:9) Rather, Jehovah has endowed us
with thinking ability and discernment so that, based
on understanding, we can choose to obey him."
But in the REAL world of the Jehovah's Witnesses and other cultic high
demand groups blind credulity IS expected of the members.
Recently in discussion in this Internet group a question was asked to a JW
loyalist who he/she would choose the Watchtower or Jesus own words, this
individual in true "blind credulity" picked the Watchtower.
An incident in which a choice was made by individuals caught between the
ORGANIZATION and ones own conscience was brought out in the Bible account
of 1 Samuel Chapt 22
The setting:
Ahimelech the high priest helped the fugitive David with provisions from
the temple shewbread. King Saul (the Organization) found out about it
and said this:
[nwt 1 Samuel]
22:11 At once the king sent to call Ahimelech the son of Ahitub the
priest and all the house of his father, the priests that were in Nob. So
all of them came to the king.
22:12 Saul now said: "Listen, please, you son of Ahitub!" to which he
said: "Here I am, my lord."
22:13 And Saul went on to say to him: "Why have YOU men conspired against
me, you and the son of Jesse, by your giving him bread and a sword, and
there being an inquiry of God for him, to rise up against me as a lier in
ambush the way it is this day?"
22:14 At this Ahimelech answered the king and said: "And who among all
your servants is like David, faithful, and the son-in-law of the king and
a chief over your bodyguard and honored in your house?
22:15 Is it today that I have started to inquire of God for him? It is
unthinkable on my part! Do not let the king lay anything against his
servant [and] against the entire house of my father, for in all this your
servant did not know a thing small or great."
22:16 But the king said: "You will positively die, Ahimelech, you with
all the house of your father."
and his family but guess what?
[nwt 1 Samuel]
22:17 With that the king said to the runners stationed about him: "Turn
and put to death the priests of Jehovah, because their hand also is with
David and because they knew that he was a runaway and they did not
disclose it to my ear!" And the servants of the king did not want to
thrust out their hand to assault the priests of Jehovah.
These individuals had to make a very interesting choice. Do they obey the
ORGANIZATION as represented by King Saul or do they suffer the
consequences and allow their consciences to realize that this king Sail
even though Gods anointed was insane?
They made the right choice. But one individual did not and that was Doeg.
Being a yes man Doeg refused to see what was right and went along with
this evil deed.
[nwt 1 Samuel]
"22:18 Finally the king said to DOEG: "You turn and assault the priests!"
Immediately DOEG the Edomite turned and himself assaulted the priests and
put to death on that day eighty-five men bearing an ephod of linen.
22:19 Even Nob the city of the priests he struck with the edge of the
sword, man as well as woman, child as well as suckling and bull and ass
and sheep with the edge of the sword."
Jehovah's Witnesses and other people in cults have this decision to make
at times. Do they go along with the flow, even though the decisions of
the organization, group or leader may be wrong, or do they have their own
"crisis of conscience" and refuse to go along with what the group teaches
and expects from them?
This Bible example shows that it is up to each individual to see that the
group or leader they follow stays on the narrow and straight path. When
the group deviates from that path and puts the individual in a position
where a choice has to be made let it be hoped that the choice is for
righteous principals and not as an organization rubber stamp of wrong
doing.
Most Jehovah's Witnesses fail to consider this and allow themselves to be
swept up in an emotional tug of war with their consciences and what is
really right and just.
The Watchtower organization and other groups use coercive means to sometimes sway these individuals to the side of wrong doing. These individuals are as this scripture describes:
[nwt James]
1:6 But let him keep on asking in faith, not doubting at all, for he who
doubts is like a WAVE of the sea driven by the wind and blown about.
ability to decern right from wrong and have the freedom to expose those
wrongs no matter what happens to us.
Another perfect example of the Ahithophel Syndrome is depicted in this last post.
Subj: Blood Atonement and "POA"
In a message dated 6/6/99 5:19:40 PM Pacific Daylight Time, ######## writes:
Early anti-Mormon writers charged that under Brigham Young the Church
practiced "blood Atonement," by which they meant Church-instigated violence
directed at dissenters, enemies, and strangers. This claim distorted the
whole idea of blood atonementwhich was based on voluntary submission by an
offenderinto a supposed justification of involuntary punishment. Occasional
isolated acts of violence that occurred in areas where Latter-day Saints
lived were typical of that period in the history of the American West, but
they were not instances of Church-sanctioned blood Atonement.
>>
My comments: JoRiz
Interesting, this blood atonement is no different from the way other groups apply a situation called "POA."
http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/cults.html
Shoko Asahara & Aum Supreme Truth
This apocalyptic sect and its charismatic, blind leader are suspected of releasing Sarin gas in five Tokyo subway stations the morning of March 20, 1995, killing 12 people (one dying a year after the attack) and sickening more than 5,500 others. The religious cult is also suspected of a similar gas attack in June, 1994 in Matsumoto, a town north of Tokyo, that killed seven people and wounded 144. Furthermore they are suspected of a series of slayings and kidnappings of anti-cult activists and of preparing to overthrow the Japanese government -- all in the name of "good karma."
Asahara justified indiscriminate mass murder through the religious belief of "poa" -- a Tibetan Buddhist term for reincarnation to a higher existence. According to Shoko's twisted doomsday teachings, one can only save their soul through killing. Through the years Asahara developed a mumbo-jumbo collaged religious doctrine that resembled some sort of New Age-Hippie-Bhuddist-Mysticism. He even went on a pilgrimage to see Nostradamus expert Michel Chomarat at Lyon's municipal library to gain new insights into divination.
To the New Age cocktail brewing in his head, Asahara added the incentive of world domination through violence that he taught to his followers. According to Shoko a "poa" killing relieved victims from everyday life and the inevitable accumulation of bad karma. Thus what we call cold blooded murder was regarded "as a beautiful 'poa,' and wise people would see that both the killer and the person killed would benefit."
In 1994, seeing that his cult was entangled in all types of legal difficulties, Shoko ordered his disciples to mass produce deadly nerve gas and test its power in the streets of Matsumoto. It was the start of a doomsday plot to wipe out untold numbers of innocent people in his first volley in a war against the police and the Japanese government. The objective of the attack was to kill several judges staying at a courthouse dormitory that were due to rule against the sect in a property lawsuit. Seven people died and 144 were injured in the experiment. However, nothing happened to the judges.
Under Asahara's command, the doomsday cult built a sarin plant to produce 70 tons of the lethal Nazi-invented gas. On the side he also had plants manufacturing barbiturates and truth serum. Furthermore, he ordered the production of 1,000 automatic rifles and one million bullets. He was also looking into the possibility of procuring weapons-grade Uranium to build an atomic bomb with the help of Russian nuclear scientist hired by the cult.
At the peak of its influence in 1995, the Aum owned about 30 pieces of property throughout Japan, as well as a business empire that controlled restaurants, computers and other technology companies. Its net worth was estimated at $20 million to $1 billion. It was also said to have 10,000 followers in Japan and up to 40,000 in other countries, 30,000 of them in Russia.
Not the humble type, Asahara demanded that his followers treat him as a "living incarnation of God." He allowed them, at a steep price, to drink his bathing water as a way to cleanse their souls. He also sold strands of his hair and little vials of his blood -- at $8,100 a shot -- as part of an initiation ritual. Former cult members testified in court that they paid up to $2,400 for an intravenous injection of an unknown substance. Shoko also had a habit of kidnapping and executing anti-cult activist and lawyers representing former cult members. Prosecutors described how one rebel cult member, Kotaro Ochida, was strangled while Asahara looked on.
During the opening day of his trial the blind visionary's only words were: "I have nothing to say." Later he appeared to doze off and one of his lawyers had to wake him up. Throughout the trial Asahara has been repeatedly removed for bursting out incoherently and interrupting proceeding. Virtually all other top cult members -- including Shoko's wife -- have been arrested for crimes ranging from misdemeanors to helping to carry out the Tokyo subway murders. Until his arrest, the portly cultist predicted that the world would soon come to an end and only the Aum Supreme Truth would survive. Until then, they will all be in jail waiting for the apocalypse rather than actively participating in it.
What is one groups blood atonement is another groups poa.
Blood Atonement in the Mormon church is just another example of the insidious evil that lurks behind the closed doors of the Mormon Church.
Another perfect example of the Ahithophel syndrome when it has gone to far.
I constantly search for examples of the Ahithophel Syndrome. Now that you have seen the pattern keep an eye open when you see this syndrome and pass it on to me.
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