what kind of mind-control ?

by grace4u 31 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  refiners fire

  Thinking about "Mind Control" , Im always reminded of an Australian movie called "Bad Boy Bubby".

  Its worth watching. Anyway, Bubby was 30 years old, and he had lived in a locked room in the cellar his entire life. His mother had the key. She was his only source of information and input. She told him how lovely his life was compared to the nightmare that existed outside the door. Painting horrible pictures. Of course he believed her, because what she said was his ONLY frame of reference.

  Sums up "mind control" in my book. The situation with bubby is the situation every cult would like to put every member into, if they could.
• 

  jurs

  I think the org definately uses mind control. My kids are the most precious things to me but when I was a JW I would have let them die rather than to take blood. When I first learned about abstaining from blood I didn't agree with the JW's somewhere, somehow , I can't even explain it I'm signing a card refusing blood and having someone witness it. It never fully made sense but yet I believed. Only a fellow Xwitness can maybe relate to that experience. Its a cult that controls your mind. How else would millions of people ALL believe the SAME way. Why else would intelligent people(because some are) believe such silly crap (kids cant eat boo berry cereal, trolls ,smurfs,) . jurs
• 

  imanaliento

  they are told to read only the scheduled material in the assigned book or magazine, it all pre-packaged, the answers are there, rarely one takes the time to look up or meditate on any Scripture cited. So in a sense they are not encouraged to use their minds and are reminded constantly the need to conform and avoid indepenent thinking. when one endeavors to increase their spiritual knowledge beyond the routinized program set out, more often it brings them to conflict with the organization. they are pressured into a rigid mold it's a constant subjection with a sense of guilt if organizational demands are not met. not all are affected to the same extent, some are able to cope more effectively than others with the organizational pressure .
• 

  larc

  I agree with Pork Chop and Refiner's Fire. I think mind control and cult are over used and incorrect terms. I consider the JWs to be a high control religion, a sect. How to they control members? There are several ways. 1. Keep the congregations small. There is more of a pressure to conform in small groups 2. Use the carrot of Paradise and the stick of destruction - a powerful motivational combination. 3. Reward conformity and punish uniqueness through humbling the person or by giving a special needs talk. 4. Take minor infractions to the elders to further insure conformity. 5. Discourage the reading of nonsanctioned material.

  Now, if you over use the term, mind control, then you could say that good parenting is mind control, could you not?
• 

  grace4u

  Maybe I have used the wrong word-"mind control". I just know that my sister and her family ( and many other JW's)would do ANYTHING for the organization. If they said that the black book in front of them was red, even though they KNEW it was black, they would still agree and say it was red. I just feel that is kind of a mind control-=out of fear. Or maybe it is just the whole fear thing itself. And that was my whole question of this post anyway. How do they keep people in with this fear stuff. What do they say that makes people so controlled by what they are being told, even when they know its not right. What makes them give up family members and loved ones----it's fear of something.I just can't understand it. Thanks for everyones response.

  grace4u
• 

  refiners fire

  Hey Grace. You have started a discussion and plenty of people responding. Good work.

  Groups aim at reframing your thinking process. This takes time.

  From my observations, They seem to very quickly seek to inject you into the milieu though and aim at getting you to modify your behaviour to fit their pattern. They get you dressing like them. They get you talking like them and using their trigger terms or particular cult language. Correct behaviour is rewarded with smiles and praise. Incorrect behaviour is corrected. Your Behaviour and your Feelings seem to be the first things (to me) that they work on. When you are getting praised for correct "behaviour" this produces an emotional response in you. Same if you are mildly criticized.

  The thought alteration follows on from these other two as a matter of course.

  Dont know whether the Larc would agree with this or not.
• 

  xenawarrior

  Here are some links with some really good information about mind control:

  Brainwashing and Mind Control

  http://www.sci.fi/%7Ephinnweb/neuro/brainwash/

  How Does Mind Control Work

  http://www.factnet.org/rancho1.htm

  The Stanford Prison Experiment

  http://www2.stanford.edu/dept/news/relaged/970108prisonexp.html

  XW
• 

  Lin

  Here, check this out:

  http://groups.msn.com/WatchtowerExcape/mindcontrol.msnw

  http://groups.msn.com/WatchtowerExcape/understanding.msnw

  http://groups.msn.com/WatchtowerExcape/growingupjwpart1.msnw
  http://groups.msn.com/WatchtowerExcape/growingupjwpart2.msnw
• 

  JanH

  I agree with Pork Chop's comments, though they surely could have been delivered in a more delicate way

  No minds are "controlled." We were persuaded to believe something that we later found out to be untrue. We were emotionally attached to a belief system, and therefor we for a long time chose to commit unethical acts and to ignore contrary facts. That is the same people all over the world experience, in thousands of ideologies and religions . If we want to be cynical, that is what human culture is about. Human beings aren't as rational as we would like to think.

  - Jan

  ---

  Blogging at Secular Blasphemy
• 

  larc

  Xena,

  I have only read one of your links, the one regarding Zimbardo's jail experiment. The changes he induced occured in a matter of days. Why does it take the JW's a year to convert someone, if they are so good at mind control? This experiment is not presented in standard texts as an example of mind control. It is given as example of the powerful effects that the role we are expected to fulfill can have on our behavior. As I stated before, I consider the term mind control is be of no value. It has no explainitory power in determining how we are influenced. Furthermore, the term implies that we are powerless and what ever we believe is not our responsility.