Has anyone seen the documentary "Devil's Playground"? I highly recommend it.
It's about the Amish custom of rumspringa, in which children are allowed total freedom for one year when they turn 16. Unprepared for the real world, they have a year of debauchery and end up in all kinds of trouble (anybody remember that old JW parable about pulling a rubber band so tightly that when you finally let go it flies across the room? Gag.) Eventually the kids end up returning home, if only to hide from the drug dealers now trying to kill them. The Amish have an incredibly high recidivism rate, something like 96% if I remember right.
I watched this movie with a friend of mine who just thought it was funny to see Amish kids on heroin. He couldn't understand what I meant when I said "This is almost exactly like the Witnesses".
This is one of the best illustrations I've seen of how cults can get a hold on children through the illusion of choice! I think this is crucial to why so many people stay in JW's as well. The best way to control someone is make them think you're not controlling them. People love to do things of their own free will, they hate to be told what to do. So, dare I say, the Amish are BRILLIANT!
It's so subtle and devious. Simply create a situation in which others are incapable of surviving without you, and let them figure it out "on their own".
First - make sure that your subject relies very heavily on you for survival. Try not to teach them too much and discourage them from being self-sufficient in any manner outside of your own home. Fill their heads with false ideas and fear about the world away from you. Deprive them of sensory pleasures. Then, with no preparation, suddenly kick them out and force them to do everything on their own. While they are trying to figure out the puzzle of the world, do not offer them any actual help, just keep nagging them and asking how they are doing. Make them aware that you know they are not doing very well, and that they really should be doing better by now. After all, their time is limited. Watch as they try to squeeze everything they've missed for the past 15 years into the first month of freedom. Then just sit back and wait for them to return. Dejected, sick, and, most importantly cognitive of their decision, they will return to you and never, ever leave.
I think the JW's could learn a thing or two from the Amish. That's one cult that has it's sh*t together.