Author Topic: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)  (Read 5182 times)

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Offline Ursus

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #15 on: September 08, 2009, 05:38:04 PM »
Quote from: "Guest"
To regular people programs are a useful tool to help a troubled teenager solve their issues and move on with their life.
Now there's an original idea I don't think anyone's tried before. Does that "help" entail any facsimile of "informed consent?" What could possibly go wrong?!

Again, do tell us, Guest, specifically, what portions of anythinganyone's ordeal you found especially acceptable!



(Hint: actually reading it might give you some ideas.)
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #16 on: September 08, 2009, 05:39:53 PM »
Quote from: "Ursus"
Mmmm. Sounds like you read anythinganyone's story real carefully. Tell us, Guest, specifically, what portions of that ordeal you found especially acceptable!

I read it plenty carefully, be careful what you assume about people because it's probably wrong. What portion's did I find especially acceptable. Hmm. Give me a moment. OK, how about this?

Quote
I was forbidden to masturbate, along with all other suicide watches, staff buddies, and hygiene watches. It was very difficult, and I would often spend time in class sitting in my desk fantasising about sex. It was a cat 5 to masturbate in bed or anywhere else unless you had the privilege of using the dorm showers, in which case you could in those. My therapist said many times that masturbation was “unhealthy”, and he once told me that it was good for me to have a break from it.

I bet you found that especially acceptable, right, Ursus? Don't deny your rising sexual excitement as you imagine sex starved teenage boys, sleeping together half nude every night. Admit it, Ursus, this turns you on, doesn't it?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Ursus

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #17 on: September 08, 2009, 06:04:08 PM »
Quote from: "Guest"
Quote from: "Ursus"
Mmmm. Sounds like you read anythinganyone's story real carefully. Tell us, Guest, specifically, what portions of that ordeal you found especially acceptable!
I read it plenty carefully, be careful what you assume about people because it's probably wrong. What portion's did I find especially acceptable. Hmm. Give me a moment. OK, how about this?

Quote
I was forbidden to masturbate, along with all other suicide watches, staff buddies, and hygiene watches. It was very difficult, and I would often spend time in class sitting in my desk fantasising about sex. It was a cat 5 to masturbate in bed or anywhere else unless you had the privilege of using the dorm showers, in which case you could in those. My therapist said many times that masturbation was “unhealthy”, and he once told me that it was good for me to have a break from it.
I bet you found that especially acceptable, right, Ursus? Don't deny your rising sexual excitement as you imagine sex starved teenage boys, sleeping together half nude every night. Admit it, Ursus, this turns you on, doesn't it?
Lol. Well, no, actually. I can't say that it does. But I do find it curious that this particular passage, out of all the passages in that very l-o-n-g personal statement, is the one that resonated with you the most. It makes me wonder -- in light of your other comments -- whether you are a closeted self-hating homophobic gay old goat, or whether you have a kid who just happens to be homosexual, and who you think you can ship out to be "cured."
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Offline Anonymous

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #18 on: September 08, 2009, 06:13:47 PM »
Quote from: "Ursus"
Lol. Well, no, actually. I can't say that it does. But I do find it curious that this particular passage, out of all the passages in that very l-o-n-g personal statement, is the one that resonated with you the most. It makes me wonder whether you are a closeted self-hating homophobic gay old goat, or whether you have a kid who just happens to be gay, and who you think you can ship out to be "cured."

How did you guess? You must be some kind of psychic, you can be honest, Ursus. I am actually program shopping right now to find a good program to gay-cure my son. Luckily I found CCM which seems to be the right place, "The Gay Agenda" book is a sure sign this is the right place for my son. Thank you Ursus for showing me how foolish I am, as a closeted self-hating homophobic gay old goat, I have learned my lesson.

Quote
I also got a kick out of nitpicking rules, and snitching on people, and writing SOFs. I felt it nearly my duty to point out every single tiny rule someone broke, and partially it was. It was a requirement to snitch on people; if you witnessed something happen and didn’t say anything, it was withholding information, hence a cat 4 insubordination.

The power of brainwashing! Hee, hee.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #19 on: September 08, 2009, 06:38:10 PM »
Quote from: "try another castle"
Quote from: "Guest"
Quote from: "Guest"
That really doesn't sound all that bad, I wouldn't have any issues sending my kid there if needed.

That's because you have not been indoctrinated into the fornits cult. To regular people programs are a useful tool to help a troubled teenager solve their issues and move on with their life. To the people posting on fornits, programs are an evil force worth dedicating their worthless lives to spend all day on an internet site. IT doesn't make any sense, I wouldn't try to understand it though because they are mostly crazy.


You are awfully busy today!


BTW, I think Im officially stalking you at this point.

I can't help it. I have no life, no job, the program turned my cerebellum into marmite. But I like you. You sound so strong and forceful. It makes my one inch cock twitch.

Also, I really like what you are wearing today. Or at least, what I can see through my binoculars.

which troll is this?
Any, as has been said before--these people who did this to you are below josef fritzl on the humanity scarle. I am outraged and saddened you even had to be in the same room as them, let alone get forced into an abusive relatinship with them. They are absolute souless monsters.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline anythinganyone

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #20 on: September 08, 2009, 11:21:46 PM »
Quote from: "Guest"
I bet you found that especially acceptable, right, Ursus? Don't deny your rising sexual excitement as you imagine sex starved teenage boys, sleeping together half nude every night. Admit it, Ursus, this turns you on, doesn't it?

While some students could gain the privilege of sleeping without a shirt, we did not sleep together, and it was a cat 5 to even touch someone when they were lying in bed.  Sorry to ruin your fun.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline anythinganyone

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #21 on: September 08, 2009, 11:30:27 PM »
I also updated it to a newer revision I made.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline RMA Survivor

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Seminar)
« Reply #22 on: September 09, 2009, 02:16:58 AM »
What you went through seems like a concentrated version of all the programs that came before.  Frightening to think these programs are becoming even more abusive as the years go by.  Lack of oversight and regulations I suppose.  

I could not imagine being in constant fear of endless punishments.  It sounds like they had so many punishment-based rules because they never wanted you to feel like you were safe from punishment.  I went to RMA and we had two punishments.  Work Details and Full Times.  They were horrible, humiliating experiences, but nothing compared to the evil you had to endure.  

It really sounds, from your description, that they have refined these programs to make them as abusive and demeaning and destructive as they could possibly make them.  But we live in a society that now considers torture to be acceptable, so it is no wonder there's no concern about how vile these programs are becoming.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline psy

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Semi
« Reply #23 on: September 12, 2010, 11:38:18 PM »
bump.  Great thread.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Benchmark Young Adult School - bad place [archive.org link]
Sue Scheff Truth - Blog on Sue Scheff
"Our services are free; we do not make a profit. Parents of troubled teens ourselves, PURE strives to create a safe haven of truth and reality." - Sue Scheff - August 13th, 2007 (fukkin surreal)

Offline Anne Bonney

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Semi
« Reply #24 on: September 13, 2010, 10:45:45 AM »
It is a great thread.  Difficult to read though....brings back many horrible memories.  This could have been written by a Straight survivor, changing just a bit of the cultspeak/loaded language.  It never ceases to amaze me that people think this kind of crap is useful, let alone safe.  Especially to a child and one who's considered "troubled" to begin with.  This is why I say that programs that use these methods of "therapy" (read, quackery) are inherently and systemically dangerous.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
traight, St. Pete, early 80s
AA is a cult http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult.html

The more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive adulation for being good parents-- because they have a tame child-creature in their house.  ~~  Frank Zappa

Offline Maximilian

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Semi
« Reply #25 on: September 13, 2010, 01:44:47 PM »
Quote from: "Anne Bonney"
programs that use these methods of "therapy" (read, quackery) are inherently and systemically dangerous.

Why?
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anne Bonney

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Semi
« Reply #26 on: September 13, 2010, 02:13:03 PM »
Quote from: "Maximilian"
Quote from: "Anne Bonney"
programs that use these methods of "therapy" (read, quackery) are inherently and systemically dangerous.

Why?


Because that isn't therapy.  It's thought-reform and mind control, detailed below.  Did you read that (OP) and honestly not see anything abusive in it?

http://www.ex-cult.org/

# Lifton's Criteria for Thought Reform (see below)
# Conditions for Mind Control (Margaret Singer)
# Mind Control - The BITE Model (Steven Hassan)b (see below)
# A Behavioral Definition (of 'cult') (Kevin Crawley)
# Identifying a Cult (Jan Groenveld)
# Totalism & Group Dynamics (Jan Groenveld)



  DR. ROBERT J. LIFTON'S CRITERIA FOR THOUGHT REFORM
                THOUGHT REFORM: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALISM
                                CHAPTER 22
                            (Chapel Hill, 1989)
                         THE FUTURE OF IMMORTALITY
                        CHAPTER 15 (New York 1987)


Any ideology -- that is, any set of emotionally-charged convictions
about men and his relationship to the natural or supernatural world
-- may be carried by its adherents in a totalistic direction.  But
this is most likely to occur with those ideologies which are most
sweeping in their content and most ambitious or messianic in
their claim, whether a religious or political organization.  And
where totalism exists, a religion, or a political movement becomes
little more than an exclusive cult.

Here you will find a set of criteria, eight psychological themes against
which any environment may be judged.  In combination, they create an
atmosphere which may temporarily energize or exhilarate, but which at the
same time pose the gravest of human threats.

(BRIEF OUTLINE)

1.  MILIEU CONTROL

    the most basic feature is the control of human communication within
    and environment if the control is extremely intense, it becomes
    internalized control -- an attempt to manage an individual's inner
    communication control over all a person sees, hears, reads, writes
    (information control)
    creates conflicts in respect to individual autonomy
    groups express this in several ways:  Group process, isolation from
    other people, psychological pressure, geographical distance or
    unavailable transportation, sometimes physical pressure
    often a sequence of events, such as seminars, lectures, group
    encounters, which become increasingly intense and increasingly
    isolated, making it extremely difficult-- both physically and
    psychologically--for one to leave.
    sets up a sense of antagonism with the outside world; it's us
    against them
    closely connected to the process of individual change (of personality)

2.   MYSTICAL MANIPULATION (Planned spontaneity)

    extensive personal manipulation
    seeks to promote specific patterns of behavior and emotion in such
    a way that it appears to have arisen spontaneously from within the
    environment, while it actually has been orchestrated
    totalist leaders claim to be agents chosen by God, history, or
    some supernatural force, to carry out the mystical imperative
    the "principles" (God-centered or otherwise) can be put forcibly and
    claimed exclusively, so that the cult and its beliefs become the only
    true path to salvation (or enlightenment)
    the individual then develops the psychology of the pawn, and
    participates actively in the manipulation of others
    the leader who becomes the center of the mystical manipulation (or
    the person in whose name it is done) can be sometimes more real than
    an abstract god and therefore attractive to cult members
    legitimizes the deception used to recruit new members and/or raise
    funds, and the deception used on the "outside world"

3.   THE DEMAND FOR PURITY

    the world becomes sharply divided into the pure and the impure, the
    absolutely good (the group/ideology) and the absolutely evil
    (everything outside the group)
    one must continually change or conform to the group "norm"
    tendencies towards guilt and shame are used as emotional levers for
    the group's controlling and manipulative influences
    once a person has experienced the totalist polarization of good/evil
    (black/white thinking), he has great difficulty in regaining a more
    balanced inner sensitivity to the complexities of human morality
    the radical separation of pure/impure is both within the environment
    (the group) and the individual
    ties in with the process of confession -- one must confess when one
    is not conforming

4.   CONFESSION

    cultic confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal
    and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself
    sessions in which one confesses to one's sin are accompanied by
    patterns of criticism and self-criticism, generally transpiring within
    small groups with an active and dynamic thrust toward personal change
    is an act of symbolic self-surrender
    makes it virtually impossible to attain a reasonable balance between
    worth and humility
    a young person confessing to various sins of pre-cultic existence can
    both believe in those sins and be covering over other ideas and
    feelings that s/he is either unaware of or reluctant to discuss
    often a person will confess to lesser sins while holding on to other
    secrets (often criticisms/questions/doubts about the group/leaders
    that may cause them not to advance to a leadership position)
    "the more I accuse myself, the more I have a right to judge you"

5.   SACRED SCIENCE

    the totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic
    doctrine or ideology, holding it as an ultimate moral vision for the
    ordering of human existence
    questioning or criticizing those basic assumptions is prohibited
    a reverence is demanded for the ideology/doctrine, the originators of
    the ideology/doctrine, the present bearers of the ideology/doctrine
    offers considerable security to young people because it greatly
    simplifies the world and answers a contemporary need to combine a
    sacred set of dogmatic principles with a claim to a science embodying
    the truth about human behavior and human psychology

6.   LOADING THE LANGUAGE

    the language of the totalist environment is characterized by the
    thought-terminating cliche (thought-stoppers)
    repetitiously centered on all-encompassing jargon
    "the language of non-thought"
    words are given new meanings -- the outside world does not use the
    words or phrases in the same way -- it becomes a "group" word or
    phrase

7.   DOCTRINE OVER PERSON

    every issue in one's life can be reduced to a single set of principles
    that have an inner coherence to the point that one can claim the
    experience of truth and feel it
    the pattern of doctrine over person occurs when there is a conflict
    between what one feels oneself experiencing and what the doctrine or
    ideology says one should experience
    if one questions the beliefs of the group or the leaders of the group,
    one is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them
    to even question -- it is always "turned around" on them and the
    questioner/criticizer is questioned rather than the questions answered
    directly
    the underlying assumption is that doctrine/ideology is ultimately more
    valid, true and real than any aspect of actual human character or
    human experience and one must subject one's experience to that "truth"
    the experience of contradiction can be immediately associated with guilt
    one is made to feel that doubts are reflections of one's own evil
    when doubt arises, conflicts become intense

8.   DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE

    since the group has an absolute or totalist vision of truth, those who
    are not in the group are bound up in evil, are not enlightened, are not
    saved, and do not have the right to exist
    "being verses nothingness"
    impediments to legitimate being must be pushed away or destroyed
    one outside the group may always receive their right of existence by
    joining the group
    fear manipulation -- if one leaves this group, one leaves God or loses
    their transformation, for something bad will happen to them
    the group is the "elite", outsiders are "of the world", "evil",
    "unenlightened", etc.




ex-cult Resource Center   
Mind Control - The BITE Model



From chapter two of Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves

© 2000 by Steven Hassan - published by Freedom of Mind Press, Somerville MA

Destructive mind control can be understood in terms of four basic components, which form the acronym BITE:

I.    Behavior Control
II.    Information Control
III.    Thought Control
IV.    Emotional Control


I. Behavior Control

1. Regulation of individual’s physical reality

      a. Where, how and with whom the member lives and associates with
      b. What clothes, colors, hairstyles the person wears
      c. What food the person eats, drinks, adopts, and rejects
      d. How much sleep the person is able to have
      e. Financial dependence
      f. Little or no time spent on leisure, entertainment, vacations

2. Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals

3. Need to ask permission for major decisions

4. Need to report thoughts, feelings and activities to superiors

5. Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques- positive and negative).

5. Individualism discouraged; group think prevails

6. Rigid rules and regulations

7. Need for obedience and dependency
II. Information Control

1. Use of deception

      a. Deliberately holding back information
      b. Distorting information to make it acceptable
      c. Outright lying

2. Access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged

      a. Books, articles, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio
      b. Critical information
      c. Former members
      d. Keep members so busy they don’t have time to think

3. Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines

      a. Information is not freely accessible
      b. Information varies at different levels and missions within pyramid
      c. Leadership decides who "needs to know" what

4. Spying on other members is encouraged

      a. Pairing up with "buddy" system to monitor and control
      b. Reporting deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions to leadership

5. Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda

      a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audio tapes, videotapes, etc.
      b. Misquotations, statements taken out of context from non-cult sources

6. Unethical use of confession

      a. Information about "sins" used to abolish identity boundaries
      b. Past "sins" used to manipulate and control; no forgiveness or absolution

III. Thought Control

1. Need to internalize the group’s doctrine as "Truth"

      a. Map = Reality
      b. Black and White thinking
      c. Good vs. evil
      d. Us vs. them (inside vs. outside)

2. Adopt "loaded" language (characterized by "thought-terminating clichés"). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words".

3. Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.

4. Thought-stopping techniques (to shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts); rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.

      a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
      b. Chanting
      c. Meditating
      d. Praying
      e. Speaking in "tongues"
      f. Singing or humming

5. No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate

6. No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful
IV. Emotional Control

1. Manipulate and narrow the range of a person’s feelings.

2. Make the person feel like if there are ever any problems it is always their fault, never the leader’s or the group’s.

3. Excessive use of guilt

      a. Identity guilt

            1. Who you are (not living up to your potential)
            2. Your family
            3. Your past
            4. Your affiliations
            5. Your thoughts, feelings, actions

      b. Social guilt
      c. Historical guilt

4. Excessive use of fear

      a. Fear of thinking independently
      b. Fear of the "outside" world
      c. Fear of enemies
      d. Fear of losing one’s "salvation"
      e. Fear of leaving the group or being shunned by group
      f. Fear of disapproval

5. Extremes of emotional highs and lows.

6. Ritual and often public confession of "sins".

7. Phobia indoctrination : programming of irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader’s authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.

      a. No happiness or fulfillment "outside"of the group
      b. Terrible consequences will take place if you leave: "hell"; "demon possession"; "incurable diseases"; "accidents"; "suicide"; "insanity"; "10,000 reincarnations"; etc.
      c. Shunning of leave takers. Fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family.
      d. Never a legitimate reason to leave. From the group’s perspective, people who leave are: "weak"; "undisciplined"; "unspiritual"; "worldly"; "brainwashed by family, counselors"; seduced by money, sex, rock and roll.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
traight, St. Pete, early 80s
AA is a cult http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult.html

The more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive adulation for being good parents-- because they have a tame child-creature in their house.  ~~  Frank Zappa

Offline DannyB II

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Semi
« Reply #27 on: September 13, 2010, 02:39:16 PM »
Quote from: "Anne Bonney"
Quote from: "Maximilian"
Quote from: "Anne Bonney"
programs that use these methods of "therapy" (read, quackery) are inherently and systemically dangerous.

Why?


Because that isn't therapy.  It's thought-reform and mind control, detailed below.  Did you read that (OP) and honestly not see anything abusive in it?

OK, lets just say someone instinctively understands this to be going on, thought reform/cult indoctrination and chooses to not allow this to happen, subtly within the group. In your opinion is this possible or unconsciuosly it is still going on.  
I am not saying I was a bad ass or others were but the effect your describing Anne, I just did not feel. I knew it existed at Elan, the Marine Corp, Workshops/seminars, Clubs I belong to, Football teams and Fraternities, damn it went on in my house with my Mom. I think that is why I was somewhat prepared. I identified it as manipulating me into doing what you want or your way of thinking.
Somehow my intimacy button was shut off, for years every time I tried to go there, it felt so unsafe because of the paranoia. What do you want, are you setting me up, you just want to hurt me.
Ya see...Elan never had a chance to indoctrinate me that was already done before I got there, just a different dynamic or the same, maybe.
I know one thing I did learn from Elan was being overly aggressive at the worst time.


http://www.ex-cult.org/

# Lifton's Criteria for Thought Reform (see below)
# Conditions for Mind Control (Margaret Singer)
# Mind Control - The BITE Model (Steven Hassan)b (see below)
# A Behavioral Definition (of 'cult') (Kevin Crawley)
# Identifying a Cult (Jan Groenveld)
# Totalism & Group Dynamics (Jan Groenveld)



  DR. ROBERT J. LIFTON'S CRITERIA FOR THOUGHT REFORM
                THOUGHT REFORM: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALISM
                                CHAPTER 22
                            (Chapel Hill, 1989)
                         THE FUTURE OF IMMORTALITY
                        CHAPTER 15 (New York 1987)


Any ideology -- that is, any set of emotionally-charged convictions
about men and his relationship to the natural or supernatural world
-- may be carried by its adherents in a totalistic direction.  But
this is most likely to occur with those ideologies which are most
sweeping in their content and most ambitious or messianic in
their claim, whether a religious or political organization.  And
where totalism exists, a religion, or a political movement becomes
little more than an exclusive cult.

Here you will find a set of criteria, eight psychological themes against
which any environment may be judged.  In combination, they create an
atmosphere which may temporarily energize or exhilarate, but which at the
same time pose the gravest of human threats.

(BRIEF OUTLINE)

1.  MILIEU CONTROL

    the most basic feature is the control of human communication within
    and environment if the control is extremely intense, it becomes
    internalized control -- an attempt to manage an individual's inner
    communication control over all a person sees, hears, reads, writes
    (information control)
    creates conflicts in respect to individual autonomy
    groups express this in several ways:  Group process, isolation from
    other people, psychological pressure, geographical distance or
    unavailable transportation, sometimes physical pressure
    often a sequence of events, such as seminars, lectures, group
    encounters, which become increasingly intense and increasingly
    isolated, making it extremely difficult-- both physically and
    psychologically--for one to leave.
    sets up a sense of antagonism with the outside world; it's us
    against them
    closely connected to the process of individual change (of personality)

2.   MYSTICAL MANIPULATION (Planned spontaneity)

    extensive personal manipulation
    seeks to promote specific patterns of behavior and emotion in such
    a way that it appears to have arisen spontaneously from within the
    environment, while it actually has been orchestrated
    totalist leaders claim to be agents chosen by God, history, or
    some supernatural force, to carry out the mystical imperative
    the "principles" (God-centered or otherwise) can be put forcibly and
    claimed exclusively, so that the cult and its beliefs become the only
    true path to salvation (or enlightenment)
    the individual then develops the psychology of the pawn, and
    participates actively in the manipulation of others
    the leader who becomes the center of the mystical manipulation (or
    the person in whose name it is done) can be sometimes more real than
    an abstract god and therefore attractive to cult members
    legitimizes the deception used to recruit new members and/or raise
    funds, and the deception used on the "outside world"

3.   THE DEMAND FOR PURITY

    the world becomes sharply divided into the pure and the impure, the
    absolutely good (the group/ideology) and the absolutely evil
    (everything outside the group)
    one must continually change or conform to the group "norm"
    tendencies towards guilt and shame are used as emotional levers for
    the group's controlling and manipulative influences
    once a person has experienced the totalist polarization of good/evil
    (black/white thinking), he has great difficulty in regaining a more
    balanced inner sensitivity to the complexities of human morality
    the radical separation of pure/impure is both within the environment
    (the group) and the individual
    ties in with the process of confession -- one must confess when one
    is not conforming

4.   CONFESSION

    cultic confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal
    and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself
    sessions in which one confesses to one's sin are accompanied by
    patterns of criticism and self-criticism, generally transpiring within
    small groups with an active and dynamic thrust toward personal change
    is an act of symbolic self-surrender
    makes it virtually impossible to attain a reasonable balance between
    worth and humility
    a young person confessing to various sins of pre-cultic existence can
    both believe in those sins and be covering over other ideas and
    feelings that s/he is either unaware of or reluctant to discuss
    often a person will confess to lesser sins while holding on to other
    secrets (often criticisms/questions/doubts about the group/leaders
    that may cause them not to advance to a leadership position)
    "the more I accuse myself, the more I have a right to judge you"

5.   SACRED SCIENCE

    the totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic
    doctrine or ideology, holding it as an ultimate moral vision for the
    ordering of human existence
    questioning or criticizing those basic assumptions is prohibited
    a reverence is demanded for the ideology/doctrine, the originators of
    the ideology/doctrine, the present bearers of the ideology/doctrine
    offers considerable security to young people because it greatly
    simplifies the world and answers a contemporary need to combine a
    sacred set of dogmatic principles with a claim to a science embodying
    the truth about human behavior and human psychology

6.   LOADING THE LANGUAGE

    the language of the totalist environment is characterized by the
    thought-terminating cliche (thought-stoppers)
    repetitiously centered on all-encompassing jargon
    "the language of non-thought"
    words are given new meanings -- the outside world does not use the
    words or phrases in the same way -- it becomes a "group" word or
    phrase

7.   DOCTRINE OVER PERSON

    every issue in one's life can be reduced to a single set of principles
    that have an inner coherence to the point that one can claim the
    experience of truth and feel it
    the pattern of doctrine over person occurs when there is a conflict
    between what one feels oneself experiencing and what the doctrine or
    ideology says one should experience
    if one questions the beliefs of the group or the leaders of the group,
    one is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them
    to even question -- it is always "turned around" on them and the
    questioner/criticizer is questioned rather than the questions answered
    directly
    the underlying assumption is that doctrine/ideology is ultimately more
    valid, true and real than any aspect of actual human character or
    human experience and one must subject one's experience to that "truth"
    the experience of contradiction can be immediately associated with guilt
    one is made to feel that doubts are reflections of one's own evil
    when doubt arises, conflicts become intense

8.   DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE

    since the group has an absolute or totalist vision of truth, those who
    are not in the group are bound up in evil, are not enlightened, are not
    saved, and do not have the right to exist
    "being verses nothingness"
    impediments to legitimate being must be pushed away or destroyed
    one outside the group may always receive their right of existence by
    joining the group
    fear manipulation -- if one leaves this group, one leaves God or loses
    their transformation, for something bad will happen to them
    the group is the "elite", outsiders are "of the world", "evil",
    "unenlightened", etc.




ex-cult Resource Center   
Mind Control - The BITE Model



From chapter two of Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves

© 2000 by Steven Hassan - published by Freedom of Mind Press, Somerville MA

Destructive mind control can be understood in terms of four basic components, which form the acronym BITE:

I.    Behavior Control
II.    Information Control
III.    Thought Control
IV.    Emotional Control


I. Behavior Control

1. Regulation of individual’s physical reality

      a. Where, how and with whom the member lives and associates with
      b. What clothes, colors, hairstyles the person wears
      c. What food the person eats, drinks, adopts, and rejects
      d. How much sleep the person is able to have
      e. Financial dependence
      f. Little or no time spent on leisure, entertainment, vacations

2. Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals

3. Need to ask permission for major decisions

4. Need to report thoughts, feelings and activities to superiors

5. Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques- positive and negative).

5. Individualism discouraged; group think prevails

6. Rigid rules and regulations

7. Need for obedience and dependency
II. Information Control

1. Use of deception

      a. Deliberately holding back information
      b. Distorting information to make it acceptable
      c. Outright lying

2. Access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged

      a. Books, articles, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio
      b. Critical information
      c. Former members
      d. Keep members so busy they don’t have time to think

3. Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines

      a. Information is not freely accessible
      b. Information varies at different levels and missions within pyramid
      c. Leadership decides who "needs to know" what

4. Spying on other members is encouraged

      a. Pairing up with "buddy" system to monitor and control
      b. Reporting deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions to leadership

5. Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda

      a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audio tapes, videotapes, etc.
      b. Misquotations, statements taken out of context from non-cult sources

6. Unethical use of confession

      a. Information about "sins" used to abolish identity boundaries
      b. Past "sins" used to manipulate and control; no forgiveness or absolution

III. Thought Control

1. Need to internalize the group’s doctrine as "Truth"

      a. Map = Reality
      b. Black and White thinking
      c. Good vs. evil
      d. Us vs. them (inside vs. outside)

2. Adopt "loaded" language (characterized by "thought-terminating clichés"). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words".

3. Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.

4. Thought-stopping techniques (to shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts); rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.

      a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
      b. Chanting
      c. Meditating
      d. Praying
      e. Speaking in "tongues"
      f. Singing or humming

5. No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate

6. No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful
IV. Emotional Control

1. Manipulate and narrow the range of a person’s feelings.

2. Make the person feel like if there are ever any problems it is always their fault, never the leader’s or the group’s.

3. Excessive use of guilt

      a. Identity guilt

            1. Who you are (not living up to your potential)
            2. Your family
            3. Your past
            4. Your affiliations
            5. Your thoughts, feelings, actions

      b. Social guilt
      c. Historical guilt

4. Excessive use of fear

      a. Fear of thinking independently
      b. Fear of the "outside" world
      c. Fear of enemies
      d. Fear of losing one’s "salvation"
      e. Fear of leaving the group or being shunned by group
      f. Fear of disapproval

5. Extremes of emotional highs and lows.

6. Ritual and often public confession of "sins".

7. Phobia indoctrination : programming of irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader’s authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.

      a. No happiness or fulfillment "outside"of the group
      b. Terrible consequences will take place if you leave: "hell"; "demon possession"; "incurable diseases"; "accidents"; "suicide"; "insanity"; "10,000 reincarnations"; etc.
      c. Shunning of leave takers. Fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family.
      d. Never a legitimate reason to leave. From the group’s perspective, people who leave are: "weak"; "undisciplined"; "unspiritual"; "worldly"; "brainwashed by family, counselors"; seduced by money, sex, rock and roll.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Stand and fight, till there is no more.

Offline Anne Bonney

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Semi
« Reply #28 on: September 13, 2010, 02:54:08 PM »
Quote from: "DannyB II"
OK, lets just say someone instinctively understands this to be going on, thought reform/cult indoctrination and chooses to not allow this to happen, subtly within the group. In your opinion is this possible or unconsciuosly it is still going on.  

Sure, I guess it's possible.  If you're sufficiently prepared and/or educated about the subject.  In Straight, no....I don't think it was possible to 'choose not to allow it to happen', subtly or otherwise.  I think, to one degree or another, it got us all.  Some had a harder time dealing with it or coming out of it than others did.

Quote
I am not saying I was a bad ass or others were but the effect your describing Anne, I just did not feel.   I knew it existed at Elan, the Marine Corp, Workshops/seminars, Clubs I belong to, Football teams and Fraternities, damn it went on in my house with my Mom. I think that is why I was somewhat prepared. I identified it as manipulating me into doing what you want or your way of thinking.

Good for you.  I, and most every survivor I've talked to, were in no way prepared for that kind of emotional blackmail and mindrape.  And it's not comparable to the service or a bunch of Frat boys knowingly and voluntarily joining up for what they already know is coming.  Informed consent.  And, the frat boys, football teams, clubs etc. can be "unjoined" at any time.  Not so with kids in programs.


Quote
Somehow my intimacy button was shut off, for years every time I tried to go there, it felt so unsafe because of the paranoia. What do you want, are you setting me up, you just want to hurt me.

Me too, but Straight convinced me, for a while at least, that they "knew what was best", that I "didn't have any goddamned rights" (direct quote from Newton)  and if I just "trusted the process"  and "internalized my program" that I would "find my true potential".


Quote
Ya see...Elan never had a chance to indoctrinate me that was already done before I got there, just a different dynamic or the same, maybe.

I dunno.


Quote
I know one thing I did learn from Elan was being overly aggressive at the worst time.[/b][/color]

Me too.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
traight, St. Pete, early 80s
AA is a cult http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-cult.html

The more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive adulation for being good parents-- because they have a tame child-creature in their house.  ~~  Frank Zappa

Offline DannyB II

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Re: MyCross Creek Programs Testim. (Includes Descrp. of Semi
« Reply #29 on: September 13, 2010, 03:29:28 PM »
Quote
DannyB II wrote:
I am not saying I was a bad ass or others were but the effect your describing Anne, I just did not feel. I knew it existed at Elan, the Marine Corp, Workshops/seminars, Clubs I belong to, Football teams and Fraternities, damn it went on in my house with my Mom. I think that is why I was somewhat prepared. I identified it as manipulating me into doing what you want or your way of thinking.


Anne wrote:
Good for you. I, and most every survivor I've talked to, were in no way prepared for that kind of emotional blackmail and mindrape. And it's not comparable to the service or a bunch of Frat boys knowingly and voluntarily joining up for what they already know is coming. Informed consent. And, the frat boys, football teams, clubs etc. can be "unjoined" at any time. Not so with kids in programs.

I don't think my comment above came out the way I wanted it to.
What I was trying to put forth is, I was intimidated to the point of paralysis during these aggressive "mindfuck games" and  I understood what was happening (could feel it coming)at the same time. I could summon up enough resistance to not let the bullshit sweep me over.
I remember being confronted on my shit in groups and just zoning out in my head and pretending I was as stupid as a doornail when it came to emotions. Then shaking off the anxiety later in the bathroom.  Thank god at Elan we never had to write down our progress or anything for that matter.
My biggest escape was being the Ass. delivery guy for Elan houses, I am not trying to shove that in anyones face but I do believe it kept me out of some potentially frosty situations.
I will agree with you I everyone of my examples except the Marine Corp/ Service no one can know what is coming down the line, trust me. Boot camp for 13 weeks was pure hell and then some, worse if your drill instructors escaped from the insane asylum down the road. Which, every battalion seemed to have "one" and I am not kidding. More drill instructors (men) are asked to resign from the service then any other enlisted MOS.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Stand and fight, till there is no more.