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Anne Bonney:
This was one of the things that helped me recover from what was done to me at Straight.  It helped me to understand how they did what they did, which is what I needed to 'connect the dots'.  I was amazed and a little overwhelmed at first, at how closely 'thought reform' mirrored what Straight ultimately was.

Singer's Conditions for Mind Control is a good place to start.


http://www.ex-cult.org/General/singer-conditions

CONDITIONS FOR MIND CONTROL
DR. MARGARET SINGER

(Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D., Emeritus Prof. of Psychology, Univ. of CA,
Berkeley)

THOUGHT REFORM = LANGUAGE + SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE

In a thought reform program:
     the self concept is destabilized
     the group/leaders attack one's evaluation of self

SELF:     2 Elements in one's self-concept

     Peripheral Sense:  adequacy of public &  judgmental aspects, social
       status, role performance, conformity to social norms

     Central Sense of Self:  adequacy of intimate life, confidence in
       perception of reality, relations w/family, goals, sexual
       experiences, traumatic life events, religious beliefs, basic
       consciousness and emotional control

     When you attack a person's self-concept, aversive emotional
     arousal is created

6 CONDITIONS THAT NEED TO BE PRESENT IN ORDER TO CONSTITUTE MIND
CONTROL:

1.   CONTROL OVER TIME
     Especially thinking time
     Use techniques to get a person to think about:
          . the group
          . beliefs of the group
     as much of their waking time as possible

2.   CREATE A SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS
     Get people away from normal support systems for a period of time
     Provide models of behavior (cult members)
     Use in-group language
     Use of songs, games, stories the person is unfamiliar with or they are
       modified so that they're unfamiliar
     New people tend to want to be like others (acceptance, feeling part
       of a group)

3.   MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO
     SUPPRESS OLD SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
     Manipulate:  social rewards
                  intellectual rewards
     REWARDS: support positive self-concept for conformity to new
              thought system
     PUNISHMENTS:   attack person's self-concept  for non-conformity

     Effects of behavioral modification (reward/punishment):
          DEPLOYABLE AGENT:
     1.   accept a particular world view
          2.   procedures for peer monitoring w/feedback to group
          3.   psychological, social & material sanctions to influence the
               target's behavior

          When there is control of external feedback, the group becomes the
          only source
     -- there are no reality checks

          BEHAVIORS REWARDED:  participation, conformity to ideas/behavior,
            zeal, personal changes

     BEHAVIORS PUNISHED:    criticalness, independent thinking,
       non-conformity to ideas/behavior

     PUNISHMENTS:   peer/group criticism, withdrawal of support/affection,
       isolation, negative feedback

          THE PERSON IS DEPENDENT UPON THE GROUP FOR EXTERNAL
          VALIDATION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY

          RESULTS:  confusion, disorientation, psychological disturbances

          Manipulate experience:
               altered states of consciousness (trance)
               hypnosis
          Hypnosis: (see Ericksonian hypnosis)
               speaking patterns
               guided imagery
               pacing of voice to breathing patterns
               parables, stories with imbedded messages
               repetition
               boredom
               stop paying attention to distractions, focus
                    inwardly to what's going on inside you
               the use of one's voice to get people's attention
                    focused
          Chanting, Meditation
          Teach thought-stopping techniques
          Work them up emotionally to a negative state:
               re-experience past painful events
               recall negative actions/sin in past life
          Then rescue them from negative emotion by giving them a new
               way to live

4.   MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO
     ELICIT NEW BEHAVIOR
     Models will demonstrate new behavior
     Conformity: dress, language, behavior
     Using group language will eventually still the thinking mind

5.   MUST BE A TIGHTLY CONTROLLED SYSTEM OF LOGIC
     No complaints from the floor
     Pyramid shaped operation with leader at the top
     Top leaders must maintain absolute control/authority
     Persons in charge must have verbal ways of never losing
     Anyone who questions is made to think there is something
          inherently wrong with them to even question
     Phobia induction:
          something bad will happen if you leave the group
          if you leave this group, you're leaving God
     Guilt manipulation

6.   PERSONS BEING THOUGHT REFORMED MUST BE UNAWARE THAT THEY
     ARE BEING MOVED THROUGH A PROGRAM TO MAKE THEM DEPLOYABLE
     AGENTS, TO BUY MORE COURSES, SIGN UP FOR THE DURATION, ETC.

     You can't be thought reformed with full capacity, informed
          consent
     You don't know the agenda of the group at the beginning or the
          full content of the ideology

THOUGHT REFORM SYSTEM:
     Coordinated programs of coercive influence and behavior
               control
     Use of pop psychology techniques found in sensitivity training
          and encounters groups

2nd Generation Thought Reform Systems  (attacks on central elements of
                                        self):
     1.   enlist recruit's cooperation, offer something they want (personal
          growth, salvation, etc.)
     2.   obtain psychological dominace by making the target's continuing
          relations contingent upon continuing membership
     3.   use seduction by developing bonds and encouraging targets to
          believe the group can provide something
     4.   develop dependency by direct social pressure to influence a
          decision that the group has special power or knowledge or
          can solve a problem; the people in the group are made to seem
          interested in what is best for the target -- then they "up
          the commitment level"
     5.   shift the target's social and emotional attachments to individuals
          who have already accepted high commitment and are conforming to
          the behavior

WHILE

          decreasing the target's outside relationships
     6.   increase the CHANGES in the target's:
          income
          employment
          personal friends/social life
          finances
          sexuality
          THIS INCREASES THE THREAT TO THE PERSON IF THEY WANT TO
          LEAVE
          THREATS:  ARE TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S
                    stability of identity
                    emotional well-being

     7.   the community standards become the ONLY standards available for
          self-evaluation

CULTS AND CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS

CULT -  the political and power STRUCTURE of a group
CULTIC RELATIONSHIP - those relationships in which a person intentionally
induces others to become totally or nearly  totally dependent on him/her for
almost all major life decisions and inculcates in these followers a belief
that he has some special talent, gift or knowledge

PRIMARY IN OUR DISCUSSION OF CULTS IS THE PRACTICE AND CONDUCT OF
THE GROUP, NOT ITS BELIEFS

Further references:
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism.  Robert J. Lifton, M.D.,
University of N.C., Chapel Hill, 1989  Chapter 22

"Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of
Thought Reforming Techniques" Richard Ofshe and Margaret T. Singer, The Cultic
Studies Journal, Vol. 3 #1, Spring/Summer 1986; American Family Foundation, P.O. Box
1232, Gracie Station, New York, NY 10028  (212) 533-0538

"The Utilization of Hypnotic Techniques in Religious Conversion" Jesse S.
Miller, The Cultic Studies Journal,Vol. 3 #2, Fall/Winter 1986

Recovery from Cults.  ed. Michael Langone, Ph.D., W.W. Norton, 1994

Anne Bonney:
:bump:

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