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:
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.
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)
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:
accept a particular world view
procedures for peer monitoring w/feedback to group
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 Idenity
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
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
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
Persons being Thought Reformed Must be Unaward that they are being moved through a program to make them deployable agents
To buy more courses, sign up for the duration, ect.
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):
enlist recruit's cooperation, offer something they want (personal growth, salvation, etc.)
obtain psychological dominace by making the target's continuing relations contingent upon continuing membership
use seduction by developing bonds and encouraging targets to believe the group can provide something
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"
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
increase the CHANGES in the target's:
income
employment
personal friends/social life
finances
sexuality
This increases the THREATS to the person if they want to Leave
ARE TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S
stability of identity
emotional well-being
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
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