Even after I had left the Faith movement, it took some time for me to realise fully that I had been subjected to mind control (brainwashing). But as I developed a questioning attitude towards the movement, I began to feel how strong this influence on my mind had been. It was only when I began to compare what was happening in the movement I had been a part of, and what was going on in other cults, that I recognised that the same manipulative techniques were used on people even in that movement. Meeting ex-members from other cults, such as the Moonies (Unification Church), Scientology, Hare Krishna, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Boston Church of Christ (or Church of Christ proper) made it possible for me to make the comparison. In addition, I read a great deal of literature on cultic mind control. 71
A special characteristic of the structure in cults or cultic movements is that they are dominated by either a strong and authoritative leader, or a leadership, which demands total submission. As long as you behave as you are supposed to do, everything is fine. But if you begin to question the structure, and the message of the movement, you will experience difficulties.
You learn to reject all criticism of the movement. You are told not to criticise, but just to receive the message. In the end, your critical faculties are weakened and you absorb more and more without any attempt to think for yourself. Slowly, but surely, you begin to think exactly the same as the leadership. From then onwards, the process goes on; you read the books of the movement; you listen to their tapes; and you relate only to people who believe the right things. When people outside the group refuse to show an interest in the group, you keep them at a distance emotionally. Consequently, you have very little contact and relationship with people who do not join the movement.
You are told that the only certain way of knowing the will of God is through what is called the witness of the Spirit, which can be boiled down to any kind of abstract prompting or feeling. In a cultic setting, people easily get unsure of what they really feel and think, and it is difficult to maintain your own thoughts and feelings about what is right when that is different from what the leaders tell you. In the confusion that may follow, many people simply turn to the guidance of the leadership and learn to interpret their feelings and promptings so that they fit the message of the leaders.
Cults generally emphasise that you must not trust your mind. By saying this, they remove the most important tool you have to retain your own independent thinking. Faith preachers often refer to Proverbs 3:5, where trusting in your own understanding is opposed to trusting in the Lord. They use this verse to assume that your mental faculties cannot be trusted at all, but they neglect verses 13 and 21 in the same chapter, where it says: “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding.” (Proverbs 3:13, NIV) and, “… preserve sound judgment and discernment….” (Proverbs 3:21, NIV). The Bible tells us that when our understanding is subjected to God, then it can, indeed, be used to understand the Scriptures, to test what is the will of God, and to know Jesus. It is our sin and unwillingness to surrender to God that are opposed to the Holy Spirit, rather than our mental faculties in themselves.
When you have arrived at the stage where you more or less blindly accept everything the preacher says, you will probably, at the same time, hear him say that anyone who criticises will be hit by sickness or disaster. If you believe this, it takes an awful lot of motivation to get the courage to question. By then, you are caught and unable to dare to think for yourself. Your personality will be shaped into a certain mould, and it is a mould that you have not chosen voluntarily; but you are being pressed into it by psychological compulsion. You begin to fit your life into a ready-made pattern.
The process makes people trust more and more blindly in what is said from the platform, and what the leaders say in their books and pamphlets. People become too intimidated to criticise, or to think for themselves, and have their own opinions. This is achieved by constantly pointing out that all criticism comes from the devil. Eventually, your personality begins to change without your realising it.
When people arrive at this stage, there is no need for the leadership to exercise practical methods of compulsion. The people can be allowed to live normally in society because there is little danger of their beginning to develop doubts — they have already been programmed in such a way that they will continue to toe the line of their own accord!
Footnotes
71. For example: Bussell: Unholy Devotion. Davis: The Children of God. Enroth: Churches that Abuse, and Youth, Brainwashing and the Extremist Cults. Hassan: Combating Cult Mind Control. McManus: Dealing with Destructive Cults. Different Authors: The Cultic Studies Journal.
