In 1961, Robert Jay Lifton published his study on personality changes in people who had been subjected to “thought reform” in Mao’s China. This study has later been used extensively in trying to explain mind control in cults. Lifton himself has approved of the application of his theory to modern cults. 72 His theory is divided into the following eight themes:
Control of the Environment
Lifton writes that the most fundamental characteristic of an environment of thought reform is that people’s communication has to be controlled. This control involves what Lifton calls, “the individual’s communication with the outside (all that he sees and hears, reads and writes, experiences, and expresses), but also — in its penetration of his inner life — over what we may speak of as his communication with himself.” 73
The individual who is exposed to an environment that is controlled in this fashion is “deprived of the combination of external information and inner reflection which anyone requires to test the realities of his environment and to maintain a measure of identity separate from it.” 74
In movements like the Faith movement, you subject yourself to mind control, too. The most obvious difference between that and the mind control in Chinese totalitarianism is that in this movement you subject yourself to it of your own free will, at least initially. However, once you are under this type of psychological pressure, you do not really seem to have any choice.
In this type of movement, you start by controlling the inner communication — that is, you learn to reject any thoughts that are critical of the movement. When this happens, you will, generally, take care to control the outward communication; for example, by only reading and listening to the “right” information and listening to the “right” people.
Whether subjection to mind control is involuntary or whether, initially, it starts on a voluntary basis, the end result seems to be much the same. However, when Lifton’s subjects were put in a different environment, they quickly began to question what they had learnt in the Chinese thought reform programme. It seems to be harder for people who have been in a cultic setting to question what they have learnt, because their initial subjection was voluntary.
Mystical Manipulation or Planned Spontaneity
In the Chinese thought reform, specific patterns of behaviour and emotion were initiated from above in such a way that it appeared as though they had arisen spontaneously within the environment. This created a mystique, where the people involved felt they were the pioneers of some very important development. Lifton writes that “they create a mystical aura around the manipulating institutions — the Party, the Government, the Organisation. They are the agents ‘chosen’ (by history, by God, or by some other supernatural force) to carry out the ‘mystical imperative,’ the pursuit of which must supersede all considerations of decency or of immediate human welfare.” 75
Movements like the Faith movement make use of a similar form of planned spontaneity; for example, by the production of a feeling of elation that is deliberately and systematically produced by the musicians and preachers, even though they themselves may think they are just preparing for God to visit the meeting. The ordinary member assumes that his feelings of euphoria have come spontaneously from the Holy Spirit, whereas it may very well have been produced by long periods of intense singing, shouting and dancing.
The mystical aura around the leadership is strengthened by constant statements saying that they are the forerunners of a great revival before Jesus returns. Success is proclaimed as being a sign that God is especially in favour of the movement and its leadership. Constant reports of victory have to be turned out to further this aim. However, even opposition and criticism of the movement are explained as though they were the devil’s last nervous attempts at stopping the great and imminent move of God. Set-backs can thus be used just as effectively, and any events whether ordinary or unusual, may be interpreted in a way that strengthens the mystical aura around the leadership. When Lifton describes the aura of mystique around the great orators of communist China, it is very easy to recognise the same thing within movements like the Faith movement. Many get an inexplicable awe and fear of the preachers. The furthering of the message of the preachers gets such a high priority that any individual who does not fit in to the machinery will be trampled down. Wounded people are left by the wayside, while “the unstoppable army of the Lord” marches on — because the end justifies the means!
The Demand for Purity
In Chinese thought reform, “the experiential world is sharply divided into the pure and the impure, into the absolutely good and the absolutely evil. The good and the pure are, of course, those ideas, feelings, and actions which are consistent with the totalist ideology and policy; anything else is apt to be relegated to the bad and the impure.” 76
In the Faith movement and similar circles, they say in the same way that they are the ones who proclaim the Word of God in purity and clarity. However, when you examine it more closely, the purity of the message is vitally attached to agreeing with the accepted teaching of the leading preachers. Any attempt to qualify the supposedly pure message is often seen as being inspired by the devil. A person who questions the message is said to be rebellious and under the influence of an evil spirit. The individual will feel guilty every time he dares to question the preachers, because the teaching constantly reinforces these feelings. Without your being aware of how these guilt feelings arise, you are being pressurised and manipulated by guilt and fear.
A Cult of Confession
Lifton writes that in thought reform confession of crimes “is first a vehicle for the kind of personal purification which we have just discussed, a means of maintaining a perpetual inner emptying or psychological purge of impurity…. Second, it is an act of symbolic self-surrender, the expression of the merging of individual and environment. Third, it is a means of maintaining an ethos of total exposure…”77
In China, confessions were made before others at special meetings or tribunals, and it was used as a means of exploiting people’s vulnerabilities. The confessions were carefully monitored and used later to put pressure on individuals when this was needed.
In movements like the Faith movement, confessions of having demons of criticism may be made for the purpose of exorcism, apart from any ordinary Christian confessions of sins. If it transpires that a particular member is having critical thoughts about the teaching, this information will be passed on to the leadership of the cell group or the whole church, and dealt with accordingly. Thus the questioning member will be urged to repent of this critical attitude and he may also be subjected to exorcism. Moreover, earlier confessions may be used if a person begins to question the leadership, and his “problem” may be put down to an underlying weakness which he has confessed to on a previous occasion.
The “Sacred Science”
Lifton writes that the environment of totalitarianism will maintain an aura of sacredness around its basic dogma. “While thus transcending ordinary concerns of logic, however, the milieu at the same time makes an exaggerated claim of airtight logic, of absolute ‘scientific’ precision. Thus the ultimate moral vision becomes an ultimate science; and the man who dares to criticise it, or to harbour even unspoken alternative ideas, becomes not only immoral and irreverent, but also ‘unscientific’.” 78
The teachers of movements like the Faith movement support their ideology by a string of extra-Biblical revelations and messages supposed to be directly from God. They can alter the ideology according to whatever new instructions God is said to give to the leaders. Nevertheless, it is not possible for an ordinary member to question the part of the ideology that is currently relevant. If you ask, because of some doubt, it is considered the same as questioning God Himself. The supposed fact that the ideology is founded on direct revelations from God means that you cannot discuss it in the same way as you might discuss the points of Christian doctrine that are built on a reasonable interpretation of Scripture.
These Faith teachers have found what is supposed to be a deeper meaning in the Scriptures, which is not accessible to just anyone. He, Who is the author of the Word of the Bible, has spoken directly to the preacher and explained what is the real meaning of the words that are written! If this is the case, what good is a person’s reason, or knowledge of theology, or of the original languages? If you have come to the point of believing that it is actually God Himself who speaks to the preachers, you will no longer dare to trust your own judgment.
This all adds up to the fact that you usually judge by what “feels right” or “what you have peace about.” For people who are in an environment of mind control, it will just about always ‘feel right’ to go by what the preachers say! And you will feel that you lose your peace by questioning the teaching.
With this system of teaching as a basis, there will be no risk attached to telling the listeners to test the message by the Bible. There will be no danger that members will question what they are told. Whatever evaluations the members make will be within the framework of the mind control. Any kind of confidence of the individual in his own ability to reason is already blown away. Either consciously, or without realising it, you read the Bible through tinted glasses in such a way that it fits with the movement’s message.
Thought-Preventing Clichés and Slogans
In the environment of totalitarianism, the language becomes characterised by thought-preventing clichés. Complex problems are, according to Lifton, “compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorised and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis…. For an individual person, the effect of the language of ideological totalism can be summed up in one word: constriction. He is, so to speak, linguistically deprived; and since language is so central to all human experience, his capacities for thinking and feeling are immensely narrowed.” 79
One of the attractions of the teaching in movements like the Faith movement is that it gives you clear and simple answers to complex questions. Without realising it, you start to use short phrases, clichés, and slogans, as answers to your questions. You short circuit your thinking, thereby decreasing your ability to think critically. For instance, all criticism can be explained by calling it “attack of the devil.” Even if you only take certain parts of the criticism seriously, you will be part of the devil’s attack on “what God is doing today.” And this is, of course, the last thing you want to be.
Doctrine over Person
In thought reform, human experience must always be made subordinate to the claims of the accepted dogma. Lifton writes: “Consequently, past historical events are retrospectively altered, wholly rewritten, or ignored, to make them consistent with the doctrinal logic …. The same doctrinal primacy prevails in the totalist approach to changing people: the demand that character and identity be reshaped, not in accordance with one’s special nature or potentialities, but rather to fit the rigid contours of the doctrinal mould.” 80
In the Faith movement, your personality is also pressed into a fixed mould. If you express or try to handle your own personality and identity, you will make yourself guilty of furthering the work of the devil. And if you refer to your personality, saying “That is the way I am!”, you may be told that “It is the devil who has made you that way!” 81
The experiences of the individual must be made subordinate to the Faith doctrines. If reality as you perceive it around you does not fit in with the teaching, you choose to ignore it — or change the facts! At the start of the Bible school, we were clearly instructed to forget all our previous experiences and opinions. Our own earlier conclusions were made suspect. Now, we were to hear what the Word of God was really saying! The result was that we pressed our personalities and concepts of faith into the mould of the movement.
Controlling Who has the Right to Exist.
Lifton writes that “The totalist environment draws a sharp line between those whose right to existence can be recognised, and those who posses no such right.” In thought reform, the world is divided into the ‘people’ and the ‘reactionaries’ or the ‘non-people’. Non-people have often been put to death. “But the thought reform process is one means by which non-people are permitted, through a change in attitude and personal character, to make themselves over into people.” 82
In the Faith movement, you do not usually go so far as to say that certain people do not have a right to live — even though this happens as well. Nevertheless, you tend to turn some people into non-people in your mind. They do not exist in the same way as those who are “going on with God.” You do not think about them, talk about them, or really reckon with them at all.
Faith preacher, Kenneth Copeland, has said: “There are people attempting to sit in judgment right today over the ministry that I’m responsible for, and the ministry that Kenneth E. Hagin is responsible for …. Several people that I know had criticised and called that Faith bunch out of Tulsa a cult. And some of ‘em are dead right today in an early grave because of it, and there’s more than one of them got cancer.” 83 I have heard a couple of similar statements in the Swedish Faith movement. It is a way of saying that if you oppose the movement, you have no right to exist.
Lifton’s Theory Must be Used Cautiously
In concluding, Lifton warns against applying his theory too simplisticly, saying that: “Facile comparisons can be misleading. No milieu ever achieves complete totalism, and many relatively moderate environments show some signs of it.” 84 As I have shown, I believe the theory can be applied to the Faith movement without resorting to simplistic comparisons.
Footnotes
72. Hassan: Combating Cult Mind Control.
73. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 420.
74. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 420.
75. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 422.
76. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 423.
77. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism p 425.
78. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 427.
79. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 429.
80. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 430.
81. Ulk Ekman, Audio Cassette UES 311. Translated from Swedish.
82. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 433.
83. Kenneth Copeland, Why All Are Not Healed. Audio Cassette #01-4001.
84. R.J. Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p 435.
