One of the rehabilitation centres for mind-control victims is run by Paul Martin, who is himself a former victim. 96 In this centre in the States, people are helped to come to terms with the after-effects of mind-control, and are also offered a basic evangelical Christian world-view.
According to Martin, anyone who has left a cult sooner or later needs to work through certain areas of thought and emotion. The first area is that the person himself must realise and accept that he has, indeed, been subjected to mind-control. If someone is still in two minds about whether they really want to leave the cult, it is pointless to proceed further with them. As long as they are still wondering whether they did the right thing in leaving, any further progress will be impossible. When a former cult member begins to talk about how he might help to get his friends out of the cult, or the fact that he has wasted years of his life, then, and only then, can you be sure that he has definitely left, and that he is ready to work through the other questions.
Many are tempted to try and avoid working through particular problems, but it is, nevertheless, essential for them to do so, if they are to be restored to a normal level of functioning. The simple fact that someone who is understanding is there to listen to their account of their experiences is often the most important single element in the healing process. Martin encourages them to talk about their experiences as much as they need.
More than 90% of Martin’s clients have serious questions about God and the Bible, and they have a deeply felt need to get answers to the vital questions they are battling with. It would be impossible to work successfully in trying to rehabilitate former cult members without having a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and the doctrines of the Bible. The most important thing is to emphasise a real understanding of the grace of God, because this is the very thing that has been especially perverted by the cults.
Most cult members have emotional experiences which they interpret as the presence of God. Ex-members from Hare Krishna, the Moonies or from movements like the Faith movement give very similar accounts. They have often had these experiences in connection with times of singing, clapping and dancing, dynamic and powerful preaching, and exuberant emotional enthusiasm. However, seeing that all this is related to several different ‘gods’, according to the particular doctrines of the various groups, the emotion itself is evidently not the presence of God. Martin believes that this feeling can be explained psychologically by the very intensive group dynamic which can create a condition like the “high” that is produced by drugs. According to Martin, this feeling may create a dependence resembling drug addiction.
People who have left cults often have a craving for the special emotions they experienced in the cult, and they might begin to seek it in some other way. It is, however, very important to break with the hankering for this emotional drug-like “kick”. This is because, first of all, it is a seeking for something which is not of God; and secondly, the craving can easily lead a person into another equally unhealthy situation. Therefore, it is important for a person to understand that they are in a drug-like condition of dependency, and need to make a total break with it. When someone makes the break, they may feel at first that they are in a vacuum. But this feeling of emptiness can be filled with a faith which is founded on truth, rather than on the delusive feeling of “a high”.
While teaching his clients the basis of the Christian faith, Martin has often asked them to draw a picture of themselves, Jesus and the devil. People who come from the Faith movement usually draw the devil much bigger than themselves, and as if he is directly confronting them, while their drawing of Jesus is much smaller, and at a distance from them. Their perception of Jesus is as though He is a strict trainer who stands outside the boxing ring, shouting to them that they must fight the devil. Jesus Himself is not helping. This perception has to be counteracted by teaching about the character of God.
When people are confronted with the full realisation of the true state of the group they have been in, their psychological disturbances and their depression may increase. The depression and anxiety may also increase when they begin to sense that they have thrown away, perhaps, several years of their lives, or when they meet lack of understanding from friends in the group, or when they feel threatened by its leadership.
Martin believes the psychological disturbances arise because a person’s “sect-identity” (the way he sees himself as part of the group, and sees the group as his security, and reason for living) comes into conflict with his normal, individual identity. This can happen during times of doubt regarding the ideology of the sect, and also during the period of leaving it. When the person swings towards a more wholehearted participation in the group, he will often begin to feel better. This happens because of a lessening of the conflict between the two identities. Sometimes, it is possible for a person to merge his or her own identity with his sect-identity. The result then is, that he feels quite well, though he has become stunted in his conscience and his emotions, so that he lacks any sense of guilt or regret regarding any wrong deeds he may be doing. He simply imagines that his actions are justified because of the distorted sense of values he has developed by the consciousness of being part of the group.
Most of Martin’s clients thought that they were possessed, which he believes was the result of the mind control they had been under. The effects of this can sometimes be so strong that they have visions of demons. Martin does not think that these were cases of genuine demon appearances, but rather, that they were hallucinations caused by an abnormal state of mind. Usually Martin has seen a satisfactory recovery, simply by talking to and counselling his clients on the basis of their condition having been caused by mind control. After this initial phase of recovery, he has used Biblical teaching about the grace of God as the most important ingredient of his counselling, and he has seen a satisfactory start of recovery in practically all his clients.
Footnotes
96. Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, Albany, Ohio, USA.
