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