This is the eleventh post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.
Stein described the totalist indoctrination and isolation and engulfment in the last post and went on to describe the creation of fright without solution:
"Now the follower's social life and time are under the control of the organization. The group has removed other close attachment relationships - either actual or potential - and established itself as the remaining, and only, safe haven. But isolation and engulfment are not enough. To brainwash a person - so that they will do your bidding regardless of their own survival-interest - the group must lock in their control of that person's emotional and cognitive life. This is the essence of totalist indoctrination. To isolation and engulfment must be added a third ingredient: threat. Any kind of threat will do, so long as the isolation and engulfment has fairly effective and the group has been successfully established as the only safe haven." Page 69
Stein described examples from several cults that use various methods to create fear and also techniques that inhibit independent and critical thinking such as sleep deprivation, high stress working conditions and yelling at people by senior cult members. I mean senior in authority.
All these are routine in Scientology and it is jam packed with fear and stress creating conditions by design and also has lots of sleep deprivation, yelling by senior cult members with stress a constant companion as you never are doing enough, fast enough or bringing in enough money to satisfy Scientology.
Stein continued "Fear on its own is also not sufficient. We all experience fear - fear usually wants us to keep safe. As a rule it is highly adaptive. When we experience fear we seek ways to escape it, to remove the cause of it, to resolve it in some way to ensure our survival. What happens in totalist groups (or for that matter in a variety of abusive, controlling relationships) is the inculcating of fear where the follower cannot resolve the threat. Where the follower is helpless to resolve the threat fear then becomes terror. Terror is the state that attachment scholars call "fright without solution," and is the state that can produce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in those who have experienced it. " Page 70- - 71
"The preceding isolation and engulfment ensures that under threat the follower has nowhere to turn except to the source of threat itself: the leader or group. In this way fear under conditions of isolation becomes terror" Page 71
"And of course we can see, along with the deliberate inculcation of fear, the group positions itself as the supposed safe haven - even though it is the group itself creating the threat. This inculcation of fright without solution, of terror, creates a crisis in the follower. But after the crisis - created by the group - lo and behold ! the group itself is there to save the terrified, broken person, to pick up the shattered pieces." Page 71
Scientology consistently uses an approach of creating distrust with outsiders and the message that the only hope anyone has to avoid utter ruin for eternity is to apply Scientology technology to their lives.
This twin message of absolute threat from the outside world and even anyone who isn't completely in submission to the authority of Scientology and totally complying with no deviations with the doctrine and practices of Scientology to all survival and the need for complete submission to survive for an escape from this threat, really the only possible escape from this threat, is presented nearly constantly in Scientology doctrine and indoctrination.
It is pounded into cult members with immense repetition as the references in Scientology are filled with these messages and the references often like Keeping Scientology Working have the message front and center and it is studied hundreds or thousands of times in Scientology as well as being bolstered by variation as the central message is presented over and over in thousands of references and altered very slightly over and over.
It rapidly becomes clear in Scientology that you have no other hope for survival or happiness.
Stein went on "Once in this state of terror or fright without solution, even small gestures on the part of the group begin feel benevolent and caring, increasing the sense that it is the group that will protect one, the group who will save one from the threat." Page 71
In Scientology there are people to turn to for help including word clearers on courses and auditors. You also have ethics officers and chaplains so you always feel like there is someone in Scientology to help you no matter what your issue is, as long as you have not been expelled or declared a suppressive person.
Stein described a crucial turn the relationship takes "Once in this state of terror or fright without solution, even small gestures on the part of the group begin to feel benevolent and caring, increasing the sense that it is the group that will protect one, the group who will save one from the threat." Page 71
"I, too, remember calculated acts of " apparent kindness. " In her book Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman insightfully refers to these as "capricious grantings of small indulgences, " Page 71
"The momentary lifting of pressure resulted in feelings of gratitude as well as some guilt about my own often-rebellious behavior. But beyond that they made me feel as if the leader - who remained unknown to me - was, indeed, benevolent, perhaps even loving and tender. As in the Stockholm Syndrome, thus does the abuser become the perceived safe haven - a person or entity to whom one can turn for help, mercy, forgiveness, comfort.
When the group creates a sense of fear and threat, the isolated and engulfed participant seeks out the group as a perceived safe haven for protection and comfort. But as the group itself is the source of threat, this is a failing strategy. This failed strategy results in, first, the creation of a strong emotional tie to the group, and second the participant disorganizes cognitively with consequent confusion, dissociation, disorientation and cognitive lapses. " Page 71 - 72
Stein described why a strong emotional tie is created in next section which I will take on in the next post. Before I move on to that it is worth looking at the revelation here.
In Scientology Hubbard carefully places little rewards and even had a system of rewards and penalties in Scientology. If you perform extremely well and consistently and never ever get on the bad side of anyone who has power in Scientology you can get commendations, little certificates and all sorts of things.
Hubbard even packed the doctrine with extremely strong compliments for Scientologists and has specific ones for greater and greater levels of commitment to Scientology. Training as an auditor carries a claim of being able to free beings and high character and intelligence. Being a Scientologist at all carries a range of compliments. Being on staff brings status and being in the Sea Org brings a truly elite level.
Celebrities get special treatment and treated as higher beings building new worlds. They now get additional status based on how much money they donate to Scientology and for hundreds of thousands can get their picture taken for Scientologists to see in internal magazines. If they donate millions they even get nice trophies and special titles.
The effect that status rewards and occasional kindnesses creates is a deep loyalty and sense of belonging for many Scientologists. It is a mistake in my opinion. Scientology used the isolation, engulfment and terror or fright without solution it created and continues to create to make people so desperate, so needy they absolutely want comfort and security and so they accept a poor substitute and convince themselves it is genuine, as their need is so dire.
I still sometimes encounter independent Scientologists and freezoners who - despite seeing all the evidence of fraud, abuse and crimes by Scientology, Hubbard and Miscavige - desperately cling to the illusion that Hubbard was good and loved them. That illusion has become crucial to them.
I used to hang onto that myself for years and was devastated when I realized in a flash that Hubbard never created OTs or clears and the only way this could have been and been so well hidden for so long was if Hubbard knew it was lies from the beginning. Otherwise he would have seen it or let others see it.
My whole world was changed. Hubbard had virtually remade me into a copy of who I thought he was and I realized I never knew him at all and the facsimile of a person or pseudo identity I had taken on had no justification as it was intended to fulfil Scientology goals and serve Scientology but with no beneficial results to achieve via Scientology it became a realization that I had used evil means to result only in evil ends when I had assumed they would achieve good ends. Those good ends were exposed as empty promises, very generous empty promises.
That is the truth about the generosity and benevolence in Scientology - it is empty promises and a beautiful lie. Jefferson Hawkins used the phrase counterfeit dreams and it is appropriate. Hubbard makes you think he has these beautiful dreams and he promised he can fulfill them all - but it was never real, none of it, not the dreams, not his care or friendship and certainly not his promises.
WARNING : for any seeking recovery or any info on beneficial mental health practices , I do not have any formal education on this subject and in fact have no college education at all .
Tuesday, January 22, 2019
Understanding Cults and Cult Watchers
One of the biggest problems in describing Scientology to people is that everything seems far too outrageous to be genuine. You tell people about the crimes and abuses and far more crimes and abuses and it just goes so far that people say "the government or police or someone would have stopped them long ago if one percent of this was true." So, they assume that you are either lying, mistaken or grossly, grossly exaggerating.
For the sake of the victims of Scientology I wish I was mistaken or exaggerating but unfortunately I think we have far more than enough evidence to support claims of abuses and crimes. It is as Leah Remini said like being in a movie where the villain is always winning. From childhood we are taught to be good because if we are bad we face negative consequences and bad things eventually happen to bad people.
But I think that is evidently false. Some extremely good people have terrible things happen outside their control and some extremely evil people have relatively good fortune in their lives. It isn't a just world. Not by far.
Television and movies mainly prepare us for life in a story that follows this script. There are exceptions. The film No Country For Old Men presents the problem of people living in a world in which people face moral consequences for their actions but they live in a world where there is no moral framework.
That sounds like a contradiction but it is not. The distinction is that you or I can do something like steal money then face negative consequences like someone coming to get the money back and that is a result of my or your choice, a negative result but the universe and other people can be kind of cruel to us regardless of our choices.
This is to me closer to the reality of human existence. We have some understanding of predictable or possible negative consequences of choices and so feel responsible for them but also do not have control over everything. We cannot just be good and entirely eliminate bad things from happening. You can be a terrific person and still get a terrible life or be a terrible person and have a terrific life.
So we face the combination of moral responsibility with self control and attempts at moral clarity and sound judgement while living with the harsh reality that the universe we live in doesn't conform to our morals. It doesn't care.
Seeing the reality that bad people like Ron Hubbard and David Miscavige get away with hundreds of crimes including literally getting away with murder while many of us try to not lie or steal anything and feel bad if we cut someone off in traffic or if we realize we have taken a pen and not returned It is stunning to people. They face the contradictory nature of reality.
I actually think a big part of why people are fascinated with Scientology is that it showcases contradictory elements of larger life but seems like something outside the personal life of people as individuals so it doesn't trigger their own avoidance of dissonant elements in their own lives. It seems to parallel them.
I think we often in trying to understand life approach things that are similar to unresolved issues we personally have but dare not face in ourselves. So many people who are curious about Scientology and cults actually want to understand bizarre and contradictory behaviors in themselves and others. Often people see the worst qualities in people in groups they scapegoat and demonize.
There are qualities like stupidity, greed, lust, hypocrisy and gullibility that are to a significant degree probably present in virtually all human beings. We are all flawed and have plenty of imperfections but sadly tend to deny that they are present in all of us. We then add projecting these repudiated aspects of self into others . By applying this to groups we end up seeing our own groups as better than they really are and groups with different politics or religion or sports teams as more flawed than they really are.
This also helps to support naive realism - the assumption we usually have that our own judgement is sound, that we are rational and logical and objective and have a correct and accurate understanding of the world. The tremendous evidence that human beings are gullible, stupid, biased, incorrect and hold inaccurate beliefs contradicts naive realism but it can be escaped if we see the negative qualities of people as belonging to OTHER people and not us and our groups, because if our groups are exempt from these flaws then we are correct in choosing our groups and being in our groups bolsters our image of being correct.
It is a loop of self fulfilling prophecy. We are seeing our groups and use confirmation bias to see ourselves as right and other groups as holding all the traits we acknowledge as being negative and existing in human beings but prefer to not acknowledge in ourselves. So, we get to fulfill both the requirements of naive realism but have a way to acknowledge the many aspects of human behavior and nature that contradict the assumptions of naive realism by simply pawning them off on other individuals and groups.
In truth we are not perfectly rational and we hold many incorrect beliefs. It doesn't make us evil or stupid, it just is part of being human. None of us fit a model of pure moral good or perfectly objective judgement. It just is outside our nature.
So I have found a tremendous contrast because of some, definitely not all, Scientology watchers and cult watchers and ex Scientologists and ex cult members. And there is a noticeable difference and for some even tension between these two groups, well really it manifests between individuals who have had conflicts or misunderstandings and is worth exploring.
See, here is a way to explain it. I was in Scientology for twenty five years and would not have believed that cults influence and mentally enslave people as they do or committed all these abuses and crimes for decades relatively unchecked. I just would have found everything about it unbelievable, from the undue influence and vulnerabilities we have to persuasion and how relationships work and can be exploited to the degree of evil a group like Scientology can get away with.
So, to ex Scientologists and ex cult members in general there is a noticeable contrast. We know why we have strived to understand Scientology. We want to understand what happened to us and recover from it if possible, so we have a motivation to understand Scientology and cults. It is similar for family members related to cult members as they are concerned for their loved ones. That makes sense too.
But the people who have never had any personal connection to a cult often approach Scientology and cults for different reasons and with different perspectives. If they are trying to maintain naive realism and go "oh, here are where all the gullible, stupid and crazy people end up and finding them here shows that I really don't have these qualities in myself obviously and the more I find these undesirable things in Scientology the stronger my faith in my own sound judgement and character can justifiably grow" and they can feel good about themselves by feeling superior to Scientology.
Part of the conflicts this inspires is when someone who feels this way and treats ex Scientologists as idiots and imbeciles and acts like everyone in Scientology or any cult is irrevocably inferior in character and intelligence and that they always have a card to play of "I have never been stupid or gullible enough to fall for something as stupid as Scientology so I obviously always have been and always will be better than you dumb fuck crazy cultists and so you are always wrong compared to me. "
By playing the "you cultists and ex cultists are worthless pieces of shit and everyone who doesn't join a cult is better" card the person automatically puts themselves in the "better" category. And ex cult members resent having someone come around just to insult and belittle them and to compliment themselves.
Now, there are people who were never in cults who do watch for other reasons or as they learn about cults see that the assumptions regarding negative qualities defining cult members are often entirely wrong and you can tell from their questions and comments.
But I now understand why many ex cult members are guarded or defensive when dealing with cult watchers who were never in. They don't know if you will be kind and considerate or contemptuous and condescending.
This helps to explain why many ex cult members simply do not discuss or even reveal their past cult membership. It is simply not worth it. You do not know what reaction or stigma you will get.
I think that the Underground Bunker is probably one of the most accepting places ex Scientologists can post at but occasionally a person who is not entirely sympathetic sets up and is less than welcoming.
Friday, January 18, 2019
How Cults Work 10 - Totalist Indoctrination
How Cults Work - Totalist Indoctrination
This is the tenth post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.
This post is on chapter four - Totalist Indoctrination.
Stein starts with a Quote from Hannah Arendt:
"It has frequently been said, and it is perfectly true, that the most horrible aspect of [totalitarian] terror is that it has the power to bind together completely isolated individuals and that by doing so it isolates these individuals even more.
Only isolated individuals can be dominated totally." Hannah Arendt, Essays in Understanding
In Scientology I always felt like I never quite knew where I stood in the group and always felt like things were chaotic and insecure. I kept thinking that stability was around the corner or required a change that never seemed to arrive. Now I understand we were isolated from deep and meaningful relationships but packed together with no time or room to explore anything else and certainly no time to consider what we were doing or even use reflection to integrate our thoughts.
Stein wrote "The two elements of isolation of the follower and positioning of the group as the new safe haven as discussed in the previous chapter, have prepared the follower for indoctrination in the totalist system. There is continued, and now nearly complete, isolation from prior friends and family (unless they are in, useful to or confirming to the group). The follower's life becomes almost totally swallowed up by the group. And finally, with the follower isolated from prior sources of support, the group arouses threat, fear or stress in some form. This sequence is not necessarily a linear process, and can take many forms - all, however, can result in a relationship of disorganized attachment and chronic dissociation that is at its heart. Whatever form they take, these three elements - isolation, engulfment and fear arousal - are fundamental to the brainwashing process.
This process takes place within a totalistic organization, and so, to understand it, the organization as an entity, an organism itself, - its structure, the processes that keep it going, its birth and death - must be understood. And at the same time the experience of the follower who is subjected to brainwashing, their journey into and through the organization, must also be understood. There are, then, these two interrelated processes to grasp. It is at the nexus of these two entities that the core mechanism of brainwashing takes place: the action of the organization upon the follower to induce a relationship of disorganized attachment whereby the leader can gain and maintain control of followers.
When the process of brainwashing or totalist indoctrination by the group is successful there is a threefold outcome. The followers' feelings are disrupted and an attachment to the group and/or leader is formed. Their thinking, and in particular their ability to think about their feelings and attachments, is in turn disrupted. Finally, followers can then become deployable - that is, able to be directed to engage in actions regardless of their own survival interests. Deployable followers lose their autonomy of thought and action. " Page 63 - 64
Okay, that was a ton to quote but I felt it is vital for portraying the model Stein used and some of its most important points.
To me this is the difference between a cult and other type of group. The cult does these things in these ways to operate in this manner.
in Scientology I experienced all of this. I was encouraged to leave all outside attachments, subtly and slightly at first but it steadily grew over months. There was arousal of distrust of outsiders, so I would not ask anyone outside Scientology any important questions. The schedule rapidly became all day every day, even if I was promised a day off, somehow something important would come up so I had to be at the org.
Always having to be there and never getting paid while being pushed to finish courses and programs faster and faster and needing to never fall behind on my training produced extreme anxiety. And in Scientology you are subjected to spot checks and checkouts in which, often with no notice, you are asked for the correct in context definition of words from your course materials.
If you fail to give the exact correct definition for the context without hesitation or doubt you get flunked and have to go back in your materials to where the word appeared, use Scientology word clearing on the word THEN restudy your materials from that point forward. It may be a page back or hundreds of pages back. That produced terror in students.
I also experienced everything described regarding feeling attachment to the group and leader, my ability to think was disrupted by the Scientology indoctrination system, I had awareness of contradictions in Scientology and flaws with the doctrine reframed by Scientology doctrine and practices as misunderstood words, meaning it you find contradictions or flaws in Scientology doctrine you are always treated as if you have words you do not understand and your anxiety is called nervous hysteria, your sense of reelingness or confusion is attributed to a skipped step in understanding, your hesitation, a not there feeling or dead feeling is attributed to a lack of seeing the subject or misunderstood words.
Many phenomena associated with cognitive dissonance from contradictions are relabeled as being from misunderstood words in Scientology. A blank feeling, a not there feeling, hesitation and much more.
Doubts are seen as proof of your own hidden evil acts as is wanting to leave. So you learn to push aside those criticism filled thoughts and subsequently censor your own critical thinking.
When you have accepted the language of Scientology it is jam packed with loaded terms. These terms have concepts in the definitions that include accepting cause and effect relationships between words and phenomena, criticism of Scientology and hidden acts, wanting to leave Scientology and hidden crimes and words that assumes these relationships are genuine and beyond rational doubt. So, as you truly accept these terms and constantly think them thousands and thousands of times reaffirming their infallible certainty you become deployable. After all, you become absolutely sure everything Hubbard wrote is true and know your survival depends on this knowledge for eternity as Hubbard told you so.
Stein went on to describe isolation and engulfment:
"To take the first two elements of the brainwashing process: as the group consolidates the isolation from friends and family that began in the recruitment stage (if there was one) they simultaneously engulf the follower in group activities, surrounding the recruit with other group members"
"In order to more completely isolate the follower and ensure they become focused on the group, the group controls the follower's time, their communication with others and the communication they receive. " Page 64
"But fundamentally the combination of isolation and engulfment results in a situation that the philosopher Hannah Arendt describes as people being "pressed together" so tightly that there is no space between them, "so the very space of free action - and this is the reality of freedom - disappears. The space between people, she says, is what makes up the "world." It is in the space between people that conversation, speaking to one another, occurs by which "everything that individuals carry with them innately becomes visible and audible." In other words our differences and individuality, our different experiences and different views only become real, in a sense, when we are in conversation with others across this space that separates us, that allows us this difference. Arendt sees this conversation as the essence of real friendship.
But in a totalist system, no differences are allowed - all are pressed together and compelled to have a single set of beliefs, goals and behaviors. With only a single view, a single, absolute "truth" allowed , then no conversation is needed - after all, in such a case we already agree on everything, we already (apparently) experience everything in the same way. What then, is there to talk about ? In fact, what is key in totalitarian groups is a constant monitoring to ensure nothing "worldly" (this is the very word used in many, bible-based cults) is talked about. And certainly nothing "anti-organizational" - as it was called in my group - may ever be discussed. Indeed, in our case, being accused of anti-organizational talk, thinking or behavior was considered the greatest crime. " Page 68
"Contrary to the stereotype of cult life, followers are isolated not only from the outside world, but in this airless pressing together they are also isolated from each other within the group. They cannot share doubts, complaints about the group or any attempt to attribute their distress to the actions of the group. At the same time as this isolation from other people - either within or outside the group - is occurring, there is also a deep loneliness and isolation from the self.The time pressures, sleep deprivation and the erasure of the individual mean there is never any opportunity for solitude - that creative and restful state where where contemplation, thinking and the space in which changes of mind might occur can take place. As there is no space between people, neither is there any internal space allowed within each person, for their own autonomous thought and feeling. Thus there is a triple isolation: from the outside world, from others in the group and from one's own self. " Page 68
Okay. This describes exactly what my experience in Scientology was. We were packed together with how we communicated controlled. We drilled looking into each other's eyes for hours, so we did it the same way. We drilled how to begin communication, how to continue communication how to end communication. We followed a formula on how to communicate. It has how to communicate down to exact steps, with little room for variations.
in Scientology the communication you receive as a member is rigidly controlled with no interruptions allowed during indoctrination on course or while in auditing. Often Sea Org members and staff have their day scheduled to the minute.
Many forms of communication are monitored or banned in Scientology. There is no joking and degrading allowed, you are not supposed to joke around at all about Scientology. You are never supposed to acknowledge failures of Scientology technology.
Saying or writing anything critical of Scientology organizations or leadership is treated as a crime or betrayal in Scientology. In Scientology conformity to group norms and obedience to authority intersect as the group norms and obedience are one. No dissent is permitted by either.
We were discouraged so strongly from expressing any individuality that often entire conversations and relationships were just people looking at each other as required in drills, communicating as required in drills and saying the terms and phrases from Scientology doctrine to each other over and over like robots. Scientology even has drills to address the fact that Scientologists act like robots when they talk to each other and outsiders. We practiced by saying things as if they were our own original thoughts. This was to hide the fact that we were regurgitating the same phrases and doctrine from Scientology over and over.
Scientology also uses drills to get people used to setting aside their personal boundaries. You get used to being sworn at, yelled at, touched and directed and controlled by other people and you get used to controlling other people too. You get used to violating their boundaries and setting your own aside. So there is no safety or security in this relationship.
your conversation and personal expression are so rigidly controlled in Scientology that you might be around other Scientologists for years but never be friends. Between the schedule, lack of closeness between cult members and the monitoring of your own thoughts and behaviors no contemplation of negative aspects of Scientology occurs.
In fact I one day realized something in my life was wrong and couldn't figure it out. I had begun to look at the parts of my opinion life and began listing them out. I immediately ruled out Scientology as the source of anything negative and realized something - I ruled it out with no actual consideration, as if it cannot be even looked at and should be automatically assumed to be so infallible.
I realized I had automatically been seeing Scientology as blameless and not being objective or even really consciously looking at it as possibly flawed for decades. That was deeply disturbing.
It is one thing to use independent and critical thinking to carefully compile evidence and arguments for and against something and to weigh them against each other, but I was skipping that and as a habit on a subconscious level automatically acting like the decision was made.
I was separated from my own capacity to judge some things, particularly things that Hubbard didn't want Scientologists judging. The three fold isolation Stein described is exactly what Scientology provides.
This is the tenth post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.
This post is on chapter four - Totalist Indoctrination.
Stein starts with a Quote from Hannah Arendt:
"It has frequently been said, and it is perfectly true, that the most horrible aspect of [totalitarian] terror is that it has the power to bind together completely isolated individuals and that by doing so it isolates these individuals even more.
Only isolated individuals can be dominated totally." Hannah Arendt, Essays in Understanding
In Scientology I always felt like I never quite knew where I stood in the group and always felt like things were chaotic and insecure. I kept thinking that stability was around the corner or required a change that never seemed to arrive. Now I understand we were isolated from deep and meaningful relationships but packed together with no time or room to explore anything else and certainly no time to consider what we were doing or even use reflection to integrate our thoughts.
Stein wrote "The two elements of isolation of the follower and positioning of the group as the new safe haven as discussed in the previous chapter, have prepared the follower for indoctrination in the totalist system. There is continued, and now nearly complete, isolation from prior friends and family (unless they are in, useful to or confirming to the group). The follower's life becomes almost totally swallowed up by the group. And finally, with the follower isolated from prior sources of support, the group arouses threat, fear or stress in some form. This sequence is not necessarily a linear process, and can take many forms - all, however, can result in a relationship of disorganized attachment and chronic dissociation that is at its heart. Whatever form they take, these three elements - isolation, engulfment and fear arousal - are fundamental to the brainwashing process.
This process takes place within a totalistic organization, and so, to understand it, the organization as an entity, an organism itself, - its structure, the processes that keep it going, its birth and death - must be understood. And at the same time the experience of the follower who is subjected to brainwashing, their journey into and through the organization, must also be understood. There are, then, these two interrelated processes to grasp. It is at the nexus of these two entities that the core mechanism of brainwashing takes place: the action of the organization upon the follower to induce a relationship of disorganized attachment whereby the leader can gain and maintain control of followers.
When the process of brainwashing or totalist indoctrination by the group is successful there is a threefold outcome. The followers' feelings are disrupted and an attachment to the group and/or leader is formed. Their thinking, and in particular their ability to think about their feelings and attachments, is in turn disrupted. Finally, followers can then become deployable - that is, able to be directed to engage in actions regardless of their own survival interests. Deployable followers lose their autonomy of thought and action. " Page 63 - 64
Okay, that was a ton to quote but I felt it is vital for portraying the model Stein used and some of its most important points.
To me this is the difference between a cult and other type of group. The cult does these things in these ways to operate in this manner.
in Scientology I experienced all of this. I was encouraged to leave all outside attachments, subtly and slightly at first but it steadily grew over months. There was arousal of distrust of outsiders, so I would not ask anyone outside Scientology any important questions. The schedule rapidly became all day every day, even if I was promised a day off, somehow something important would come up so I had to be at the org.
Always having to be there and never getting paid while being pushed to finish courses and programs faster and faster and needing to never fall behind on my training produced extreme anxiety. And in Scientology you are subjected to spot checks and checkouts in which, often with no notice, you are asked for the correct in context definition of words from your course materials.
If you fail to give the exact correct definition for the context without hesitation or doubt you get flunked and have to go back in your materials to where the word appeared, use Scientology word clearing on the word THEN restudy your materials from that point forward. It may be a page back or hundreds of pages back. That produced terror in students.
I also experienced everything described regarding feeling attachment to the group and leader, my ability to think was disrupted by the Scientology indoctrination system, I had awareness of contradictions in Scientology and flaws with the doctrine reframed by Scientology doctrine and practices as misunderstood words, meaning it you find contradictions or flaws in Scientology doctrine you are always treated as if you have words you do not understand and your anxiety is called nervous hysteria, your sense of reelingness or confusion is attributed to a skipped step in understanding, your hesitation, a not there feeling or dead feeling is attributed to a lack of seeing the subject or misunderstood words.
Many phenomena associated with cognitive dissonance from contradictions are relabeled as being from misunderstood words in Scientology. A blank feeling, a not there feeling, hesitation and much more.
Doubts are seen as proof of your own hidden evil acts as is wanting to leave. So you learn to push aside those criticism filled thoughts and subsequently censor your own critical thinking.
When you have accepted the language of Scientology it is jam packed with loaded terms. These terms have concepts in the definitions that include accepting cause and effect relationships between words and phenomena, criticism of Scientology and hidden acts, wanting to leave Scientology and hidden crimes and words that assumes these relationships are genuine and beyond rational doubt. So, as you truly accept these terms and constantly think them thousands and thousands of times reaffirming their infallible certainty you become deployable. After all, you become absolutely sure everything Hubbard wrote is true and know your survival depends on this knowledge for eternity as Hubbard told you so.
Stein went on to describe isolation and engulfment:
"To take the first two elements of the brainwashing process: as the group consolidates the isolation from friends and family that began in the recruitment stage (if there was one) they simultaneously engulf the follower in group activities, surrounding the recruit with other group members"
"In order to more completely isolate the follower and ensure they become focused on the group, the group controls the follower's time, their communication with others and the communication they receive. " Page 64
"But fundamentally the combination of isolation and engulfment results in a situation that the philosopher Hannah Arendt describes as people being "pressed together" so tightly that there is no space between them, "so the very space of free action - and this is the reality of freedom - disappears. The space between people, she says, is what makes up the "world." It is in the space between people that conversation, speaking to one another, occurs by which "everything that individuals carry with them innately becomes visible and audible." In other words our differences and individuality, our different experiences and different views only become real, in a sense, when we are in conversation with others across this space that separates us, that allows us this difference. Arendt sees this conversation as the essence of real friendship.
But in a totalist system, no differences are allowed - all are pressed together and compelled to have a single set of beliefs, goals and behaviors. With only a single view, a single, absolute "truth" allowed , then no conversation is needed - after all, in such a case we already agree on everything, we already (apparently) experience everything in the same way. What then, is there to talk about ? In fact, what is key in totalitarian groups is a constant monitoring to ensure nothing "worldly" (this is the very word used in many, bible-based cults) is talked about. And certainly nothing "anti-organizational" - as it was called in my group - may ever be discussed. Indeed, in our case, being accused of anti-organizational talk, thinking or behavior was considered the greatest crime. " Page 68
"Contrary to the stereotype of cult life, followers are isolated not only from the outside world, but in this airless pressing together they are also isolated from each other within the group. They cannot share doubts, complaints about the group or any attempt to attribute their distress to the actions of the group. At the same time as this isolation from other people - either within or outside the group - is occurring, there is also a deep loneliness and isolation from the self.The time pressures, sleep deprivation and the erasure of the individual mean there is never any opportunity for solitude - that creative and restful state where where contemplation, thinking and the space in which changes of mind might occur can take place. As there is no space between people, neither is there any internal space allowed within each person, for their own autonomous thought and feeling. Thus there is a triple isolation: from the outside world, from others in the group and from one's own self. " Page 68
Okay. This describes exactly what my experience in Scientology was. We were packed together with how we communicated controlled. We drilled looking into each other's eyes for hours, so we did it the same way. We drilled how to begin communication, how to continue communication how to end communication. We followed a formula on how to communicate. It has how to communicate down to exact steps, with little room for variations.
in Scientology the communication you receive as a member is rigidly controlled with no interruptions allowed during indoctrination on course or while in auditing. Often Sea Org members and staff have their day scheduled to the minute.
Many forms of communication are monitored or banned in Scientology. There is no joking and degrading allowed, you are not supposed to joke around at all about Scientology. You are never supposed to acknowledge failures of Scientology technology.
Saying or writing anything critical of Scientology organizations or leadership is treated as a crime or betrayal in Scientology. In Scientology conformity to group norms and obedience to authority intersect as the group norms and obedience are one. No dissent is permitted by either.
We were discouraged so strongly from expressing any individuality that often entire conversations and relationships were just people looking at each other as required in drills, communicating as required in drills and saying the terms and phrases from Scientology doctrine to each other over and over like robots. Scientology even has drills to address the fact that Scientologists act like robots when they talk to each other and outsiders. We practiced by saying things as if they were our own original thoughts. This was to hide the fact that we were regurgitating the same phrases and doctrine from Scientology over and over.
Scientology also uses drills to get people used to setting aside their personal boundaries. You get used to being sworn at, yelled at, touched and directed and controlled by other people and you get used to controlling other people too. You get used to violating their boundaries and setting your own aside. So there is no safety or security in this relationship.
your conversation and personal expression are so rigidly controlled in Scientology that you might be around other Scientologists for years but never be friends. Between the schedule, lack of closeness between cult members and the monitoring of your own thoughts and behaviors no contemplation of negative aspects of Scientology occurs.
In fact I one day realized something in my life was wrong and couldn't figure it out. I had begun to look at the parts of my opinion life and began listing them out. I immediately ruled out Scientology as the source of anything negative and realized something - I ruled it out with no actual consideration, as if it cannot be even looked at and should be automatically assumed to be so infallible.
I realized I had automatically been seeing Scientology as blameless and not being objective or even really consciously looking at it as possibly flawed for decades. That was deeply disturbing.
It is one thing to use independent and critical thinking to carefully compile evidence and arguments for and against something and to weigh them against each other, but I was skipping that and as a habit on a subconscious level automatically acting like the decision was made.
I was separated from my own capacity to judge some things, particularly things that Hubbard didn't want Scientologists judging. The three fold isolation Stein described is exactly what Scientology provides.
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
How Cults Work 9 - Undue Influence In Recruitment
How Cults Work - Undue Influence In Recruitment
This is the ninth post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.
Stein described "undue influence mechanisms in recruitment" :
"A variety of other social influence techniques are employed in the recruitment stage. They include: obedience to authority, as demonstrated in Milgram's famous electric shock experiments; Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance; the majority effect shown in Asch's" lines" experiments; and ingratiation techniques such as flattery, similarity and making use of the principle of reciprocity. These and other scholars have defined a variety of ways in which we, as humans conform, comply and obey - all features necessary to group living, but behaviors that can also be subject to manipulation. " Page 57
"These social psychological processes are used to great advantage by totalist groups. They are very important to understand, but they are not the focus of this book. Writers such as Cialdini, Lalich, Singer, Hassan and Zimbardo have described these well and studying their work results in a tremendous pay off in terms of protecting one from making poor decisions based on rather universal human vulnerabilities." Page 58
I have read quite a bit regarding this topic and can personally recommend Influence by Robert Cialdini as fundamental to understand psychology, Take Back Your Life by Janja Lalich regarding cults and abusive relationships and their similarities, Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer as one of the absolute best books on cults ever with simple language and clearly communicated ideas, Freedom of Mind by Steven Hassan with his model of cultic influence and a very easy to understand delivery that encompasses much of basic principles in cultic studies, and I also recommend Cults Inside Out by Rick Alan Ross which has a comprehensive analysis of cults and cultic references and could be used for an entire curriculum on cults with the references described in great detail, an absolute must for serious cultic students. Additionally A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger is essential to understand psychology and cults, reading this book is crucial to understanding the subject.
To address Scientology in particular my highest possible recommendation goes to the work of Jon Atack. His Scientology Mythbusting articles at The Underground Bunker blog and articles such as Never Believe A Hypnotist, The Total Freedom Trap, Hubbard and the Occult and many more dismantle much of the undue influence in Scientology and his book Piece Of Blue Sky is probably the most accurate and detailed history of Scientology available.
As I have said before I have written numerous blog posts at Mockingbird's Nest on the undue influence used in Scientology and feel the work of Alexandra Stein fills a hole that was left in earlier models. It in my opinion compliments the ideas Daniel Shaw provided in his book Traumatic Narcissism and together they explain key issues regarding how cults work as relationships and on a social or group basis rather than just examining individual cult members or just the leaders of cults and no one else.
I know further on Stein gives more answers regarding the relationships that tie cults together and how they work. We already have her crucial new, to me, ideas of trauma alternated with love to create dissociation and impaired critical thinking as the way to control cult members.
Stein adds a few ideas regarding who is vulnerable to cult recruitment to close the chapter.
"The search to find "who is vulnerable" to totalist recruitment is destined to continued failure. Cult recruitment is primarily the result of situational vulnerabilities not personality vulnerabilities (or what social psychologists call situational as opposed to dispositional factors.) What are these situational vulnerabilities ? Singer, who counseled thousands of former cult members, described a key vulnerability as being in a normal life "blip." That is, some recent, yet developmentally normal, change in life situation such as a recent move to attend university, a divorce or other relationship breakup, perhaps a death in the family, or a change of job or housing. WAr, natural disasters or social upheavals - such as the breakup of the former Soviet Union, or the current collapsed states of Syria or Somalia - can contribute to weakening family and community ties leading to increased social fragmentation and isolation. Simply living in the contemporary developed world, with fewer neighborhood ties and more dispersed families, means most of us live in increasingly vulnerable social networks. " Page 59
So, Stein has shown how what situation one is in is the source of vulnerability to cult recruitment, not anything regarding a particular person like their psychology. She contrasted a political group and a political cult and found people in very similar circumstances joined one of the other. So, if you end up in a cult or more benign group is mainly a matter of luck.
A key difference is that the political cult, The Newman Tendency, had members severe all or nearly all affiliations with non group members while the Green Party, the more benign group, had people usually keep all their old friends and associates from before when they joined. Normal groups do not need to isolate you because they do not rely on you having no escape. Normal groups do not need to severe your connections to the outside world because they are not relying on isolation and alternating terror and love to control you.
Stein described it "The totalist group thus further isolates a person from prior relationships, while the non-totalist one is likely to have no effect at all on the person's previous relationships.
For over half a century, then, scholars of totalism from Arendt to Zimbardo have found that there is no personality profile of a potential recruit to a totalist or extremist group. The latest UK government report has come out, confirming yet again that "researchers concluded there was no 'vulnerability profile' to help identify those at risk of becoming radicalized without creating an 'unimaginable number of false positives.'
As these studies show, it is unhelpful to continue looking for a profile of a "typical" terrorist or cult recruit - most of us could become vulnerable given the right conditions, the right group and the right time. A far more fruitful approach is to understand the profile, methods and operating (perhaps we should say "hunting") grounds of the organizations to which people are recruited, and to be able to distinguish effectively between open and relatively benign organizations from dangerous, totalist organizations that are capable of exerting extreme levels of control over their members. Developing a profile of such organizations would enable societies to begin to educate and protect the public from such recruitment and indoctrination attempts." Page 60
I cannot stress strongly enough how much I agree on the last point - we need to understand that cult recruits are not especially stupid, crazy, evil, sadistic or masochistic. They are just people in situations that are vulnerable as everyone is. The groups themselves have common traits, like requiring members to sever ties to outsiders,that need to be identified and for the public to be educated regarding. That is probably the best general defense against cults.
Stein closed the chapter with "By the end of the recruitment phase the recruit (whether voluntary or involuntary) has been pulled away from prior attachments. They are being taught that these attachments are holding them back (or they have simply been removed from their attachment figures as in the case of child soldiers). The leader and the group have been established as the sole available source of comfort and knowledge, the new safe haven. Recruits are becoming busy and engaged with their groups, and they are increasingly exposed to the groups'totalist propaganda. Cognitively the person's independent thinking has been disrupted by a variety of social psychological persuasion pressures, as well as by the loss of their prior social sources of reality verification. The recruit's prior emotional and cognitive structures that have been part of their means of survival and adaptation to life are now effectively removed or neutralized. " Page 60
In the next chapter Stein takes on how the disorganized attachment bond forms in the indoctrination.
This is the ninth post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.
Stein described "undue influence mechanisms in recruitment" :
"A variety of other social influence techniques are employed in the recruitment stage. They include: obedience to authority, as demonstrated in Milgram's famous electric shock experiments; Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance; the majority effect shown in Asch's" lines" experiments; and ingratiation techniques such as flattery, similarity and making use of the principle of reciprocity. These and other scholars have defined a variety of ways in which we, as humans conform, comply and obey - all features necessary to group living, but behaviors that can also be subject to manipulation. " Page 57
"These social psychological processes are used to great advantage by totalist groups. They are very important to understand, but they are not the focus of this book. Writers such as Cialdini, Lalich, Singer, Hassan and Zimbardo have described these well and studying their work results in a tremendous pay off in terms of protecting one from making poor decisions based on rather universal human vulnerabilities." Page 58
I have read quite a bit regarding this topic and can personally recommend Influence by Robert Cialdini as fundamental to understand psychology, Take Back Your Life by Janja Lalich regarding cults and abusive relationships and their similarities, Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer as one of the absolute best books on cults ever with simple language and clearly communicated ideas, Freedom of Mind by Steven Hassan with his model of cultic influence and a very easy to understand delivery that encompasses much of basic principles in cultic studies, and I also recommend Cults Inside Out by Rick Alan Ross which has a comprehensive analysis of cults and cultic references and could be used for an entire curriculum on cults with the references described in great detail, an absolute must for serious cultic students. Additionally A Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger is essential to understand psychology and cults, reading this book is crucial to understanding the subject.
To address Scientology in particular my highest possible recommendation goes to the work of Jon Atack. His Scientology Mythbusting articles at The Underground Bunker blog and articles such as Never Believe A Hypnotist, The Total Freedom Trap, Hubbard and the Occult and many more dismantle much of the undue influence in Scientology and his book Piece Of Blue Sky is probably the most accurate and detailed history of Scientology available.
As I have said before I have written numerous blog posts at Mockingbird's Nest on the undue influence used in Scientology and feel the work of Alexandra Stein fills a hole that was left in earlier models. It in my opinion compliments the ideas Daniel Shaw provided in his book Traumatic Narcissism and together they explain key issues regarding how cults work as relationships and on a social or group basis rather than just examining individual cult members or just the leaders of cults and no one else.
I know further on Stein gives more answers regarding the relationships that tie cults together and how they work. We already have her crucial new, to me, ideas of trauma alternated with love to create dissociation and impaired critical thinking as the way to control cult members.
Stein adds a few ideas regarding who is vulnerable to cult recruitment to close the chapter.
"The search to find "who is vulnerable" to totalist recruitment is destined to continued failure. Cult recruitment is primarily the result of situational vulnerabilities not personality vulnerabilities (or what social psychologists call situational as opposed to dispositional factors.) What are these situational vulnerabilities ? Singer, who counseled thousands of former cult members, described a key vulnerability as being in a normal life "blip." That is, some recent, yet developmentally normal, change in life situation such as a recent move to attend university, a divorce or other relationship breakup, perhaps a death in the family, or a change of job or housing. WAr, natural disasters or social upheavals - such as the breakup of the former Soviet Union, or the current collapsed states of Syria or Somalia - can contribute to weakening family and community ties leading to increased social fragmentation and isolation. Simply living in the contemporary developed world, with fewer neighborhood ties and more dispersed families, means most of us live in increasingly vulnerable social networks. " Page 59
So, Stein has shown how what situation one is in is the source of vulnerability to cult recruitment, not anything regarding a particular person like their psychology. She contrasted a political group and a political cult and found people in very similar circumstances joined one of the other. So, if you end up in a cult or more benign group is mainly a matter of luck.
A key difference is that the political cult, The Newman Tendency, had members severe all or nearly all affiliations with non group members while the Green Party, the more benign group, had people usually keep all their old friends and associates from before when they joined. Normal groups do not need to isolate you because they do not rely on you having no escape. Normal groups do not need to severe your connections to the outside world because they are not relying on isolation and alternating terror and love to control you.
Stein described it "The totalist group thus further isolates a person from prior relationships, while the non-totalist one is likely to have no effect at all on the person's previous relationships.
For over half a century, then, scholars of totalism from Arendt to Zimbardo have found that there is no personality profile of a potential recruit to a totalist or extremist group. The latest UK government report has come out, confirming yet again that "researchers concluded there was no 'vulnerability profile' to help identify those at risk of becoming radicalized without creating an 'unimaginable number of false positives.'
As these studies show, it is unhelpful to continue looking for a profile of a "typical" terrorist or cult recruit - most of us could become vulnerable given the right conditions, the right group and the right time. A far more fruitful approach is to understand the profile, methods and operating (perhaps we should say "hunting") grounds of the organizations to which people are recruited, and to be able to distinguish effectively between open and relatively benign organizations from dangerous, totalist organizations that are capable of exerting extreme levels of control over their members. Developing a profile of such organizations would enable societies to begin to educate and protect the public from such recruitment and indoctrination attempts." Page 60
I cannot stress strongly enough how much I agree on the last point - we need to understand that cult recruits are not especially stupid, crazy, evil, sadistic or masochistic. They are just people in situations that are vulnerable as everyone is. The groups themselves have common traits, like requiring members to sever ties to outsiders,that need to be identified and for the public to be educated regarding. That is probably the best general defense against cults.
Stein closed the chapter with "By the end of the recruitment phase the recruit (whether voluntary or involuntary) has been pulled away from prior attachments. They are being taught that these attachments are holding them back (or they have simply been removed from their attachment figures as in the case of child soldiers). The leader and the group have been established as the sole available source of comfort and knowledge, the new safe haven. Recruits are becoming busy and engaged with their groups, and they are increasingly exposed to the groups'totalist propaganda. Cognitively the person's independent thinking has been disrupted by a variety of social psychological persuasion pressures, as well as by the loss of their prior social sources of reality verification. The recruit's prior emotional and cognitive structures that have been part of their means of survival and adaptation to life are now effectively removed or neutralized. " Page 60
In the next chapter Stein takes on how the disorganized attachment bond forms in the indoctrination.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
How Cults Work 8 - Recruitment
This is the eighth post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.
In the third chapter of Terror, Love and Brainwashing - entitled Recruitment - Stein wrote "If totalist groups are to attract recruits and set up the conditions for a later rearrangement of the recruit's close relationships they must first get the person within their sphere of influence. Then the organization can begin the isolation project, and start to position itself as the primary emotional and cognitive resource for the recruit - becoming the new, and eventually the only, safe haven. There is a three-fold process in setting the stage for the creation of a disorganized attachment bond to the group: the initial contact and gaining access to the recruit, positioning the group as a new perceived safe haven, and beginning to detach the recruit from prior attachments. Propaganda is the ideological tool wielded to accomplish this." Page 43
This may seem like a lot to take in but it really is simple if you look at each part in its own turn. If you were in Scientology or another cult yourself you can almost certainty think of how this was done with yourself by your group. A thing about cults is they almost universally have doctrine and practices that somehow emphasize the importance of the group over others or change from the beginning to require deeper commitment once you are in for a time or once your ties to the old life you had have been weakened or severed.
Stein wrote at length how many cults recruit and use contacts, personal relationships and front groups to gain members. Scientology certainty uses many of these techniques. Online recruitment and deception are frequently used today.
She described the isolation and engulfment process in detail for several groups and the common themes of getting people away from prior attachments and surrounded by and controlled by the cult. Often in cults a member progresses from outer layers of groups to inner layers. They are strongly encouraged to leave behind anyone who doesn't move into the same levels and this comes under different explanations but always puts the group and leader ahead of everything else.
She gave the example of therapy cults that often have an inner core that is fully devoted to the leader and many others in different stages of progression. They start as patients and get more devoted them often work for the group as therapists or in other roles and can work their way up to bring around the leader constantly, in service of course.
In Scientology we obviously had the public level and then staff at an org and finally membership in the Sea Org. Having experienced at least a taste of all levels in my twenty five years in Scientology I can say two things for sure - it fits the model Stein described regarding progression and I would not recommend doing any of Scientology to anyone.
Stein described a key aspect "Secrecy is a powerful control mechanism in many areas of group life, but in the recruitment phase it functions particularly well to establish isolation early on.
These various isolating tactics mean that the only people with whom the new recruit can reflect upon their (often upsetting) experience are those already in the group or undergoing the same training. They are, in effect, forbidden from sharing and reflecting their experience with persons outside the system. Thus they lose the benefits of checking in with their preexisting support figures, who are likely to reflect and remind them of their prior beliefs and values. How handy, then, that the totalist group is ready to supply its very own claque - the new safe haven - to reflect and validate it. " Page 53
This was definitely true in Scientology. I was discouraged from trying to explain Scientology to outsiders and inside Scientology discussions are discouraged as being verbal tech and disagreement is seen as stemming from misunderstood words possessed by the cult member as a student and the cult doctrine by Scientology founder Ron Hubbard is always assumed to be absolutely infallible, doubts are seen as a lower ethics condition of the cult member as the leader and his ideas are placed above doubts and questions as both perfect knowledge attained through advanced science and divine wisdom above criticism as the sacred science described by Robert Jay Lifton in his eight criteria for thought reform. That ends sharing and reflecting upon Scientology with other cult members. It just is accepted as always correct.
And preexisting support figures are cut off because they cannot possibly understand the thousands of new terms from Scientology without long and dedicated study. Hubbard made it especially confusing because he gave definitions that used his new terms in the definitions of each term, resulting in chasing after a word in a definition that leads to another word of his and a word or ten in that definition and on and on and he gave many definitions for terms and often they were contradictory, so the poor student has to try to resolve this without admitting and contradictions or flaws in Scientology. Finally Hubbard used Orwellian reversals often - calling something the exact opposite of what it truly is to further confuse things.
So Scientologists do not understand Scientology. Good luck to outsiders.
Stein described how propaganda functions to disable critical thought "The belief system, or ideology of the group, supports the isolating relational shifts. The totalizing ideology of the cult establishes and encourages the division between Us and Them, and gives the theological, political or other ideological rationale for breaking ties with family, friends and other preexisting attachment figures. This is often already evident in recruiting propaganda, which is how the recruit first encounters the group's ideology." Page 53
Many groups begin separating the world into black and white views of good and evil right in the beginning. In Scientology Hubbard separates the world into sane and good people and contrasts this against insane and evil people who he says have no shades of grey in much of his doctrine.
Stein described propaganda at length " Propaganda is the smooth advertising that belies the oppression of life within the group. It is the bunch of flowers presented by the future batterer with which he woos his new romantic partner. Put simply, it is the set of lies put forward by a group to present itself as acceptable or even attractive. Few would willingly join an organization that ends up controlling every element of life, but many might be interested in charitable works, or developing themselves spiritually, politically or socially. Few women would deliberately enter a relationship in which they are to be beaten. They are wooed into it. Propaganda serves this initial wooing function. " Page 54
"Apart from the important cases of those press-ganged or kidnapped, propaganda plays an important role in what we might call "voluntary" recruitment. (It is important, however, to remember that people do not join totalist organizations, they join causes they believe in or think will do them or others some kind of good.)
Propaganda consists of the ideas, messages, images and narratives that are used specifically to communicate with the outside world. It is often delivered through the front groups that form the outer shell and entry point for many totalist groups. Front groups serve as transmission belts between the internal world of the cult and the external world, and propaganda is the message carried along these transmission belts.
Propaganda is not indoctrination, though it may be the first step towards entering a process of indoctrination. Indoctrination is what happens during the subsequent process of brainwashing within an isolated context. Importantly, those to whom propaganda is directed are not yet isolated or are only partially so. They still have some points of reference in the outside world. They may still have friends or family or colleagues with whom they can check out their impressions. The much more intense process of indoctrination to extreme beliefs occurs when the new recruit has been successfully separated from their external contacts. Then they can begin to be broken down, to lose their own sense of reality, their own common sense, and they can eventually be pressured to take on new and often dangerous or damaging ideas and behaviors. This part of the process can sometimes take years. Propaganda can be seen as the softening up process that gets the recruit to the point where indoctrination processes can start to be implemented.
Propaganda must be believable enough, must have some kind of hook into the real world so that potential recruits will follow the thread and not simply be repulsed immediately. Certainly they are not to be scared off with promises of suicide missions, 20-hour work days, forced marriages, divorces, pregnancies or abortions, or other threats to their close, loving relationships. " Page 54
This take on the difference between propaganda and indoctrination is entirely relevant and even crucial to understanding cults, totalist groups and Scientology. Hannah Arendt certainty pioneered this work and her ideas are similar to many Stein displays.
In Scientology Hubbard separated his doctrine into that which is meant for many different kinds of audiences which he called publics. He wanted each audience to only get messages appropriate for them. He had messages for people outside of Scientology and for people new to Scientology and for people who have been deeply involved in Scientology. He even had a part of the Scientology organizations set aside for dissemination to new people, another for new people in the public divisions with their own courses and course room separate from the main course area for more advanced members called the academy.
He also has references for staff members and specific positions and others for Sea Org members and these again get broken up by positions, advancement in rank and in training.
Scientology is like circles within circles within circles.
Propaganda is certainly used through human rights front groups, anti psychiatry front groups, literacy and education front groups, drug rehab front groups and on and on. Scientology has dozens of them.
Propaganda is also used to get new people to try Dianetics and Scientology techniques and courses.
Stein was correct in pointing out that effective propaganda must serve several functions. It must have some appeal to draw people in, it must find a way to begin isolating recruits so they do not get to see what outsiders think of it, it must discourage reflection and open discussions by new recruits regarding the doctrine within the group.
Stein summed it up "Thus totalist groups have one brand of discourse - propaganda - that is outer-directed and recognizable to the outside world, and another - indoctrination - which is a different language and set of ideas directed solely to members within the group. Persons, outside the inner group are rarely privy to the language and ideas of indoctrination. " Page 55
I have realized that Scientology with its many layers of outer groups and inner groups has different information and doctrine for different purposes. Dianetics is mainly a recruitment tool, though it overlaps with many parts of Scientology. The policy letters on the first two staff courses (staff status I and II) are very different ideas and form the heart of much of what staff follow. All Scientologists are required to follow the policies regarding ethics (which emphasizes total obedience to the group) and study technology (which requires treating all confusion or awareness of contradictions or disagreement with Scientology doctrine as indicating unhandled barriers within the student and never actual errors or flaws within Scientology)and Keeping Scientology Working (which has many requirements as the core values of Scientology).
Though they are introduced early in Scientology indoctrination these key policies are strictly enforced once one joins the group in earnest. Many more extreme ideas and behaviors are introduced as one progresses in Scientology, often but by bit until one has their life totally controlled by Scientology.
Stein elaborated "In the recruitment stage, one of the tasks of the group is to begin to disable the target's critical thinking. Social psychologists Petty and Cacciopo describe two ways in which people process information and become persuaded: the central and peripheral routes of persuasion. A key purpose of propaganda is to begin to edge new recruits away from the central, critical route into a primarily peripheral mode of processing information about the group.
Central route - or systematic - processing involves careful evaluation of information and requires quality information, sufficient time and the ability with which to think about a problem or question. In deciding to join a specific group a potential member engaging in central route processing would take time to gather information from a variety of sources and make careful comparisons and an evaluation of the pros and cons of this commitment before reaching a decision. They might do background research on the history of the group, talk to current and former members, and seek out both critical and positive information.
Peripheral route - or automatic - processing, on the other hand, involves being persuaded by cues and rules of thumb that are logically unrelated to the actual content of a persuasion message - they are "peripheral" cues, focusing on surface attributes of the message or messenger. A person deciding whether to join a particular group using only peripheral route processing might feel rushed by a sense of urgency: "One time offer! Sign up now!" They might find the recruiter attractive, be inundated with testimonials, or have participated in a highly emotional group "peak experience," among many other types of peripheral persuasion cues. Peripheral route processing results from rapid decision-making under time constraints, a quantity of weak arguments, rapid presentation and distractions, such as strong emotional arousal. In this way decisions are made based on peripheral, rather than central, characteristics of the question.
Groups that wish to persuade potential recruits of their benign intent, and need to hide their internal practices and beliefs, rely on recruiting people by making use of the peripheral route of persuasion to begin to derail critical thinking. " Page 56 -57
Stein is touching on a key area in psychology and cultic studies. The central route and peripheral route are covered in the great book on neuroscience Subliminal by Leonard Mlodinow, it is a superb and very easy read that covers a lot on our behavior. The definitive guide to this topic is probably Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow by Daniel Kahneman. He dug deep into this and won a Nobel prize for his work on the central and peripheral routes. Perhaps the best work significantly dealing with this regarding cults and indoctrination in particular is Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer, one of the top cult experts ever who interviewed over four thousand ex cult members.
Stein summed this up "The group's propaganda most serve to prevent the recruit from examining too closely its actual practices and history and instead must sway them through overwhelming their critical thinking with superficial and emotionally arousing information and experiences. Through deception it engages recruits by presenting the group in a non-threatening light. It begins to introduce the language of indoctrination in preparation for consolidating the recruit as a group member. And, finally, it begins to justify the isolating strategies of the group in order to remove the recruits' prior attachment relationships. " Page 57
I could probably write a few books covering how Scientology is designed entirely to do this. Scientology uses many methods to knock out central route processing and encourage peripheral route processing. I have already written dozens of posts here on that very topic. Whenever I have written on Scientology impairing or turning down or turning off critical and independent thinking THIS is exactly what I am talking about.
Blog posts here address this, such as:
In the third chapter of Terror, Love and Brainwashing - entitled Recruitment - Stein wrote "If totalist groups are to attract recruits and set up the conditions for a later rearrangement of the recruit's close relationships they must first get the person within their sphere of influence. Then the organization can begin the isolation project, and start to position itself as the primary emotional and cognitive resource for the recruit - becoming the new, and eventually the only, safe haven. There is a three-fold process in setting the stage for the creation of a disorganized attachment bond to the group: the initial contact and gaining access to the recruit, positioning the group as a new perceived safe haven, and beginning to detach the recruit from prior attachments. Propaganda is the ideological tool wielded to accomplish this." Page 43
This may seem like a lot to take in but it really is simple if you look at each part in its own turn. If you were in Scientology or another cult yourself you can almost certainty think of how this was done with yourself by your group. A thing about cults is they almost universally have doctrine and practices that somehow emphasize the importance of the group over others or change from the beginning to require deeper commitment once you are in for a time or once your ties to the old life you had have been weakened or severed.
Stein wrote at length how many cults recruit and use contacts, personal relationships and front groups to gain members. Scientology certainty uses many of these techniques. Online recruitment and deception are frequently used today.
She described the isolation and engulfment process in detail for several groups and the common themes of getting people away from prior attachments and surrounded by and controlled by the cult. Often in cults a member progresses from outer layers of groups to inner layers. They are strongly encouraged to leave behind anyone who doesn't move into the same levels and this comes under different explanations but always puts the group and leader ahead of everything else.
She gave the example of therapy cults that often have an inner core that is fully devoted to the leader and many others in different stages of progression. They start as patients and get more devoted them often work for the group as therapists or in other roles and can work their way up to bring around the leader constantly, in service of course.
In Scientology we obviously had the public level and then staff at an org and finally membership in the Sea Org. Having experienced at least a taste of all levels in my twenty five years in Scientology I can say two things for sure - it fits the model Stein described regarding progression and I would not recommend doing any of Scientology to anyone.
Stein described a key aspect "Secrecy is a powerful control mechanism in many areas of group life, but in the recruitment phase it functions particularly well to establish isolation early on.
These various isolating tactics mean that the only people with whom the new recruit can reflect upon their (often upsetting) experience are those already in the group or undergoing the same training. They are, in effect, forbidden from sharing and reflecting their experience with persons outside the system. Thus they lose the benefits of checking in with their preexisting support figures, who are likely to reflect and remind them of their prior beliefs and values. How handy, then, that the totalist group is ready to supply its very own claque - the new safe haven - to reflect and validate it. " Page 53
This was definitely true in Scientology. I was discouraged from trying to explain Scientology to outsiders and inside Scientology discussions are discouraged as being verbal tech and disagreement is seen as stemming from misunderstood words possessed by the cult member as a student and the cult doctrine by Scientology founder Ron Hubbard is always assumed to be absolutely infallible, doubts are seen as a lower ethics condition of the cult member as the leader and his ideas are placed above doubts and questions as both perfect knowledge attained through advanced science and divine wisdom above criticism as the sacred science described by Robert Jay Lifton in his eight criteria for thought reform. That ends sharing and reflecting upon Scientology with other cult members. It just is accepted as always correct.
And preexisting support figures are cut off because they cannot possibly understand the thousands of new terms from Scientology without long and dedicated study. Hubbard made it especially confusing because he gave definitions that used his new terms in the definitions of each term, resulting in chasing after a word in a definition that leads to another word of his and a word or ten in that definition and on and on and he gave many definitions for terms and often they were contradictory, so the poor student has to try to resolve this without admitting and contradictions or flaws in Scientology. Finally Hubbard used Orwellian reversals often - calling something the exact opposite of what it truly is to further confuse things.
So Scientologists do not understand Scientology. Good luck to outsiders.
Stein described how propaganda functions to disable critical thought "The belief system, or ideology of the group, supports the isolating relational shifts. The totalizing ideology of the cult establishes and encourages the division between Us and Them, and gives the theological, political or other ideological rationale for breaking ties with family, friends and other preexisting attachment figures. This is often already evident in recruiting propaganda, which is how the recruit first encounters the group's ideology." Page 53
Many groups begin separating the world into black and white views of good and evil right in the beginning. In Scientology Hubbard separates the world into sane and good people and contrasts this against insane and evil people who he says have no shades of grey in much of his doctrine.
Stein described propaganda at length " Propaganda is the smooth advertising that belies the oppression of life within the group. It is the bunch of flowers presented by the future batterer with which he woos his new romantic partner. Put simply, it is the set of lies put forward by a group to present itself as acceptable or even attractive. Few would willingly join an organization that ends up controlling every element of life, but many might be interested in charitable works, or developing themselves spiritually, politically or socially. Few women would deliberately enter a relationship in which they are to be beaten. They are wooed into it. Propaganda serves this initial wooing function. " Page 54
"Apart from the important cases of those press-ganged or kidnapped, propaganda plays an important role in what we might call "voluntary" recruitment. (It is important, however, to remember that people do not join totalist organizations, they join causes they believe in or think will do them or others some kind of good.)
Propaganda consists of the ideas, messages, images and narratives that are used specifically to communicate with the outside world. It is often delivered through the front groups that form the outer shell and entry point for many totalist groups. Front groups serve as transmission belts between the internal world of the cult and the external world, and propaganda is the message carried along these transmission belts.
Propaganda is not indoctrination, though it may be the first step towards entering a process of indoctrination. Indoctrination is what happens during the subsequent process of brainwashing within an isolated context. Importantly, those to whom propaganda is directed are not yet isolated or are only partially so. They still have some points of reference in the outside world. They may still have friends or family or colleagues with whom they can check out their impressions. The much more intense process of indoctrination to extreme beliefs occurs when the new recruit has been successfully separated from their external contacts. Then they can begin to be broken down, to lose their own sense of reality, their own common sense, and they can eventually be pressured to take on new and often dangerous or damaging ideas and behaviors. This part of the process can sometimes take years. Propaganda can be seen as the softening up process that gets the recruit to the point where indoctrination processes can start to be implemented.
Propaganda must be believable enough, must have some kind of hook into the real world so that potential recruits will follow the thread and not simply be repulsed immediately. Certainly they are not to be scared off with promises of suicide missions, 20-hour work days, forced marriages, divorces, pregnancies or abortions, or other threats to their close, loving relationships. " Page 54
This take on the difference between propaganda and indoctrination is entirely relevant and even crucial to understanding cults, totalist groups and Scientology. Hannah Arendt certainty pioneered this work and her ideas are similar to many Stein displays.
In Scientology Hubbard separated his doctrine into that which is meant for many different kinds of audiences which he called publics. He wanted each audience to only get messages appropriate for them. He had messages for people outside of Scientology and for people new to Scientology and for people who have been deeply involved in Scientology. He even had a part of the Scientology organizations set aside for dissemination to new people, another for new people in the public divisions with their own courses and course room separate from the main course area for more advanced members called the academy.
He also has references for staff members and specific positions and others for Sea Org members and these again get broken up by positions, advancement in rank and in training.
Scientology is like circles within circles within circles.
Propaganda is certainly used through human rights front groups, anti psychiatry front groups, literacy and education front groups, drug rehab front groups and on and on. Scientology has dozens of them.
Propaganda is also used to get new people to try Dianetics and Scientology techniques and courses.
Stein was correct in pointing out that effective propaganda must serve several functions. It must have some appeal to draw people in, it must find a way to begin isolating recruits so they do not get to see what outsiders think of it, it must discourage reflection and open discussions by new recruits regarding the doctrine within the group.
Stein summed it up "Thus totalist groups have one brand of discourse - propaganda - that is outer-directed and recognizable to the outside world, and another - indoctrination - which is a different language and set of ideas directed solely to members within the group. Persons, outside the inner group are rarely privy to the language and ideas of indoctrination. " Page 55
I have realized that Scientology with its many layers of outer groups and inner groups has different information and doctrine for different purposes. Dianetics is mainly a recruitment tool, though it overlaps with many parts of Scientology. The policy letters on the first two staff courses (staff status I and II) are very different ideas and form the heart of much of what staff follow. All Scientologists are required to follow the policies regarding ethics (which emphasizes total obedience to the group) and study technology (which requires treating all confusion or awareness of contradictions or disagreement with Scientology doctrine as indicating unhandled barriers within the student and never actual errors or flaws within Scientology)and Keeping Scientology Working (which has many requirements as the core values of Scientology).
Though they are introduced early in Scientology indoctrination these key policies are strictly enforced once one joins the group in earnest. Many more extreme ideas and behaviors are introduced as one progresses in Scientology, often but by bit until one has their life totally controlled by Scientology.
Stein elaborated "In the recruitment stage, one of the tasks of the group is to begin to disable the target's critical thinking. Social psychologists Petty and Cacciopo describe two ways in which people process information and become persuaded: the central and peripheral routes of persuasion. A key purpose of propaganda is to begin to edge new recruits away from the central, critical route into a primarily peripheral mode of processing information about the group.
Central route - or systematic - processing involves careful evaluation of information and requires quality information, sufficient time and the ability with which to think about a problem or question. In deciding to join a specific group a potential member engaging in central route processing would take time to gather information from a variety of sources and make careful comparisons and an evaluation of the pros and cons of this commitment before reaching a decision. They might do background research on the history of the group, talk to current and former members, and seek out both critical and positive information.
Peripheral route - or automatic - processing, on the other hand, involves being persuaded by cues and rules of thumb that are logically unrelated to the actual content of a persuasion message - they are "peripheral" cues, focusing on surface attributes of the message or messenger. A person deciding whether to join a particular group using only peripheral route processing might feel rushed by a sense of urgency: "One time offer! Sign up now!" They might find the recruiter attractive, be inundated with testimonials, or have participated in a highly emotional group "peak experience," among many other types of peripheral persuasion cues. Peripheral route processing results from rapid decision-making under time constraints, a quantity of weak arguments, rapid presentation and distractions, such as strong emotional arousal. In this way decisions are made based on peripheral, rather than central, characteristics of the question.
Groups that wish to persuade potential recruits of their benign intent, and need to hide their internal practices and beliefs, rely on recruiting people by making use of the peripheral route of persuasion to begin to derail critical thinking. " Page 56 -57
Stein is touching on a key area in psychology and cultic studies. The central route and peripheral route are covered in the great book on neuroscience Subliminal by Leonard Mlodinow, it is a superb and very easy read that covers a lot on our behavior. The definitive guide to this topic is probably Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow by Daniel Kahneman. He dug deep into this and won a Nobel prize for his work on the central and peripheral routes. Perhaps the best work significantly dealing with this regarding cults and indoctrination in particular is Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer, one of the top cult experts ever who interviewed over four thousand ex cult members.
Stein summed this up "The group's propaganda most serve to prevent the recruit from examining too closely its actual practices and history and instead must sway them through overwhelming their critical thinking with superficial and emotionally arousing information and experiences. Through deception it engages recruits by presenting the group in a non-threatening light. It begins to introduce the language of indoctrination in preparation for consolidating the recruit as a group member. And, finally, it begins to justify the isolating strategies of the group in order to remove the recruits' prior attachment relationships. " Page 57
I could probably write a few books covering how Scientology is designed entirely to do this. Scientology uses many methods to knock out central route processing and encourage peripheral route processing. I have already written dozens of posts here on that very topic. Whenever I have written on Scientology impairing or turning down or turning off critical and independent thinking THIS is exactly what I am talking about.
Blog posts here address this, such as:
Insidious Enslavement : Study Technology
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
Basic Introduction to Hypnosis in Scientology
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
The Critical Factor
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
The Secret Of Scientology Part 1 Control Via Contradiction
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
And
Burning Down Hell - How Commands Are Hidden , Varied And Repeated In Scientology To Control You As Hypnotic Implants
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...
Together these posts cover the methods Hubbard used to try to knock out the central route and control the peripheral route to indoctrinate people successfully.
I strongly recommend anyone interested in how cults work explore the topic further.