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:

Insidious Enslavement : Study Technology
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...

Basic Introduction to Hypnosis in Scientology
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...

The Critical Factor
https://mbnest.blogspot.com...

The Secret Of Scientology Part 1 Control Via Contradiction
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...

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.