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From Brownsville, Texas

February 10, 2004

See the following study on the conditions for mind control and note that T (Geral W Sosbee) is a text book example of such inhumane efforts and that the United States government screwed this one up:

CONDITIONS FOR MIND CONTROL

DR. MARGARET SINGER

(Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D., Emeritus Prof. of Psychology, Univ. of CA, Berkeley)

THOUGHT REFORM = LANGUAGE + SOCIAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE

In a thought reform program:

the self concept is destabilized

the group/leaders attack one's evaluation of self

SELF: 2 Elements in one's self-concept

Peripheral Sense: adequacy of public & judgmental aspects, social status, role performance, conformity to social norms

Central Sense of Self:

adequacy of intimate life, confidence in perception of reality, relations w/family, goals, sexual experiences, traumatic life events, religious beliefs, basic consciousness and emotional control

When you attack a person's self-concept, aversive emotional arousal is created

6 CONDITIONS THAT NEED TO BE PRESENT IN ORDER TO CONSTITUTE MIND

CONTROL:

1. CONTROL OVER TIME

Especially thinking time

Use techniques to get a person to think about:

. the group

. beliefs of the group

as much of their waking time as possible

2. CREATE A SENSE OF POWERLESSNESS

Get people away from normal support systems for a period of time

Provide models of behavior (cult members)

Use in-group language

Use of songs, games, stories the person is unfamiliar with or they are

modified so that they're unfamiliar

New people tend to want to be like others (acceptance, feeling part

of a group)

3. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO

SUPPRESS OLD SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Manipulate: social rewards intellectual rewards

REWARDS: support positive self-concept for conformity to new thought system

PUNISHMENTS: attack person's self-concept for non-conformity

Effects of behavioral modification (reward/punishment):

DEPLOYABLE AGENT:

1. accept a particular world view

2. procedures for peer monitoring w/feedback to group

3. psychological, social & material sanctions to influence the target's behavior

When there is control of external feedback, the group becomes the only source

-- there are no reality checks

BEHAVIORS REWARDED: participation, conformity to ideas/behavior, zeal,
personal changes

BEHAVIORS PUNISHED: criticalness, independent thinking, non-conformity
to ideas/behavior

PUNISHMENTS: peer/group criticism, withdrawal of support/affection, isolation,

THE PERSON IS DEPENDENT UPON THE GROUP FOR EXTERNAL

VALIDATION OF SOCIAL IDENTITY

RESULTS: confusion, disorientation, psychological disturbances

Manipulate experience:

altered states of consciousness (trance)

hypnosis

Hypnosis: (see Ericksonian hypnosis)

speaking patterns

guided imagery

pacing of voice to breathing patterns

parables, stories with imbedded messages

repetition

boredom

stop paying attention to distractions, focus inwardly to what's going on inside you

the use of one's voice to get people's attention focused

Chanting, Meditation

Teach thought stopping techniques

Work them up emotionally to a negative state:

re-experience past painful events

recall negative actions/sin in past life

Then rescue them from negative emotion by giving them a new way to live

4. MANIPULATE REWARDS, PUNISHMENTS, EXPERIENCES IN ORDER TO ELICIT

Models will demonstrate new behavior

Conformity: dress, language, behavior

Using group language will eventually still the thinking mind

5. MUST BE A TIGHTLY CONTROLLED SYSTEM OF LOGIC

No complaints from the floor

Pyramid shaped operation with leader at the top

Top leaders must maintain absolute control/authority

Persons in charge must have verbal ways of never losing

Anyone who questions is made to think there is something

inherently wrong with them to even question

Phobia induction:

something bad will happen if you leave the group

if you leave this group, you're leaving God

Guilt manipulation

6. PERSONS BEING THOUGHT REFORMED MUST BE UNAWARE THAT THEY

ARE BEING MOVED THROUGH A PROGRAM TO MAKE THEM DEPLOYABLE

AGENTS, TO BUY MORE COURSES, SIGN UP FOR THE DURATION, ETC.

You can't be thought reformed with full capacity, informed consent

You don't know the agenda of the group at the beginning or the full content
of the ideology

THOUGHT REFORM SYSTEM:

Coordinated programs of coercive influence and behavior control

Use of pop psychology techniques found in sensitivity training and encounters groups

2nd Generation Thought Reform Systems

(attacks on central elements of self):

1. enlist recruit's cooperation, offer something they want (personal growth,
salvation, etc.)

2. obtain psychological dominace by making the target's continuing relations contingent upon continuing membership

3. use seduction by developing bonds and encouraging targets to believe the group can

4. develop dependency by direct social pressure to influence a decision that the group has special power or knowledge or can solve a problem; the people in the group are made to seem interested in what is best for the target -- then they "up the

5. shift the target's social and emotional attachments to individuals who have already accepted high commitment and are conforming to the behavior while decreasing the target's outside relationships

6. increase the CHANGES in the target's:

income

employment

personal friends/social life

finances

sexuality

THIS INCREASES THE THREAT TO THE PERSON IF THEY WANT TO LEAVE. THREATS ARE TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S

stability of identity

emotional well-being

7. the community standards become the ONLY standards available for self evaluation

CULTS AND CULTIC RELATIONSHIPS

CULT - the political and power STRUCTURE of a group

CULTIC RELATIONSHIP - those relationships in which a person intentionally induces others to become totally or nearly totally dependent on him/her for almost all major life decisions and inculcates in these followers a belief that he has some special talent, gift or knowledge

PRIMARY IN OUR DISCUSSION OF CULTS IS THE PRACTICE AND CONDUCT OF THE GROUP, NOT ITS BELIEFS

Further references:

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Robert J. Lifton, M.D.,

University of N.C., Chapel Hill, 1989 Chapter 22

"Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of Thought Reforming Techniques" Richard Ofshe and Margaret T. Singer, The Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 3 #1, Spring/Summer 1986; American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 1232, Gracie Station, New York, NY 10028 (212) 533-0538

"The Utilization of Hypnotic Techniques in Religious Conversion" Jesse S. Miller, The Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 3 #2, Fall/Winter 1986

Recovery from Cults. ed. Michael Langone, Ph.D., W.W. Norton, 1994