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How Cults Work - A New Look

mockingbird

Silver Meritorious Patron
This is the eleventh post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.


How Cults Work 11 - Fright Without Solution

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
 

CaliMule

Work Hard and Bray
Fred Newman was the founder and leader of the Newman Tendency.
Thanks for the reference. I looked this up at

Newman

and found this excellent observation:

According to British psychologist Ian Parker, " . . . Like a weed, a cult is something that is growing in the wrong place. We would want to ask 'wrong' for who, and whether it might sometimes be right for us."​
I love it when someone provides me with a brilliant way to put it. People who have sought over the decades to disempower me and gratify themselves by hurling the perjorative "cult" at me are really just saying I'm inconvenient to them, like a weed. A weed is merely a plant that is not in the right place in the opinion of whoever is calling it a weed: there is no special botanical classification that defines a weed in any other way. There is nothing wrong with the plant - it is merely inconvenient to someone where it is.
 

programmer_guy

True Ex-Scientologist
<snip>

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.
<snip>

No, many freezoners/Indies admit that Hubbard had severe personality faults.

But they are still stuck on "the tech" (pseudo-science) and that's their major failure in moving forward in "peeling off the onion layers".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscience
 
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PirateAndBum

Gold Meritorious Patron
Thanks for the reference. I looked this up at

Newman

and found this excellent observation:

According to British psychologist Ian Parker, " . . . Like a weed, a cult is something that is growing in the wrong place. We would want to ask 'wrong' for who, and whether it might sometimes be right for us."​
I love it when someone provides me with a brilliant way to put it. People who have sought over the decades to disempower me and gratify themselves by hurling the perjorative "cult" at me are really just saying I'm inconvenient to them, like a weed. A weed is merely a plant that is not in the right place in the opinion of whoever is calling it a weed: there is no special botanical classification that defines a weed in any other way. There is nothing wrong with the plant - it is merely inconvenient to someone where it is.
Unlike plants which are growing in the wrong place, the Co$ cult is not just one of many in the class of groups. I suppose if you like being in a place that practices totalitarian control and relentless extraction of your time, money and support then the cult is just the perfect place for you to be.
 

CaliMule

Work Hard and Bray
Unlike plants which are growing in the wrong place, the Co$ cult is not just one of many in the class of groups. I suppose if you like being in a place that practices totalitarian control and relentless extraction of your time, money and support then the cult is just the perfect place for you to be.

People who want some change in their lives but can't make this happen themselves generally welcome an external source of authority or motivation to try to attain the change they seek. This is why people get involved in high demand religions, in any kind of therapy, in educational systems, etc.

You can despise them all you want, but at least they are trying to make up for how infinitely inferior to you they are by taking some step they hope will work. When they find it doesn't work, they can quit. That is what the overwhelming majority of people do - quit Scientology. Most people accomplish this without anyone massively superior to themselves hurling the perjorative "cult" at them, though some people who think they are massively superior to anyone in a high demand religion still find it important to go around name calling and hurling perjoratives at their inferiors in "cults".

Is the real point whether it is totalitarian or not, though? If only Scientology actually delivered on any of its promises, I don't know why anyone would care that it is totalitarian, nor that it extracts the most important resources of your life such as time, money and such. On the other hand. if it delivers on none of its promises, even the slightest extertion of authority or control is unjustified.

God might be totalitarian. If he delivers on his promises, he's a good God. Maybe totalitarian isn't really the big issue.
 

JustSheila

Crusader
People who want some change in their lives but can't make this happen themselves generally welcome an external source of authority or motivation to try to attain the change they seek. This is why people get involved in high demand religions, in any kind of therapy, in educational systems, etc.

You can despise them all you want, but at least they are trying to make up for how infinitely inferior to you they are by taking some step they hope will work. When they find it doesn't work, they can quit. That is what the overwhelming majority of people do - quit Scientology. Most people accomplish this without anyone massively superior to themselves hurling the perjorative "cult" at them, though some people who think they are massively superior to anyone in a high demand religion still find it important to go around name calling and hurling perjoratives at their inferiors in "cults".

Is the real point whether it is totalitarian or not, though? If only Scientology actually delivered on any of its promises, I don't know why anyone would care that it is totalitarian, nor that it extracts the most important resources of your life such as time, money and such. On the other hand. if it delivers on none of its promises, even the slightest extertion of authority or control is unjustified.

God might be totalitarian. If he delivers on his promises, he's a good God. Maybe totalitarian isn't really the big issue.
So what you're saying is there are people out there just waiting to be conned who aren't happy until they're conned so cults are actually doing them a favor by taking advantage of them and abusing them and should be proud of themselves.

That's how a sociopath would think, anyway.
 

strativarius

Inveterate gnashnab & snoutband
People who want some change in their lives but can't make this happen themselves generally welcome an external source of authority or motivation to try to attain the change they seek. This is why people get involved in high demand religions, in any kind of therapy, in educational systems, etc.

You can despise them all you want, but at least they are trying to make up for how infinitely inferior to you they are by taking some step they hope will work. When they find it doesn't work, they can quit. That is what the overwhelming majority of people do - quit Scientology. Most people accomplish this without anyone massively superior to themselves hurling the [bcolor=#ffff00]perjorative[/bcolor] "cult" at them, though some people who think they are massively superior to anyone in a high demand religion still find it important to go around name calling and hurling [bcolor=#ffff00]perjoratives[/bcolor] at their inferiors in "cults".

Is the real point whether it is totalitarian or not, though? If only Scientology actually delivered on any of its promises, I don't know why anyone would care that it is totalitarian, nor that it extracts the most important resources of your life such as time, money and such. On the other hand. if it delivers on none of its promises, even the slightest extertion of authority or control is unjustified.

God might be totalitarian. If he delivers on his promises, he's a good God. Maybe totalitarian isn't really the big issue.
The word you're looking for is pejorative.

stratty - temp esmb grammar & spelling nazi. :biggrin:

I only discovered this myself a few weeks ago. That's the way I used to spell the word too.
 

chewbacca980

New Member
How Cults Work - The Brainwashing Process and Outcomes
This is the fourth post in a series dedicated to the book Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein.

In this we now take on the brainwashing process and its outcome.

Stein wrote "Brainwashing refers to the overall process set in motion by the leader, operating within the closed structure supported by the total ideology. There are several alternative terms scholars have used to name this process: coercive persuasion (Schein), thought reform (Lifton), resocialization (Berger and Luckmann), total conversion (Lofland), mind control (Singer, Hassan), or, most recently by Lalich, bounded choice. All these thinkers describe variants of the same essential process: the alternation of love and fear within an isolating environment resulting in a dissociated, loyal and deployable follower who can now be instructed to act in the interests of the leader rather than in his or her own survival instincts.
Replacing followers' prior trusted relationships with the rigid relationships within the group, combined with the extremely strong compound of terror plus "love", entraps the follower within the group. Three important behaviors result from this. First the follower is glued in anxious dependency to the group. Being in a state of constant fear arousal means they constantly seek proximity to the group in a failed attempt to attain comfort." Page 19


"Second, this seeking of contact with the source of threat causes a cognitive collapse, or dissociation, in the mind of the follower. There is no way out, no useful way to think through the trap that has been set - the mind ceases to function adequately in regard to that relationship." Page 20


"This sense of chaos and loss is the prelude to the next step." Page 20


"Many other accounts have vividly described similar moments of collapse: in the face of extreme pressures the recruit gives up the attempt to maintain rational thought about the group and submits to the demand for commitment and obedience." Page 20


"In the third step, the leadership can now take advantage of this cognitive collapse and introject their own agenda into the cognitive vacuum thus induced. The total ideology is further introduced as both the explanation for the recruit's cognitive collapse, as well as the explanation of all other phenomena. These three elements function together to create what has been termed a "deployable agent" : that is a follower who is hypercredulous and hyperobedient. The process causes a change in beliefs, attitudes and behaviors in the follower that are not congruent with the follower's preexisting traits, nor - should the follower get out of the group - with their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, after leaving. " Page 21

Now some of my earlier blog posts have ideas that are similar or describe the exact kind of process and experience Stein described here. Her understanding is better developed and has ideas described in a more cohesive and coherent model.

She developed her model over decades and many of my blog posts have far less formal education and were written frankly while I was trying to overcome and understand my experience.

I won't repeat everything here because this material is a lot to take on by itself but I will list some blog posts that are relevant to exactly what Stein is describing here.

The post Why Scientologists Are So Close Minded and Certain has a detailed description of how I went through the process of indoctrination and the cognitive collapse Stein described. It has step by step details of the Scientology method.

Additionally these posts address this process:
Why Hubbard Never Claimed OT Feats And The Rock Bottom Basis Of Scientology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/02/m...never.html?m=0

Humbling Simplicity
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/201...
Regarding mind control in Scientology:
Insidious Enslavement: Study Technology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/i...ology.html?m=0
Basic Introduction To Hypnosis In Scientology
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2015/01/b...is-in.html?m=0

The book Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation by Doctor Daniel Shaw takes on this subject and I have written a few blog posts regarding his book as well. I strongly recommend his book to compliment the work of Alexandra Stein. In my mind they are highly complimentary and compatible. These authors and books do not restate the same ideas over and over. They have some overlap but far more of each helping to fill in and add to what the other says.

I think that the persuasion model or relational model that Alexandra Stein puts forth as brainwashing is plausible, and further beneficial for framing the totalist system, whether in a cult or totalitarian regime or one on one abusive relationship. The term brainwashing has had some issues but Stein takes this on in depth later in her book and to me adequately addresses them.

I think up to this point it is crucial to get the model Stein has of brainwashing as "Replacing followers' prior trusted relationships with the rigid relationships within the group, combined with the extremely strong compound of terror plus "love", entraps the follower within the group." And the result of being entrapped in fear and seeking to be close to the leader or cult to escape or reduce the fear and second this threat without relief setting up dissociation or cognitive collapse, and "the mind ceases to function adequately in regard to that relationship." THIS is a hallmark of cultic relationships - the cult member has severely impaired or obliterated or annihilated critical and independent thinking SOLELY REGARDING the cult leader, their ideas, practices and doctrine and the group.

They can function without impairment regarding anything outside the box of these subjects. But - and it is a crucial but - the cult may include thousands of ideas under the umbrella of items I described earlier. Cult ideology often includes all critical ideas regarding the cult to preemptively squash dissent and disobedience.

"This sense of chaos and loss is the prelude to the next step."
In the third step the cult member is anxious, overwhelmed, confused, and desperate for guidance and stable direction. The leader gives answers to fill this need and by giving a dogma that seeks to take up all issues and answer all important questions for the past, present and future regarding everything. This is intended to leave the member completely enthralled or mentally enslaved by the cult and as Stein described deployable agent. These ideas are the bare minimum you should get regarding brainwashing to understand Stein's model so far.
Have no fears if there are still questions on this because Stein takes it up again later and adds more science to help flesh it out.

Moving onto the outcomes of brainwashing now Stein wrote: " Coercive persuasion within the closed domain controlled by the charismatic and authoritarian leader leads to a triple isolation for the follower. Contrary to public perception, the key experience of membership in a totalist group is one of isolation, not community or comradeship. The follower is isolated from the outside world; he or she is isolated from an authentic relationship to others within the group - allowed only to communicate within the narrow confines of the group-speak and rigid rules of behavior; and, due to the dissociation that is created, the follower is also isolated from his or her self, from his or her own ability to think clearly about the situation.
The result of this system is a leader with extreme control over hypercredulous and hyperobedient followers; they'll believe anything and do anything. Followers can now be exploited and deployed. " Page 21 - 22

I found this to be completely accurate regarding my understanding of cults and my own experience in Scientology. I kept feeling a sense that nothing was good enough to be in solid relationships in the cult. People kept dangling the promise of friendship and love if I just have a but more to Scientology.

First I was encouraged to check it out, then to join staff then to get through the staff training and then to join the Sea Org and to do courses and on and on. It was strange. I could never get stable relationships in Scientology but it seemed to be easy to be in Scientology because you just have to agree with and obey Hubbard all the time. But it is never quite good enough.
I after two months on Scientology staff was thoroughly indoctrinated by Scientology and it took seeing the work of Jon Atack at the Underground Bunker in the Scientology Mythbusting series and his articles particularly Never Believe A Hypnotist to realize I had a key experience in indoctrination (described in my posts Escaping Scientology - Overcoming Crushing Certainty, The Lies That Bind and Two Roads) that made me a hypercredulous and hyperobedient follower. I was a deployable agent.
somewhere, in some talmudic text somwhere, we are plagued by radical uncertainty which is something one must become comfortable with in z/he new life.
 

Veda

Sponsor
-snip-

People who have sought over the decades to disempower me and gratify themselves by hurling the perjorative "cult" at me

-snip-
L-Ron-Hubbard-Birthday-2016-Scientology-Event-Flag-Fort-Harrison-vertical_IMGP3084.jpg

Appreciate minions gather beneath the giant LRH symbol



"I have high hopes of smashing my name into history... That goal is the real goal as far as I am concerned...
In a hundred years Roosevelt will have been forgotten, which gives some idea of the magnitude of my attempt..."

L. Ron Hubbard, August 1938, from a letter to his wife, written soon after the writing of the unpublished manuscript 'Excalibur'.




It's a cult.

Deal with it.​
 

PirateAndBum

Gold Meritorious Patron
People who want some change in their lives but can't make this happen themselves generally welcome an external source of authority or motivation to try to attain the change they seek. This is why people get involved in high demand religions, in any kind of therapy, in educational systems, etc.

You can despise them all you want, but at least they are trying to make up for how infinitely inferior to you they are by taking some step they hope will work. When they find it doesn't work, they can quit. That is what the overwhelming majority of people do - quit Scientology. Most people accomplish this without anyone massively superior to themselves hurling the perjorative "cult" at them, though some people who think they are massively superior to anyone in a high demand religion still find it important to go around name calling and hurling perjoratives at their inferiors in "cults".

Is the real point whether it is totalitarian or not, though? If only Scientology actually delivered on any of its promises, I don't know why anyone would care that it is totalitarian, nor that it extracts the most important resources of your life such as time, money and such. On the other hand. if it delivers on none of its promises, even the slightest extertion of authority or control is unjustified.

God might be totalitarian. If he delivers on his promises, he's a good God. Maybe totalitarian isn't really the big issue.
Are you implying that I think I am massively superior? If so, you are seriously mistaken.

Hubbard's cult IS a cult. It qualifies as the primo, super-perfecto, without-a-doubt, ideal example of CULT.

A cult that promises "Total Freedom" while trying to accomplish total control of its membership is a big issue dude. And as you point out, If only it delivered.... well it doesn't deliver, so its exertion of control IS totally unjustified.

Don't bring Mr Big G into this. There is no such a fellow in my reckoning.

The last thing that a person looking for change in their life needs is a stint in the RPF or to be hoodwinked and bankrupted by a pie in the sky fraud.
 

Gib

Crusader
Have you taken a look at "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" by Eric Hoffer? I found it valuable in getting a deeper understanding of how people get sucked in.

Originally published in 1951. I'm wondering if Hubbard read it for helpful hints...
I haven't been able to determine if Hubbard read that book, but I do know he read Le Bon's book:

https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/lebon/Revolution.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Revolution-Gustave-Bon/dp/1500211613

Le Bon uses the word crowd, just sub it with cult.

Le Bon's earlier book is:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486419568/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_sims_1

I have no doubt hubbard used the principles in those books to create the cult(crowd) of dianetics and scientology.

I first mentioned it on my Dean Wilbur Rhetoric tread.
 
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