Combating Cult Mind Control
- Thread starter Bee Bee
- Start date
This book just arrives through my letterbox. Highly recommended by an ex JW missioner who served in full-time ministry for 40 years in Malawi among other places.
Hi Bee Bee. I actually got this book on your general recommendation to the exodus group. It was at a meeting we had a few weeks ago. I am half way through the book. Though not everything applies, there are some stark similarities with the organization. Chapter 5 (Cult Psychology) has some eerie similarities. Chapter 6 about how to protect yourself has some very good talking and reasoning points when confronted with someone that wants you to join a cult or by extension a high control group. Though not all of it applies enough of the psychology applies to make it useful. I hope you find it as informative as I have and I wanted to say thanks for the recommendation.
I concur with the aforementioned statement. One very illuminating fact about individuals under the spell of undue influence is that theres no inherent cognitive mitigant against it. "So and so is soooooo intelligent! How did they get bamboozled like that?!" "Gurrrrrrl, Tom Cruise ain't no dummy!"
I am almost done with the book. I love this statement at the end of chapter 10 of the book, from the author: “Remember, people who come out of cults need to take all of their positive experiences with them-extensive travel, sales experience, foreign language acquisition, self-disciplin, public speaking skills, and others-and integrate them into their lives. By doing so they can become strong people, perhaps stronger than most...Former members of destructive cults are survivors. They should acknowledge their own strength and power. If they can come through their cult experiences, then they can make it through just about anything.”
Being in the organization did have its benefits. I learned public speaking, how to study, and had a foundation regarding the Bible that I can build on and refine. At one point I took a foreign language class and learned certain skills in the RBC. I can take these skills and build on them. I can also learn from both the good and the bad things that happened and grow as a person. It helps to remember the above words when things look bleak. I hope those words will bring others comfort.
Being in the organization did have its benefits. I learned public speaking, how to study, and had a foundation regarding the Bible that I can build on and refine. At one point I took a foreign language class and learned certain skills in the RBC. I can take these skills and build on them. I can also learn from both the good and the bad things that happened and grow as a person. It helps to remember the above words when things look bleak. I hope those words will bring others comfort.