Mind control methods in Scientology: Any of this sound familiar?
by Check_Your_Premises 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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M.J.
Thanks for that CYP! I've been collecting info on the COS and this will definitely come in handy.
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Scully
Oh boy, does it ever!
The concept of incrementalism is big with JWs as well. It starts out innocently enough - chat with a JW informally at work or on your door step. Then accept the magazines. If you accept one set, they'll be back with another set in a few weeks and it will be harder to say no the next time. Then a book comes along... and since you've already accepted magazines numerous times, how can you say no to the book?
One conversation opens the door to another more in-depth conversation. Then a regular Return Visit. Then a Bible Study.
If you can accept the early premises in the book study - that God's name is "Jehovah" and that your current belief system didn't teach you that - then it gets easier to be sucked into the next premises: that Satan the Devil is controlling everyone who doesn't follow the Bible's teachings according to JWs. This includes family members who will probably oppose the study - because they are controlled by Satan.
Once you're doing Bible Studies, then it's only a matter of time until you're expected to go to meetings. After all, why wouldn't you want to be with other people who are following the Bible the way JWs are teaching you? Just the Public Talk on Sunday. That seems harmless enough... and if you were accustomed to going to church on Sunday already, what difference would it make really? Once you're there, oh well, it's only another hour to sit through the Watchtower Study. What's one more hour on a Sunday afternoon?
Then it's "Why not join us at so-and-so's house for a Bible Study on Tuesday night? It's just an hour. You'll get to know people better that way. And we'll probably have coffee and cake afterward! Because I told them I was inviting you to come! They'll be so disappointed if you don't make it."
For every step into the WTS that a person makes, there's another step that is expected of you to get you hooked deeper. And the more steps you make in, the harder it is to back out of the process. The love bombing along the way is part of the bait that's used to trap people in the organization. The more bait you accept, the further into the pit you go.
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daystar
Yeah... Operation Clambake rocks!
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Uzzah
Attributing "all individual suffering to misapplication, misunderstanding or even casual doubting of the group’s unfailing teaching." (9)
- It is your own fault if you sufered due to yur own conscience (avoiding vaccinations/eer changing blood policy/ conscientious objectors etc)
• Inducing "sensory deprivation and sensory overload, guided imagery and visualization, trance induction through repetition of words or slogans..." (10)
- Is that why the same artciles are produced over and over and the same themes repeated regularly?
• Controlling the environment, i.e., the group member "is deprived of the combination of external information and inner reflection which anyone requires to test the realities of his environment and to maintain a measure of identity separate from it." (11)
Don't trust external Bible Research. Don't listen to opposers. The world is controlled by Satan
• Creating a mystique of importance around the group and its leader, so that the group and its goals are seen as more important than anything else. (12)
- I guess that would be the special appointment as not just annointed but the GB are the elite hand picked by god to lead His visible Organization
• Requiring a level of perfection that is unattainable, with consequent guilt and shame serving as powerful control devices. (13)
More hours, more 'privileges,' more study, display the fruitages of the spirit in even a larger way, improve as a speaker, study the Bible more, at least aux pioneer one month, why aren't you a regular pioneer? Do you really need to be working secularly THAT much, you are just a speck of dust.
• Relegating outsiders to the status of reduced value or non-person. (18)
- The 'world' is part of the devil. They are deserving of death. Better to spend time with god's family not those 'unbelievers'. When a Bible Study qualifies to be recognized as a Publisher (scum before that), hell even have to be careful with those 'calling themselves a brother' Don't trust anyone else but elders and the GB but not even the elders sometimes.
But no. The JW's are not in any way a high control group. (dare I say cult?) - sarcasm intended -
Uzzah
Sorry for all the spelling mistakes above. But too much hassle to go back, correct and then have to reformat (I use Firefox which isn't all that JWD friendly).
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Terry
Sorry for all the spelling mistakes above. But too much hassle to go back, correct and then have to reformat (I use Firefox which isn't all that JWD friendly).
Try writing your post in WORD PAD first; then, cut and paste it on the discussion board.
T.
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rhian
I'm sure this has been around the block several times, but it was new to me, and I thought it particularly appropos for this thread...
http://www.randytv.com/coreylan.html
rhian
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itsallgoodnow
Great article - it's a keeper.
I agree about how the JWs teach increments, once you have agreed to some of it, they use that to make you feel accountable and stay with it after they tell you about all the harder-to-swallow stuff.
Other similarities: Claim to have a solution to every problem, demand more after joining, repitition of words and phrases, controlling the environment, requiring unattainable perfection, mytique of importance of the group, demanding too much confession, claiming absolute infallibility of doctrine, unique language, giving members a new identity causing them to reinterpret their past from a new perspective, relegating outsiders to the status of reduced value or non-person.