How do Cults recruit and keep their members?

by The wanderer 45 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  daystar

  It's almost as if you take a certain amount of pride in having spent 14 years as a Witness, such that it lends you an authoritative voice where jgnat has none?

  I'll agree that someone who has no direct experience with the Witnesses will have little similarity of exact perspective. However, jgnat has been an "unbelieving mate" for some time now and her perspective is at least as valid as yours.

  You do yourself a disservice by relegating her unique perspective to irrelevancy in your mind.

  It is not something that you can experience through a
  second or third party, nor something, that you can
  read and find in a book.
  
  I have been in the "trenches" and on the "front lines
  of fire" with these people, and there is nothing
  that can substitute or replace that experience.

  I do see your point. Many parents feel that someone who has not had a child of their own cannot lend advice. It is true that I will take the advice of someone with no children with it in mind that, you know, they have no children. However, one who has had no children and yet is a school teacher... well, her advice will likely be better. My point is that while jgnat herself has not been a Witness, she has been very, very close and thus does have plenty to say worth listening to.

  And... my point is more valid than yours because I was in for 18 years and was born and raised in, so there! (Of course, that is a ridiculous statement.)
• 

  lonelysheep

  • What kind of individuals do you think get readily "taken" ?

  Those looking for something to fulfill their emotional needs and sometimes their ego, too.

  • What other methods do cults employ regarding recruiting?

  Isolation, superiority

  • What is your point of view regarding cults and there methods?

    Cults suck.
• 

  KAYTEE

  wanderer,

  You don't have to jump under a bus to know that it is going to hurt.

  I was, as most witnesses were, presented with a wonderful picture when I started,.

  I lasted 30 years with that picture coupled with the fear factor which came in many different forms

  They keep them, the masses, by constant LIES and we fell for it .

  What a mug I was.

  KT
• 

  The wanderer

  Dear Board members:
  
  Because this topic of conversation has caused
  so much controversy, I will add my final
  thoughts without trying to stir things
  further or walk away from it having
  hurt someone's feelings.
  
  To illustrate:
  
  There are two individuals who claim they
  know what it is like to be in combat.
  The first individual actually experienc-
  ed real life combat situations. He or she
  knew the realities from first-hand
  experience.
  
  They knew what it was like to undergo life-
  threatening experiences daily. They knew the
  real horrors of war. They saw both solider
  and civil killed.
  
  The second individual learned combat experience
  from a text book and other sources. He or she
  never put on the uniform. However, this individual
  has many credentials regarding combat. Perhaps, more
  than the individual who was there.
  
  From my own perspective, I take the first individual's
  account with more weight behind it, because he or she
  was there.
  
  That is not to say, that it discounts the information
  from the second individual. Again, this is from my
  own perspective on the matter.
  
  Such is the case in my mind regarding being a Witness
  or cult member and someone who has not had the
  experience. It is not to discount the person that
  never was a Witness or cult member, it just does
  not carry the same weight or force in my mind.
  
  Very Respectfully,
  
  The Wanderer
• 

  My MILs worst nightmare, a nonJW

  Oh come on...let's keep this party going

  Besides Wanderer I can't let that analogy slide....unless of course you had survived 12 rounds with a group of lions back in the glory days of Rome.

  Wanderer, JW's are not warriors, soldiers of God or any other analogy you may want to make to combat. In fact a case could be made that most JW's in fact lack courage. They lack the courage to stand up or think for themselves, to stand up to elders, to stand up to pompous and arrogant family members or relatives and most of all to the WTS.

  The ones who pack up and leave the WTS (many who end up here including yourself) show great courage.
• 

  jgnat

  Well, to continue the analogy, I haven't fought in WW 1 but I fought in the Crimean. Does that mean I cannot speak to the horrors of war?