Psychological Processes Operative in Spiritual Movements
By Michael Rogge
http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4&Itemid=6
11. Fear of exclusion
The stronger members are tied to a group, the more the fear of exclusion lurks. They may have invested their life's savings in the work (Scientology), paid a a percentage of their income, failed to conclude their study, or make a career, or sacrificed a succesful one.
In many cases a member will have alienated himself from family and friends. They have not been able to appreciate his or her sudden conversion. The accompanying fanatism and urge to proselytize has shied them away. In turn the newly converted individual will seek comfort and understanding with members of the spiritual group.
Such isolation seems sometimes to be intentionally sought. Formerly, in the Bhagavan movement, members went about in red/orange dresses and wore mala's with a photo of their master, so setting themselves aside from the mundane world. The Hare Krishna movement goes even further when groups of members go out into the streets in their oriental dresses for song and dance acts. In most movements the alienation is far more subtle and the natural outcome of their general attitude towards the materialistic society.
The true nature of the so-called friendships within the group will only be revealed after a devotee has left the fold. Members have seen this happen, not giving it a thought at the time because it happened to someone else.
Suddenly those expulsed experience the humiliation of not be greeted anymore, marriages split up - even children may not recognize a parent anymore. The outcast feels thrown in an abyss.
To be cut off from social contacts, to see one's life crumble, is a desparate experience, the magnitude of which for the individual should not be under-estimated. He will feel deep shame. He may have confessed in the group intimate secrets, that are now being ridiculed by his former friends.The expulsee, in his disappointment, may become embittered and even enter into a suicidal mental state.
Though Mr Rogge is clearly aware of the Witness movement and mentions it prominently in this article, I find it interesting the graphic parallels of mind-control and internalized pressured that are used by many cults are so similar.
Jeff