In Steve Hassan's book , " Combatting Cult Mind Control" it states : " A famous experiment in conformity by Dr. Solomon Asch demonstrated that people will doubt their own perceptions if they are put in a social situation where it appears that the most confident people in the group are all giving the wrong answer to a question. Another psychologist , Stanley Milgram , tested people for obedience to authority and found that over 90 percent of his subjects would obey orders, even if they believed that doing so caused physical suffering to another person. Milgram wrote : " The essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and therefore no longer regards himself as responsible for his own actions . "
We have certainly seen this in the Jehovah's Witnesses cult in regards to the blood transfusion issue . The Watchtower society influences it's members to go against humane , logical reasoning and inspires them to believe this hurtful lie ; to the point it causes loss of life to children and adults needing blood to save their lives. But it has happened even on a more personal level in the congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses .
I'll give you an example where people were influenced to side with someone on the congregation level - even though it was wrong thinking to do so. In the early 1980's I was in a congregation where a very prominent elder who everybody looked up to and his wife ( who was a chronic gossiper ) had a daughter dating a fine young man . He had everything you would want for your daughter , " spiritual " great personality, etc. Well , as time went on this young man who was engaged to the elders daughter saw abuses taking place in his fiance's elders home. This prominent elder had been using abusive speech , yelling and screaming at his wife and kids, including the daughter, and there had been physical abuse as well towards the children by him. Well, the daughter and fiance went to the body of elders about this , after talking with the elder father , and told the elders of their plight .
This prominent elder, when finding out what his daughter did ,got really pissed as he did not want what was happening in his home to be revealed to the other elders ! So what did he do ? He and his wife ( the gossiper ) went around to other members of our congregation bad mouthing their daughter to everyone . I remember this elder came up to me and said, " Mr. Flipper, I want you to know that my daughter is standing on very slippery ground spiritually , I would advise you to not associate with her . " I immediately saw this for what it was - an attempt to coerce me and others against his daughter so as to be able to look good to the congregation , and save his position as an elder, retaining power ! I didn't buy it for a minute. So, long story short , this elder was unsuccessful in turning other people against his daughter - who had done nothing wrong- and he was deleted as an elder for the " in -home " abuses he had been committing. But, not before the congregation had been divided into conflicting opinions on the matter as he and his wife had done quite a job of influencing others on their side - by distorting the facts .
Well, as it turned out, in that particular congregation- everything turned peaceful again in time.But the damage that had been done in people taking sides, and being influenced by this elder who was " popular " trying to control how people looked at things took time to heal. The daughter later left the organization due to pressure- never heard from again. Did you all ever experience this kind of situation when you were witnesses ? In any of your congregations ? It was amazing how one person could influence others to take views - they might otherwise might not have taken. Glad I got out of the " mind controlled "organization ! Welcome your comments ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
Did You Ever See this in Your Congregation ? Mind Control - By Hassan
by flipper 23 Replies latest jw friends
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flipper
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dawg
Never had that happen, but I took a class at UGA called "The politics of Nazi Germany"... interesting how people followed that moron Hitler even when they knew he was an idiot.
But to hear of a Dad going against their kids, nothing new there,... my Dad thinks he can refute my arguments against the slave by calling me a fornicator..after my recent letter writing campaign, he was calling around trying to get dirt on my personal life... sick isn't it?
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flipper
DAWG- Wow ! Dude ! That is sick - your dad wanting to get the goods on you . Interesting what you say about Nazi Germany - because I agree ; I feel the Watchtower society uses those exact methods on all their rank and file members . But the treatment of that young lady by her father elder literally drove her around the bend in time . As you say, only one word to describe it - sick. Peace out bro, liked talkin with ya , Mr. Flipper
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stillajwexelder
Yes a prominent elder who had been a CO for many years -expected his own way and his opinion swayed many even when wrong
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flipper
STILLA - It is amazing to me to see how " cult mind control" affects people so much that they can be duped to following elders, C.O's , in spite of going against their own better judgement . And that is the dangerous thing about elders or people in authority positions, C.O.'s - people in the witnesses tend to take their word as gospel and don't question it. Then when people would suffer the bad effects of following the elders bad advice- the elders would say it was the publisher's fault things went bad, I saw that a lot ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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metaspy
I have seen it happen in many cases.
Almost always by elders not wanting to loose power.
one that comes to mind is an elder was "committing adultery" by JWs standards.
An MS in my old hall found out and confronted him.
The MS gave him 2 or 3 weeks to confess.
in that time, the wily elder had the MS removed for some reason (I didn't find out).
Then when the MS turned in the elder - it looked like he was out for vengeance.
The elders didn't listen to him at that time, but later the elder was caught.
Funny thing is, the MS didn't get his title back... -
flipper
METASPY- It truly is unjust what happened to that ministerial servant. But it doesn't surprise me ! But the elder in this case got what was coming to him in time anyway. I think Karma has a way of coming back and biting people in the proverbial a$$ in my opinion as well
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flipper
Thought I would bump this up to see if any of you had experiences like this in the congregations you were in as a witness ? Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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MissingLink
Funny thing is, the MS didn't get his title back...
That's standard procedure -
1) punish the ones trying to do the right thing.
2) never admit mistakes because the elders are chosen by holy spirit, thus can't show failability
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carla
I can't comment on the congregation thing but jw's sure can redefine 'throw- away society' can't they? To outsiders they would think of the throw-away society as our pollution problem that everything we buy is disposable. To a jw, throw-away means your family is disposable and even your own children. Sick bastards.