Exactly, mentalclarity: the idea I think, whether its conscious or subconscious, is to see whether you'll fall in line, i.e., submit to them, give them the benefit of the doubt, allow them to decide the pace, the questions, the topics.
I think a script is an excellent way to put it. Once you deviate too often from it, once you call for a break in the performance to question what's going on ("But what about the history of the performance, when did we get on stage?"), the lights go off and when they come back on again, poof, your study's gone.
Yes, part of what you get from a Bible study and from participating in the organization is a sense of being special, of superiority to others. You alone grasp, as they put it, "the sacred secrets of God."
At some point in my studies of the movement I want to demonstrate that the organizational culture is in a sense narcissistic (this is a topic regularly discussed on this forum). I cannot deny the striking parallels: the sadism, the comparative love, the sense of them being special, the lying and deception, the way they get extremely flustered and angry when you even question them, the misogyny, the superiority complex, etc.