The feeling of love was overwhelming and it really changed me as a person and at the time really made me feel like this was God's love in action. Not sure how to feel about it now, but I still think back on that time with joy and appreciation.
There can be a genuine emotional feeling of love. However, my analysis is that this is a feeling of emotion. Do you tear up at movies. I do, all the time. I tear up with many songs sung at the KH.
WT is A MASTER at playing on emotion - it is the modus operandi of the organization. Every message from the GB ends with: "The GB loves you very much." Really? If they love every individual very much, should they not, at the least, respond to questions from those loved ones? (Give it a try.)
http://www.hgi.org.uk/archive/cults.htm
Why people join cults
"Cults form and thrive,” says Deikman, “not because people are crazy, but because they have two kinds of wishes. They want a meaningful life, to serve God or humanity; and they want to be taken care of, to feel protected and secure, to find a home. The first motives may be laudable and constructive, but the latter exert a corrupting effect, enabling cult leaders to elicit behaviour directly opposite to the idealistic vision with which members entered the group.
Usually, in psychiatry and psychology, the wish to be taken care of (to find a home, a parent) is called dependency and this is a rather damning label when applied to adults. Adults are not supposed to be dependent in that way, relying on another as a child would rely on a mother or father. We are supposed to be autonomous, self-sustaining, with the capacity to go it alone. We do recognise that adults need each other for emotional support, for giving and receiving affection, for validation; that is acceptable and sanctioned. But underlying such mature interdependency is the longing of the child, a yearning that is never completely outgrown. This covert dependency — the wish to have parents and the parallel wish to be loved, admired and sheltered by one's group — continues throughout life in everyone. These wishes generate a hidden fantasy or dream that can transform a leader into a strong, wise, protective parent and a group into a close, accepting family. Within that dream we feel secure.”
Read Steven Hassan's book. It's how high-control groups work.