Continued
In the Moonies, for example, whenever you have difficulty relating to someone either above or below you in status, it is called a "Cain-Abel problem." It doesn't matter who's involved or what the problem is, it's simply a "Cain-Abel problem." The term itself dictates how the problem must be resolved. Cain must obey Abel and follow him, rather than kill him as was written about in the Old Testament. Case closed. To think otherwise would be to obey Satan's wish that evil Cain should prevail over righteous Abel. A critical thought about a leader's misconduct cannot get past this roadblock in a good member's mind.
The cult's cliches, or loaded language, also put up an invisible wall between believers and outsiders. The language helps to make members feel special and separates them from the general public. It also serves to confuse newcomers, who want to understand what members are talking about, and think they merely have to study hard in order to "understand" the truth. In reality, by incorporating the loaded language they learn how not to think. They learn that understanding means believing.
Another key aspect of thought control involves training members to block out any information which is critical of the group. A person's typical defense mechanisms are twisted so they defend the person's new cult identity against his old former identity. The first line of defense includes denial ("What you say isn't happening at all"), rationalization ("This is happening for a good reason"), justification ("This is happening because it ought to"), and wishful thinking ("I'd like it to be true so maybe it really is").
If information transmitted to a cult member is perceived as an attack on either the leader, the doctrine, or the group, a hostile wall goes up. Members are trained to disbelieve any criticism. Critical words have been explained away in advance as "the lies about us that Satan puts in peoples' minds" or "the lies that the World Conspiracy prints in the news media to discredit us, because they know we're onto them." Paradoxically, criticism of the group confirms that the cult's view of the world is correct. The information presented does not register properly.
Perhaps the most widely used and effective way to control cult member's thoughts is thought-stopping rituals. Members are taught to use thoughtstopping on themselves. They are told it will help them grow or be more effective. Whenever a cult member begins to experience a "bad" thought, he uses thought-stopping to drown out the "negativity" and center himself, thus learning how to shut out anything that threatens his reality.