In a destructive cult, phobia indoctrination is the single most powerful technique for keeping people dependent and obedient. I have encountered many people who had long ago stopped believing in the leader but are psychologically paralyzed with deliberately implanted phobias, which are often subconscious.
Phobias are so integral to the cult mindset that I consider undoing them to be a high priority when working with a cult member. Fortunately, phobias can be treated. You can help others by following my three-step approach.14 If you have a phobia yourself, you first cure yourself, or fix the problem with professional help. Then you can use yourself as a kind of success story, sharing what you learned with the cult member. It makes the intervention more personal and effective. If you do not have a phobia, use someone you know who has one. If you do not know anyone, you can use examples provided here.
I advise people not to do all three steps at once. Nor is it wise to spread them out over many weeks. Timing the steps so they occur within a few days to a week is most effective. The goal is to empower the person to self-reflect, analyze, and cure their phobia.
STEP ONE
Explain what a phobia is—how irrational fears are different from rational, legitimate fears. Using examples of different phobias, describe how a cure is possible. Usually when a person has a phobia, they simply make excuses to avoid the stimuli. They take stairs if they have an elevator phobia, claiming it is healthier, which it often is. I agree with that logic, but I want people to be able to choose to take an elevator.
Typically, a phobia has a structure to it. First, there is a negative image or movie in one’s head, along with negative self-talk or hearing the leader’s voice reinforcing the phobia. It provokes a physiological response, such as holding one’s breath or breathing quickly and shallowly. The three things create a chain reaction that results in extreme fear. In the case of an elevator phobia, people may see themselves plummeting and crashing (they might have seen this in a movie), or being trapped between floors for eternity. They not only visualize it; they hear themselves screaming. Their heart races and either they hold their breath or their breathing quickens.
For someone with an elevator phobia, just imagining riding safely and comfortably from floor to floor, possibly even humming along the way, and exiting with a normal heart rate and breathing pattern, seems all but impossible. But that, in a nutshell, is the goal of a successful intervention. The first step is to provide facts and data: You explain to them that modern elevators are equipped with emergency brakes that make freefall impossible, and with phones. If they get stuck, they can call for help. Even if it takes a while to be rescued, they will survive. You help them realize that they are not in danger.
Next, ask the person to visualize themselves in the future having been cured of the phobia, getting into an elevator and riding comfortably until they get to their floor and exit. They might imagine doing soothing self-talk while in the elevator—commenting to themselves about the colors of the elevator, the people in it, or something else altogether, all the while breathing normally. They do that over and over. The last step in the process, which is known as systemic desensitization, is to get into a real elevator and ride it, repeating some of the same soothing behaviors they practiced in their minds. Successfully carrying out this last behavioral step often convinces the person the phobia is a thing of the past.
STEP TWO
The next step is to explain how other destructive groups or people deliberately install phobias to control their members. For example, the Jehovah’s Witnesses tell followers that receiving a blood transfusion goes against the Bible and will result in eternal damnation—and their being shunned by the group. Many followers have refused blood transfusions for themselves or their children, with consequences far more real and tragic than the threat of damnation or expulsion. Of course, no Jew, Christian, or Muslim who studies the Bible would ever interpret the kosher laws to mean letting someone die by refusing a blood transfusion. Life is always sacred in the Abrahamic faiths. But the fear of shunning is real and can be powerful. As a Moonie, I was brought to see the movie The Exorcist and was told by Moon that God made the movie as a prophecy of what would happen if anyone left the Unification Church. Crazy, but I totally believed it and became fearful of demonic possession.
Domestic violence survivors often talk about their abusers convincing them that they will never be loved by anyone else or have a healthy relationship. Lyndon LaRouche filled his members with conspiracy theories, which in the group were elevated to phobias about the world coming to an end if they didn’t follow him. Once a person has engaged with such scenarios, they will often agree with you that people in those groups have phobias. They would never fall for that kind of programming—they would get the blood transfusion or leave the Moon or LaRouche cult.
STEP THREE
Millions of Trump’s true believers are convinced that he has been chosen by God to build a Christian kingdom on earth—–a prophecy that he must complete, otherwise terrible things will happen to our country and our planet.
The last step is to help the believer connect the dots between their positive visualizations—in the case of Trump, one in which the world won’t come to an end without him, where Christians can live with people from different races, cultures, and religions in harmony—and their newfound knowledge that phobias can be deliberately implanted, but also removed and cured. Might they agree to speak to former Trump supporters who have left the fold, or to consider circumstances under which they would no longer trust Trump and might even want a different leader? Do they believe it is possible that they might ever change their mind? If not, why? Do they fear something bad will happen if they change their mind or speak with a critic? In my experience, once a person sees how much they have been controlled by deliberately installed phobias, they are often well on their way out of a destructive group or relationship.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM UNDUE INFLUENCE
Sometimes the most intelligent and well-educated people can get locked into ideologically rigid mindsets that prevent them from changing their views, despite overwhelming evidence. How can we avoid blinkered thinking and bias—not just with regard to a specific political figure or party, but in general?
Be discriminating about your sources of information and how much you consume in twenty-four hours. Do you tune in to only one TV channel or talk radio show, or do you expose yourself to other perspectives? It’s good to get news from multiple places across the political spectrum. Give yourself time to digest the information. Figure out who is credible and who is not. The internet and social media have made it so easy to click and share. Read the full article and check out the sources before you pass it on. If someone else shares something, do your due diligence and see if you can corroborate the story with another source.
Remember to check yourself on confirmation bias—people unconsciously filter out information that does not confirm their preexisting viewpoint. Everyone is subject to this—it’s much easier to sustain a false belief than to admit a mistake. I described earlier a switching process, which is called counter-attitudinal argumentation. This involves taking the opposite position, learning it thoroughly, and arguing it as if it were your own. Doing this helps give you a social perspective completely opposite to your own. It helps you see that others have profoundly different and perhaps even legitimate beliefs. When I was in the Moon cult, I was 100 percent sure that I was right and that everyone who was a critic dwelled in the darkness of Satan. After my wake-up moment, I realized that I was the one who was in the dark—and in need of help.
Be wary of people, organizations, or companies that use undue influence to promote their own interests—often financial. Oil and gas companies often suppress information about climate change. It’s not uncommon for corporations—even those we might have once viewed as ethically sound, like Facebook and Google—to seek out and hire so-called experts who will support and promote their views so they remain profitable. Many also hire lobbyists t
o get their causes championed by political officials and gain even more support by making donations to political candidates.
Peer pressure heavily contributes to the formation of beliefs. If the people you love and trust hold a certain view, you are more likely to also hold that view. Though most of those in our social circles don’t intentionally try to misinform us, it is quite common for friends, colleagues, and associates to play a big role in shaping our beliefs. We need to examine the source of everything we read, even if it is shared with us by someone we trust. We must seek out multiple credible sources in order to be more informed citizens.
TODAY’S WORLD
Another way to stay well-rounded is to look at the world from many perspectives. Some people worry that taking another point of view—especially one we find reprehensible—will compromise their integrity. Perhaps they are irrationally concerned that they might become convinced and switch perspectives. If something is true, it will stand up to scrutiny. Be willing to consider how you might alter your point of view if the evidence is convincing, testable, and reliable. A fact does not become any less true because we assume other viewpoints. By examining what the opposition has to say, we better understand the issues, and why we believe what we believe. Not only do we become better informed, we are better able to explain why we hold certain beliefs. On the other hand, if a belief cannot withstand criticism or research, then it may not be worth holding.
Beliefs should never be held as if they are the truth. The more strongly someone claims to have the truth, the more evidence we need to accept it. Certitude is not evidence of truth. Nor does repetition make it true. If anything, repetition should make you suspicious. Truth always stands up to scrutiny on its merits.
Allow yourself the flexibility to change your beliefs when presented with new evidence and perspectives. There are large gaps in our knowledge. Acknowledging where those gaps are does not make us weak. It makes us intelligent consumers of information. We don’t usually know what we don’t know. Yet we live in a world where it’s more important than ever to be an informed citizen. The beliefs that we form affect not only how we live our lives, but also which causes and public figures we support. In order to keep our freedom of mind, we all need to continually examine our beliefs, carefully consider the information we are presented, and engage with a world that is larger than ourselves. We also need to listen to people who have left mind control cults and are speaking out about their experiences. They are courageous and have important stories to share. I believe they can play a critical part in helping to heal our fractured country. They are role models who show us how to move on after life inside a cult or destructive relationship, whether it be personal, political, or religious—or all wrapped up in one. So many former members have gone on to become highly successful people, on many different levels. Their personal stories, combined with our knowledge about how undue influence and mind control works, can help others. There are many different types of mind control groups, and while a cult member might be reluctant, if not unwilling, to hear stories about their own group, they will likely be willing to hear and discuss people’s experiences with other groups. Especially now, when human trafficking, terrorist, and other extremist groups have become so prevalent, we need to pay attention to former members who have lifesaving stories to tell. Let’s seek them out and hear their stories.
CHAPTER TEN The Future
Jim Jones’s voice came across the loudspeaker, summoning his followers to the central pavilion of Jonestown, a sprawling outpost in the jungles of Guyana, on an overcast afternoon in November 1978. As he sat on stage, his voice still bellowing over the PA system, Jones exhorted his followers to pour cyanide-laced fruit punch down their children’s throats, and then drink the fatal potion themselves. When the Guyanese authorities arrived hours later, they found 912 bodies lying mostly facedown. More than 300 were children. Jones died by a bullet to his head, not self-inflicted. A courageous congressman, Leo J. Ryan, who had been visiting Jonestown with his aides to investigate allegations of people being held against their will, was assassinated on a nearby airstrip, along with four others.
The images coming out of the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown shocked the world—indeed, they are seared into the minds of many Americans, though many young people may have never seen them, or even heard of Jonestown. Among the images, there is one that stands out to me. Hanging above the stage where Jones sat, issuing his murderous commands, was a sign: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I’ve puzzled over the meaning of those words. The phrase is attributed to the Spanish-born philosopher George Santayana, but why did Jones hang it there? Was it a self-fulfilling prophecy? A malignant narcissist, Jones saw himself as a modern-day Jesus and often talked about the government coming to “crucify” him for preaching the truth. In his last ravings, he would describe the massacre as “an act of revolutionary suicide to protest the conditions of an inhumane world.” Maybe he saw the sign as linking him to Jesus and other prophets who, through the ages, would be killed for preaching the “truth.”
But the sign holds another meaning, almost a taunt: forget what happened here at Jonestown and you may find it happening again. Jones’s followers were diverse but most of them were good, idealistic Americans who fell under the sway of a pathological authoritarian leader who used threats, intimidation, and black-and-white, us versus them thinking as well as phobias and other mind control techniques to recruit and indoctrinate them.
It may seem to be a leap to mention Jonestown when writing about the Cult of Trump. As we have seen, cults differ in their identity and the consequences of their activities. But the takeaway is this—mind control exists and it is a potent threat to our lives—our families, communities, institutions, and nation. We live in an age of digital influence, where people have access to one another anytime and anywhere, and where people can be deeply influenced and radicalized as never before. In an essay for The Washington Post, Terrence McCoy describes a young man who underwent a radical personality change after spending hours online, visiting white nationalist websites and viewing white supremacist rallies. He had one persona online and another with his family. “I don’t know how you got this way,” said his liberal mother, after he finally came out to her as a neo-Nazi.1 This young man was twenty-one, but children of thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen years of age are becoming radicalized through video games, websites, and online communities. Young gunmen can broadcast hate crimes in real time, as happened with the twenty-eight-year-old New Zealand shooter, and gain a platform, as well as a following. As B. J. Fogg of the Stanford Persuasive Tech Lab observed, the overlap between our digital experiences and persuasion is growing. “Persuasion is part of human existence, but now that computers can persuade, the landscape has changed,” he said.2
Adding to the stress are potentially enormous environmental changes—droughts, floods, hurricanes, and fierce storms—that could, in turn, bring about mass immigration, social upheaval, and possibly wars, among other life-as-we-know-it changes. What is especially troubling is that, according to climate scientists, the next ten years are critical in the battle against global warming. And yet we have a president who willfully ignores the threat.
Eventually Trump will be gone, but his presidency will have left us a deeply divided nation. How do we restore a sense of trust and civility to government and society? How do we encourage the media to dampen rather than inflame internal divisions? How do we protect ourselves from future authoritarian-leaning leaders who may draw us even further into a world of conflicting loyalties, allegiances, and ideologies?
These are huge and difficult questions. In the last chapter, I described the importance of listening to and benefiting from the experiences of former cult members. We need to hear from others who have lived under authoritarian regimes—people like Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state, who as a child fled Hitler’s Germany and later communist Czechoslovakia. In her book Fascism, published shor
tly after Trump was elected, she describes how American isolationism led to the rise of fascism in the early twentieth century, and might do so again. “I fear a return to the international climate that prevailed in the 1920s and ’30s, when the United States withdrew from the global stage and countries everywhere pursued what they perceived to be their own interests without regard to larger and more enduring goals,” she writes.3
The late Italian writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi described how fascism arises not just by military force or police intimidation but by “denying and distorting information, by undermining systems of justice, by paralyzing the education system, and by spreading in a myriad subtle ways nostalgia for a world where order reigned.”4 Levi wrote those words in 1974, but they sound all too prophetic in this era of Make America Great Again.
“History does not repeat, but it does instruct,” writes Yale professor Timothy Snyder in his book On Tyranny. He shows how the framers of the constitution turned to the ancient Greeks—Aristotle, who warned that inequality brings instability; and Plato, who warned that demagogues would exploit free speech to install themselves as tyrants. “Americans today are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism in the twentieth century. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience,” he writes.5
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