Scientology
Followers - 888table - cult members (no longer updated)
Dermot Murnaghan - undercover investigation in Scientology London
Scientologists need help, not hostility.
What is a Cult?
Every cult can be defined as a group having all of the following five characteristics:
| 1. | It uses psychological coercion to recruit, indoctrinate and retain its members |
| 2. | It forms an elitist totalitarian society |
| 3. | Its founder leader is self-appointed, dogmatic, messianic, not accountable and has charisma. |
| 4. | It believes 'the end justifies the means' in order to solicit funds recruit people. |
| 5. | Its wealth does not benefit its members or society. |
What is Mind Control?
Mind Control techniques include:
Hypnosis [auditing]
Inducing a state of high suggestibility by hypnosis, often thinly disguised as relaxation or meditation.
Peer Group Pressure [SP/PTS Course]
Suppressing doubt and resistance to new ideas by exploiting the need to belong.
Love Bombing
Creating a sense of family and belonging through hugging, kissing, touching and flattery.
Rejection of Old Values
Accelerating acceptance of new life style by constantly denouncing former values and beliefs.
Confusing Doctrine
Encouraging blind acceptance and rejection of logic through complex lectures on an incomprehensible doctrine.
Metacommunication
Implanting subliminal messages by stressing certain key words or phrases in long, confusing lectures.
Removal of Privacy - Six bunk beds per room at Flag
Achieving loss of ability to evaluate logically by preventing private contemplation.
Time Sense Deprivation
Destroying ability to evaluate information, personal reactions, and body functions in relation to passage of time by removing all clocks and watches.
Disinhibition
Encouraging child-like obedience by orchestrating child-like behaviour.
Uncompromising Rules
Inducing regression and disorientation by soliciting agreement to seemingly simple rules which regulate mealtimes, bathroom breaks and use of medications.
Verbal Abuse
Desensitizing through bombardment with foul and abusive language.
Sleep Deprivation and Fatigue
Creating disorientation and vulnerability by prolonging mental an physical activity and withholding adequate rest and sleep.
Dress Codes
Removing individuality by demanding conformity to the group dress code.
Chanting and Singing
Eliminanting non-cult ideas through group repetition of mind-narrowing chants or phrases.
Confession [auditing]
Encouraging the destruction of individual ego through confession of personal weaknesses and innermost feelings of doubt.
Financial Commitment
Achieving increased dependence on the group by 'burning bridges' to the past, through the donation of assets.
Finger Pointing
Creating a false sense of righteousness by pointing to the shortcomings of the outside world and other cults.
Flaunting Hierarchy
Promoting acceptance of cult authority by promising advancement, power and salvation.
Isolation
Inducing loss of reality by physical separation from family, friends, society and rational references.
Controlled Approval
Maintaining vulnerability and confusion by alternately rewarding and punishing similar actions.
Change of Diet
Creating disorientation and increased susceptibility to emotional arousal by depriving the nervous system of necessary nutrients through the use of special diets and/or fasting.
Games
Inducing dependence on the group by introducing games with obscure rules.
No Questions
Accomplishing automatic acceptance of beliefs by discouraging questions.
Guilt
Reinforcing the need for 'salvation' by exaggerating the sins of the former lifestyles.
Fear
Maintaining loyalty and obedience to the group by threatening soul, life or limb for the slightest 'negative' thought, word or deed.
Replacement of Relationships
Destroying pre-cult families by arranging cult marriages and 'families'.
Exploding The Myths
People don't join cults. They are recruited.
People are recruited by a method not a message.
People do not stay in cults because they have nothing better to do with their lives, but because psychological coercion holds them there.
Cults intend to retain a hold on people for life, or for as long as they are valuable to the cult. It is not a fad or a phase.
Normal people from normal families are recruited into cults.
Cult leaders should be blamed for the problems caused, not the individual members, ex-members or their families. (Blame the victim syndrome). It can happen to anyone.
Cult members are sincere. (Sincere victims, but sincere.)
Cult members are victims and need to be treated with love. They are people who need help, not hostility.
Cults recruit people of all ages, not just young people.
Cult recruiters are rarely visually identifiable. They usually look like quite normal people who appear to be very friendly.
Anyone can become a victim of cult techniques of psychological coercion. The safest people seem to be the seriously mentally ill, or those that know how to recognise a cult.
Accurate information on cults is not best obtained by trying to infiltrate a cult. This is far too dangerous.