Cults-1 Introduction  

IN THE CULTS SECTION     Cults-1* Introduction (here)     Cults-2 Soka Gakkai      Cults-3 Subud  Cults-4 Hare Krishna   Cults-5a Other Religious Cults     Cults-5b Catholic Sexual Abuse, Offshoots  Cults-6 Monarch, MK-ULTRA See also:  Stasi  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOKS Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults Paperback – March 28, 2015  by Steven Hassan  Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, 2nd Edition by Flo Conway  By Jim Sieg Occult America: The Secret History of How Mysticism Shaped Our Nation, By Mitch Horowitz Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more  August 11, 2009 by Arthur Goldwag Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation k – October 5, 2010 by Mitch Horowitz  CULTS EXPLAINED Start Here Nazi Pedophile Apocalypse Cult Youtube Video Religious Abuse - Nazi Heritage (Post-WWII) The Nazi Pedophile Apocalypse Cult. By Rare Earth. Youtube Video(2018/05/26) https //www youtube com/watch?v=iKU6GBDHCGc&vl=en Al dot com 2020/12/13   7 creepy things we learned about cult leader and former UA teacher Marshall Applewhite.  By Mary Colurso https //www al com/life/2020/12/7-creepy-things-we-learned-about-cult-leader-and-former-ua- teacher-marshall-applewhite html An Ex-Mormon gives her input on what a cult is and offers some good advice 2018/06/18   10 Signs You’re Probably In A Cult.  By Sam and Tanner. https //blog usejournal com/10-signs-youre-probably-in-a-cult-1921eb5a3857 Excerpt:  Cults aren’t as easy to spot as you might think. Most cults don’t wear robes or live in communes. In fact, most cult members don’t even realize they’re in a cult. During my 25 years as an unwitting cult member, I would often watch documentaries and read about other cults. As I researched, I noticed 10 specific patterns that helped me recognize that I myself was in a cult: 1. The leader is the ultimate authority If you’re not allowed to criticize your leader, even if the criticism is true, you’re probably in a cult. Cults begin with a charismatic leader who claims some supreme knowledge. They may call themselves a prophet, messiah, messenger, or an enlightened teacher. They can also be CEOs, military officials, politicians, and self-help gurus. Cult leaders convince members to forfeit their critical thinking ability in return for a sense of belonging, authority, and purpose. To members, it doesn’t matter what the evidence or logic may suggest, the leader is always right, and their misdeeds are always justified. Criticism of the leader is forbidden. 2. The group suppresses skepticism If you’re only allowed to study your organization through approved sources, you’re probably in a cult. Cults view critical thinking as an infectious disease and every effort is made to suppress it. Doubting members are encouraged to isolate themselves from outside influences and focus solely on the doctrine of the cult. Criticism is forbidden. People who contradict the group are viewed as persecutors and are often given labels like “anti,” “apostate,” or “suppressive person.” Members are discouraged from consuming any material that is critical of the group. 3. The group delegitimizes former members If you can’t think of a legitimate reason for leaving your group, you’re probably in a cult. Because the cult considers itself the ultimate authority on truth, it can’t imagine anybody leaving it with their integrity intact. Thus, it has to perpetuate a false narrative that former members were deceived, proud, immoral, or lazy. If former members speak out, they are dismissed as bitter, angry, dishonest or evil. Cults often impose some kind of shunning to shame former members and prevent them from infecting other members with the truth. 4. The group is paranoid about the outside world If your group insists the end of the world is near, you’re probably in a cult. Cults position themselves as the sole refuge from an evil outside world that is intent on their destruction. Cults thrive on conspiracy theories, catastrophic thinking, and persecution complexes. In an effort to draw in more paying members, cults are often very aggressive in their recruitment efforts which are usually justified as “saving” people from the evil world. Those who reject the cult’s message are unelect, prideful, evil, or stupid. 5. The group relies on shame cycles If you need your group in order to feel worthy, loved, or sufficient, you’re probably in a cult. Cult leaders trap members in shame cycles by imposing abnormally strict codes of conduct (usually prescriptions about diet, appearance, sex, relationships, media), guilting members for their shortcomings, and then positioning themselves as the unique remedy to the feelings of guilt which they themselves created.Cult members are made to believe they are insufficient or unworthy on their own and that the only way to become worthy is to confess their shortcomings to the group or leader. The leader then becomes the meditiator of worthiness and the foundation of the member’s self esteem. Leaders who can make followers feel bad about anything can use shame to manipulate followers into doing anything, even if it’s against their own self-interest or better judgment. 6. The leader is above the law 7. The group uses “thought reform” methods 8. The group is elitist 9. There is no financial transparency 10. The group performs secret rites https //blog usejournal com/10-signs-youre-probably-in-a-cult-1921eb5a3857 [excerpt Accessed from internet on 2020/01/28] SOME CULT TENDENCIES Grooming Gangs As a Rotherham grooming gang survivor, I want people to know about the religious extremism which inspired my abusers Grooming gangs are not like paedophile rings; instead, they operate almost exactly like terrorist networks, with all the same strategies.  Ella Hill Sunday 18 March 2018 11:30 https //www independent co uk/voices/rotherham-grooming-gang-sexual-abuse-muslim-islamist-racism- white-girls-religious-extremism-a8261831.html Few if Anyone is Immune - Manipulating, Tricky Cult Watch dot com How Cults Work https //www cultwatch com/howcultswork html Excerpt:  Cults, wonderful on the outside, but are on the inside very manipulating. Cult leaders are desperate to trick you into joining. They are after your obedience, your time and your money.  Cults use sophisticated mind control and recruitment techniques that have been refined over time. Beware of thinking that you are immune from cult involvement, the cults have millions of members around the world who once thought they were immune, and to this day still have not realized they are in a cult. To spot a cult you need to know how they work and you need to understand the techniques they use. Teaching you these things is what this article is all about.This article exposes the secret techniques cults will use to try and trick and control you. Cult leaders will not want you to read this, but read it anyway. Once you understandHow Cults Work you will be better able to spot and avoid cult recruiters, and protect your family and friends. First let’s eliminate some misconceptions about cults: Cults are easy to spot, they wear strange clothes and live in communes. Well some do. But most are everyday people like you and me. They live in houses. They wear the same clothes. They eat the same food. Cult leaders don’t want you to know that you are being recruited into a cult and so they order their recruiters to dress, talk and act in a way that will put you at ease. One cult has even invented a phrase to describe this, they call it “being relatable”. Cults are full of the weak, weird and emotionally unstable. Not true. Many cult members are very intelligent, attractive and skilled. The reality is that all sorts of people are involved in cults. One of the few common denominators is that they were often recruited at a low point in their life — more about that later. Cults are just a bunch of religious nut cases. This is a common mistake people make thinking that cults are purely religious groups. The modern definition of a mind control cult refers to all groups that use mind control and the devious recruiting techniques that this article exposes. The belief system of a religion is often warped to become a container for these techniques, but it is the techniques themselves that make it a cult. In a free society people can believe what they want, but most people would agree that it is wrong for any one to try to trick and control people. In the section “Types of Cults” we will examine the various types of cults you may come across. https //www cultwatch com/howcultswork html Mind Control Techniques Church and State 2016/11/15  15 mind control techniques both churches and cults use.  By Travis Haan | 2 September 2012 The Wise Sloth http //churchandstate org uk/2016/11/15-mind-control-techniques-both-churches-and-cults-use/ Excerpt:  1. Mandatory, regular attendance:  Mind control techniques and hypnosis don’t last forever. Perpetual manipulation requires perpetual renewal. That’s why Coca~Cola won’t let you turn around without seeing a Coca~Cola billboard. Of course, no cult could send their followers to basic training every single week for a full re-indoctrination, but they don’t have to; all they need is one hour a week for refresher training. 2. Big, fancy, majestic buildings A Catholic once told me that the reason Catholic churches are so majestic is because it helped illiterate peasants understand the majesty of the Lord. Even if that were the intention (which I’m sure it wasn’t), the reality is that churches are artistic masterpieces meticulously designed to overwhelm the senses and make the viewer feel euphoric and humbled. Just standing in an empty cathedral can put you in a trance state. If you’re surrounded by images of people who made bigger sacrifices than you to the in-group and were justly rewarded then you’ll feel pressure to conform with their ideology without anyone having to say a word to you. Also, you’re instinctively going to transfer your awe and respect for the building to the building’s owner or spokesperson. 3. Hierarchical leadership:  Every cult has a hierarchical leadership structure because the point of having a cult is to have followers who will revere the leaders and give them all their money. Cult leaders get people to follow them by claiming to be envoys of God. Every church  does this.  Many churches won’t allow you to officially join until you undergo a ritual that symbolically changes you from a member of the lost, miserable outsiders into a saved, superior member of the in-crowd. But you’ll only be allowed to be a follower at the servile end of the pyramid shaped authority structure. The only way to become a leader is to either start your own cult or work your way up the ranks. This stacks the ranks with true believers who will defend the leader and give his social authority legitimacy. 4. Charismatic leaders The biggest red flag you might be involved with a cult is if the organization revolves around a professional charismatic leader. When you go to church you’ll sit down and listen to a charismatic marketer give a 45 minute infomercial. Even if everyone from the preacher to the congregation have the best intentions the end result is the same. Poor people are swindled out of their money, and the charismatic leader gets to live like a demigod surrounded by obedient followers. 5. Trance stimulation When you enter your ornate church on Sunday morning, one of the first things that’s going to happen is you’re going to sing hymns with the congregation. The majestic music, combined with the majestic building and the thrill of performing an action in unison with other members of the in-crowd will work you into a trance state that will make you susceptible to hypnosis. If you’re singing about being willfully obedient then you’re just hypnotizing yourself, and you’re hypnotizing the people standing around you listening to you sing about the virtue of willful obedience, servitude, sacrifice and faith. Even if that’s not the intent, that’s the outcome. Even if you don’t know it’s happening, it’s happening. Even if everyone was forewarned and knew it was happening it would still work on some of the participants. 6. Repetitive drills (and consequences for nonconformity) In addition to singing, a good cult would require its victims to perform rote physical drills like marching, dancing, kneeling or clapping. The moment you participate in a drill you’re being obedient. You didn’t just kneel or march or clap. You followed an order without thinking about it, and the more you do that the more likely you are to do it again. Eventually the charismatic leader won’t be asking you to do calisthenics. He’ll be asking for money or a favor. What’s more interesting than that though. If you can get a group of people used to following your orders and acting in unison you can eventually give the whole group an order, and they’ll act in unison. That would give you the power to tell a group of people to go build a house or go burn a house down. 7. Separating the believers (the in crowd) from the non believers It’s common practice for cults to tell their recruits that the world can be divided into two kinds of people: those who are inside the group and those who are outside the group. The people inside the group are always saved and admirable. The people outside the group are always lost, unworthy and detestable. If you believe this, then you’ll base your identity on your affiliation with the group, and you won’t want to spend time with people whose clearer perception of reality could endanger your faith in the group. 8. The call to action is to entrench yourself in the group and base your life on its doctrine. Church can be a lot of fun, and you can experience a lot of genuine moments of happiness with the people you love, but the Sunday morning agenda always centers around the sermon. The point of the sermon is to deliver a message, and the message is that you need to base your self-worth on your membership in the group and demonstrate obedience to the group’s ideology. You’re told this will bring you closer to God. Mostly it brings you closer to the group and the offering plate. 9. The charismatic leader manipulates your emotions:  Charismatic leaders will try to mesmerize you with the way they dress and talk. They guilt trip you. They make impossible promises and horrific threats. They get the crowd worked up into a vulnerable, irrational frenzy right before they deliver an ultimatum. 10. You’re given an ultimatum:  The point of every cult service is to build up to the moment where the charismatic leader makes a call to action. The call for action is to either give money, take your commitment to the cult to the next level, humiliate yourself or at least honor those who do. This is brazen manipulation, and it works. Creepy cults leaders know that, and quaint suburban pastors know that. 11. You’re encouraged to humiliate yourself and mimic others:  If a cult leader can convince his flock that he has more spiritual authority than them and they are unworthy in the eyes of God, then his control over them is almost guaranteed. Then the followers will have total trust in their leader when he tells them that the only path to salvation is to do whatever the cult asks of them. 12. You’re asked for money, and your worth is tied to the amount of money you give:  Most church leaders don’t expect every member of the congregation to devote their lives to the church like a hard core cult. Many preachers are happy if they can just get everyone to put money in the collection plate every week. That’s as unethical as selling people fake lottery tickets.  If anyone asks you for money … they probably just want your money. If they demand money from you and threaten you and your family for not paying up, then you can be even more sure they just want your money. If the person asking you for money is wearing a suit that costs more money than what you’re wearing … then don’t give that person any more money. 13. Socializing with the in crowd:  The most effective way to control the minds of a group of followers would be to lock them in an isolated compound together where the charismatic leader could control every aspect of their lives like the military does to its members. In suburbia that’s just not possible. So the trick is to keep your in-group together as much as possible and get them to willfully ostracize themselves from the rest of society as much as possible.  I’m not saying that if you hang out with your bowling buddies when you’re not bowling then that means you’re forming a cult. But when a charismatic leader organizes constant events that keep his donors together … you can predict the outcome. 14. Using indoctrination techniques in your own time and policing your peers:  The amount of Coca~Cola advertisements you’ve seen in your life attests to how quickly the effects of manipulation can fade and thus how important it is to constantly top-up your message in your victim’s short term memory. One way television commercials do this is by getting a jingle stuck in your head. If you walk around all day repeating the advertiser’s custom-designed message in your head then you’re doing the advertiser’s job of reminding you of the message. Churches tell you to read the Bible constantly and to fill your house with Biblical themed merchandise. If they can get you to eat, sleep and breath church doctrine then you’ll become your own snake oil salesman. Then you’ll do the charismatic leader’s job of manipulating you for him. 15. Recruitment:  Cults need a constant stream of new victims in order to finance the charismatic leader’s lifestyle. So … if you run into an organization that is constantly having recruitment drives to get people to come listen to an infomercial where they’re asked to give money at the end … don’t go there. You know what’s going to happen, and it only ends well for the charismatic leader … assuming he doesn’t get too drunk on power and do something crazy. http //churchandstate org uk/2016/11/15-mind-control-techniques-both-churches-and-cults-use/   High Demand, Closed Group Some names: Chris Butler, Tulsi Gabbard [Note from PF:  There are alternative views and rebuttals to the Tulsi Gabbard/Hare Krishnist view on the internet.] https //medium com/@lalitamann/an-insiders-perspective-on-tulsi-gabbard-and-her-guru-e2650f0d09 Excerpt: An Insiders Perspective on Tulsi Gabbard and her Guru I was recently asked a question about US politics that is related to an issue very close to my heart. In the US there is a state representative, Tulsi Gabbard, who is gaining attention and interest of the media and general public. To most, this politician seems amiable, a war veteran who is attractive and articulate, who has had an interesting life and seems very together. I get her appeal. But to me, I know the awful truth behind her amicable facade.  I grew up in what is now termed a High Demand, Closed Group. Most people know them as cults, but personally I detest the term cult because it usually conjures images of Kool Aid and terrible TV shows featuring Kevin Bacon. That’s not what I grew up in. Instead a High Demand Closed Group is a group that has isolated itself from mainstream life and lives by the demanding and usually arbitrary rules set by the leader of the group. The leader is usually a charasmatic personality who encourages their followers to treat them as some sort of Messiah. The entire group dynamic is centred around gaining favour of the leader, who uses this dynamic in a controlling and abusive manner. In many of these groups the leader uses their position to manipulate their followers into performing sexual acts against their will, or in others, the relationship becomes emotionally abusive, where the leader verbally or physically attacks their followers, doling out increasingly severe punishments including sleep deprivation, starvation and physical self harm. The latter is the type of group that I grew up in. The group I was involved in is called The Science of Identity Foundation, and it was started by a man called Chris Butler, who has variously been known as Siddhaswarupananda, Srila Prabhupada or Jagad Guru. His “philosophy” is a mishmash of Buddism, Vaishnava Hinduism and Christianity. There’s around 1,000 or so followers across Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and the US. Chris Butler himself was born in Hawaii and from what I’ve been able to glean from my research, was a college drop out who started a small group in the mid 60's. When the Hare Krishna movement started gaining traction in Hawaii during this time, he found it difficult to find new followers and instead of competing with the Hare Krishna movement, decided to take his current followers, along with a $20,000 donation, and join the Hare Krishna’s instead. https //medium com/@lalitamann/an-insiders-perspective-on-tulsi-gabbard-and-her-guru-e2650f0d09 BRAINWASHING Start Here Everything Under The Moon dot net The Battle for Your Mind:  Christian Brainwashing www everythingunderthemoon net/articles/christian-brainwashing htm Excerpt: CONVERSION is a "nice" word for brainwashing and any study of brainwashing has to begin with a study of Christian revivalism in eighteenth century America. Apparently, Jonathan Edwards accidentally discovered the techniques during a religious crusade in 1735 in Northampton, Massachusetts. By inducing guilt and acute apprehension and by increasing the tension, the "sinners" attending his revival meetings would break down and completely submit. Technically, what Edwards was doing was creating conditions that wipe the brain slate clean so that the mind accepts new programming. The problem was that the new input was negative. He would tell them, "You're a sinner! You're destined for hell!" As a result, one person committed suicide and another attempted suicide. And the neighbors of the suicidal converts related that they, too, were affected so deeply that, although they had found "eternal salvation," they were obsessed with a diabolical temptation to end their own lives. Once a preacher, cult leader, manipulator or authority figure creates the brain phase to wipe the brain-slate clean, his subjects are wide open. New input, in the form of suggestion, can be substituted for their previous ideas. Because Edwards didn't turn his message positive until the end of the revival, many accepted the negative suggestions and acted, or desired to act, upon them. www everythingunderthemoon net/articles/christian-brainwashing htm and: Wikipedia dot org Zerzetsung  this is also seen in Stasi on this website …the Stasi often used a method which was really diabolic. It was called Zersetzung, and it's described in another guideline. The word is difficult to translate because it means originally "biodegradation." But actually, it's a quite accurate description. The goal was to destroy secretly the self-confidence of people, for example by damaging their reputation, by organizing failures in their work, and by destroying their personal relationships. Considering this, East Germany was a very modern dictatorship. The Stasi didn't try to arrest every dissident. It preferred to paralyze them, and it could do so because it had access to so much personal information and to so many institutions. —Hubertus Knabe, German historian [33] Directive 1/76 lists the following as tried and tested forms of Zersetzung, among others: a systematic degradation of reputation, image, and prestige on the basis of true, verifiable and discrediting information together with untrue, credible, irrefutable, and thus also discrediting information; a systematic engineering of social and professional failures to undermine the self-confidence of individuals; ... engendering of doubts regarding future prospects; engendering of mistrust and mutual suspicion within groups ...; interrupting respectively impeding the mutual relations within a group in space or time ..., for example by ... assigning geographically distant workplaces. — Directive No. 1/76 of January 1976 for the development of "operational procedures".[34] https //en wikipedia org/wiki/Zersetzung See also:  Gaslighting Everything Under the Moon www everythingunderthemoon net/articles/christian-brainwashing htm  [Note from PF:  This website shows magic spells and various symbols, very well might have a hidden agenda.  However, I think the writer makes some important points which can at least be a starting point for other readings and investigations.  It can be a way to encourage sales.  It also can be an occult way of saying: Here is the answer out of the maze - only to do something on an energy level that creates more entrapment. ] Excerpt:  Brainwashing Techniques Being Used On The Public  Summary of Contents: The Birth of Conversion    The Three Brain Phases     How Revivalist Preachers Work     Voice Roll Technique     Six Conversion Techniques Vow to keep agreements     Physical and mental fatigue     Increase the tension     Uncertainty     Jargon & Vicious Language No humor     Stockholm Syndrome     Decognition Process     Alertness Reduction     Programmed Confusion     Thought Stopping True Believers & Mass Movements     Persuasion Techniques     Yes Set     Truisms     Suggestion     Imbedded Commands Interspersal Technique     Visualization   Shock and Confusion     Subliminal Programming:     Mass Misuse    Vibrato Extra Low Frequencies   The Neurophone www everythingunderthemoon net/articles/christian-brainwashing htm Zersetzung https //en wikipedia org/wiki/Zersetzung Excerpt: Moreover, methods of Zersetzung included espionage, overt, hidden, and feigned; opening letters and listening to telephone calls; encroachments on private property; manipulation of vehicles; and even poisoning food and using false medications.[37] Certain collaborators of the Stasi tacitly took into account the suicide of victims of Zersetzung.[38 https //en wikipedia org/wiki/Zersetzung Updates: 2021/01/28 Heaven’s Gate article was added to Start Here, and long excerpt was added to blog use journal link in Start Here because I am afraid as a private site it might go off the internet;  2020/01/03 edits and additions;  2020/11/26 Brainwashing added to Cults section, Brainwashing moved from River Gold dot net; 2020/11/26 Page Cults on PF  started by moving it from River Gold dot net.  Updates: Page Started on River Gold dot net 09/14/2018

CULTS-1  (here) Cults and Brainwashing Introduction • Summary of Links o Cults o Brainwashing • Books • Reports • What Are Cults    o Start Here-Nazi Pedophile Apocalypse Cult o An Ex-Mormon gives her input on what a cult is and offers some good advice  • Some Cult Tendencies  o Grooming Gangs   o Few if Anyone is Immune - Manipulating, Tricky o Mind Control Techniques o High Demand Closed Group      • Brainwashing o Start Here o Zersetzung