ch10
keys to unlocking mind control:
[everyone wants to be a mind controller!] [it's a way to get cultists
interested in deprogramming. it's honorable to be a leader.]
The first three are most important.
1, Build rapport and trust
2. Use goal-oriented communication
3. Develop models of identity.
The remaining five carry rescue efforts to conclusion.
4. Access the pre-cult (authentic) identity.
5. Help the cult member to look at reality from many different perspectives.
6. Sidestep the thought-stopping process by giving information in an
indirect way.
[this sounds like a really kind, needed, understanding thing for some
of those topics, not others]
7. Help them visualize a happy future outside the cult.
8. Offer the cult member concrete definitions of mind control and
specific characteristics of a destructive cult.
1. Rapport and trust.
- nonverbal rapport and verbal rapport both important
- mirror body language of cultist
- use non-judgmental tone of voice and question choice
- avoid judgemental statements
- anybody can learn this, and it can take effort to do so
2. Goal-oriented communication
- like how businesses communicate, to influence behaviors
i bet there are also approaches to influence behavior that don't rely
on this, although i see it wouldn't always be harmful when coming from
a place of deep empathy
- the goal is to help the person think for themselves, and then to
leave a cult if it is destructive
- learn about both the mind controlled personality and the real person
underneath, if possible
- build trust and rapport, and then help the cult member begin to
question, investigate, and think for themselves.
i don't see the similarity to business communication.
i often experience businessy people avoiding concepts that result in
behaviors they don't desire, even if these concepts are subtly
embedded in what they are relating, such as reasons and feelings, or
parts of rational logic, or heavily focusing on the good-and-bad-ness
of words that relate to certain behaviors, denying synonyms or
enforcing synonyms that have the desired polarity, as if value relates
to truth and falsehood.
3. Models of Identity
Three models/mindsets:
- 1. Who the person was before they joined
- how they thought about the important parts of their life
- 2. A typical cult member of that group.
- shows members' views of reality
- people should do roleplays with former cult members
- everybody should learn to both act like a cult member, and interact
well with a cult member
[NOTE: my experience happened during Obama rather than Trump or Biden,
and was a political target with unique properties. things have changed
significantly. {{{i wrote this before realising how different i was: i
would guess the biggest changes would be greater effort to suppress
the true self, and to make things come across as legitimate in various
ways, and to make it much harder to detect. very confused about it now
after writing those, could be quite wrong. i might also expect that
things would be much more personalized toward individuals.}}}
{{basically, things were somewhat gaining experience from how things
went, and i went really poorly, so whatever experience was gained from
that}}]
[i'm remembering there are actually specific differences i'm aware of.
things that i hold consciously that shifted to a different part of
things so as to function better, maybe like denial, silence, and
punishment. i had extended sustained terror to influence me: i infer
not everyone has and/or is aware of this, but might instead have more
of a behavioral economy situation (i get this if i do that). something
got _really_ good at stimulating amnesia. messaging was delivered via
social media algorithms and physical groups, and differed between
different people.]
{when i say things like this, i'm mostly resisting habitual silence
for practice. the things that come out can be wrong, as they are
mostly focused on learning to come out at all rather than accuracy.}
- 3. The specific person in the cult, as they are now.
- contrasting this with the real self and the generic cult member
gives a picture of the person's identity, and how to identify which
identity they are within
- many members continue to try hard to fight off the cult identity.
takes good rapport to learn.
[the author describes a cult that enforces vegetarianism. sad around
the example; i often eat vegetarian.]
- learn all 3 models as best as one can, before engaging the cultist
