[religious brainwash] Opening Minds The Secret World of Manipulation, Undue Influence and Brainwashing #5/57

2 recruitment: the way to unhappiness

‘manipulate: to manage or influence skilfully, especially in an unfair manner.’ Dictionary.com

The process of undue influence follows a predictable series of steps. First comes contact. This will either happen in person or through some advertising approach. It comes in many forms: flyers, posters, mailings, books, media ads and articles are all used by cult groups. Many cults use street recruiters, and most have their own publications; some, including Scientology, have hired professional advertising agencies to refine their approach.⁴

The Moonies and, more recently, militant Islamists, approach college freshmen. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and Larouchies knock on doors. The Larouchies use obituary columns to target grieving widows and widowers.

Cults do not want incompetent recruits. Anyone with significant physical or mental problems, including drug or alcohol addiction, will be weeded out at the beginning. There may also be certain groups that are not targeted – Scientology avoids gays, journalists, psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, disabled people and communists.

People do not join extremist groups because they are stupid. No cult group would survive long with dim, ineffectual members. Many are idealists who believe they are working towards a better world. Studies show that cult members tend to be middle-class and fairly well-educated. ⁵ They have higher than average IQs and perfectly normal personality profiles. Cult members do not present with any more emotional or psychiatric problems than the normal population. The same is true of terrorists. Detailed surveys of several terrorist groups have shown that their members are neither mentally ill nor abnormal, except for their adherence to the anti-social beliefs of the group.⁶

Once contact is made, rapportis developed. The recruiter looks for common ground, agreement on cultural, political or religious biases. In Scientology, this is called the ‘reality factor’. The intention is to create a friendly atmosphere.

The Krishnas used to hand out joss sticks and then ask for a donation, which follows the principle of reciprocity. One of my friends startled a Krishna recruiter by refusing either to make a donation or to return the recording of Temple songs he had just been given. Most people will simply reach into their pocket and pay up for the few pennies worth of ‘Spiritual Sky’ joss sticks. This will often lead to a conversation, which is the agenda hidden behind the approach.

Moonies sold candy and flowers on the street, at vastly exaggerated prices. Scientologists offer a free personality test. There is no such thing as a free lunch; there is also no such thing as a free personality test.By answering the two hundred question test, you volunteer private information, and grant authority to the tester. The test was actually written by Ray Kemp, a merchant seaman with no training in psychological testing. It is called the ‘Oxford Capacity Analysis’ to give it a ring of authority. Perhaps the author worked in one of Oxford’s car plants; he certainly didn’t attend the university.

The prospective recruit will be flattered– called ‘love bombing’ by the Moonies. Your appearance, beliefs or talents will be praised to the skies. False friendship is created and rapport is built. Recruiters see nothing wrong in this deception, because it is believed to be for the greater good and it raises their own status in the group. For the recruiter, it is another statistic, which will lead to praise from the group, just like a salesperson selling another car. Recruits, however, feel as if they have made a new friend, someone who resonates with their existing beliefs. By the time they ever realise that the recruiter was simply agreeing to be agreeable it will be too late.

Any resistanceto the cult is then tested, unless the cult represents itself under a false name (the Moonies have tens of front groups, and never admit to being a ‘church’ or religious at first contact). Scientologists are taught to dismiss media reports by saying that the media is untrustworthy: ‘You can’t believe anything you read in the papers’. Not one person everdisagreed with me when I used this line – such is the level of the public’s distrust of the media. Once rapport has been established, the recruiter will seek out the most significant difficulty in the recruit’s life. In Scientology, this is called the ‘ruin’. ‘What is ruining your life?’ If the preceding steps have been followed closely, mostpeople will offer up even their most secret troubles. Unless they’ve been hurt before by exposing their secrets, most people welcome sympathy for their problems. It is surprising how willing people are to share their deepest longings with complete strangers, as if there is a need to confess; this deepens rapport.

Scientology recruiters then push the target into ‘fear of worsening’.