Too Good to Be True:
Resisting Cults and Psychological Manipulation
STUDENT TEXT
A Lesson Plan for Middle Schools and High Schools
Marcia R. Rudin, MA
Developed by the International Cult Education
Program
Copyright 1992 American Family Foundation
"When you meet the friendliest people you have ever known, who introduce
you to the most loving group of people you've ever encountered, and you
find the leader to be the most inspired, caring, compassionate and
understanding person you've ever met, and then you learn that the cause of
the group is something you never dared hope could be accomplished, and all
of this sounds too good to be true it probably is too good to be true!"
—Jeannie Mills
Acknowledgments
The author would like to express her appreciation to the following people
who assisted in the conception and development of this lesson plan: Dr.
Sandy Andron, Linda Blood, Michael Caslin, Priscilla Coates, Paul Engel,
Hope Evans, Robert Fellows, Dr. Doris Holloway-Abels, Dr. Michael Langone,
Arnold Markowitz, Dr. Herbert Nieburg, Nadia Preyma, Herbert Rosedale,
Esq., Judy Safransky, and Dr. Robert Safransky.
Table of Contents
There are more cults than ever before, all over the world. Cults can
seriously interfere with your life. In a survey conducted in 1992 of 308
former cult members from more than 100 different cult groups, thirty-eight
percent of those interviewed who were students when they were recruited
into a cult reported that they dropped out of school after joining the
group.
Cults particularly target young people. College is a popular recruiting
ground. In the 1992 survey twenty-seven percent of the 308 former members
said they were college students when they first made contact with their
group.
Cults also recruit high school students. Ten percent of the 308 former
members questioned in the 1992 survey were in high school when they were
recruited. In addition to the possibility of being approached by cult
recruiters, you will also meet people who want to strongly influence you
in other ways. We all meet people who try to manipulate us to get us to
do what they want, convince us to give money or time to their cause, or
sell us something we really don't want and can't afford.
This lesson plan aims to help you:
·
Sharpen critical thinking and questioning skills.
·
Evaluate authorities and experts (while not wanting to teach
you to question all authority, this lesson plan aims to help you evaluate
who is a legitimate authority or expert).
·
Recognize when someone is trying to manipulate you.
·
Identify a group or individual that might be harmful.
·
Identify a group that might be a cult or have some
characteristics of a cult.
·
Evaluate groups and individuals and evaluate commitments to
them.
·
Improve your self-esteem and confidence so you can say "no"
to people and groups that are trying to manipulate you.
·
Apply what you learn in this lesson plan about saying "no"
to cults and manipulation to all areas of life, such as resisting peer
pressure for substance abuse and sexual activity, resisting overzealous
salespeople, advertisers and others trying to sell something, and
resisting those trying to persuade you to do something you don't want to
do.
Attach to each statement a number from 1 to 5 best describing your
feelings and/or opinion about the statement that follows. The numbers
mean:
1 = I strongly disagree
2 = I disagree
3 = I feel neutral (I don't have strong feelings and/or opinion about)
4 = I agree
5 = I strongly agree
Please note: There are no right or wrong answers to these
statements; no one else will see the responses. The purpose of this
pre-test is to see how much you know now about cults and psychological
manipulation. When the class completes this lesson plan there will be
another opportunity to respond to these statements.
1.
It's easy to leave a cult._____
2.
Cults don't harm people and their families._____
3.
There are no differences between cults and other groups._____
4.
There's no difference between my rabbi/minister/priest and a cult
leader._____
5.
Manipulating people to get them to do what you want them to do is
wrong._____
6.
Everyone has a right to believe what he/she wants to believe._____
7.
Everyone has a right to do what he/she wants to do._____
8.
People who join cults are searching for something, such as meaning
in their lives, spiritual fulfillment, a feeling of belonging, a
substitute family._____
9.
You can get good things from cults, such as acceptance and
love._____
10.
You can get good things from cults, such as meaning and purpose in
your life._____
11.
You can get good things from cults, such as a sense of
accomplishment, discipline, and happiness._____
12.
Only losers join cults._____
13.
I would never join a cult._____
14.
Nobody can talk me into doing anything I don't want to do._____
15.
I don't do what people tell me to do just because they are in a
position of authority over me._____
16.
I care about what my friends think of me._____
17.
I am strong-willed and can resist anything or anybody._____
18.
Occult rituals (see definition on page 4) are fun and are probably
harmless._____
"When you meet the friendliest people you have ever known, who introduce
you to the most loving group of people you've ever encountered, and you
find the leader to be the most inspired, caring, compassionate and
understanding person you've ever met, and then you learn that the cause of
the group is something you never dared hope could be accomplished, and all
of this sounds too good to be true it probably is too good to be true!
Don't give up your education, your hopes and ambitions, to follow a
rainbow."
Jeannie Mills offered this advice in a book she wrote after she left a
cult called "The Peoples' Temple" in the jungle of Guyana in South
America. On November 18, 1978 the cult's leader, Reverend Jim Jones,
ordered his followers in Jonestown, the cult's settlement, to drink
Kool-Aid mixed with cyanide. Those who refused to drink the deadly poison
were injected with it or shot by Jones' guards. Nine hundred and eleven
people died. Two hundred and seventy-six of them were small children and
teenagers.
This tragedy happened after California Congressman Leo J. Ryan visited
there to investigate complaints about Jonestown. Ryan was shot to death
on the orders of Jim Jones at the airstrip as he was leaving Guyana.
(Jeannie Mills was also murdered a few years later.)
How could someone like Jim Jones gain absolute control over people's
lives? Could it ever happen to you? Would you ever give up
control over your life — and perhaps your life itself — to someone else?
Of course, most people will answer, "No, I'd never fall for that. Only
nerds would! I'm too smart--I can think for myself!" But we can all be
easily persuaded and manipulated, often without even realizing it. We can
all be coaxed into relationships and groups that are harmful to us. We
think we can't be psychologically manipulated. But we are all
vulnerable, no matter how smart or well educated we are.
Some of the words and terms used in this lesson plan may be unfamiliar.
Refer to this alphabetized glossary for assistance as you read through the
text.
abuse - (noun) Wrong, improper treatment, violation, misuse; (verb)
To hurt wrongly or improperly, to mistreat, violate, misuse
authoritarianism - A system which requires complete submission of
an individual's freedom to authority; submission to the oppression,
control of the group
autonomy - Self-governance
brainwashing - Popular term for mind control; connotes emptying or
washing of contents of the mind and replacing them with new contents
coerce - To compel by force (psychological force or pressure as
well as physical force), to intimidate, dominate, or control
coercive persuasion - The use of compulsion by force and
intimidation (psychological intimidation as well a physical intimidation)
with the intent of convincing someone to do something or believe something
covenant - A formal agreement between two or more persons
cult - See definition, pages 6-8
cultic - Like a cult, having characteristics of a cult
demand characteristic - A situation where one will do what one
believes is expected (demanded) — for example, in a college-admissions
interview or job interview one would dress well, sit up straight in the
chair, and answer the interviewer respectfully, or in a medical
examination one would remove items of clothing at the doctor's request
dilemma - A choice between two or more equally undesirable
alternatives
faulty dilemma - When it's not accurate that there are only a
limited number of apparent choices, alternatives that are equally
undesirable, i.e., there are other alternatives or choices; for example,
if a cult recruiter says one can either get a job or improve the world,
there are other alternatives: one can get a job and work to improve the
world at the same time
hidden agenda - A situation in which one purpose is openly stated
while another, unspoken purpose lies in the background
indoctrination - Instruction in a doctrine, principle, or ideology,
especially a partisan or sectarian dogma
love-bomb - To dishonestly and falsely flood or overwhelm someone
with praise and a feeling of self-worth and importance for the purpose of
manipulation (a technique often used by cult recruiters)
manipulate - To manage or influence by clever or devious skill; to
change something or someone to suit one's own purpose or advantage
manipulation - Management or influence by clever or devious skill;
changing something or someone to suit one's own purpose or advantage
mind control - The exercise of restraint or active direction,
molding of someone's mental processes and patterns for one's own purposes;
the subjection of someone to a method of changing his/her attitudes or
beliefs; controlled indoctrination
occult - Sacred, hidden, concealed; includes practices and ideas
such as astrology, fortune-telling, magic, witchcraft, satanism, the
supernatural, and secret wisdom groups and philosophies; based on a
philosophy called Gnosticism -- the idea that one should attempt to find
hidden knowledge not available to most people and can and should use this
knowledge to control life
occult rituals - Rituals performed in connection with the occult
psychological abuse - The wrong, improper, or corrupt use of
someone's mental and emotional state of mind
psychological manipulation - Management or influence over
someone's mental or psychological state cleverly or deviously in order to
suit one's purpose or advantage
rite - An established ceremonial act or procedure customary for a
solemn occasion
ritual - An established form of conducting a rite; any practice or
behavior repeated in an established, prescribed manner
ritual abuse - Systematic abuse (can be physical, sexual, and/or
emotional abuse) committed by a group in a stylized ceremonial manner
consistent with the group's belief system and approved by the group's
leadership
totalism - A social system having a closed environment and
complete, authoritarian control over the individual
transcendent - Beyond ordinary experience, thought, or belief
trespass - An unlawful intrusion on the person, property, or rights
of another
"The path of segregation leads to lynching. The path of anti-Semitism
leads to Auschwitz. The path of cults leads to Jonestown. We ignore this
fact at our peril."
—Rabbi Maurice Davis
Read the article "Cults: Questions and Answers" in the handout Cults &
Mind Control. This lesson plan will not mention or discuss specific
cult groups for several reasons:
·
There are too many groups to talk about. If this lesson plan
mentioned specific groups and a group isn't mentioned, you might think
it's not a cult.
·
Cults constantly change — facts about individual groups
change quickly, new groups form and old groups break up, and names of
groups change.
·
There are different prominent groups in different parts of
the country and the world.
Rather than giving facts about specific groups, a major goal of this
lesson plan is to help people recognize the characteristics of a cult or
what factors make a group a cult and then to apply these criteria to other
groups or relationships in order to evaluate them.
What are some of these characteristics? A cult is a group:
·
whose leaders deceive and manipulate people in order to get
them to join it and to stay in it.
·
which has strong, sometimes total control over the members'
lives, for example telling them where to live, where and when to work or
go to school, what to do with their money, who may be friends or romantic
partners, when, who -- and if -- to marry, when -- and if -- to have
children and how to raise them, what kind of medical care they can
receive, how to schedule time, what to eat, what to wear, when -- or if --
to see their families, etc.
·
whose authoritarian leader(s) and teachings may not be
doubted or questioned.
·
whose leader(s) claim to have a special status, power,
secret knowledge, or special relationship with a higher power.
·
which uses carefully-planned techniques sometimes known as
mind control or brainwashing (see pages 11-12 for more details about these
techniques) so its leaders will benefit while at the same time exploiting
and harming its members and their families (see pages 9-10 for more
details about the harm cults can cause).
Often these groups are termed "destructive cults" rather than just
"cults." The word "destructive" when used with the word "cults" describes
the harm and abuse that may be caused by these groups. That is the
intended meaning of the word "cult" in this lesson plan, although the word
"destructive" will not be used from now on.
Cults can grow out of any set of ideas or beliefs. The ideas needn't be
unfamiliar or strange. On the other hand, a group with strange or
unfamiliar ideas or ideas with which one disagrees isn't necessarily a
cult. Defining a cult is a question of how its members act or behave.
It's not a question of what its members believe or what their ideas are.
It's a question of deed, not creed.
Often it's difficult to distinguish cults from other groups—the line may
be thin, and it may be a matter of degree. But there are important
differences:
Groups That Aren't Cults
·
are not deceptive; tell people what life in the group will
be like; tell the real name of the group and its leadership.
·
allow people time to think over their commitments to it
carefully.
·
respect the individual's autonomy and independence.
·
respond to critics respectfully.
·
respect the family and one's commitment to it.
·
have built-in controls to watch over their leader(s), so
behavior and abuses can be monitored and corrected.
Cults
·
deceive people; don't tell them what life will be like in
the group; sometimes don't tell the real name of the group or its
leadership or reveal the nature of the group.
·
demand firm commitment to join before people have a chance
to think things over carefully or consult with family and friends or other
support systems.
·
force people to obey their demands; don't respect the
individual's autonomy and independence.
·
may respond to critics with intimidation or physical or
legal threats.
·
view the family as an outside enemy or interfering factor.
·
operate secretly, allowing no public or organizational
scrutiny, no checks and balances, no way of checking or monitoring
misbehavior or abuses and no way to correct them.
To summarize, whether or not a group is a cult depends upon its actions
and behavior, as described above, not its ideas.
In the past, most cults were religious groups promising religious or
spiritual fulfillment. But that's no longer true. Now there are also
political cults, based on a specific political ideology; commercial cults,
which claim to help people make money (sometimes business
management-training programs sold to companies promising to increase
employees' productivity and increase the company profits); and therapy
cults, whose leaders claim they can help people solve personal problems
and fulfill their potential.
Because many cult leaders and members believe "the ends justify the means"
and that what they are doing is more important than society's laws,
sometimes they break civil and criminal laws in order to advance the
organization and its goals. Examples of laws some cults violate include
those concerning:
·
minimum wage
·
child labor
·
child abuse and/or neglect
·
sexual abuse
·
health and sanitation
·
compulsory education of children
·
immigration
·
transportation of minors across state lines or international
borders
·
involuntary servitude (slavery) of adults and children
(violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which
forbids slavery)
·
extortion
·
college-loan fraud
·
welfare fraud
·
income-tax evasion and other tax fraud
·
solicitation fraud (for example, the cult member trying to
get someone to donate money falsely claims that the money will feed hungry
people, house the homeless, etc.) and other kinds of commercial fraud
·
storage of illegal weapons and ammunition
·
drug smuggling
·
murder of dissidents
·
basic human rights, especially the rights of women and
children
Such cult leaders hide behind the U.S. Constitution's First
Amendment—which provides for freedom of speech as well as freedom of
religion—to mask their illegal activities and to escape prosecution.
Everyone wants to protect these precious freedoms guaranteed by the First
Amendment. But the First Amendment doesn't provide immunity when any
group or individual violates laws. One must distinguish between freedom
of belief and freedom of action as a result of these beliefs. We are free
to believe as we want, but we are not free to act as we want, especially
if our actions harm others and/or break laws.
Discussion Question
How can you tell if a group is a cult? What are some of the warning signs
that it might be a cult?
"Cults leave scars on the entire family, like scars and adhesions you have
after major surgery."
—Judy Safransky, parent of former cult member
Read the articles "Bible Talk . . . Have You Been Invited?" and "Coming
Out of the Cults" in the handout Cults & Mind Control.
Cults may:
·
Seriously and perhaps permanently disrupt members' lives by
interrupting their schooling and careers (38% of the 308 former cult
members interviewed in a 1992 survey who were students when they were
recruited dropped out of school after joining the group)
·
Cause financial harm, by, for example, forcing the member to
turn over salaries, savings, inheritances, trust funds, or property to the
group
·
Harm families by interfering with family relationships,
often causing separation of cult members from their family members who are
not in the group or separation of family members within a group
·
Psychologically, physically, and sometimes sexually abuse
members
·
Cause severe problems of readjustment if a member leaves the
group
·
Pose a serious threat to our democratic system because they
are authoritarian, anti-democratic, and totalistic
Some personal stories:
Our son's daily routine changed completely. Junior college and his
part-time work became secondary in his life. Our family life changed
drastically. My son was a stranger in his own home. Mike's school grades
went down, and his boss at his part-time job at the local utility company
noticed his lack of concentration at work. Eventually, he had to drop out
of school, and he lost his job. They [the cult leaders] "suggested" he
move out of our house. My family was "of the devil" (the cult's words)
because we chose not to believe as he now believed. From the non-stop
pressure the cult put on him, he did suffer a nervous breakdown and that
is how we were able to get help for him.
Recuperation was painful for the family, most of all for Mike. He
suffered great losses -- he lost his new belief system, his job, his
school, his "new" family. The cult family continually pestered him to
return. After leaving the cult, he had to re-establish his whole world.
His recovery is a continual process taking many years.
—Mother of Former Cult Member
[The following is excerpted from and used with permission of CAN News,
May 1990, pages 4-5.]
In our group women ignored their children — children kept you from being
close to God . . . My children were not really treated the way I wanted
them treated. The adults thought that children kept you from knowing God
well enough. They were "in the way" and you were better off not having
them because you had less time for God with them around you. You had to
meet their needs and your attention was not on God . . . My son slowly
drifted away from me but I was thinking that this was part of growing up
and his adolescent independence. I was confused. A sign of a good mother
was to give up. I was not to idol-worship my children.
—Former Cult Member
[The following is excerpted from and used with permission of CAN News,
August 1988, pages 3, 8.]
I began to see that Group X was a militant control on my life and the
other members. A mass control and mass response. When I thought about
leaving X, there was fear. Instead of leaving, I recruited others into X,
I pushed myself even harder in activities. I couldn't shake off . . . the
thought we were doing the right thing for ourselves and the world. All of
it was an illusion. A beautiful mystical dream . . . This went on for ten
years and my time and life had nothing to show for it.
—Former Cult Member
On October 25, 1956 during the Hungarian revolution I got shot through my
left leg. Because of my involvement in the revolution, I had to escape
from Hungary in 1960 . . . I came to the US in 1966 with my wife and two
small children, $200, and an eighty-pound box. We came to America so we
would have freedom, freedom of thought. I worked hard all my life, and
built up my life -- a beautiful house, barn, woodshed, on a ten-acre lot
in Maine so I would have something for my family. We had six children.
In the early '80s my wife and children got involved with the X group in
neighboring New Hampshire. One of my children just graduated from
college. Another is just coming into high school age. My
sixteen-year-old in the cult has no communication with me because I am
called an outsider, a non-believer. The church has taken most of my
property. My marriage has split up. I have lost everything.
I never dreamed a religion would destroy a family. They are trapped in
their own world . . . They have my wife and children, I have lost my
family! . . . I lived through the Communist regime in Hungary, I know what
brainwashing is.
—Husband, Parent of Cult Members
Discussion Questions
1.
What are some effects of cult membership on the followers and on
their families?
2.
Do you know of any situations similar to those described above by
the parents of cult members and the former cult members?
3.
Do you think what cults and their leaders do to cult members is
wrong? Why or why not?
"People don't join cults--they're aggressively recruited into
them."
-- Former cult member
"Recruitment is a form of trespass. It is an invasive act. The victim of
cult recruitment does not succumb—the victim has been targeted and the
recruiter takes careful aim, using charm, guile, and deceit."
—Hope Evans, mother of cult member
Cults claim to offer contentment and fulfillment. They can appeal to
people who
·
are lonely and/or seeking attention.
·
are in a normal but often difficult transitional stage of
life
·
have suffered a recent loss through death or ending of an
important relationship
·
want to be part of a caring community
·
are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives or a
transcendent experience
·
are frightened of the uncertainty in life today and of
facing a difficult economy
·
are idealistic and want to improve the world
·
want absolute, instant answers to life's complicated
problems and ultimate questions
·
want to find a loving family in a time of breakdown of
traditional family structure (some groups talk about themselves as "The
Family" and the leaders as "True Parents" or "Mother" and "Father")
·
are attracted by a sense of daring and adventure
·
are disillusioned with our political system and want to find
another way to change the world
But experts and former cult members say people don't join cults just
because they're unhappy or searching for something. While those may be
factors, they insist that people are manipulated, pressured,
and deceived into going into cults.
Everyone is vulnerable because cult leaders use strong pressure to get
people into the group and then use carefully designed methods of coercive
persuasion or psychological manipulation to keep them in it. They use
effective techniques to undermine and destroy the person's identity,
self-confidence, self-image, and individuality and to bring him/her under
the tight control of the group. Some of these specific techniques include:
·
Discouraging questions and critical thought
·
Encouraging feelings of extreme guilt and remorse
·
Using strong peer pressure, playing on member's desire to be
loved and accepted (a technique known as love-bombing)
·
Totally controlling the physical and psychological
environment -- cutting members off from friends, family, school, and
previously held beliefs
·
Making the member totally dependent on the group for
physical survival and happiness
·
Generating a fear of leaving the group; for example, telling
members they will never be happy outside of the group, will become ill, or
will die if they leave
·
Imposing a poor diet and poor health care, which can
physically weaken members and interfere with their ability to think
clearly
·
Forcing members to work long, exhausting hours, with little
rest and sleep so they have little energy and resistance
·
Controlling channels of communication, cutting off members
from outside sources of information
·
Manipulating language, assigning special meanings to words,
which makes members feel they are part of an elite, special group
·
Inducing trance-like states of mind in which a person can be
easily influenced
·
Forcing embarrassing public confessions of misbehavior which
can make members vulnerable to manipulation
·
Tightly controlling time and activities and allowing little
or no privacy, so members have no time to think or to evaluate their
commitment to the group
What is Mind Control?
[The following is excerpted from Easily Fooled, by Robert Fellows,
copyright 1989 by Robert C. Fellows, published by Mind Matters, Inc., page
22, reprinted with permission.]
Mind control. It sounds powerful and insidious. The kind of brainwashing
that gets prisoners of war to reveal secret information. We would
certainly recognize it if it were happening to us. We'd be hypnotized,
have bright lights shined on us, be forced to listen to propaganda, and
receive shock treatments or drugs. Not the case! The most effective kind
of mind control is the most difficult to recognize. It subtly exploits
our social conditioning and the vulnerable characteristics that we all
have at various times.
Mind control is really just social influence that restricts freedom of
choice. It consists of psychological manipulation, deception, and the use
of demand characteristics. Because of our social conditioning, certain
situations and relationships with other people seem to demand that we act
in a predictable way. That dynamic affects us every day in advertising,
sales, business, and personal relationships. For example, when we listen
to a lecture, the theater seating and the podium influence us to sit still
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