Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1989, Page 16
former methods of information processing (which are labeled “satanic” or “demonic”).
Hassan (1988, p. 65) also emphasized the role of information control and attention, or
“compartmentalized” information, as he termed it:
Information is the fuel we use to keep our minds working properly… People
are trapped in destructive cults because they are not only denied access to
critical information but also lack the properly functioning internal mechanisms
to process it. Such information control has a dramatic and devastating
impact (p.65).
Following their interviews with a number of former cultists, deprogrammers, and
neuroscientists, Conway and Siegelman (1978) hypothesized that cult conversion is the
result of the calculated manipulation of information, leading to information overload. They
offered considerable anecdotal evidence that cults enhance vulnerability to information
overload through the manipulation of the new recruit‟s milieu: e.g., sudden dietary changes
involving decreased protein lack of sleep isolation and removal to locations devoid of
familiar reference points constant affective and hence physiological stimulation and
programmed, child-like social interactions. Made vulnerable, recruits are then subjected to a
constant bombardment of radical ideas and beliefs. They are allowed no time to reflect, or
to check any of this new information against reality. The neurobiological drive to integrate
and make sense of these new experiences and information pushes the recruit to a crisis that
can only be resolved by a sudden, uncritical acceptance of the new belief system. The
recruit then undergoes a sudden personality change: HE OR SHE “SNAPS.”
Based in part on their finding that cultists who underwent deprogramming were
rehabilitated faster than those who walked out of cults without the information provided by
deprogrammers, Conway and Siegelman (1982) suggested that cults may have created a
new form of mental illness: “information disease.”
Altered State and Hypnosis/metacognition Models
In reading the accounts of a number of deprogrammed cultists (cf. Patrick &Dulack, 1976
Conway and Siegelman, 1978 Stoner and Parke, 1977 Underwood and Underwood, 1979
Freed, 1980), I was struck by their consistent descriptions of the processes of conversion
and subsequent immersion in their respective cults. They described a sense of “other-
worldliness,” marked by focused attention, distorted perceptions, stereotyped affects, and
reduced critical judgment. These factors led Clark and his associates (Clark et al., 1981)
Goldberg and Goldberg (1982) and other investigators (cf. Enroth, 1977 Conway and
Siegelman, 1978) to hypothesize that, within a context of social/milieu control and group
pressure, cult involvement induces a “trance-like” altered state of consciousness, similar in
many ways to hypnosis, characterized by heightened suggestibility, a narrowed focus of
awareness, increased dependency and enhanced role-taking.
Zeitlin (1985) likened the cult conversion process to the information-distorting and
attention-manipulation employed for therapeutic means in hypnotherapy. He described the
recruiter-initiate relationship as one that involves “hypnotic communication patterns” and
“structured encounters which are intended to generate certain prescribed sequences of
experiences” in the initiate, including “response attentiveness” (pp. 380-381).
Clark, et. al. (1981) also conceptualized cult conversion and membership maintenance as
due, in part, to hypnotic-like phenomena:
As acculturation proceeds…trance induction frequently becomes a formalized
and valued practice, brought on by chanting…meditation, or activities such as
speaking in tongues (p.55). Although, as in the conversion phase, trance
states continue to strengthen group attachments and to enhance the

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1989, Page 17
absorption of information, their primary purpose in the acculturation process
apparently is to combat doubt, skepticism, and external criticisms (p.56).
Many initial cult interaction sequences tend to involve regression to child-like states,
according to cult critics. Edwards (1982), in his depictions of Unification Church training,
suggested that there is a change in the initiate‟s level or quality of experiencing that is
associated with the changes in role (to that of a “child”) and attentional processes:
Over the course of the weekend, the group leader directs childlike behavior encouraging
initiates to sing children‟s songs, play children‟s games, eat children‟s snacks and voice
simplistic statements about peace and love. A group leader might be heard encouraging her
members to “melt together like peanut butter and jelly” to be closer together.
“…characteristics of adult behavior including detachment, establishment of context,
individual decision-making, or individual interpretation are discourages by group leaders…”
(pp. 35-36)
The emphasis on ritualistic meditation and/or prayer, especially as a means of counteracting
cult-opposed influences, beliefs, and impulses, has contributed to the perception that cults
teach hypnotic “thought-stopping” techniques. In writing about consciousness, Ornstein
(1972) stated that meditation techniques are aimed at dismantling cognitive “model-
building processes”:
We easily adapt to almost any new input. A new technology, a new person, a
change in our immediate environment, quickly become an integral part of our
lives, part of our model of the external world. This model-building process is
specifically what is to be dismantled by the practice of meditation…the
esoteric traditions thus speak of developing a consciousness that allows every
stimulus to enter into consciousness, devoid of normal input selection, model-
building, and category systems (p.151).
Cult critics have argues that, when combined with milieu control and group pressure,
meditative activities increase suggestibility as a result, incoming information is not
subjected to “normal categorization.” Thus, the new information is accepted less critically.
Meditation and other hypnotic-like techniques employed by cults induce a receding of the
“generalized reality-orientation” (Shor, 1959) that, according to many former members,
results in a schism in thought processes akin to Hilgard‟s (1977) concept of divided
consciousness.
Becoming a Hare Krishna Devotee
The process of becoming a hare Krishna devotee (cf., Conway &Siegelman, 1978, pp. 137-
139 Stoner &Parke, 1977, p. 18) typically begins in one of two ways: (a) A potential
recruit has an encounter with a current devotee or (b) an alienated or disgruntled
“searcher” purposely seeks out ISKCON based on his or her reading or hearing about
meditation and/or the Krishnas, or based on a previous (positive) encounter with a devotee.
Either way, the potential recruit will usually be invited to a “vegetarian feast” (usually at the
local ISKCON temple) which becomes the recruit‟s first encounter with the organized
Krishna community and leadership. There, the recruit is subjected to “love-bombing” (in
which he or she is the focus of intense attention and instant affection, is made to feel
extremely special, spiritually predestined and “chosen,” and is catered to like a young
child). Prior to the dinner, the recruit witnesses and may be pressured to participate in
ecstatic ceremonies devoted to ISKCON deities. And, or course, the recruit is urged to chant
repeatedly the famous Hare Krishna mantra (“Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna,
Hare Hare. Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”).