Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1991, Page 26
The Historical Dimension of Cultic Techniques of Persuasion and
Control
Lita Linzer Schwartz, Ph.D.
Pennsylvania State University
Ogontz Campus
Abstract
This article examines the use of persuasion and control techniques during
various historical periods. Parallels are observed between both religious and
political conversion campaigns, as well as between historical and modern
cases. The importance of examining the real purposes behind the use of such
control practices, especially in today‟s cults, is emphasized.
The sociologist Thomas Robbins, in his book Cults, Converts and Charisma (1986),
introduces his discussion of conversion techniques by stating:
Persons who actually “live” their religion in a thorough and totalistic manner,
particularly when marginal exotic groups and deviant perspectives are
involved, are perceived as having undergone an unnatural metamorphosis.
This perception engenders a compelling inquiry: how did they get this way?
(p. 63)
We might begin by asking the same question.
Conversion incorporates a number of elements, the most notable of which are
proselytization and commitment. It is the proselytization phase that uses persuasion, while
control is exercised in both stages by cults1 and other groups. These are not new
techniques.
Historical Uses of Persuasive Techniques
If we look back at the Inquisition, the very persuasive technique used was “Convert or be
burned!” Today‟s cults are much more subtle, at least initially. As far as control is
concerned, totalitarian governments have long anticipated Orwell‟s 1984 by having family
members spy upon one another and neighbors denounce neighbors for heretical or
nonconformist thoughts, speech, and/or behavior. Instances of similar types of control can
be found as well among the Jews of first-century Palestine (Hankoff, 1983) and in the
rigidity of some European communities between then and the Reformation. If we look into
American history, we can also find that among the Puritans, one conformed or was banished
from colonial New England (Pattison &Ness, 1989). Even today, the Amish “shun”
nonconformists, thereby maintaining the sect‟s2 traditional beliefs and practices.
Persuasion can be a long-term effort as it was with Theodore Ratisbonne in the early 19th
century, when Abbe Bautain and others tried to convince Theodore of the correctness of
their philosophy and theology.3 Beginning in 1823, when Theodore took a course in
philosophy with Bautain, the young man was gradually convinced that “Christian dogmas
are the development, the application, the accomplishment of the announced truths of
Judaism” (Ratisbonne, 1904, pp. 60-61). Some four years later he was converted to
Catholicism and secretly baptized (Isser &Schwartz, 1988). Apart from the emotional
problems that had led him to a search for the meaning of life and for “truth,” this kind of
step-by-step low-key persuasion typically leads to a deeper and more long-term
commitment to the newly found answers. It is an approach used effectively by both the
Church of Latter Day Saints (Stark &Bainbridge, 1980) and Jehovah‟s Witnesses --both

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1991, Page 27
regarded as cults in their formative periods but which have since attained the status of
sects.4 Acceptance by the members of a new group and success as a functionary of the
group --be it religious or political --reinforces the commitment.
This type of effort, however, is far too slow for many proselytizers and missionaries. As a
result, the emphasis shifts to isolation from the familiar and literally from the family, which
might serve to dissuade the prospective convert from the desired change. (An aside: In
August 1990, there were items in the newspaper that Boy George, who had been heavily
involved in drugs, had become a member of the Hare Krishna movement, much to his
family‟s relief. In the early years of the modern cult movements, many families felt this
way ...until their children were cut off from them.) In our study of a number of cases
involving children and adolescents in the 19th and 20th centuries, Natalie Isser and I found
that the youngsters were kept from their families in convents and seminaries and soon
succumbed to the pressures applied by the adults in these settings to convert (1988). They
were, for the most part, afraid of the unknown, afraid of being alone, and afraid of being
abandoned as it appeared they had been by their parents.
Involuntary conversions were and are most effective “with those who are the most
vulnerable --the young, the naive, the weak, and the neurotic” (Isser &Schwartz, 1988, p.
114). The cases we studied reflected these characteristics, from Edgardo Mortara, removed
from his family in 1858 and kept apart from them from age 5 to late adolescence, to the
Finally brothers whose lives were saved during World War II by the directress of a municipal
nursery in France, who refused to surrender them to their surviving families for eight
years.5 The isolation of these children from their families is analogous to and has the same
effect as the separation from family and friends practiced by many cultic groups.
Comparisons with Modern Uses
It was a combination of the children‟s cases and those of several adults, including Theodore
Ratisbonne and later the instantaneous and apparently “miraculous” conversion of his
younger brother Alphonse in 1842, that led us to a more extensive study of conversion
techniques used by the Chinese Communists during the Korean War and then by cults.
What we found was that there were similarities and parallels between the historical cases
and the modern ones. The major difference was in the “refinement” of the techniques.
William Sargant, a British physician, studied the ancient Greeks to identify the techniques of
persuasion and control used in the initiation rites of the religions of that era. In his
description of how confessions were obtained in later periods, whether during the
Inquisition, under the czarist police, or under Stalin and most of his successors, it is easy to
perceive some parallels to the techniques used by cults:
To elicit confessions, one must try to create feelings of anxiety and guilt, and
induce states of mental conflict if these are not already present. Even if the
accused person is genuinely guilty, the normal functioning of his brain must
be disturbed so that judgment is impaired. If possible he must be made to
feel a preference for punishment --especially if combined with a hope of
salvation when it is over --rather than a continuation of the mental tension
already present, or now being induced by the examiner. (Sargant, 1957, pp.
185-186)
As we know, in some of the allegedly religious groups and in the so-called therapeutic
groups such as est, self-criticism and even self-contempt are used as prerequisites to
receiving the “salvation” or special “knowledge” held out as the reinforcement for
membership and devotion to the group‟s precepts.
Sargant‟s primary interest was in the physiological changes in the brain promoted by
persistent tension, anxiety, and the frequently changing attitudes of the examiners. These