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pressure imposed upon victims by the skilled use of words and persuasion when a religious
organization‘s main branch believers solicit victims for donations.
Mind Control Theory
If you go into a cult-type religious organization and you meet and talk to believers who are
engaged in illegal activities, with the exception of selected persons in the organization‘s
main headquarters, you will find that they are sincere, serious, and kind people. A number
of members graduated from high-level universities. There are many who have advanced
science degrees. Many women, including nurses, childcare professionals and schoolteachers,
are members. There are also many women who formerly held high-paying positions in
banks and security firms. These women donated large sums of their savings to religious
organizations, left their homes to live with the organization and dedicated their lives to the
group.
It is difficult to imagine or understand why these people, for example, would produce Sarin
gas with the intention of killing people. Likewise, it is difficult to understand how people
were persuaded to purchase vases and ginseng extract at outlandish prices. Similarly,
members of another organization thoroughly believed that it was correct to collect money
for the organization by prostituting themselves and soliciting prospective customers. It is
shocking to see how intelligent individuals can perpetrate unlawful activities once they enter
such religious organizations. Journalists and other mass media individuals who have no
direct knowledge of what it is really like to be a member of such a cult cannot understand
why others have actually become members.
Often in society we hear such explanations as ―She had too much free time on her hands
and that‘s why she got so involved in such an organization,‖ ―People who join such groups
are a special type who are interested in religion and the spiritual world, and ―The families of
those persons who were involved in that group are the problem.‖
However, people whose relatives or friends join cult organizations do not think this way. In
fact, many of the people who join cults are those who had no previous interest in religion or
the spiritual world, those who worked busily everyday, and those who studied hard in
universities. A number of people who join cults are ambitious and have a strong sense of
justice. There are cult members who, until they joined, were successful in adequately
meeting the expectations of their parents and had been exemplary children. These people
seemingly changed completely and began to advocate the cult‘s teachings and contentions.
They left their homes, abandoned their professions, and went to live in the cult communes.
These facts are known from actual experiences of people who joined cults.
Mind Control is a convenient terminology for describing the process by which people change
when they join cults. Mind Control is the manipulation of a person‘s heart and mind. In line
with the cult leader‘s purposes and intentions, specific tactics are used to manipulate the
hearts and minds of individuals who formerly had absolutely no relationship with such
organizations and, in doing so, turn them into cult ―robots‖ (this term is used here
metaphorically as a short-hand way of denoting the extraordinarily high degree to which
members comply with leaders‘ demands). This explanation of mind control gains general
social understanding.
However, the problem is determining how and by what methods of mind control normally
competent individuals become cult robots. This is difficult to explain either by the religious
organization or by individuals who were already members of a cult. Mind control affects
people and is carried out in various ways. There is no uniform explanation of mind control,
and each cult member‘s experience of mind control is different.
Mind control cases are often typified in weekly magazines, newspapers, or in short television
programs. The media have shown that cult tactics for soliciting believers all derive from cult

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 18, 2001, Page 39
manuals. Indeed, there are cults that have created elaborate manuals and systems with the
intention of turning average people into robots. The Unification Church‘s manual, for
example, is based on that organization‘s 30 years of experience. It is a skillful and polished
scheme. To the surprise of many, the Unification Church employs tactics based on a
sophisticated understanding of social psychology. However, general society and especially
the courts will not easily admit that mind control tactics amount to antisocial and unlawful
acts.
In different districts throughout Japan, former believers of the Unification Church have filed
suits entitled ―Cases to retrieve our youth‖ in which they argue that they suffered damages
as a result of the Church‘s mind control tactics.
On 26 March 1998, the Nagoya District Court ruled that the Unification Church was not
legally responsible for using mind control tactics. Six former Unification Church members
who argued the said tactics were unlawful filed this case. The court ruled that, because the
plaintiffs individually and personally made religious decisions at each level of training and
thus intensified their relationships with the Church, it could not state the said tactics were
unlawful acts that violated the free will of the plaintiffs. On 3 June 1998, and 24 March
1999, the Okayama District Court made similar rulings in which it negated the legal
responsibility of the Unification Church.
Then, on 23 March 1999, the Sendai District Court ruled that the Unification Church‘s tactics
of using its members to solicit donations and sell ginseng extract were unlawful and ordered
the Church to pay 8,100,000 yen to the plaintiffs in compensation for damages. Three
female, married, former believers of the Unification Church filed this case, claiming that the
donation collections and merchandise sales thereof were unlawful. This ruling made no new
advancements other than to recognize, for the first time, that the sale of ginseng extract
was unlawful and that Unification Church employees bore responsibility for these sales.
Moreover, the same ruling did not find any unlawful activity with respect to the sale of
apparel items, jewels and the collection of small sum donations. In its judgment, the Sendai
District Court stated that it could not conclude that ―Mind Control is an already established
concept and that the plaintiffs were placed in a situation where they lost their normal ability
to make decisions or where they were completely unable to exercise their freedom of will.‖
This court ruling did not establish that mind control itself is unlawful. Rather, the ruling
identified in detail the circumstances under which the plaintiffs had no other choice but to
donate large sums of money for the purchase of ginseng extract, and ruled that such
circumstances are lawful.
Another problem even more serious than offering money to the Unification Church is the act
of ―self-devotion‖ whereby people offer their lives completely to the Church. Money can
always be returned but several years of a person‘s life dedicated to working hard for the
Unification Church can never be reclaimed. Why then has it been so difficult for the courts
to recognize that the act of manipulating or inducing another person to devote himself to
such an organization is unlawful?
In Japan, the law concerning door-to-door sales, home visit sales or selling merchandise on
the street, provides that the selling person is under obligation to explicitly inform his
prospective customer about his purpose, name of company and merchandise for sale. Why
then have the acts of solicitation to join religious organizations, which have a much greater
influence on people than sales merchandise, basically been discounted?
The Unification Church, in the name of individual officials at its main headquarters, made an
out of court settlement in March 1998 to pay more than 39 million yen to 39 former
members who filed a suit for damages (a lawsuit known as the ―Return Our Youth‖ case) at
the Tokyo District Court. In this case, the Unification Church defendants recognized that its