Recovery from Abusive Groups Page 16
More Information, Please!
The mind has the capacity to do some amazing things (Ornstein &Thompson,
1984), such as reason, deduction, assessment, judgment, and evaluation. These
abilities enable the individual to take conflicting and/or related pieces of
information and process them. The cults place inhibitors in the mind during the
conversion process to stop these functions from operating and to stop the
internal flow of information. These inhibitors have been implanted by ideas or
false reason. Without proper counseling, these inhibitors can remain in the mind
and distort a person's thinking for years.
One of the toughest jobs in recovery is to reclaim or develop these mental
faculties or learned skills of thinking. One way to teach yourself the art of
thinking is by asking "gray" questions, questions which do not have a black or
white or easily recognized answer (see Where is This on the Gray Scale?, p. 40).
This process of reclaiming, rebuilding, and strengthening one's mental faculties
takes discipline. It takes discipline to reclaim the mind after the cult has driven
it into a deep freeze.
Doing Your Homework
Information is the food and thinking is the exercise with which you can
strengthen the mind. Thinking will enable you to wade through all the issues
leaving a cult can raise. When I returned from the cult, my father kept saying
"do your homework, do your homework." I did, though not as extensively as he
had wished, and it is this same advice that I pass on to others: do your
homework. (See Appendices B and C, and the Recommended Reading and
Reference Lists.)
In my years of working with ex-cultists and their families, I have seen one
common problem that keeps tripping them up-they don't study mind control
techniques thoroughly. They read articles and books and watch videos, but do
not really study and work the materials as if their life depended on it, yet it
does. Ex-cultists need a very high level of competence with the materials in
order to break free of the residual mind control and cult-induced phobias. The
family needs this level of competence to help the ex-cultist continue to break
free once home.
Parents want to get their child out of the clutches of the cult, assuming
everything can then get back to normal. Once out, the problem is solved. Right?
Wrong! Remember, intervention is only the beginning of the recovery process.
The more the ex-cultist and the family do their homework, the faster and more
thorough the recovery can be.
Talk with other ex-cultists, if possible, consider a rehab facility, watch videos, go
to lectures, give lectures, take a course or two, get information about mind
control techniques and how they work as well as information on the cult itself.
At the end of this book is a recommended reading list. I have found it is more
helpful to read a few books very thoroughly then to read every book on the
subject. I have read and reread at least a few chapters each year since I left the
More Information, Please!
The mind has the capacity to do some amazing things (Ornstein &Thompson,
1984), such as reason, deduction, assessment, judgment, and evaluation. These
abilities enable the individual to take conflicting and/or related pieces of
information and process them. The cults place inhibitors in the mind during the
conversion process to stop these functions from operating and to stop the
internal flow of information. These inhibitors have been implanted by ideas or
false reason. Without proper counseling, these inhibitors can remain in the mind
and distort a person's thinking for years.
One of the toughest jobs in recovery is to reclaim or develop these mental
faculties or learned skills of thinking. One way to teach yourself the art of
thinking is by asking "gray" questions, questions which do not have a black or
white or easily recognized answer (see Where is This on the Gray Scale?, p. 40).
This process of reclaiming, rebuilding, and strengthening one's mental faculties
takes discipline. It takes discipline to reclaim the mind after the cult has driven
it into a deep freeze.
Doing Your Homework
Information is the food and thinking is the exercise with which you can
strengthen the mind. Thinking will enable you to wade through all the issues
leaving a cult can raise. When I returned from the cult, my father kept saying
"do your homework, do your homework." I did, though not as extensively as he
had wished, and it is this same advice that I pass on to others: do your
homework. (See Appendices B and C, and the Recommended Reading and
Reference Lists.)
In my years of working with ex-cultists and their families, I have seen one
common problem that keeps tripping them up-they don't study mind control
techniques thoroughly. They read articles and books and watch videos, but do
not really study and work the materials as if their life depended on it, yet it
does. Ex-cultists need a very high level of competence with the materials in
order to break free of the residual mind control and cult-induced phobias. The
family needs this level of competence to help the ex-cultist continue to break
free once home.
Parents want to get their child out of the clutches of the cult, assuming
everything can then get back to normal. Once out, the problem is solved. Right?
Wrong! Remember, intervention is only the beginning of the recovery process.
The more the ex-cultist and the family do their homework, the faster and more
thorough the recovery can be.
Talk with other ex-cultists, if possible, consider a rehab facility, watch videos, go
to lectures, give lectures, take a course or two, get information about mind
control techniques and how they work as well as information on the cult itself.
At the end of this book is a recommended reading list. I have found it is more
helpful to read a few books very thoroughly then to read every book on the
subject. I have read and reread at least a few chapters each year since I left the
