(5479)  Fri 8 Jan 93 23:32
By: Robin Gober
To: All
Re: Mind.1.4.
St:                                                                       <5478
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@MSGID: 1:3822/4.17 2b4e0f01

                                Mind.1.4.

  "'Freedom counseling' is quite similar. We attempt to wake client and
subject alike form the trance of their everyday lives. The parent who
seeks our services on behalf of a 'brain-washed mindless robot' who was a
perfect son or daughter, until the evil group wrested away the subject's
free will, needs to be aroused from slumber -- if anyone does. Such
clients need to be guided by the counselor into reexamining their
assumptions about the cult or sect in question and setting aside
exaggerations and hysteria. They must be urged to reevaluate their
presuppositions about their children and about themselves as parents. And
they must be trained to listen to their child, to abandon approaches which
widen the gap between themselves and the convert. (For example,
guilt-tripping -- 'Do you know what you're doing to your mother and me?
How can you do this to us?' -- and insults -- 'How can you be so stupid?
What's wrong with you?' -- are frequently attempted by parents but seldom
lead to reconciliation.)
  And the subject who has sold his selfhood for easy answer and group
acceptance needs to be brought out of his trance as well. How do we wake
him? First, we win his attention by listening attentively to his account
of spiritual renewal, psychological breakthroughs and personal
revivifiaction. We respond in a way that indicates our support for his
spiritual aspirations. This is not merely a tactic -- we are deeply
interested, and we offer a brief sketch of the history of that interest.
We indicate our respect for the subject's personal gains. But we
critically examine the attribution of these gains to any group or
charismatic person.
  After giving the subject ample opportunity to relate his or her
experiences in the group, my usual approach is to tell a cult member:
'Eighty percent of what you are involved in is good, honorable, true, but
twenty percent is manipulative, dishonest, and morally unacceptable.' I
urge the cult recruit to ask himself, 'Do you really want to swallow that
twenty percent?' We inform the cultist that there are many things taught
by the cult which are true, but the real question is 'whose truths are
these?' When we encourage cult converts to express what they have learned,
they often discover that they have always known these truths and that they
do not require the structure of the group with its dishonesty and
restrictive control in order to support their commitment to these truths.
This approach allows the convert to leave with dignity, to tell himself:
'I wasn't so stupid after all. Most of what they told me was true. I have
learned something important that will remain with me for the rest of my
life.'
  As the conversation progresses, we try to facilitate the reconstruction
by the subject of an alternative explanation of his experience. We present
our impressions of his family history and continuing dynamics, the
unresolved tensions in the subject's life which led him to the group, the
value and significance of the group as seen from a perspective other than
that of the group, etc. Above all, we explain the concepts of obedience to
authority and conformity as explicated by the research of Asch and
Milgram. An understanding of the dynamics of obedience and conformity have
led our subjects to more sudden 'Aha!' experiences than hours of listening
to atrocity tales. Further, scare stories from the defectors and critics
are fundamentally depressing in their effect upon potential defectors. But
when subjects grasp the true character of the mind-bending games used by
the group, they feel liberated and invigorated. From our point of view, we
explain. 'What you have undergone is familiar and valuable. However much
of your explanation overlooks certain common facts about experiences,
group dynamics, and above all, about you.' What I consciously try to do is
offer the subject a basis for an alternate autobiography -- one which
places control in the hands of the subject and reduces the religious
community to an instrument of self-revelation rather than the possessor of
a monopoly on truth.
  Ninety percent of those with who me we have spoken over the past five
years have left authoritarian groups. We know of only one case where the
subject later returned to the group; and in a second case, a subject
joined another group, affording us a second opportunity to counsel him and
his family. And we are able to arrange face to face meeting in about
eighty percent of our cases -- even with members of extremely paranoid and
defensive groups. Our approach is not the only approach, and it will not
'succeed' in every case. Some groups are simply too skillful in keeping
their recruits away from friends, relatives, or counselors. And many
converts will not be the least bit shaken in their newfound faith by
exposure to our efforts. Nevertheless, the Center's approach is at least
as  successful as that of any deprogrammer. In virtually every case the
Center has seen definite progress in the ability of family members to
communicate with one another despite differences in beliefs and in the
self-critical manner in which both the the cultist and concerned relatives
or friends are able to view their own attitudes, values and beliefs.
  [...]
  Most of our subjects never return to the group. Some do, are unable to
accept the inconsistencies and high-pressure tactics of the group, and
leave shortly thereafter. Many have reported to us that upon their return
they experienced a sense of disequilibrium which forced them to
reconceptualize their beliefs and change their behavior -- even though
they chose to continue. Several in this category have been ostracized by
the group for their 'selfishness,' 'disobedience,' and 'negativeity.'"

_Mind-Bending_ 1984 Lowell D. Streiker ISBN 0-385-19275-4



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 * Origin: The cold passion for truth hunts in no pack. (1:3822/4.17)

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