A review by zendegi
Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults by Steven Hassan
5.0
Excellent primer on what cults are, how they work, and why people get caught up in them. Sometimes this book had me laughing and other times it moved me nearly to tears.
Some things this book taught me about cults:
- Everyone is susceptible to mind control in one way or another. Be very careful if you're curious and want to attend meetings.
- It's very common for cults to use techniques of restricting your body's normal functioning in order to weaken the mind to control (e.g., sleep and bathroom deprivation, etc.).
- It's common to plant participants in a group to make statements and behave in ways that might suck new people in. Skeptical types are often separated from more susceptible people, and may even be asked to leave.
- It's common that cults work their members very hard and make them live very poorly.
- Cults often target those who are able-bodied, hardworking, and intelligent, in order to get more money and work out of them. If someone has real mental health or physical problems such that they would be a burden on the group, they are often dumped from the cult.
- Cults often will interfere with parent/child relationships of their members.
- Chanting, speaking-in-tongues, and some mediation techniques can be used to break people down mentally for programming, and are taught to members as thought-stopping techniques.
- Many cults have members dedicated to scrubbing or whitewashing online information about the cult.
- Sex trafficking can often be a cult phenomenon.
- There are tons of cults out there, and there are many public health and social problems that result from destructive cults.
- Cult members are victims, and may essentially be psychological slaves. Even if they victimize others.
- Cult members often suppress memories of negative events or bad treatment while they are in the cult.
The book also offered concrete examples of how to speak to someone you think may be under mind control, a comprehensive history of the USA's legal and political attitudes towards undue influence, a survey of relevant literature, and discussions of other important aspects. Highly recommended.
Some things this book taught me about cults:
- Everyone is susceptible to mind control in one way or another. Be very careful if you're curious and want to attend meetings.
- It's very common for cults to use techniques of restricting your body's normal functioning in order to weaken the mind to control (e.g., sleep and bathroom deprivation, etc.).
- It's common to plant participants in a group to make statements and behave in ways that might suck new people in. Skeptical types are often separated from more susceptible people, and may even be asked to leave.
- It's common that cults work their members very hard and make them live very poorly.
- Cults often target those who are able-bodied, hardworking, and intelligent, in order to get more money and work out of them. If someone has real mental health or physical problems such that they would be a burden on the group, they are often dumped from the cult.
- Cults often will interfere with parent/child relationships of their members.
- Chanting, speaking-in-tongues, and some mediation techniques can be used to break people down mentally for programming, and are taught to members as thought-stopping techniques.
- Many cults have members dedicated to scrubbing or whitewashing online information about the cult.
- Sex trafficking can often be a cult phenomenon.
- There are tons of cults out there, and there are many public health and social problems that result from destructive cults.
- Cult members are victims, and may essentially be psychological slaves. Even if they victimize others.
- Cult members often suppress memories of negative events or bad treatment while they are in the cult.
The book also offered concrete examples of how to speak to someone you think may be under mind control, a comprehensive history of the USA's legal and political attitudes towards undue influence, a survey of relevant literature, and discussions of other important aspects. Highly recommended.