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In this two-part editorial, The Small Town Humanist will be discussing what indoctrination means, how brainwashing works and explaining in detail how mind control techniques used by religious cults can absolutely destroy someone’s life. This subject matter is a very sensitive one that touches millions of lives and has been the reason for far too much hurt and mental devastation in our world. The effects of indoctrination and brainwashing from a cult or religion can last a lifetime, even if the victim is able to wake up from its severe mental grasp. Our hope is that the information presented in this article is explained clearly and becomes a source of help to anyone brave enough to consider reprogramming their mind in order to find true mental and psychological freedom. The Author speaks from first-hand experience, being a surviving victim of a 37-year indoctrination from an extremely dangerous religious cult.

Indoctrinated From Birth

In 2010, I was finally completely awake. The fight lasted about eleven years…but I did it! I was born and raised in a religious cult. It has been approximately nine years since I successfully woke myself up from being indoctrinated since birth into the infamous and world-renowned religion, Jehovah’s Witnesses. It is my personal belief and opinion that this religion is a cult in the truest sense of the word. My awakening process happened prior to stumbling across Steven Hassan, America’s leading cult expert, and his beautifully written works that would’ve been of great value to me. Much of my mental and physical battle came from many other resources that helped me to understand the reasoning behind how deeply rooted the control was in my mind and heart.

Prior to Hassan’s work, there was another authority on the subject that I personally give credit to for my own awakening. Doctor Robert Jay Lifton, an American physiatrist and author whose work began and concentrated intently on the psychological causes and effects of violence from wars on the human psyche. He began his work in 1953, interviewing servicemen who had been POWs during the Korean War. He went on to study various people from many situations of either imprisonment or indoctrination of some sort. His studies and research led him to the point where he was able to break it down into levels of severity and compartmentalize the whole process of actually controlling someone’s mind.

Doctor Lifton decoded the tactics that were used by the Chinese to completely reform a person’s thoughts, practically changing who the person was so drastically that they became unrecognizable to who they used to be. Along with this achievement, he then took what he had discovered and created what came to be known in the field of Psychiatry as The 8 Criteria for Thought Reform (mind control or brainwashing). Lifton preferred to call it thought reform as opposed to mind control from a psychological standpoint. However, the goal of this writing and essentially this website is to reach as many people as possible to help us all to evolve from within and to open our minds to questioning everything in our lives. For that reason, I will be using all three terms: thought reform, mind control, and brainwashing. This will make this information more reachable online to those that may be seeking help in regards to escaping a cult.

My Personal Message to Doctor Robert Jay Lifton

At the time of this writing, Doctor Lifton is still alive and well. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him. Mr. Lifton…if somehow you manage to read this article, I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to you. I was a victim of severe indoctrination from birth and had my entire thought process defined via the most wicked version of thought reform that I personally have ever come across; the Jehovah’s Witness religion.

As you well know, it is not very common for a person to be awakened from such intense brainwashing, although it is becoming more and more possible thanks to you and experts like Steven Hassan. Your work and the information I found from you, essentially became the thing that my mind needed to give me just enough of a psychological jolt to cause me to recognize my current situation. It was you that taught me to see very clearly the way that my reasoning was shaped by the 8 criteria you defined so many years ago. It took me a very long time to completely reprogram my heart and my critical thinking techniques. Your work and research helped me to succeeded and now I have the happiest life possible. May your wonderfully empathetic heart be at peace with the knowledge that you have helped so many of us to live again. Thank you, my friend.

The 8 Criteria for Thought Reform, Mind Control and Brainwashing

In 1961, Lifton published his book “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of ‘Brainwashing’ in China” where he broke down the entire process of how a person or an entity can use 8 defined techniques to actually reform the way a person thinks and reasons.

We will be using the organization Jehovah’s Witnesses as a case study. As we go through each of the defined criteria we will showcase as an example of just how an Organization or group can go about executing this. I chose The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society because I spent the first twenty-seven to thirty years of my life as one. It was everything to me and I was extremely indoctrinated into its culture. I was appointed to a position called a “Ministerial Servant” and came very close to being appointed as an “Elder,” which is the highest position of leadership within a congregation.

Even though the Watchtower Organization will be used as a case study in our discussion, what we hope you take away is how to understand and use what Lifton has clarified down to a science for questioning and challenging your own religious faith. We owe this to ourselves to question everything. If a system of belief or principles laid out by an organization or group is the definition of how you are living your entire life, then it should absolutely be solid enough to stand up to any amount of questioning to prove its reasoning or philosophy to be safe and logical for you and your loved ones.

Yes, faith can bring some joy in our life. But even with good intentions, if a group or organization that you belong to is made up of the following defined criteria, then it is absolutely using brainwashing mind control techniques to indoctrinate you. There is no debating this. Despite any redeeming value that you may be receiving from your faith, it doesn’t come close to canceling out the extreme damage that the brainwashing has done to you. Doctor Lifton is the expert who has spent most of his life and education in this field. Modern day experts such as Steven Hassan have done the same. We have not. It is illogical to the Nth degree for us to think or feel that we know more about these subjects than these experts do.

Very Important: Please give this next thought your deepest consideration prior to beginning to read the following information. Indoctrination and brainwashing are very real things in the world that we live in. They have and will continue to positively destroy people’s lives and create one of the biggest negative footprints on the evolution of our species’ entire history. It is not magic and it is not fake. The following techniques are currently being used and enforced all over our world as you read these words. They may even be used on you. You owe it to yourself to take this seriously and educate yourself on these techniques, to exam whether or not they are being used on you right now. The ensuing information is not for the faint at heart to consider. If you truly have empathetic love for yourself and for our future then PLEASE have a completely open mind in regards to what you are about to take in.

That being said….let’s begin.

1) Milieu Control [The Control of Communication]

| Lifton’s words paraphrased for clarity in this case |

“The most basic feature of the thought reform environment…is the control of human communication. Not only the individual’s communication with the outside…, but also…his communication with himself…extensive information about everyone is being conveyed to the authorities [of the group] is [common knowledge]…Having experienced the impact of what they consider to be an ultimate truth…, they [the authorities of the group] consider it their duty to create an environment containing no more and no less than this ‘truth.’ [The group member] is deprived of the combination of external information and inner reflection which anyone requires to test the realities of his environment and to maintain a measure of identity separate from it…”

| Jehovah’s Witnesses Technique |

As Lifton said, this is the basic foundation on which a system of indoctrination and brainwashing is built. This is where it all starts. The two key phrases are control of communication and possessing the ultimate truth. Lifton uses the word milieu very often in his work.

Milieu is a noun that denotes a person’s social environment. Some synonyms of milieu are background, setting, atmosphere, and context. In the Jehovah’s Witness religion, there is an absolutely unrelenting control of every single piece of information that the followers have access to. This makes up their milieu or environment.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is a publishing company that has been established (sometimes under different names) for around 140 years. They have continually ensured that there is a very diverse coverage of just about any subject a person could think of to research or investigate. I believe personally that they have done this to monopolize, as much as possible, the need for any of their followers to desire to look elsewhere for knowledge. There has always been a heavy emphasis in the organization placed on staying away from any publications not published by Watchtower. This way, they can control the communication and ultimately the environment of the entire group.

| Personal Challenge |

Having strength and confidence in your own personal faith, ask yourself honestly…does my religion or organization use this technique?

2) Mystical Manipulation [Possessing Divine Authority]

| Lifton’s words paraphrased for clarity in this case |

“The inevitable next step after milieu control is extensive personal manipulation… Initiated from above, it seeks to provoke specific patterns of behavior and emotion in such a way that these will appear to have arisen spontaneously from within the environment… They [the group] are the agents ‘chosen’ (by history, by God, or by some other supernatural force) to carry out the ‘mystical imperative,’ the pursuit of which must supersede all considerations of decency or of immediate human welfare. Similarly, any thought or action which questions the higher purpose is considered to be stimulated by a lower purpose, to be backward, selfish, and petty in the face of the great overriding mission… This requires that he participate actively in the manipulation of others…whatever his response…he has been deprived of the opportunity to exercise his capacities for self-expression and independent action.”

| Jehovah’s Witnesses Technique |

Jehovah’s Witnesses are 100% directed by a group of men that are referred to as The Governing Body. This body of men that is comprised of anywhere from eight to twelve men is a unit of self-proclaimed representatives for God’s “faithful and discreet slave class.” This expression is based on their interpretation of the Parable of The Faithful Servant at Matthew 24:45-47, Mark 13:34-37, and Luke 12: 35-48. This is a central doctrine of their belief system. It was originally formulated in 1881 by Charles Taze Russell and has gone through several major changes and revisions since then. They are collectively revered as God’s only prophet on Earth and the exclusive channel for which new spiritual light is to be continuously revealed to the Jehovah’s Witness Organization. Let’s repeat that one more time for clarity…

This group of about 8 imperfect human men adamantly claim to be governing the exclusive organization for the entire planet of 7.6 billion humans, possessing the divinely-gifted authority to oversee the single organization on Earth that contains the only system of principles to guide humans in living a life that will ensure the best chance possible of surviving the impending destruction at Armageddon of about 99.887% of the entire population of the planet.

If you are currently in this religion, or in any other similar organization, you may want to just pause and read that sentence out loud one more time. Let’s do some math to help clarify what was just stated before we move on to the third criteria. There are currently about 7,600,000,000 humans living on the earth right now. According to the official website for the JW organization, they are claiming at the time of this writing that there are around 8,500,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses on the planet.

Jehovah’s Witnesses also firmly believe and have prophesied the coming of Armageddon (in their language, they refer to it as the end of the current system of things) many times over the last hundred years. Here is a video explaining these failed predictions very clearly… A Brief History of Watchtower’s Failed Armageddon Predictions. It is their unwavering belief that Armageddon will destroy every single person on this planet that is not devoted to Jehovah God and living as an active Jehovah’s Witness. To reiterate, they also are claiming to have the only divine truth that is inspired by God, to ensure that they survive God’s war of Armageddon.

So let’s put all of this into perspective. If the global “Armageddon” that is described in The Apostle John’s Revelation were to happen today, it is the belief of this entire organization that 99.887% of the planet would be destroyed, leaving approximately 0.112893539474% of the people alive; Jehovah’s Witnesses. Does this make sense to you?

| Personal Challenge |

Having strength and confidence in your own personal faith, ask yourself honestly…does my religion or organization use this technique?

3) Demand for Purity [Use of Guilt and Shame]

| Lifton’s words paraphrased for clarity in this case |

“In the thought reform milieu, as in all situations of ideological totalism, the experiential world is sharply divided into the pure and the impure, into the absolutely good and the absolutely evil. The good and the pure are of course those ideas, feelings, and actions which are consistent with the totalist ideology and policy; anything else is apt to be relegated to the bad and the impure…”

| Jehovah’s Witnesses Technique |

This one is a rather easy one to explain. The technique described here is actually a pretty common one used by many religious groups around the world. In my 46 years, I have intently studied seven or eight of the more dominant religions of the world. Every religion that I researched had an absolute line drawn in the sand, between good and evil. Pure and impure.

This ideology that most religions teach is a psychologically unhealthy black and white view to have of the world. Talkspace.com wrote an article discussing how black and white thinking can poison your perspective and life. Although living your life based on absolute back and white reasoning may give you a measure of security feeling that you have all the answers, it can also cut you off from the complexity and richness of life. As most people would agree, life is anything but black and white anymore. No one has all the answers. For birth to death, life is simply one lesson after another.

| Personal Challenge |

Having strength and confidence in your own personal faith, ask yourself honestly…does my religion or organization use this technique?

4) The Cult of Confession [All Serious Sins are to be Confessed]

| Lifton’s words paraphrased for clarity in this case |

“Confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal, and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself. There is the demand that one confess to crimes one has not committed, to sinfulness that is artificially induced, in the name of a cure that is arbitrarily imposed. Such demands are made possible not only by the ubiquitous human tendencies toward guilt and shame but also by the need to give expression to these tendencies. In totalist hands, confession becomes a means of exploiting, rather than offering solace for, these vulnerabilities… The assumption underlying total exposure… is the environment’s claim to total ownership of each individual self within it… …[T]he cult of confession makes it virtually impossible to attain a reasonable balance between worth and humility…

| Jehovah’s Witnesses Technique |

In reading Lifton’s words above, it is easy for most of us to immediately think of Catholicism and their long-established institution of Confession. A parishioner regularly goes to the confession booth to confess their sins to the Father behind the cold metal divider, gets the assignment of how many Hail Mary’s to utter that will atone their sins, and the person goes on with their day. All is forgotten.

The Governing Body and The Local Congregation Body of Elders

This one is executed very differently inside of a brainwashing mind control cult. Inside of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion, the elders in each local congregation are to be informed of almost all sins. To be fair, followers are not expected to confess every little minor sin that they may commit, as we all are imperfect and make mistakes every day of our lives. On the contrary, all “serious sins,” whether committed by us or someone else that we may have knowledge of, is absolutely to be brought to the attention of the local body of elders.

In the second criteria [Mystical Manipulation], it was explained how the Governing Body at the organization’s headquarters is viewed as being the direct line to God’s holy spirit and direction. Each local body of elders in the local congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses is likewise viewed by the entire organization as being the direct line to God’s holy spirit, having the same divine authority.

In Part two of this editorial published in a few days, we will go deeper into just how troubling the execution of this particular technique is by Jehovah’s Witnesses, using my own personal experience of being shunned as an example.

The “Two Witness Rule” and Child Molestation

Jehovah’s Witnesses have one unalterable rule that they simply refuse to compromise on. They call it “the two witness rule.” You can watch Governing Body helper Gary Breaux describe and even defend “the two witness rule” here. This rule of theirs has become rather famous as of lately in the world. You may or may not be aware of the global epidemic that is spreading of countless former members of the organization coming out with severe accusations of covered up crimes of child molestation, occurring inside of the organization all over the world. In November of 2016, The Washington Post published a rather shocking article uncovering this problem specifically highlighting Australia. The article found here said this:

“Over the course of about six decades, more than 1,000 members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses were accused of sexually abusing Australian children, according to a new report. Victims were ordered to keep quiet. Not one of the alleged perpetrators were reported to the police. Now, a royal commission in Australia has found the church demonstrated a “serious failure” to protect children from the risk of sexual abuse and relied on outdated policies and practices to respond to such allegations….One such practice, derived from scripture, requires church elders investigating incidents to secure a confession from the person accused or the testimony of two “credible” witnesses to the same incident, two witnesses to separate incidents of the same kind, or strong circumstantial evidence testified to by at least two witnesses. The accuser also has to justify his or her allegations to church elders, often in front of the alleged perpetrator.”





On July 27th of 2015, the Australian Royal Commission held a hearing with leaders of The Watchtower Organization to analyze their policies in regards to handling child sex abuse accusations. coverage. Click here to watch some of the footage.

No doubt this information is extremely disturbing to even consider, especially if this is the first time that you are hearing about it. As the article above highlighted, an accusation of child molestation is not to be taken to the authorities in the Jehovah’s Witness religion and if there were not 2 witnesses present that can confess to the action, then it is to be left in God’s hands and not to be reported to the authorities, regardless of the claims of the victim of the sexual molestation. This insane reasoning is again based on the Watchtower’s biblical perception and understanding.

Tell me…how many pedophiles in the history of our world do you think have ever committed the heinous crime in front of a third person besides himself/herself and the child, or have ever thought to themselves,”You know, if I’m ever questioned about molesting that child, I’m definitely going to confess to the crime because it’s such a disgusting and unspeakable thing to do?” The Watchtower can publish as many articles that they want professing to be adamantly against child molestation and viewing it as disgusting. It is the action that a group of leaders takes when they have knowledge of a situation where a child has been molested that matter. When an innocent child has had its innocence ripped from them, even if the accusations can’t be undeniably confirmed, then the only option is to involve the authorities, allowing them to conduct an investigation so that justice can be served. Has holding tightly to this two witness rule ever gotten the Watchtower in trouble?

This problem is not new to Jehovah’s Witnesses. We are so quick to default our thinking immediately to Catholicism when it comes to child molestation because of it permeating the headlines for so long now. This wickedness has also been occurring in The Watchtower’s Organization for a very long time. So many people have had their lives completely destroyed from Watchtower covering up these crimes. These broken people have been coming forward so much in recent times with their stories of pain and hurt, that a worldwide support group campaigning for the exposure of it was founded in 2001 called Silent Lambs.

Activism Exposing the Issue and Jehovah’s Witnesses Ordered to Pay $35 Million Dollars to Woman in Montana

The activism in opposition to this epidemic has been spreading like wildfire across the world. Here is a great example of an empathetic activist exposing the issue. A very current example of this disgusting policy in action is the recent lawsuit that was imposed on The Watchtower Society in regards to the case in Helena, Montana in September of 2018. A jury ruled in a verdict ordering that The Jehovah’s Witnesses were ordered by a jury to pay $35 million to a woman who says the church’s national organization ordered Montana clergy members not to report her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member. Please take a minute and read about this on nbcnews.com.

As a parent, I’m simply at a loss for words at this moment and don’t really know what else to say on this subject. Bringing all of this back to my mind has currently silenced me on the subject. Perhaps it has done the same to you?

| Personal Challenge |

Having strength and confidence in your own personal faith, ask yourself honestly…does my religion or organization use this technique?

To Be Continued…

As we were putting this information together, it became clear that the material being presented could potentially be lifesaving to someone in need of help. Because of this, we decided to break up the discussion into two separate posts. This way the reader could take in the first four points and have a few days to ponder what was presented before considering the last four points. Stay tuned for Part Two coming in a few days.

We Want to Help You

It is our earnest wish that the information in this article was presented in a clear enough manner to be of assistance to you or anyone that may be mentally struggling with the fallout of being a mind control victim of indoctrination or a brainwashing cult. If you wish to learn more about the real truth behind being one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and especially if you are currently seeking help in waking up from this particular system of indoctrination through the brainwashing mind control techniques that we have discussed, please do not hesitate to contact us via our Contact Page.

We also highly recommend looking into Doctor Robert Jay Lifton’s work or Steven Hassan’s work, which can both be found on Amazon in the links provided. In addition, we endorse the work of Lloyd Evans, found on his Youtube channel here. Lloyd’s video library is vast and extremely valuable to anyone that is mentally trapped inside of the Watchtower. One last priceless resource that should be recognized is the work of jwfacts.com. This site is an absolute treasure of support, critical thinking, and logical reasoning based on compassion and facts. As the site itself exclaims, “JWfacts makes it as simple as possible to determine if Jehovah’s Witnesses have ‘the truth.’”

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We Want to Hear Your Experiences With Indoctrination

Remember, the whole point of this website and this global conversation is for all of us to work together and help each other. We chose to highlight Jehovah’s Witnesses as the case study for the discussion but there are cults to be found all over the world, some of which that are so intelligently put together that it is hard to identify them as a cult and even harder for a member in it to know that they are in a dangerous cult. This is the whole point of a cult. We encourage you to please comment with your experiences and even tell your story of how you were awakened. Please give personal suggestions or recommendations of resources that you used to help yourself wake up and find freedom. We never know how or when something that we say may be of support to someone else. Words and experiences can be so powerful and so helpful.

Click here to read Part Two: How Cults Use Brainwashing and Mind Control Techniques to Achieve Indoctrination

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