How Is Mind Control Used in Authoritarian Type Religions?
Reasons for Joining or Remaining in a Harmful Religion
Welcome to the fifth article in the course Reclaim Your Life: Rebuild Your Identity in relation to healing from harmful religion.
This article (first of a two-part series) examines the role of mind control as a factor in why someone joins or remains in an authoritarian and controlling type of religion.
You can choose to listen to me talk on this subject via the video or you can read through a condensed version of the video written in the article following.
So, I wanted to talk a little bit about thought control, manipulation and mind control and some of the ways this can be evidenced in authoritarian and damaging religion (that may not be immediately obvious until we start delving into it a little bit deeper).
Fearing your own thoughts
So authoritative religions get people to fear their own thoughts. This is very manipulative.
So how are you taught not to trust your own thoughts and thinking?
I know in Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) I was taught:
“Do not lean upon your own understanding”- Proverbs 3 v 5
This scripture was used to literally teach that I was never to trust what I thought - along with another scripture:
“The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate. Who can know it?”- Jeremiah 17 v 9
We were taught to not trust any instinct or feeling in our heart.
I was taught that the only knowledge deemed worthy to listen to was that which came from the organisation (JWs).
God can read your heart and discern all your thoughts
In JWs, we were taught that God can read your heart and that even thinking about certain actions is a sin.
For example, we were taught that “ I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart”- Matthew 5 v 27–28.
The interpretation of this was that someone who thinks about committing a sin and fantasises about it (in this case a sexual sin) is just as guilty as someone who commits adultery or fornication in the eyes of God.
So the after-effects of being taught this as a child, or as an adult is that it can make you frightened of natural ways of thinking.
You suddenly catch yourself being in fear and feel that you constantly have to ask for forgiveness.
And whenever you are thinking things you believe are bad and unworthy you have to keep asking God for forgiveness; repenting or maybe even confessing to the elders (or church leaders).
You are always looking at the church or organisation for approval and forgiveness.
It is constantly repeated that you can't trust yourself and your thoughts and heart can't be trusted.
Obviously, as humans, we have thoughts every day that we would not want others to see or know about as they occur.
We look at someone and think, “Oh, wow you look pretty good what gorgeous biceps!” OR “I feel so angry I could throw something at you”.
But all of these natural and normal run-of-the-mill everyday thoughts we have as humans are condemned within authoritarian religion.
We are taught it is evidence of having an evil heart and untrustworthy mind.
Fear of eternal damnation
This fear is either of dying at Armaggedon or being judged and burned in hellfire or of accidentally sinning against Gods holy spirit and being left in purgatory forever.
In JWs, you are taught that if you sin against God’s holy spirit you are eternally damned by God and are never forgiven so people are always on edge, hoping and praying that they do not do this.
I was taught that God is “a jealous and vengeful god”- Nahum 1 v 2 who exacts punishment.
We were often given examples in JW of how God was like this.
One instance often quoted was when the prophet Elisha was taunted by young children and the scriptures in the Old Testament speak about God sending two she bears to rip them to pieces whilst still alive. This was because they yelled taunts at Elisha who was Gods prophet.
The interpretation was that if we question the organisation and say that they are not God’s representatives that we are going to be rejected by God, just like he sent the bears to tear to pieces the children (who were not forgiven) then if we reject the organisation and say they are not God’s representatives then we will also be rejected by God.
So the way these things are taught is to enforce obedience to the hierarchy of the organisation or the church or the faith and create fear in us so that if we dare even think these things then we are frightened that God will judge us.
We, therefore, feel we need to constantly control our own thoughts and be on guard against them which creates generalised anxiety.
Fear of not being good enough
Often within authoritarian religions, we are always living with the thought and belief that we could lose our salvation.
Although it is taught that it is a gift we are taught we have to continually keep doing certain things to keep Gods approval.
In JWs, we have to be witnessing a certain number of hours per month (and we are always encouraged that we should do more) and the more you do the better witness you are believed to be for Jehovah.
We were admonished to never miss a meeting (even with several young children) even if they number 5 meetings a week. We were strongly encouraged to always be on time, give talks at meetings, and do prestudy with your children and for yourself so you are prepared to give answers.
So, you always busy pre studying, studying, going to meetings, witnessing and so much so that you don't have time to think of anything else.
So keeping you busy all the time is a way of controlling your mind as you don't have time to read, examine or think about anything else.
Unhappiness is always a spiritual problem
If for some reasons you are experiencing some unhappiness in your life (in your marriage or your personal life) and you go and speak to the elders often you are told it is a spiritual problem.
So, you are taught that you will be happy if you:
read the bible more
pray more
do more witnessing
attend more meetings
So, instead of encouraging personal responsibility, personal growth, healing and self-awareness problems are seen as being a spiritual problem.
The implication is that you not doing enough and you would be happy if God gave you more of his holy spirit and obviously he can't as there must be something YOU are doing wrong that means you aren't happy.
It is a failure in YOU.
So this sort of teaching and indoctrination can be really detrimental and is a powerful force for getting people to do more and be more in an organisation or faith.
Losing God spirit
If you are not happy the elders may say “Well if you are not doing something wrong, maybe your family has lost Gods spirit (your husband, children or friends) and have done something wrong?”
In that way, it encourages people to have a really critical attitude.
You are looking at each other and always judging.
As well as judging yourself harshly you are also judging intimate family members and those closest to you, as you are frightened that if you hide their sins you will lose gods spirit too.
So there is a lot of telling on each other, and not a lot of loyalty to each other in this regard.
Loyalty to the organisation and to God (the organisation and god are taught as being one and the same thing) comes first, not loyalty to a spouse or to family members.
It has to be God first before family so in this way, it is controlling your thinking and controlling your mind and your actions in a really subtle but powerful way.
Fear of losing Gods approval, fear of eternal damnation, fear of being judged by God as not good enough, fear of your own thoughts, all push you to look to an organisation rather than yourself as a source of guidance.
Fear of Armageddon or Second Coming of Christ or Rapture
Fear of an end time can be so prominent that it stops people getting an education, saving money, or planning for the future as you are always taught that Armageddon is just around the corner.
Or, you are taught that the return of Christ will happen in the “twinkling of an eye”, just like the flood of Noah's day (when it suddenly started raining one day).
You are constantly reminded of the need to be prepared for the rapture or Armaggedon as you never know quite when it is coming so this creates an underlying fear and anxiety.
You are responsible for saving others
You are also taught you are responsible for saving other people.
If you don't tell everyone you come into contact with and warn or preach to them then you will be responsible for their death.
So constant pressure to preach (and reinforce your ingroup status with the faith) instils fear. But, unfortunately at the time you are in it you do not recognise it as fear, instead, you see it as duty and obligation and part of being special and accepted by God as his special people.
But IT IS fear.
- Always being anxious and afraid that you aren’t meeting gods standard to be saved.
- Not making plans to save for old age and get an education and plan for the future.
Many people do not recognise these indoctrinations as manipulations and mind control as they feel they are not in a recognisable cult living apart from other people.
But, if you are in a religion that is in the community but still creates fear in your mind that:
- separates you from other people
- separates you from the normal way of thinking and acting
- creates fear and a need to look to the church and organisation as your form of authority and approval — instead of your own mind and heart
then you are as subject to mind control as someone in a cult.
Taught to fear “the world”
Again, many within an authoritarian religion are raised in a climate of fear of Armaggedon which creates a strong phobia teaching one to be frightened of the outside world, or “worldly” thinking.
Many are taught that any thinking coming from anything or anyone outside of their “faith or religion” is dangerous.
You are taught that anyone who leaves (not because they changed their mind) is because they are bad-hearted, is opposed to God, unhappy, a drug addict or will commit suicide or will be demonised.
It is constantly reinforced that if you do leave then you will be rejected by God and not just God but everyone within the organisation or religion as well.
This can be really difficult to cope with when people leave.
Once they leave they can be shunned so they can’t give their reasons for leaving as no one will speak to them, so they may flounder.
They may struggle and some can become suicidal and depressed (not because they are bad-hearted) but because they have lost all social supports and everyone they have ever known.
So, these are just a few areas where mind control, thought control and manipulation can make it hard for people to leave, and also when they do leave, make it difficult for them to learn to trust themselves and others.
I will talk a bit more about some other ways authoritarian religion uses thought control (which all form part of some of the reasons people stay in these religions) in the next video.
If you would like to hear or read the video/article that precedes this one in the course please click on the embedded article below.
If you would like to read the article after this one, in this course, this will be published soon.
