Brainwashing has become almost a household word in the last two decades or so. In 1961, Robert J. Lifton wrote the definitive book on the subject, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, after studying the effects of ...

Read More 6735

When members of an exclusive, mind controlling group are forced out of the group as believers, or walk away as believers, something happens to them that affects everyone around them. Since my own personal experience ...

Read More 1379

Two methods have traditionally been employed in attempting to free Jehovah's Witnesses from bondage to the Watchtower organization. They are discussing key Bible texts so as to reveal how the Watchtower has mistranslated or ...

Read More 8630

"Why can't you just walk away from that religion and never go back? They don't have any hold on you!" Have you ever said that to a person struggling with leaving a cult or manipulative church? If so, you were no doubt unawares ...

Read More 2037

What can you say when Jehovah's Witnesses comes to your door? How do you avoid arguments over the Bible? How do you help your relatives and friends? How to get to the heart of the issue. But first, how to understand the problem. ...

Read More 8475

edited by Barbara Anderson - Harsh shunning practices are part of many religions. For instance, for thousands of years, the people of India were separated into four main hereditary classes or castes into which ...

Read More 652

MYTH: People in cults are brainwashed. Brainwashing implies the unwilling indoctrination of alien principles or beliefs, which are enforced through overt as well as subtle control mechanisms (typical of Communist ...

Read More 2379

Jehovah's Witnesses have a reputation for cult-like behaviour in the way they treat former members of the group. Is this reputation deserved and if so, how do they justify their disfellowshipping and extreme shunning of members ...

Read More 1817

The Watchtower Society utilises manipulative techniques and environment to recruit and maintain their membership. According to Robert Lifton (1961), a psychologist who examined American soldiers subjected to mind control techniques ...

Read More 4071

When an organization is employing the use of mind control techniques, it is said that it has a hidden agenda and is known as a cult.  The book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism—A Study of Brainwashing in China, ...

Read More 2909