It’s no secret that churches use brainwashing techniques. If you’ve ever read any book about brainwashing or watched “Leap of Faith” or “Jesus Camp” then you should be able to just look at a church and see all the evidence sitting in plain sight. I’m sure there have been papers written about how standard, suburban churches use unethical mind-control techniques, but it’s worth repeating.

1. Mandatory, regular attendance

Mind control techniques and hypnosis don’t last forever. Perpetual manipulation requires perpetual renewal. That’s why Coca~Cola won’t let you turn around without seeing a Coca~Cola billboard. Of course, no cult could send their followers to basic training every single week for a full re-indoctrination, but they don’t have to; all they need is one hour a week for refresher training.

2. Big, fancy, majestic buildings

A Catholic once told me that the reason Catholic churches are so majestic is because it helped illiterate peasants understand the majesty of the Lord. Even if that were the intention (which I’m sure it wasn’t), the reality is that churches are artistic masterpieces meticulously designed to overwhelm the senses and make the viewer feel euphoric and humbled. Just standing in an empty cathedral will put you in a trance state.

If you’re surrounded by pictures of people who made bigger sacrifices than you to the in-group and were justly rewarded then you’ll feel even more pressure to conform with their ideology without anyone having to say a word to you. Also, your instinctively going to transfer your awe and respect for the building to the building’s owner or spokesperson.

Your typical suburban American church doesn’t have as much money to build their facade with as the Catholic Church, but you’ll notice they do what they can with what they’ve got. Unsurprisingly, if you go to enough southern Baptist churches eventually you’ll hear a preacher give an update on their “building fund.”

3. Hierarchical leadership

When you walk through the doors of a big, fancy church on Sunday morning you’re going to meet a group of people who have organized themselves into a pyramid shaped authority structure. No cult is complete without a pyramid shaped authority structure, because once a victim perceive that structure to be true then the victim inherently gives those “leaders” authority over them. In other words, if someone can convince you to believe that they’re your leader…then they are. So that’s what cults do. They establish authority and leadership over their recruits.

If you keep meeting with and listening to the leaders of a cult then eventually they’re going to talk you into officially joining, and if/when you finally do join you can expect to be required to undergo a ritual that will symbolically change you from a member of the lost, miserable outsiders into a saved, superior member of the in-crowd. That’s standard cult operating procedures because it’s effective at hooking and keeping followers.

4. Charismatic leaders

The biggest red flag that you might be involved with a cult is if the organization revolves around a professional charismatic leader. When you go to church you will sit down and listen to a charismatic marketer give a 45 minute infomercial. It can’t be any more obvious that innocuous suburban churches are independently operated mini cults. Even if everyone from the pastor to the congregation have the best intentions the end result is the same. Poor people are swindled out of their money, and the charismatic leader gets to live like a demigod surrounded by obedient followers.

5. Trance stimulation

When you enter your big, fancy church on Sunday morning one of the first things that’s going to happen is you’re going to sing hymns with the congregation. The majestic music, combined with the majestic building and the thrill of performing an action in unison with other members of the in-crowd will work you into a trance state that will make you susceptible to hypnosis. If you’re singing about being willfully obedient then you’re just hypnotizing yourself, and you’re hypnotizing the people standing around you listening to you sing about the virtue of willful obedience, servitude, sacrifice and faith. Even if that’s not the intent, that’s the outcome. Even if you don’t know it’s happening, it’s happening. Even if everyone was forewarned and knew it was happening it would still work on some of the participants.

6. Repetitive drills (and consequences for nonconformity)

In addition to singing, a good cult would require its victims to perform rote physical drills like marching, dancing, kneeling or clapping. The moment you participate in a drill you’re being obedient. You didn’t just kneel or march or clap. You followed an order without thinking about it, and the more you do that the more likely you are to do it again. Eventually the charismatic leader won’t be asking you to do calisthenics. He’ll be asking for money or a favor. What’s more interesting than that though. If you can get a group of people used to following your orders and acting in unison you can eventually give the whole group an order, and they’ll act in unison. That would give you the power to tell a group of people to go build a house or go burn a house down.

7. Separating the believers (the in crowd) from the non believers

Another sure-fire sign you’re participating in a cult is if someone tells you that the world can be divided into two kinds of people: those who are inside the group and those who are outside the group. The people inside the group are always saved and admirable. The people outside the group are always lost, unworthy and detestable, and the determining factor between good and evil is whether or not your a member of the in-group.

If everyone were equal, and we all used reason to determine ethics then there would be no motivation for anyone to join a cult. However, if your self-worth and your fate are tied to your membership in the group then you’ll be hooked for life. Churches that play this card the heaviest tend to get the most donations and keep the most loyal repeat-donors. People who attend churches that play this card the heaviest are setting themselves up to be taken advantage of.

8. The call to action is to entrench yourself in the group and base your life on its doctrine.

Church can be a lot of fun, and you can experience a lot of genuine moments of happiness with the people you love, but the Sunday morning agenda always centers around the sermon. The point of the sermon is to deliver a message, and the message is that you need to base your self-worth on your membership in the group and demonstrate obedience to the group.

9. You’re guilt tripped and manipulated

Charismatic leaders use every trick in the book to manipulate late your emotions during their sermons. They mesmerize you with the way they dress and talk. They guilt trip you. They make impossible promises and horrific threats. And they always build you up into a vulnerable, irrational frenzy right before they hit you with an ultimatum.

10. You’re given an ultimatum

The point of every cult service is to build up to the moment where the charismatic leader makes a call to action. The call for action is to either give money, take your commitment to the cult to the next level, humiliate yourself or at least honor those who do. This is brazen manipulation, and it works. Creepy cults leaders know that and quaint suburban pastors know that.

11. You’re encouraged to humiliate yourself and mimic others

Your preacher will ask you to put your nose on the ground and confess your “sins” to your neighbors. He’ll make you tell him you’re not worthy to kiss your master’s feet. Once you admit you’re a dog that means you’re finally broken, because in your mind the only path to salvation from there is by doing whatever the cult asks of you. The path to salvation may be as simple as putting $5 in the collection plate every week, but it’s still unconscionably unethical to manipulate people into thinking they owe that money. That’s literally driving people insane. Anyone who tells you to humiliate yourself if not your friend. It’s selling them false hope, and its wasting time and money they could be using to make their lives and the world around them better.

12. You’re asked for money, and your worth is tied to the amount of money you give

If anyone asks you for money…they probably just want your money. If they demand money from you and threaten you and your family for not paying up then you’re can be even more sure they just want your money. If the person asking you for money is wearing a suit that cost more money than what you’re wearing…then don’t give that person any more money.

13. Socializing with the in crowd

The most effective way to control the minds of a group of followers would be to lock them in an isolated compound together where the charismatic leader could control every aspect of their lives like the military does to its members. In suburbia that’s just not possible. So the trick is to keep your in-group together as much as possible and get them to willfully ostracize themselves from the rest of society as much as possible.

I’m not saying that if you hang out with your bowling buddies when you’re not bowling then that means you’re forming a cult. But when a charismatic leader organizes constant events that keep his donors together…you can predict the outcome.

14. Using indoctrination techniques in your own time and policing your peers

The amount of Coca~Cola advertisements you’ve seen in your life attests to how quickly the effects of manipulation can fade and thus how important it is to constantly top-up your message in your victim’s short term memory. One way television commercials do this is by getting a jingle stuck in your head. If you walk around all day repeating the advertiser’s custom-designed message in your head then you’re doing the advertiser’s job of reminding you of the message. Churches tell you to read the Bible constantly and to fill your house with Biblical themed merchandise. If they can get you to eat, sleep and breath church doctrine then you’ll become your own snake oil salesman. Then you’ll do the charismatic leader’s job of manipulating you for him.

15. Recruitment

Cults need a constant stream of new victims in order to finance the charismatic leader’s lifestyle. So…if you run into an organization that is constantly having recruitment drives to get people to come listen to an infomercial where they’re asked to give money at the end…don’t go there. You know what’s going to happen, and it only ends well for the charismatic leader…assuming he doesn’t get too drunk on power and do something crazy.

http://wisesloth./2012/09/02/15-signs-your-church-is-a-cult/

gbigbega: You just mentioned everything that is done in every church. By your inference, all churches are cult houses abi? Or are you just trying to justify your tormented mind for not going to church?

gbigbega: You just mentioned everything that is done in every church. By your inference, all churches are cult houses abi? Or are you just trying to justify your tormented mind for not going to church?

bizmahn:

I used to think Alexleo was wrong about the poster in some points.But I have fully made up my mind that this fellow is heavily unconsciously or consciously being used by satan himself in broad daylight.All churches are cults and frosbel is the only one going to heaven.Just imagine that.

bizmahn:

I used to think Alexleo was wrong about the poster in some points.But I have fully made up my mind that this fellow is heavily unconsciously or consciously being used by satan himself in broad daylight.All churches are cults and frosbel is the only one going to heaven.Just imagine that.