The Mind Control Page

"... And when one unconsciously works against oneself, the result is impatience, irritability, and an impotent longing to get one's opponent down whatever the means. Generally certain symptoms appear, among them a peculiar use of language: one wants to speak forcefully in order to impress one's opponent, so one employs a special, bombastic style full of neologisms which might be described as power words. This symptom is observable not only in the psychiatric clinic but also among certain modern philosophers, and, above all, whenever anything unworthy of belief has to be insisted on in the teeth of inner resistance: the language swells up, overreaches itself, sprouts grotesque words distinguished only by their needless complexity."
--- C.G. Jung, Alchemical Studies

The information below I took from an informational pamphlet distributed at one time on the campus of the University of Waterloo. I've had many hours (well, moments at least) of amusement by testing the criteria below against popular organizations and to personal relationships, and I hope you find them equally amusing and/or valuable.

What Is A Cult?

A cult:

uses psychologically coercive techniques in order to recruit and indoctrinate its members.
maintains that the end justifies the means.
forms an elitist, totalitarian society.
has a self-appointed, charismatic, messianic, dogmatic leader, who demands total devotion.
obtains funds through deception for the personal gain and/or power of its leader, but performs no real service to society.

Psychological Coercion

The two basic principles of psychological coercion are:

If you can make a person behave the way you want, you can make that person believe the way you want.
Sudden, drastic changes in environment lead to heightened suggestibility and to drastic changes in attitudes and beliefs.

Mind Control Techniques

Fear: Maintaining loyalty and obedience to the group by threatening soul, life, or limb for the slightest negative thought, word, or deed.
Replacement of Relationships: Destroying pre-cult families by arranging cult marriages and families.
Hypnosis: Inducing a state of high suggestibility by hypnosis, often thinly disguised as meditation.
Peer Group Pressure: Suppressive doubt and resistance to new ideas by exploiting the need to belong.
Love Bombing: Creating a sense of family and belonging through hugging, kissing, touching, and flattery.
Rejection of Old Values: Accelerating acceptance of new lifestyle by constantly denouncing former values and beliefs.
Confusing Doctrine: Encouraging blind acceptance and rejection of logic through complex lectures on incomprehensible doctrine.
Dress Codes: Removing individuality by demanding conformity to the group dress code.
No Questions: Accomplishing automatic acceptance of beliefs by discouraging questions.
Metacommunication: Implanting subliminal messages by stressing certain keywords or phrases in long, confusing lectures.
Removal of Privacy: Achieving loss of ability to evaluate logically by preventing private contemplation.
Time-Sense Deprivation: Destroying ability to evaluate information, personal reactions, and body functions in relation to passage of time by removing all clocks and watches.
Disinhibition: Encouraging child-like obedience by orchestrating child-like behavior.
Uncompromising Rules: Inducing regression and disorientation by soliciting agreement to seemingly simple rules which regulate mealtimes, bathroom breaks, and use of medications.
Verbal Abuse: Desensitizing through bombardment with foul and abusive language.
Games: Inducing dependence on the group by introducing games with obscure rules.
Guilt: Reinforcing the need for salvation by exaggerating the sins of the former lifestyle.
Change of Diet: Creating disorientation and increased susceptibility to emotional arousal by depriving the nervous system of necessary nutrients through the use of special diets.
Sleep Deprivation and Fatigue: Creating disorientation and vulnerability by prolonging mental and physical activity and withholding adequate rest and sleep.
Chanting and Singing: Eliminating non-cult ideas through group repetition of mind-narrowing chants or phrases.
Confession: Encouraging the destruction of individual ego through confession of personal weaknesses and innermost feelings of doubts.
Financial Commitment: Achieving increased dependence on the group by burning bridges to the past, through the donation of assets.
Finger Pointing: Creating a false sense of righteousness by pointing to the shortcomings of the outside world and other cults.
Flaunting Hierarchy: Promoting acceptance of cult authority by promising advancement, power, and salvation.
Isolation: Inducing loss of reality by physical separation from society and rational references.
Controlled Approval: Maintaining vulnerability and confusion by alternately rewarding and punishing similar actions.