ch6 yay this chapter is called 'courageous survivor stories' - author fails to immediately associate silence with mind control :( :( instead focusing on "reticence" and "courage", but does mention "being able to share" - stresses importance of talking; helps those but inside and outside. - author expresses strong passion around encouraging people to speak out - strange that the letter from ron hubbard seemed cut to a prefix and there was no followup. one wonders if something else was in play. - standard accusation of child abuse leveled against cult critics: "fair game" -> "tricked, sued, lied to, destroyed". heavy overt disreputation campaign involving gang-stalking. - despite retiring after 12 years of bankrupting harassment, jon returned to helping escapees in 2013 or 2014 (year differs in audiobook vs ebook, maybe one is revised), because they "simply do not recover from the intense hypnotic procedures and humiliating treatment" on their own - academically endorsed blog at https://tonyortega.org - Open Minds Foundation, survivors seek to educate public about and reduce impact of undue influence <== ! - sad to learn about sex trafficking from a man. also sad that the reading will paint over my own experiential intuition on the male side. still, incredibly important information. - sex trafficking was only revealed as violent slavery when model wanted to cancel contract - model was forced to verbalize and repeat that she had chosen the situation - use of bible verses to validate, knowing victim was christian - feigned enjoyment of servitude enforced - learned secret hand sign for public - after only 1 year of exposure, model was taken out by police when identified by another victim - agent was quickly arrested and sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. no discussion at all of further analysis of the trafficking group, superiors, clients, or norms and modes. - victim knew no other survivors, had no understanding of what happened, was not brought to deprogramming - aided by this book and church. i still habitually see church exposure as return to mind control from my experiences. - Ending The Game was made by book author, Carissa Phelps, D'Lita Miller, and the victim; citation 101; intervention curriculum focuses on resisting and recovering from manipulation and coercion [hero story] - interesting to learn there is islamic terrorist mind control. i wonder how they learned of it, to use it. - masoud wrote two books, the latter published in 2014: "Masoud: Memoirs fo an Iranian Rebel" and "Destructive and Terrorists Cults: A New Kind of Slavery" - terrorism cult was heavily associated with iranian rebellion, overthrowing shah in 1979 - if cults are formed from international intrigue, blockchains would be pretty important so as to assert global information pressure that could resist government spy agencies - cult leader later tried to depose new iranian leader using their widespread support - cult had members become suicide bombers. one was used to bomb inside a mosque, and members fled the cult - cult leader was named Rajavi, ended up supporting Sadam Hussein, and lost a lot of support. these associations show parts of international alliances associated with mind control. i often worry about the great loss of information on tactics and internal information around mind control. it is actually a relief that there is so much of it, so that people can flee from one continent to another, and share information on tactics with that other nation, that the people in the nation fled to would have great difficulty learning from their local cults. "what do the mind controllers know, what are they doing, and how are they doing it" is a hugely important question. - cult leader escalated mind control, including a demonstration of marrying his close friend's wife. - victim acted as the representative of the terrorist cult at the UN and in the USA. it seems likely that them eventually escaping would inform how the mind controllers related with public bodies in the future. - the group mind control kept increasing in intensity, progressing to brainwashing which the author defined as violent and overt. one can imagine the cult leader being in a bind, being themselves requested or commanded to have their people behave in ways that do not yield consensual compliance. this may not be the case, but there is some reason for the change. forced celibacy makes one wonder what the plans for the future were. children were taken from parents and sent to "supporters in europe and america". - masoud left via back pain and an experience of slow subconscious awakening "as if from a bad dream" after 20 years. he had community outside the cult, which the author has described as the biggest factor in escape. - the cult had made a secret fake capitol where its leader was the leader of the whole country. this capital was taken by american military in 2009. - conference was held in 2014 with author and Richard Kelly of AAWA (Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses) and many others. Video is on author's website described in citation 102. the link seemed broken for me but i think i found it at https://vimeo.com/106594950 linked from https://freedomofmind.com/videos/ where there are many other videos. - website for victim of terrorist iranian cult is https://www.banisadr.info/ - the next one is a zen buddhist cult. i don't like thinking of zen buddhism as bad. i think they teach care for all living things. it is also normal to have more experienced members giving meditative guidance to newer, as far as i understand. - i'm skimming the parts of this section while copying it over and it reminds me a little of things people say about activist groups as they start breaking up. i wonder if the buddhism group was mind controlled to become a mind control group. - being mind controlled, coerced, and manipulated, to change things after telling others your plans, is a repeat experience, intense. these things are much stronger and spookier than they sound, because they are in an environment of psychological connection and control. thoughts on the the dime story: -- the author resisted it, and remembered it, both. for me, these go together better than apart. -- it is coming through years later third-hand. it may have had big impact despite being resisted. -- these experiences are so terrifying. it doesn't describe those with greater power making use of the impact to assert further power, but we see this elsewhere, for example on-list. -- it's of importance, both for resistance communities and for the individual, to celebrate resistance. this does of course also provide a reliable behavior for mind controllers to plan around. - joshs' organization is called Sorting It Out, focused on spiritual and guru cults. - i see that this story is not about the harms of zen; rather how a destructive cult pretended to be zen. still, it is hard for me to value zen as much as i used to, reading this story. - josh got to be a zen monk when he was 20, before anything funny happened in the organization - i'm imagining the practicioner who shared dharma with josh having been "graduated early" by their asian teacher, maybe due to a sense of urgency around sharing spiritual practices with the western world. i have heard of this behavior elsewhere. - the leader became ill, and the behavior mostly became cult-like after the illness started. impression was they became very stressed. the stress is also reminiscent of activist groups. - raging of confused leader was interpreted as mysterious zen teaching. this is a normal way to meditatively interpret _all_ things, but it also hides that there was a serious problem brewing. - questions without answers increased. seems possibly a pattern. (also on this list, apologies). - it became relatively obvious that the group met the normal idea of what a "cult" is - dime story: care being twisted to criticism by a trusted figure. interesting how this aligns with the figure having become very irritable. - josh now runs a media business for nonprofits. author says he believes mindfulness and meditation will foster many cult leaders. if this was indeed a psychological attack on the head of the monastary, the attacker would have won. - oh the next one is about a quaker. fun. oh, no, they became violent. oh well. - i'm skeptical of this one because the story against it catalysed with a meeting in the year 2014 :S - noticing how, when he became suspicious of the group, he was visited by people to suss him out. these kind of visits indicate things. i don't recall immediately what my visits would have been, but i think pierce asked about some things? others asked things too i think. - there doesn't seem to be a lot of clear information written here about this one, to me. website is http://laroucheplanet.info/ . it is certainly clearer when members escape and retain clear stories of harm, or were leaders. - it would have been nice to post these one a day, since i am anyway. i'll keep doing this this way though. - i suspect misuse of the word "guru" which is supposed to apply to real gurus not cult leaders ;p - thinking of how the ludicrous apocalypse meme of being lifted off the planet by space aliens, trained, and returned to rebuild in the aftermath, is very similar to the situation of people with extreme power and wealth or with value to such people, being protected from various normal cataclysms, including exotic ones. this also seems similar to genocidal cleansing. my sense is that this promise is a lie (because cult-like teachings seem so very unhealthy), but i imagine it isn't always one. - model only escaped after the leader died - model lived as if they were a dog, living with canines - very passive emotions, continuously felt at fault for being harmed, despite escaping. paragraph about escape useful for noticing mind control internally. "I was so convinced when I left Eternal Values that I was evil and cursed -- that I had failed Frederick and even mankind. I felt I was doomed to a life of tragedy for betraying the cause. But I finally got to the place where the thought occurred that maybe the way I felt was not just because of me and my endless failings, but perhaps the _group I had been involved with had something to do with it_. For years, people had been saying I was in a cult but I would never believe that. I just couldn't accept that I would ever do that. I was convinced that things like that didn't happen to people like me. I would never join a cult." - ptsd - unclear how suing the cult ended its existence, no reason to disbelieve - thinking, when you encounter a strong influence that is pretending to be god, this is a good indication of a cult. i am again thinking that i bumped into a cult. i tend to not retain this belief. note: it stopped exposing me to the god-pretending when it realised i did not like it. - the book says small and big groups can do just as much harm to individuals as big or small - discouraging that faith healing cults give a bad name to healing without medicine. ya gotta _wean off slowly and carefully and shift your life habits_, stupid dead cultists. also draws a harsh distinction between prayer and action. we need our prayers to build real creative nurturing and healing change in the world; not simply be group passion. hard to look down on group passion though. - thinking of a group of praying members convinced that a faith healed member would be resurrect being similar to dissociative delusions to handle trauma. not a normal comparison i imagine, maybe it is. - it shows the power of multi-day group ritual that the dead cultist was let die both by himself and his spouse and parents, although this isn't completely clarified. i guess people use the tools they believe to work. still, inspiration that deprogramming likely works. imagine being influenced for your own benefit by a crowd of escaped cultists experienced in diverse forms of mind control. - the story of the failed faith healing also shows how the impact of small mistakes from above can compound when an environment of extreme unthinking belief is held. - members had visions of the dead member's ressurection, showing the impact of environment on visions. [earlier, visions of escape were mentioned.] - i was thinking of how the book often said "the leader" somewhere, instead of a leader's name, and how it's probably better to anonymise victims than leaders, etc. but then i was thinking of how, if i ever mention mind control to a formal figure, i am immediately and harshly asked for who did it, without any aid to me offered. the harshness and suddenness of this question spreads the norm of cults taking power, as it is a question one learns to fear and not answer. it is likely to put somebody in a state of mind where they comply with their programming. i usually remember never to mention this. i generally assume people who ask this are influenced or inserted to support human trafficking, but this seems likely paranoia on my part, and i generally either do whatever they say, or whatever urges i experience, from the confused state of mind i get into from the question. - i was thinking about my therapist's behavior, similar to those interactions with others, and i suspect my therapist doesn't or didn't really think anything happened to me. this could explain a lot. maybe has a resource about human behavior that indicates this. - it kind of seems there are two different kinds of cults: huge world-power organisations and their arms, and small people just building small groups of personal power. either one seems to be able to coopt a real religion or such into a power-building thing. - in the upcoming section, one of the words is the same as in a jain chant i learned. i was thinking how i'm learning that chants can be impactful, and how they'd be more impactful in a language i understand. i think, for impact, it makes more sense to translate first before engaging the resonance of the origin language, if you don't know the origin language. i was also thinking it would be even better, for me personally, for me to adjust chants so that they match what i want to believe personally, at least a little bit. this way i could work with a normal religious community to rebuild my own identity and values. i think this makes sense. [some of us thoughts are considering the value of chanting phrases and things we used to value, like looking for what hasn't been noticed yet, and searching for identity, reason, and how to aid, for all the things. these old phrases and such would be nice for us.] - the next group has the initials NSA ha. here's a quote: "She, like other members, had been taught that if she ever left NSA and stopped chanting, terrible consequences would follow." - end of previous section: "If I hadn't received good counseling, I probably would have kept trying to return to the group." - Nichiren Shoshu o fAmerica owns Soka University in California. - simple chanting behavior gave incredible high. environment stimulating this not described. - the woman who left NSA spent a year motionless, believing she was dying of cancer, when she had no cancer. this anecdote could help me disbelieve that i have brain cancer. - my therapist claims to understand me well when i do not believe them to understand me. i wonder if they are messing with me, or confused. - the author spoke with a group of jehovah's witnesses who had left. i think the group i know of is likely the targeted individuals, might be other groups i'm thinking of, not sure. there are certainly different groups of TIs, many less kooky than the mainstream ones. i think my memory around this might relate to something unexpected, that isn't exactly in line. for example: his book doesn't mention mkultra yet, but there are still living survivors of mkultra to speak with. - jehovah's witnesses are raised in something called the Watchtower, Watchtower Society. jw's ban contact with ex-members and a number of books. - concept of, what do i do if i don't have a pre-cult self to go back to. reminiscent of my somewhat painful experience of either encouraging what i remember of what i used to be like or do, or submitting to the new things. relates to heavy amnesia but also other things. "I have come to believe that human beings are all born with an authentic self as well as a desire for love, fairness, truth and meaning. It is something that no group can program out of a person and tyherefore there is always hope for real healing. A subsequent chapter focuses on recovery strategies and a future book will nbe written on this subject.[110]". Also note jainism advice: soul is immortal. one can reheal and reconnect with. - author expresses level of pain associated with being shunned when leaving a group. many other things have incredible pain hardship and suffering others wouldn't expect that it would be nice for the author to share. - people who choose to leave and do not return tend to become incredibly strong. people kicked out tend to succumb to concerns such as addiction or suicide, which becomes a huge health system drain. - mental health professionals are unfamiliar with doing an intake with people exposed to cults. the author is working on a further book and training curriculum. - in TM, a victim says people were pushed to psychosis by meditating so much every day. i am skeptical that meditation in general causes psychosis, as it is a tradition of an entire culture, although I would agree that some things stimulate psychosis. i would wonder if it was being mispracticed, as it seems many other things were. many cultures do include psychotic experiences. - author describes TM as a form of self-induced trance. the author describes TM being a unique form of meditation in that a mantra is simply repeated endlessly. i might consider it to be unhealthy to enter a trance while being influenced by somebody with financial goals with regard to you. - some people become addicted to the meditative trance and are referred to as "space cadets" by other members. my mother would call me a "space cadet" when i was young, and the phrase has kept repeating for me, so it is strange to see it here. it's helpful to learn that one can induce a pleasant trance-like addiction in one's self. i wonder how long it takes. - the cults from asia seem like people (cult leaders) trying to profit off of having had introductory experiences, coopting people with deeper experience and gaining personal power to reinforce the behavior, but of course i don't know - my perception is that the issues with tm as a cult are also not made clear. i may be biased. it's confusing i guess because the meditation is not on obedience but simply a mantra word. - anti-jehovah's-witnesses site: aawa.co [i missed the anti-TM one, i'll scroll up, although few mentions of rape in tm compared to jw. anti-tm websites: tmfree.blogspot.com ginacatena.com] - i've been exposed to extremist christian communities and am liable to take fewer notes here. the victim experienced lifelong sexual abuse from multiple parties including incestuously and it was covered up by the religious community leaders with no provision for counseling. - The Watchtower is the jehovah's witness magazine. it tells readers to stay away from counseling. - curious why devout christian men are sexually abusing christian women. is this a sin or considered virtuous? - the jehovah's witness woman sorted out she wanted to leave, so had sex with somebody out of wedlock so that her husband and the group would be taken away from her. she lost contact with her entire family and community, who shunned her. - The Witness taboos going to college. - after going through college, it was gratifying to counsel others for what she had gone through - it's hard to form an unbiased opinion without inclusion of the doctrines backing the repulsive cult behaviors, but it is clear the cult behaviors are out of proportion; we need to relate with our cultures and groups so as to succeed in addressing the atrocities under them. i wonder if the child rape lawsuits mentioned are the ones one heard of in the news, or if they are different. - jw uses phobia indoctrination around armageddon. voting is also disallowed. - i'm kind of thinking there's a big unaddressed thing in the book of 'good vs evil' that maybe the author pulled in from their cult experiences. a lot of evidence backing seeing the cults as evil. this does make a ton of sense though, since people exposed to them will be trying to comprehend what is evil and what is good, so as to make decisions. - the description of the jw armageddon seems a little analogous to government breakdown - casting of freedom paths as being rooted in hatred of the organization or member provides for realization when the lack of hatred is discovered - the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is the mormons. they recruit rapidly. - some of the cultic aspects of mormonism or jehovah's witnesses seem just similar to religions in general, like treating everything of the religion as good, and letting it define what is good. it does make sense that this should align with what we know instinctively, and there would be an issue if it doesn't. - reminding myself of the importance of spreading decisions based on relevant reasons, not stimulation of what is good or bad - author says the mormon chuchgoer developed a habit of breaking commitments because it was so normal to swear to be perfect and inevitably fail and seek penance. it's of course important to make realistic promises and also pursue perfection. - the description of mormonism does not mention treatment of women. i have heard it is similar to the jehovah's witnesses. i do appreciate that they practice connection to natural ways of life. such things are very rare in our world. - anti-mormon sites: iamanexmormon.com exmormonfoundation.org - anti-scientology: youtube ToryMagoo44 , exscientologykids.com - further information on moonies in "Empereror of the Universe" docuemntary, and on freedomofmind.com which enumerates moon-owned entities, maintained by Larry Zilliox - more survivors added in future book editions - further book on sexuality and mind control hoped for. more sexual mind control in "Erasing Reason: Inside Aesthetic Realism - A Cult That Tried to Turn Queer People Straight" covers many avenues, people mind controlled to be straight or gay from the opposite, or surgically change themselves without interest in doing so. - Please come to freedom of mind facebook page and share stories. Many mind control groups are listed in the freedom of mind group database on the website.. Many also are missing, so please share your story. [i do not find facebook safe, myself.] - Hopefully survivor stories can be a whole book. These stories are like inoculations against mind control.