Now I will begin to illustrate how this can happen.
The main goal of brainwashing or gain power over a group is as follows: (1) to drastically alter a person's sense of reality, (2) to get the potential cult member to accept a new reality, (3) to alter the understanding of the potential cult member's past, (4) to get the potential cult member to accept a new belief system, and (5) to get that person to be a loyal member of the cult (Miller, 1990, 96). The book.
Coping with Cults outlines a very general method of the brainwashing process. The method is as follows: "Isolate the person and manipulate his or her environment. Control the channels of information and communication. Wear the person down though inadequate diet and fatigue. Replace uncertainty, fear, and.
confusion with the promise of joy but only as part of the group. And finally, assign repetitive tasks such as singing, chanting, or copying pages from a book.
(Miller, 1990, 98)." A prime example of the recruiting and brainwashing process is Charles Manson's method. He used the girls in the Family as a recruiting.
method. He would allow men to have sex with any of his girls as much as they like. After they did it once, the men were his; they would do anything Manson said (Bugliosi, 1974, 120). The family stayed on a ranch that had no clocks and was isolated from the rest of the world. There was also much drug use by Manson and the Family. The average family member ate LSD at least.
300 times while they were at the ranch, while Manson preached about Helter Skelter or orchestrated massive orgies (Bugliosi, 1974, 431). Occasionally he would feed the family LSD and reenact the crucifixion of Christ with himself as Jesus (Bugliosi, 1974, 120). Although the cult was dangerous there was a cult that shocked the world.
The most massive cult slaying was the suicide of the people of "The people's Temple", headed by a man named Jim Jones. Jim Jones held degrees from Indiana University and Butler University.