Paradise Springs Community Church Survivor Group

A cult will have a slick well-rehearsed Public Relations front which hides what the group is really like. You will hear how they
help the poor, or support research, or peace, or the environment. They will tell you how happy you will be in their group (and
everyone in the cult will always seem very happy and enthusiastic, mainly because they have been told to act happy and will
get in trouble if they don't). But you will not be told what life is really like in the group, nor what they really believe. These things
will be introduced to you slowly, one at a time, so you will not notice the gradual change, until eventually you are practicing and
believing things which at the start would have caused you to run a mile.

A normal religious organization would not have any trouble with you moving to another similar organization as long as you
stayed in that same religion. Because it is the belief system that matters, not membership in an organization. For example if
you were a Christian then you could move from one church to another and still be a Christian.

However cult leaders will tell you can only be "saved" (or can only be successful) in their organization alone. No other
organization has the truth, all others miss the mark. So it is not the belief system that decides your future, but it the belief
system AND your membership with that particular group.

Key Point: Any group which says you must belong to their organization to be saved is almost certainly a cult.

Exclusivism
The cult leaders need to make you believe that there is no where else you can go and still be saved, and if you ever leave the
"one true church" then you are going to hell. This is a fear based control mechanism designed to keep you in the cult. It also
gives the cult leaders tremendous power over you. If you really believe that leaving the group equals leaving God (or means you
are leaving your only chance to succeed in life), then you will obey the cult leaders even when you disagree with them instead of
risking being kicked out of the group. Exclusivism is used as a threat, it controls your behavior through fear.

Note::Be very suspicious of any group that claims to be better than all the others. A religious group may say that other groups
following the same religion are OK, but they are the ones who have a better grasp of the truth and they are superior to the rest.
This is often just a subtle version of exclusivism.

Note: This is one of the practices that cults are often very deceptive about. For example, first off they may give you the
impression that they think you are a true Christian, Buddhist or Muslim and it's not until later that their true position is revealed.

Fear and Intimidation
Cult leadership is feared. To disagree with leadership is the same as disagreeing with God. The cult leaders will claim to have
direct authority from God to control almost all aspects of your life. If the cult is not a religious group then questioning the leaders
or program will still be seen as a sign of rebellion and stupidity.

Guilt, Character Assassination and Breaking Sessions. Guilt will be used to control you. Maybe the reason you're not making
money is because you're not "with the programme". Maybe the reason you're not able to convert new recruits is because "your
heart is prideful and full of sin". It could never be that the programme isn't working, or those new recruits have valid reasons for
not joining. It's always your fault, you are always wrong, and so you must try harder! You will also be made to feel very guilty for
disobeying any of the cult's written or unwritten rules.

Character Assassination is used to help create the guilt in you. Character Assassination is a type of false reasoning used by
people and groups who have no real arguments. The technical name for Character Assassination is "The Ad hominem Fallacy".
This is how it works. Imagine if you will a conversation between two men, Ford and Arthur…

"One plus one equals three", says Ford.
"No I don't think so. You see when I have one thing, and I have another thing, then I have two things not three", replies Arthur.
"I see your point, but what you must realize is that one plus one when calculated in relation to this complex number domain,
which I just invented, and then squared by the sum of the ninth tangent in the sequence of the Fibonacci series results in
three!", stated Ford triumphantly.

Ok, Ford is wrong, but that is not the point. The point is that Ford tried to answer Arthur's reasoning with more reasoning of his
own. This is the healthy way people and groups debate subjects. Now lets see what would have happened if Ford had used
Character Assassination…

"Arthur I have been a mathematician longer than you. How dare you disagree with me! You are obviously a very smug and
prideful person. I think you are disagreeing with me because you are jealous of me, and to be honest with you Arthur your
rebellion has really hurt me and a lot of other people too", stated Ford his face intimidatingly close to Arthur's.

You see Ford didn't answer Arthur's argument, instead he attacked his character. If you are not aware of how Character
Assassination works then it is a powerful way to exert control over you.

Key Point: Character Assassination is a sure sign of a cult.

Breaking sessions are when one, two or more cult members and leaders attack the character of another person, sometimes for
hours on end. Some cults will not stop these sessions until their victim is crying uncontrollably.

Key Point: Cult members are usually very fearful of disobeying or disagreeing in anywayt with their leadership. Healthy
organizations however are not threatened by openly debating issues.

Love Bombing & Relationship Control
Cults know that if they can control your relationships then they can control you. Whether we like it or not we are all profoundly
affected by those around us. When you first go to a cult they will practice "love bombing", where they arrange instant friends for
you. It will seem wonderful, how could such a loving group be wrong! But you soon learn that if you ever disagree with them, or
ever leave the cult then you will lose all your new "friends". This unspoken threat influences your actions in the cult. Things that
normally would have made you complain will pass by silently because you don't want to be ostracized. Like in an unhealthy
relationship love is turned on and off to control.

Cults also try to cut you off from your friends and family because they hate others being able to influence you. A mind control
cult will seek to manoeuvre your life so as to maximize your contact with cult members and minimize your contact with people
outside the group, especially those who oppose your involvement.

Key Point: Beware of "instant friends", remember true friendships develop over time.
Key Point: Beware of a group that tells you who you can and cannot see.

Information Control
Those who control the information control the person. In a mind control cult any information from outside the cult is considered
evil, especially if it is opposing the cult. Members are told not to read it or believe it. Only information supplied by the cult is
true. One cult labels any information against it as "persecution" or "spiritual pornography", another cult calls it "apostate
literature" and will expel you from the group if you are caught with it. Cults train their members to instantly destroy any critical
information given to them, and to not even entertain the thought that the information could be true.

Key Point: If you are instructed by a group not to read information critical of the group, then that is a sign of a cult.

Common sense tells us that a person who does not consider all information may make an unbalanced decision. Filtering the
information available or trying to discredit it not on the basis of how true it is, but rather on the basis of how it supports the party
line, is a common control method used throughout history.

Key Point: Legitimate groups have nothing to fear from their members reading critical information about them.

Reporting Structure
In a mind control cult like in Nazi Germany or Communist Russia you must be careful of what you say and do; "The walls have
ears". Everyone is encouraged to watch out for "struggling" brothers and sisters and report what they see to leadership. Often
information given in deepest confidence is automatically reported to leadership. Cult leaders will then use this information to
convince their members that they have a supernatural link, the trusting member does not suspect the very natural mechanism
behind the supernatural revelations they are given.

People in a mind control cult will also hide their true thoughts and feelings, and instead wear a mask which presents them as a
perfect cult member. This mask is a defense against being reported to leadership and being punished for not measuring up (cult
members never feel like they measure up to the cult's ideals, and yet often believe the other members around them do, when in
reality the others feel the same as them). Hence cult members are trained not only to deceive outsiders, but also to deceive
their fellow cult members. Rarely can close friendships form in cults, and if they do the cult's leaders may see them as a threat
and move those people away from each other. Nothing is allowed that can be more powerful than the cult members' allegiance
to the group and it's leaders.

Key Point: Is information you expected to be kept confidential reported to leadership? If so then it's a cult.

Time Control
Mind control cults keep their members so busy with meetings and activities that they become too busy and too tired to think
about their involvement.

Time control also helps the cult keep their members immersed in the manufactured cult environment.

And time control helps keep cult members away from friends and family.

Key Point: Never-ending compulsory meetings and tasks is a sign of a cult.

Conclusion
Together these manipulative psychological techniques make Mind Control.

Remember, people are not perfect, but if they employ them constantly you are most likely dealing with a cult.

Cults will often tell you that they are not a cult. This is a preemptive strike against the warnings from friends and family
members which they know will come. In fact some cults go as far to tell you that Satan will try and dissuade you by sending
family members and friends to tell you it is a cult. When this tactic is used then often a warped form of logic occurs in the
recruits' mind, the "agents of Satan" do come and tell them that it is a cult. So since the group predicted that would happen, the
group therefore must true! Basically if any group tells you that they are not a cult, or that some people call them a cult, then for
goodness sake find out why!

www.CULTWATCH.com
cultwatch@cultwatch.com
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Auckland 1030, New Zealand
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