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People don't knowingly join
spiritually abusive groups. Deceptive, exploitive leaders offer innocent seekers a trade, but the long term
results can turn out to be devastating.
HIDDEN: To
put or to keep out of sight; secret; concealed; to keep from being seen
by covering up (If the abuse is "hidden," then someone becomes
the unknowing target. You cannot take the blame.)
ABUSE:
To use wrongly; to mistreat; to deceive. ("Abuse" tells us
there's a perpetrator involved.)
Following are noble things you may have
been seeking before you were deceived:
-
A Purpose
-
A life purpose; a
commitment; significance in life; a cause
-
A Family
-
A place to belong; a group
of friends; intimate confidants; new brothers and sisters
-
A Systematized Belief
System
-
Need some kind of a
philosophical, religious, political ordering of life
-
Promises (eastern
worldview)
-
Higher consciousness
-
Finding the god within
or meeting your "spirit guide"
-
Reincarnation
-
The Promise of
Spirituality or a Relationship With God (a Christian worldview)
-
A true search for
meaning
-
A spiritual grounding
-
Knowledge about God
and the universe
-
The Promise of Personal
Growth (a humanistic worldview)
-
Success; fulfillment;
personal strength; confidence; wisdom; creativity and high
productivity
-
The Promise of Power (a
variety of worldviews, including occultic)
-
Power to cover up a
painful past
-
Control
You may have thought you
went into your group open-eyed, but you ended up finding abuse
inside.
Following are the long term results
(abuses) of trying to find:
-
A Purpose
-
Lack of purpose
(because of assuming the leader's purpose)
-
Don't know who you are
anymore or what you're to do
-
Confusion, depression,
anger over lost years
-
Limited career growth
-
Broken marriages
-
Impaired health
-
A Family
-
A demagogue that
demands more and more of your life.
-
Feeling used
-
Realizing the caring
and love in the group was only conditional
-
Boundary violations
(can even include deviant sexual behavior)
-
Cultic dysfunctional
family
-
Empty, lonely and
unable to trust people; hard to make a commitment to others
-
Obsessing with never
finding a place to belong again; suicidal; depression
-
Rejection of all
authority
-
Problem with
independence and dependence
-
Socially immature
-
A Systematized Belief
System
-
Feel you can't trust
any system of doctrinal teachings anymore
-
Confused and angry
-
Left with myriads of
triggers from religious ceremonies
-
Being dominated by
core teachings that you haven't rejected yet (it takes a lot of
time and study to challenge the content of the teachings you've
been taught)
-
General mental
instability
-
Promises (an eastern
worldview)
-
Brain processing
problems (unable to read and retain)
-
Memory problems
-
Lack of ability to
concentrate (slipped into the sub-cortical level of sub-conscious
altered states)
-
Addictiveness (to
altered states)
-
Inability to focus on
job tasks
-
Psychic breakdown
-
Impaired health
-
Dissociative disorder
-
The Promise of
Spirituality or a Relationship With God (a Christian worldview)
-
Finding the leader's
interpretation of the "truth" with the leader at
the center of it
-
Harmful and/or false
experiences (altered states; feverish tongues-speaking; endless
spiritual warfare exercises)
-
Spiritual maturity and
discernment not attained
-
The experience becomes
addictive
-
Feel you have left God
when disfellowshipped, or exiting on your own (the relationship
between the leader, the teaching and God is very intertwined)
-
Reinforcing addictive
relationships to yourself (your goal previously was to bring or evangelize
people to "God's Kingdom")
-
Trying to figure out
what you believe and who you can trust as a spiritual authority
-
The group preached
grace but lived the law (the leader twists Scriptures)
-
A real search for who
you are and feeling significant again (the group made you feel elite
and special)
-
Guilt, depression,
anxiety, obsessing over particular passages of Scripture (leading
to despair, suicide attempts and nightmares)
-
Inability to make
simple decisions without spiritual leaders being consulted
(frustration, confusion, frozen behavior)
-
Inoculation against
anything spiritual (loss of interest in praying, Bible study;
worship of any kind)
-
The Promise of Personal
Growth (a humanistic worldview)
-
Psychotic breakdowns
-
Dissociative problems
-
Breakdown of trust in
authority figures
-
Loss of personal boundaries
with regard to family secrets (boundaries were violated inside)
-
Realizing you were
defined by success or lack of it
-
Empty and self-worth impaired
-
Financial or marital
instability
-
History of illegal
activities
-
Lack of trust with the
therapeutic community
-
The Promise of Power (a
variety of worldviews, including occultic)
-
Violated conscience
-
Ravaged body
-
A mind full of
unforgettable scenes
-
Memories and massive
triggers
-
More pain
-
Nightmares
In spite of any abuse you
may have gone through, the very fact that you are reading this
means you are a survivor and that you have the strength within you to
make it.
~ Outline from ESN tape
Hidden
Abuses in Cults.
Recovery and
What to Expect
Where Do the Feelings Go? (covers processing painful
thoughts; includes: "How Do I Go About
Writing and What Do I Write About?")
Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional Control
(Explains the four aspects of mind control)
[offsite link]
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Understanding Mind Control & Exploitive Groups
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