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Quote by: Aussie  Hello all, i've been reading the site for a while now and thought I'd have some input.
This is a question relating to Christianity as an organistion/religion, not an attack on Christians. Just for background, my parents are Christian though I haven't been baptised so therefor I have no religion. Having a religious education (yrs 7-12) though I was able to view the religious happenings from an 'outsiders' perspective.
In school we were taught about pyschology and within this course we were breifly taught about mind manipulation through brainwashing. One area that struck me was in relation to repetative chanting so I asked "Isn't that what happens in Church?" which lead to my question being dismissed hurridly.
Reading this site brought up that old question in my mind, so I had a quick look on the net regarding brainwashing techniques and found a few commonly accepted practices, (the ones I've hightlighted being those I think applicable to Christianity, or in fact, many religions)
My question is have you not noticed how the practices of Christianity (as per the religious structure) harness the techniques of brainwashing? Seeing people chant in time with no emotion in church, having any questions about biblical contradictions dismissed, etc and now seeing the corrolation between these techniques and practices in church lead me away from the path of Christianity (that and the whole I'm going to hell bit along with the gays and anyone else who doesn't accept Jesus).
Can you read through these techniques below and honestly claim that these methods aren't being utilised? Please, again this is not a go, its just the same conclusion I came to through my own experiences.
Techniques:
1) HYPNOSIS - Inducing a high state of suggestibility, often thinly disguised as relaxation or meditation.
2) PEER GROUP PRESSURE - Suppressing doubt and resistance to new ideas by exploiting the need to belong.
3) "LOVE BOMBING" - Creating a sense of family through physical touch, thought & feeling sharing and emotional bonding.
4) REJECTION OF OLD VALUES - Accelerating acceptance of new lifestyle by constantly denouncing former beliefs and values.
5) CONFUSING DOCTRINE - Encouraging blind acceptance and rejection of logic through complex lectures on an incomprehensible doctrine.
6) METACOMMUNICATION - Implanting subliminal messages by stressing certain key words or phrases in long, confusing lectures.
7) REMOVAL OF PRIVACY - Achieving loss of ability to evaluate logically by preventing private contemplation.
8) DISINHIBITION - Encouraging child-like obedience by orchestrating child-like behaviour
9) UNCOMPROMISING RULES - Inducing regression and disorientation by soliciting agreement to seemingly simple rules which regulate mealtimes, bathroom breaks and use of medications.
10) VERBAL ABUSE - Desensitizing through bombardment with foul and abusive language. (Physical abuse, such as torture, is the more extreme form of this.)
11) SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND FATIGUE - Creating disorientation and vulnerability by prolonging mental an physical activity and withholding adequate rest and sleep.
12) DRESS CODES - Removing individuality by demanding conformity to the group dress code.
13) CHANTING OR SINGING - Eliminating non-cult ideas through group repetition of mind-narrowing chants or phrases.
14) CONFESSION - Encouraging the destruction of individual ego through confession of personal weaknesses and innermost feelings of doubt.
15) FINANCIAL COMMITMENT - Achieving increased dependence on the group by 'burning bridges' to the past, through the donation of assets.
16) FINGER POINTING - Creating a false sense of righteousness by pointing to the shortcomings of the outside world.
17) ISOLATION - Inducing loss of reality by physical separation from family, friends, society and rational references.
18) CONTROLLED APPROVAL - Maintaining vulnerability and confusion by alternately rewarding and punishing similar actions.
19) 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 and/or fasting. Also applying drugs for these purposes fall in this category.
20) GAMES - Inducing dependence on the group by introducing games with obscure rules.
21) NO QUESTIONS - Accomplishing automatic acceptance of beliefs by discouraging questions.
22) GUILT - Reinforcing the need for 'salvation' by exaggerating the sins of the former lifestyles.
23) FEAR - Maintaining loyalty and obedience to the group by threatening soul, life or limb for the slightest 'negative' thought, word or deed. |
You left out early childhood indoctrination. Most of those techniques are unnecessary when you "get 'em while they're young". The ones you list are mostly for people in non-mainstream groups or people who haven't had that childhood indoctrination. Also, guilt needs to be much closer to number one if not THE number one technique. People will do anything to avoid guilt up to and including ending their own lives.
EDIT: I'd also change "No Questions" to "Specific Questions". Christianity actively encourages its members to ask the questions that will lead back to Christian doctrine. This helps give people like Helio the illusion that they've made some sort of informed choice in being Christian. However, this is not the case, as Christianity will actively scoff and and heap scorn on individuals who ask actual questions.
For example...
Acceptable questions:
"Why did Jesus sacrifice himself?"
"Why did the disciples die for what they believed in?"
"Are there any extra-biblical references to Jesus?"
Unacceptable questions:
"Why doesn't anyone writing at the time of Jesus' life mention Jesus?"
"How do we know the disciples existed?"
"What did Tacitus and Josephus use for sources for their alleged mention of Jesus?"