HYPNOTIC LANGUAGE PATTERNS
USED BY CULTS
In this article I will explicate the hypnotic language patterns and
examples used repeatedly by the ivory towers. As you read them, you
may be surprised that they are the same patterns used by all of us
in our communication to influence our significant others, work
peers, etc. Advertisers have spent billions to decode and use these
semantic structures to get us to buy their products. Every field
of communication ( law, politics, education, business, and
psychotherapy) relies on these to sell their bill of goods. At
first glance they appear to be harmless and they can be if used by
someone with integrity, however in the hands of someone like the
Watchtower Society they have been used to overtly and covertly
programm people's minds. I have added some questions that I would
use to cut through the smoke that is being sold.
1. Mind Reading
(Statements that claim to have the ability to know what someone
else is thinking or feeling)
ie: June 15 1996 Watchtower, pg 16 "Many today suffer pain and
tragedy because they have chosen to act contrary to Bible
principles, by practicing false religion, engaging in sexual
immorality, using illicit drugs, overindulging in alcoholic
beverages, and the like."
Questions I would use to cut through the smoke.:
How many specifically suffer from pain and tragedy? What lets
you know they have chosen to act contrary to Bible principles? Is it
possible for persons not suffer pain and tragedy just because they
are non jws? Has it ever occured to you that persons that have
addictions are sick and they need professional help instead of
intolerant judgemental criticism? Have you ever experienced pain and
suffering due to practicing Bible principles? Seems to me that you
are the other side of the coin, does that make you better or
prefered in God's eyes?
2. Lost Performative (Statements of judgement, beliefs,
or standards which are expressed in such way that the individual who
is making the judgement is setting the standard is not identified.
)
ie:June 15 1996 Watchtower pg 18 "When a Christian must be reproved
for wrongdoing, his weakened spiritual state can often be traced
back to drinking alcoholic beverages, dancing, and the having of a
good time in some way that may border on idolatry"
Questions: According to whom must reproof be given to
someone in a weakend spititual condition? Seems to me that is the
time that loving concern should be shown. Is it possible to have a
good time and not be in a spiritual weakened condition? Has it ever
occured to you that people that are kept in a sensory deprived
conditon become addicted to any experience that produces good
feelings? What specific treatment do you recomend for persons who
are addicted to power,sex,affection,booze,money, relationships,
shopping, rescuing, etc.etc.?
3. Cause and Effect (Statements that claim that there is a
cause and effect relationship between one thing and another
thing)
ie:June 15 1996 Watchtower pg 18 "If we subject ourselves to wordly
influences, injurious desires and attitudes can almost imperceptibly
lodge in the mind and heart."
Questions : What specific secular influences create
injuriuous desires in our attitude? Is it possible to make
intellingent choices so as not to subject ourselves to undesireable
consequences? Has it ever occured to you that there are billions of
persons that do not prescribe to the jw doctrine that do not have
injurious desires and attitudes in their mind and heart? Only an
organizaton that is injurious in their attitude would make a comment
like that.
4. Complex Equivalent (Statements that say that one thing
is or means the same as another thing)
ie: June 15 1996 Watchtower pg19 "Passively attending meetings
could be likened to painting over a spot."
Questions: How specifically does passively attending
meetings make you like painting over a spot? Is it possible that
there may be other reasons you are overlooking for passively
attending meetings? Have you ever known of someone that actively
attended meetings that had serious problems? Are you saying that
acitively attending meetings takes care of all your problems?
In my experience I fanatically attended meetings for 20 years and I
found my will being taken away from me leading to serious problems
as a result of not making intelligent decisions.
Before I get to the patterns let me give you some peripheral
information so you can get some idea of the power these have in the
hands of the wt.
In my working with hundreds of jdubs and from my personal experience
I reached a point of desperation in my life. I could not think
clearly,further I had lost all motivation to do the things I knew I
needed and wanted to do. I was full of conflicting beliefs and I
found myself bankrupt financially, emotionally, mentally,
spiritually, and relationally. I found my situation a great
dichotomy because I had done everything I had been told to do. I had
attendend meetings over a 15 time period and I could count on both
feet and hands the number of meetings I had missed in that time
period. I had pioneered where the need was great, I had turned in my
application to go do my stint at the the spiritual mecca of ivory
towerdom. I had served as a ms for 14 years, I had simplified my
life (this was when some yahoo came up with this campaign of
simplifying jdubs lifestyles as if we had complex fullfilling lives)
so I was living in a little one bedroom apartment driving an old car
with the goal in mind of further simplifing so I could go serve
again in some god forsaken congregation that could care less for any
outsider to tell them what they needed to do.
Having reached this desperate point in my life I knew I could do the
same thing I had done for another 15 years and I would be even more
screwed up. Reality had caught up with me and I started to see that
I was a mirror reflection of the way all the others were. I was very
envious of the lifestyle some of my gumba buddies had even though I
knew they also were living a life of quiet desperation they at least
could spend their way out of this depression, in the past I had
rationalized that I was more spiritual but I knew that was a cop
out. On an intelectual level I knew I could do anything I set my
mind to, yet on an emotional level I felt powerless. I had been on
track for being the valedictorian of my class and missed out on
thousands of dollars in scholarships because I bought into this
flawed bill of goods concocted by Russell and company. I goofed off
my senior year (because college was not going to be required in the
new order )and inspite of that still came in 3rd in my class. I
started wondering where and what I would be doing if I had not taken
this path of religious fanaticism.
I found myself with no real marketable skills so I decided I was
going to investigate and model myself after successful jdubs. The
more I searched the more I realized just how screwed up all these
people were and I came to the realization I did not want to be like
any of them. So I started school when going to school was a major no
no. I kept it a secret for as long as I could, then once the cat was
out of the bag the elder boys began to speak disparingly of me
behind my back. Through my schooling I was flabergasted to realize
how I had been programmed with belief after belief starting with the
persons that studied with me. I had reached a point that I did not
feel with my own heart, see with my own eyes, nor did I think with
my own mind. I had become quite good at regurtitaing the party line
since that was all I had ingested nominalizaitons, and
generalizaitons that had not been contextualized. With this word and
belief diet of some 17 years I could understand just how I had
degenerated, my thinking had become very nebulous and confused and I
could not use sensory descriptive terms in defining what I wanted.
The model below explained so much that I developed a lytmus test for
what I would buy into or discard. I gave myself permission to do
whatever I wanted to so long as it was legal, moral, ethical,and
scriptural. The day I made that decision was a major shift for me.
Little did I know I was now on a collision course with this
organizaiton I has devoted the best years of my youth to.
Spirituality Identity Beliefs Capabilities Behavior Environment
The unquestioned conflicting beliefs that I had bought into severly
limited my capabilities, that in turn affected my behavior in my
environment, so due to having a very impovrished identity and belief
system I could not be spiritual. I remember what if felt like to be
in this deep trance, and some years later I would find myself in big
demand in the jdub community for deprogramming individuals to be
funcitonal, happy and productive. So here are some more patterns,
these are so pervasive that every piece of literature is full of
them so for the sake of time I have just given you one example from
a current magazine.
6. Universal quantifiers (Words that imply or state
absolute conditions as being true)
ie: May 15 1996 Watchtower pg 20 "The faithful slave makes such use
of the Bible in its publications, but never does it add to God's
Word or take away from it."
Questions I would use to cut through the smoke.
1. Never? 2. According to whom has the faithful slave never
added or taken away from God's Word? 3. That may be your opinion but
in my own research that is not the case. 4. What lets you know that?
7. Modal Operators
(Words that suggest that something is necessary or possible and
which define the boundaries of a person's model of the world.)
ie May 15 1996 Watchtower pg 20 "If we are to go on walking in the
truth we must read the Bible and avail ourselves of the spiritual
help that God provides through the faithful slave."
Questions
1. What lets you know that? 2. According to whom must we we
avail ourselves of the help of the faithful slave? 3. What would
happen if we did not avail ourselves of this quote faithful slave?
4. That is what every religious leadership would say, what makes you
the faithful slave? 5. What woudl happen if we only availed
ourselves of the Bible?
8.Nominalizations ( Words that change a process or verb
into a static event or noun) ie June 1 1996 Watchtower page 14
"Now is the time when all mankind must make a choice"
Quesitons 1. What specific choosing must all manking
make? 2. According to whom, must which choosing be done? 3. Choosing
what by whom specifically must this be done?
9. Unspecified Verbs (Verbs that do not have phrases that
specify how or on what and action is performed) ie: June 151996
Watchtower page 21 "Today,some individuals become murmuers because
they allow a spititualy corrosive attitude to develop in their heart.
"
Questions 1. How specifically do some murmur about what
specifially? 2. What specific murmur by which specific individuals
in which specific day?
inlpu@texas.net
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