Mind Control--Conditions for Thought Reform

In the book Cults in Our Midst, Margaret Singer describes six conditions that make thought reform (or mind control) possible.  She was speaking about cultic groups in general, not specifically the World Mission Society Church of God.  But read throught the list yourself and see if you find any similarities with your experience involving the WMSCOG.  (I did!)  The more similarities you see, the higher the chances are that your thoughts are being manipulated.

Margaret Singer's Six Pre-Conditions for Thought Reform
(Reprinted under the Creative Commons License)

• Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how attempts to psychologically condition him or her are directed in a step-by-step manner.
  • Potential new members are led, step by step, through a behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the group. The goal may be to make them deployable agents for the leadership, to get them to buy more courses, or get them to make a deeper commitment, depending on the leader's aim and desires.
• Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially control the person's time.
  • Through various methods, newer members are kept busy and led to think about the group and its content during as much of their waking time as possible.
• Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person.
  • This is accomplished by getting members away from their normal social support group for a period of time and into an environment where the majority of people are already group members.
  • The members serve as models of the attitudes and behaviors of the group and speak an in-group language.
  • Strip members of their main occupation (quit jobs, drop out of school) or source of income or have them turn over their income (or the majority of) to the group.
  • Once the target is stripped of their usual support network, their confidence in their own perception erodes.
  • As the target's sense of powerlessness increases, their good judgment and understanding of the world are diminished. (ordinary view of reality is destabilized)
  • As the group attacks the target's previous worldview, it causes the target distress and inner confusion; yet they are not allowed to speak about this confusion or object to it - leadership suppresses questions and counters resistance.
  • This process is sped up if the targeted individual or individuals are kept tired - the cult will take deliberate actions to keep the target constantly busy.
• Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former social identity.
  • Manipulation of experiences can be accomplished through various methods of trance induction, including leaders using such techniques as paced speaking patterns, guided imagery, chanting, long prayer sessions or lectures, and lengthy meditation sessions.
  • the target's old beliefs and patterns of behavior are defined as irrelevant or evil. Leadership wants these old patterns eliminated, so the member must suppress them.
  • Members get positive feedback for conforming to the group's beliefs and behaviors and negative feedback for old beliefs and behavior.
• The group manipulates a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors.
  • Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of the group's beliefs, and compliance are rewarded while questioning, expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress and possible rejection. Anyone who asks a question is made to feel there is something inherently disordered about them to be questioning.
  • The only feedback members get is from the group; they become totally dependent upon the rewards given by those who control the environment.
  • Members must learn varying amounts of new information about the beliefs of the group and the behaviors expected by the group.
  • The more complicated and filled with contradictions the new system is and the more difficult it is to learn, the more effective the conversion process will be.
  • Esteem and affection from peers is very important to new recruits. Approval comes from having the new member's behaviors and thought patterns conform to the models (members). Members' relationship with peers is threatened whenever they fail to learn or display new behaviors. Over time, the easy solution to the insecurity generated by the difficulties of learning the new system is to inhibit any display of doubts—new recruits simply acquiesce, affirm and act as if they do understand and accept the new ideology.
• Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order.
  • The group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The leaders must have verbal ways of never losing.
  • Members are not allowed to question, criticize or complain. If they do, the leaders allege the member is defective, not the organization or the beliefs.
  • The targeted individual is treated as always intellectually incorrect or unjust, while conversely the system, its leaders and its beliefs are always automatically, and by default, considered as absolutely just.
  • Conversion or remolding of the individual member happens in a closed system. As members learn to modify their behavior in order to be accepted in this closed system, they change—begin to speak the language—which serves to further isolate them from their prior beliefs and behaviors.

The Sin of a Baby

Today marks a heartbreaking anniversary--the day my friend's baby died at just 10 weeks old.  Her story is one of sadness mixed with the love, grace, and faithfulness of God.  I am a mother myself, and the remembrance of that difficult time for them still brings me to tears, even years later.

I am also reminded today of the WMSCOG's teaching that each person here on earth was once an angel, who committed terrible sin in heaven and was cast down to earth.  I've written about this before here, but it bears repeating.

Ahnsahnghong said, "what each one did in the angelic world is to be done again in this world, and he is to be judged both in soul and in body."  (From Visitors from the Angelic World, Chapter 9, page 36)

Now consider my dear friend's 10-week-old baby (we can call him "James"), and here are some questions that arise:

1.  Where is James now?  Doomed to hell because he did not live long enough to take the Passover, believe in "Mother" and otherwise prove himself worthy of heaven?

2.  James didn't have time to do anything in this world (besides eat, sleep, and the normal newborn baby activities).  If the sin he did in heaven was supposed to be repeated in this world, what did he do in this world that was sinful?

3.  If James didn't do anything in this world that was sinful, then what could possibly have been his sin in heaven?

4.  Would you say that his sin in heaven was so great that he didn't deserve a chance at salvation on the earth?

5.  Or would you say that his sin in heaven was so small that it only merited a very brief time in "prison"?  But if that were the case, then James is still doomed.  Here's why...

Ahnsahnghong said,

The first death, the death of the body, is due to the natural sin inherited from Adam....  And the second death, the death of the soul, is due to the sin everyone committed in the world of angels....  All men die; after the death of their body, their soul is to be judged according to what they have done....  After being punished, the soul comes to an end with death forever.  This is the second death.  (Visitors from the Angelic World, Chapter 9, pages 36-37)

James' body would have received its punishment for "the natural sin inherited from Adam," but his soul would have not gained the pardon from the sin "committed in the world of angels."  He would still be due for punishment, his soul experiencing the second death.

And now do you see the terrible implications of this teaching?  Would anyone like to volunteer to explain it to James' parents?  Not I--it's sad enough just to think about it.

Praise God, though, James' parents are Christians.  They are confident in knowing where he is and are filled with hope of seeing their son again one day.

Whom Does Eve Represent?

I've written before about the WMSCOG's prophecy of the "Last Adam."  Part their interpretation of this is the notion that Adam and Eve are both prophetic representations.  To them, the first Adam was a pattern of the Last Adam (from Rom. 5:14), who they say is Ahnsahnghong.  Therefore, they say, Eve must also represent someone in the end times.  Whom does Eve represent?

If you study with the WMSCOG and examine their available online sermons, you'll find statements like this:

"When God created Adam and Eve, each of them had a duty. Adam was a pattern of the one to come (Ro 5:14). Thus his wife, Eve, represents the wife of the Lamb, the Christ to come a second time....  Through this providence described in Genesis, we can understand that Adam is a type of Christ, Eve represents His wife and all mankind living on earth represent Their children: Abel symbolizes those who will be saved and Cain those who will not be saved....  The Lamb and His Wife are God the Father and God the Mother, who have appeared in due time."  (From The Elohim Gods, emphasis mine)

And this:

"The first Adam had a wife named Eve, who gave birth to life. If Adam represents the Second Coming Jesus, whom does Eve, the wife of Adam, represent?
Eve, called the "mother of all the living" (Ge 3:20), represents our Heavenly Mother who is to appear at the end of the age in order to give us eternal life and lead us, together with the Second Coming Jesus—the Last Adam....  The Bible says that the wedding of the Lamb has come and His Bride—His wife [the last Eve]—has made Herself ready, ... Our Heavenly Father and Mother, the Creators, have come to this earth as the Last Adam and Eve...." (From The Sabbath and God the Creator, emphasis mine)

Therefore, the WMSCOG preaches that Eve, as Adam's wife, represents "Mother Jerusalem" (Zahng Gil-Jah).
But, what did Ahnsahnghong say about Eve?

In his book, Visitors from the Angelic World, Ahnsahnghong writes:

"Adam represents Jesus who was in the world of angels before the creation, and Eve represents the angels whom Jesus loved."  (Chapter 13, page 50, emphasis mine)

and

"Thus, Jesus is the last Adam, and the saints who are redeemed can be called the last Eve." (Chapter 13, page 55, emphasis mine)

Ahnsahnghong said that Eve, as Adam's wife, represents the angels, the saints--that's the Church!

Let's go over that again...

The WMSCOG teaches that the last Eve is "Mother God."

Ahnsahnghong taught that the last Eve is the Church (the saints).

This makes us ask--what kind of church contradicts their own founder who they believe was God himself?!

PS -- Did you also notice this?  The WMSCOG teaches that the Last Adam was Ahnsahnghong.  However, Ahnsahnghong taught that the Last Adam was not himself, but Jesus.