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Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs:
Published 2012
In the post 9/11 world, people are more susceptible than ever to charismatic figures who offer simple, black v. white, us v. them, good v. evil formulaic solutions. The rise of the Internet; increasingly sophisticated knowledge about how to influence and manipulate others; and the growing vulnerabilities of people across the planet make for a dangerous, potentially devastating combination. Steven Hassan’s new book Freedom of Mind provides the knowledge and awareness needed to help yourself and loved ones avoid or escape from such dangerous people and situations. Available on Amazon.com and other online booksellers as paperback and e-book.Learn More

Combatting Cult Mind Control: A Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults:
Published 1990 Hardback 1988
"Truth is stronger than lies and love is stronger than fear!”

“It has been more than a decade since I first said these words while giving a university lecture and they have come to represent the essence of my beliefs. As a former cult member, author, and licensed mental health counselor with over twenty years experience working in the field of cult mind control, thousands of people have sought me out for advice, counseling and support. Destructive cults and abusive mind controllers have had a devastating impact on people's lives, causing a unique set of psychological problems for members, as well as for their family and friends.” Steve Hassan Available on Amazon.Com and other online booksellers as paperback and e-book.

Freedom of Mind Blogs
Interview with Masoud Banisadr on MeK - 02/20/2013
Jon Atack's book, "Let's Sell these People A Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology" - 02/8/2013
Exclusive 67 Page List of Entities Closely Associated with Sun Myung Moon - 02/18/2012
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Freedom of Mind Group Database Search


Group Information
Title Word of Faith Fellowship Church (Spindale, NC)
Founder Sam and Jane Whaley
Description BITE Model as it applies to WOFF (formulated from former members’ accounts of time in the group):
Behavior
Control
1. Regulation of individual's physical reality
  a. Where, how and with whom the member lives and associates with
  b. What clothes, colors, hairstyles the person wears
  c. What food the person eats, drinks, adopts, and rejects
  d. How much sleep the person is able to have
  e. Financial dependence
  f. Little or no time spent on leisure, entertainment, vacations

2. Major time commitment required for indoctrination sessions and group rituals

3. Need to ask permission for major decisions

4. Need to report thoughts, feelings and activities to superiors

5. Rewards and punishments (behavior modification techniques- positive and negative).

6. Individualism discouraged; group think prevails

7. Rigid rules and regulations

8. Need for obedience and dependency. 		Members are strongly encouraged to only associate with other members; even play-time between children of members and those of non-members is discouraged

Constant need to report every thought and action to leadership of the church

Work and sexual activity is regulated by the leadership

Members are often financially dependent upon the church

Lots of members’ time is taken up in church activities, whether or not actually in the church

Rules are extremely rigid; leader hands down rules as though directly from God, no going against the rules in any way, no questioning of rules

“Blasting” – screaming into members’ faces to discipline them – used to control behavior the leadership finds unacceptable

“Guards” – fellow members – are used to make sure members are never left alone
Information
Control
1. Use of deception
  a. Deliberately holding back information
  b. Distorting information to make it acceptable
  c. Outright lying

2. Access to non-cult sources of information minimized or discouraged
  a. Books, articles, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio
  b. Critical information
  c. Former members
  d. Keep members so busy they don’t have time to think

3. Compartmentalization of information; Outsider vs. Insider doctrines
  a. Information is not freely accessible
  b. Information varies at different levels and missions within pyramid
  c. Leadership decides who “needs to know” what

4. Spying on other members is encouraged
  a. Pairing up with “buddy” system to monitor and control
  b. Reporting deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions to leadership

5. Extensive use of cult generated information and propaganda
  a. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audio tapes, videotapes, etc.
  b. Misquotations, statements taken out of context from non-cult sources

6. Unethical use of confession
  a. Information about “sins” used to abolish identity boundaries
  b. Past “sins” used to manipulate and control; no forgiveness or absolution 		Leadership often lies to members

Spying on other members–even if one’s own spouse, parent or child–is greatly encouraged, and all activities are then handed over to the leadership of the church

Members are pressured by WOFF leaders to “confess” all sins so that members can be right with God
Thought
Control
1. Need to internalize the group's doctrine as "Truth"
  a. Map = Reality
  b. Black and White thinking
  c. Good vs. evil
  d. Us vs. them (inside vs. outside)

2. Adopt "loaded" language (characterized by "thought-terminating clichés"). Words are the tools we use to think with. These "special" words constrict rather than expand understanding. They function to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous "buzz words".

3. Only "good" and "proper" thoughts are encouraged.

4. Thought-stopping techniques (to shut down "reality testing" by stopping "negative" thoughts and allowing only "good" thoughts); rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.
  a. Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
  b. Chanting
  c. Meditating
  d. Praying
  e. Speaking in "tongues"
  f. Singing or humming

5. No critical questions about leader, doctrine, or policy seen as legitimate

6. No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate, good, or useful 		Member must accept Jane Whaley’s word as the word of God, no thoughts of dissent are allowed

Loaded language – breakthrough is someone who gets right with God, usually after a public and humiliating confession; locking in means to report thoughts to the leaders, etc.
Emotional
Control
1. Manipulate and narrow the range of a person's feelings.

2. Make the person feel like if there are ever any problems it is always their fault, never the leader's or the group's.

3. Feeling-stopping. Like thought-stopping, this is the automatic suppression or blocking of feelings that are not acceptable by the cult identity- such as feeling "homesick" or feeling "depressed" or feeling "resentful".

4. Excessive use of guilt
  a. Identity guilt
    1. Who you are (not living up to your potential)
    2. Your family
    3. Your past
    4. Your affiliations
    5. Your thoughts, feelings, actions
    6. Social guilt
    7. Historical guilt

5. Excessive use of fear
  a. Fear of thinking independently
  b. Fear of the "outside" world
  c. Fear of enemies
  d. Fear of losing one's "salvation"
  e. Fear of leaving the group or being shunned by group
  f. Fear of disapproval

6. Extremes of emotional highs and lows.

7. Ritual and often public confession of "sins".

8. Phobia indoctrination: programming of irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leader's authority. The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled future without being in the group.
  a. No happiness or fulfillment "outside"of the group
  b. Terrible consequences will take place if you leave: "hell"; "demon possession"; "incurable diseases"; "accidents"; "suicide"; "insanity"; "10,000 reincarnations"; etc.
  c. Shunning of leave takers. Fear of being rejected by friends, peers, and family.
  d. Never a legitimate reason to leave. From the group's perspective, people who leave are: "weak"; "undisciplined"; "unspiritual"; "worldly"; "brainwashed by family, counselors"; seduced by money, sex, rock and roll. 		Fear is frequently used – such as fear of “blasting”, referred to above – to keep members in line
Group
Websites		 The Word of Faith Fellowship
Other
Resources
(articles, videos, information)		 Word of Faith Fellowship: Apologetics Index