I. Behavior Control
Where, how and with whom the member lives and associates.
"Brothers" are encouraged to confine their association
to other brothers.
What food the person eats, drinks, adopts, and rejects.
The famous EA diet (e.g. Coke), to break any 'health superstitions'
one may harbour.
Financial dependence. By encouraging the
member to hand over his funds to a point where the master deems
him cleansed of dependence on money, the new recruit is automatically
forced to become dependent on the group.
Little or no time spent on leisure, entertainment,
vacations. As with most things in EA, there are no written
rules forbidding this. It's just 'frowned upon'. (Vacations are
only for Master Hector!) Brothers are told that the world depends
on how soon they give up their dependence on the world, including
worldly desires. This, however, seems to not apply to any real
depth, as most brothers spend a great deal of their time watching
television and videos, or attending movies - all worldly pursuits
- indicating the superficiality of the world rejection, or conversely,
the true reason for the preaching of world rejection: the acquisition
of members' assets.
Major time commitment required for indoctrination
sessions and group rituals. Session takes up an awful lot
of members' time. Other time is filled with service to the organization
(unpaid) or additional teachings or readings intended to purge
the mind of worldliness. This works to create a surrogate community,
and family, for the new recruit - who has listened to the extremely
intimidating admonitions of Master Hector, who has said that if
he leaves he will face damnation in Hell and the like.
Need to ask permission for major decisions.
Decisions, in general, are discouraged. All decisions, it is taught,
are made by God - by just allowing, or releasing, or stepping
back, or just saying yes. Of course if the decision still persists,
Master Hector (if he's in town) is the final decisionalizer. This
fosters a way of life where dissociation becomes the norm.
Need to report thoughts, feelings and activities
to superiors. Feelings, thoughts and activities that do not
agree with the EA philosophy of unbroken attendance and agreement
with Master Hector need to be reported, and are always attacked
by Master Hector in session - where he has most effect due to
the group model of subservience.
Rewards and punishments (behaviour modification
techniques - positive and negative). Stroking and criticism
in all forms occurs all the time, primarily by Master Hector -
but also hierarchically by older members on newer members, under
the guise of training for the role of Teacher of God - but most
often as a way to release the suppressed rage generated by continual
dissociative behaviour.
Individualism discouraged; group-think prevails.
Individual ideas are not permitted. Only those concepts in line
with EA versions of ACIM are permitted. This creates massive fraudulence
and the generation of spiritual egos, as the mind attempts to
reassociate at a group-acceptable level.
Rigid rules and regulations. People who leave
are told by Master Hector that they are the cause of all of the
pain and suffering of the world, or that they will die within
six months.
Need for obedience and dependency. Dependency
comes through the enforcement of a group ethic based on spiritual
specialness. By active discouragement of members going out in
the world again, the member desiring acceptance must break ties
with family, community and friends. This dependency, like all
dependencies, is clothed in acceptable jargon and group-think,
but is identical in nature to a heroin addiction, as demonstrated
by the returnees who 'cannot stand it out there' after leaving.
This also closely resembles the addictive or codependent behaviour
of abused wives. They return to the scene of abuse because they
have nowhere else to go - because they have severed all ties with
the world and given all their assets to Master Hector. Like all
addicts, it takes a crisis of sufficient scale fro them to recognize
their dependence, but it takes great courage for them to overcome
it. (People finding such courage are in a fast-growing minority
at present.)
II. Information Control
Use of deception.
Deliberately holding back information. All
information is dispersed via Master Hector, when he is in town.
In this way he maintains 'version control' of reality, and slants
it his way, maintains control and support, and feeds the addiction/dependence
of his flock. We have seen several examples recently, where Hector
has reinvented EA history re the suicides and suicide attempts
of members.
Outright lying. Continuous. Usually justified
or evaded with 'It's not real' or 'I did it because you asked
me' or 'Don't you trust me?' Also our current favourite: 'The
Holy Spirit made me do it.'
Re-jigging of critical information. Critical
information such as letters to Master Hector are held up to ridicule
by him in session, where active debate on the contents is impossible.
We are proud to report that Holy Smoke has been attacked in this
way on numerous occasions.
De-validating former members. Those who leave
are dying, dead or 'warts'.
Keep members so busy they don't have time to
think. Session, service and group activities means the member
never has time to pursue a comparative inquiry. Intensives and
'forty days' are both ways of getting new recruits deeply enough
in so that they will give up their attachments (i.e. possessions).
Compartmentalization of information.
Outsider vs. Insider doctrines. Outside doctrine
is not just discouraged. It is actively attacked as (for example)
'New Age Bulls--t'.
Information is not freely accessible. Although
an audited company (in theory), the Academy's accounts are not
freely available to anyone outside of the Board and Master Hector,
who controls the Board. The news about (for example) the suicides,
suicide attempts, psychiatric breakdowns, sexual misbehaviour,
embezzlement of funds by Hector Poppe, breaches of Australian
law, and so on, has often been revealed for the first time to
surprised members by Holy Smoke.
Information varies at different levels and missions
within the 'pyramid'. Only that which is safe for members
is told to them, because if it were seen how much Master Hector
has to do with forcing donations, choosing investments and setting
up businesses, it may also be seen that he is very much in the
world and not "not from here" - as he claims to new
entrants.
Spying on other members. Hector takes an
active role in seeking personal information about the financial
resources of new recruits and, if they have funds, targets them
in session where group approval works to support his attack.
Pairing up with a "buddy" system to
monitor and control. The guide system is a thinly veiled way
of maintaining clear lines of communication re individual's funds
etc. to Master Hector by already trusty members.
Reporting deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions
to the leadership.Guides are encouraged to seek help from
Hector when their charges are difficult.
Extensive use of cult-generated information and
propaganda. Newsletters, magazines, journals, audio tapes,
videotapes, etc. The massive output of (immensely boring!) videos
is a way of keeping the message in the consciousness of the member.
Misquotations, statements taken out of context
from non-cult sources. The EA has always misquoted ACIM, especially
in relation to the specific direction to refuse an outside teacher.
In fact EA's very existence relies on this intentional turning
away from the ACIM teaching.
Unethical use of confession.
Information about 'sins' used to abolish identity
boundaries. Loop statements such as 'It's only your mind'
are specifically against the teachings of A Course in Miracles
(ACIM), because they cause spiritual guilt. However such 'loop
statements' are integral to EA's way of breaking down ego boundaries,
and are a factor in the many cases of mental breakdown in members.
Past "sins" used to manipulate and
control; no forgiveness or absolution. Although it is taught
that the world is not real and the past does not exist, Hector
Poppe and other teachers are willing to accuse past members and
present of actions seen as wrong, or unwhole, or antithetical
to the EA version of ACIM.
III. Thought Control
Need to internalize the group's doctrine as "Truth".
The teaching 'Truth is true and nothing else is true' is abused
to cover up a multitude of worldly acts, establishment, aggression
to ex members and present ones. Members who return home invariably
believe, like all cult members, that they are casting pearls before
swine, when their attempts to proselytise to their parents and
friends are rejected (as they invariably are by mentally balanced
people). They inevitably return to the safety of the group because
they believe that the world is 'bad' and 'in denial' - or worse,
is 'addicted to death.'
Adopt "loaded" language - characterized
by "thought-terminating clichés". Words
are the tools we use to think with. But these "special"
words constrict rather than expand understanding. They function
to reduce complexities of experience into trite, platitudinous
"buzz words". Master Teacher and Hector use spiritual
obfuscation and loop statements to confuse and bewilder newcomers
into the feeling that they 'haven't got it'. Hector discourages
one-on-one dialogue because he knows that the group support is
critical to the acceptance of his endless monologues by the newcomer.
It is mission-critical that the newcomer be confused. When Master
Teacher's spoken statements are written down and read carefully,
they rarely make sense.
Only "good" and "proper"
thoughts are encouraged. Worldly thoughts, compassionate thoughts,
thoughts of sick friends, attendance at funerals, tending sick
relatives, accepting blame, taking responsibility - are all discouraged
until the addiction is established. Then they are brought back
in the form of an assignment from God, inevitably in the form
of recruitment, expansion, free labour, etc.
Thought-stopping techniques. Stopping "negative"
thoughts, and allowing only "good" thoughts; which leads
to a breakdown in the member's ability to test reality. Rejection
of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism.
Hector will pursue any measure to stop thought - including verbal
attack, physical attack, psychic attack, psychological attack.
Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful
thinking is not allowed. Under the admonition 'Just be in
the now', the new student is forced to give up his rational and
critical thinking ability. This explains the acceptance of what
outsiders see as entirely unreal and often insane ideas by EA
'brothers'.
No critical questions about leader, doctrine,
or policy seen as legitimate. Although Hector and Master Teacher
seem to teach against idolatry, they actively encourage dependency,
and crush debate in any form. This results in extreme idolatry
- though EA members are notoriously unable to see this till stepping
out of the 'hothouse'.
No alternative belief systems viewed as legitimate,
good, or useful
IV. Emotional Control.
Manipulate and narrow the range of a person's
feelings. 'There is only Love and fear does not exist.' In
the case of EA, this is used to narrow the experience of the member
to a need for a daily endorphin rush of 'light'. Only 'light'
is a valid or permissible experience. NB: There are simple neurological
explanations for the 'light' experience - which EA brothers rarely
want to hear about.
Make the person feel like if there are ever any
problems it is always their fault, never the leader's or the group's.
The selective use of the concept of 'singularity' is used as a
tool of repression in EA. Anything a person brings up is pushed
down by saying it is 'only your mind'. A statement of singularity
is a conversional tool used on oneself and a powerful weapon used
on others.
Excessive use of guilt. Spiritual guilt is
the basis of the EA teaching method.
Identity guilt. Members are told by that
because they have not given up their human identity they are causing
all the death and suffering in the world. Your affiliations
are 'attachments', and must be broken. This usually frees
up money, especially when divorce occurs.
Social guilt. You are taught that you cause
AIDS, you cause cancer and you are the eternal pederast.
Historical guilt. You are told that by relating
to the past you are maintaining it and preventing God's reality.
Excessive use of fear.
Fear of thinking independently. It is taught
that to think independently is to hold onto grievance, and that
this causes death and suffering.
Fear of the "outside" world. Which
is is full of 'humans' and 'dead ones', and if you return to it
you will die.
Fear of enemies. Your enemies are created
and maintained by your 'old mind'.
Fear of losing one's "salvation".
If you leave, you have committed a mortal sin, for you have been
offered the Truth and rejected it.
Fear of leaving the group or being shunned by
group. Once the member is accepted in his new peer group he
cannot return to his old life, because entrance to the group depended
upon breaking all prior bonds; family, friends, support, politics,
civic responsibility. So to leave is now a huge and apparently
retrograde step, even though in truth the member has created its
difficulty by submitting to demands for dissociation from the
world.
Fear of disapproval. The 'Session' group
model survives due to fear of disapproval. All members are always
in fear of Hector's attacks, but have a perverted sense of excitement
when anyone else is attacked by him. They actually enjoy seeing
others attacked.
Extremes of emotional highs and lows. Lows
(the natural bodily response to the unnatural endorphin addiction
of 'going to light') are seen as proof that the member needs to
submit further, and has not surrendered sufficiently to the teacher.
Phobia indoctrination: programming of irrational
fears of ever leaving the group, or questioning the leader's authority.
The person under mind control cannot visualize a positive, fulfilled
future without being in the group. Exited members are 'dead ones',
and to be pitied for the terrible fate that awaits them. They
are often portrayed as having cancer. ("It's Hell in the
world." Terrible consequences will take place if you leave:
"hell"; "demon possession"; "incurable
diseases"; "accidents"; "suicide"; "insanity";
"10,000 reincarnations"; etc. All standard EA tactics,
as refined by Hector Poppe.)
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.
