You may have heard one of the various conspiracy theories where someone claims "They" have tried to control his mind with a microchip implant of some sort. Microchips? Puh-lease! In reality, if the phenomenon known as "mind control" or "thought reform" resembles anything out of science fiction, it's George Orwell's 1984 rather than the Borg Collective. Orwell's portrayal of a totalitarian society did carry mind control techniques to extremes, but the control depicted in his society was accomplished primarily through manipulation and psychological methods, with technology occasionally used to enforce the psychological techniques.

Perhaps the most widely cited book on mind control is Robert J. Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Lifton based his analysis on Communist Chinese "re-education" programs, but many of the methods he depicts can be used in other circumstances. Interestingly, his book was published after Orwell's 1984, but Big Brother uses many of the methods Lifton describes.

In Chapter 22 of his book, Lifton illustrates eight basic techniques used in mind control or thought reform. The methods of implementing these vary from organization to organization, but any organization where these are all in evidence in some form or another is probably very controlling. Also, studying these methods can be useful for anyone who has left such a controlling environment, to better understand how they managed to get into one.

The eight criteria of "Ideological Totalism" described by Lifton are as follows:

• Milieu Control
• Mystical Manipulation
• Demand for Purity
• The Cult of Confession
• Sacred Science
• Loaded Language
• Doctorine Over Person
• Dispensing of Existence

Milieu Control

"You are to have no contact with Ed Powers or his staff, or with anybody that has decided to be at that other church in opposition to this church. If you disobey the marking then we’ll be forced to warn you...I’m very serious. It is an issue of salvation." (Kip McKean, Indianapolis Speech, March 17, 1994)

Milieu control means, pure and simple, control over communication. This includes leaders both discouraging followers from recieving information from sources which may contradict what their leaders tell them, and monitoring the daily activities of followers to ensure what the followers say is in accordance with the leaders' doctorine. Lifton mentions the "telescreens" in 1984 as a prime example: a device that both feeds followers leader-approved information, while simultaneously observing every activity of the followers. Of course, milieu control need not be able to observe followers as continuously as Big Brother did, and it can be accomplished without resorting to technology like the telescreen. Convincing followers that anyone who states things that contradict what the leaders say has "been decieved by Satan to lead you astray," for example, can be almost as effective as not allowing members to read what critic have to say.

As you might expect, being deprived of information from the outside world severely impairs one's ability to make informed decisions. Having what you say subjected to scrutiny to see how it compares with the group's official doctorine, and being chastised for saying things that do not fit into this doctorine, makes matters worse. This creates a tendancy to view the group's teachings as The Truth and everything outside of the group's beliefs as, to use a term the ICC preferts, "false doctorines."

Mystical Manipulation

"As for those who continue to oppose us, they are lost--not because their baptism became invalid, but the Scriptures are clear that those who oppose and grumble against God's leaders and divide God's church are, in fact, opposing God." (Kip McKean, Revolution Through Restoration II, 1994)

Leaders in groups which practice thought reform are often very manipulative. They frequently try to condition followers to behave a certain way every time they are in a certain circumstance. This manipulation generally goes beyond the level of reasonable requests, to such bizarre actions as telling followers they are being sinful for not clapping often enough during a church service. One example I observed personally in the ICC was when "Carl" tried to convince me that "Jesus would make his bed."

The "mystical" part refers to the leaders' ostensible reason for the manipulation. Leaders claim that the manipulations are mandated by some sort of "higher purpose." They generally claim to have been chosen by God, history, or some supernatural force to carry out a "mystical imperative" which is more important than any discomfort followers must endure due to these manipulations. The flip side of the coin is that the leaders can claim any questioning of the manipulation comes from something other than, and often in opposition to, this higher purpose.

"Jesus calld them together and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, adn their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'" - Matthew 20:25-28 (NIV)

The Demand for Purity

"Some of you don’t get angry enough when people in your ministry sin. You allow yourself, and you allow everybody else to be mediocre...You pat them on the back and try to encourage them into commitments. The cutting edge attitude is an attitude sometimes of ANGER!!! It’s indignation, ‘I’ve had it with this!!! I’m sick of myself, and I’m sick of you!!!’" (Marty Fuqua, The Cutting Edge, Boston Leadership Conference, Aug 92)

Leaders in controlling environements will demand their followers live up to an impossible standard. Since this standard is defined by the leaders (although they may attribute it to a higher purpose), the leaders ultimately decide who has met the demand for purity. Furthermore, they declare "an all-out war on impurity" to force followers to live up to standards they cannot meet. Leaders will imply that their standards of purity are attainable, and that almost any means of eliminating this "sin" is good.

This demand that followers live up to an impossible standard, combined with the impication it is humanly possible to meet the standard, creates a lot of guilt and shame among those who fail to meet the criteria. This demand not only makes followers expect punishment for failing to meet demands, but it makes them believe they deserve the punishment. Sometimes the amount of shame bred by leaders' demands can even lead to what amounts to shame contests.

The demand for purity will also lead members to attempt to eliminate any external sources of "impurity" from their lives. This can lead to denunciations of the sins in others' lives, often in an attempt to relieve one's own guilt. This can also lead to taking pride in superficial expressions of purity. The "prayer" of the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 is a prime example of this consequence of a demand for purity.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 (NIV)

The Cult of Confession

Confessing can be used to relieve feelings of guilt, but manipulative organizations use it to intensify them. Instead of using confession to "get it off your chest", confession in a totalitarian environment is used to establish control over followers and make them feel even more ashamed for the "sins" they have confessed. Confession is also used to keep track of followers' behavior, sometimes to the extent that keeping thoughts private becomes a sin.

Sacred Science

The group's doctorine is presented as "an ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existance." Questioning the doctorine is viewed as immoral. At the same time, the doctorine is considered to embody the ultimate logic, so that anyone who questions it is considered to be "illogical" or "confused." The possiblity that someone might have valid reasons for disagreeing is generally not considered. Consequently, followers are made to feel guilty for doubting the group's doctorine.

Loaded Language

What's the difference between "jargon" and "newspeak"? In 1984, Orwell envisioned a world where the government redefined language to limit the expressive capabilities of its citizens. Cults frequently do the same thing, although usually in a more subtle way. Words are frequently devised to enable leaders to label ideas or people. For example, Communist leaders might dismiss an argument against them as originating from a "bourgeois mentality," which often ends discussion on the matter. An example of loaded language in the ICC is the way leaders label people who have left "fallaways," implying that they have fallen away from God.

Doctorine Over Person

Leaders in a totalitarian environment teach that thier doctorine is to be placed above personal feelings and experience. Followers are ordered to reshape their character and personality to fit group doctorine. For example, the members of the ICC told me that shyness was a sin. Instead of making teachings confirm to experience, followers are told that their experiences have decieved them. For example, several people who had dramatic conversion experiences to Christianity before joining the ICC report that the ICC leaders convinced them these conversions were not real and that they had never been Christian.

This can be extended to the point of rewriting history, almost like the Ministry of Truth in 1984. So far, the ICC hasn't found many moments in its history "inconvenient" to its current teachings, but the disfellowshipping of almost an entire church in Indianapolis and what they currently say about the events there show elements of historical revisionism. Compare what the ICC leaders currently have to say about Ed Powers with what he actually had to say and you'll see what I mean.

The Dispensing of Existence

Ultimately, totalist leaders seek to define who has a right to exist and who doesn't. Such power gives them a highly effective weapon against those who displease them; they can declare such people have no right to exist. This needn't be as extreme as ordering executions of those the leadership finds inconvenient. ICC leaders frequently act as if they have a right to determine who is saved and who is not, and many Christians fear loosing their salvation even more than death. On one occasion, an evangelist called a mandetory meeting and declared that anyone who did not attend would be disfellowshipped, and presumably loose her or his salvation. Another former member was contacted after leaving and told that she had a certain number of weeks to return to the ICC or she would be considered to have lost her salvation.