This is a page devoted to healing, maybe not for others, but for myself, and the journey I am upon to find that healing. It is not for everyone, but then again, it might serve as a lamppost to others to help them down the path they are taking to find peace, and most of all love.

The following is a direct excerpt from the book titled: Cults Faith, Healing, and Coercion -- Written by Marc Galanter.

The charismatic (divine) group is a close-knit community defined by the following primary characteristics: It has a stongly held belief system and a high level of social cohesiveness; its memebers are deeply infuluenced by the group's behavioral norms and impute a transcendent (or divine) role to their leader(s). These groups may differ among themselves in the particulars of their ideology and ritual behaviour, but they do have several traits in common, some listed below. Certain groups may conform only in part to this model and to that extent they are an expression of this phonomenon in modified form.

Entry into the Group

Charismatic groups are likely to emerge at a time when the values of a society are felt to be inadequate for addressing major social issues. Individuals are more prone to join if they are unhappy because of situational problems or chronic distress and if they have limited affiliative ties to family and friends.

Groups generally engage new members by creating an atmosphere of unconditional acceptance and support and offering a world view that promises a solution for all existential problems. Engagement (or conversion) entails experiences of intensely felt emotion or perceptual change. It also provices a relief of neurotic distress and a feeling of well-being. For the conver, these experiences serve to validate the groups mission.

The Experience of Membership

The group's leader(s) is reputed to have the potential of bringing a resolution to the problems of humanity. In interacting with followers, the leader is also drawn into believing the grandiose role accorded him, and then justifies his behavior by referring to the transcendent mission suggested by the group's philosophy. This can cause him to make demands on his followers that outsiders would see as petulant and abusivwe.

The group attributes special meaning, colored by its philosophy, to everyday language and events; this meaning is usually related to dogma or written code attributed to the group's leader or progenitor.

Recruits experience a relief effect with membership. That is, the closer they feel to their fellow members and the group's values, the greater the relief in thier emotional distress; the more they become emotionally distanced from the group,the greater their experience of distress. This relief effect serves as the basis for reinforcing compliance with the group's norms, as it implicitly rewards conformity with enhanced well-being and punishes alienation with feelings of distress. It also keeps members from leaving the group because they are conditioned to avoid the distress that results from relinquishing the benefits of the relief effect.

Membership is characterized by levels of "sanctity," so that a member is continually striving to achieve a higher level of acceptance by conforming all the more with the group's expectations. Such conformity generally results in members' experiencing considerable privation.

The Charismatic Group as a Social System

The group operates as a close-knit social system to assure its stability. It does this by manipulating the activities and views of its members. Members' activities are monitored closely, either by formally designated observers or other general members. Compliance with the group's norms is assured by the members' need to avoid estrangement and resulting dysphoria if they appear to question these values Scapegoating of recalcitrant members helps to maintain a sense of goodness and trust among members.

Information is managed to minimize dissoncance between the views of the group and the constrasting attitudes of the general society. The group may therefore engender attitudes and views
that fly in the face of reality to prevent destablilization in the members' commitment. Implicit "evidence" of the credibility of the group's ethos is also provided by new members, and aggressive recruitment therefore helps stabilize the entire system.

Boundary control is exercised by the group to protect it from threatening incursions from without. The group will therefore engender a suspicious attitude towards the general society to protect its members from assimiliation. A clear difference is drawn between members and nonmembers, in terms of their innate value as people. Nonmembers are accorded less moral weight, and may be deceived or snubbed to assure the stability of the group as a social system.

Charismatic groups come into conflict with the surrounding society in a number of ways. They disregard the concern of the families of new converts. They behave in a defensive and paranoid way toward outsiders suspected of being hostile to the group. They aggressively maintain ideologic positions at variance with those of the general culture.

After their initial most zealous phase, charismatic groups may follow any of these courses: They may become bureaucratized with the charisma of the original leader ascribed to the group's leadership hierarchy. They may assimilate into the broader society if the gourp's self-protectiveness and isolation are not sustained by the leadership. They may come into direct conflict with the surrounding society because of differences in ideology and defensiveness on both sides, potentially leading to violence. To escape a negative outcome, these groups may also migrate to an isolated setting.

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The story of survivors of one cult
The cult of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Please read their stories and share your thoughts with us.

Please give a moment also to check this Memorial Link
This is a listing of many who have died
while Members of the Cult of Jehovah's Witnesses
Many are children, because their parents refused lifegiving
BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS for them