Dr. Robert Lifton studied thought reform (AKA brainwashing) and mind control during the Communist takeover in China back in the 1950s. His studies led him to write the seminal work Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. In the excellent book, The Heresy of Mind Control, Stephen Martin takes the 8 conditions necessary for any thought reform program as described by Lifton and examines them in terms of Bible-based cults and abusive church experiences. I highly recommend reading this book in order to better understand what you’ve been through and why you were vulnerable. (Its available online as a .pdf)
Over the next couple of weeks, we will examine each of these 8 techniques and discuss which of them, if any, apply to the Honor Academy. Today, we’ll examine the first one, milieu control. What, if any, of the following conditions remind you of the Honor Academy?
Milieu Control
This is a big word that basically means controlling contact with the outside world. Wikipedia says, “Milieu control involves the control of communication within a group environment, that also may (or may not) result in a significant degree of isolation from surrounding society.”
Some quotes from the book that resonated with me:
– From a former cult member: “In the cult I was in, the system seemed to make sense as long as I was within the system. It was only when I stepped outside of the system and looked into it that I could see how flawed it was.”
– Some cults establish a norm or even a rule that members only live communally with other members of their particular group. Along with this comes a severing of communication from previous outside sources and associations. The leaders eventually instill a fear of being influenced in negative ways (“polluted”) by non-group members. Therefore they often teach members not to have friends or any associations outside the group. This is easy to do since the new group shows love and care better than anyone else has done before. They typically discourage members from visiting family and friends who are not in the group, reasoning that their mission (perhaps “God’s” mission)is “more important.” Anything else may be considered a waste of time.
– Milieu control is often accomplished through teaching their members not to listen to outside information, such as what parents and friends say about the group or any negative news reports about the group.
Such negative information is automatically counted as “evil,” or simply dismissed as “It can’t be true because this group is so wonderful.” Often they label negative information as “persecution” that is evil, but expected. Some believe it is even a sin to listen to negative information about someone, especially about the leader.
There are some who won’t even listen to alternative information because their presupposition from the outset that it is false and maybe even that listening to it will harm them….But how can you know a report (or even religious doctrine) is false unless you listen to it, examine it, hear both sides of the debate, and investigate? When the available information is curtailed, our ability to evaluate our surroundings is diminished, often with damaging results.
Do you think the HA practices milieu control?
18 comments:
(I am going to try to be as fair as I can be here)
Yes in many ways I do see where they practice this type of control. The argument that the other side would make is that you are allowed to contact people during the internship that you knew from outside. The counter to their argument is that for the first bit of time as I understand it you really aren’t. You can have SHORT calls to your parents unless they disagree with TM (They really pushed me to distance myself from mom because of that). They monitor any email you send out and your friends from before the internship are people you aren’t suppose to have contact with for a set period of time at the beginning of the internship. In these ways they do use this method of Mind “transition”. The argument they give for this to most unsuspecting Christian parents sounds like a plausible one and most parents do not think twice about what that MEANS for their kids. The thing is they can’t argue that this is something that they do without knowledge as at least 2 people in the board have Psychology degrees and this is taught at all levels in most of those programs.
I suppose it is one of the things that set off early red flags in my mind and why I left the internship midway through.October 5, 2010 7:19 AM
Nunquam Honorablus said…
“- Milieu control is often accomplished through teaching their members not to listen to outside information, such as what parents and friends say about the group or any negative news reports about the group.
Such negative information is automatically counted as “evil,” or simply dismissed as “It can’t be true because this group is so wonderful.” Often they label negative information as “persecution” that is evil, but expected. Some believe it is even a sin to listen to negative information about someone, especially about the leader.“
“DON’T READ THE RA BLOG CAUSE IT’S A SIN YOU GUYS”
Nope, no Milieu Control here.October 5, 2010 9:19 AM
Shiloh said…
Yeah. Wow.
I’m kinda nervous about what’s coming up in the next few weeks.
This is so freaking intense.
THANK YOU SO MUCH RA.
For real. This is like the icing on the cake. I think once I understand what the hell all this mind control stuff is about I’ll be able to make a final judgement on T.M.
It’s either A – They’re doing it on purpose to brainwash interns into their political agenda
or B- they have no idea they’re doing it. They just think what they’re doing works.
Or I guess it could be C- they really think it’s God’s will.
I’m leaning towards A.
And yeah. I see this one at the H.A. I don’t know if interns feel like they can’t talk to their parents but you start feel after a while that if your parents don’t agree, you don’t really want to talk to them. No one in my family is a Christian and if anything they truly are haters of God. I considered often just disowning them all. What’s that?!!? For real. I was going to disown my family because they didn’t agree with what the H.A. taught me. (Though I truly thought that was the right thing to do.)
But the thing that I don’t get, is WHY?!
Teen Mania is soooooooo not that important. I don’t understand why they are doing this!October 5, 2010 11:54 AM
Recovering Alumni said…
Shiloh – I’m not sure if we’ll ever really know WHY they do this. Thats a question of motives that even they may not be able to answer. Only God really knows. And even if their motives are good, it doesn’t change the fact that the techniques they use are not Scriptural and they produce LOTS of bad fruit.October 5, 2010 12:32 PM
Shiloh said…
Well right.
It is a question of motives. But if their motives are bad they will be found out, I’m convinced of that. They’ll get found out or they’ll get shut down at least.
It just doesn’t make ANY since.
Do you know what I’m saying? If they actually know that they are using mind control I don’t get why.
But I guess there is a good chance they don’t even know they’re doing it.
But all that to say. Thanks for calling them out on this. When it really hit me that this is what they’re doing I had no idea how to even deal with that. (just an fyi to anyone who reads this. I didn’t come to the conclusion that T.M. uses mind control from the blog. No, R.A. is NOT tricking people into believing this. It is SO obvious what’s going on. Or at least a little bit of what is going on. If I can figure it out… It’s VERY obvious.)October 5, 2010 12:43 PM
heartsfire said…
Ok so as part of one of my grad. school assignments I forced myself to listen to the HA aura of a statesman podcast (07 I think was the year?) From what I gathered from that analysis is that They see their work as the of all and be all of what Christians of the 20/30 year old generation should be. As such they employ tactics to make the people “teachable”(isolated and vulnerable). Part of this is so they will feel safe in their own like minded cocoon of people that they are trying to reform to be just as they are. In the case of many of those who were alumni they are looking at this from a stand point of a set leadership that has been over them for most of their adult life. Trading one set of rules for another does not exactly cause one to really grow so much as it puts the people and ultimately God in a box.
I think the parts that made me twitch the most reading this for analysis were the parts about why you should look and act a certain way.
Putting this at the beginning of the internship certainly does set them up for an attitude of EVERYTHING MUST BE DONE THEIR WAY, from the start.October 5, 2010 1:03 PM
Anonymous said…
Yep, as per the general consensus, TM does use this method. Either overtly or inadvertently. Regardless, there appears to be no effort to limit it or to encourage people to think outside the bubble of TM.
Just the day to day lifestyle and hourly schedule of life that is already pre-planned for each person takes away a lot of opportunities for interns to even communicate with the people they care about outside of TM.
Also, another method of milieu control can also take place in life outside of a bubble environment like TM. It can even happen in so called normal churches. This is either by the individual’s willing choice or the culture of the church. They can focus so much of their life on doing things and being involved with programs in the church, or only fellowshipping with church members, that they actually loose sight of life outside of what they are doing (and thus distance themselves from family and other friends etc).
I was part of a church environment both before and after TM… and I know that I hurt many people because of how narrow-minded and zealous I was. I missed so many opportunities to share God’s love with people. (*ouch*) …
This is something that I challenge all believers I meet to consider.
The danger of Milieu Control is that it takes people’s focus away from what really matters with their faith: Living a life that humbly seeks to honor God and does this by living out love, grace and mercy to everyone around them. In other words, spreading the gospel each day but only using words if necessary.
As always… God Bless and may you (consider how you can) be a Blessing,
Blue LanternOctober 5, 2010 4:11 PM
Shiloh said…
WHHHHYYYYYYYY!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!!??!October 5, 2010 4:57 PM
Shannon Kish said…
Here is my thoughts on this topic.
I worked in a residential treatment center for adolescent girls. When a girl entered the program, they were given the opportunity to phone their family once a week for a 5 minute monitored phone call. They were allowed a 24 on campus family visit for the first month. They were NOT allowed to contact any peers outside of the RTC.
Now, as they progressed through the program, they gained more privileges. They were able to call their parents for a longer time, visits were longer, and eventually they earned the privilege to talk with a select group of peers (that their parents agreed to)
The purpose of this set of structure “outside” contact was because the girls would call home and attempt to manipulate their parents– think moms who have sent their kids off to college for the first time, emotional and the kids will attempt to feed off the emotions in order to leave the RTC.
Secondly, more often than not, the peers that the child has outside of the program are negative influences on them. In order to allow them to focus on their treatment, they weren’t allowed to talk with that negative influence. Again, they earned the privilege to talk to a set of peers that the parents agreed upon.
The RTC also had rules restricting music, magazines, and similar. These rules were due to the nature of the group therapy process and due to the necessity to keep negative influences out of their lives as much as possible while they are working through the process.
Now, if I had to classify the RTC I worked for, I wouldn’t classify it as a cult based on this technique. We also weren’t attempted to control their thoughts, but rather teach them how to change their behaviors.
Yes, this existed at the HA. Do I think it is necessarily a bad thing, no. I think it is sometimes necessary, in a setting similar to TM where they are trying to keep you focused.October 5, 2010 11:03 PM
Anonymous said…
Shannon, Thats a really interesting view that gives me something more to think about. Thankyou for sharing your opinion!October 6, 2010 12:35 AM
Shiloh said…
Yeah Shannon I see what you’re saying. I went to a military school… lol. like for ‘bad kids.’ So I know what it’s like to be on the other side. We weren’t EVER aloud to call home once in 6 months. We could only write letters. everything we did was controlled.
But after we left we weren’t encouraged to come back. They told us that was NOT our home and that we were only there for a season.
For some reason most of us wanted to join the Army after that. Not sure why… (sarcasm.)
But really it was different because I never felt like I owed them anything.October 6, 2010 7:26 AM
heartsfire said…
Shannon I could argue this with you on a professional level as in the RTC that you speak of the behavior was such needing change. In cases where the person’s actions are detrimental to themselves and/or others it does become necessary to pull them from others and use this type of control for a short time so that people learn the right way to function as a human. There is a big difference between people that are harming themselves or others being pulled out of their own worlds that allow for these activities and being retaught gently and what goes on at TM. We aren’t talking about black and white lines with TM. In a facility that treats eating disorders you are looking at a defined line of healthy v not healthy. No one could argue that an Anorexic that has 5 friends that are all concerned about how they look needs to be pulled out of that system. That they need people monitoring their conversations and emails if they have enabling friendships those friendships need to be withdrawn from. The same would go for any addiction.
The Honor Academy is not dealing with any of that. They are dealing with teens that are already seeking the heart of God hard enough to be willing to spend a year away from friends, family while NOT getting a traditional (if any) number of credit hours for school. They are already willing to spend all their time away from the life that they once knew.
I would argue the context of the facility in question is what makes this action so bad. I would state that because we are not looking at something that is black and white such as drug use or an eating disorder but something that is far more internal such as GOD’S WILL for your life and what GOD and YOU say is ok for you, further separation is detrimental and not about keeping people focused but about a low level of control to force those there to accept only the views of those over the whole of the group. Because this isn’t a black and white issue what it causes is isolation and psychological twisting without cause.
As a councilor this type of action should ONLY be acceptable when there is no other alternative for such behaviors that would cause harm to the patient or those around them.
That this isn’t the case at Teen Mania makes this action less about training and more about forcing specific world views and actions from the interns and causing Isolation for those that leave.October 6, 2010 8:23 AM
Eric said…
Shiloh– By their fruits you will know them.
Shannon– Very interesting points. What would you say are some differences between the RTC and the HA (results? methods? aims?); for instance, might the RTC be more about educating and empowering teens to think for themselves, while the HA is about indoctrinating them to think Dave Hasz’s thoughts after him? (Just a stab there.)October 6, 2010 9:36 AM
Shannon Kish said…
Heartsoffire, I would agree with you. I am not suggesting that this type of control is necessary at the HA, but that it can be beneficial in some circumstances. I am not sure how I feel about this aspect of the HA at the moment.
Eric,
The biggest difference is that RTCs exist to change behaviors (whether we are talking about addiction, sexual abuse, etc.) The HA exists to train leaders and therefore there is an understanding of the person being a basic functioning member of society.
I would agree that the methods used are similar to that of an RTC, which isn’t effective outside of an RTC.October 6, 2010 11:03 AM
Anonymous said…
I had a boyfriend that was my best friend throughout highschool before dating in my senior year. He was a few years younger than I. He was my first love, my best friend, and I believe (even though I am happily married) someone I would have married if not for HA. I broke up with him like I was supposed to for HA. When I got to HA I was told to stop all contact with him. This is a person who was a part of my family, youth group, my brother’s best friend, and a part of my heart. He was a believer, and in fact supported me financially at HA. He believed in HA because we had gone to ATF together. I was an intern in 98-99 so not many people had cell phones then, I was on maintenance so I had no access to email, and I had no money to call long distance. So he wrote me letters. Telling me what happened in youth group, with his family, etc. At the end of one, he wrote to me that he knew he was not supposed to say it, but that he loved me. I told my CA and was told to cut off the friendship entirely. I wrote him a letter telling him that if he didn’t understand my committment that we could not even be friends. How could he understand. He was thousands of miles away. He wrote back telling me that he was heartbroken and enclosed was a check for all the monetary support he pledged to fulfill his yearly committment. He asked me not to write back. When I went home for Christmas I found a shell of the person I had known. He quit youth group, church, and was heavily into partying and girls. This was not the same person I had known, I knew he was self medicating. I tried to talk to him, I tried to apologize for my coldness. But we were never friends again. And he never came back to Christ. It has been 11 years. This is one of my deepest regrets in this life. That I didn’t treat him with the love and respect of Christ-instead, in my naivete and youth, I treated him with legalism. I have seen him every year or two since, at family functions, weddings, etc. It breaks my heart and I have had to ask God for my dreams to not be haunted with regret over letting myself be influenced to treat someone I loved with disgust. I know it was his decision to walk away from Christ, I really do. But I did play a part in his deep woundedness and humiliation. I think my CA meant well, she was doing what she was taught. But I try now not to jump to the legalistic judgement. Instead, how about love?October 6, 2010 8:14 PM
Recovering Alumni said…
Anon – That is a hearbreaking story. Have you ever had the chance to talk to him or maybe write him a letter to apologize and explain what happened? I truly hope I wasn’t your CA. If I was, please don’t tell me – I don’t want to know.October 7, 2010 12:36 AM
Anonymous said…
Anon 8:14 Your story is so close to my heart. My story is very much the same.
And about the dreams, believe me, I understand. I am awaken at night many times to pray for this person because I have had a dream about him. I’ve never told anyone because I too, am married. It’s not that I desire this guy as my husband but I really miss his friendship. We were the best of friends. How could I have just cut him off like that? He was there for me through some very hard times but I couldn’t repay him the same treatment.
I guess I’m just saying, I understand.October 7, 2010 10:02 AM
Ariel said…
There is a reason that the Honor Academy, and other internship programs are coming under intense scrutiny. I believe that the church will continue to come under scrutiny in all it’s financial dealings. What I have come to realize about my time at 24-7 Leadership Academy (identical to HA) is that their purpose was to staff, staff, staff. The church needs staff, and ministries need staff. If I work at a church, it doesn’t mean I will get closer to God; most likely I will line the pocketbooks of those above me. They would seek to eliminate all opposing counsel; it’s in their best interest.
Did anyone else find that their internship was grossly misrepresented when being recruited?
I think that if the church wants employees, then they could save their reputation, time, money and resources by hiring honest labour.
I don’t know a single person who received educational credits while attending the internship. Not one.
Thank you so much for your blog. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You’ve really captured some of the key moments. My mom told me not to live in reaction to what they did. I think there was an element of choice, and your descriptions of what happened has been a healthy helpful way to remember. I also cry out (inside) to warn others away from programs.November 2, 2010 4:21 AM