Mind Control and Empowering People

Freedom of Mind - BITE Model:

'via Blog this'COPYRIGHT © 2011 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.

(I have nothing to do with selling this book, but it seems like something everyone should read. Who doesn't know a person who isn't a victim of mind control?)

Empowering People to Think for Themselves Nationally renowned cult expert Steven Hassan presents the state of the art guide on how to help someone involved with cult mind control. Releasing the bonds reveals a much more refined method to help family and friends, called the Strategic Interaction Approach. This non-coercive, completely legal approach is far better than deprogramming, and even exit counseling. Buy @ Amazon.Com

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful

 Resonance and reason. December 1, 1999

By Peter Fulton

Format:Hardcover

This book does not simply "tell": it provides and enables.

My sister escaped (literally in fear in the dead of night) from a cult with her son. I saw first-hand the disabling terror she experienced as she tried to go shopping at the mall with my wife during the first week of her freedom. This book resonates with that experience.

But the real strength of the book is that it reveals, through reason, what each of us needs to know to recognize and deal with the increasing number of unhealthy organizations that are manipulating our individual rights.

Steve Hassan is the real thing and this book is a "must read" for anyone who cares about their personal freedom and a free society.

Comment | 

Was this review helpful to you?

Yes

No

› See all 34 customer reviews

Write a customer review

BITE Model

Mind Control – The BITE Model

From chapter two of Releasing the Bonds: Empowering
People to Think for Themselves*
*© 2000 by Steven Hassan; published by Freedom
of Mind Press, Somerville MA
Destructive mind control can be understood in terms
of four basic components, which form the acronym BITE:

I.	Behavior Control
II.	Information Control
III.	Thought Control
IV.	Emotional Control

It is important to understand that destructive mind
control can be determined when the overall effect of these four
components promotes dependency and obedience to some leader or cause.
It is not necessary for every single item on the list to be present.
Mind controlled cult members can live in their own apartments, have
nine-to-five jobs, be married with children, and still be unable
to think for themselves and act independently.

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

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

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

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 (with number 4, Excessive use of guilt). 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

b. Social guilt
c. 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.