3 manufacturing fanatics

‘Cults are far from marginal, and those who join them are no different from you and me.’ Robert Jay Lifton.⁹

When Mao gained control of China in 1949, he instituted his cherished plan to enforce ideological conformity on every man, woman and child across that vast terrain. He wanted to root out capitalist ideas in a single generation. The Chinese phrase hsi nao– an ancient, non-political term referring to the cleansing of the mind and heart – gave the world the word ‘brainwashing’.In China, millions were subjected to this systematic programme for years on end. Conditions were harsh, but most prisoners were not physically tortured. Far more subtle means were used to break the will and bring about compliance.

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton interviewed 40 returnees from these camps over a period of 17 months. All had signed confessions to immoral acts that conflicted with their own beliefs and were either severe exaggerations or plainly untrue. After escaping from China, these thought reform subjects were baffled by their own admissions. Most accepted that they had believed these absurd declarations at the time of signing, but did not understand howthey had come to believe them.

Lifton delineated eight aspects of the Chinese thought reform, or undue influence, programme. Neither violence, nor even the threat of violence, had been needed to achieve extreme shifts of belief. Among the victims were Catholic priests, who had confessed their part in an entirely fictitious political spy network directed by the Vatican. On their release, they were overwhelmed by guilt as their former beliefs flooded back.

China exported thought reform techniques, along with other more tangible weapons, to communist North Korea, where they were applied to devastating effect on United Nations’ POWs during the Korean War, from 1950 to 1953. The North Koreans paraded UN POWs who made untrue, and at times bizarre, accusations against their own armed forces and western democracy. On their release, the POWs were mystified by their own statements.

There is strong evidence of a direct link between North Korean techniques and the world of cults through the Unification Church, or Moonies. Sun Myung Moon created Victory Over Communism in the early 1960s. He ran this organization in parallel with his already established Unification Church. Victory Over Communism was closely associated with the South Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) to politically re-educate communists. Former officers of the KCIA soon transferred their skills to the Moonies. The most significant convert was Bo Hi Pak, a colonel in the South Korean CIA before becoming Moon’s right hand man.¹⁰

Like Lifton, Berkeley psychology professor Margaret Singer studied returning POWs from Korea and over the decades counselled some three thousand cult members of many persuasions. She adopted the term ‘exploitative persuasion’ to describe the insidious process of manipulation.

radicalisation: a tragic example

In order to illustrate the full effect of what undue influence can achieve, let us first look at a specific example of extreme cult indoctrination, as viewed through the lens of Singer’s model of influence. While this young man’s story ended in a dramatically unusual way, the stages of his recruitment followed an all-too-recognisable path.

Omar was born in the heart of England, in Derby, the home of Rolls Royce. His father was an immigrant who had built a highly successful business through unremitting hard work. Omar was the youngest of six children, and his father had fond hopes that his son would become a physician. To this end, Omar was sent to Foremarke Hall, which prepares boys for Repton, a prestigious and expensive private school. After three years, Omar dropped out, going on to complete his secondary education at a local state school instead.

Like many cult members, Omar was intelligent, socially accepted and fairly well-adjusted. Paul Elliot, a friend at Foremarke Hall, remarked that Omar ‘was such a nice, jovial guy at school. He fitted in well and was a really friendly person … My fondest memory of him is that he used to have a Rubik magic trick – a flat thing with circles on it. He managed to break it during a religious instruction lesson. Everyone was laughing at him. He was definitely the class joker. We used to hang out as kids, doing everyday things like skateboarding. He was a great fan of football and we played together in the park at break time.’¹¹

During his teens, Omar’s parents separated. Omar and his five siblings all took their mother’s part. The separation did nothing to deter Omar from successfully completing his secondary education, and he was accepted as an undergraduate student in mathematics by King’s College, in London.

Media Brainwashing