397- Cult(ish) II - Control and conditioning

I posted many entries about my upbringing and surivival in my father's religious cult. Some people thought that I was exaggerating. Others joked about cults, not knowing the harm they were causing and how far they were from understanding the pain I was going through by hearing such comments and jokes. 

I decided that I have to explain, in a clear, detailed fashion, not only my experiences as you have read in my other entries, but also more general aspects, as I want you to recognize patterns of power that groups, cults and mainstream religions exert on individuals.


I'll start with aspects, as seen in the BITE model and in somewhat simpler description in Operant conditioning,  developping each entry about possible ways groups and cults can control people. I shall give examples of how I was subjected to them myself, as some ways may be more insidous and hidden than others.

BITE stands for the four control types, which are : Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotions. 

The Operant conditioning model is quite basic, and yet elloquent enough to describe patterns of control and power one person or group can exert over others. 

There are two currents in operant conditiong, Reinforcment, and Punishment. Each of these have positive and negative branches and instill different mind patterns. I'll try to detail them in a separate entry, and can already direct you to post 230 where I discussed some of my experiences using that model.   

The BITE model is more precise as it divided into 4 types of control : Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional. Steve Hassan lists 18 to 23 ways in each type, which shows the multitudes of words and actions that religious cults use on a daily basis, to keep their followers under their thumbs, for any financial and depersonalization goals, which can differ from group to group.

Religions, mainstream or cults alike, entice people with promises of better life, better health, having a spiritual family to belong to, being taken care of in the afterlife, often adding prevention of eternal damnation and the so-called hell - all the whilst forgetting the pagan origins of the very words used in these pseudo-mystical, spiritual and religious practices endorsed, promoted, propagated and reveered by these religious dogmas and rules. 

The reality behind these promises are those of controlling your thoughts, your emotions, your actions, your beliefs, your knowledge or lack therefore, in vaccums of misinformation, lies, deceit, denial of basic needs, including expression of free thought and emotions ; subverting education and perpetuating ignorance ; keeping your mind and body emprisoned, stiffling curiosity which may lead to outside knowlegde and create rebellion ; stiffling creativity and often controlling health, reproduction, dating, friendships, and family ties.

Cults, and some mainstream religions, weild these powerful controls in varying degrees, obviously. In the past, some of these were a lot stronger than in modern days, because of people's small or bigger rebellious acts and numerous other factors which lead mainstream ones to release a bit of their overbearing domination, but without fully relinquishing their wish for authority, jurisdications of matters of body and the so-called soul, matters of faith VS science are everlasting, and those over reproduction and genders have never loosed their grips, especially in the monotheistic, abhramic traditions. The present remains bleak for faith-based lifestyles, even in the mainstream.

The term cultish would apply to groups who administer similar types of control, without the faith in almighty or superhuman being/s, or, said otherwise, without the religious aspects. This goes for a lot of MLM's as discussed in Drew "Genetically Modified Skeptic" video , but may also be applied in other groups. 

I'll now discuss general lines from the BITE model and keep details for the following entries.

I'll use Steven Hassan's list as a frame of reference.

Type I : behavior controls are aimed to control your body and physical realities, through exloitation, regulations over relationships, dressing and appearance rules, diets, and so on.

Type II: Information. This is easy to understand, as information is power. If you keep the flow of information or misinformation, you can keep a person under your so-called guidance to do what you want. 

Type  III : Thought and IV : emotion controls are aimed, to further reduce seeds of rebellion, curiosity and to curtail intellectual and emotional growths, as both of these aspects would cause dangerous knowledge falling into the hands, or rather brains, of their reciptients, who could and would rebel and leave the group, the religious cult and in some cases (we see it enough even in our modern world), in mainstream religions enforced by laws, subjugating entire populations and tyrannically enforcing views, with severe punishements. 

There is nothing metaphysical in starving one's mind, brain, and body ; in withholding or impeding health ; in distorting truths into misinformation. All of these alters indivudals who become maleable, dependant and deprived of identity and power of decision. 


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