398- BITE model 1 : Cult Control over Behaviours

In view of content : Trigger warning (especially point 17)

Steven Hassan's list is my current reference list for the BITE model used by cults to control their followers. As there are 4 types, or categories of controls, I'll divided this present blog series to detail each in turn.

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

Each entry shall include a short introduction, the list of control tactics, and then my notes, followed, in a subsequent post, examples of my own experiences. 

I chose to share the lists each time, just in case the original website is taken down. I didn't come up with the wording on each, nor the term BITE model, and do not, in any case, try to steal anything from anyone. That being said, Steven Hassan didn't detail them as I shall do. 

Let's start with the list given for type I - behaviour control:

1. Regulate individual’s physical reality 

2. Dictate where, how, and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates 

3. When, how and with whom the member has sex 

4. Control types of clothing and hairstyles 

5. Regulate diet - food and drink, hunger and/or fasting 

6. Manipulation and deprivation of sleep 

7. Financial exploitation, manipulation or dependence 

8. Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time 

9. Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self indoctrination, including the Internet 

10. Permission required for major decisions 

11. Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors 

12. Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative 

13. Discourage individualism, encourage group-think 

14. Impose rigid rules and regulations 

15. Instill dependency and obedience (this is noted twice in the original list) 

16. Threaten harm to family and friends 

17. Force individual to rape or be raped 

18. Encourage and engage in corporal punishment

1. A physical reality can be affected if the cult manipulates the person with almost every single one of the points in the list. It can be done also by a sense of emprisonment, real or perceived, of the follower, for example by threats. Here, I'll add something Mr Hassan didn't mention, which I think should be included in this point : regulating a person's physical reality can be in the form of tasks and chores, a form or another of enslaving. 

2 and 3 both pertain to interrelationships, be it for friendships, coworkers and so on. If a person cannot easily associate with others, they cannot question inside doctrines as we don't get outside opinions to spark our brains into thinking differently. Furthering control over our body and sexuality serves this purpose and also that of keeping us in an infantalized, un-sexualized form of ourselves. In some cases, this third tactic also becomes that seen in point 17, whilst the second point is almost invariably accompanied by those of 16, where threats are made about family or friends, whom we either must bring to "the faith" or cut ties with when they refuse, or, in some cases, these become threats, either towards them, and/or the cult's subject/follower.

Point 4 seems a small matter, but what if you cannot wear something as a form of self-expression, or cannot wear proper, decent clothes to face the elements ? 

Additionally, most religious dogma and the majority of cults instil gender-bias via their clothing dress-codes. Extreme gender norms are forced upon all members, indistinctly of their innate, natural tendencies. 

Women must grow their hair long, aren't permitted to cut it, and quite often have to ALSO hide it in some kind of scarf or fully cover their heads, or even their bodies.  They aren't permitted to wear trousers, whilst men aren't allowed to wear 'feminine attire" such as dresses, and may also be forbidden from cutting either their beards, and/or their hair. 

Gender norms are sacrosaint to religious dogma and cults, in their clothing, and also in assigned tasks. 

In 5 (diet) and 6 (sleep) one sees physical impediments forced upon cult members : these can be in a varied form, and can include reduced food, supposed to be of the devil and thus, supposedly bad for one's spiritual growth of the soul, which can be also told of excessive sleeping in certain cults, and thus, sleep patterns are altered by early rising, prayers and various duties to the whole that is the cult, starting by the leader. 

Financial exploitation or other dependancies from tactic # 7 can be easily understood : if members have no money, how can they escape the overvbearing presence of the cult? 

Restrictions about anything deemed outside of the doctrine, from entertainement to leisure  activites and vacations are all present in tactic # 8. These are presented as necessities for one's soul's growth, once more, but hide insidiously the need of the cult to maintain a firm grip, by reducing any external stimuli and possible escape from under its rules.

Instead, all devotees, followers, members, of any cult and, to some extent, mainstream religions, are supposed to learn and read their sacred texts. This is the 9th tactic, where mind-wiping, mind-control or mind-washing are all common words to descripe conditioning. For in indoctrination lies the entire power of a cult, to subvert a person's mind, thoughts and emotions, and therefore all the other tactics depend on how successful this indoctrination is. On how the member is isolated from oneself and everyone around. 

To further this, permissions (tactic 10) are required for a number of things in the cult, from important decisions to what expenditures are allowed, to what medical aid is permitted, if any is at all under its specific dogma. Every cult will have a set number of required permissions, and any offense is often punisheable.  

Thus, thoughts etc from tactic 11 are reported to superiors, for any disciplinary actions towards offenders, in a system of rewards and punishements (tactic 12) which usually has more chores and duties than rewards. 

Rigid rules, regulations (14), implant this dependency, and, as hoped by the hierarchy of the cult, obedience (15), with threats (16) of punishements to one's family or friends, or to oneself (11). 

As one's friendships (2), romances and sexuality (3) are quite frequently regulated by religious cults, some pushing the limits and force individuals towards rape, either as victim, or perpetrator, or both (17). In mainstream religion, this is often translated as victim blaming, pardonning and praying for the offenders, as an excuse towards the victims, if not blaming or punishing the victims for having caused the rape. 

Rigid rules and regulations are automatically accompanied by the first rule of absolute, blind faith and obedience. One cannot question the validity of these rules, under penalty of exclusion, being shunned, punished, or any other corporal punishement (18), which members have to inflict towards those under them, under specific guidelines, and receive from their superiors. 

The main goals in all these rules are those of discouraging individualism, individual thoughts and actions, by promoting those of the group (13). This is where we find group prayers and religious studies/ seminars. Here we also see those rules about reporting to superiors (11) any thought or act or word a member notices about another as contradictory to the rules, for any form of punishment (18). 

In view of all other tactics, the 13th one about discouraging individualism and promoting group-thought it very easilly understood, as individuals are risks to authorities of all kinds, including those of leaders and founders of religious cults, who rely, much like any organized, official and recognized religion, unto hierarchies, meant not simply as progressing ranks and proving one's worth (in this case, to the cult and its designs), but to instil fear through threats (16), forcing everyone to depend on authorized permissions in decision-making (10), reporting about one another's actions, thoughts and offenses to the specific cult's dogma, imposed by rigid rules and regulations (14), where a follower must never err, even unknowingly, because they are supposed to refrain when in doubt. 

(1325  words)