"Destructive cults, groups, movements and/or leaders "maintain intense allegiance through the arguments of their ideology, and through social and psychological pressures and practices that, intentionally or not, amount to conditioning techniques that constrict attention, limit personal relationships, and devalue reasoning."

October 18, 1891 - April 15, 1967

July 31, 1892 - January 16, 1986

[1] "Spirituality and religion in epilepsy"

^[2] When fanaticism and religion are mixed, we have a very potent and dangerous brew that can sustain itself for centuries unlike non-religious fanaticism's. Religion is based on the psychological weakness of all humans. The idea that there is a god, which is assumed to be the unknown power in the universe makes the human mind paranoid because of our fear of the unknown. And this paranoia drives humans to do anything to propitiate this unknown power that is assumed to exist. This is what transforms this weakness of our human mind into a sickness.

^[3] Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, p. 237

^[4] Questioning HWA's Death Diagnosis

^[5] The Press Waves Good-by

Loma and Herbert Armstrong
"The Family Business"

The dream of Loma Armstrong and the "work" that Herbert was to do, eventually led to the formation of the Armstrong family business. 

Loma's dream:
"Suddenly there appeared an awesome sight in the sky above. It was a dazzling spectacle -- the sky filled with a gigantic solid mass of brilliant stars, shaped like a huge banner. The stars began to quiver and separate, finally vanishing. She called my attention to the vanishing stars, when another huge grouping of flashing stars appeared, then quivering, separating, and vanishing like the first.... great white birds flew directly toward us. As they descended nearer, she perceived that they were angels....“it dawned on me that Christ was coming, and I was so happy I was just crying for joy. Then suddenly I thought of Herbert and was rather worried. At that time, we had been going quite regularly to motion-picture theatres."^[1]

After the failure of many business schemes by Herbert, Loma Armstrong had become acquainted with an elderly neighbor lady, Mrs. Ora Runcorn. She was convinced by this Adventist friend that all Sunday churches were wrong about not keeping Saturday as the Sabbath. The year was 1926, and the influence of Ora Runcorn on Loma was to be the beginning of a fruitless work that would ruin the lives of tens of thousands. This "work" was later to be know as the Radio Church of God and from there, the Worldwide Church of God.

This religious fanaticism ^[2] of Loma Armstrong had reawakened a forgotten interest in her husband Herbert. Where Herbert failed in business, Loma succeeded. Loma Armstrong had founded the family business. Armstrong-ism.

Herbert Armstrong was a poorly educated man and had no formal Bible education, however he began to see how easily religion could be used to bring in millions of dollars.

Over the years, Loma and Herbert saw that the winning formula for a successful business was in the marketing. Utilizing fear, guilt, uniqueness of the group psychology, they marched forward constructing an empire that would rake in more cash than Billy Graham and Oral Roberts combined.

The Armstrong's used deceptive recruiting tactics by giving away magazines for free, leaving the receiver feeling obligated to the group. In time, the recipients of these books and magazines were recruited into the Armstrong church or became co-workers, donating their money and time. Even when Herbert wasn't lying, he would use facts, emphasizing facts, quietly ignore facts, in a way that would enable him to gain control over peoples minds. This grooming is called "undue influence."

Armstrong would tell the members that Satan has corrupted their minds. He reduces the membership to such helplessness that they are incapable of making the simplest of decisions without asking their minister for guidance. Herbert demands absolute and blind obedience from his followers. And he gets it.

In time dissenters began to question the doctrines of the Armstrong's. Rather than honestly and intelligently debating their critics, the Armstrong's and many of the church hireling's resort to labeling them as evil or stupid, using name-calling, slander, condescending put-downs, personal slurs, accusations of bad motives, and casting aspersions on the critic's intelligence or sanity.

Loma Armstrong who came up with Petra as the place of safety,^[3] dies on April 15th, 1967 of bowel obstruction.

Herbert Armstrong dies under suspicious circumstances.^[4] January 16th, 1986.  

The respected British paper The Guardian, had this to say about Herbert Armstrong:
Herbert Armstrong, the 93-year-old head of the Worldwide Church of God, stated recently from California that his tome, Mystery of the Ages, "may be the most important book since the Bible." He has now been called in to account for this statement - he died on Thursday.^[5]

And that folks is "The Rest of the Story."

Thought Control

Here are a few guidelines for thought control:

Emotional Control

Emotional control allows cults to manipulate and narrow the range of a recruit's feelings. The objective of cults is to make recruits think that any doubts about the group is their fault, and never that of the leader(s) or the group. Any negativism toward the group is often misdirected back to the recruit -- causing the recruit to internalize their doubts.

This section contains the following:

Guilt Association
Fear Induction
Extremism
Phobia Indoctrination

Guilt Association

Cults exude severe amounts of guilt, typically, in association with the following:

•   Who you are (and why you are not living up to your potential)

•   Who your family is (those from dysfunctional families are to attribute their dysfunctional past to their not being a member of the group yet, those from well-adjusted families are to feel guilty for having had it so good)

•   What secrets lie in your past (sexual history, childhood mistakes, any past criminal involvement overly emphasized)

•   With whom you are affiliated (the company you keep, boyfriend/girlfriend, family, friends etc.)

•   What you think (how you feel, and what you do about your feeling, whether what you think and feel is acceptable to the group)

•   Social guilt (recruit is made to feel inadequate because of his/her social status)

•   Historical guilt (recruit is forced to take on the oppression of his/her ancestors and the plight of martyred persons)

 

Fear Induction

In order for guilt induction to successfully operate, cults must be able to instill fear in their followers:

•   Fear of thinking independently (recruits wonder whether they are making right decisions, what the consequences will be if they think independently)

•   Fear of the "outside" world (recruits have a "we/they" mentality and generally see all in the group as "saved," yet all outside the group as "lost")

•   Fear of enemies (recruits are indoctrinated to be very paranoid of all those on the outside including the government, cult awareness groups, and/or society in general)

•   Fear of losing salvation (recruits taught that salvation is attained only through group affiliation and nowhere else)

•   Fear of being shunned (recruits often risk losing family, friends, job, etc. if deciding to leave, many cults "mark" or otherwise collectively shun former members)

•   Fear of disapproval (recruits learn to live according to the laws of the leaders and that deviating from these laws are detrimental to one's well-being as well as that of those in the group)

 

Extremism

Cults often deal in extremes. Here are a few examples of extremism in cults:

•   Extremes of emotional highs and lows (rewards and punishments go hand-in-hand)

•   Ritual and often public confessions of sins (confessions provoked and exaggerated by inductor, i.e. a recruit who confesses having had a few beers is labeled as an alcoholic)

•   "We/they" mentality in which group sees itself as better than the rest of the world as the only ones capable of accurate doctrinal interpretation (also called "sacred science")

 

Phobia Indoctrination

Phobia indoctrination is the programming of irrational fears of ever leaving the group or even questioning the leadership's authority. Recruits are manipulated to the extent that they cannot visualize a positive and successful future without being in the group. They are taught that horrific consequences will ensue if they are to leave (i.e., "hell," "demon possession," accidents, suicide, and/or insanity, etc.). Often, former cult members are so confused upon leaving that the group's predictions become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many former cult members have killed themselves because that was exactly what the group said they would do. Those who leave are often shunned and rejected by the group. From the group perspective, there is never a legitimate reason to leave. Those who leave are perceived as "weak" or "undisciplined," "nonspiritual" or "worldly," "brainwashed by family, friends, counselors" and/or seduced by the world of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.

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