The Covert Strategies of the False Revival (2)
"Are Churches using a form of Brainwashing
to alter the minds of Believers?"
In part two of this study, I plan to examine some mind-control tactics as reported by anti-cult organisations and other interested parties, and to show how these tactics are the very methods now being used to indoctrinate people into the New Order.
First, a couple of definitions of mind-control. See this statement from, "Coercive Mind Control Tactics - A Short Overview", which says: "Coercion is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as:
- To force to act or think in a certain manner,
- To dominate, restrain, or control by force,
- To bring about by force."
The FACTNet definition is useful:
"Mind control" refers to all coercive psychological systems, such as brainwashing, thought reform, and coercive persuasion. Mind control is the shaping of a person's attitudes, beliefs, and personality without the person's knowledge or consent. Mind control employs deceptive and surreptitious manipulation, usually in a group setting, for the financial or political [or religious!] profit of the manipulator.
Notice this further statement from the above document:
"Mind control works by gradually exerting increasing CONTROL over individuals through a variety of techniques..."
Ronald Enroth (author of "Churches That Abuse") has this to say about dysfunctional churches:
"What are the hallmarks of unhealthy, aberrant churches? The key indicator is control oriented leadership, ministers who have a need to "lord it over the flock." Abusive leaders demand submission and unquestioning loyalty. The person who raises uncomfortable questions or does not "get with the program" is cast aside. Guilt, fear, and intimidation are used to manipulate and control vulnerable members, especially those who have been taught to believe that questioning their pastor is comparable to questioning God. ... How can we recognize a healthy church? In addition to matters of appropriate doctrine, a healthy church is reconciling and restorative, not adversarial and elitist. Members of healthy churches seek to deepen and strengthen their family commitments. Legitimate leaders will welcome dissent and hard questions from members without threat of reprisal. Trustworthy leaders will encourage accountability and they will establish checks and balances."
Therefore, mind-control techniques are totally at odds with genuine Christian teaching. God makes his appeal to the mind and heart of a person without pressure, coercion or control. God asks for a thoughtful, reasoned, perceptive response to his truths, not the knee-jerk reaction of a slave.
Only man is interested in creating automatons that are programmed to act, think and believe alike, and are forbidden to exercise their critical faculties. Only man is interested in dominating others for his own benefit. Only man will turn to domination, threat, control or secretive mental techniques to alter the minds of his listeners. These are not the methods that God uses!
What are the differences between genuine teaching or evangelism and thought-reform, or mind-control? These paragraphs come from a FACTNet document:
"A coercive persuasion program is a behavioral change technology applied to cause the "learning" and "adoption" of a set of behaviors or an ideology under certain conditions. It is distinguished from other forms of benign social learning or peaceful persuasion by the conditions under which it is conducted and by the techniques of environmental and interpersonal manipulation employed to suppress particular behaviors and to train others. Over time, coercive persuasion, a psychological force akin in some ways to our legal concepts of undue influence, can be even MORE effective than pain, torture, drugs, and use of physical force and legal threats...
".. The relationship between the person and the coercive persuasion tactics are dynamic in that while the force of the pressures, rewards, and punishments brought to bear on the person are considerable, they do not lead to a stable, meaningfully SELF-CHOSEN reorganization of beliefs or attitudes. Rather, they lead to a sort of coerced compliance and a situationally required elaborate rationalization, for the new conduct.
"... Truly peaceful religious persuasion practices would never attempt to force, compel and dominate the free wills or minds of its members through coercive behavioral techniques or covert hypnotism. They would have no difficulty coexisting peacefully with U.S. laws meant to protect the public from such practices.
"But appearing to be 'peaceful persuasion' is precisely what makes coercive persuasion less likely to attract attention or to mobilize opposition. It is also part of what makes it such a devastating control technology. Victims of coercive persuasion have no signs of physical abuse, convincing rationalizations for the radical or abrupt changes in their behavior, a convincing "sincerity, and they have been changed so gradually that they don't oppose it because they usually aren't even aware of it." ('How Does Mind Control work', from FACTNet.org - see all links below)
Already is it becoming apparent that compulsion, pressure, threats, and domination are the methodologies of mind control, and we see these very tactics employed in many churches today!
Do Churches Use Coercion?
Apart from the central, most obvious, pointer to abusive church systems - controlling leadership - we can see some further indicators of the use of mind control as we examine a textbook on the subject and compare its findings with common practise in revival churches.
When I did so, I was disturbed to discover that every one of the tactics employed by mind-control experts outside the churches (i.e., in politics, cults or military intelligence) was also apparent in the churches! Could this be a coincidence or is it proof that a subtle brainwashing is taking place in order to implant the new, unbiblical, doctrines of the Global Church?
Below is part of a document called "Coercive Mind Control Tactics: A Short Overview". I think you will agree that we can see almost all of the tactics listed at work in the churches.
"Coercive psychological systems are behavioral change programs which use psychological force in a coercive way to cause the learning and adoption of an ideology or designated set of beliefs, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors. ...In such a program the subject is forced to adapt in a series of tiny "invisible" steps. Each tiny step is designed to be sufficiently small so the subjects will not notice the changes in themselves or identify the coercive nature of the processes being used.
"The coercive psychological influence of these programs aim to overcome the individual's critical thinking abilities and free will - apart from any appeal to informed judgment. Victims gradually lose their ability to make independent decisions and exercise informed consent. Their critical thinking, defenses, cognitive processes, values, ideas, attitudes, conduct and ability to reason are undermined by a technological process rather than by meaningful free choice, rationality, or the inherent merit or value of the ideas or propositions being presented."
I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the hallmark of the revival has been a "submit now, think later" strategy, designed to achieve the very condition described above.
One of the most difficult aspects of the revival that believers have had to face is the constant pressure to abandon their critical abilities and to accept the manifestations, power and doctrine at face value, simply on the say-so of their leaders. Not only is this inimical to biblical doctrine, but it is a technique much more suited to mind control than Christian preaching or teaching.
Stories are legion of the leaders passing judgement on anyone who dares to question the revival doctrines or activities; many have been the reports from those who were branded as blasphemers or driven out of their fellowships for exercising caution and stopping to examine what was going on, rather than check their brains at the door.
The cry goes up "submit! submit!" and all who do not are immediately suspect.
Just as in cults, mindlessness and passivity is encouraged among the revival followers. Believers are urged to "clear your minds; make your minds blank - just receive". On the contrary, God urges us to fully use our minds, to test the spirits, to pore over doctrines to see if they be according to his word, and never, never to become a passive automaton willing to accept everything we hear or are commanded to do.
Above all, I feel, it has been the willingness of Christians to be unthinkingly led by those claiming to be in authority over them that has opened the way for massive deception in the churches.
MIND CONTROL TACTICS
The article cited above is not a Christian one, but was reportedly used to make the US Government aware of the coercive activities of certain cults and secular groups. It made the observation that physical acts of coercion formerly used by the military, etc., - such as deprivation, pain, imprisonment, threat and torture - were now seen as a LESS effective method than the psychological tactics seen listed below.
In other words, when any group, or any government, needs to slowly alter the beliefs and thoughts of the populace, they can effectively do this without harming or alarming anyone, without incurring legal penalties, and while being supported and funded by those very people whom it seeks to enslave!
Not only is this a perfect tool, therefore, in the hands of the New World Order, but it is being employed to change the very structure, belief-system and goal of the Church on a global scale! We had better sit up and take notice!
Let's examine the seven tactics of mind control, as reported in the same article.
TACTIC 1 - Increase suggestibility and "soften up" the individual through specific hypnotic or other suggestibility-increasing techniques such as: extended audio, visual, verbal, or tactile fixation drills; excessive repetition of routine activities; sleep restriction and/or nutritional restriction.
TACTIC 2 - Establish control over the person's social environment, time and sources of social support by a system of often-excessive rewards and punishments. Social isolation is promoted. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered.
TACTIC 3 - Prohibit opposing information and non supporting opinions in group communication. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication is highly controlled. An "in-group" language is usually constructed.
TACTIC 4 - Make the person re-evaluate the most central aspects of his or her experience of self and prior conduct in negative ways. Efforts are designed to destabilize and undermine the subject's basic consciousness, reality awareness, world view, emotional control and defense mechanisms. The subject is guided to reinterpret his or her life's history and adopt a new version of causality.
TACTIC 5 - Create a sense of powerlessness by subjecting the person to intense and frequent actions and situations which undermine the person's confidence in himself and his judgment.
TACTIC 6 - Create strong aversive emotional arousals in the subject by use of nonphysical punishments such as intense humiliation, loss of privilege, social isolation, social status changes, intense guilt, anxiety, manipulation and other techniques.
TACTIC 7 - Intimidate the person with the force of group-sanctioned secular psychological threats. For example, it may be suggested or implied that failure to adopt the approved attitude, belief or consequent behavior will lead to severe punishment or dire consequences such as physical or mental illness, the reappearance of a prior physical illness, drug dependence, economic collapse, social failure, divorce, disintegration, failure to find a mate, etc.
At once it will become clear that churches are using psychological coercion on a major scale!
Drumming Up Support
Commenting on Tactic One, the use of "softening up" activities, we need look no further than the meetings in which the new doctrines are peddled and the spirit behind those doctrines is made available to all who will receive it. The clever use of music, atmospheric lighting, the alteration of mood, crowd control, astounding testimonies to raise expectation, the noise, chaos, lack of time for reflection or thought - all this and more has been noticed by revival watchers.
Many cannot find the "presence of God" now without music, or outside of the meeting. They are drunk on the hype and excitement. But is it really the presence of GOD that is summoned by such activities?
Rodney Howard Browne's meetings are one perfect example of a scripted performance running to a definite plan and using every technique in the book to manipulate his listeners. It is a mesmeric performance carefully and minutely staged to best effect. If RHB encounters any interruption or surprise to the proceedings, or if his backup team fail to act on cue, then his anger quickly shows. (One wonders how the man would fare in a foreign country unused to such things, without the stage, the music, the script and the backup team.)
Music has become the most powerful tool for softening up the minds of believers to receive the message. One writer whose brainwashing document can be found all over the Internet is the late Dick Sutphen, an intensely anti-Christian holistic practitioner. His article was written in an attempt to explain Christian conversion as the result of mind control. However, his comments on the activities of some Christian groups are worth repeating:
"Go to the church or tent early and sit in the rear, about three-quarters of the way back. Most likely repetitive music will be played while the people come in for the service. A repetitive beat, ideally ranging from 45 to 72 beats per minute (a rhythm close to the beat of the human heart), is very hypnotic and can generate an eyes-open altered state of consciousness in a very high percentage of people. And, once you are in an alpha state, you are at least 25 times as suggestible as you would be in full beta consciousness....
"Before I continue, let me point out something else about an altered state of consciousness. When you go into an altered state, you transfer into right brain, which results in the internal release of the body's own opiates: enkephalins and Beta-endorphins, chemically almost identical to opium. In other words, it feels good...and you want to come back for more...
"...The use of hypnotic techniques by religions is sophisticated, and professionals are ensuring that they become even more effective. A man in Los Angeles is designing, building, and reworking a lot of churches around the country. He tells ministers what they need and how to use it. This man's track record indicates that the congregation and the monetary income will double if the minister follows his instructions. He admits that about 80 percent of his efforts are in the sound system and lighting.
"Powerful sound and the proper use of lighting are of primary importance in inducing an altered state of consciousness...
"But let me inject a word of warning here: If you think you can attend such gatherings and not be affected, you are probably wrong. A perfect example is the case of a woman who went to Haiti on a Guggenheim Fellowship to study Haitian Voodoo. In her report, she related how the music eventually induced uncontrollable bodily movement and an altered state of consciousness. Although she understood the process and thought herself above it, when she began to feel herself become vulnerable to the music, she attempted to fight it and turned away. Anger or resistance almost always assures conversion. A few moments later she was possessed by the music and began dancing in a trance around the Voodoo meeting house. A brain phase had been induced by the music and excitement, and she awoke feeling reborn. ...The only hope of attending such gatherings without being affected is to be a 'buddha' and allow no positive or negative emotions to surface. Few people are capable of such detachment.
"There are three primary techniques used for thought stopping [to halt rational examination of what is going on]. The first is marching: the thump, thump, thump beat literally generates self-hypnosis and thus great susceptibility to suggestion.
The second thought stopping technique is meditation. ...The third thought-stopping technique is chanting, and often chanting in meditation. "Speaking in tongues" could also be included in this category."
Once again, these words are strikingly illustrative of many charismatic revival meetings. The April 27th 1997 issue of the Washington Post contained a 4000-word feature article on the revival. Post staff writer Peter Carlson gave an eyewitness account of one of the revival meetings, explaining how the meetings begin: "It begins with a drummer laying down a slow beat that goes on for several minutes, a steady, inescapable, portentous heartbeat. The guitarist and the organist join in, along with a choir of several dozen singers... From the first note, the people are up out of the pews and on their feet, clapping in time or dancing with eyes closed, hands raised."
An eyewitness report of a performance by the "Worldwide Message Tribe" - a Manchester-based Christian rock group that frequently visits schools and other youth venues - speaks of the same kind of hypnotic drumming and chanting.
The eyewitness says that the rhythm was a steady beat like an African witchdoctor chant using the bass and drum; and they chanted "Who's in the House?' to which everybody replied, "God's in the House". They worked everyone up into a frenzy, then chanted "jump for God/for God jump" while telling people it wasn't loud enough, or high enough. "By this time the whole of the thousand people were hypnotised - and I mean really hypnotised".
At an "Awake America!" meeting in Denver (June 2, 1998), there was no message and the preaching was replaced by frenzy. David Works, an obvious advocate of the chaos, gleefully reported: "the drummer pounded a drum for 10 minutes while the crowd was led in a chant of “Jesus, Jesus!”
I well remember the meeting organised by Restoration groups to introduce Celtic theology to British Christians. The meeting was scripted, and while the script was intoned in a portentous voice, huge screens behind the audience displayed swirling shapes and colours, to the accompaniment of a bang, bang, bang of a single drum. Is this Christian preaching or indoctrination?
Either 'In' or 'Out'
TACTIC 2 - Establish control over the person's social environment, time and sources of social support by a system of often-excessive rewards and punishments. Social isolation is promoted. Contact with family and friends is abridged, as is contact with persons who do not share group-approved attitudes. Economic and other dependence on the group is fostered.
TACTIC 3 - Prohibit opposing information and non supporting opinions in group communication. Rules exist about permissible topics to discuss with outsiders. Communication is highly controlled. An "in-group" language is usually constructed.
I think that many who have been involved as members in "restoration" or "shepherding" fellowships as well as revivalist churches would agree that their lives were swallowed up by the people and events such that "normal life" disappeared and all social interaction took place with church people and in the meetings.
When the "blessing" hit Toronto Airport Church the meetings were held almost every day and lasted for hour after frenzied hour. People were already "drunk" in the meetings and their minds were further eroded by tiredness, constant loud music and unnerving spiritual activities. In an atmosphere of uncertainty and chaos there was little time to think clearly. Some were left incapacitated and could not continue their normal daily routines, such was the bombardment to their senses.
All of this tended to remove the members from their normal environment, in which they could have reflected on their previous life and beliefs, and made comparisons. No, reflection and conscious choice were discouraged, and all those who were "truly seeking God" had to "jump in the river" immediately without regard to the consequences.
The waves of power came upon them; the leaders urged everyone to receive (or be left behind) and under this intense pressure and haste most people caught up in the frenzy gave into the conditioning.
Knowing that the system worked, and that few people can withstand the onslaught of hours of such mental pressure, the revival leaders would frequently manipulate the guilt-feelings of their critics and say: "You cannot justify criticising the revival until you have personally attended a meeting. Come along and then you'll see."
"I was just wondering how someone could speak of these things negatively without experiencing them himself. I do believe in what you call "Holy Laughter" because I have experienced it and do experience it quite often. ... Many people, when they don't understand something, tend to criticize it, just because they don't understand it with their mind. Here is something very important. We will never figure out God, or understand His power shown through signs, wonders and miracles. I would encourage you and many others to go for yourself and not just base your opinion on what others have said. When you get into the presence of God and allow the Holy Spirit to move, things happen. We may not understand them with our mind, but we don't need to." [e-mail in possession of the author]
This attitude has been taught from the pulpit right from the beginning of the revival. "You can't know anything is wrong until you experience it". Really? How do we know spiritualism is wrong? - or adultery? - or heroin?
People do not urge you to taste the fruit because they know you'll get an opportunity to search the scriptures and test the spirits. No, they want you to get into the revival atmosphere charged with deceiving spirits so you'll "let it happen". They want you to come under the pressures of mind-control and "receive"!
I know some fine ministers who started out by writing critical articles against the Toronto Blessing, were manipulated into attending the meetings, but were caught up, conditioned, converted to the new paradigm, received the "blessing" and thereafter became revival addicts just like everyone else!
Alternative information discouraged
Members are actively discouraged from relationships outside the church, even with family members, if they do not approve of what is going on.
The church and its leadership and goals becomes the believer's only point of reference and anything outside of that doctrine or experience is frowned upon or actively discouraged. Anything contrary to the "approved" doctrine is viewed as evil and "negative". Websites, people, books, tapes and anything else that would give an opposing viewpoint are off limits.
Anyone within the church who dares to offer opposition or to raise a question about doctrine is publicly castigated and pilloried, and members are commanded to ostracise them. They then find that backs are turned on them in the street, phone calls stop, and they are considered outcasts.
By many subtle and not-so-subtle means, those who are not totally convinced are put down and pushed out, while only the mindlessly obedient are praised and lifted up - becoming trusted members of staff and elders. It quickly dawns on everybody that the way to be accepted, loved, respected and promoted is to offer blind trust and submission to the leadership. Since most people fear exclusion, and seek love and approval, they learn to obey. This is the "reward and punishment" system spoken of in Tactic 2.
In watching many of Rodney Howard Browne's videos it offends me deeply that he openly insults anyone who does not submit to his methods. Any person foolhardy enough to sit still, read the Bible, and resist the waves of laughter is rounded upon and publicly branded "a religious Pharisee" and when that person eventually walks out, Browne mocks them and makes a joke at their expense.
How many of us are strong enough to withstand the critical stares and mockery of a thousand people in a public meeting? How many of us would submit and follow the crowd - do what we are told - rather than be branded a misfit? So, when the pressure is applied, people submit and learn to go with the flow.
Common Cause
When John Doe experiences the revival manifestations, people "outside" no longer seem to understand him. Only the truly "anointed" seem to have empathy for him because they share his experiences. All the initiates commit themselves to work for the exciting goals of restoration - they have a common cause that binds them, and non-members simply "do not understand".
Therefore, to spare themselves criticism or challenge, they avoid contact with anyone who has not shared a similar experience. Indeed, contact and conversation with those outside quickly angers them, because their perceptions are challenged and the initiation begins to break down. They must quickly rid themselves of opposing views, and act to reinforce the teaching by attending yet more meetings or sharing with fellow "cultists". All of this drives the members closely together and instills a distrust of those "outside".
I tell you, this is the word I hear the Spirit of the Lord releasing over this region. It is a paradigm shift the Lord is bringing... I hear the Lord say that some have left denominational, old wineskin places because you’ve been hungry for what God is doing in this hour. ...And God says I am raising up these "Training Centers" to be places of demonstration of what I will do...The religious systems of men will always try to bring the true Davidic Company into bondage, with their way of doing things, but the Davidic spirit will always reject it. [from Kingdom Restoration Centre by Robert Gay at Praise & Worship Seminar - March 11th, 1999]
And so the circle of social interaction narrows down to the church and those within it who are "initiated". Social events, outings, meals and other day to day happenings are all confined to fellow church members, thus reinforcing the validity of the revival experience. The fact that this is a cult-like behaviour seemingly never occurs to Christians in revival churches!
'In' Language
Buzz words are shared between all the initiates that refer to specific parts of their common experience, developing an in-language that only they fully understand.
We have seen how scriptural terms are being reinterpreted and applied to specific parts of the revival. Once the meaning changes, ONLY the initiates "own" that phrase. Outsiders are not meant to share these terms; this emphasises the exclusive nature of their doctrine and experience.
Such buzz-words abound - you only need to visit a website catering to the revival followers to see articles and "prophecies" stuffed with terminology that has lost contact with its scriptural roots but now refers to a 'secret and special' part of the revival plan. A few picked at random are:
- birthing
- carpet-time
- river-revival
- eagle-saints
- Davidic worship
- "more, Lord"
- overcomers
- transition
- gatekeepers
- new thing
- new breed
- the Bride, bridal love, bridal passion
- passion for Jesus
Revivalists have developed a language all of their own that marks people out as either "in" or "out". We are no longer "just" Christians!
Click the link below to...CONTINUE TO PART THREE
© 1995-2013 Tricia Tillin of Banner Ministries. All rights reserved. Cross+Word Website: http://www.banner.org.uk/ This document is the property of its author and is not to be displayed on other websites, redistributed, sold, reprinted, or reproduced in printed in any other format without permission. Websites may link to this article, if they provide proper title and author information. One copy may be downloaded, stored and/or printed for personal research. All spelling and phraseology is UK English.
Go Here