The Most Educational & Accurate Description Of Cults & Thought Reform

Since I have had the lengthy and painful experience of cult indoctrination by a high school teacher who attached himself to me for life, through collusion with a member of my own family, this educational video is very accurate.

I did not join a cult. I was targeted by a high school teacher in a public school, and forcibly indoctrinated and thought reformed. I was trapped and ensnared without realizing the extent of the exploitation and scheme involved. The teacher was steeped in the Exclusive Brethren religion, and seemed to think that made him into some kind of god.

As time has gone on, especially since freeing myself of the forced association, I have realized all the complex, manipulative, deceptive and destructive tactics that were used to force compliance and subservience.

This educational video should be made widely available, as it covers the range and depth of cult practices. They know exactly what they are doing. We would be wise to learn about those tactics, so we are better equipped to protect ourselves, and less afraid to report it to authorities at the onset.

I recognize so many of the tactics in hindsight. The infiltration of family. The over taking of identity, and attempts to force a name change. The constant repetition of blatant lies. The ganging up on, and “us against them” mentality. The constant demands to “keep me busy”. The constant derision, and accusations towards our mother.

The supreme arrogance and elitism, where you are expected to obey and comply because they know what is best for you. The dehumanizing aspects of being treated as a non person without the right to say no. The threats and ominous implications, if you ever even think about getting free of it. If so, I would be rejected by my own family, and God, and cast into outer darkness until I came to my senses. I would be hunted down, as he often said, like the true wolf he is. The gaslighting, and constantly making you doubt your own judgement, feel guilty, bad, unworthy, and wicked, followed by the demands for gratitude. Like this cult mentality was the one and only saviour and rescuer… 

He had such hatred for our mother, yet he did not even know her. I was not sure if he had ever met her. She certainly did not know him, other than to call him a lying screwball. The teacher would tell me how much it hurt him and his equally cultish wife, if I even thought of “that wicked woman” as my mother. It grieved them deeply, as she was not redeemable according to them, and I was guilt tripped for daring to think my own mother was my mother. She was my mother. it was a fact, and I should not have been shamed over it by this masquerading religious zealot.

We only have one mother, and the cult teacher’s wife was most certainly not my mother. These people were only slightly more than a decade older than me. I was sixteen at the time. How did they miraculously give birth to one of his students? Yet I was supposed to consider their hurt feelings and deny that my mother was my mother. How absurd. They would feign pain and hurt feelings, like acknowledging my mother as my mother was a cardinal sin. Our mother was alive, and she was lucid right up until she died in 2007. This cult assault was not only one me, it was very much an assault and punishment on our mother as well. I was the apple of her eye, and looked just like her. In fact, from the time I can remember, I was told that I was the spitting image of her. Our Swedish grandmother nicknamed me “Little Joy” when I was just a toddler. 

Another one of the teacher’s common themes he constantly repeated was that I had the exact same IQ as his wife. When I would ask, “how is that even possible?” He would puff himself up and repeat it with emphasis saying it was “the EXACT SAME” daring me to defy his teacher authority, long after I left high school. He was staring me down and repeating this lie when I was thirty-five years old.

His wife never skipped any grades, and did not excel in any way. She was boring as can be, but she loved the claim of having the exact same IQ as me. I found it incomprehensible that these people would not even allow me to have my own IQ. If I became distressed over it all, they would claim I was “emotionally disturbed” or “mentally ill”. So the circus continued, round and round. I knew they would be at every family function, so how could I tell them to pound sand? Go away. Leave me alone. They would not listen to me. He was in collusion with my own family. Such was the trap I found myself in. 

Plus the family member who set this up with the teacher is very powerful with tremendous influence, which increased exponentially over the years. I was ganged up on, not only by the teacher, the family, but the community, the school, and extended family as well. No one could kick this teacher to the curb. He was the all consuming god over my life. 

They try to lock you in for life with no escape route. The professor in the link below describes the cult leader as being charismatic in his coercion. In my case the teacher was not charismatic, but was authoritarian, domineering, and threatening. He could not have coerced or forced me otherwise, because my intuition did recognize the deception and contradictions. He most certainly did not have a charismatic personality. Quite the opposite in fact. I did argue with him, and try to reason with him many times. But I had no voice.

I said no, but he would not take no for an answer. He repeatedly kept me up all night with brainwashing torture. My younger brother had just been killed in a car accident. I was completely and totally exhausted, trying to get through grade twelve, so I could get out of town. Each time I thought I might escape him, I was dead wrong. I had no idea the extent of collusion and scheming that was going on behind my back. 

When I became determined, and tried to assert myself, I got ganged up on even more. In addition to being accused of being mentally ill, I was the biggest trouble maker, the cause of all conflict, and wicked like our mother. I was blamed and shamed with nowhere to turn.

I ended up putting up with this coercive relationship for years, just so I could be a member of my own family. I hoped and prayed they would just drop it and let me go. I hoped they would accept the truth, and go live their own lives with their own family. No one tore the teacher’s family apart. Yet he constantly infiltrated our family to the point he was the all important deity and god-father. Just the thought of that man staring at me, and telling me I am his daughter, sickens me to the core. After awhile, even though he was invited to every family function, and repeatedly invited himself into my home, I could not even stand to look at him. 

But even so, I did not fully comprehend the scope of it until I got away from it all. Now I do understand the diabolical nature of the plot over my life. By the grace of God, they did not win. It was a classic example of the fowler’s snare. 

When I finally did shut the door on the cult teacher, the punishment phase began, and is ongoing. But I had to escape in order to survive, so I also have to endure the punishment. The threats he made throughout my life, as to what would happen if I ever tried to escape, did come true to an extent.

But the one thing that did not come true, is that I was not rejected by God, and have not been cast into outer darkness. The difference is, I no longer serve the cult masters, and have been shown more of the truth of the gospel. It has strengthened my faith. So the term “the truth shall set you free” does apply to my own life. For that I am most thankful, as I could never have escaped the clutches of the cult mentality, abuse of power, conflict of interest, deception, and dominance otherwise. 

I encourage all people to watch this informative video linked below by Margaret Thaler Singer of International Cultic Studies Association. She is a professor and educator at the University of California, Berkley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bRBFhMEQFk