In my last blog, I cited an article by Michael D. Langone, Ph. D., Executive Director of the International Cultic Studies Association and Editor of its ICSA Today and co-author of several books on cult subjects. The article was called, Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups (Revised). In my blog, I emphasized how the First Temple Degree Initiation in AMORC, as described in a recent book, exalts the officers.  I suggested there that these officers actually are presented as custodians, so to speak, of the keys to life and death. That is true, but it is also true that another important complementary criterion is served – the uniqueness and sacred exalted hierarchical significance of the Order in the realm of human existence.       In his article, Langone says:

The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (for example, the leader is considered the Messiah, a special being, an avatar—or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity). The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society. The leader is not accountable to any authorities (unlike, for example, teachers, military commanders or ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream religious dominations.”

            As I mentioned in my previous blog, the authority that should actuate in one’s own self is passed over into the officers of the Lodge, which ultimately, although hardly mentioned in the First Temple Initiation, will pass over quite a bit to the Imperator or Emperor of AMORC.  But the other extremely relevant point is that a certain amount of transference in the ordinary person already subsists in the various institutional authorities- like those cited above by Langone- and that kind of authority is in conflict with the interest of the cult.  The job of the cult, therefore, is to take away as much of that influence as well as religious cults, as a prime example, need to take away the authority of any religious institution that would claim divine authority that would exceed that of AMORC.

In AMORC Unmasked, I speak about several Rosicrucian (AMORC) methods of altering consciousness. Two of them are:

1. You are told that the Rosicrucian Order’s monographs represent the only true, active occult organization that is in control of the arcane secrets of the universe and that holds the key to true Cosmic Consciousness. This puts AMORC in a position of authority-, which is the way that old, style, conventional hypnosis uses to foster suggestion. You basically give your will over to someone else- in this case an organization, provided the proper state of consciousness or trance is assumed by the subject at the appropriate time. 

and-

• Then, you are told to do certain things, ritualistic and otherwise, that act as ‘trance’ reinforcers. These are specific kinds of hypnotic ‘triggers’ that serve to deepen a state of hypnosis. In my opinion, drinking a ritual class of water; doing certain types of breathing; chanting and progressive relaxation are among those ‘triggers’ that serve to initiate (or re-initiate), deepen and direct the hypnotic trance.

In AMORC’s First Temple Degree Initiation, I spoke about the potential spiritual functions of ritual, but the fact is the point of ritual here is to supplement a many-pronged attacked on any and all authority that you have yielded to other people and institutions.  Utilizing costumes, lighting effects, real AMORC officials in rituals, presenting many key elements of the claims for unique celestial authority for AMORC- all combine to demonstrate that the organization itself is special, divine and hold extraordinary power over the individual- even to the point of providing him and her for some kind of safe haven in the afterlife.