-The #1 Bestselling Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults-
The classic work by Steven Hassan as discussed by Pierre S. Freeman

As I have tried to point out in my other discussions of Steven Hassan’s work, the techniques of the Unification Church and AMORC vary greatly. This is mainly because there is a persistent reliance on peer pressure and socialization techniques in the Unification Church, especially in the beginning, but AMORC focuses on a different approach, relying on methods of deeply affecting a solitary practitioner. It does this by

stressing quite a few time-consuming self-hypnotic techniques and intellectual indoctrination to cement the acceptance of the cult’s ideology and practices in the cult victim. There is, indeed, socialization in AMORC in the Lodges- but not all members go to lodges and I believe that the profoundest effects of mind control lie in the exercises and rituals performed alone in the home sanctum.
            As Hassan points out, there is a honeymoon period in most destructive cults. As I mentioned in a prior blog, the Moonies basically invited him to a meeting, not telling him it would last a weekend and then bombarded him with a lot of information, but also a lot of love. In fact, the enormous attention they flooded him with previous to that was doubtless why he succumbed to going to a meeting in the first place. Thus, began his honeymoon- which at first seemed like an answer to his dreams, a way of fulfilling his purest and most important goal- to serve humanity.
            After the honeymoon, the cult member is put to work. In Hassan’s group- and in many other groups- much of the work involves spreading propaganda for the cult, recruiting new members and, of course, accepting donations.  Hassan eventually became a highly effective leader in the group and part of his job was undoubtedly to keep the existing members properly indoctrinated. As he made the transition from the honeymoon period to working hard for the Unification Church, he was exposed to the relentless pace of his responsibilities and undoubtedly subsisted under conditions that simultaneously promoted fatigue and suggestibility, which is always enhanced by exhaustion.

            In AMORC, the initial protocol is different. Whereas the Unification Church has been openly Messianic with its leader on a divine mission to unite the world, AMORC is more subtle and generally defines its fatigue-producing elements to its “spiritual exercises.” AMORC is not openly Messianic. It rather focuses on developing a spiritual elite with special powers, an elite that has existed with fallen mankind for millennia. Yes, the fate of mankind rests in AMORC’s hands, but a bit more quietly than with the Unification Church.
            The monographs are the root of most mind control in AMORC, but, in the beginning, the amount of reading, journal keeping and various other practices mentioned in these monographs initially trigger a great deal of gratitude and excitement- which propels a serious student like myself to greater and greater exertions. Eventually, as my notes scribbled so many years ago on the sides of this powerful book attest to, These they practices will affect the way you eat, the way you breathe and even the way you sleep. After a period of time, once one passes into the visualization exercises, one can experience hypnotically-induced hallucinations that can serve to validate the member’s ability to see unusual things, particularly auras.

            In one of Hassan’s stories throughout his books, he talks about how a member would see a certain glow surrounding his leader. Hassan was able to demonstrate a hypnotic technique to facilitate this same phenomenon in the cult member (with his full awareness of what he was doing) and therefore took away some of the “magic” the cult member thought he was experiencing.
            In AMORC, as you begin to experience some of this self-induced experience, you start to interpret things differently- good things often arriving at your doorstep because of you allegiance to AMORC. Bad things are the result of a lack of dedication and practice – and, of course, the worse thing, the experience of any kind of doubt about AMORC and its exalted group consciousness in the ethers, the imperial egregor.
            In both the Unification Church and AMORC, the supreme goal is the creation of a cult identity and this takes place, sometimes fairly slowly, once the foundations for mind control are secured. When that happens, it can turn into a very bad marriage- as the cult member twists back and forth between the influence of his cult identity and that of his authentic self, which is longing for its freedom.