-The #1 Bestselling Guide to Protection,
Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults-

The classic work by Steven Hassan as discussed by Pierre S. Freeman

See first: Noisy and Quiet Spiritual Elitism Part I Cult Member Identities

If you are all acquainted with my works, you know I think that the main point of a cult is to actually reframe the interior identities of the members, to transform them from ordinary, thinking human beings to compliant slaves of the cult leader.
            I particularly like the word, numinosity, when referring to a special powerful quality seemingly inherent in certain scriptures, rituals, ideas, dreams, objects and perhaps even persons. This quality has been characterized as ‘holy,’ ‘mysterious,’ “bewildering,” divine,” etc. Think of an object like a magical amulet or something like the shroud of Turin or some ashes proliferating out of the fingers of a supposed Hindu saint, like Sai Baba.
            It is my belief that this ‘special powerful quality’ can be connected to an object or a person as a result of mind control conditioning. This could explain why very intelligent people can hold fundamentalist beliefs- that is firm and unyielding beliefs in certain scriptures or passages in certain type of religious literature that are absolutely opposed to each other- and, quite possibly, actually opposed to evidence and to reason.
            People who have been sufficiently hypnotized or brainwashed (or whatever the term you want to use) abdicate their reason to an overwhelming experience of the numinous quality of certain symbols, rituals, ceremonial robes, ‘sacred’ smells generated through incense or the use of certain perfumes or fragrances- and, yes, even to people, who they believe to be ‘holy.’
            I am not going to say that there is no chance that there are people out there in the real world who have been touched by the divine and are, in a sense, permeated with a certain spiritual presence. But I am saying that, even if this phenomena is real in certain instances, it can be ‘cooked up’ with mind control- just as auras can be faked, even though they might be truly perceivable by certain so-called psychics or mediums; objects can be made to glow that are not really glowing, books can be permeated by a sense of holiness or truth that have been written by very deceptive men and leaders, yes, leaders can be endowed by an undeserved specialness, a numinosity, whose perception has been carefully induced in the cult member over a long and intense period of conditioning.

            The numinous aura surrounding the leader leads to blind and fanatical obedience, even to the point of leading to Jonestown and Heaven’s Gate catastrophes.

            Cult leadership is kind of interesting and, of course, Hassan has seen a lot of it. He points out how often a new member is put together with an older member who he may model, even to the point of adapting similar mannerisms, speech habits and clothing. This can give the group a kind of strange clone-like look, with the ultimate model being the leader himself. This kind of behavior was typical of the Moonies. In AMORC, there wasn’t so much of a physical but rather a kind of linguistic conformity. AMORC members were conditioned to use cult phrases like “god of our heart,” refer to God as the ‘Cosmic” and generally shape their language to conform to the AMORC leaders they identified with. In terms of external appearance, there wasn’t much conformity except in the Lodge itself, where members might wear ceremonial dress, which conformed to a strict code. But part of the Rosicrucian code is to be secretive and to protect the rituals and higher teachings of the Order. So ego can manifest itself in a noisy or a quiet way but its needs can be fed by mind-conditioned numinosity.
            Christian Bernard, the current head of AMORC, is certainly revered. He is, after all the Imperator, or Emperor of the Rosicrucian Order. But I can’t say he goes to the trouble of projecting himself as a physical role model. I doubt if most of AMORC’s members know the kind of hat he wears or what he eats or drinks or what kind of car he drives.  He is just not that type of a cult leader.
            Why should he care? He manages to convert his quota of normal human beings into dues-paying cult followers every day.

            You can go out and recruit on any street corner or you can hide in your bedroom and write your secret journal and still be members of an elite. Noisy or quiet, you can still be consumed by a cult identity that is not really you- and hope fervently, you can get the whole world to join you in your happiness- if you can somehow induce them to experience the mysterious holiness that permeates your life through your group meetings, your sacred writings, your rituals and sacred chants.

            But, in your heart, if you do that, isn’t there a little voice crying out, wondering how your sense of yourself somehow slipped away in all that amazing mystery and holiness?