This chapter was very important to me for a variety of reasons- but one of the main reasons was that it help me understand how I could so imperceptively slip into such a deep condition of mind control (thought reform) that I would become literally a Prisoner of AMORC, unable to think clearly and unable to leave.

         In our last discussion, we discussed the platform of persuasion, which included education, advertising, propaganda, indoctrination and thought reform.

         Indoctrination, which means the infusion of certain doctrines into the mind of the new recruit generally takes place through literature, speeches and discussion. Often, as in AMORC- and many other cults, the really controversial stuff is left out in the beginning of the process. I grant you that telepathy and psychic healing is somewhat far out and you heard a bit of that in the beginning in AMORC (which, after all, promotes itself as an occult fraternity) – but becoming invisible and changing people’s mind to serve your own interest, a core practice in magic is, indeed, more controversial and you wouldn’t know that unless you obtain advanced degrees or read my book. Sure, there are lectures in the Lodges and some classes, but the main meal for indoctrination are the monographs- and this goes on after thought reform is initiated.

         The main point of the following 6 conditions propounded by Singer is to have them happen without the recruit’s knowledge, as specifically stated in the first condition. \

#1 Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed one step at a time.

I was naturally very excited when I began and was happy to set up my home sanctum, a kind of shrine where I would read my monographs, keep my journal, light my candles, do my chanting and deep breathing and do my home initiations. Little did I know that I was actually setting up a home hypnosis center where I would, in the furtherance of my psychic development, gain the capacity for entering into various stages of hypnotic trance, enhancing my suggestibility and the possibility for positive hallucinations, for creating auras, seeing cosmic masters and altering my dream state. I thought it was spiritual work- not do-it-yourself mind control

#2 Control the person’s social and/or physical environment; especially control the person’s time.

This cannibalization of my time was somewhat slow. First, it was the time invested in the home sanctum activities and later on the attendance in Lodge meetings- but slowly but surely the exercises, particularly certain types of breathing and chanting, began to dominate my time during the day. Then there were sleep postures at night, ritual glasses of water near your bed in the evening, salutations to the sun when you got up and protocols for sickness and for diet. Slowly but surely, everything you did became amorcitized– and the home sanctum stuff kept you up late so you began to suffer from fatigue and sleep deprivation. This was just as effective as cults that intentionally throw recruits into manual labor and restricted sleep cycles. It all enhances suggestibility and nobody knows the psychological reasons they are doing it.

#3 Create a sense of powerlessness, fear and dependency.

As you begin to realize that you are one of the chosen, the elite of the universe, you realize your tie to AMORC and its egregor (group consciousness) is the only really important thing you have to keep you within the circle of the Cosmic’s will. In other words, if you leave AMORC, you leave the circle of protection of God- and you will lose your ability to grab the golden ring of prosperity, ascension on the higher planes and the acquisition of powerful psychic powers.  Leaving AMORC becomes a matter of survival and you begin to believe it is the only real thing that can give you redeemable power. Staying in AMORC, until I wised up, led me right into the gentle arms of homelessness, depression and despair- and because of my personality, split in half in mind control, I cleaved to this organization until I discovered Singer’s and Hassan’s book and other information on the Internet. Back then, it was much harder to find.

#4 Suppress old behavior and attitudes

To be honest, as a serious engineering student and supporter of my mother and siblings, I was always very serious about my working within the Haitian business and academic system. When I came to America, I thought I had the magic key that could allow me to by-pass these conventional systems of prosperity and it was only much later that I could leave, go to school and find a profession that did not involve doing dishes or driving around all night in a taxicab, one step away from the actual homelessness that actually did intercept my life a number of times.

#5 Instill new behavior and attitudes

My day was now plumb full of things like a kind of egoistic pride in being one of the elite; surges of gratitude for being in the very womb of the cosmos and a candidate for spiritual perfection; a total obsession with exercises that took up my days and nights and clearly interfered with the concentration I needed to work. I found very little time to read or study outside of AMORC for most of my captivity and I looked at politics, social life and work as activities of vague importance to an active adept-in-training.

#6 Put forth a closed system of logic

Like most cults, AMORC discouraged wandering too far outside its doctrines and beliefs.  Yes, you were allowed to probe certain religious or occult teachings, but only in extreme moderation. Their exercises and their view of life was King and demanded obedience. Their leader was the Imperator, who had more real power and connection to the universe than the Pope or all the other gurus and spiritual teachers in the known universe.

These were the conditions that allowed me to be restructured psychologically and made a compliant tool of my so-called Rosicrucian brethren.