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In Reply to: Re: Cult brainwashing vs mental conditioning posted by I agree on September 04, 2004 at 23:31:25:
to me there is a careful balance to seek. ultimately we are free to choose. yet there are many influences that shape, tho not utterly control, our choices. in a cult environment that influence is "undue", making it very difficult for a person to clearly discern right and wrong. (someone here describes their close brush w/ adult/child sex, and tho they did not partake in it, they felt guilty for "being too systemite" to be liberated and revolutionary enough to do so. i have no doubt that many who did get involved to one degree or another were not doing it to satisfy some perverted sexual desire of their own, but rather to fulfill that striving for "true liberation" and the revolutionary model of sexuality that god's endtime prophet and leadership were pushing. (to be clear, i do believe there were some flat out predators as well, who were driven by their own perversions and leapt at the chance.)
of course in either case the behavior is criminal. the one who was driven by undue influence, and the desire to "please god" and going against all of their normal wiring that resisted this, must come to terms w/ the suffering caused by their allowing themselves to be decieved into such destructive behavior. yet it would be unhelpful for him/her to hang the same label on themselves as the pathological predator.
so imo, understanding the mechanisms that played a role in all of us doing things that were way outside of choices we would have made on our own, doesn't absolve us of any of our choices. but it is essential to developing a clear self understanding, deal w/ those things we must clearly acknowledge and repent of, and give us somewhere upon which to build future choices .
