The Lies Behind Bigotry
Chapter Three

THE DOUBLE LIE
Brainwashing and Mind Control

As you have read earlier, the former Cult Awareness Network was twice denied tax exempt status by the IRS.¹

To obtain their exemption the old CAN then told the IRS it had changed.² It was going “to educate the public regarding religious rights, freedoms and responsibilities.”^3a ^3b ^3c

This was what the old CAN told the IRS it would be doing when it filed its IRS Form 1023 application and was granted non-profit tax exempt status.

But to the rest of the world, CAN said something else, over and over and over apparently in the hopes that a lie repeated often enough would somehow be accepted as the truth.

The old CAN preached about the dangers of cults and their so-called “brainwashing” and “mind-control” techniques.⁴

These techniques, according to documents in CAN’s files include: ⁵

obtaining a substantial control over an individual’s time and thought content, typically by gaining control over major elements of the person’s social and physical environment
systematically creating a sense of powerlessness in the person
manipulating a system of rewards, punishment, and experiences in such a way as to promote new learning of an ideology or belief system advocated by management
manipulating a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in such a way as to inhibit observable behavior that reflects the values and routines of life organization the individual displayed prior to contact with the group
maintaining a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure in the organization
maintaining a non-informed state existing in the subject

But CAN’s own files show that not only did they maintain a manual of deprogramming⁶ which contained those very same but even worse techniques,⁷ but they encouraged, supported, condoned⁸ and reportedly got paid for these very same activities. To wit:

Jennifer Jacobs imprisoned in a motel room for 11 days where all the windows had been nailed shut, the blinds were drawn, and the phones removed⁹
Laurie Alexander driven to a remote house in the mountains, held by three deprogrammers and two bodyguards, after three days swam across a river to escape her abductors¹⁰
“S” physically abducted, driven to a remote cabin, while Galen Kelly, former security chief for CAN, told her that they had her and would not let her go¹¹
James Boland told his Christian faith was brainwashing as he was not Catholic, held for a week by Anne Greek, head of the Portland CAN affiliate. His own mother went temporarily insane over the violence she had seen practiced on her son in the failed deprogramming attempt¹²
A young man committed suicide after a failed deprogramming¹³

According to CAN, when these activities were practiced by ex-religious members or hired thugs it was not kidnapping, violation of human rights, or spiritual rape, it was acceptable practice.

CAN is no more. We could brush off these stories as merely anecdotal.

But lives were ruined and spirits broken.

You decide who really perpetrated mind control/brainwashing.

The so-called “cults” or the former Cult Awareness Network.

oOo

Meanwhile, the more worldly listener has points of comparison to CAN's activities. The Salem Witch hunts,²⁶ the Know-Nothing Party,²⁷ Mormon's being massacred.²⁸ He sees something sinister and dangerous in their activities and decides to do something about it.

He goes to CAN's conferences himself and encourages direct dialogue, surprised to find how adamant CAN's people are in refusing to communicate.²⁹ He notes that CAN seems to do exactly what they accuse "cults" of doing. He thinks CAN should reform.

It does not.³⁰

Instead continuing on its chosen path, not seeing that the world is growing smarter and smaller and CAN's outdated messages of hate and fear more and more unpopular.³¹

CAN's snake-oil salesmen? They got out of that business long ago. Nowadays you are more likely to find them selling almost new cars driven only a short distance by the gentlest of little old ladies.

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The Lies Behind Bigotry Chapter Three

The Lies Behind Bigotry
Chapter Three