On November 18, 1978, 913 men, women, and children --followers of cult leader Jim Jones -- died during a mass suicide and murder in Jonestown, Guyana. In the months preceding the tragedy, Jim Jones and his People’s Temple followers recorded their thoughts, their problems and their aspirations.

Have you ever said that to a person struggling with leaving a cult or manipulative church? If so, you were no doubt unawares of the degree of emotional and psychological control that cults have over their members. Why is it so hard for them to leave, even when they know that something is seriously wrong with the religion? And, once they leave, why is it so hard to be "normal" and go to church like anyone else?  WATCH RELATED VIDEO

Reaching that same conclusion, many audience members asked for more: future lectures explaining in detail how a person thinks his way out of a cult.

John Bechtel gave his first public talks for the Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of five. By age nine, he was addressing audiences numbering up to 3,000. At 27, Bechtel reached a crisis of faith and resigned from the Jehovah's Witnesses. Now a passionate advocate of "life, rationality, and your own happiness," Bechtel has a unique insider's view on the seductions of cults.

For previous sections of this series go to: Captive Hearts, Captive Minds/Take Back Your Life

A NOTE regarding the book. The book is being revised and updated and will get a new title; Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships (previously titled Captive Hearts, Captive Minds and this is the title I am working with) by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias"

No, I am not talking about the type of unity spoken of by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:10:

"Now I exhort you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and the same judgment."

"Once you accept that someone else is speaking for God, to doubt that source is the same as doubting God," .(Sherry Veitenheimer, The Spokane Spokesman, Spokane, WA, Oct. 5th 1996, "Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses Tackle Custody Issue" By Kelly McBride, p. B1 & B4)

Once a potential recruit comes to actually believe that the Watchtower (Jehovah's Witnesses) does indeed speak for God and is actually his "only" earthly channel of communication with all the people on the planet, as they boldly claim, and that to please God, they have to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses, go door to door recruiting new group members and raising funds for the group leaders, they have become loyal members of the group and will stay such until they are treated so badly that they leave, or until they commit some infraction of one of the many written and unwritten rules and are "kicked out of the kingdom" by the local elders.

Portion from Steven Hassan's second book, Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves (FOM Press, 2000) Chapter 7

Understanding Cult Beliefs and Tactics

DISTINGUISH INFORMATION FROM DISINFORMATION

To find the truth, you have to be able to distinguish between reliable information and misleading disinformation. This skill is especially important when seeking information about destructive cults, because one way a cult defends itself is by spreading lies and blurring the line between fact and fiction. By the late 1970s, the question of cult mind control was intertwined in the public eye with the issue of forcible deprogramming. This was partly due to a multi-million dollar public relations campaign financed by the major cults in an attempt to smear critics and divert the debate from the cults themselves. This was also due to the fact that deprogrammers were, in many cases, acting like vigilantes. In the propaganda campaign, cults have labeled deprogramming ³the greatest threat to religious liberty. In cult lectures, booklets, and pamphlets, and on cult Web sites, deprogrammers are portrayed as money-hungry thugs who tie their victims to chairs, beating and raping them until they recant their religious beliefs.