To control cult members, cult leadership has to control the atmosphere surrounding the members. The primary step to control their environment is to monitor and control the information they get because if the members’ mind could get any new information, the world the cult leaders have created for them should be damaged. According to cult leaders the truth is only what the cult leaders say.
CultWatch website gives a very clear picture of the way the cults control the information.
Those who control the information control the person. In a mind control cult any information from outside the cult is considered evil, especially if it is opposing the cult. Members are told not to read it or believe it. Only information supplied by the cult is true. One cult labels any information against it as”persecution”or”spiritual pornography”, another cult calls it”apostate literature”and will expel you from the group if you are caught with it. Cults train their members to instantly destroy any critical information given to them, and to not even entertain the thought that the information could be true.
If you are instructed by a group not to read information critical of the group,then that is a sign of a cult.
As a mind control cult, Mujahedin Khalq has a long history of information control over its members, according to the testimonies of most former members of MKO Cult.
Ms. Batoul Soltani, former member of MKO leadership Council describes the information system in her memoirs:
“After you entered the organization you couldn’t even have a pocket radio because it links you to the outside world. You cannot use any mass media except that of MKO. They never let the news of the other Media broadcast in the hall. Sometimes they even record, edit and censure the news and then show them, just to claim that they broadcast the news of CNN or Al Jazeera. They are very careful about the relationships between the members and people of the outside world such as Iraqis who come to the Camp.”
The way MKO leadership filters and censures the information demonizing the Iranian Regime, makes the MKO members think along with the objectives of the cult. So the information that supports the cult’s line is used to keep the members in.
Common sense tells us that a person who does not consider all information may make an unbalanced decision. Filtering the information available or trying to discredit it not on the basis of how true it is, but rather on the basis of how it supports the party line, is a common control method used throughout history.
Legitimate groups have nothing to fear from their members reading critical information about them.
In the cult of Rajavi, criticizing the organization’s ideology, its decisions and approaches will end the members with mental and physical torture, solitary confinement, and imprisonment, most former members like, Masud Khodabande, Mohamamd Hussein Sobhani tolerated years of imprisonment just because they criticized the organization’s policies.
For the Rajavis any critical information equals with the loss of many members. Therefore, the principal method to control the members’ mind is to control the information they learn.
Mazda Parsi
Reference: Howcultswork
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