Essay Example on The charismatic and hypnotic Jim Jones gloriously held the extracted Tumors

The charismatic and hypnotic Jim Jones gloriously held the extracted tumors above the sermon pulpit after the healing session of his afflicted believer What the victim and onlookers did not know was that those tumors were in fact chicken entrails prepared beforehand with the intent to deceive This fraudulent act would prove the celestial powers of the godly prophet to credulous followers Of course this was not the most shocking operation that Jim Jones performed but this act was one of many that continued to reaffirm his power The prophet himself was a demented lunatic who mass murdered over 900 people in the Jonestown settlement Jim Jones was not the only destructive leader to use mind controlling tactics on susceptible members of society In this essay I will discuss different cult authoritarians and the tactics that they used to condition the impressionable public Many of us project harsh judgements on those who join yet with the right incentives and circumstances we all too could become victims ourselves Coercive persuasion or brainwashing is a process which alters or controls the mind by cognitive methods 

These methods may include things such as hypnosis peer group pressure rejection of old values metacommunication verbal abuse sleep deprivation dress codes and many more as stated in the Cult Information Centre which was founded in 1987 to give advice and information for victims of cults their families and friends researchers and the media cultinformation org uk Each technique has its own purpose in the mind control scheme of things For example hypnosis is most likely to be disguised as meditation so the subject thinks that they are relaxing and clearing their head when in fact they are being manipulated into false reasoning Peer group pressure is used on people who have a strong need to belong to a community Once a thought has circulated throughout the group the victim will overcome any doubts that might have come up about the doctrine The different approaches of these brainwashing tactics do not have to be as obviously malicious as the previous examples I gave There are strategies that are seemingly harmless such as games chanting and diets that the controllers use on their subjects to afflict their power From Summer of Love to Helter Skelter Charles Manson and The Family murdered nine people in the summer of 1969 in the Los Angeles area Manson a man who portrayed himself as the messiah who occasionally indulged in the LSD action of the hippie movement prayed on broken women who were abandoned or forgotten by their fathers By listening to their torment he earned their trust and their worship acting as a father figure After their sex initiation he got them to call him Jesus Christ and they were off to seek glory in the Hollywood Hills The Family Charles Manson s cult found much stardom Joe Mozingo of the Los Angeles Times has mentioned in his article that Manson and his cult have made contact and resided with some quite famous people 

When the owner threatened to go to the police Manson told Beausoleil to take care of it which resulted in Beausoleil stabbing him to death and writing in blood POLITICAL PIGGY on the wall along with a paw print as to shift the blame unto the Black Panthers Bobby was later arrested and Manson knew that the police would question him so he ordered his followers to kill some more people and leave similar jottings to mislead the police that the true killer is still out there and they would be forced to release Beausoleil This pounce on the Black Panthers by the police by virtue of Charles Manson demonstrated to his children that he was truly God Manson used a plethora of mind controlling tactics to ensue power over his followers He started off by finding women who were hurt in one way or another who did not think they were pretty smart or good enough Manson made them believe that they were He listened to them as they told their deepest secrets and desires thus promoting a mind control tactic called confession This tactic encourages the destruction of individual ego through confession of personal weaknesses and innermost feelings of doubt