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THE PRISONER OF SAN JOSE: HOW I ESCAPED FROM ROSICRUCIAN MIND CONTROL

THIRTEEN: The Cherished Gift of Liberty

There is a time when we must sometimes give up our precious illusions and overpriced fantasies about our lives. We must then come to grip with hard-core reality. But sometimes, however painful it may be, facing the truth about ourselves is God's most gracious gift to us, especially when facing ourselves and our personal truth can give us freedom.

As my story draws to an end, you can see how my protean self refused to die, allowing me no peace of mind until I could find the cherished gift of liberty.

My Rosicrucian Diary
May 23, 1993, 9:00 PM
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Unexpectedly, I sat in prayer and tried to make contact again with the celestial sanctum. It's been a long time since I've been able to enter into a meditative state.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
June 30, 1993
Monograph 22, Eleventh Temple Degree

I read the whole monograph. For the last two weeks, I've been perceiving a kind of shadow. At first I thought it was probably the effect of impure thoughts. Tonight, it came to me that this might be the result of a new development in my visual perception.

Having read my June 30 entry, you might not be surprised to realize that this was a period where I began to have serious, more straightforward doubts about the entire AMORC promise.

At this point, I lived in Cambria Heights in Queens, and I had to commute to Manhattan to drive the taxicabs. That was the only work I could get. I would get to Manhattan from my home in Queens by a combination of buses and trains. I would sometimes spend as much as eighteen hours a day just to earn $15 or $20, because of the ridiculously long commute.

Still, what else could I do? I had to make some kind of effort to pay my rent and buy food, and at that point yellow cabs were the only jobs I could get.

The Connecticut Interview of 1993

After graduating from college in 1993, I could not find a job and didn't have a place to go. I told the owner of the house in June 1993 that I would be leaving right after graduation.

I then applied for a summer job in New Jersey at a home for the blind. They were interested in hiring me full-time. I was hesitant to sign up full-time, but we set a date for me to begin the position.

As the starting date got closer, the owner of the house asked me whether I was going to the job in New Jersey, because I had already told her that I would vacate the apartment in June. I said yes. She said that I didn't have to do that. I decided to cancel the job offer in New Jersey and wait for the "Cosmic job."

One of the programs I applied for at the time was at the University of Connecticut's actuarial science graduate program. A letter came two weeks after I had canceled the New Jersey job. The letter invited me for an interview for the job of housing manager on campus.

I jumped when I received the letter, thinking that this was the Cosmic blessing I was waiting for. I went for that interview in a state of complete delusion, thinking, "This is already done." The interview itself was, in my mind, proof that the Cosmic really was fulfilling its promise. Of course, I didn't get the job because I had absolutely no experience in management. My only job experience was tutoring math and driving a taxi. I went back home after the interview with high expectations, not because I had interviewed well but because I believed that that was the job sent to me by the Cosmic.

My Rosicrucian Diary
February 19, 1994
Monograph 26, Eleventh Temple Degree

I often have the impression that somebody is standing near me. I turn my head, and I see nothing. I started to have the impression that it was the effect of the impure thoughts that were occupying my mind recently. Owing to my study of this monograph, I am coming to think this may actually be a manifestation of the Cosmic masters.

Also, somewhere in the monographs, it says that the Cosmic assists the student in its marvelous works.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
April 20, 1994
Monograph 35, Eleventh Temple Degree

I am writing this in Greenville, Mississippi.

Here is the answer to question number 1 in the personal exam:

The idea of a modern messiah is not attractive to me. It is clear to me that hell or heaven is on earth.

My freedom will come when I have paid my debts from the past. I am not counting on any messiah to free me from the consequences of my mistakes.

Here was my answer to question number 2:

By avoiding making mistakes that could force me to return to Earth in a new life, and by paying my debts for my past mistakes without getting discouraged, I am working to establish the welcoming path to the messiah.

[Author's note: when I wrote these lines in August 1994, I was going through a very painful moment of my life. I was waiting for September to start a new job that would be paying $20,000 per year, and my student loan was about $40,000.]

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
April 3, 1996
Monograph 71, Eleventh Temple Degree

We have a mirror and candleholders for our study.

So mote it be.

[Author's note: at this point, I had been in Mississippi working for an insurance company since January 2, 1996.]

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
June 20, 1996
Monograph 80, Eleventh Temple Degree

After drinking a charged glass of water, I saw an aura in the mirror around my head. The aura on the right side of the head is a little bit larger, like the colors of a rainbow. The perception of the color is not very clear.

I had a feeling of gratitude towards the Cosmic today, and one day I will be given the privilege to go into a state of meditation once again.

[Author's note: at this time, I was waiting for the results of my third exam with the Society of Actuaries. As a matter of fact, two weeks later in July, I received the results. I passed my third exam.]

I was now on the path to gain true financial freedom. In a sense, getting pulled into observing the aura felt like a kind of entrapment to me. That is, it encouraged me to spend more time with the Rosicrucian monographs, and through them, I would lose touch with the practical methods for achieving my highest goal, financial freedom.

My Rosicrucian Diary
July 4, 1996
Monograph 82, Eleventh Temple Degree

Finally, I have my sanctum. This is really the first time since 1982, when I lived in Haiti. As a matter of fact, now I have my own apartment. My fiancee lives three hours away.

[Author's note: My fiancee and I only saw each other on the weekends. During the week, I was still the same busy little Rosicrucian, studying the monographs and practicing my exercises. Yes, even then.]

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
December 12, 1996

I am waiting for my next monograph to arrive from the grand lodge. Tonight, I spent a few minutes listening to Rosicrucian sanctum songs. They made me feel very peaceful. I clearly realize that negative thoughts always weigh against the peaceful life.

I will try hard to have a permanent home sanctum. I conclude, for the first time, these writings by the word,

Amen.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
January 2, 1997

I am just a few days away from the end of this insurance job in Mississippi.

[Author's note: this was rather a secular entry. I remember, around this time, I read the message of the grand master in my sanctum, probably his year-end message. A few days, later I resigned from my job. Then I was out of a job and living on credit cards. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia, continuing to live on credit. This was a period when I had high hopes and thought everything was going smoothly.]

I was now working as a cashier in a parking lot. Also, I worked for one week as a security guard. Both were minimum-wage jobs, paying $6.25 per hour.

My Rosicrucian Diary
March 17, 1997
Monograph 99, Eleventh Temple Degree

I lose more and more interest in the study of these monographs because I do not see their practical value.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
April 3, 1997
Monograph 100, Eleventh Temple Degree

During the readings of this monograph, every time I encountered the explanation of a principle, it reminded me that I had applied all of these principles in my life, yet their application did not keep me from going hungry, being homeless, or living in America without a green card.

Unfortunately, I do not believe anymore that the practical application of these principles is within my reach. In a sense, the only spiritual solution that makes sense to me is to pray for a better economic solution. And the best that I expect to happen is that prayer will allow me to be able to afford to treat my body well enough that I can remain in good health and be able to work hard enough to earn a good living.

I don't see how what I have learned in the monographs has much to do with this objective. And I don't think that I can really find happiness without food, clothes, shelter, or money.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
May 8, 1997
Monograph 103, Eleventh Temple Degree

While studying this monograph, I got so frustrated that I pronounced the phrase F___ y__ loudly during the study.

I was now working as an assistant manager in a parking lot. When I got home by 1 AM, I was exhausted. Still intimidated by AMORC, I took out the monograph to read, as I had done for the last sixteen years. Here's what I wrote:

My Rosicrucian Diary
May 15, 1997
Monograph 104, Eleventh Temple Degree

Many times, I now curse in the middle of these sessions. If I were a free man, I would wait until Saturday, my day off, to study this monograph. I would then spend more time understanding this monograph.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
June 5, 1997
Monograph 105, Eleventh Temple Degree

Things are getting more extreme. In pure disgust, I spit on the monograph. I continued to read this monograph with complete indifference and only because I was afraid of what could happen to me if I did not read it.

Deep inside my heart, I now believe that these monographs are nothing but a compilation of lies.

I am interested now in the kind of practical knowledge that can help me to better my economic condition. Is this so strange? What use is a religious belief that grinds your mind and soul into the bleakness of poverty, that pretends it can uplift the soul without supplying some kind of solution to the needs of the human body? We all need food, clothes, shelter, and money to live. Who can pretend that we don't?

I am not talking about a religion of greed or exploitation. I am just talking about a religion that takes into consideration the common need for human beings to survive in their environment with some kind of grace and dignity and not to go hungry every day.

I hope I will be in a better mood to study monograph 106.

Sometime in 1997, I wrote a letter to AMORC asking for permission to put the old monographs in the trash. I said in the letter that I would preserve the monographs of the eleventh temple degree that I was currently reading.

About one year after I received permission from AMORC to put the monographs in the trash, I destroyed most of them. I kept on studying the monographs of the eleventh temple degrees and the other Rosicrucian literature every day. By now my credit card debts and student loan combined were about $75,000.

I took three jobs and worked a total of one hundred hours a week. One of my jobs was assistant manager in the airport parking operation. My duties included walking from one cashier to another and walking throughout the vast airport parking lot to check the entrance gate and other things.

I used these times to study the Rosicrucian monographs. During these periods, I did not record any notes in my Rosicrucian diaries, even though I practiced all the AMORC exercises, including meditation, many times a day.

Eventually, I found a job again in insurance in Cincinnati, Ohio, in July 1999.

I again gave credit to AMORC and its egregore for the blessing and blamed myself for my misfortunes. Consequently, I fell back into the same old patterns of reading the monographs and practicing the exercises. I'm quite sure that anyone reading this book wonders about this vacillation. And, yet, in studying these cults, I have found my pattern to be typical, not unique.

A Flood of Visions and Invasive Dreams

For more than twenty years, I used to purposely bring up a specific image when negative thoughts came into my mind -- especially negative thoughts about AMORC, which was the main source of my doubts. For instance, I would think, "Why am I spending all my time on these monographs?" or "What are these visualization exercises actually doing for me?" Yes, broke, homeless, often hungry, and away from my family and friends, I would entertain these types of thoughts.

Every time a thought like this came into my head, I would, as instructed by AMORC, visualize a chosen master, someone from the Rosicrucian pantheon whom I truly respected. This would theoretically bring a spiritual influx into my immediate experience and deflect the negative energy.

Of course, the natural person to choose was H. Spencer Lewis. Lewis was the founder of our order, the powerhouse who had found a true connection with the ancient order and resurrected it in the United States, the writer of the sacred monographs. Perfect choice.

Given my circumstances, as you can imagine, I visualized him a lot. Unfortunately, owing to these continuous efforts, when I began to separate myself from AMORC, Lewis's face became a trigger point for me.

Of course, by the time I had begun to very consciously and deliberately entertain thoughts of leaving, Lewis's face was already a key trigger for reining in any such thoughts I might have had. But, at the time, I didn't have any comprehension of how mind control actually worked.

When I reached the point where I began to intentionally mentally distance myself from the organization, his pictures persisted and began to flood my imagination. As my efforts increased, I was bombarded with the picture of his face day and night.

Since I did not have any money to hire a therapist to help me deal with the problem, I started on my own, using what I called then the "brute force method." I started by deliberately visualizing the unsavory behavior of H. Spencer Lewis. By that time, I was convinced that he had used the name of God to enslave many of his children, and this was unsavory and wrong. I also started to mentally associate his image with the other brainwashers of the world, such as Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite of Heaven's Gate and the like. But this didn't totally neutralize the forces that were working against me.

So besides visualizing my separation, I became determined to write about it.

At this point, I began to think about looking at the monographs more critically, examining my diaries and making entries that would speak coherently about the misdeeds of AMORC. But once the diaries and monographs got into my hands, I felt an uncontrollable vibration and was forced to put them away.

But there was progress, even though it was negative at first -- the result, perhaps of my protean self and my cult personality colliding as I tried to free myself of these internal influences.

At an early stage in my conscious rebellion, I started receiving impulses that were completely backward and wrong. For example, in a very compulsive way, I went to my boss and told him that I would quit my job shortly, when in fact I had no plans to get a new job. The more these types of impulses occurred, the more the missteps I was making became obvious to me.

I attributed these missteps to my having imbibed some of the false teachings of AMORC about intuition and visualization. The techniques did not empower you with Cosmic attunement; they nurtured a false concept of intuition and spontaneity. You became a victim of your own false conception of yourself as a cosmically attuned adept, confusing the impulsive behavior with real intuition.

Another example of this type of backward manipulation could also occur in dreams. In one of my dreams, I began to continuously mull over how I could have helped my mother, my siblings, and my impoverished extended family. One person who kept coming to mind was my childhood friend from Haiti, Lucienne, who had the same social background and struggles as me.

Lucienne came to the United States about the time I was leaving Haiti. She got her mother, sisters, grandfather, and cousins out of Haiti. They, in turn, helped her poverty-stricken extended family to improve their living conditions. I kept thinking about how that had been exactly my plan for my family when I was leaving Haiti.

One night I had the following dream: I saw myself walking on a road. At one point the road split into two roads going in different directions. Then, I suddenly saw H. Spencer Lewis. He told me, "At this point, your direction and that of Lucienne diverge."

I woke up, and I started to think, "Even in my dreams, this creature is trying to manipulate me."

The reality was, as reflected in the dream, that I had not done what Lucienne did. I failed to fulfill the mission of my life, to help my family. I failed to meet my family obligations because I was serving a cult and its leaders.

One night, I became fatigued with my fight against these forces within me. Would it really help me to make this bold attempt to expose AMORC? Wouldn't it just cause more problems and pain?

I then had the following dream: I saw myself driving up a steep mountain. Halfway up the mountain, I realized it was too steep to continue driving upward. I put my car in reverse and realized that going back was even more dangerous. Suddenly, I saw the face of H. Spencer Lewis. He was telling me that I could not go back. When I woke up, my heart was beating faster than usual, and I was sweating. I suppose this was a kind of warning, saying that I was doomed to destruction.

But I guess that, despite my reaction to the dream, I was not that afraid of Lewis. I realized that this time he was right: I had no choice but to expose the cult.

In 1999, I received a letter from the French grand lodge informing me that the French government had listed AMORC and a few other groups as a cult. I was curious but, at that point, I was afraid to look it up on the Internet.

By this time, although still a participant, I was delighted to hear the news that France had declared AMORC a cult. It confirmed what I thought already. I knew that it was true, and I had already wished I could find a way to free myself from the organization. But the programming was still very deep.

I went on the Internet and started browsing through the French government's report to see whether I could use the same reasoning they had used to arrive at that conclusion. I was looking for some information that could wake me up from inside, so that I could liberate myself. I browsed for a while, but the report was so large and involved so many different organizations that what was said about any specific organization was vague and not very detailed. So I gave up.

The idea then carne to me to research AMORC on the Internet. But the fear of accessing information critical of AMORC held me back. Eventually, I ventured onto a website that looked like it was from AMORC. I found there one of the most revealing bits of information about the organization.

I learned for the first time that AMORC was definitively restructured in 1993.I also learned that the division was the result of a lawsuit brought by one of the members of the "Grand Council of AMORC" against the then-current imperator of AMORC, Gary Stewart. Stewart had been directly appointed by Ralph Lewis, son of the founder, H. Spencer Lewis.

Christian Bernard, the member of the council and the grand master of AMORC in the French jurisdiction, accused the imperator, Gary Stewart, of embezzling millions of dollars from the organization. Some people said Bernard was simply attempting a coup d'etat within AMORC's governing structure.

This information was withheld from members, and for six years I was not aware of it. However, instead of freeing myself at that moment, I tried to legitimize one side over another.

Hiding information from cult members is nothing knew. Hassan specifically refers to hiding "legal decisions, media exposes, and internal disputes" in the following passage:

Information is usually compartmentalized to keep members from knowing the big picture. In larger groups, people are told only as much as they "need to know" in order to perform their jobs. A member in one city will therefore not necessarily know about an important legal decision, media expose, or internal dispute that is creating turmoil in the group somewhere else. Cult members naturally feel they know more about what's going on in their group than outsiders do, but in counseling ex-members I find that they often know the least. [1]

One year later, I had an urge to redo the exercises of my first three years in AMORC. That is, I wanted to redo the exercises of the years 1981 to 1984. I had put those monographs in the trash two years earlier because I ran out of space.

Later, I sent another letter to the grand lodge, asking the location of a specific exercise, and I learned for the first time that the monographs had been" actualized." Actualized in AMORC language means that the monographs have been changed. So I ordered all the new monographs (about 350 of them). No one prior to that letter had ever told me that the Monographs had been changed. Again, that was very deceptive, as well.

Meanwhile, I began to have increasingly disturbing incidents psychologically.

The "real" self has also been responsible for generating thematic dreams. I have met hundreds of former members who reported having nightmares over and over again while a member of a cult. These dreams typically involve themes of being lost, hurt, or trapped. People have told me about having cult dreams of being lost in a dark forest, of being choked or suffocated, of being imprisoned in a concentration camp. [2]

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
August 6, 1999

It has been two whole years since I last wrote in this notebook. I was surprised at that when I read the previous page. I did not realize that I have been feeling so badly toward the monographs for such a long period of time.

Since my last entry, I have continued to study on a more or less regular basis. My feelings toward AMORC and my perception of my monographs have not changed during these two years. I hope that now I will be able to come to an understanding of my relationship with AMORC.

I am still able to meditate but am still hearing strange sounds and having daymares and nightmares. I do not know if they are psychic perceptions, grounded in genuine mystical experiences, or mental problems.

Since I do not have the means to see a psychiatrist anyway, I am provisionally accepting them as some type of mystical perception.

I will endure these peculiar experiences the same way I endured stomach pain in Miami, Florida, and New York, when I did not have health insurance and had to live with the pain and accept it as an AMORC test. Now I know I had a stomach ulcer. God knows what this is, except as a working hypothesis, based on my poverty.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
September 9, 1999
Monograph 162, Eleventh Temple Degree

I fell asleep briefly while I was studying this monograph. I saw Katie in a vision while in the sleeping stage. I see myself enjoying her career as a singer, while taking on the responsibilities as her personal manager. I woke up thinking that maybe she will become a singer. Katie is my only daughter and my only child.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
October 14, 1999
Monograph 167, Eleventh Temple Degree

Today, I studied the last monograph of the eleventh temple degree. I will be filling out a special form and sending it to the grand lodge tomorrow.

Right now, I am struggling to learn my new job, study for an exam in November, and find time to study the monograph.

[Author's note: in November, when I went to sit for the actuarial exam, I froze in the exam room. This was the first time that anything like this had happened to me. As you might expect, I tried to explain my behavior from a mystical point of view. At this point, I was in the twelfth temple degree. I studied the monographs but did not write in my diary again until June of 2000.]

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
August 3, 2000
Monograph 12, Twelfth Temple Degree

I studied in front of a mirror with candle and incense. It was, indeed, a very peaceful study period. Since 1999, AMORC has been classified by the French government as a cult. I believe it is, and I am secretly thinking of how to free myself. The only thing that keeps me is the entrapping concept of the egregore. I am spending a lot of time now exploring a mystical book in order to find another egregore.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
November 16, 2000, 8:00 PM
Contact with Esoteric Hierarchy

Participation in this experiment is supposed to be especially for members of the twelfth-degree temple.

What do I think of this?

Just another level of deception and indoctrination for the "chosen," who are now compelled to believe they are in charge of humanity.

Most members at this level are conscious of the fact that they have been used and are somehow tainted by the organization. It is, again, hard to explain to someone who has not undergone what I've gone through, but their inertia to freeze themselves, their core motivation, is seriously affected by the indoctrination they have experienced.

***

My Rosicrucian Diary
December 21, 2000

I read a dream from my old diary. I also read a letter that I sent to my mother. While reading that letter, I began to cry loudly.

I also reread a long article, which I had underlined when I was looking for a miracle in my Rosicrucian studies. I now realize how completely I was deceived by the organization.

I must now figure out the meaning of the word practical in these teachings. From where I stand now, financial freedom comes with hard work.

In March 2001, I was laid off and received a nice severance package. Two weeks later, I got a second job, which gave me a chance to receive two incomes (my severance paycheck and the pay from my new job). Not surprisingly, I thanked the egregore of AMORC for this opportunity. I moved to a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for my new job.

In 1999 in accordance with instructions provided at the end of the eleventh temple degree, I sent a letter to the master of the grand lodge. In this letter, I described the painful experiences that had started back in 1986. I was worried that perhaps I had crossed over to a negative place in my mind or even was having some kind of schizophrenic episode. I was told that schizophrenia was probably not the problem at all, but to reflect on where I might have opened my mind to a negative influence. This response was so vague that it didn't help me in any way whatsoever.

In Pennsylvania, I rejoined a Rosicrucian lodge (the Benjamin Franklin Pronaos) for the first time since 1993,  the year that AMORC definitively ended its relationship with former imperator Gary Stewart. In the lodge, I discovered to my surprise that there was a bit of politics going on between pre-1993 "ancient members" and post-1993 "new members" of the organization. When pre-1993 "ancient members" go to a lodge, the officers and "new members" told them, in a somewhat derogatory tone, they have to "regularize." Of course, "ancient members" feel insulted by such a statement. In some cases they stop going to the lodge. I can safely guess that such competition was likely to have been promoted by the grand lodge in a very subtle way.

"Ancient Members" were somewhat resentful of the way in which the current imperator, CEO Christian Bernard, had seized power in 1993. Practical as this organization was in regard to their true objectives, they were more likely working toward growing and harvesting some more safe, nonresentful members to serve their needs without problems and complaints. A new crop of cult slaves, perhaps? Or is that being too severe?

Remember the three main mottos of the ironclad rule of Orwell's Big Brother:

War Is Peace
Freedom Is Slavery
Ignorance Is Strength

AMORC is basically a religious dictatorship run by an imperator -- a Latin term used in various ways during the Roman Empire but evolving into a word basically synonymous with emperor. AMORC's strength is derived from members' blind belief in its authority, those members having been spoon-fed certain doctrines and dogmas via the weekly monographs, similar to the function of holy writ to Christian fundamentalists. These doctrines are ingested in sanctimonious and hypnotic atmosphere, reinforced by a firm injunction against disobeying the terms of membership and thereby being cut off from the egregore. A Rosicrucian who falls from the good graces of the organization will, so to speak, be at the mercy of fate.

During this period, while watching the news on TV, I was struck by how people refer to things that happened three to five years ago as having happened "many years ago." When I heard this, I would think, "What is wrong with these people? Only five years? I just finished spending twenty-four years of my life in AMORC, and I certainly don't even see that span of time as 'many years.'"

Only after a week of reevaluating the monographs, which stress the Rosicrucian concept of time, did I begin to realize that, indeed, three or five years is a long period of time. While I was under the spell of AMORC, I did not value the passing years. Under the umbrella of AMORC mind control, you are taught that time and space do not exist, so why worry about it?

I kept struggling with the monographs, still sleepless. I started again, laughing when I read the monographs. I was becoming unglued again.

Finally in 2004,unexpectedly, I took action. I had my deepest revelation to date that AMORC was a cult. I then walked over to my computer, went online, and found Margaret Singer's book, and that was the beginning of the discovery of a brand-new world.

In 2007 I attempted again to restart my Rosicrucian study. I rejoined AMORC and started studying and practicing the exercises again. But it didn't take me long to realize that the game was over.

Eventually, I had the courage to throw off the shackles of mind control and leave the quagmire in which I had been trapped for twenty- four years.

I now present to you my personal recipe for "remote indoctrination."

PIERRE S. FREEMAN'S DECLARATION OF REMOTE INDOCTRINATION

ARTICLE 1: GAIN THEIR TRUST

Be logical, interesting, and kind enough to gain potential members' trust at the very outset. Increase their trust by pitching ancient, infallible teachings; powerful, invisible masters; a seemingly verifiable pedigree; a membership that contains some of the most famous people in history; etc. Once members have their trust, potential members will lower their defenses and can be manipulated.

ARTICLE 2: CREATE A HOLY TEXT

Utilize a text or texts requiring repeated readings and study that makes the claim of the unquestionable authority of the organization. These could be religious, political, or psychological literature, or even commercial texts like a sales or product manual. These texts are holy, not in a conventional sense, but in the sense that they are meant to be unusually or even irrationally revered by members. In multilevel selling organizations, there is a phenomenon you could call multilevel fever. And for us, there were the monographs.

ARTICLE 3: DEVELOP AN EXALTED AND INFALLIBLE LEADERSHIP

Create a sense that the current leadership, however remote, represents this authority. The member will therefore likely utilize his own unconscious tendencies toward psychological transference to irrationally enhance his belief in and obedience to that authority. Whether one is speaking of Mao, Sun Myung Moon, or H. Spencer Lewis, that person must be exalted to the highest level. Furthermore, it wouldn't hurt if some of that leadership were on invisible planes with superhuman powers, apparent only to the elect on Earth.

ARTICLE 4: DEVELOP A SACRED ENVIRONMENT

Have the member create an environment suitable for cultivating the hypnogogic state. Utilize costumes, special furniture, symbols, and religious or political paraphernalia related to that environment. Brand that environment. The Nazis were superb at branding their environments. Adolph Hitler had his own personal architect for his buildings, although that man wound up in jail for most of his life.

ARTICLE 5: CONSTRUCT REVERED RITUALS

Create practices for the members, like chanting, movements, and concentration on candles, that can create a hypnogogic state. Use such devices for ostensibly different purposes but in a context of being provided by a higher, superior, or even infallible authority. This will further augment transference as well as suggestibility. These practices, particularly ones like special ritualistic movements or gestures and repeated songs or mantras, will enforce more bonding with the cult.

ARTICLE 6: ESTABLISH SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS

Create busywork so that the student is fatigued to the point of sleep deprivation and therefore more vulnerable to suggestion. Such extra work could be reading assignments, special exercises, recruiting duties-as many extra responsibilities or assignments as possible, no matter how far away the actual leadership is.

ARTICLE 7: PROVIDE OCCASIONAL REAL-WORLD CONTACT

Arrange occasional meetings or peer groups that the members can support. This can even be done now through conventional media or the Internet.

ARTICLE 8: INSTITUTE ISOLATING DOGMA

Create a set of practices and beliefs that can isolate the member from friends and family. Create an aura of secrecy or specialness about the members' relationship to the cult. Whether you move up in the party echelon, take on special official duties, or get a higher degree, all can serve the same purposes.

ARTICLE 9: FOSTER A FEELING OF GROUP SUPERIORITY

Give the members a sense of superiority and isolation from nonmembers. Label outsiders, enforce separation from outsiders, and make members paranoid about the value of outsiders.

ARTICLE 10: CLEARLY SHAPE THE NEW PERSONALITY

In light of the organization's goals, use the various techniques of mind control to shape members to fit its needs. If the organization needs workers, shape members to work hard for long hours; if it needs money, shape them to give everything they have to the organization and to ask everyone else to give everything they have. If it just needs membership fees, make sure that not paying the fees can have tremendously bad consequences, at least mentally, for the delinquent member.

ARTICLE 11: CREATE MULTIPLE TRIGGERS TO INVOKE THE CULT PERSONALITY

Envelope members in exercises, rituals, and special practices so that they walk, eat, and sleep in specifically branded ways, reflecting group practices and traditions. By doing this, you will create multiple triggers to invoke the cult personality whenever doubt arises. Even when conscious of the problems, members may be driven back to the herd by the strength of this artificially constructed personality.

ARTICLE 12: CREATE A SENSE OF GUILT

Make sure that members who do not conform to the group's wishes feel really bad. Punish them psychologically, punish them physically -- anything and everything that will do the trick.

ARTICLE 13: REDIRECT MEMBERS' SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY

Make family and other business seem trivial compared to the purposes of the cult. It has been proven that you can even alter members' appreciation for ordinary work duties by changing the value of space and time in the physical world and making it subordinate to the timelessness of altered states of consciousness achieved through chanting, hyperventilation, or meditation.

ARTICLE 14: ALIENATE MEMBERS FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Challenge the value of the religious, educational, political, and social milieus that members have come from.

ARTICLE 15: MAKE THE SPIRITUAL REALM MORE REAL THAN THIS ONE

Question members' focus on physical reality. Create a sense that subjective reality is more objective than physical reality -- particularly a subjective reality that reinforces the cult's interpretation of the world. Question the reality of the physical world, of time and space, and of the need for logic-based decision-making.

ARTICLE 16: CREATE A GOOD, SOLID PHOBIA

Make members afraid of Satan, the men in black, the government, the dark forces, or, in general, leaving the protection of the almighty cult. Make them desperately afraid to sever the connection with the cult organization. In the case of AMORC, the last thing on earth that one would want to do would be to lose the connection with the celestial sanctum or the egregore, your basic connection to God. For everything in your life to function properly, you needed to read the group literature, do your exercises, and pay your dues.

As to this memoir, I have had a bittersweet time of remembering my entrapment and my eventual liberation. I cannot help but quote a wonderful saying by the famous Roman orator, Marcus Tullius Cicero: "Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude."

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