Karen#1
Well-known member
TONY ORTEGA
Excerpt:
Our friend Chris Shelton has a big announcement for us!
After I left Scientology, I thought the hard part was over. I got out, deconstructed the lies, learned Steve Hassan’s BITE Model, and could name every manipulation. Yet for me, and for hundreds of other survivors I’ve talked to, a different question lingers long after the facts are settled. Why did it work on me? What happened inside my own head that made this possible? Why do we act the way we do?
That question doesn’t get answered by cataloging cult tactics. Those tactics are real, and they matter. Yet after you learn all about them, there’s still a ton of lingering questions and confusions. The models and tactics only explain what the group did. They don’t explain the person who stayed, who believed, who felt like tearing themselves apart when they finally left.
To understand that, you have to understand something more basic than any one cult. You have to understand how human beings actually work.
I am not a therapist. I have a master’s degree in the psychology of coercive control, so I know a lot about a very niche thing. But I’ve also spent the last twelve years doing pretty much nothing but studying and learning about cults and psychology, listening to other survivors, and trying to build a simple map of the inner world. That map is something I call the REM Model of Human Behavior. It stands for Reason, Emotion, and Morality. It is not a magic formula or a complete theory of everything. It is just a useful tool for understanding why people do what they do, especially when what they do looks irrational to everyone on the outside. I’ve found it to be a lot of use in working with people who are recovering from a cult experience. The more I used it in helping people, the better outcomes I was seeing.
Something interesting is happening in the world of cult recovery right now. After decades of reporting on what cults do, we are finally seeing a cluster of books focused on what comes after. My own book, What Now? A Practical Guide to Life after a Cult, comes out next week.
READ MORE
tonyortega.substack.com
Excerpt:
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[/td]After I left Scientology, I thought the hard part was over. I got out, deconstructed the lies, learned Steve Hassan’s BITE Model, and could name every manipulation. Yet for me, and for hundreds of other survivors I’ve talked to, a different question lingers long after the facts are settled. Why did it work on me? What happened inside my own head that made this possible? Why do we act the way we do?
That question doesn’t get answered by cataloging cult tactics. Those tactics are real, and they matter. Yet after you learn all about them, there’s still a ton of lingering questions and confusions. The models and tactics only explain what the group did. They don’t explain the person who stayed, who believed, who felt like tearing themselves apart when they finally left.
To understand that, you have to understand something more basic than any one cult. You have to understand how human beings actually work.
I am not a therapist. I have a master’s degree in the psychology of coercive control, so I know a lot about a very niche thing. But I’ve also spent the last twelve years doing pretty much nothing but studying and learning about cults and psychology, listening to other survivors, and trying to build a simple map of the inner world. That map is something I call the REM Model of Human Behavior. It stands for Reason, Emotion, and Morality. It is not a magic formula or a complete theory of everything. It is just a useful tool for understanding why people do what they do, especially when what they do looks irrational to everyone on the outside. I’ve found it to be a lot of use in working with people who are recovering from a cult experience. The more I used it in helping people, the better outcomes I was seeing.
Something interesting is happening in the world of cult recovery right now. After decades of reporting on what cults do, we are finally seeing a cluster of books focused on what comes after. My own book, What Now? A Practical Guide to Life after a Cult, comes out next week.
READ MORE
Why you fell for Scientology's trap: A missing piece of the puzzle found
Our friend Chris Shelton has a big announcement for us!
tonyortega.substack.com
