Cultic Observations—Responses to J. P. Healy's “Involvement in a New Religious Movement”

Abstract

The current public image of cults continues to be a product of media presentations from the last century, namely the Jonestown mass murder-suicide in Guyana and the Branch Davidian siege in Waco. Explanations of these tragic events often rely on a brainwashing model of coercive persuasion. Although this perspective lacks credibility as well as scientific support, it still persists in the conceptualizations of non traditional religious movements. J. P. Healy's paper on Muktahandra's Siddha Yoga attempts to clarify this general misconception and show how new religious movements do not necessarily breed psychopathology in any form. Because of my clinical experience in this area and my position as an editorial consultant for this journal, a host of associations grew out of my review of an earlier draft of Dr. Haley's research. With all due respects to the scope of his work, I have limited my responses to three general areas: prolonged adolescence; a theology of Providence; and the elementary ingredients of organized religion.

Keywords:

• adolescence
• cults
• new religious movements
• Providence

PROLOGUE

“If it bleeds, it leads” is a publisher's credo. Metaphorically, it explains the extensive media coverage of such cultic tragedies as the Jonestown mass murder-suicide of 1978 or the Branch Davidian siege of 1993. Introjects form and associations fuse—brainwashing, cults, and death. The product of these associations is the “brainwashing thesis” described by John Paul Healy, the author of Siddha Yoga Practice: Discovering a New Religious Movement (2010). Thus, his contribution to this issue of Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health is based on carefully thought out experience. His explanation of the journey from “discovery to disenchantment” is a trove of sociological information supporting a group case-study discrediting the brainwashing thesis and its treatment dispositions. Of special note is Dr. Healy's belief that there is much we do not know about new religious movements (NRMs), including cults. We can guess, however, that the brainwashing thesis will continue to exist, mostly because it was promoted for more than two generations in various countries. While seriously discredited, it has certainly not disappeared as a clinical perspective.

PROLONGED ADOLESCENCE

As life expectancy increases, phases of psychological development lengthen. Stages of maturation can slow or even stop because of an intrapsychic resistance that is not necessarily pathological or unwarranted. Nowhere in the life cycle is this more evident than adolescence, the critical juncture Erikson (1963) identified as “identity versus identity diffusion.”

During the last century, America introduced the term “teenager” as a synonym for “adolescent.” This was a stereotypical attempt to describe human growth from puberty to an age of majority. But now a decade has become a generation. In this century, many adolescents will not mature to young adulthood until the onset of their early thirties. Consequently, there is a swelling population of men and women who are arrested in a prolonged identity crisis leaving them vulnerable, needy, and isolated. This is the field of eligibility or constellation of candidates most attracted to NRMs, including a wide variety of cults.

Cults commonly reflect four traits of varying degrees:

1. A centralized authority that tightly structures doctrine and decorum.

2. A rejection of values held by the wider society.

3. A mission to proselytize from that “inferior” culture.

4. A strong isolationism, often divorcing devotees from the realities of the world.

These traits can be powerful attractions of structure for adolescents contending with identity crisis.

Erikson described this developmental phase while noting its continuation of all earlier patterns of growth. With adolescence, preceding epigenetic trends are challenged in light of “a rapidity of body growth which equals that of early childhood because of the entirely new addition of physical, genital, maturity.” (Erikson, 1963, p. 261) The overall characteristic of growth is that of “ego identity”—an identity which is much more than the sum total of earlier identifications. This complex process of development is achieved when the individual has subordinated childhood identifications through social absorption and competition with their growing peer group.

The key factors in the adolescent's search for self are environment and integration, for it is out of a gradual integration of all identifications that ego identity develops. The main problem that arises from this period is that of “identity diffusion.” Bewildered by inexorable standardization, the adolescent may react by withdrawing into conflicted moods or addictive behavior. These people tend to be subject to the danger of overidentification—even to the extent of an apparent loss of individuality—particularly with heroes of their peer groups. At the same time, they often exhibit a considerable degree of intolerance and even cruelty to those who are different in some overt way. This intensity represents a defense against the threat of identity confusion so often at the core of teenage cliques, clubs, or gangs.

I am not suggesting that NRM members are confined to a particular population or specific age bracket. I am saying, however, that adolescent psychodynamics are elementary components of such religious pursuits. Devotees are frequently lonely, disillusioned products of dysfunctional families once connected to mainline expressions of the Judeo-Christian tradition. They are in quest of emotional support and a focus for identity. A NRM is attractive with its ingrained promise of intrapsychic balance and unity with divinity—perhaps eternally.

PROVIDENCE

As a priest and psychotherapist I have spent numerous hours talking to people who are former NRM members. It is not unusual for pastoral counselors to be consulted by religious addicts and cult alumni caught in the throes of prolonged adolescence. The reason for this is essentially theological—redemption.

Redemption is a therapeutic goal of ultimate significance. To realize why one gravitates toward a NRM suggests a rediscovery of soul, as well as recognition of personal needs and convictions. Certainly, this is not the clinical rationale for deprogramming techniques employed by conservative cult awareness groups obsessed with mind control.

To redeem time is to recognize Providence. In the Judeo-Christian tradition this recognition identifies events or circumstances of divine interposition. It also signifies revelation through insight. From a therapeutic perspective, Providence can be described as an awareness that out of every unfortunate or tragic experience, as long as one chooses to look with insight, beneficial results will be revealed. The force of this awareness is the power of hope—the conceptual essence of healthy religious ideation.

ELEMENTARY INGREDIENTS

Religions persist because of the coherence of ritual, organization, and doctrine. Ritual is the practical expression of religious experience. Organization is the fulcrum of the worshiper's corporate life. Doctrine is the articulation of that group's belief system or theology.

Ritual, organization, and doctrine are also psychological expressions, or to be more specific, respective outgrowths of the psychoanalytic realities id, ego, and superego. As the id, ritual is a product of unconscious psychic energy derived from instinctual needs and drives. As the ego, organization supplies conscious mediation between these instincts and society. As the superego, doctrine represents parental conscience, the rules of society, and the way to reward and punish through a system of moral attitudes. The ego seeks to organize and balance intrapsychic conflicts between the cultic id and the doctrinal superego. When there is a serious imbalance, psychological problems may well surface. Such imbalances, however, will probably not be a direct consequence of NRM involvement.

There is no current literature supporting the notion that NRM membership leads to mental illness. Dr. Healy's subjects, for instance, do not appear to be “sick.” They are in quest of intrapsychic balance and self-identity but stark psychopathology is not evident. The transformation from discovery to disenchantment seems natural and predictable. This shift is also a process that I have clinically observed for two generations. These cultic observations do not fit with the popular image of brainwashed zombies the media uses to seduce our bloodlust.

EPILOGUE

Our culture is rich soil for NRMs. The country is economically depressed while immersed in a religious war that is relentless and theologically savage. Moral pinions have weakened at the highest levels of Christendom. We are in a cultural identity crisis of profound magnitude. An awareness of this crisis is vital—indeed, eschatological. Authentic hope is the antithesis of calculated denial. Such awareness is a perspective, a recognition of Providence: that even in the most tragic experiences, as long as one chooses to look with insight, beneficial results will be revealed. In Paradise Lost, John Milton framed this so well:

What in me is dark

Illumine, what is low raise and support;

That to the height of this great argument

I may assert eternal Providence

And justify the ways of God to man.