ABSTRACT
In a thought reform environment, the people learn to suppress the feelings and are likely to be disconnected from a body – in a state of ‘freeze’. However, for many, feelings may also spill out, unprocessed and unregulated, and can’t be controlled or packed back in. The pressures of the cultic setting, perhaps combined with trance and/or drug-induced states, make self-regulation virtually unattainable. In a cultic setting, feelings are likely to be categorised into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘positive’ and ‘negative’, ‘pure’ and ‘impure’. Cultic settings often tell their members that they have personal problems which can only be resolved in that setting – such as being ‘sinful’, ‘unenlightened’, ‘mentally unstable’, ‘egotistical’, ‘too attached’ or ‘uncleared’. There are many things to be afraid of in a cultic setting: teachings about hell, ‘Armageddon’ and ‘the rapture’; the consequences of disobeying; discipline, beatings, threats and humiliations; and many more.
