A Question Of Free Will ***

Often we as a society cannot comprehend how individuals are so taken in by cults and religious sects.  Paul R. Martin, a Ph.D. from Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, contends that cult mind-control renders its victims virtually unresponsible for their actions or beliefs. "The process whereby he or she was drawn into the cult has a subtle but powerful force over which he or she (has) little or no control and therefore they need not feel either guilt or shame because of their experience.

 "Under mind control a man may be persuaded to believe or do things that would have normally violated his conscience.  His conscience may tell him that an action or belief is wrong, but what the cult leader has persuaded him of has so strongly influenced him that it may override his conscience.  He may be led to believe that the promptings of his conscience are really of his 'lower nature,''of the flesh,' and that the mission of the group is of a 'higher purpose,' that the thoughts of his conscience are doubts that show lack of faith or signs of rebellion.  Thus, he may still have a conscience, but through the powerful influence of the group, he has reinterpreted it, or reframed his moral outlook.