Don't waste. Recycle creative content.
Carrie asked our audience, “Who’s familiar with Robert Jay Lifton’s 8 criteria of thought control?” As expected, more than half the audience shot their hands 🖐🏼 into the air. Some folks consider Lifton’s 8 principles the ‘cult survivors bible’ … of sorts.
She continued, “How about the 12 psychological steps that Lifton identified in the Chinese Communist brainwashing ‘experiment’ during the Korean War?” Just a few hands raised. 🤚🏼 We were not surprised.
Carrie, Esther and I worked hard on our presentation for the annual conference for the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). It was a project of collaboration, creativity, and emotional labor. Our title sure is a mouthful: Using Music and Spoken Word to Compare and Contrast Three Cults Using Robert Jay Lifton’s 12 Psychological Steps (from Chapter 5 of Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism). We know. 🙄
It was a daunting project that galvanized our nerdy ex-cultist passions. We grappled with the techniques used by prison guards whose task it was to brainwash “imperialist” Prisoners of War so as to indoctrinate them into Mau Zedong’s dehumanizing ideology. We created a mini-skit, featuring a guard and a prisoner, for each of the steps - using direct quotes from Lifton’s extensive interviews. Then - through song, poetry, re-enactments, and written word, we showed how each of these 12 psychological steps (see below) manifested in our respective cultic misadventures: 5 years in a Secret 🤫 Esoteric Study group, 40 years in a supposedly ✝️ Christian Community, and my 18 years in an Everyday Cult ☕️.
1. The Assault Upon Identity.
2. The Establishment of Guilt.
3. The Self-Betrayal.
4. Total Conflict and the Basic Fear - The Breaking Point.
5. Leniency and Opportunity.
6. The Compulsion to Confess.
7. The Channelling of Guilt.
8. Re-education - Logical Dishonoring.
9. Progress and Harmony.
10. Final Confession: The Summing Up
11, Rebirth.
12, Release: Transition and Limbo.
It was a labor of love for me - an opportunity to engage with two women who I respect deeply and who are willing to geek out with me, educating others about cultic indoctrination. It forced me to reckon with parts of my cultic past I had not yet deconstructed. It was a lot of energy, but not wasted energy.
However, in retrospect, it was abundantly clear that the ICSA conference was the wrong setting for what we had created. Right people. Right content. Right medium. Wrong setting.
On Tuesdays, I gather with a few women to write. Markey helps solopreneurs to do better. Her business wisdom is stitched into her writing along with the life lessons from three decades of serious homesteading. I recently heard her read: I have learned some important business lessons from blueberries. A moment later came another line that got my attention: Being in business is hard enough without taking the opportunity to squeeze a little more juice from your creative content. And then:
Use Content at least 3 times.
It clicked: Don’t waste energy. Recycle it.
Hmm… perhaps a library, or a performance space - rather than a conference where participants come and go - would be more appropriate. Perhaps we hone the skits, tighten the script, memorize lines… Perhaps there is another home for our creative content.
How have you recycled fruits of your labor? Is there fallow ground that awaits your sprouted seeds?
Let me know. I'd love to hear.
Warmly,
Gerette
PS: There are two open spots in this Friday’s class. Nab your spot!
PSS: I’m excited to share this LINK for Markey Read’s fabulous work.Enjoy being inspired by her insight.
PPSSST…. I’ll do a bigger splash about the September Writing Symposium in the coming weeks but you can save $10, pre-register here, and learn who will be speaking!
