BIBLES CITED: Scriptures from various translations of Bibles are cited here, ranging from the New International Version to the King James (Original, Revised), etc.  Notably, the New World Translation of Jehovah’s Witnesses uses “Jehovah” where most other Bibles use “The Lord.”  The Catholic New Jerusalem Bible sometimes uses “Yahweh” instead of the title “The Lord.”  Of course, different groups have their own non-Bible publications.  Various groups of Mormons have versions of The Book Of Mormon, Hare Krishnas have Hindu writings etc. (Again, do not misjudge that “all” Mormons or “all” Hare Krishnas or Hindus are cultists.)

GENERAL CULT TACTICS: Among their many tactics, “full-fledged” cults conduct intensive internal and external spying including general harassment, wire-tapping, and sleep deprivation.  They seek to keep a shiny, neat appearance, that is a clean-looking  Public Image, by carefully masking themselves as courteous, well-dressed, kindly “angels of light,” but when it comes to those opposing them there can also sometimes be a rendering of extremely harsh, unforgiving physical punishment or even murder.  All these tactics and doings are backed, so they like to say among themselves, by God’s own words in the Bible.

The two main classes of cult tactics are those implemented via (1.) traditional means and also, (2.) electronic means. 

TRADITIONAL MEANS:

someone knocking against your front door or a bedroom wall then running off,

a rock hurled against your bedroom wall at night,

a pellet gun or bee-bee gun being shot against your bedroom wall at night,

elders say odd words or expressions, perhaps two put on a little drama in front of you at a meeting;

            this is done with the hope you’ll talk about it later and they’ll be listening in for it

a dead bird, bloody remains of meat, the severed ear of an animal, or other item left by your door at night

shadowy outline of someone peeping through your window blind to see you or what you’re doing

set-up situations: for example, a cultist invites you and your spouse to eat with them and lightly mentions

            something regarding sex hoping to get you to say something that is questionable or “a sin”

“LETTER OF INTRODUCTION TACTIC: The “Letter Of Introduction Tactic” is especially popular with cults that hide and protect pedophiles, including some who are Elders.  The tactic is used when a targeted person moves to another congregation.  The pedophile cultists, and or Elders who shelter the pedophiles in the initial congregation, will send a “Letter Of Introduction” to the next congregation which by referring to a scriptures (or two) accuses the targeted person of being an “apostate” or, as Mormon groups and some others have put it, one of the “sons of perdition.”  The letter will cite in full or part Proverbs 6:16:

16 There are six things the LORD (“Jehovah” is given in the New World translation of JWs) hates, seven that are detestable to him:  17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”

This scripture alerts the next group to move their Watchmen into surveillance and harassment mode.  Sometimes reference may also be made to the ancient worthy man named Job who underwent all manner of hardships and trials.  The targeted person will generally never get to see the letter for it would identify the source person(s) who initiated the harassment campaign.  If “favored” because he seems to be “behaving,” the next congregation might have someone invite him/her over for dinner and while there read Proverbs 6:16 or discuss Job’s trials some.

ELECTRONIC MEANS:

nano-sized noise-sound-voice transmitters (e.g. beep-beep of a pager or beeper, crickets sound, voice etc),

a universal electronic opener of car and garage doors,   

your email or website being hacked into, perhaps much destroyed or some words changed a little 

your regular, normal TV or radio reception being over-ridden by superimposition of noises, sounds, voices

a phone rang and when you pick it up someone hangs up, a form of wire-tapping called hook-switch bypass*

A fair number of people know that in the past the talk or shock host person called Howard Sterns has talked up inexpensive devices such as the “Sounds That Drive People Crazy” machine.  It is small but not visible, sold over the internet by prank stores and costs usually no more than $25 (USA).   Some hotels in particular are said to be among big users as such devices can awaken and get customers out of their rooms faster for still others to pay for.  However, as said, transmitter devices are also now “nano-sized” meaning extremely small and eventually should be virtually invisible to the eye.  What the cultists don’t reckon with though is that law enforcement will also have devices and this will rein in and capture at least some of the cultists.

SCRIPTURES REGARDING SLEEP DEPRIVATION OR DEPRIVATION OF REST:

Some scriptures that are handy to cultists and which regard the deprivation of rest or sleep for foes are:

“You keep watch over my steps and my sleep, and have knowledge of all my ways.” (Psalms 139:3)   “When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.” (Proverbs 3:24)

If a member of a cult complains in prayer or otherwise that s/he is receiving too much disciplining, then he may hear a talk or a sermon with this scripture: “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8) 

In other words, they want give you the message that Jesus Christ also had to learn obediance from suffering, so stop your whining about the suffering you get from fellow cultists.  It’s for your own good.

S/he may also hear “But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.” (Hebrews 5:14)  In other words, s/he is being tested and refined.  If it is found that he/she can be properly “molded” or trained, then later s/he may go from being the object of discpline to being a chosen vessel for administering such holy (really unholy) discipline.

An objective is to fulfill the scripture: “And he is actually reproved with pain upon his bed, and the quarreling of his bones is continual.” (Job 33:19

Those whom cults like receive the following positive scripture: “Whenever you lie down you will feel no dread, and you will certainly lie down, and your sleep must be pleasurable.  25 You will not need to be afraid of any sudden dreadful thing, nor of the storm upon the wicked ones, because it is coming.”  (Proverbs 3:24, 25)  But opponents receive the opposite, namely lying down unable to sleep well due to fear or terror.

The following is felt to apply to foes: “For they do not sleep unless they do badness, and their sleep has been snatched away unless they cause someone to stumble.” (Proverbs 4:16)  Or as another Bible translation says “For they don't sleep, unless they do evil. Their sleep is taken away, unless they make someone fall.” (Proverbs 4:16)

In days gone by, traditional methods were used for depriving foes of literal rest or sleep.  For example, pebbles were tossed upon a targeted foes’ roof-top.  Nowadays electronic noise-and-voice devices are all the rage, although scriptural “justification” of the crime is still laid to scriptures such as:

“An in case they should say to you people: ‘Apply to the spiritistic mediums or to those having a spirit of prediction who are chirping and making utterances in low tones,’ is it not to its God that any people should apply? [Should there be application] to dead persons in behalf of living persons?” (Isaiah 8:19)

“And you must become low so that you will speak from the very earth, and as from the dust your saying will sound low.  And like a spirit medium your voice must become even from the earth, and from the dust your own saying will chirp.” (Isaiah 29:4)

As shown by the Sounds That Drive People Crazy devices noted before and as sold via internet and some real life prank stores, the sound of crickets is but one of the various popular noises that transmission device can emit.  As said, voices can also be transmitted.  In fact sometimes cultists will for example record the voice of a targeted person talking then a few weeks later replay his or her voice back to himself or others.

Earlier on during your association with a full-fledged cult, there will be some actions and verbal expressions that are fore-warnings.  Likely, being new to the group you will not think much of what occurs but may later remember back to those doings.

For example, you may be told by a “friend” or mentor to go over and tap a person or elder on his shoulder then move away without saying anything no matter how much the tapped on person asks why you did what you did; it will seem “mysterious” and if you ask the person suggesting that you do this, why, he or she may say nothing or simply say something such as “I don’t know myself, and when I asked I was just told that it’s a tried-and-true method; will you do it?”

You may at times hear some elders or other congregants say things as mild hints such as: did you ever notice how cheap those electronic devices are anymore?  Did you know it’s possible to see a whole lot through the tiny holes in a window blind.

If you say “What do you mean by that?” you may hear back, “Oh, nothing, really.”

PHYSICAL DISCIPLINE:

Especially in regard to people who at some point have openly express a view about something or more than one thing different from what the cult and its top heads teach, use is sometimes made of physical discipline.  These scriptures are used to justify what in reality are highly unChristian, anti-Christ misdeeds:

“By you we shall push our adversaries themselves; in your name we shall tread down those rising up against us.” Psalms 44:5.  “By God we shall gain vital energy, and he himself will tread down our adversaries.” (Psalms 60:12)  “The man of violence—let evil itself hunt him with repeated thrusts.”(Psalm 140:11)  The term “man of violence” is not applied to just a man or woman who is physically violent, but to anyone who is violently opposed to the cult’s teachings.

An interesting tidbit about cultists and scriptures is what “treading” is.  For example, consider Elder Self-Righteous who is seventy-five years old.  He intensely hates a targeted person named John Doe.  This is because John Doe is known to Elder Self-Righteous (from wire-tapping) to have the “secret sin” of having sex with his wife Mary Doe not by the missionary position but in what Elder Self-righteous calls “doggy sex,” done in the normal manner but from behind.  He is determined to administer discipline.

When John and Mary are visiting at the local group’s meeting, Elder Self-Righteous sees John seated and resting a minute away from wife Mary.  So Elder Self-Righteous walks down the hall and being elderly he seems to be just stumbling or falter a little bit.  Then as he passes by John Doe, Elder or “Brother” Self-Righteous reaches out and rests his left hand on Brother Doe’s shoulder, suddenly pushing down hard on him while he does so.

He then walks on as if he had done nothing wrong.  Brother Doe is startled but knows that if he yells or says anything negative, he will seem to be getting onto a elderly man who was simply faltering a little.  It will upset others who hear it if he does, including his wife Mary who may not believe that Brother Self-Righteous was anything but an innocent dear local Elder.  This particular tactic is called “treading” a person down.

Moving on in regard to physical discipline, independent thinking is especially considered a no-no, and so the following scripture may be said to you if you are heard doing such: “Unless Jehovah himself builds the house, it is to no avail that its builders have worked hard on it.” (Psalm 127:1)  The cult considers that its organizational heads are in essence God Almighty (Jehovah, Yahweh, the Lord). 

When someone complains of having received physical harassment such as being tapped on the back, thumped on the collarbone, even pushed down, s/he may hear something like:

“That’s God’s Holy Spirit in action!  What an honor for you to get to see it.  Pray for more!”

This is obviously a way of helping spin you as if on a wheel, a mind-and-words tactic designed to produce confusion or “cognitive dissonance.”

Discipline can often be read as harassment, and victims are supposed to “thank” those harassing them and inspiring fear in them of Jehovah’s organization.

Discipline is given not just to “apostates” or dissenters, but to anyone an elder feels may be ridiculing not the organization or its teachings but the elder himself.  In such cases an applicable scripture is “The ridiculer you should strike, that the inexperienced one may become shrewd; and there should be a reproving of the understanding one, that he may discern knowledge.” (Proverbs 19:25) 

So, if Tommy or Mary Teenager, make fun of Elder Jones, then Elder Jones and his cohorts will see that such a teenager learns a lesson.

Anyone who treats an Elder with less than respect merits severe discipline.  They may never be told what they are getting the discipline for, in fact they generally aren’t.  The goal is to give them discipline that will make them be wondering what they did that was wrong in the hope that in doing so they will feel the weight of guilt not only for the one “sin” but for it and any other sins.  Of course to a cult, “sin” covers lots and lots of things.

The cult’s most fanatic inner core intensely believes and enacts the scripture saying “Discipline is bad to the one leaving the path; anyone hating reproof will die.” (Proverbs 15:10)  Although verbal and later physical discipline is usually as far as cult discipline goes, it can be rougher and as the scripture says the cult heads could decide that their target “will die.” 

Pedophiles enjoy being vehicles for delivering discipline.  It is a way for them to enjoy fulfilling their heart’s desires such as peeping Tommery but also to make themselves look extra useful and zealous for the fine work, possibly even help them to advance in the organization.  Angels of light by day, pedophiles and those of “like ilk” turn into dangerous, angry seraphims in the night.

To cultists if an opponent is an older person or not, she or he is no more than a child spiritually who needs discipline: “Chastise your son and he will bring you rest and give much pleasure to your soul.” (Proverbs 29:17)

The cultists also can apply: “A man repeatedly reproved but making his neck hard will suddenly be broken, and that without healing.” (Proverbs 29:1)

SECRECY AND FEAR:

To enter the secret inner sanctum or core cult “circle of intimates” you must be able to keep absolute secrecy, that is keep things in confidence: “Plead your own cause with your fellowman, and do not reveal the confidential talk of another, 10 that the one listening may not put you to shame and the bad report by you can have no recall. (Proverbs 25:9, 10)  If you don’t keep your mouth shut then this applies:

The way of the wicked ones is like the gloom; they have not known at what they keep stumbling.” (Proverbs 4:19)

While attending meetings at a cult’s temple, church building or whatever you may call it depending upon the group, you will have it emphasized by scriptures that true believers listen to discpline:

“The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge.  Wisdom and discipline are what mere fools have despised.” (Proverbs 1:7)  “Take hold on discipline; do not let go.  Safeguard it, for it itself is your life.” (Proverbs 4:13)  “The fear of Jehovah tends toward life, and one will spend the night satisfied; one will not be visited with what is bad.” (Proverbs 19:23)

Once in a very great while things may be laid on the line with this scripture: “And the very spirit of Jehovah departed from Saul, and a bad spirit from Jehovah terrorized him.” (1 Samuel 16:14) “And Jehovah’s bad spirit came to be upon Saul when he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, while David was playing music with his hand.” (1 Samuel 19:9)

HARASSMENT BY MAIL:

A targeted person gets an unsigned letter.  In it is a newsclipping.  It talks about some act of violence.  The effort is to frighten, terrorize.  Such items using the mail are a federal offence.

POLICE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT:

Unlike the unusual person, when cult activities get reported police and other law enforcement workers are not so skeptical, having seen how cults have done before.  They may have to shy off due to lack of solid evidence, but if you have some, then they can either proceed or make some useful suggestions.

What you can do to protect yourself is for example to make use of video surveillance whether by an extremely expensive system that the cultists may be able to disarm or disrupt, or a small less expensive hand held digital camera that can also videotape.  If there is vandalism, definitely have the police to come.  You and they can take photos. 

The courts, attorneys, legislators etc try not to touch any situation involving religions including cults due to constitutional or charter guarantees of freedom of religious expression.  However, when there has a been a crime committed and this can be proved, then they have no choice or they too would be violating law.

HARASSMENT BY "LEGION"

RECRUITMENT METHODS

Cult heads are, of course, mentally and spirtually unbalanced, even criminally insane. 

Among themselves for example they may as said earlier,  misuse or pervert the meaning of scriptures so that those take on a false extra meaning that seems to themselves to justify their mistreatment of other members in their cult or those outside of it who speak against it.

Here’s one parting example.  They may read, quote and misuse: “Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.” (Psalm 112:4)

The real and normal sense of the scripture is that even in difficult times, a good person will enjoy hope (from God) because of what does. 

However, for a cult head it can also mean that even in what others consider acts of darkness like wiretapping and harassing opponents, God still gives favor to those doing so so long as they are normally kind and acting on His behalf.

Did you say "sick" or "disgusting"?  Definitely.  That's why a dangerous cult is a dangerous cult no matter how much "light" or "New Light" they claim to bear.  If you are in such a dangerous group start now and get out of it. (Revelation 18:4)