Being Brainwashed

What about those organizations that take people and change their minds so that they think they are free but they actually become brainwashed into acting against their own will. Such are the cases that arise with people who have been recruited for Opus Dei and other sects, cults and new religions that have an answer to every question. One story comes from a Chilean friend who explained about how she was outcast and was told that she could not meet her former friends that became members of Opus Dei because she was considered an undesirable. By that, I mean she wore normal clothes, nothing terribly revealing and that she would want to show her affection to a boy, something that the religious organization would frown upon.

Opus Dei is probably one of several organizations, which have attracted a large amount of former Catholics, atheists and people of other faiths. They offer a solution, which involves a gradual indoctrination so that the person gradual lets go of his former friends and on many occasions, his family as he devotes more and more time to the dictates of that sect. This indoctrination has already gone on for years and every now and then hits the front-page headlines, as did the mass suicide conducted in Guyana in 1989 by a demented leader who offered his followers salvation if they all gave up their lives for his cause. Not all sects are so dramatic but the formula has some commonalities be it being a member of the Jehovah's witnesses, the Mormon Church or the Church of Scientology where a relatively new advocate, Tom Cruise espouses their special attributes.

The person is invited to a country outing where pleasantries are exchanged and then the indoctrination gradually occurs where the person is gradually coaxed to leave all those people who he previously knew. He is made to feel guilty if he dresses normally or wants to kiss his girlfriend in public. According to Opus Dei, this is not what you do if want to obtain communion but then on further meetings the organization gradually gets the person to devote his entire time to their workings and abandon other projects. His family members are now total strangers.
These recent sects and new faiths are gaining ground on one basic weakness of the church and that is more churches are closing since youth is not necessarily inspired by what the standard religions have to offer. There has to be other choices for these people who are too easily influenced.