Running Head: THE TOPIC IN FULL CAPS (DO NOT EXCEED 1 LINE)

Full Topic Here [Writers Name] [Institutions Name]

Full Topic Here Researches prove human mind and body are shaped and manipulated using brainwashing, thought-reform techniques. Thought reform originated from China by a speech delivered by Zhou Enlai in September 1951. The thought-reform techniques included indoctrination, propaganda, reframing, suppression of awareness, criticism and self-criticism, etc. The major victims of thought reforming have been the prisoners of war, but it has been applied to from a naive citizen to the intellectual one. The main target of it could be college and university students aged from 18-25 who are easy to brainwash. Moreover, recently divorced male and female, diffident, overcurious, people with too little religious study fall victim to the thought reformation process and become part of cult. The Unification Church is one the alleged cult or religious group to employ the brainwashing for recruitment. They approach the potential recruits in insidious and subliminal way exploiting gender factor. It starts with love-bombing introducing themselves as a member of any unheard welfare community which works as front group of Unification Church. Later on, potential recruits are invited to visit the group to know more about it. Gradually, they are brainwashed while the real identity is kept secret and eventually they become active members. (Singer M.H. Coercive Persuasion, May 21, 1978) It happened exactly the same way with Steven Alan Hassan, a renowned licensed mental health counselor, who joined UC at the age of 19 in 1970. Unification Church imposes certain teachings on new recruits. Firstly they are forced to detach from the outsiders to strengthen spirituality and they are kept busy in

activities like fund-raising, recruiting new members, etc. so that they may not ponder over things around. A simple living is promoted. David Molko, Tracy Leal and Barbara Dole are ex-Moonies who filed a case against UCs manipulative and deceptive recruiting techniques and coercive persuasion. They stated that the recruiters made advancement toward them telling that they belonged to a social group called Creative Community Project and asked to attend a gathering. According to Molko, upon his asking about groups nexus with any religious organization, they simply denied and kept it clandestine for months which, later on, turned out to be the Unification Church. Though they were not forced to join, they fell victims of sophisticated mind-control technique and lost the power to think. When they joined the UC, Molko was 27, Pennsylvanian lawyer newly settled in San Francisco; Leal was 19, from Santa Clara County on temporary stay in San Francisco to reach Humboldt State University; and Dole was 19 from University of California, Berkeley, campus. They presented statements by Margaret Singer and Samuel Benson who strongly considered UC a cult implementing indoctrination techniques exercised on prisoners of war. However, the verdict was not in favor of plaintiffs. The case was dismissed declaring that no evidences were found which could prove that the UCs act of hifding identity forced the plaintiffs to join the church. In another case of ex-Moonie, we find a different view. Sylvia Buford expressed her lastday feelings at UC in her diary. In her own words; I don't like the word 'brainwash.' What happened to me was something more frightening - more insidious than I can ever explain. I suppose the

word is Utopia. The Unification Church was the closest I ever came to Utopia. In spite of what angry parents say, the Unification Church doesn't need to kidnap. Its attraction is all-encompassing- They say, 'Come with us- We can have an ideal world. (http://www.ex-premie.org/gallery/news/1977/30247580.html) She further says that UCs confines are suffocatingly limited and she would not like to revert to life of non-choice. Sylvia shows mixed feelings of love and hate. Thought reform in social psychology puts affirmative ideology in ones mind rather than gaining control over it. It promotes collectivism on the whole, not on particular sect or region. On contrary, UC practices controlling people by confining them. It does brainwash as we can observe that educated people did incline toward it, but reverted soon.

References Stoner C. & Parks J. A. (n.d.). The Cults: Salvation or Slavery?. Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.ex-premie.org/gallery/news/1977/30247580.html Barker, Eileen. (1984). The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?, United Kingdom: Blackwell Publishers