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We've all heard about brainwashing before, and it is the most common technique used by cults to program their victims. We particularly don't like the term "brainwashing", as that term implies a cleansing of one's mind. A more accurate term would be "brain replacing". This is because brainwashing involves erasing certain knowledge from one's mind and replacing it with new knowledge. The term "thought reform" is often used instead. For cultic purposes, victims who are brainwashed have been programmed to no longer believe in what they once did, but instead to believe in what the cult wants you to believe. Brainwashing is a necessary tool used by the 4th Watch in order to fully train you as a member.
So how is brainwashing done? It is not easy but there are many techniques. We are going to go through all the ones we have identified. First, brainwashing is most effective and easiest to accomplish when cult members prey on the young and the weak minded. Members specifically look for these persons first, because they know that they are vulnerable to these kinds of programming attacks.
The brainwashing begins with its most basic of techniques, and that is to actually start teaching the victim the things that the cult wishes to teach them. For the 4th Watch, examples would include the belief that the leader is God's one true prophet, that the Bible is literally true and is the word of God, and that the earth is only 6,000 years old. This is mainly done with an attack of lies and the use of non-reasoning, as explained previously. Basically, cultic brainwashers will not only lie to their victims, but they will attempt to use logical fallacies to help make these lies seem truthful.
While brainwashing, to help demonstrate that their views are correct, the cult will often exploit positive and negative experiences to strengthen their teachings. For instance, if the 4th Watch is attempting to teach you that Jesus always listens and answers your prayers, they might have you listen to several persons who have had positive experiences with praying. Or, they might do a prayer with you where you ask for something simple, like a sunny day. And when it becomes sunny, they will tell you that the prayer has worked. If the sun doesn't come out, they'll probably say that it is God's will and that he has a better plan for you. As for an example of negative experiences, suppose they are teaching you that if you do not worship God every day, bad things will happen. Then, they have members tell you stories about things that have happened to them when they forgot to worship. If you are experiencing a bad day, they will use that as evidence of you not worshipping properly. All of this helps to reinforce the ideas that they are trying to instill on your brain.
To help make such exploitation more effective, members will give what are called "testimonies". Testimonies are the reflections by members of their experience in life since being part of the cult. Testimonies are very effective because you are hearing the "results" of being in the cult, which of course are always positive, from your peers, which often render as "proof" of the positivity of the cult. It is easy for someone to simply tell you that the cult is good for you, but to actually hear true stories of members' experiences greatly helps to enforce that assertion. Testimonies become even more effective after the cult members have befriended you and have earned your trust, because now what they say about their experiences in the cult is much more believable. After all, they are your friends, and your friends wouldn't lie to you would they? But testimonies are not only effective with new members, but they help reinforce existing members as well. The 4th Watch constantly encourages its members to give testimonies in the church, and it is no wonder why.
Now, remember that the point of brainwashing is to erase what the individual thinks and believes and to implant new thoughts and beliefs. Along the lines of these exploitations and testimonies, 4th Watchers often attempt to accomplish the erasing and implanting of thoughts and beliefs by "remaking" the individual. This is attempted by doing what's called a "history rewrite", in which the 4th Watch slowly begins to implant false beliefs about one's life into their mind.
What better way to do this than to have the individual state to themselves what the cult wants them to think and believe? And remember the saying if you say it or hear it enough times, you will believe it? That is the principle behind this technique, a very special type of testimony known as a "false confession". After the individual has heard testimonies from others and has gone through basic training, the cult will aggressively encourage the individual to give their own testimony, the false confession, in which the individual recites statements that the cult instructs them to say. Such statements will include whatever the cult feels like implanting in their brain at the time. Such examples might include stating that the 4th Watch is the one true church and that the apostle has been truly sent by God. The individual reaffirms these statements in prayer and worship. The repetition is powerful enough, but just hearing it from your own self creates an illusion of it being real. After all, it is coming from your own mouth. Eventually, the individual might actually believe it.
In many cases, false confessions are used to break down the individual and make them even more susceptible to brainwashing and other methods of programming. This is often done by the member telling itself negative aspects about themself and their life. Usually, the individual is made to admit that they are a bad person, a sinner, and is worthless. They are often made to say that before they met Christ, they were lost, and that by finding Christ, they are now full of joy.
Brainwashing is also made more effective and is easier to do when applying other programming methods such as dependency and conformity. Dependency makes the victim easier to brainwash because it finds itself depending more and more on the 4th Watch for all of its knowledge. With conformity, everybody does everything the same, and therefore, if everyone believes what the 4th Watch believes, then the brainwashed victim will tend to believe it all too. Dependency and conformity are further explored after this piece on brainwashing. And of course, if one can control another's mind, this makes it very easy to brainwash them too. Therefore, mind control is also a method that helps brainwash victims.
Brainwashing relies on constant repetition of everything that is being taught to the individual. The 4th Watch encourages and pushes its members to go to church not once a week, but just about every day. Church sessions usually last for about three to four hours, often times with multiple sessions in one day, and you are expected to go to all of them. In addition to this, they often have Bible studies even outside of church. In addition to all that, they will often visit your home if you don't go to church or attend a Bible study, and of course they bring the donation box with them. And whenever you go, you are subjected to the same forms of brainwashing that we have just described.
It makes sense that if the cult is trying so hard to retrain your mind, it isn't going to want outsiders messing with their work and interfering with the progress. This is why as a 4th Watcher, you are encouraged not to be in close contact with non-4th Watchers. Remember that 4th Watchers believe that only 4th Watchers are going to Heaven, so even if an outsider is Christian, they are still bad news. 4th Watchers are encouraged to have limited contact, interaction, and relationships with non-members of the cult. No one is actually confined to the church, but not adhering to this policy is frowned upon.
This idea of avoiding "outsiders" is made obvious after you leave the cult. So many of the persons in the cult who you thought were your friends, and all of those persons who love bombed you in the beginning, will now ignore you and shut you out when you are no longer a member. A fellow ex-4th Watcher shared his own experience in relation to leaving the cult and losing the friends he had there. It all started with him questioning one of their strange teachings. Here is what he said:
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I mentioned it to other members, the only response I would get is ignorance, with a smile, some said Im loosing my faith, and some had an open mind. Then I got a call from my girlfriend, who asked if I wanted to attend her church called Hislife City Church, and I accepted. The night before the convention finished.. My Pastor walked over to me, and stated these exact words "you must not attend your girlfriends church, you must not" and I asked why?.. and she replied "Because they are not Gods true Church, they will brainwash you into believing false teachings, only believe the Apostle, because he is sent by God, and he speaks truth. So dont let your girlfriend's friend's teach you false beliefs and teachings".
I laughed at her and said, for a pastor you shouldnt be judging those who work with you in serving God.. by the way she didnt feel very holy in my opinion.. I always got an nevrous feel about her, and she looked more crazy.
And to this day, ever since I left 4th Watch, the friends who I had, are no longer my friends anymore, because they are told to have friends who are follow 4th Watchers because they make better friendships.
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One helpful way to ensure the successful brainwashing of potential victims, is to have plenty of group enforcement. Group enforcement is a big part of conformity, but it specifically helps with brainwashing because your peers constantly pound everything they teach into your head.
One last way that the 4th Watch attempts to brainwash you, is to send you on retreats to meet with other members of churches around the world. We've all heard how cultic groups such as Am-way create gatherings in which they chant and act like cultic fools. In the 4th Watch, they have their annual camps, conventions, and parties. Here, you are subjected to the same exact brainwashing techniques, but now it is on a grander scale because you have group reinforcement on a much larger level. Of course, these trips are expensive and you have to pay for them yourself. Don't expect the church to pay you for any of your expenses. In fact, when you go to any of these events, you are expected, and sometimes required to give even more money.
And of course, let's not forget that the 4th Watch will repeat each and every one of these techniques over and over again in order to brainwash you, and they will not stop. Only when you become an official 4th Watch slave, will the brainwashing slow down, but it will never stop. It just keeps getting worse and worse. One day after years and years of brainwashing, you become nothing more than a mindless zombie.
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