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Another programming technique we will discuss is that of dependency. Cults love this one, as it makes their work in obtaining money and power so much more easier. Dependency is the feeling or actual scenario of cult members being fully or largely dependent on the cult or its leader. Members who have been programmed this way feel that they need their cult, as if life without it is unbearable or impossible, or that in truth they actually need the cult to survive.
Achieving dependency is a bit easier than brainwashing and mind control, and if the cult cannot achieve those things with their members, then perhaps the cult can make their members depend on the cult, in which case they will have power over their members, and they will have little choice but to give the cult their money. Dependency is also so important to a cult because it makes leaving it so much more difficult. Cult leaders know that not all members will buy into the church's beliefs and practices, and not all members are prone to most forms of programming. But, if the cult can just make its members dependent, then at least they will stay with the cult as long as possible, giving the cult more chances and opportunities to program them and get money from them. It's really quite sad, because even after someone stops believing in the cult, and even hates it, they often still want to go there. Why? It's no good, so why would anyone want to continue to go ? Well that's because they developed a dependency and this is what makes leaving the cult near impossible for many persons. So how does the 4th Watch cult make its members dependent?
First, it should go without saying that dependency so easily targets the young and weak-minded. For what other groups of persons are most prone to being dependent on others? Just as with mind control, children do not have many choices and are completely dependent on their parents from the start. If their parents are devoted 4th Watch cult members, then guess who will also be 4th Watch cult members. Such children learn not only to be dependent on their parents, but their cult as well. And as they grow, they are taught that the cult means everything to them. When most kids are out of school and doing homework or playing, 4th Watch children are forced to go to their churches, where they are subjected to more cultic programming. Such victims have the most difficult time leaving a cult because they have become so dependent on it their whole lives.
Likewise, anyone who is fragile in their mind, whether it's because they are not that intelligent or wise, or because they are too naive, or even if they are lonely, the cult targets these peoples because they find a group willing to take care of them and provide them with emotional comfort that they so need and seek. This attachment that comes with this naturally begins to take the form of full dependency on the cult.
However, often the first step for any cult attempting to make its members dependent is to brainwash them. Brainwashing gives them the knowledge they need to believe in the 4th Watch and all of its teachings. When a victim is properly brainwashed, it is much easier to make them dependent on the cult for all its knowledge and meaning in one's life.
One of the first things the 4th Watch will teach you is that you need God in your life to be anything meaningful in the world. You need God in order to be a good and moral person. And this god is only found by being a 4th Watcher. Any god outside the 4th Watch church is a fake god. So if you leave, you will no longer be a good person or have meaning in your life, and you will no longer be able to enter Heaven. If a person can be successfully brainwashed to believe this, then having these kinds of beliefs will lead to a life of dependency on the cult.
One of the main ingredients to dependency is hope depletion. To make cult members dependent, they attempt to take away all of their hope. This is done to make them feel that their lives have no meaning and no hope of salvation or anything fulfilling without their god, without their leader, and without their cult. If the 4th Watch can achieve this with a member, and they often do, then they become very dependent and it becomes difficult to leave the cult.
An extremely effective and powerful technique in order to make persons dependent is to use what is known in the cult world as love bombing. Love bombing refers to the "bombing" of love, or the sudden, abundant attention and signs of kindness and affection to the individual who is targeted for dependency on the cult. Love bombing is often the first technique cult members do to initiate new members or to persons who cult members are trying to recruit. But love bombing helps members to not only join the cult, but to stay in the cult as well, by becoming dependent on not so much the cult itself, but from the supposed love that it gives to you. But eventually, once the love bombing has shown to be effective and the member feels loved and is already dependent on the cult, this love often fades away, and then you get to watch them love bomb someone else.
Love bombing is so effective and powerful because it fulfills a need that so many of us desire, and that is to be loved, and the 4th Watch presents the illusion of being loved through this programming technique. Remember that many 4th Watchers are lonely and feel unaccepted by the outside world, and the cult makes them feel not only as if they are loved, but that they are not alone. When they are love bombed, they feel as if they finally found a home, a place that they are comfortable at, a place where they feel safe. It also makes them feel like family, which brings us to our next topic on dependency.
Family orientation is an extension of the love bombing process. In addition to being shown an abundance of love, the 4th Watch attempts to make you feel as if the cult is your family. While it might seem like a positive gesture, it is nothing of the sort. This is intentional on the part of the cult, as the more you feel like the cult is your family, the closer you become to the cult and the more you will desire to be a member. In addition to love bombing, one of the ways they do this is by referring to every member as "brother" or "sister". When you are inducted into a new group of persons who seem to love you, and when they call you brother or sister, one cannot help but to feel like they are a part of a family, and the truth is, it feels good. It feels good to belong to a family consisting of so many who love you. But this is not an innocent gesture. The 4th Watch wishes to replace any family you might have as your primary family. The cult always comes first. Real family and anyone else come after the cult. All this helps you to rely on the cult.
Together, love bombing and family orientation help to make you want to see yourself as an attachment of the cult, and this leads to members relying more and more on each other, which, when combined with other techniques, help to make members dependent on the cult. Love and family might seem like two great and innocent concepts, and this is just another reason why the Apostle is so smart. He knows persons want to feel loved and as if they are part of a family, and he also knows that this will help make them dependent on his religion. His victims feel like they're being loved and accepted into a family, they don't know that they're only being programmed. It is a perfect setup. But it is a sad one too.
Conformity also plays a minor role in helping to make members dependent. Conforming to everyone else's ways makes you fit in better, and since your cult is your new family, you will want to be more like your family, and as you become more like your family, you begin to depend on them more and depend on the same things as they do. This is how conformity helps to make you dependent on the cult.
To help secure this dependence, certain practices are encouraged to help make this happen. Among these things are not marrying people who are not members of the cult, as such persons might threaten your dependency on the cult. Think about it. If you marry a spouse outside the cult, he or she might give you a reason not to rely on the cult, and he or she might take you away. This is not good for the cult because now you will not need them as much anymore, so you will not be giving them as much of your money as you had in the past. Therefore, only marriages within the cult are encouraged. In fact, relationships in general are encouraged to stay within the cult, but the leader knows that it is important to collect as many persons as they can to become members, so having relationships with non-4th Watch members are allowed. In general, it is best for members to not be in close interaction with any non-members. This is because the cult only wants you to depend on other 4th Watchers, and if you happen to make friends with other persons, you might learn to depend on them instead; and the 4th Watch can't have that.
And with all of these programming techniques, group reinforcement and repetition as with the other techniques help to create dependency.
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