An Inside Look at a Veiled Movement What is Cursillo? An Inside Look at a Veiled Movement

Introduction Why question this wonderful movement? Resources for Further Study: The Book, Cursillo: Little Courses in Catharsis (available at many local libraries) Articles from Christian Renewal Magazine www.questioningcursillo.com

Part One: The Quest for Emotional Experience The Quest Begins A Renewal of the Experience Deeper Involvement A Growing Awareness “Is This for Real?” Another Quest for Emotional Experience

Part Two: The Methodology of Mind Control Mind Control? “Techniques of psychological persuasion” a.k.a. “psychological coercion,” “coercive persuasion,” “thought reform,” “brainwashing”

(Steven Hassan, Combatting Cult Mind Control, 56, emphasis original.) Mind control, also called “thought reform” is more subtle and sophisticated. Its perpetrators are regarded as friends or peers, so the person is much less defensive. He unwittingly participates by cooperating with this controllers and giving them private information that he does not know will be used against him. The new belief system is internalized into a new identity structure. Mind control involves little or no overt physical abuse. Instead, hypnotic processes are combined with group dynamics to create a potent indoctrination effect. The individual is deceived and manipulated–not directly threatened–into making the prescribed choices. On the whole, he responds positively to what is done to him. (Steven Hassan, Combatting Cult Mind Control, 56, emphasis original.)

Part Two: The Methodology of Mind Control “Techniques of psychological persuasion” a.k.a. “psychological coercion,” “coercive persuasion,” “thought reform,” “brainwashing” Steven Hassan: Mind control is “a system of influences that disrupts an individual’s identity and replaces it with a new identity.”

Part Two: The Methodology of Mind Control Three Stages of Mind Control (Edgar Schein, Coercive Persuasion) “Unfreezing” “Changing” “Refreezing”

Part Two: The Methodology of Mind Control Six Conditions for Mind Control (Margaret Thayler Singer, Cults in Our Midst) 1. Keep the person unaware. 2. Control the person’s environment. 3. Create a sense of powerlessness in the person. 4. Inhibit the person’s former social identity. 5. Promote learning the group’s ideology/behavior. 6. Permit no feedback/refuse change in structure.

Part Two: The Methodology of Mind Control Roman Catholic Priest, Sigmund Dragostin, “The Cursillo as a social movement.”

“As a priest-sociologist with some acquaintance with current social psychology, I am disturbed by what seem to me to be undue pressures exerted on those making the exercises. A study of Bishop Hervas’s Leaders’ Manual, an extensive description of the cursillo running to some 300 pages, has done little to change this reaction. “Read from the viewpoint of pastoral theology, Bishop Hervas’s manual does take some pains to achieve balance and points the way to obviate the more apparent pitfalls, e.g., lack of perseverance, cliquishness, and misdirected fervor.

“One should not blame on the cursillo the various mistakes that have been made in its name. On the other hand, I did not get the impression that the Bishop—whether by design or by accident—gives a fair description of the social psychological techniques involved. To be sure, there are enough general references to methods of good pedagogy and the lessons of modern psychology. But the actual description of the techniques of influence are mostly smothered in a smoke screen of pious vocabulary.”   Sigmund Dragostin, “The Cursillo as a Social Movement,” in Catholics/U.S.A.; Perspectives on Social Change, ed. William Thomas Liu and Nathaniel J. Pallone, 479-489 (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1970), 481.

Part Two: The Methodology of Mind Control Dragostin’s “Seven Social-Psychological Mechanisms of Cursillo” 1. Isolation. 2. Affirmation. 3. Forceful Majority Opinion “Peer Pressure.” 4. The Religious Atmosphere/Setting. 5. The Structure and Design of the Weekend. 6. The Discomfort of Cognitive Dissonance. 7. The Costly Nature of the Weekend Investment.

“I have no intention of limiting the power of divine grace to empirical models;” nevertheless, he concludes, “It does, however, seem clear to me that much of the Cursillo’s dramatic effect can be accounted for through natural causes.” Elsewhere, Dragostin declares: “I would welcome an atmosphere that provides a free and open opportunity for an individual to broaden his religious experience. But the extraordinary dramatic effect of the Cursillo as well as its excesses seem directly related to the element of social manipulation.”

“Please Stop Feeding the Able Poor: Helping without Hurting.” The Second Summer Seminar: “Please Stop Feeding the Able Poor: Helping without Hurting.” Tuesday, July 14, 2015 7:00 p.m. Hospers PCA