You can learn here how you were duped into the Roman Catholic religion. It is an insidious process and should be outlawed and will be once the full depth of this is understood at legislative and human rights levels. I hope to add further to this more information comes together. Contribute knowledge or actions via email to this article

From the earliest moments of existence, individuals are susceptible to the influences around them—none more potent than the indoctrination experienced in highly controlled religious environments. This process begins so early in life that it precedes the development of critical thinking or even language, embedding deep-seated beliefs and biases that can last a lifetime. Far from benign, this early cognitive entrapment is a form of mental hijacking, carried out under the guise of religious love and care but often resulting in a lifetime of psychological bondage. The scars left by such early indoctrination are profound, affecting mental health, personality, and overall life satisfaction, all without the individual's consent or often, their awareness. This occurs under the protection of laws such as Section 116 of the Australian Constitution, which has been interpreted to prevent the Commonwealth from interfering in religious practices, thereby indirectly sanctioning these actions.

The following descriptions are quite real, they are informed by the evidence of research and experiences of many. The effects are real, and you have been exposed to them without your knowledge, approval or perhaps even your awareness or ability to recall. You are effectively enslaved to a religion without your informed consent.

Indoctrinated into Lifelong Mental Slavery

The early stages of human development, particularly the pre-verbal and pre-theory of mind phases, are crucial periods during which the brain is highly receptive and begins forming the foundational structures of cognition, emotion, and memory.

How our brains process and store experiences during these early stages:

Before developing the ability to speak or understand complex theories about others’ minds (theory of mind), infants primarily learn and interact with their environment through sensory experiences. The brain encodes these experiences, heavily influenced by emotional contexts. For instance, the feelings of safety, warmth, and comfort or their opposites are encoded alongside the sensory inputs. Sensory and Emotional Encoding Phase.

During the pre-verbal stage, children form what are known as implicit memories. These are memories that we are not consciously aware of but that influence our behavior, emotional responses, and even bodily functions. These memories are foundational and can affect a person's sense of security and attachment styles later in life. Implicit Memory Formational Phase.

Interaction with caregivers is critical during these stages. The quality of attachment—whether secure or insecure—can significantly influence emotional regulation and social behavior. Infants learn to read emotional cues and respond to them, a precursor to developing a theory of mind, which is the understanding that others have thoughts and feelings different from one's own. Attachment and Social Learning.

The brain's plasticity is at its peak during early childhood, allowing it to adapt and mold based on experiences. This high plasticity means that early experiences can have profound and lasting impacts, shaping everything from stress response systems to predispositions toward mental health challenges. Brain Plasticity.

Early experiences can 'prime' the brain for certain responses later in life. For example, repeated exposure to stressful environments can make the brain more reactive to stress long-term. Conversely, a nurturing and responsive environment can build resilience. Priming and Predispositions.

Understanding how these early experiences shape us can provide valuable insights into adult behavior and emotional challenges. It also emphasizes the importance of nurturing environments in early childhood for healthy psychological development.

During the pre-verbal stage, which spans from birth to around 18-24 months, infants are in what Jean Piaget termed the sensorimotor stage. In this stage, babies learn about the world primarily through their senses and actions. They develop crucial skills like object permanence (understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can't be seen) and self-recognition verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457 simplypsychology.org/piaget.html.

Before we develop a theory of mind (the ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others), our brains are busy forming schemas—mental frameworks that help us organize and interpret information. These schemas are built from our earliest interactions and experiences.

During this time, infants also develop pre-verbal communication skills such as eye contact, gestures, and joint attention. These skills are foundational for later language development and social interactions en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_development carespeechpathology.com.au/pre-verbal-communication-skills/.

It's impoirtant to understand about how much our brains are doing even before we can speak or understand others' perspectives!

The concept of early indoctrination, particularly in contexts like a cult, can be understood through the lens of prenatal and early childhood exposure to a mother's emotional states and environmental stimuli.

Imagine a pregnant woman, Mary, who is an active member of a cult. This cult engages in specific rituals, chants, and sermons that are deeply emotional, often involving expressions of extreme devotion or fear. Mary participates regularly in these activities throughout her pregnancy. Here we are setting a realistic everyday scenario that each of us is familiar with.

As Mary participates in cult rituals, her emotional responses—whether fear, stress, joy, or tranquility—are conveyed to her unborn child through biological pathways. Hormones such as cortisol (stress hormone) or endorphins (happiness hormones) can cross the placenta and influence the fetus. High stress levels in the mother can lead to an increased stress response in the child, predisposing the child to anxiety or heightened stress sensitivity. These experiences are referred to as Prenatal Influence and Emotional Transmission.

The unborn child can hear muffled sounds from around 23 weeks of gestation; This quickly evolves to substantial hearing as the pregnancy develops. If Mary regularly attends loud, emotionally charged rituals with distinctive chants or music, these sounds become familiar to the developing fetus; these are later in life recognised as something familiar by the growing child and persists through to adulthood if they are not recognised for what they and are jettisoned by the growing young person if they are to mature as adults without the bonds that this form of enculturation brings. The repetitive nature of cultic chants and the emotional intensity accompanying them can prime the fetus's brain to recognize and emotionally respond to these cues after birth. These experiences are referred to as: Auditory Learning.

After birth, if the child continues to be exposed to the same emotional and auditory stimuli, the early priming is reinforced. For instance, hearing the same chants or seeing similar emotional displays post-birth that the child was exposed to in the womb creates a sense of familiarity and normalcy around the cult's practices.This is referred to as the Postnatal Influence stage. Continuity of Environment.

The child observes Mary's emotional reactions and behaviors within the cultic context. Children are adept at mimicking the emotional and behavioral patterns of their caregivers. If Mary shows signs of stress, devotion, or emotional upheaval during cult activities, the child learns to associate these emotions with the contexts in which they occur. This is quite noticeable 2 and 3 year olds and is called Modeling and Mirroring.

As the primary caregiver, Mary's emotional states and her interactions within the cult heavily influence the child's attachment styles and emotional associations. If cult involvement appears to meet emotional or social needs, the child may develop positive associations with the cult's beliefs and practices, viewing them as sources of comfort or security. This speaks ofd the Attachment and Association stage that many psychologist and Psychiactrists refer to.

This continuous cycle of exposure, both prenatally and postnatally, establishes a foundation upon which the child may accept and internalize the cult's beliefs and practices without the usual critical or questioning stance that might develop in a less emotionally charged environment. As the child grows, the cult's ideologies and rituals, deeply intertwined with their primary emotional experiences and caretaker bonds, may be perceived as intrinsic truths or necessary for emotional security. These are the Long-term Implications.

Through the above example, we can see how the combination of prenatal emotional transmission and postnatal environmental consistency plays a critical role in the potential indoctrination of a child into cultic beliefs and practices from a very early age.

Addressing the challenge of protecting children from harmful indoctrination and assisting adults in overcoming such influences involves a spectrum of strategies tailored to different stages of life.

For Children:

Education and Critical Thinking:

Schools:

Incorporate critical thinking, media literacy, and personal development courses in school curricula to help children analyze and question information critically.

Parental Guidance:

Parents and guardians can encourage open conversations, where questioning and curiosity are welcomed, and different viewpoints are discussed. Safe and Open Communication Channels.

Trusted Adults:

Children should have access to trusted adults (teachers, counselors, relatives) with whom they can discuss their feelings and doubts without fear of judgment or reprisal.

Peer Support:

Encourage participation in diverse group activities and peer groups outside the immediate environment to expose children to a variety of perspectives. Emotional Intelligence Development.

Workshops and Activities:

Engage children in workshops that promote emotional awareness, empathy, and self-regulation.

Modeling Behavior:

Adults should model healthy emotional responses and resilience to adversity, providing a living example for children to emulate.

For Adults:

Therapeutic Interventions:

Individual Therapy:

Professional counseling to address deeply ingrained beliefs and their emotional underpinnings. Techniques like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can be particularly effective in challenging and modifying harmful thought patterns.

Group Therapy:

Support groups for former members of high-control groups can provide communal healing and shared experiences that validate individual feelings and recovery.

Education and Re-learning:

Continuing Education:

Adult education classes on critical thinking, philosophy, science, and history to broaden perspectives and counteract narrow indoctrination.

Books and Resources:

Reading widely from authors who discuss freedom from indoctrination, recovery from high-control groups, and building healthy relationships.

Building New Social Networks:

Community Involvement:

Engaging in community activities not related to the indoctrinative environment to build new, healthier social connections.

Volunteering:

Volunteering for causes that resonate personally can help redefine one's sense of purpose and community. Mindfulness and Self-Care.

Mindfulness Practices:

Techniques such as meditation, yoga, and mindfulness can help individuals reconnect with their bodies and emotions, often suppressed or ignored in high-control situations.

Physical Health:

Regular exercise, adequate sleep, and a healthy diet can improve overall well-being, boosting mental health and resilience. Safe Parenting Education.

Parenting Classes:

Classes that focus on non-authoritarian parenting styles can help adults understand how to raise children with respect for their autonomy and critical faculties.

Family Therapy:

Sometimes, the whole family may benefit from therapy to improve communication and to address generational patterns of behavior and belief. For Both Children and Adults.

Legal and Societal Protection:

Advocacy for stronger legal protections against coercive practices used by high-control groups. This can include laws that protect minors from being indoctrinated into extreme beliefs that may harm their well-being.

Public Awareness Campaigns:

Campaigns to raise awareness about the signs of indoctrination and the importance of mental health resources can help communities become more supportive environments for those at risk or those recovering from such experiences.

Implementing these options requires coordinated efforts from individuals, families, educators, and societal institutions to ensure both preventive and corrective measures are effective. Each step taken can help foster resilience and critical independence in children and aid adults in healing and reclaiming their lives.

Adding a daily practice focused on personal well-being and recovery from indoctrination can be a powerful tool in both breaking free from harmful influences and building a healthier, autonomous life.

Here’s why and how such a practice can be effective:

Why It’s Effective:

Consistency Builds Resilience:

Regular, consistent actions help reinforce new habits and thought patterns. The daily repetition of an activity, even if small, strengthens neural pathways in the brain associated with the new behaviors, making them more habitual and natural over time.

Empowerment Through Small Wins:

Completing a task daily, especially one that is personally meaningful, can significantly boost self-esteem and a sense of agency. This is crucial for individuals who have experienced indoctrination, where personal agency may have been suppressed or undermined.

Creating Space for Reflection and Growth:

Setting aside time each day to focus on personal goals or recovery allows for ongoing self-reflection, which is essential for recognizing progress and areas needing adjustment. It supports a mindful approach to healing.

Breaking Isolation:

Engaging in a daily practice, particularly one that involves interacting with others or exploring new ideas, can gradually break the isolation often imposed by controlling groups or beliefs, integrating the individual into broader, healthier social contexts.

How to Implement It:

Choose a Manageable Task:

The daily activity should be feasible and not overwhelming. It could be as simple as reading a page of a book that inspires independence, journaling thoughts and feelings, practicing a few minutes of meditation, or learning something new.

Set a Specific Time:

Allocating a specific time each day for this activity can help in forming a routine. Morning routines are often effective, but the best time is one that fits seamlessly into one's schedule, ensuring consistency.

Reflect on Progress:

Regularly (e.g., once a week) reflect on the feelings and thoughts that arise from this daily practice. Consider how perspectives might be shifting or how emotional responses to indoctrination and its teachings are evolving.

Gradually Increase Complexity:

As confidence and routine build, gradually increase the complexity or duration of the daily activity. For example, start with meditating for five minutes and slowly increase the time, or transition from reading to attending a discussion group.

Seek Support:

Share this practice with a trusted friend, therapist, or support group who can provide encouragement and feedback. This also holds one accountable and reinforces the value of the daily practice.

Examples

A person recovering from indoctrination might start with a daily practice of writing down three thoughts or questions that challenge the indoctrinated beliefs. Over time, this could evolve into deeper research on those questions, discussions with others about alternative viewpoints, or writing a blog to help others with similar experiences.

Incorporating a daily practice focused on personal development or recovery from indoctrination is a strategy that promotes healing and growth through steady, incremental steps. It leverages the power of routine and reflection, crucial for long-term recovery and resilience.

The Insidious Nature of Early Indoctrination

Indoctrination is particularly insidious because it taps into the developmental need for security and belonging, linking these fundamental human needs to specific beliefs and rituals. From the moment a child is born into a highly doctrinal religious environment, every song, prayer, and sermon serves as a layer of programming. This programming is designed not just to teach but to tether emotions such as love, fear, and obligation to the religious constructs, making them nearly impossible to question without emotional upheaval.

Examples of Long-term Impacts:

Guilt and Shame:

For someone indoctrinated from an early age, religious teachings often interweave concepts of sin and morality with everyday decisions and thoughts. As adults, these individuals may experience pervasive feelings of guilt and shame, not just for actions that are universally considered wrong but for everyday choices or doubts about their faith. This can lead to an exhausting life where self-acceptance is elusive.

Anger and Remorse:

Anger may arise from the realization that one’s early years were manipulated by religious indoctrination. This anger can be directed at religious figures, family members, or the self, leading to deep internal conflict and remorse over lost time and opportunities—especially in cases where indoctrination has led to missed life experiences or delayed personal development.

Mental Health Challenges:

The deep-seated nature of indoctrinated beliefs can contribute to anxiety, depression, and even dissociative disorders as the individual struggles with conflicting internal narratives and suppressed doubts. The fear of divine punishment or social ostracism can perpetuate these mental health issues, making recovery a daunting task.

Personality Disorders:

In some severe cases, the rigid, black-and-white thinking taught in dogmatic religions can contribute to personality disorders. Individuals may struggle with flexibility, empathy, and identity, often because they were taught to suppress their true selves in favor of a religious identity.

Living a Life Bound by Invisible Chains For many, the journey to break free from the shackles of early religious indoctrination is long and fraught with challenges. The binding is not of physical chains but of mental and emotional ones—forged in the early, formative years and reinforced throughout a lifetime of community and family expectations. The path to freedom often requires confronting deeply ingrained fears and biases, reevaluating one’s identity, and often, enduring significant relational and social upheaval.

Extended Impact

Relationship Struggles and Generational Trauma

Indoctrination not only significantly impacts the individual subjected to it but also has profound implications for their relationships and the lives of their children. The complexities introduced by deeply ingrained religious beliefs can and do lead to strained relationships and create a cycle of emotional and psychological challenges that regularly and consistently extends across generations.

Difficulties in Establishing Relationships and Marriages

Trust Issues

Individuals raised in environments of indoctrination do struggle with trust, particularly if they were taught to view outsiders as morally suspect or spiritually dangerous. This consistently makes forming deep, trusting relationships extremely challenging, as they constantly question the motives of their partners and adversely affects every engagement the individual attempts. The few exceptions are found within the closed circles of others adversely affected as they are.

Conflict Over Values

When one or both partners have been indoctrinated with specific religious values, conflicts can easily arise over issues that may seem trivial to others but are of fundamental importance to them. These can include differing views on parenting, the role of religion in life, sexual ethics, and even everyday lifestyle choices.

Emotional Dependence or Isolation

For some, the church or religious group may have served as the primary source of emotional support, to the exclusion of all else. This can lead to an unhealthy dependence on religious structures or, conversely, emotional isolation if the individual distances themselves from these structures without developing other support systems outside the religion and its values.

Communication Barriers

Effective communication can be hindered by the indoctrinated individual’s reluctance or inability to express doubts or negative feelings about their religious upbringing due to fear of judgment or divine retribution. This often leaves their partners feeling shut out and unable to connect on a deeper emotional level.

Impact on the Lives of Their Children

Inherited Beliefs and Practices

Children of indoctrinated parents may inherit not only the religious beliefs but also the accompanying fears and taboos. This can limit their own exploration of the world and stifle their development into independent thinkers, perpetuating the cycle of indoctrination.

Parental Conflict

If one parent begins to question or reject the indoctrination while the other remains committed, the resulting conflict can create a confusing, unstable home environment for children. They may struggle with divided loyalties and mixed messages about values and norms.

Emotional and Psychological Strain

The emotional intensity often associated with deeply ingrained religious beliefs can lead to an environment where children feel pressured to conform, leading to anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. They may also feel an intense pressure to perform or abide by strict religious standards, leading to stress and low self-esteem.

Social Isolation

Children raised in strictly indoctrinated households may be isolated from broader social groups, either by their own family’s choice or by social alienation due to their different beliefs and behaviors. This can impact their social development and ability to form friendships.

Conclusion

The effects of religious indoctrination extend beyond the individual to affect their ability to form and maintain healthy relationships and, in turn, impact the emotional and psychological well-being of their children. Breaking free from this cycle requires not only individual awareness and recovery but also a supportive community that understands the deep-seated nature of indoctrination. Recognition, intervention, and education can help prevent the perpetuation of these damaging patterns, ultimately leading to healthier families and more resilient future generations.

The reality of growing up indoctrinated in a religious setting means that many are fighting not just for the freedom to believe differently but for the basic right to understand one’s own mind without the overlay of enforced dogma. Recognizing this form of mental enslavement is one of the steps toward recovery, and more importantly, toward legislating changes that protect the vulnerable from these invasive practices. As society progresses, it is crucial to revisit and challenge the legal and cultural frameworks that allow such practices to persist unchecked.

Other refs

Alice Miller For Your Own Good, Drama of the Gifted Child

Judith Hermann Trauma and Recovery

Zero to Three

Psychology Today

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