I am watching a truly frightening documentary called, Stolen Youth, Inside the Cult At Sarah Lawrence. It follows with actual audio and video tape of Larry Ray and his mind control over a group of students. Ray had been a friend of former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and convinced several Sarah Lawrence students to move in with him and his daughter who attended the College. He portrayed himself as an adult with a lot that he could teach the young residents of the apartment. As his mental and physical abuse heightened his victims responded a bit like a person who has been placed in boiling water when it is first cold…before the heat is applied. By conditioning, they failed to notice when they began to boil. Mr. Ray subjected them to hours of interrogation coupled with lack of sleep and food or as one student said, We ate when Larry did and we slept when he told us that we could. Soon they were incapable of accepting anything as fact unless Larry told them that it was.

Ray convinced his cult members to apologize profusely to him for imagined wrongs that they had not done. He extorted money from them that they did not owe and they begged for loans from family and friends. They stopped socializing with anyone who was not a part of their group.

This type of obeisance may seem extremely rare…but it is much more prevalent than you would think. I am reminded of the Seinfeld episode where George Costanza was wanting to be hired for an executive position and had to purchase a new suit for the interview. George hid the 40-short suit that he wanted from another customer who also required a 40-short garment. When he pulled out the suit on sale day and his rival saw what he had done…the rival said that he was going to get back at George for hiding the suit that he desired. Now George had been told by the other executives that the boss appreciated that they all went along with the team and that they were team players. So…the interview was finished and they were having a shared piece of cake to commemorate George’s hiring by the boss. Suddenly George sees that his suit rival is the chef…and he knows that he must not take a bite of the celebratory cake as the chef glares at him with an evil grin… The cake had been poisoned and all got violently ill except George…and he did not get the job.

Mind control in many social arenas of life is prevalent. Some of the most charismatic and convincing people can have ulterior motives. Thousand stormed our capital in an attempted insurrection a little over two years ago. Many of the combatants believed that they were doing God’s work…