Shortly before I left the cult, there was strong messaging every day about the need to sever ties with one’s physical family.

Cooking was one of the prescribed activities for women in the WMSCOG.

[Content Warning: This post contains mention of suicidal ideation. If that triggers you, please skip this one.] I struggled a lot mentally after leaving the cult.

The third and final stage of hijacking the mind as described in Steven Hassan’s book Combating Cult Mind Control is “refreezing,” which involves rebuilding the old self as a “new self” and solidifying that new identity.

The second stage of gaining control of the mind, according to Steven Hassan, is “changing,” which involves imposing a new identity onto a new recruit to replace the old one that was broken down in the “unfreezing” stage. What follows are techniques used in the “changing” stage to form a new identity in new recruits.