Group Information & BITE Model Analysis
Disclaimer: Most of the group resource information was submitted by former members, academics, experts, and concerned individuals. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Freedom of Mind. We welcome any feedback. Contact Us
| Names(s) |
|---|
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Watchtower
Watchtower Bible & Tract Society
jw.org
JWs
| Founder |
|---|
Charles Taze Russell, est. 1879
| Leader(s) |
|---|
Charles Taze Russell
Joseph Franklin Rutherford
Nathan Homer Knorr
Frederick William Franz
*Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses
| Group Description |
|---|
Jehovah’s Witnesses. A religious denomination that expects the millennium to begin within a very few years. Jehovah’s Witnesses insist on the use of Jehovah as a name for God. They deny the doctrine of the Trinity and consider Jesus to be the greatest of the witnesses of Jehovah. (dictionary.com)
| Behavior Control |
|---|
- Green means does not apply
- Orange means it partially applies (in other words, true for a subsection of members such as Bethelites, pioneers, and elders, but not rank and file members)
- Red means it absolutely applies
- Regulate an individual’s physical reality
- Dictate where, how and with whom the member lives and associates or isolates
- Dictate when, how, and with whom the member has sex
- Control types of clothing and hairstyles
- Regulate diet -food and drink, hunger and/or fasting
- Manipulation and deprivation of sleep
- Financial exploitation, manipulation, or dependence
- Restrict leisure, entertainment, vacation time
- Major time spent with group indoctrination and rituals and/or self-indoctrination, including the Internet
- Permission required for major decisions
- Thoughts, feelings, and activities (of self and others) reported to superiors
- Rewards and punishments used to modify behaviors, both positive and negative
- Discourage individualism, encourage group-think
- Impose rigid rules and regulations
- Encourage and engage in corporal punishment
- Punish disobedience by beating, torture, burning, cutting, rape, or tattooing/branding
- Threaten harm to family or friends (by cutting off family/friends)
- Force individual to rape or be raped
- Instill dependency and obedience
| Information Control |
|---|
- Green means does not apply
- Orange means it partially applies (in other words, true for a subsection of members such as Bethelites, pioneers, and elders, but not rank and file members)
- Red means it absolutely applies
- Deception
- Deliberately withhold information
- Distort information to make it more acceptable
- Systematically lie to the cult member
- Minimize or discourage access to non-cult sources of information, including:
- Internet, tv, radio, books, articles, newspapers, magazines, other media
- Critical information
- Former members
- Keep members busy so they don’t have time to think and investigate
- Control through a cell phone with texting, calls, and internet tracking
- Compartmentalize information into Outsider vs Insider doctrines
- Ensure that information is not easily accessible
- Control information at different levels and missions within the group
- Allow only leadership to decide who needs to know what and when
- Encourage spying on other members
- Impose a buddy system to monitor and control member
- Report deviant thoughts, feelings, and actions to leadership
- Ensure that individual behavior is monitored by the group
- Extensive use of cult-generated information and propaganda, including:
- Newsletters, magazines, journals, audiotapes, videotapes, YouTube, movies, and other media
- Misquoting statements or using them out of context from non-cult sources
- Unethical use of confession
- Information about sins used to disrupt and/or dissolve identity boundaries
- Withholding forgiveness or absolution
- Manipulation of memory, possibly false memories
| Thought Control |
|---|
- Green means does not apply
- Orange means it partially applies (in other words, true for a subsection of members such as Bethelites, pioneers, and elders, but not rank and file members)
- Red means it absolutely applies
- Require members to internalize the group’s doctrine as truth
- Adopting the group’s ‘map of reality’ as reality
- Instill black and white thinking
- Decide between good vs. evil
- Organize people into us vs. them (insiders vs. outsiders)
- Change a person’s name and identity
- Use of loaded language and cliches which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzzwords
- Encourage only ‘good and proper’ thoughts
- Hypnotic techniques are used to alter mental states, undermine critical thinking, and even to age regress the member
- Memories are manipulated and false memories are created (e.g. “1975”)
- Teaching thought-stopping techniques which shut down reality testing by stopping negative thoughts and allowing only positive thoughts, including:
- Denial, rationalization, justification, wishful thinking
- Chanting
- Meditating
- Praying
- Speaking in tongues
- Singing or humming
- Rejection of rational analysis, critical thinking, constructive criticism
- Forbid critical questions about leader, doctrine or policy allowed
- Labeling alternative belief systems as illegitimate, evil or not useful
- Instill new ‘map of reality’
| Emotional Control |
|---|
- Green means does not apply
- Orange means it partially applies (in other words, true for a subsection of members such as Bethelites, pioneers, and elders, but not rank and file members)
- Red means it absolutely applies
- Manipulate and narrow the range of feelings – some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong, or selfish
- Teach emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of hopelessness, anger, or doubt
- Make the person feel that problems are always their own fault, never the leader’s or the group’s fault
- Promote feelings of guilt or unworthiness, such as:
- Identity guilt
- You are not living up to your potential
- Your family is deficient
- Your past is suspect
- Your affiliations are unwise
- Your thoughts, feelings, actions are irrelevant or selfish
- Social guilt
- Historical guilt
- Instill fear, such as fear of:
- Thinking independently
- The outside world
- Enemies
- Losing one’s salvation
- Leaving or being
- Extremes of emotional highs and lows – love bombing and praise one moment, and then declaring you are a horrible sinner
- Ritualistic and sometimes public confession of sins
- Phobia indoctrination: inculcating irrational fears about leaving the group or questioning the leader’s authority
- No happiness or fulfillment possible outside the group
- Terrible consequences if you leave: hell, demon possession, incurable diseases, accidents, suicide, insanity, 10,000 reincarnations, etc
- Shunning of those who leave; fear of being rejected by friends and family
- Never a legitimate reason to leave; those who leave are weak, undisciplined, unspiritual, worldly brainwashed by family or counselor, or seduced by money, sex, or rock-and-roll
- Threats of harm to ex-member and family (threats of cutting off friends/family)
| Group Websites |
|---|
| Critical Websites |
|---|
| Other Resources |
|---|
A Secret Database of Child Abuse
The BITE Model and Jehovah’s Witnesses
Shunning and the BITE Model of Mind Control in the Jehovah’s Witnesses
How Jehovah’s Witness Teachings Can Damage Brain Development in Children
Malice Found by Jury in Montana Watchtower Society Sex Abuse Case
Watchtower Dates, Dates, and More Dates
Associated Jehovah’s Witnesses For Reform on Blood
JW Files Research Outline On The Watchtower Society
CHILD ABUSE:
Audio/Video: