Interview with the Author
Tell us something about your early life in Haiti.
I was born in a very small town. My father actually came from a very well-to-do family but his father died early and his uncle, who raised him, blocked he and his siblings from inheriting their estate. In fact, when he intervened on behalf of two of his cousins to receive their estate, his uncle, who was powerful in political circles, held it against him and kept him from joining the military, his one probable escape route from poverty. My mother, who was my lifelong ally, was brought up poor but aspired to be wealthy- and encouraged me in every way. The two of them separated when I was quite young and I spent most of my childhood with my mother. Poverty in Haiti is brutal. It took every ounce of my strength to survive and to move forward in my education.
You were a member of the Ancient Mystic Order of Rosae Crucis for over two decades. What did the organization stand for and why did you join?
As I mentioned earlier, life was a constant economic struggle for me- and, although I had made a lot of progress by the time I entered engineering school in Haiti, I was somewhat insecure about my future. AMORC claimed to be an authentic representative of the Rosicrucian tradition, a fraternal organization whose roots went back to ancient Egypt and the Egyptian mysteries. According to AMORC, it was a continuation of a religious tradition that was in alignment with the Cosmic, a concept of God they claimed was a more perfect and ancient representation of Diety than the way God was presented in traditional religions. Although there have been many groups claiming a Rosicrucian pedigree, AMORC claimed true authenticity and presented itself as having the keys to great mysteries, including the ability to enable its followers to obtain true prosperity through certain spiritual practices, including visualization.
In the book, you are continuously referring to AMORC as a religious cult. What made you look at AMORC in this light?
I spend many years in AMORC believing in its authenticity and in its promise of prosperity. Yet, despite my efforts and the focus I placed on its studies and exercises, I kept failing even to obtain a minimum standard of prosperity. After a time, I began to have within myself a great sense of doubt about the organization’s authenticity and the validity of the exercises. Still, I found myself unable to leave. Worse, I would find myself in extreme, vacillating moods in regards to my affiliation. First, I would go into a state of reaffirmation and enthusiastic support; then I would go into extreme negativity and even, a few times, blackouts. Only when I discovered some of the literature on Mind Control and religious cults did I begin to piece together what had happened to me. The key to cult indoctrination is the recreation of the member’s personality, what experts call a “cult personality.” This personality is very loyal to the cult’s doctrines and very hard to understand when it takes place in one’s own personality. It creates a kind of dualism within oneself. When that happens, even the thought of leaving the cult can bring on a whole mass of emotional reactions, including extreme fear and depression.
How do the techniques of AMORC differ from most religious cults? What is Remote Indoctrination?
AMORC has various Lodges, where members meet, throughout the world. Still, I doubt whether most members attend them regularly. The essence of AMORC’s grip on its disciples, in my opinion, is a correspondence course coupled with certain so-called spiritual exercises, which is at the core of the course.
Religious cults, in general, are very hand-on. Group activities serve initially to fatigue and brainwash the new member. There is very heavy person-to-person influence involved and lots of activities and work to quickly cement the disciple in his affiliation. AMORC uses another methodology, which I call Remote Indoctrination. Their form of Remote Indoctrination relies on using powerful authoritarian claims, rooted in the various lessons, called Monographs, combined with hypnotic techniques and phobia inducing claims. I have a 16 Article, somewhat sarcastic, Declaration of Remote Indoctrination, in my book, which describes in detail what is necessary to accomplish this process; namely, brainwashing without a prison cell or powerful group meetings with a charismatic leadership. It’s quite amazing to experience, but very, very hard to understand if one’s caught up to it. You become a Mind Slave of an external organization without even realizing it.
You had a painful and ambivalent relationship with AMORC for many years. What made you want to review this long and difficult period by writing a book? Do you believe that there really are authentic Rosicrucian Orders and what would that actually mean?
When I finally began to understand what had happened to me, I determined not only to escape for my own sake, but to warn other people about AMORC and other religious cults and, perhaps, serve as a bridge to help people in cults with their own exit strategy. After all, my own escape was partly fueled by the works of Steve Hassan and Margaret Thaler Singer. If their books hadn’t existed, I never would have pieced it all together and begun the work on myself that allowed me to dissolve enough of my cult personality to obtain the freedom in myself to leave.
I believe, in the literature of cult entrapment, my story is somewhat unique. First, because my book is a very intimate history of what happened to me. It goes into a lot of depth and is essentially a memoir. Second, I pursue in great detail, the technique of Remote Indoctrination as practiced by AMORC. Members of that group will have the opportunity to directly examine their psychological state and their ties to that organization.
Are there authentic Rosicrucian organizations?
I can’t say. I haven’t been looking lately. I can say this- if there is, they are operating from a different foundation from AMORC, as it functions today. It is obvious that the 17th century manuscripts, like the Famas Fraternitas, which describe the Order are somewhat encoded- both to their internal structure and content. I have not broken any of these codes and am presently celebrating my liberation from something that was dangerous and unhealthy for my personal liberty. A true religious organization, in my opinion, would not make the kind of super monolithic authority that is one of the pillars of AMORC’s grip on its members.
How do you view the intentions, writings and background of the Founder, H. Spencer Lewis?
With tremendous suspicion. I cannot say that I have penetrated into the secret recesses of his mind, but I believe essentially he was making false claims about his organization from the very beginning. I document his efforts in the beginning of the book and show some amazing similarities between AMORC and the Order of the Golden Dawn, an earlier occult organization, started in England as a spin-off from a co-called German Rosicrucian Order. I think he was a great organizer and a great publicist with the genius to know that to establish some kind of lineage for his organization, whatever its truth, was a key to giving AMORC the kind of authoritarian control that he needed.
Do you believe that you gained anything positive through participating in the Order?
Perhaps the ability to show other people that they should not participate in the Order. Also, a unique experience of over twenty years of having my life controlled by something outside myself. None of this is really positive unless I can help save other people from the experience or at least accelerate their exit strategy.
Why do you think you were forced into poverty and homelessness because of the Order?
If you study the monographs like I did, you begin to see a kind of dualism in them. On the one hand, they portray membership in the Order as rather easy, involving only a few hours a week of study. But if you look carefully, you see something else- a kind of covert agenda, which only the truly serious and faithful student will pick up. This agenda promises success only to those who truly practice the exercises rigorously and often and continually to review and reread the monographs. The true adept will be constantly praying and meditating in his home sanctum; adopting a special breathing protocol which he will be constantly practicing, adopting a special posture for sleeping; constantly trying to visualize his goals and see auras- until he achieves his goals. But since the goals, in my opinion, are simply unachievable due to the deficiency of the teaching, he will undertake a course of action that will dominate and control his life.
During my time in AMORC, I saw nothing but a negative linkage between prosperity and the exercises. I believe that since they didn’t work, all I did was try harder- and since my faith in AMORC had been amplified by hypnotic means, I could not quit and I could not ratchet my efforts downward so that I could carry out a normal life of friends, family and work.
You claim that AMORC uses hypnosis on its subjects. Since most of the Rosicrucian members practice at home, how can this possibly happen?
Many experts in Mind Control speak about the way a trance can be induced covertly. Prayer and meditation which may in certain contexts be valuable religious exercised, used to commune with one’s Deity, can also serve to bring the mind into a state of hypnosis. The difference between meditation used for a spiritual reason and for a mind control reason is the intention. In our case, we would be told to read about the authoritarian claims of AMORC at a time of suggestibility which was heightened by candles, incense, certain spiritual postures and rituals and chanting. I believe these practices made the incredible claims of AMORC much more credible, eventually working deeply in the personality of the member and transforming him into an unconscious servant of the Order.
What writers influenced you to become empowered enough to exit the Order?
I would say Steven Hassan, who wrote Combatting Cult Mind Control, was a big influence. Steven was a former Moonie leader who managed to escape from the cult and then began to devote his life to helping people leave various types of cults through the evolving discipline of exit psychology. Margaret Thaler Singer, who is now deceased, was a very lucid and profound sociological thinker and writer. Her book, which she wrote with Janja Lilich, Cults in Our Midst: the Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives, gave me my first profound glimpse as to the nature of my entrapment. I think both of these authors are indebted to an earlier writer, Robert Jay Lifton, who studied brainwashing techniques in China and Korea and created some of the foundations for modern mind control theory.
What do you recommend to someone who is in or has a family member or friend in a religious cult?
Several resources I have used are listed in the "Resources" section of this site.
The International Cultic Studies Association or ICSA, is a group which offers various types of help for cult members or their families. Their website can be found at http://www.icsahome.com/
Steve Hassan has his own website and exit counseling program. You can find him at http://www.freedomofmind.com/. There is a cult discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freedomofmind/.
Besides these resources, there are others mentioned in my resume. But every person’s search will be different and it is worth spending some time looking at the alternatives in books and on the Internet.
What role does hypnosis play in AMORC? How are their practices of meditation and prayer related to hypnosis?
I think hypnosis, in the form of self-hypnosis, plays a subtle but powerful role in AMORC, particularly in the prescribed times in the Home Sanctum. Trance is induced in various ways and a message driven in by the authoritarian, monolithic authority of the monographs. Both meditation and prayer involve an opening up of the mind to Divinity, to higher authority. If that concept is twisted in the right way, these spiritual tools can be used to condition the mind to specific objectives by the human authority that controls the mind of the meditator or petitioner. Instead of creating spiritual communion, these tools will heighten suggestibility.
Do you believe that AMORC is secretly controlled by Invisible Masters?
In our Sanctum, we were told to visualize that Spiritual Masters were present while we performed our rituals and studied the monographs. In my opinion, this is just one more way of gaining authority over the members. I do not believe in the reality of these Invisible Masters, as described by AMORC or related to their organization. Although I keep my mind open, I do not find myself comfortable in creating realties that do not exist and I guard against it.
What would you say to someone seriously contemplating joining AMORC?
I suggest they read my book first.