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jlynneda63
Why were we so controlled?
Most naive and sincere average "Jane/John Doe" members just wanted to be good people. This is in contrast to those psycho power hungry individuals who did it for their own kicks, were fanatical, or had goals of climbing up the cult organizational ladder. It also begins softly and slowly: first, they want you to do something once a month; later on, a couple of times a month (maybe every other week), then 3 times, soon thereafter, every week. After a little while of letting you believe that you are a "good" member, they'll start asking for twice a week, every other day, your entire weekends, etc.. Eventually, it becomes hard and fast pushing with your "leaders" hounding you every step of the way. If you resist, the guilt, fear tactics, ostracizing and group/senior "leader" pressure soon comes into play.
It takes a lot to be able to withstand the onslaught, especially if you are under the additional false belief that these people are your friends. Standing firm in and of itself isn't even enough. Eventually, you have to start to push back a bit in order to get out and have them leave you alone. Even then, they'll pop up again and again from time to time, even years later, just like a bad chronic rash that you can never fully shake.
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jlynneda63
Ms. Elliott used to go around & smack you on the back of the head if u weren't sitting up straight!
Smacking/slapping/hitting were quite common in the YWD/WD. The WD were by far the worst of all divisions when it came to sheer manipulation and actual physical abuse. In Elliot's case, she's just treating the members the same way she's used to treating her sheep husband.
I'm with you jlynneda, I don't know how we ever stood for it all. If it were today, even just seeing another member being treated like that would prompt me to get involved, speak out against it and stop it. We were young, naive and completely different people then and I think that's part of the reason that they did it - simple because they could.