Brainwashing.

Brainwashing has much to do with the people of Akwa Ibom. Most of the people are of the Christian faith and believe that their actions are right. The parents are asked for so much money that they will sell their property or torture their kids themselves. This is not what churches should be doing. The Bible says nothing about blaming the children for death and devastation, but the people in Akwa Ibom think they are doing the right thing.

I think the extreme poverty is a big influence to the people's choices. A poor person from Akwa Ibom is always worried and just wants to survive. They would probably enjoy going to church and sing and worship God, but I also believe that people go to church because everyone else does, too.

They do not know any better and would just ‘follow the flow’. So when they all kill and torture their children and accuse them of being witches, it is easy to do the same. I do not think they can believe that they are brainwashed, because when everyone does this, then it must be the right thing to do?

Short text of Wikipedia’s definition of ‘Mind control’:

Mind control (also known as brainwashing, coercive persuasion, mind abuse, thought control, or thought reform) refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated". The term has been applied to any tactic, psychological or otherwise, which can be seen as subverting an individual’s sense of control over his or her own thinking, behavior, emotions or decision-making.

- I think Wikipedia is right about something. I do not think that brainwash always has something to do with the wishes of the manipulator(s). I think that a person is an easy victim if they are desperate and wants to believe anything to feel better or stronger. Some people follow a group or the society and imitate what others do. They end up being brainwashed without knowing it.

I think that people who knows how to brainwash people has a dangerous ability to control people into doing things that the person normally would never do.

I do not think the people in Akwa Ibom will understand that they are wrong about their beliefs. If I asked them, if they where brainwashed, they would probably say no. Maybe they could understand if all the manipulators (the priests), was prisoned and if a big organization helped all the people to understand what is right and wrong. I do not know the answer, because the people in Akwa Ibom are extremely brainwashed since they can kill and torture their own children, only because a priest says so.

When I was 11-14 years old, my family and I where members of a Danish church, called Faderhuset. We were homeless and they offered us a place to live. We loved the church at first, but after a couple of years the leader/priest of the church, Ruth Evensen, began to manipulate with my parents and the rest of the church.  

Once a desperate woman came to Ruth and told her that her 4-year old daughter was raped by her husband, the daughter’s father. Ruth said that the girl was possessed by a lying demon, which made her say that her vagina was hurting and that her father had touched her there. The mother was angry and still believed in her daughter. Ruth took the girl and said that if she wanted her back, she had to understand that the little girl was possessed and that she must stay married with her husband or leave the church. The rest of the church was angry with this mother because she listened to a demon. The mother left and became desperate after a few weeks and wanted to see her daughter. She went back to Ruth and said that she would stay married to her husband and that Ruth was right.

The father raped the little girl again when she was 6 years old. The mother took off with her alone and I have not seen them since.

Other members of the church bought a new Audi for 250.000 DKR and gave it to Ruth because she said that God had told her that it was a gift to her. Ruth controlled when people could have sex with each other, even if they were married. Everybody wash brainwashed in that church.

I was also brainwashed once when I was 13 years old. I was on a military boot camp in Faderhuset, with the leaders and 15 young people. The leaders treated us in ways that are illegal in Denmark. They made us do things and they did things to us that I, at that time, did not know was wrong. Everybody including myself thought that what we did was right. We were all brainwashed. After the camp I never told anybody about it, not even my parents. I just thought it was normal. Now I know that I was brainwashed and my parents know that they where brainwashed as well.

 

I would tell more about my experience with brainwash but there is so much to tell, that this essay could go on forever.