FATHER SLEEP
& Mother Abuse
Welcome, awakened ones. A new week brings a new, terrifying chapter of Dark Philosophy. There is a claim made among societies of abusers and torturers: that the most powerful technology for mind control is not the word, but a smashing door. This restless piece of life-saving advice, I call Father Sleep.
The weapons of every cult, from small-town groups to global organizations, are sleep deprivation, brainwashing, fear, and leader worship. [Sex and financial extortion could be added, but we'll keep this discussion family-friendly until the paywall.]
Sleep Deprivation
A cult will not allow you a full, healthy cycle of sleep, which is necessary to recover your logical faculties and your immune system.
They enforce this through stress, loud noises, slamming doors, and early wake-up calls. But why? Of course, because there is always something for you to do: In domestic "kitchen table" cults, children must run errands or do the chores or recite dogmatic verses, for no other reason than “they have to do it,” and might only find respite in dreams when the harridan of the house rests; a rest she purposely makes erratic and unpredictable.
The cult leader claims the only darkened, silent retreat for herself, while forcing everyone else to sleep uncomfortably with the lights on. Prisoners, boarding school pupils, and the children of communism were all subjected to hard surfaces for a reason: to disrupt their rest and prevent the full restoration of their spirits. A maltreated spirit is a malleable one.
In larger cults, management essentially prohibits sufficient sleep. The maximum is three to five hours a night, hardly enough for the brain to reboot: Random schedules prevent cheating, and nonsensical, last-minute tasks are assigned to grown-ups for no other apparent reason but to keep them active and on the guard. Since eight hours of sleep are required to recover from exhaustion, cult members must never be allowed to reach this point of clarity. Police, state security, and the army are all known for using sleep-deprivation as a tool to break the suspect’s will and to force out a confession. Only that cults do this over months and years.
In only three days without proper sleep, the human mind collapses into anxiety and enters survival mode: Hysteria sets in. Irritability. Euphoria. People cry or feel thankful for no reason. Eventually, they stop wanting a well-rested brain because they know it will be disrupted by some noise, alarm, or the sound of busybodies. Sleep deprivation is the mother of all torture and mind control.
Brainwashing
