[tracilicious]

I'll add my JW experience to the mix. Mine, Alex's, and Borneio's are all going to be somewhat different, so I'd like to sum up why I think that is. Alex wasn't born into the religion (you were six or seven, right Alex?), thus probably experienced less mind control than someone indoctrinated from birth. I believe he exited as a young teen, which leads me to believe that he hadn't absorbed a great deal of the cult mentallity. Borneio's experiences are more similar to mine, but some of the doctrine he stated is out of date (Borneio, will you remind me when you exited?).

I was raised in a very fundamentalist JW family, heavily indoctrinated from birth (I could explain even the most complicated JW dogma by age six), have put in time as a "pioneer" (someone who makes a commitment to putting in a high number of hours in their "field ministry" every month. In short, I was almost as JW as you can get. I was inactive for five years, meaning I only attended special events and didn't preach at all, but kept current on doctrine. We made our official exit exactly a year ago.

1) Internal Control: I would say extremely high both locally and organizationally. Local elders decide who gets forgive for sins, who gets kicked out, etc. Beyond that people are encouraged to bring any problem to their elders, who will then tell them what to do. People bring very very personal issues to the elders. If people bring an issue to the elders and reject their council, they face "disciplinary" action.

2) External Control:I don't think they influence the outside world much. There is a great deal of control over political and social behavior of members.

3) Wisdom/Knowledge Claimed by leader(s): Very high. They don't claim to be infallible, but the do claim to be God's organization. Their literature is chock full of uncited quotes and facts. No one ever bothers to verify, but they all assume that it is accurate.

4) Wisdom/Knowledge Credited to leader(s) by members: Members have complete trust in the organization. When the organization changes it's mind on something, people don't even blink. "Apostasy," or leaving the religion and actively believing that it's wrong, is the biggest sin to them.

5) Dogma: Very rigid.

6) Recruiting: Very high. 90% of the focus of their meetings in on recruitment.

7) Front Groups: There are several, but most JW's don't realize it. They use several publishing companies and law firms meant to look non-JW, but are actually under JW control. There are a few books that are supposed to be written about JW's from a non-JW perspective, but these are JW books printed through those publishing companies. Mostly those front groups are simply to serve the needs of the organization, not to influence the outside world.

8) Wealth: High emphasis on donation. Lots of wealth at the top, but like Alex said, it's well hidden.

9) Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s) of non-tantric groups: Very high. Besides not allowing homosexuality, anal sex in general is forbidden. Oral sex was forbidden until the 80's when it became a "conscience matter," meaning, the society discourages it, and everyone does what they say. The newest restriction is no sex on your period. JW's also have a well-hidden molestation problem. Elders accused of child molestation are allowed to remain in power and the members aren't allowed to go to the police about it.

10) Sexual Favoritism: Elders need to be married men, but other than that, no.

11) Censorship: Tons. JW's aren't allowed to read "apostate" material at all. They're highly discouraged from reading any kind of bible history or criticisms not published by JW's.

12) Isolation: A great deal. I'm not sure when Alex left, but there are publications explicitly stating that JW's should avoid associating outside the faith. This is mentioned repeatedly at meetings as well. When family members and friends leave the faith, they are to be shunned.

13) Dropout Control: Pretty high, could be worse. Mostly the focus is on preventing, which they do by fear of shunning.

14) Violence: None that I know of. Unless you are talking emotional violence.

15) Paranoia: Pretty high. Like Alex said, they were actually persecuted. They are expecting a grand persecution right before Armageddon.

16) Grimness: Pretty humorless, but I've never seen it actively discouraged.

17) Surrender of Will: I'd say high. Members are to trust doctrines and leaders and not themselves. Constantly baraged with thoughts that Satan tricks people into doing things.

18) Hypocrisy: At the very top, this is high, but a bit too complicated for me to go into here. At the local level there is sometimes a certain amount of head-turning for elders and their families, but even that gets stopped usually.

I'm really interested in this subject right now. More on the recruitment, love bombing, etc. I'd love to hear of anyone's experience with other religions. Do we have any Mormon's here?