Brian,
A few observations:
1. In the prison and student studies, they were dealing with very unsophisticated subjects. I wonder what the results would have been if they had tried this on Army/Marine/Special Forces personell. Middle aged business executives or CEO's might have given very different results.
2. This aspect of human behavior has been known for a long time. In Communist POW camps during the Korean war, many young soldiers collaborated with the enemy. However, the collaborators were always a minority, and as the maturity level went up, as in NCO's and officers, the rate fell to very low to zero.
Interestingly, there were ZERO Turkish collaboraters. Perhaps a strong loyalty to a higher power or principle raises the ability to function independently of the crowd.
In WWII the Japanese prisoners, who come from a conformist culture, collaborated almost to a man.
Since the Korean war, standards to follow if captured have been part of basic military training.
3. In my own case in the Assembly, I was almost constantly in mental turmoil over GG's teachings and behaviors. On the one hand, I really wanted the acceptance and affirmation of my brethren. When I would submit there was an emotional pay-off. I felt safe and that I was part of something of transcendent importance.
Then GG would say or do something that was either doctrinally skewed or of questionable moral correctness, usually in the way he treated people. This would bring all my questions, reservations and disagreements to the surface again. It got to be sort of a cycle.
GG used two principle methods to bring me back into his control: a. He would us the "Deeper Life" view of man, that some men were directly HS taught while others were merely "in the mind". I was told "You don't have a doctrinal problem, you have a spiritual problem", many times. This had the effect of undermining my confidence in my own thinking. b. He would subject me to a heavy bombardment of criticism in the presence of the leading brothers. Steve Irons, Mark Miller, Tim Geftakys, Dan Notti, Jim Hayman, Kieth Walker witnessed this repeatedly. They would frequently put their own two cents into the pot as well. Sometimes it happened in the Worker's Meeting in the presence of 30 people or so.
The psychological pressure and public humiliation usually led to my lapsing into submissive silence. But the issues always re-surfaced.
I believe that all this caused me to finally decide to clarify my own beliefs and then decide to live by them instead of seeking the approval of the group. When I left I knew what the cost would be, (rejection by my "spiritual family), and I had determined to pay it.
Well, I must go now....I have to sit by the phone and wait for these guys to call up and apologize.
Steve Irons has posted a general apology on his website. So far, he is the only one to make a public admission of wrongdoing.
