Letter from a Psychiatrist

This is in response to your request for further information concerning the Holy Order of Mans.

The Holy Order of Mans is not well known to the public or the popular press in the same way that some other cults are today.

However, this group is representative of a type that is quite prevalent today. I have had one rather lengthy period of work with a young woman here in California who was in the Holy Order Mans for some months in the Florida area. Through my work with her I have learned about the various processes she went through over a period of years of involvement with this mystical and meditative group. This work has helped me to understand some specifics regarding The Holy Order of Mans.

The order is of the renunciate type of movement where removal from the world and society is emphasized, and a pursuit of spiritual enlightenment is acknowledged as a personal and group goal. I am not aware of the specific ways that one is introduced or indoctrinated into the Order. Meditation techniques are used to focus into the self and to expand ones ranges of cosmic consciousness.

This process, regardless of where or under whose auspices it is practiced, is a process that tends to dissolve the ego-states of normal consciousness, and to create a more passive and controllable person. There are a variety of techniques being used and taught by the many meditative groups such as TM and Divine Light Mission. All religious techniques of this type alter personal states of consciousness and heighten suggestibility.

The processes usually are set in motion by isolation of the person from the familiar world of people, ideologies, and belief patterns and commitment. The process includes being taught specific techniques for movement in the direction of "transcendent experiences" also called cosmic consciousness, spiritual transport, out-of-body experiences, often achieved through chanting, mantra, breath control and other methods.

Unitary consciousness is one of the goals, and in this state the person frequently becomes "guided" by a sense of a higher control for life. This experience of guidance is intuitive, subjective, and usually non-verbal. As in the case of those involved in the Divine Light Mission there is a sense of having immediate contact and control from the person who is their control or guru.

When a person has been opened up to undifferentiated states of consciousness and has experienced a dissolution of ego, will, and a disappearances of prior patterns of thought, belief, values, world-view and they are then vulnerable to a wide variety of possibilities.

A psychologically unstable person might experience schizoid and paranoid patterns of development. And even those who have a prior history of general emotional stability tend to become paranoid through the processes over a period of time. The most frequently encountered symptom in those effected by such mind control techniques is that of fear and/or deep paranoia.

This often results in a further withdrawal from the formerly familiar world of family, friends, institutions, and social environments. The recovery of a person from these effects varies depending on the amount of involvement, the techniques used, and the degree of withdrawal that has taken place.