Moonies: a Psychological Analysis of the Unification Church.

Abstract

The Unification Church was examined in depth to discover why so many young people commit themselves to a totalitarian religious movement so different from their original value system. The Moonies' belief system, their recruitment practices and the typologies of youth who populate the movement were explored and analyzed. During the course of a year long investigation into the Moonie cult the author interviewed and interacted with cult members and attended their special events and workshop sessions. Former members were also interviewed to ensure a realistic and balanced perspective. Results of the study refute the commonly held assumption that Moonies are brainwashed, unthinking automatons. By penetrating their logic and belief system one discovers that Moonies are rational individuals acting in a manner consistent with their view of the world. A step by step analysis of the cult's recruitment practices, however, reveals that the Moonies employ a wide variety of proven social psychological techniques to convince recruits to accept their unique perspective of reality. Once a recruit acknowledges the Unification perspective, the ideology provides ample justification for most types of cult behavior which appears bizarre to non members. Four major typologies of youth (The Immature Emotional, The Simple Answer Seeker, The Ideals Seeker, and The Social Non Conformist) seem particularly vulnerable to the ministrations of the Unification message.