Brainwashing, or mental conditioning, or whatever label you wish to assign it, is at the forefront of the American conciousness right now.

The incredible recovery of Elizabeth Smart, and her bizarre behavior towards her rescuers, will underscore, for a while, the fact that mental conditioning is very real.

Here is a girl who was abducted from her home from a mentally-ill man whose insanity took a religious bent. He and his wife took Smart to a holiday meal for the homeless here in San Diego at the Community Concourse, aka Golden Hall. At this event, there was nothing tangible to keep the girl from screaming for help, surrounded by social workers, security, and other clients. Yet, by all reports, Smart kept silent, eyes modestly lowered, throughout the meal.

Later, when the group was stopped in Salt Lake City, police told her they knew her identity. Four big, strong cops, her possible salvation from the nightmare existance she found herself in. Not only did she deny her identity, she only responded in Biblical-type rhymes. Her programming held until she finally broke down.

Rick Ross was featured on one of the news programs analyzing her mental state at the time. He discussed other cases he'd encountered from unspecified cults, including one where a woman was kept from her children for six years!

Behavior modification can be used for social integration or darker purposes. We've all been subjected to it. Children are taught to use a toilet, and learn to keep their clothes on outside. Later, they might be trained that stealing is wrong, don't slam the doors, don't run in the house. This is identical to teaching a cat to raise its paw on command, or training a dog the fundamentals of obedience, or teaching a parrot to ride a bicycle. Rewards are the same, the approval of the trainer, treats, or a play session.

For those who deny the existance of mental conditioning/behavior modification, the Smart case will blow a few more holes in that argument. Now is the time to write letters, if you're so inclined. The publics' attention is currently drawn to the subject of brainwashing.

The often strange and inexplicable (to wogs) behavior of victims under the influence of Scientology suggests that there is rather more than simple "religious services" going on behind the doors with the 'Help Wanted' signs on them!

Now would be a good time to point that out.

barb

snip

Although I don't know of studies to prove it, there are reasons rooted in evolutionary psychology and what we know about primitive tribes that tend to support Hartong's view that young people, particularly young females, should be more vulnerable to Stockholm Syndrome or capture-bonding type of brainwashing.

The reason is that capture-bonding was far more common in the past.

Where women were captured from tribe to tribe, virtually everyone in a tribe was descended from someone who had been captured, usually a woman. The most likely to be captured (rather than just killed) were young women. The least likely were old men. Children sometimes and sometimes not. The young men were more likely to be killed in the fighting. So to the extent expression of the psychological traits behind capture-bonding are sex and age linked, such traits would be expected to be strongest in young women.

As should be clear from the above, those who were able to capture-bond became our ancestors. Those who did capture-bond died, either trying to escape or were killed by their captors. A million years of this will leave a population where a substantial fraction of the population has this psychological trait. There is more here,

http://web2.iadfw.net/ktrig246/out_of_cave/sss.html

The term, Stockholm Syndrome, was coined in the early 70's to describe the puzzling reactions of four bank employees to their captor. On August 23, 1973, three women and one man were taken hostage in one of the largest banks in Stockholm. They were held for six days by two ex-convicts who threatened their lives but also showed them kindness.

To the world's surprise, all of the hostages strongly resisted the government's efforts to rescue them and were quite eager to defend their captors. Indeed, several months after the hostages were saved by the police, they still had warm feelings for the men who threatened their lives. Two of the women eventually got engaged to the captors.

The Stockholm incident compelled journalists and social scientists to research whether the emotional bonding between captors and captives was a "freak" incident or a common occurrence in oppressive situations. They discovered that it's such a common phenomenon that it deserves a name. Thus the label, Stockholm Syndrome, was born. It has happened to concentration camp prisoners, cult members, civilians in Chinese Communist prisons, pimp-procured prostitutes, incest victims, physically and/or emotionally abused children, battered women, prisoners of war, victims of hijackings, and of course, hostages.

Virtually anyone can get Stockholm Syndrome it the following conditions are met:

Perceived threat to survival and the belief that one's captor is willing to act on that threat

The captive's perception of small kindnesses from the captor within a context of terror

Isolation from perspectives other than those of the captor

Perceived inability to escape.

Stockholm Syndrome is a survival mechanism. The men and women who get it are not lunatics. They are fighting for their lives. They deserve compassion, not ridicule.

and here http://www.yahoodi.com/peace/stockholm.html

What is the 'Stockholm Syndrome'?

In 1973, four Swedes held in a bank vault for six days during a robbery became attached to their captors, a phenomenon dubbed the Stockholm Syndrome. According to psychologists, the abused bond to their abusers as a means to endure violence.

- Timeline50

Psychological Responses to Terrorism

by Rev. Fr. Charles T. Brusca

At 10:15 A.M. on Thursday, August 23rd, 1973 the "Sveriges Kreditbank"

of Stockholm, Sweden was rocked by sub-machine gun fire.(1) "The party has just begun", announced a 32 year old prison escapee named Jan-Erik Olsson. "The party", indeed, continued for some 131 hours, or five and a half days, as Olsson held four of the bank's employees hostage in an 11 by 47 foot vault until late in the evening of August 28th.

While the "Sveriges Kreditbank" robbery itself may not have been of world shattering importance, later interviews with the four hostages yielded surprising results -- results that have been confirmed in numerous other "hostage situations" in the years that followed. Even though the captives themselves were not able to explain it, they displayed a strange association with their captors, identifying with them while fearing those who sought to end their captivity. In some cases they later testified on behalf of or raised money for the legal defense of their captors. The Swedish location of the "Sveriges Kreditbank" gave its name to this mental aberration as "The Stockholm Syndrome".

Long-term psychological study of this and similar hostage situations has defined a fairly clear and characteristic set of symptoms for the Stockholm Syndrome:

The captives begin to identify with their captors. At least at first this is a defensive mechanism, based on the (often unconscious) idea that the captor will not hurt the captive if he is cooperative and even positively supportive. The captive seeks to win the favor of the captor in an almost childlike way.

The captive often realizes that action taken by his would-be rescuers is very likely to hurt him instead of obtaining his release. Attempts at rescue may turn a presently tolerable situation into a lethal one.

If the bullets of the authorities don't get him, quite possibly those of the provoked captor will.

Long term captivity builds even stronger attachment to the captor as he becomes known as a human being with his own problems and aspirations. Particularly in political or ideological situations, longer captivity also allows the captive to become familiar with the captor's point of view and the history of his grievances against authority. He may come to believe that the captor's position is just.

The captive seeks to distance himself emotionally from the situation by denial that it is actually taking place. He fancies that "it is all a dream", or looses himself in excessive periods of sleep, or in delusions of being magically rescued. He may try to forget the situation by engaging in useless but time consuming "busy work".

Depending on his degree of identification with the captor he may deny that the captor is at fault, holding that the would-be rescuers and their insistence on punishing the captor are really to blame for his situation.

NOTES:

1. Information on the robbery and subsequent psychological analysis of the victims may be found in Frank M. Ochberg & David A. Soskis, eds., Victims of Terrorism, Boulder Colorado: Westview Press, 1982.

***************

My take on it plus some other matters here

http://www.human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html

This relates directly to the Smart case as it did to Patty Hearst decades before.

Keith Henson

Cult News from Rick Ross, Cult Expert and Intervention Specialist Address:http://www.cultnews.com/ Changed:5:41 AM on Friday, March 14, 2003

Elizabeth Smart "brainwashed"

Elizabeth Smart was not simply a victim of the "Stockholm syndrome,"

which draws its name from a 1973 hostage situation related to a bank robbery in Sweden during 1973. At that time robbers held hostages for several days and their prisoners developed a seemingly strange affinity with their captors.

Instead, Smart who was abducted by force, controlled and isolated by her captor Brian Mitchell, also known as "David Emmanuel Isaiah," was apparently "brainwashed." And her father recently used that word to explain his daughter's behavior.

More information emerged yesterday during news conferences and through various reports, which support that conclusion.

"Brainwashing" is the word often used to describe a process more precisely called "thought reform."

When initially questioned by police Elizabeth Smart identified herself as "Augustine" and seemingly attempted to frustrate the efforts of officers to help her.

Eventually Elizabeth broke down and admitted her real identity. But why did she not do so immediately? Police also said she spoke in a prosaic biblical language.

Other.......MORE

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Elizabeth Smart was found Wednesday afternoon more than nine months after she was abducted from her bedroom in the middle of the night. Elizabeth was found walking along a street in Sandy, Utah, about 15 miles from her home in Salt Lake City.

CNN anchor Aaron Brown discussed Thursday's developments with Pat Reavy, staff writer with the Deseret News:

BROWN: Please add what you know about the moment that Sandy police officers came upon Elizabeth and the others. What do you know about what transpired -- what she said, how she said it?

REAVY: Well, I know that she was evasive, she didn't outwardly say, 'Hey, it's me Elizabeth, rescue me.' She acted like one of them -- speaking in verse, actually. She said to the officers, 'I know you think I'm Elizabeth Smart, I know you think I'm the girl you're looking for, but I'm not.' Officers tried to say, 'Hey, look, we know who you are, you're Elizabeth Smart.' And then she'd say things like 'Thou sayeth' or things that were in scripture or in verse was the way she'd talk to them.

BROWN: I assume you've been talking to everyone you can get on the phone today. I assume you've been talking to police. Did they give you any sense of what brainwashing means in this case?

REAVY: Not really. Questions have been asked: Was she drugged? Was it the Stockholm syndrome? Was it psychological impairment -- is what I guess we have to believe. But why she went along with it for so long and it seems obvious she had chances to escape. When Mitchell was in jail for six days in San Diego obviously would be one time. It seems like he wouldn't be watching her -- she had plenty of time to escape. I guess she became one of them.

For a lack of a better word, I guess what is being used by both her father Ed Smart and by police is brainwashing. How that occurred is not known yet.

BROWN: Someone suggested, having watched the press conferences last night, that the police taking credit for this moment is like a barking dog taking credit for the full moon. Is there unease, if you will, between political authorities, between the Smart family and the police who investigated the case?

REAVY: I think by now it's pretty well been documented that the Smarts and the police were tense or tensions were growing in the days leading up to finding Elizabeth.

They felt more emphasis should be put on this Emmanuel or Mitchell character, they felt that less attention should be placed on [handyman Richard] Ricci.

Maybe they felt police had blinders on or they were too narrowly focused in on Richard Ricci as opposed to putting more manpower or effort on Mitchell.

Today both sides seem to have buried the hatchet. Members of the Smart family even coming out and joining police with their news conference this afternoon.

If there was any ill feelings toward each other or any tensions toward the Smart family and the police, that's been buried now and I don't think you're going to hear any more of that. They're just happy for the end result.

There are others, however, there are rumors speculating about maybe some other city officials felt that this wasn't handled in the best way.

There is a rumor that the mayor of Salt Lake City may call for an investigation into his police department as to why this wasn't handled better, why there wasn't more emphasis put into Mitchell after so many weeks of the Smarts saying, 'Look at this guy, look at this guy.'

Now I talked to the mayor's office this afternoon and asked him about that and all he would say is that the mayor would make a statement when the time was appropriate.

And I asked him whether he was happy with his police department or dissatisfied and again he would only answer that at some point the mayor plans to release a statement. He just feels that now is not the time.

Local woman can relate to Smart's alleged brainwashing

KPTV News, Thursday, March 13, 2003

When first discovered, Elizabeth Smart denied her true identity to police, which points to mounting evidence that Smart's captors brainwashed her. Experts say mind control or brain washing happens most often to people who are part of a large group or cult.

A type of mind control can also happen in situations similar to Smarts', if the people in control threaten the victim or her family with violence.

Portlander Donna Grobey understands what its like to totally turn one's self over to the power of others. "You know I started out as Donna, but I became what they wanted me to be," says Grobey about her experience with a cult.

For three years in the late 1980's, Grobey was part of a religious cult in New York City . She lived with the cult group, giving them all of her money. The cult controlled her time, who she dated, and discouraged her from contacting family or anyone else outside the group. Grobey says she stayed nearly three years out of fear. "Well in my particular group, if I left my church I was going to hell. So I wasn't going to go anywhere, I was scared to death."

Portland State University sociologist, Randy Blazak, feels Elizabeth Smart's captors could have also used religion to scare the little girl; brainwashing her into thinking everyone in the outside world is evil and cannot be trusted.

"Brainwashing in the common sense is a very gradual change of our sense of self," says Blazak about cases in which cultists deny their families or personal history.

But Blazak feels it's more than likely, they threatened Smart personally, and told her if she didn't obey they would also hurt her family. "They have this threat of violence hanging over their heads, if not to them, then to the people they care about, and that's enough to keep people from running away."

It took an intervention by Grobey's family to get her out of the cult and then she says it was like someone had pulled the rug out from under her as she slowly realized that everything she had become and believed in over three years was a lie. Elizabeth Smart may be going through a similar transition.

http://www.kptv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1179092

Why Did She Not Escape?

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, March 13, 2003
BY BROOKE ADAMS

The sightings now seem to be coming from everywhere -- Elizabeth Smart, disguised in wigs and veils, glasses and shapeless overclothes, at parties, at stores, walking a public street in broad daylight.

So why didn't she run?

The details of Elizabeth Smart's nine months in captivity -- police say she was kidnapped and held against her will -- are still unfolding. Family members say the teenager never had a chance to escape. "She said there was no way -- she had two people with her at all times," family spokesman Chris Thomas said -- a reference to Brian David Mitchell, who had changed his name to David Emmanuel Isiah for religious reasons and held himself as a messenger of God, and Wanda Ilene Barzee, who are being questioned by police.

Based on similar cases, one expert said it is likely fear or psychological pressure kept the 15-year-old from making an escape -- that she experienced Stockholm syndrome or another psychological reaction that made her believe escape was impossible because of mystical or overt forces.

"We have no idea what psychological or pressure manipulations he used with her," said Janja Lalich, a sociology professor at California State University, Chico, and author of Captive Hearts, Captive Minds and co-author with Margaret Singer of Cults in Our Midst.

Still, she said, past experiences show that "when you are removed from your normal environment and kept confined in some way, which we know [Elizabeth] must have been at the beginning, you can enter a very distorted reality," said Lalich. "If they are good at what they do, they use a punishment/reward system.

It doesn't take much for your reality to shift."

That reality, Lalich said, is governed by fear and works to keep a captive in check, even in public settings. "You can't figure out how to [leave] rather than you don't want to," Lalich said, adding that Elizabeth's youth could also have been a factor.

Stockholm syndrome, coined in 1973 after a bank holdup in Sweden, has been identified in hostages, cult members, battered women and abused children.

Researchers say, in what may be an instinctive survival strategy, it causes victims to sympathize with, care for and be compliant with their captors, according to the Australian-based Center Against Sexual Assault's Web site.

A similar scenario, experts said, involves a psychologically controlling relationship orchestrated by a charismatic person who professes a belief system or mystical power that is used to control and influence a small number of people.

Lalich says recovering from such an experience depends largely on having a strong support network, and "Elizabeth Smart clearly has a fabulous support network."

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Mar/03132003/utah/37847.asp

'

Manifesto focuses on plural wives

Deseret News, Saturday, March 15, 2003
By Jennifer Dobner

The rambling prophecies of Brian David Mitchell in a 27-page written manifesto call upon his wife, Wanda Barzee, to take as many as 49 sister-wives --- an act that would reward the two with countless blessings.

"And thou shalt take into thy heart and home seven times, seven sisters to love and care for; forty-nine precious jewels in thy crown, and thou art the jubilee of them all, first and last," wrote the accused captor of 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart.

Mitchell's belief in plural marriage and his specific charge to his wife seem to form the foundation for a religious sect he claims to have founded in September 1997. The tenets of "The Seven Diamonds Plus One --- Testaments of Jesus Christ Study and Fellowship Society" are outlined in the manifesto Mitchell called "The Book of Immanuel David Isaiah."

Smart --- who was allegedly kidnapped by the couple from her home last June --- is believed to have been the first of those additional wives. Smart was returned to her family Wednesday after nine months in captivity. Mitchell and Barzee are now in the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated kidnapping.

Police and prosecutors seized the manifesto from Mitchell's family members in Montana on Thursday and are reviewing it as part of their investigation of the couple. A copy of the writings was obtained by the Associated Press.

Mitchell says the purpose of his writings and of his "society is to truely, worship Him, praise Him, honor Him and glorify His name. . . ."

In it, he claims to be chosen by God as a prophet along the lines of Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith Jr. He also says his religious name, "Immanuel David Isaiah," was given to him by God. Barzee is referred to in the writings as Hephzibah.

The writings follow a pattern typical of fundamentalist religious sects, particularly those founded by former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said John R. Llewellyn, a retired Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy and a well-known expert on Utah's polygamous communities.

"It's his own special brand of Mormon fundamentalism," said Llewellyn, who has written four books on the topic and is working on a fifth about polygamist Tom Green, who was convicted of bigamy in 2000. "I had no idea he was that deeply involved in fundamentalism because of his Islamic dress. I guess he's improvised to give an Islamic blend to it all."

Mitchell, his wife and Elizabeth were seen around Salt Lake City wearing long robes. The women also wore scarves and veiled their faces.

Many of Mitchell's writings echo the words and ideas of other fundamentalists, Llewellyn said.

"Fundamentalists are great copiers. And everything evolves around plural marriage and the women. As you read this, that's the central focus," said Llewellyn, who for a time was himself a member of the Apostolic United Brethren, a Wasatch Front polygamous group. "It's basically how fundamentalists justify their lifestyle."

Like other fundamentalists, Mitchell calls for repentance and sacrifice --- especially from those in the LDS Church, of which he was once a member.

Neither Mitchell nor Barzee are current members of the LDS Church, according to a statement released by the church. "Both are former church members who were excommunicated for activity promoting bizarre teachings and lifestyle far afield from the principles and doctrines of the church,"

spokesman Michael Purdy said.

Llewellyn said Mitchell "wants to be a modern prophet. To carry on what Joseph Smith and Brigham Young did. (Fundamentalists) all want to feel like they have holy blood. They all form some kind of delusion along those lines to give them special authority."

Each of the seven chapters of Mitchell's works are named for those writings from which he draws his inspirations.

In the first three chapters, Mitchell borrows heavily from the King James version of the Bible --- particularly the Book of Isaiah --- the Book of Mormon and other LDS scripture, including the Doctrine and Covenants.

In later chapters he draws from Betty J. Eadie, who wrote about life-after-death experiences, and from Avraham Gileadi's book "The Literary Message of Isaiah." One chapter is based on the writings of Orem naturopathic physician C. Samuel West. West could not be reached for comment Friday.

Eerily, the manifesto also seems to hint at what Mitchell perceived as God's plan for Mitchell and Elizabeth Smart.

"And I, the Lord God, hid up my true servant Immanuel in the wilderness, and he is in their midst and they knew him not."

Mitchell and Barzee apparently lived with Elizabeth Smart in the hills above her parents' home for several months. They then walked and lived on Salt Lake City's streets clothed in robes, going unrecognized for months.

E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,465033526,00.html?

Smart Case Highlights Utah Polygamy

The Associated Press,

March 17, 2003

By PATTY HENETZ

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Despite the Mormon Church's century long effort to rid itself of the stigma of polygamy, high-profile cases like Elizabeth Smart's abduction have cast the church in an unfavorable light by linking it to the outlawed practice.

The Church disavowed polygamy in 1890 and excommunicates members who practice or preach it. But an estimated 30,000 polygamists whose beliefs are rooted in Mormonism live in Utah and other parts of the southwest, Mexico and Canada.

While most of them are consenting adults, living quietly, the region's history is littered with would-be prophets who, abandoning the traditional church, sought to lead their own polygamist groups or cults.

Among them, it appears, is Brian David Mitchell, the self-styled prophet arrested last week in Smart's abduction. An excommunicated Mormon, he wrote a rambling manifesto espousing the virtues of polygamy and may have kidnapped the teen to make her his second wife.

Larry Long, an attorney for Mitchell, told a television station Sunday that his client considers the 15-year-old his wife and "still loves her.''

"He wanted me to tell the world that she is his wife, and he still loves her and knows that she still loves him, that no harm came to her during their relationship and the adventure that went on,'' Long said in an interview with KUTV.

Long told KUTV that Mitchell asked him Sunday to be his lawyer. Calls to Long's office from The Associated Press were not immediately returned Sunday, and calls to his home went unanswered.

Long said Mitchell did not consider Elizabeth's disappearance a kidnapping, but a "call from God.''

Mitchell's case is just one of several involving avowed polygamists with extremist or fanatical views. Among them:

In August 2002, polygamist Tom Green was sentenced to five years to life in prison for a child rape that occurred when he took Linda Kunz, a 13-year-old girl, as his "spiritual'' wife in 1986 when Green was 37. Green drew the attention of prosecutors when he appeared on a half-dozen nationally televised talk shows to defend his brand of polygamy.

In 1984, brothers Dan and Ron Lafferty, who had formed a polygamist cult called School of Prophets, killed Ron Lafferty's sister-in-law and her baby because she agreed with Ron Lafferty's wife's decision to leave him.

In 1979, Summit County, Utah, polygamist John Singer, who pulled his children out of public school, was shot by law enforcement officers for running away when they tried to capture him. His son Addam Swapp, who also became a polygamist, in January 1988 blew up the Marion, Utah, Mormon administrative center. Swapp was wounded after he led his clan in an armed standoff with police and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In the late 1940s, the excommunicated LeBaron clan established Colonia LeBaron, a polygamist colony in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. In the early 1970s Ervil LeBaron executed rival polygamists in Mexico and Salt Lake County. He died in prison.

Some experts say Mormonism will never be able to shed itself of polygamy - and the sects or cults that arise because of it - because the practice is linked inextricably to the church's founding.

"Polygamy is an albatross the church has been unable to rid itself of,'' said David Bigler, a former Mormon and historian on the church.

At a conference in October, Gordon Hinckley, the church's image-maker since 1935, issued a powerful reminder that the members' faith depended on the belief that God and Jesus Christ revealed themselves to founder Joseph Smith in 1820 on an upstate New York hillside when he was 14.

"Our whole strength rests on the validity of that vision,'' said the 92-year-old president.

It was Smith who, in 1843, also disclosed his revelation that polygamy, restored by prophecy from the patriarchal milieu of the Old Testament, was an essential ingredient of eternal exaltation on which the church would stand or fall.

Smith's teachings on polygamy remain in the church's four volumes of scripture.

Section 132 says that "if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is justified; he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else.''

Therein may lie a justification for Mitchell and thousands of so-called fundamentalist Mormons to defy mainstream Mormonism and establish sects where men take multiple wives, some as young as 12.

"They believe in Joseph Smith and polygamy,'' said Rowenna Erickson, 63, a former plural wife and co-founder of the group Tapestry Against Polygamy. "In order to gain their eternal salvation, they feel they need to live polygamously, because that is one of the higher laws, to get them to the celestial kingdom.''

As for Mitchell, his manifesto includes apocalyptic ravings that crib from several books, including the King James Bible, the Book of Mormon and other Joseph Smith writings. The tract typed on a computer is dated April 6, 2002 - the Mormon church's birthday.

Mitchell, once a high local Mormon leader, was excommunicated several years ago for "activity promoting bizarre teachings and lifestyle'' far afield of the church. Also excommunicated was Wanda Barzee, arrested along with Mitchell on Wednesday for her alleged complicity in Elizabeth's kidnapping.

Such discipline is not uncommon in the church's struggle with polygamous splinter groups who continue to keep multiple "sister-wives.''

Yet the church also teaches that plural marriage will revive when Christ returns. And members are allowed a kind of polygamy in the belief that widowers who marry again may live with both in the afterlife.

'

Stockholm Syndrome? Brainwashing?

CBS News, March 13, 2003

NEW YORK - The pictures of Elizabeth Smart that her family has released are in marked contrast to the picture taken while she was with Brian David Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee.

Could the outfit Elizabeth is seen wearing indicate she had been brainwashed?

Steven Hassan, who has studied cults and mind-control behavior for 27 years, thinks so. Trauma psychologist Elizabeth Carll disagrees.

Speculating on the case, Hassan said Elizabeth suffered from mind-control syndrome not Stockholm syndrome, as Dr. Carll believes. Stockholm syndrome is characterized by a hostage bonding with his captors.

Hassan said the terror and disorientation of the kidnapping rendered Elizabeth exceptionally vulnerable. And in mind-control, fear and disorientation are key.

"She was taken at knifepoint. She was held in an isolated environment, controlled behavior - sleep, food, change of clothing, and change of identity,"

he said. "And I've worked with people for 27 years from a variety of cult groups, destructive groups, one-on-one undue influence situations,"

Besides being a therapist and writer, Hassan speaks from personal experience.

When he was 19, he became a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. It was only after a serious accident that his family had him deprogrammed. By then, he had spent 27 months in what he now considers a cult.

"Waking her up in the middle of the night by knifepoint and abducting her creates a high fear state. People become very suggestible at that point," he said, explaining what has to happen for someone to be brainwashed.

"Beyond the disorientation, you want to indoctrinate them through repetition, monotony, over and over and over again. Usually by a charismatic figure who claims to be a prophet or a messiah or an enlightened master. You want to create a heightened state of dependency and obedience," Hassan said.

Elizabeth was obviously forced to wear different clothes and probably had her sleep and diet controlled.

The good news, Hassan said, is that the human spirit wants to be free.

"The real person's core health is still there. It's really a dis-associative disorder," he asserted.

Stockholm syndrome is so called because it was first recognized in that city when six days after a bank robbery, hostages bonded with their captors to the point where they advocated for them. One even became engaged to one of the captors, Carll explained earlier on The Early Show.

"So spending nine months with one's captors, [you] get to know them as people.

And sometimes the bonding works both ways. In actuality, there could be a bond between the hostage and the captor," Carll said.

Carll said she does not believe Elizabeth was brainwashed. "In actuality, it's a combination of fear and recognizing that your hostage has life and death over you, and knowing that, certainly, pleasing them would promote survival. And any bit of hope, any act of kindness, promotes those positive feelings and those positive feelings then grow and form a bond," she said.

What both Carll and Hassan agree on is that there would be some difficult times ahead for Elizabeth.

Hassan said, "Once the high of the reunion wears off, I think they're going to see her floating in and out between states of consciousness, if she doesn't get proper counseling. Possibly depression, embarrassment, possibly sleep disorders and such. And again, the good news is she's not alone. There are millions of people who've been subjected to a different form of this type of undue influence. And if she has the proper support and counseling, I expect she'll make a full recovery."

Carll said, "The transition will be very difficult, because things didn't leave off where she left. She had a lot of experiences in those nine months and so did the family. Combined with the media attention and all of the attention from family and friends that she's going to have, it's a tremendous amount of scrutiny and pressure on someone who's just adjusting to a very difficult situation of coming home."

Being exposed to the public light will be particularly hard. "She's living in a fishbowl," Carll said. "And this is a very difficult time to live in a fishbowl - when you've gone through an extra traumatic experience."

Since Elizabeth would probably would want some down time, Carll advised her parents to protect her privacy and try to keep outside pressure to a minimum.

Counseling may be a good option.

"I think that will be very helpful with the family and for her," she said. "She will likely have some adjustment problems, be irritable, be distractible, sometimes depressed, sometimes anxious. And it's important for the family to recognize that it's not that she's having difficulty adjusting with the family but just transitioning back to a different way of life."

For his part, Hassan said, Elizabeth "needs to learn about how mind control works. She needs to process through what was done to her and her reactions to it. She needs to be able to talk to other victims who've survived it."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/13/earlyshow/health/health_news/mai n543857.shtml

http://www.psychologytoday.com/htdocs/prod/PTOArticle/PTO-20030317-000002.asp

Psychologists from across the nation weigh in their thoughts on Elizabeth Smart's road to recovery—the Utah teenager is now recovering after nine months in captivity. Here are their thoughts:

(Cut)

--- "As people do better, they start voting like Republicans.... unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." --- Karl Rove

From: Theta
Subject: Welcome Home: Abducted teen coping well
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 04:35:34 GMT
Message-ID: <3e76a20d@news2.lightlink.com>

http://www.psychologytoday.com/htdocs/prod/PTOArticle/PTO-20030317-000001.asp

One can only guess what psychological trauma Elizabeth Smart has endured. The abducted teen from Salt Lake City returned home last week after nine months in captivity. Her family says she was perhaps brainwashed by the homeless couple that abducted her, Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee. Even when police questioned her in Salt Lake City last Wednesday, she said she was Mitchell’s daughter.

Myrna Shure, professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, doesn’t believe Smart was brainwashed. "If she were truly brainwashed, she would not want to see her family," Shure says.

On the contrary, she may be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, in which the abductee becomes emotionally attached to her captors.

"We don't know whether she had genuinely bonded with them," states Shure. The next few days will likely answer this question. At the moment, Smart is being open and communicative, signs that she has coped well. "Whatever she did, she did it right because she is alive,"

adds Shure.

--- "As people do better, they start voting like Republicans.... unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing." --- Karl Rove

From: boobootigger@webtv.net (Tigger)
Subject: Elizabeth Smart ABDUCTION ~ Rick Ross
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2003 08:39:15 -0600 (CST)
Message-ID: <201-3E772F93-528@storefull-2277.public.lawson.webtv.net>

****Elizabeth Smart Abduction***

Address:http://www.rickross.com/groups/smart.html Changed:8:20 AM on Tuesday, March 18, 2003

This page contains information The Ross Institute has gathered about the Elizabeth Smart Abduction.

Smart was brainwashed, family says

Smart 'Did What She Had To' to Survive

Kidnapping suspect justifies polygamy in religious tract

Manifesto focuses on plural wives

Captive girl's actions hint at brainwashing

San Diego deputies spoke with Mitchell

Woman in Smart case changed by husband, son says

Elizabeth Smart was 'brainwashed,' father says

After girl's rescue, questions on why she didn't run away

Man found with Smart known as drifter

Captors likely controlled Utah teen, experts say

Smart Cousin May Have Also Been Kidnap Target

Elizabeth Smart: long journey home

5 questions about Elizabeth's return

In Plain Sight, a Kidnapped Girl Behind a Veil

Teenage girl kidnapped by fanatic 'to be his child bride'

Utah Girl's Family Sees Polygamy as Possible Motive

Smart Returns Home a Changed Girl

'God told them to take Elizabeth'

Smart Might Have Been A Perfect Victim To Fall Prey To Cults

Mitchell was odd, familiar figure downtown

Police Say Smart Girl Mentally Joined Captors

Experts: Teen was brainwashed

Brian David Mitchell
Elizabeth Smart, veiled
from the "sins of the world"
Wanda Barzee

Rick Ross email: info@rickross.com =A0 =A0 URL: http://www.rickross.com

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