"The pattern of doctrine over person
occurs when there is a conflict between what one feels
oneself experiencing and what the doctrine or ideology says
one should experience," Dr. Lifton writes. "Personal history
becomes reworked in light of group doctrine. Everyone must
fit the doctrinal mode. If some human experience seems to
contradict the doctrine an elaborate rationalization will
explain the discrepancy and prove that the doctrine is right
and the experience wrong."
One of the biggest personal conflicts
Holy Rollers had to deal with was the love they had felt for
their families before meeting Franz Edmund Creffield, and
then after meeting him, coming to believe that those in
their families who did not stay in Creffield's church were
evil. Some of his followers simply denied that there had
been any love in their families in the first place, and that
statements others made to the contrary were false.
-
An excerpt from Chapter Nine of Holy Rollers, -
a statement O. V. Hurt, now a lapsed member of Creffield's church, made about his wife
"She wouldn't even take care of the adopted child," O. V. said. " I cared for it in the morning, dressed it and looked after it until I left the house [for work]. Then I took it to a neighbor's and left it there until I returned home.
"My wife and my daughters refused to wash the child's clothing, or to wash its body. They refused to feed it, or to wash the dishes in which the baby's food was prepared. They declared that God would be displeased with them if they had anything to do with the child. Creffield had told them so. . . .
"My wife and daughters came to believe that I was defiled, and that this little one was defiled. At the suggestion of that viper, they talked of making sacrifice of the child; they would have burned her along with their clothing, their furniture and the cats and dogs which they declared to be of this world and unfit to live. They were all crazy--yes, all crazy. . . .
"I was pleading, threatening and trying all in my power to bring my wife and daughters back to sanity, but without avail."
On June 27th [1904], when the sheriff came to take Sarah to the asylum, she put up a fight and tore off all her clothes. O. V. struggled to get a union suit--long johns--on her, and it was wrapped about her neck as she was carried from the house screaming at him, "I hate you, but I love Creffield!"
She was declared insane because she "claims her husband is not related to her, and that God is her husband." O. V. was not a violent man, but now he said he "would like to hurt Creffield with a bullet."
Information about Brainwashing & Thought Reform
Lifton's eight 'psychological themes' that can be found in totalist groups like the Holy Rollers:
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Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority
***
Think You Can't be Lured into a Cult? Think Again.
The Oregon State Insane Asylum in 1907
***
Relevant Newspaper Articles:
October to December 1903: Holy Rollers Burn Furniture & Pets
April to June 1904: Holy Rollers are Committed to the Asylum
Chapters from
Holy Rollers: Murder & Madness in Oregon's Love Cult
Part 1: The Seduction
Chapter 1: Trust Me, Brothers And Sisters
(Life Before Creffield [B.C.])
Chapter 2: God, Save Us From Compromising Preachers
(Creffield's Preachings)
Chapter 3: The Flock
(Profiles of the Holy Rollers Were)
Chapter 4: The Holy Rollers
(Things Start to Get Wild on on Kiger Island)
Chapter 5: Housecleaning
(There's a Sacrificial Bonfire)
Chapter 6: Community Concerns
(Officers Visit)
Chapter 7: Esther, The Chosen One
(Creffield Plans to Marry 16-Year- Old)
Chapter 8: Tar and Feathers
(The Men of Corvallis Act)
Chapter 9: Sane People Don’t Go Bareheaded
(Holy Rollers are Committed to the Asylum)
Chapter 10: More Beast Than Man
( Creffield is Arrested)
Chapter 11: God Will Plead Creffield's Case
(Creffield in Court)
Chapter 12: Scandal
(Shocking Testimony at the Trial)
Chapter 13: Calm Before the Storm
(The Holy Rollers Resume their Lives)
Chapter 14: Giving Up The Ghost
(Men are Gunning for Creffield)
Part Two: The People V. Creffield
Chapter 16: The Widow Creffield
Chapter 19: An Inherited Streak of Insanity
Part Three: The Madness
Chapter 23: Seeking Reconciliation
Chapter 24: Another Holy Roller Page One Murder
Chapter 25: What Can Papa Do For You?
Chapter 26: Human Life is Too Cheap In This Community
Chapter 30: The Final Chapter
(What Happened to Everyone Afterwards)
The Epilogue
(Heaven's Gate)