Cult--about mine.

Cannot find the questions, but three years ago I answered some questions on this website about my cult, I will try to re-word and figure out what the questions were by re-reading.
https://www.freedomofmind.com/forms/submitgroupinfo.html


Edit****

I received an email from my mom, which is far more accurate and I wrote the answers years ago and now I know much more.  Her email:
"I think some of your answers weren't quite accurate--but they were probably your perceptions-- for instance, we never had a rule we couldn't eat canned food. We weren't supposed to eat OUT of the can.  And it makes it sound as if all families were eventually on food stamps, but that wasn't the case. Our family did because we were in school. We didn't ask permission to have kids or sex--they just happened."





What control tactics did they use?
a.What was family communication like?


1. a.You live with your family, but cannot hug or kiss.  You cannot have friends, at the very least outside the cult.  You should tattle on anyone not following G**, be it family, friends or other.  You cannot communicate with family outside the cult (although we didn't follow the association rules, my parents were too busy working to notice and even they didn't care too much.)

b. What clothing did they control?
b.Girls were suppose to wear skirts which would be made  at home by ourselves and a blouse, all of which would be neutral colored, or very plain looking.  We had to keep our hair up in a bun and we could never cut our hair.  The boys had to keep their hair very short and wear dark pants (no jeans) and a button up shirt.

What food did they control?
c. At one point we could not eat canned food, but he changed that rule so later we could.  We couldn't eat Pork eventually, but earlier on you could eat pork.  We  weren't suppose to have candy(including chocolate), although we could have ice cream, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  We couldn't drink alcohol, or caffeinated drinks.

How did he regulate sleep?
d. There was no huge regulation on sleep, although we couldn't sleep during prayer which could be 12 hours long if God had told him so.  We also had to wake up early for meetings, but he never set an exact time that I know of.

How did he control finances?
e. He was more dependent on our money than us on his (which in essence was ours anyways).  We gave and gave money until we lived on food stamps, even the richest families.  He made people work for him for free at his stores and they also sold expired food to the families.

How did he control entertainment and fun activities i.e. vacations, movies, sports?
f.  Vacations?  We didn't need vacations he would tell us.  We lived in Rochester, Minnesota and drove almost to Green Bay every weekend for the cult...if you could call that a vacation.  We were not suppose to watch movies unless they were educational and showed the Jewish culture in a good way, or Nazis/Anti-Semitics in a bad way.  We used to swim a lot when our parents weren't home in the river near our house, but we would never tell them, because we were not allowed to.

What were the rituals?

2.  The group rituals were basically prayer time.  We had time to study and clean and the adults would work on construction or handy work.  The mothers took care of the children and the most elite would cook with the leader and pray with him.  Every Wed. we went to a local farm that was our meeting center and on the weekends we would drive across the state no matter what conditions there may have been (pregnancy, hunger, traffic, weather).

What were permissions like?

3. You needed to ask permission for almost everything...moving, having children, having sex, movies to watch, what school to put children into, whether we could go to an educational event (Mano a Mano in Rochester was one we went to).  


Was there brown-nosing?

4.  We were always taught to rat people out, even if we loved them.  If you daydreamed during the service the girls or boys around you would hit you, and sometimes were asked what you were thinking about, if he noticed.  Most of my memories are blurred, but anytime we had a bad thought, I remember deciding not to tell him or anyone I even loved.


Were there any rewards for being a good follower?  Any punishments if you weren't?

5. The only reward I can remember is him smiling at you and liking you.  It was one of the most important things, to be his favorite.  I much preferred being unnoticed than his favorite, because soon enough we would have a new favorite.  Punishment was usually physical abuse, although for many girls and maybe even some boys it was sexual abuse.  

How did he control group cohesion?

6. To decrease our thinking and brainstorming off of one another he told us to tell on others and to talk to each other as little as possible.