Captivity Of The Mind: Spiritually Understanding Abnormal Human Behavior
In my own ministry, the most extreme case I encountered was a young female victim of childhood Satanic Ritual Abuse who had been deliberately made schizophrenic by her Satanist parents and was controlled by them through her alter-ego. One part of this young woman’s mind was an educated, trained R.N., and a believing Christian. Her other part was a totally different personality who used an alias name and participated in Satanic behavior. Impossible!, you say. Not so. The Apostle James warned twice about being “double minded”- a word which In Greek means “two-souls”. As Christians, we see varying degrees of this condition in people who become captive to Satan but refuse to escape his control-even when they have opportunity to do so. In extreme cases, it takes only 3-4 days for the Stockholm syndrome to emerge even when captive and captor are strangers. Bizarre? Yes, but true. According to psychologists, the victimized person bonds to the abuser as a means to endure the violence. A psychotherapist explains, “When someone threatens your life but doesn’t kill you, the relief generates intense feelings of gratitude. This, coupled with fear, makes the captive reluctant to display negative feelings toward their captor. The victims’ need to survive is stronger than his/her impulse to hate the person who has created the dilemma.” The victim then comes to see the captor as a ‘good guy’, even a savior. I have personally met Satanists who insisted that the devil was good.
In June, 2002, the nation was shocked by the kidnaping of Elizabeth Smart, a 14 year old Utah girl from her bed at night, who was kept by her abductors nine months. Elizabeth later showed Stockholm Syndrome effects when she made no attempt to escape though she had ample opportunity to do so. Airplane hostages have been known to sympathize with their captors and one became so emotionally attached that she married him. In some cases, former hostages have visited their captors in jail, recommended legal counsel, and one even started a defense fund for them. We see this in the behavior of some abused wives who voluntarily stay with a dangerous husband.
Image: Julian Bock
In explaining the process of converting a wild hawk into an obedient falcon, of how the bank employees, Patty Hearst, and others, were mentally abducted, I want you to make that comparison to the way Satan captures and subdues his victims. This condition occurs in response to these circumstances:
1. The hawk must be a grown but immature, inexperienced male.
2. The hawk is drawn to the trap with “food”, usually a mouse or small animal that is under a clear but protective dome. When the hawk dives down to grab the prey, his feet become trapped in the snare and he is captured. By the way, he never gets the food that tempted him.
3. The hawk is immediately hooded, deprived of light, the ability to see, or the power to fly away.
4. For the next 24 to 72 hours, the hawk is kept awake on the falconers heavily-gloved arm. Though the hawk is not allowed to sleep it is periodically offered food—which, in the beginning—it refuses. The hawk associates sleep and accepting food with surrender so it desperately fights to stay awake and refuses to eat.
5. Deprived of light, food, and sleep, when the hawk finally eats and falls asleep, it psychologically acknowledges its dependency on the captor and becomes “bonded” to him. From that time on, the bird may fly freely in the outdoors but will voluntarily return to its owner like a young bird returning to its parents’ nest.
Category: Living the Faith, Winter 2017
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