Heretical Mind Control: Cultist ‘Brainwashing’ Theories and Their Pre-Modern Parallels

The article discusses parallels between the central medieval narratives about maleficent bewitchment in heretical sects and the late 20th century beliefs about “brainwashing” practices in the so-called destructive cults, which constituted an integral part of the anti-cult moral panic, emerging in the 1980 and 1990s. It emphasizes the importance of discerning between trans-temporal elements of sectarian mind control narratives, which seem to be anthropological constants, and situation-specific layers. The article further argues that the trans-temporal elements constitute non-trivial set of motifs, particularly related to sharing of community with the sectarians (namely, common meal in the medieval narratives), which cannot be reduced only to basic human fears and anxieties.