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INTRODUCTION
MY 24-YEAR CAPTIVITY

Twenty-four long years in captivity.

Looking back, it seems almost impossible that I had given away my hopes and dreams, indeed, my core identity, to an organization whose vaunted promises led to poverty, degradation and a life without real meaning.

A.M.O.R.C.- even the acronym still summons, in my mind, a world of exotic mystery, of unlimited personal power, of wealth and security grounded in a distinguished spiritual organization, an organization of unprecedented antiquity and authenticity.

For many, many decades, the Ancient and Mystic Order of Rosae Crucis had been soliciting members through ads promising potential membership in a secret society graced by distinguished historical figures such as Sir Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon and Benjamin Franklin.

The secrets of the ages were offered to the masses in strange but alluring ads that spoke of invisible worlds, astral projection, attunement with Cosmic Consciousness, gifts of illumination bestowed abundantly on its true initiates.

As a young man in Haiti, I was used to the ambiance of mystery and religiosity. Voodoo and the Catholic Church flourished bountifully in a society serving only the privileged few. Young men like myself knew the only hope for surmounting the deep poverty surrounding us was an education and a job.

But this route wasn’t always easy. There were great complexities in it- immense competition laden with various levels of bureaucratic and collegiate favoritism. Money was the best way to grease the journey to upward mobility- but who had it?

Could an ancient mystic order and its secrets be the lubrication I was seeking?

I certainly hoped so. And, when I left Haiti, bound for jumpstarting my path upwards in the United States, I took my hope in AMORC’s promise with me.

But instead of fulfilling that promise, I found myself in a strangely perplexing state of mind.

It’s hard for anyone, caught in my predicament, to neatly explain how one steps into an organization subtly promising wealth, power, gratifying relationships and true vocation and then wake up one day in an entirely different set of circumstances than in the world one imagined; indeed, in the grips of a mind control religious cult.

Few people, including myself, who managed to be recruited, young and innocently, into such an organization, would have thought such an eventuality to be even remotely possible. I never even dreamed that I could one day be a victim of mind control, hypnosis, or even brainwashing. It never crossed my mind until years after I was recruited by AMORC.

Yes, I saw myself as a victim of society, of poverty, of a social class, of an unfeeling government for the hungry masses, but never something as strange as mind control.

Now I know that religious cults like AMORC feed on struggling, desperate, but somehow still hopeful souls like me. They pray on the confused, downtrodden and vulnerable.

Surveys of present and former cult members indicate that the majority of people recruited into destructive cults were approached at a vulnerable time of stress in their lives. The stress is often due to some kind of major transition: moving to a new town, starting a new job, breaking off a relationship, experiencing financial instability, or losing a loved one. People in such situations tend to have defense mechanisms that are overloaded or weakened. If they don’t know how to spot and avoid destructive cults, they are easy prey.1

Steve Hassan, Combatting Cult Mind Control p.49.

The key to the success of a religious cult often lies in the close structural similarity between certain traditional spiritual practices like prayer and meditation and its own techniques of hypnosis and mind control…..

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRELUDE …………………………………………………………………………. PAGE V

The prelude presents a brief examination of the history and techniques of exerting, subtle coercive force on the human personality in several phases- first by Lifton and Schein, who categorized these techniques as brainwashing, as deployed in Korea and Communist China, and then by Hassan and Thaler, among others, who used the term Mind Control, chiefly in reference to various types of cultic influences. It then develops Freeman’s concept of “Remote Indoctrination.” The implications of Remote Indoctrination go beyond its use in the cult examined in this book, affecting the political and social life of men, who have been chosen to be secretly indoctrinated by the State, by commercial or religious institutions.


INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………….PAGE 1

Freeman explains how he spent twenty-four years in mental and emotional bondage, due to the influence of AMORC, a cult whose American headquarters are in San Jose. He explains how a religious cult can use traditional religious practices, like prayer and meditation, to create a sense of heightened suggestibility in its members and how the overriding goal of the cult is to transform the personality of its members to be a suitable tool of the cult’s self- interest. He promises to introduce the reader to his experience of this influence through a combination of autobiographical inputs, passages from diaries and commentaries on the Monographs, which is the mainstay of the Rosicrucian indoctrination technique.

CHAPTER I- THE STORY OF ROSICRUCIANISM…………………………….PAGE 7

The key documents 17th century documents,consisting of the Fama Fraternitatis, the Confessio Fraternitatis, and the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz are introduced that basically introduced the Rosicrucians to “modern” Europe. Reference is made to a modern manifesto, the so-called Positio Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, intended to link AMORC to this earlier tradition. The powers of the so-called adepts mentioned in the 17th century documents is discussed, including a type of speaking in tongues, invisibility and perhaps a form of immortality. The Famas is discussed, including the controversies surrounding its meaning and creation. The character of the Comte de St. Germain, who is not focused on in AMORC’s literature is presented- as an archetype of a relatively modern adept, whose exploits have been a matter of public record. Then, other historical figures, like Benjamin Franklin or Sir Isaac Newton, claimed by AMORC, to be members or influenced by the “authentic” Rosicrucian order, are presented to the reader.

CHAPTER II- AMORC UNVEILED…………………………………………………….PAGE 17

This chapter chronicles the development of AMORC by a Harvey Spencer Lewis. It discusses his early efforts to develop AMORC’s ties to an authentic Rosicrucian Order, including the development of F.U.D.O.S.I., a so-called Federation of esoteric, fraternal orders that gave legitimacy to the fledgling order. It describes Lewis’ connections to characters like Aleister Crowley, MacGregor Mathers or Theodore Reuss and develops the similarities between Lewis’ organization’s history and doctrines and that of the Order of the Golden Dawn, founded by Westcott and Mathers.

CHAPTER III- ANATOMY OF MIND CONTROL………………………..PAGE 31

This chapter describes the mechanisms of Mind Control and its use in the political arena. Freeman, a Haitian, contrasts the suitability of America for the development of a prosperous, commercially-structured religious cult and its appeal to a struggling young student like himself. He explains how Mind Control indoctrination diluted his capacity to leave the cult through hypnosis, psychological transference and various rituals and practices designed to bond him to the organization sub-consciously. The goal of a modern cult is to transform the personality of its disciples. This transformed personality is called a “cult personality” by modern commentators on religious cults. The six phases of cult activity are documented and discussed- recruitment, indoctrination, training, deployment, retention and recovery.

CHAPTER IV- HAITI: THE FIRST CRUCIBLE……………………………………PAGE 46

Pierre S. Freeman describes his early life in Haiti. He is the child of struggling parents. His father, who comes from a well-to-do family, has been disenfranchised by an affluent, powerful relative. His mother, who primarily raises the children, can barely make it in the rigid economic caste system of rural Haiti. Nonetheless, she encourages Pierre to get a good education and makes great sacrifices to push him forward to a better life. Determined to survive, he embarks on an educational program, which is combined with continual efforts to support his family. He ultimately finds himself a top engineering student at the Faculte des Sciences in Port-Au-Prince when he joins AMORC, whose demands on his time and energy disrupt his study schedule and he finds himself flunking out of school. After working for a time in Haiti, he manages to carve out an escape route and winds up in America in attempt to gain a financial and social standing in the world that has crumbled behind him.

CHAPTER V- THE MIAMI ROLLERCOASTER …………………………………….PAGE 65

Freeman arrives in Miami in 1983, beginning what he hopes will be a pathway to security and prosperity in America. Almost completely destitute, he began his career in America as an itinerant farm worker, sleeping in a small, filthy house with twenty other workers. Finally sharing living quarters with a young Haitian couple, he alienates the wife by practicing his Rosicrucian rituals late at night. In this chapter, Freeman reviews the structure and hypnotic power of the monographs. These include visualization exercises, the study of the aura, psychometry and re-energizing yourself through a specific exercise. The legacy of H. Spencer Lewis and the claims for the Order’s ultimate connection to ancient Egypt are reviewed. Ultimately, owing to his “occult” practice, he has to move. Slowly, as in other cults, the Rosicrucian activities begin to, again, dominate his life.

CHAPTER VI - DIARY ENTRIES…………………………………………………PAGE 109

The Diary entries begin to reflect Freeman’s growing ambivalence with AMORC, citing, in specific, his failure to obtain a Green Card, allowing him to work more easily in America. He seesaws back and forth between skepticism, disillusionment and radical commitment and enthusiasm for the teachings. He also begins to chronicle disturbing visions and equally disturbing dreams. New Year’s in the restaurant he is working for shows how he has begun to believe that he has somehow achieved a secret superiority over non-members. But as he says, “But when you add it all up, there’s something rotten in Denmark when you are sooooo spiritually superior and don’t have even enough food to eat.” Even with a job, Freeman is still suffering from extreme poverty and deprivation of adequate food and clothing, which is constantly troubling him.

CHAPTER VII- FIRST INITIATION……………………………………………….PAGE 119

In this chapter, Freeman reviews some of the early monographs and begins to point out the theoretical beliefs that underlie the Rosicrucian affirmations of their elite superiority to the rest of mankind. Rituals and spiritual practices, which separate them from the rest of mankind, are a part of this program of establishing a separate identity. Through the ritual practices at home, which Freeman believes creates a hypnotically-enhanced state of suggestibility, enhancing the power of the monographs in the mind of the initiate. Freeman talks about the case AMORC makes for the infallibility of the teachings and how the long-term member becomes increasingly reluctant to question the teaching in any serious way.

CHAPTER VIII- ADVENTURES IN THE LODGE ………………………………….PAGE 143

Freeman, still in Miami, begins to work as a dishwasher, wearing cheap, Salvation Army clothes. He now is regularly attending the Miami Lodge with its group initiations and practices. Locked out once, he makes a renewed commitment to attend regular ceremonial meetings called Convocations. Somewhat moving up in the Rosicrucian hierarchy, he becomes an officer in the Lodge. Let go from his restaurant job, Freeman begins to work as a taxicab driver. His ambivalence about the order deepens.

CHAPTER IX- SECOND INITIATION: ATRIUM ………………………….PAGE 149

Although the second initiation brought renewed hope about beckoning financial prosperity, the reality that actually came was very harsh. Even though out-of-the body experiences, reincarnation and auric experiences are studied intensively, the actual real life consequences for Freeman are very depressing. Freeman discusses how the Rosicrucian postures recommended for sleeping are just one more element demonstrating how the practices are plunging him into perpetual fatigue and increasing domination over every waking hour of his life. Cults, as Freeman points out, use fatigue and keeping the disciple perpetually busy as a way of exercising complete control over members- and over their mental framework with which they look at the world.

CHAPTER X- ATRIUM 3……………………………………………..PAGE 176

Dismayed by his lack of success, Freeman forces himself to repeat the reading and practices of the Monograph over and over again. They continue to consume his life as he reaches the Third Atrium, closer and closer into the Higher Teachings of the Rosicrucian Order. He analyzes how the rituals of the Home Sanctum act as hypnotic triggers to reinforce the grip of his “cult personality” over ordinary consciousness. Through an incident involving the psychic “charging of a ring,” Freeman is shocked to find that certain practices of higher initiates in the Lodge seem to contradict the moral precepts of AMORC. At the same time, he sees AMORC claiming it is the hierarchy that secretly rules the world.

CHAPTER XI- THE PROTEAN SELF…………………………………………….PAGE 194

Although his personality has been substantially altered though cult indoctrination, Freeman’s subconscious begins to rebel. He begins to have increasingly negative visions and even to cry out spontaneously during meditative sessions. At one point, a deep, sarcastic laugh wells up inside him. By this point, his deep, intractable poverty is penetrating to the very depths of his experience. He begins to doubt whether he will ever be able to pursue his education again or pursue a lucrative career. Staying with 7th Day Adventist friends, he is forced again to move out. A Haitian friend of his berates him for not helping his family in Haiti and for his affiliation with AMORC. He speaks about the legend of H. Spencer Lewis’s abilities to bilocate. His stay in Miami culminates in homelessness. In deep trouble financially and personally, he continues onwards with the teachings.

CHAPTER XII- ROSICRUCIAN ADVENTURES IN THE BIG APPLE ……..PAGE 235

Leaving Miami in 1987, Freeman winds up in New York, driving a gypsy cab. He finds out that his mother, back in Haiti, is dying of cancer- and tries to heal her remotely. At some point, distressed with his lack of success in life, he resigns from AMORC. But a few days later, his desultory cab driving works against him again and he winds up homeless in New York, sleeping on a bench in Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn. Facing this new reality, he decides this new level of homelessness is a result of his resignation from AMORC and he rejoins again. Later, he will find out he is a victim of “phobia indoctrination,” fears that have been instilled in him about the dire consequences of leaving the cult. He then finds out his dying Mother has been crying for him in the middle of the night and he renews his efforts to save her. As part of this process, he makes every effort to break with any ties to his former church, which he believes is inhibiting his process. But during many of these efforts, he finds that the worst is true. His mother is already dead. His sister, living in Haiti, had lost track of his whereabouts. After this, Pierre’s luck changes a bit and he winds up marrying Lenora and having a child. Finally, Freeman gets his Green Card and begins college. But his persistence with the Order forces Lenora to kick him out of the house and eventually divorces him.

CHAPTER XIII- THE CHERISHED GIFT OF LIBERTY…………………………..PAGE 252

Graduating from college, Freeman seeks various positions to work at. Not finding suitable job he went to graduate school upstate New York. He finally moves to a position in Mississippi. Still financially insecure, he moves to Atlanta, living off of credit cards until he finds a job. His psychological rebellion becomes more violent and he begins to spontaneously curse during his meditation sessions. Still he is unable to quit. He is still studying the Monographs in 1997 but declaring his lack of faith in their validity, while hoping he is in a better mood to study the next Monograph. When he finds out that AMORC has been declared a cult by the French government, he begins to want to research the group but he is afraid. He eventually starts, finding out about the lawsuit that breaks up the AMORC organization and gets rid of the Imperator that was appointed by Ralph Lewis, H. Spencer Lewis’ son. Finally he finds the book, “Cults in Our Midst” by Margaret Thayer Singer and begins to be empowered to attack the programming that had kept him in bondage for so long.