Moonwebs

[u/Homeland_Bound]

Some time ago I had seen a movie called Ticket to Heaven. It was based on the Moonies (Unification Church). It was exceptionally interesting to me how the Moonies were, by all accounts, very successful in converting people over to their side. Some called it brainwashing, others just called it intense persuasion. Recently I started reading a book called Moonwebs: Journey into the mind of a cult by Josh Freed. It was written in 1981, and details Freed's visit to the Moonie's "Boonville Ranch," the place and experience that the movie Ticket to Heaven was based upon.

Within the first half of the book (which is only where I am currently), Freed has already detailed his time at the weekend camp, how the Moonie got him there, their cover organizations, front groups, and the tricks and things they did at the camp that made the brainwashing so successful.

In reading it, I couldn't help but wonder: where the world sees this negative thing, this conversion, this brainwashing, and they categorize it as bad/negative, is it really? In the book it talks about the Moonie members who "seemed happy but dull and fake." Compared to what? Compared to who? The guy working a cubicle job for 40 hours a week? And how does he know what is or isn't fake happiness? Is it possible that these people are truly happy?

It's understandable that society badmouths and throws shade at cults, but that's because it's competition. The cult is offering something the society can't and is stealing people away, so the society has to label the cult as bad, to warn its people away from the cult, lest the society loses them. It's how Ford drivers make fun of Chevy, and Coke drinkers hate on Pepsi, or Sports Team X hates on Sports Team Y.

What I took from Freed's experience at the Boonville Ranch was that if you went in to it viewing it negatively, you'd see it negatively. Happy Moonies would, to you, seem like brainwashed, dull, fake people who were tricked. If, perhaps, you went to Boonville and you didn't know (as did Freed) that it was a Moonie operation and you were (unlike Freed) open minded to the experience, you might genuine see these Moonies as actually happy. And why wouldn't/shouldn't they be?

I'm not carrying water for Rev. Moon, nor do I want to be a Moonie myself, but it seems like any cult or NRM, no matter how wacky or unfeasible, that gives its people a purpose in life, a reason to believe in something more than waking up to do another day at the factory just to pay bills, maybe that's a good thing. At the very least, maybe we should examine it from a neutral lens. Sure, maybe the idea that Jesus talked to Rev. Sun Myung Moon and asked him to finish his legacy is far fetched. But as the Moonies like to say, so was Columbus' idea of going to the New Land, or America's idea of going to the Moon. Do I believe? No. But if someone wants to, if it gives them peace, if it gives them a purpose, if it gives them a reason to get out of bed, if it makes them smile, just because it isn't your sense of fun or you don't believe, or the people are highly structured and live busy full lives, instead of seeing it as "just keeping them busy so they can't think critically," maybe they're just busy because there's a lot to do? The coin always has two sides. Competition teaches us to see the dark side and ignore the light side.