Racialization and Discourses of “Mind Control”

This panel considers how histories of racialization in the United States have shaped discourses of “mind control” in relation to New Religious Movements, as well as the development of practices to reverse the effects of supposed “brainwashing.” Panelists will explore the significance of racialization in the framing of certain religious movements as especially effective at “mind control” and a threat to the American nation, how deployments of racialized conceptions of “brainwashing” work to discipline and shape narratives about members of new religious movements, and consider the role of race and discourses of “mind control” in opposition to NRMs and in the practice of “cult deprogramming.” We seek to understand the varied modes of interaction between race and racialization and discourses of “mind control” in relation to New Religious Movements in the modern U.S. and to explore what we learn from foregrounding race and religion in a comparative frame.