The Sunday lecture of Yuri Konovalov makes one feel really depressed. The first thing you notice is pretended affability of the audience. Any newcomer is immediately surrounded by people, who try to seem as friendly as possible. Their friendship is not just obtrusive; it’s even a bit aggressive. The guys from the church hardly know that there’s such a thing as privacy and they definitely lack tact. As the result, it seems their friendship and love are just a fake and, thus, they are very unpleasant. This is a very common case, especially when it comes to treating the newcomers. This technique is called a “love-bombing”.

Parishioners seem to be absolutely unable to think rationally or critically. They have no common sense and they believe all, that pastor tells. There are some methods, which are used to make the believers obey. First, they are made to raise their hands, with the palms facing the stage. It makes the audience feel more open to new experience and make the pastors’ work with their minds easier. The main aim of the impact is to get to the believers’ subconscious. Parishioners seem to have emotional problems, their inner self isn’t a safe and cozy place. They are unable even to find out what feelings are overwhelming them and we speak nothing about handling their emotions. These people are prone to psychosomatic diseases as it is hard for them to identify and express their motives or emotions (such a phenomenon is called alexitymy). Besides, many parishioners of this church seem to have a so called “external locus of control”*, which means that they tend to find someone to be blamed, but they seldom blame themselves and they feel very stressed when they have to take responsibility themselves. They also often believe that some external powers or other people are responsible for all that happens in their lives. If they don’t have someone or something which would protect them from “evil power” and help them, they might feel anxious or depressed. And this trace is skillfully used by the pastor for manipulation. He suggests a kind of a deal: you do what I tell you to do and I will protect you. Such a strategy might be highly attractive for people with various neurosis, phobias and obsessions, or for those, who have similar symptoms. Yet, this strategy is nothing but a psychological defense, which is helpful only if some situation that is a threat for the person’s self doesn’t last for a long time. But it never helps to cope with the problem and overcome the traumatic influence. Moreover, the church’s leaders want the parishioners to depend on them. This is an unhealthy interaction and it may make the believers make some hasty deeds.
The service starts with singing songs. They are very rhythmic and the lyrics are repeated dozens of times. You remember it even if you are trying very hard to get it out of your head (‘cause we come to analyze the service, not to learn new songs, don’t we?).
The pastor tells the believers turn to one another, shake hands and say hello. This is a cheap yet effective psychological trick. He makes the audience feel united. One can see flags of various countries in the hall. This is a kind of the message: all the countries, all the people are unite. As it is a normal human need to belong to some group and be a good part of it, this manipulative technique turns out to be very effective.
The pastor’s shouting out some key words while reading his sermon. Thus he stresses them, makes the audience feel these words are Very Important Ones. There are many ways to make the emphasis which would be much more sophisticated and less likely to be noticed, but the pastor doesn’t use them. Maybe, the reason is that it is more difficult to use them in a big hall. Besides, parishioners aren’t keen on NLP techniques, so why try harder? So, he constantly repeats the key words during the sermon. They are also shown on a big screen for a while, so that everyone could remember them. Then, the pastor asks the believers to repeat what he says now and then. Hence, he uses three types of memory during the service: visual memory, aural memory and mechanical memory.
The sermon starts simply: “Apostle Paul told the following…” the pastor gives examples from his own life, and thus the audience starts associating the Lord or some apostle with the pastor himself. He uses quotations from the Bible, which is indeed a very significant for the believers, to prove he is almost divine. The parishioners have already got used to it, so no one minds. They are likely to believe all they were told in the church, so, if the pastor tells that he is the God, then they believe that he really is him. Then the pastor tells that the believers should fully obey the Lord.
There is one more psychological technique which is used to influence the audience. The pastor addresses the believers so, that everyone feels as if he speaks personally to him.
It seems that most of the members of this organization fully believe the pastor and let him do with their subconscious whatever he wants to. Due to this, the leaders might misuse the believers’ mind or their well-controlled mind for their own profit. For instance, they can make them vote for some certain candidate during the election, etc. besides, the pastor manipulates the quotations and the key words, he suggests that the parishioners were active, but it may result in their doing some filthy or illegal things, they would never do if they could think critically.
Besides, it might be a certain hazard, as psychological manipulation techniques, being used by the leaders don’t only affect mentally or emotionally ill people or people with some psychological problems. They are aiming normal psychological mechanisms and features as well, so, anyone can be vulnerable to their influence, after all.
We cannot consider this organization to be typically religious one, as they just use the Holy script as a false front that makes the members’ interaction more successful. The core of the organization’s activity is manipulating the adepts mind and involving them into inter-dependent relationships (the flock depends on the pastors, as he promises to protect it from some stressful feelings and provide security into their lives. But the leaders also depend on the flock, for it is necessary for providing them their comfortable and wealthy living, as the pastors collect donation every service and their income is tax-exempt). These symbiotic relationships often lead to appearance of various psychological and neurotic disorders, such as dependant personality disorder, neurotic personal conflicts, phobic disorders, depressions, addictions, etc. Besides, their attempts to recruit as many new members as possible are dangerous for the society as a big amount of people with such symptoms might result in their poor fulfilling their social and civil duties.