There have been some questions here on how to deprogram from religious guilt. In lieu of writing a lengthy comment in those posts, I thought I'd make this post. Shortly after deconversion, I became acutely aware of inner dialogs going on in my brain. They were negative looping messages (reinforced neural circuity) resulting from nearly 40 years of religious indoctrination -- that there was no good thing in me, that my righteousness was as filthy rags, and that my heart was deceitful, as the biblical scriptures promulgate.

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:” (Romans 3:10)

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;" (Isaiah 64:6)

Jonathan Edward was an eighteenth-century evangelical preacher. He oversaw some of the first revivals in 1733–35 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. He found that by inducing guilt, people attending his revival meetings would break down and completely submit. These techniques are still used today in conservative Christian churches, revivals, and rallies.

Authoritarian religions, like the Abrahamic faiths, use nearly identical mind control techniques that Robert Jay Lifton wrote about in his 1961 book “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing in China”.

Totalism, is a term for the characteristics of ideological movements and organizations that desire total control over human behavior and thought. Lifton asserts that totalism exhibits a common pattern and can cause predictable types of psychological damage in individuals and societies.

All of the 10 steps to totalism described in his book can be found in scripture (indoctrination), including:

1. Assault on identity: “A systematic attack on a target’s sense of self.”

2. Guilt: “You are bad. While the identity crisis is setting in, the agent is simultaneously creating an overwhelming sense of guilt in the target.”

I didn't realize how much I had internalized this negative programming until I started becoming an observer of my thoughts. I was stunned. So, I started talking back to the "voices". I countered them with positive affirmation, and this was one of the successful methodologies I used to deprogram myself.

In this unique 10 minute video, blending science and inspiration, Owen Fitzpatrick, a psychologist and performance poet, states that in this age of propaganda, we find ourselves influenced not only by the voices in traditional and social media but by our own inner voices which were influenced by our environment (i.e., culture, family, religion).

He rhythmically shares his own heartfelt journey through depression and low self-esteem and describes the key to taking back control of our minds and winning the war in our heads. I can speak from personal experience that this technique works.