Reading along with Prudence, Part 5A: Constructing a new cult identity, and how Robin tapped into Will's old one.

The last third of Chapter Four looks at a three-step process by which a new identity is created in cult mind control.

1. Unfreezing:  Breaking a person down.
2. Changing: Indoctrination.
3. Refreezing: Building up and reinforcing a new identity. 

The unfreezing part involves disrupting the person's sense of reality, using confusion and disorientation. This can happen physiologically through sleep deprivation and enforcing a nutrient-poor diet, as seen in the UHC. Another technique is  repeatedly presenting confusing information, so as to induce a hypnotic trance. Robin certainly recognized this method, as she told Flora, "They force you to agree up's down and black's white. It's part of the way they control you." 

Group situations are also prime times for creating unbalance. 

Exercises, such as guided meditation, personal confessions, prayer sessions, vigorous calisthenics, and even group singing, can also aid in unfreezing, Typically, these activities start out quite innocuously, but gradually become more intense and directed. They are almost always conducted in a group. This enforces privacy deprivation and thwarts a person's need to be alone, think and reflect. At these stage of unfreezing, as people are weakening, most cults bombard them with the idea that they are seriously flawed. incompetent, mentally ill, or spiritually fallen... Some groups can be quite vicious on their attacks at this stage. 

The small-group lectures and chanting sessions at the UHC eventually turned into the abusive confrontations of Revelation. 

Changing creates a new identity and set of values for the person, and employs many of the same techniques as unfreezing. 

Repetition, monotony, rhythm: these are the lulling, hypnotic cadences in which the formal indoctrination is generally delivered. Material is repeated over and over and over... All this repetition focuses on certain central themes. The recruits are now told how bad the world is, and how the unenlightened have no idea how to fix it. This is because ordinary people lack the new understanding that has been provided by the leader. 

Robin underwent exactly this experience when Wace, after lecturing extensively on the evils of the world, led the group in a lengthy chanting session:

Robin's feelings of fear, guilt and horror gradually subsided; she felt herself dissolving into the deafening chant, which echoed off the wooden walls, taking on its own power, existing independently of the chanters, a disembodied force that vibrated within the walls and within her own body. 

Induced spiritual experiences are another changing technique; contrived situations are set up to convince the followers of the leaders' supernatural powers or the existence of spirits. The UHC accomplished this with many illusions and magic tricks, from pretending they could open doors by pointing at them to disguising young girls to appear as Daiyu's ghost in the woods to the use of Popper's Ghost in the temple. By the time brighter followers like Will figure out the deception, they are so indoctrinated and so dependent on the cult that they are able to convince themselves that the deceptions don't matter.  Recall how he tried to justify the UHC's actions during Daiyu's manifestation: "Well, it's like transubstantiation, isn't it?  ...  That dummy thing they make rise out of the baptismal pool, it's just symbolic. It's not her, but it is her." 

Group psychology plays a major role in the changing process. People are deliberately organized into specific small groups, or cells....These group sessions are very effective in teaching conformity, because the group vigorously reinforces certain behaviors by effusive praise and acknowledgement, while punishing non-group ideas and behaviors with icy silence. 

The UHC's small group organization certainly follow this pattern, particularly within the Revelation but also at less formal interactions. 

Refreezing: In this process, the person is given a new purpose in life, congruent with the new identity. As with the second stage, many of the techniques from the earlier steps are continued. The person is first made to denigrate their previous self.  UHC members refer to this identity as the "false self" and strive to kill it. Previous family relationships are dissolved in favor of the cult connections, such as when UHC members like Will were persuaded to cut ties with their true and call the Waces "Papa" and "Mama."

To help refreeze the member's new identity, some cults give them a new name. Many also change the person's clothing style, haircut  and whatever else would remind them of their past. As mentioned, members often learn to speak a distinctive jargon or loaded language of the group. Great pressure is usually exerted on the members to turn over money, or other possessions, to the group. 

In the UHC, Robin was dubbed "Artemis" by Wace, and made to remove her individualized blue dye from her hair. Individuality was further erased by the UHC members' identical track suits. Post-baptism, Robin noticed that "Terms such as false self, flesh object and materialist possession were now employed casually among the new members, who'd begun to reframe all past and present experience in the church's language." And, of course, Will was persuaded to turn over his entire trust fund, while "Rowena" was pressured into a large donation. 

Two identities in one. Hassan characterizes victims of mind control cults as having two identities, the authentic self and the cult-self. 

Identifying these dual identities is often confusing for relatives and friends of cult members. This is especially true in the early weeks or months of cult involvement, when their new identity is most obvious. One moment, the cultist is speaking jargon with a hostile, elitist, know-it-all attitude, then, without warning, they seem to become their old self, with their old attitudes and mannerisms. 

 This type of identity flipping is apparent in Will when Robin confronts him in the Retreat Room:

"Will, that thing you said--"

"Forget what I said, it was the false self!  I didn't mean it!" 

"Why did you say it at all then?"

"I was... I don't like Seymour, that's all.  She shouldn't be a Principal. She's a BP.  She doesn't understand doctrine."

"But what you said makes sense.  There is a contradiction between--"

"'Human knowledge is finite; divine truth is infinite.' The Answer, Chapter eleven. "

 The good news, according to Hassan, is that the authentic self is almost impossible to destroy completely. 

Recognizing the change and acting appropriately is the key to unlocking the person's real self and freeing them from the cult's bondage. As much as cult indoctrination seeks to discourage and repress the old identity, and empower the new one, it almost never totally succeeds.,,, The real identity, deep down, the hardware self, beneath the mind-control virus, sees and records contradictions, questions and disillusioning experiences.

Robin managed to find ways of unlocking Will's pre-UHC self by both reminding him of his affection for Lin, Qing and his mother and by bringing up his own doubts about UHC doctrine. Will's irritation with Noli Seymour's undeserved status and his recognition of cult hypocrisy and deception served as inroads into his pre-cult self. Robin was also wise enough to recognize that pushing Flora to recognize and process the horror of Deidre Doherty's death, and helping her seek justice for UHC victims would be good for her recovery.