Before You Begin
This article explores how high-control, immersive environments begin reshaping the foundation we already have. As you read, you may find yourself remembering your first experiences in church or noticing connections you hadn’t recognized before.
That can bring up a wide range of emotions.
Please don’t feel like you need to rush through this article. Read at your own pace. Take breaks if you need them and come back whenever you’re ready.
If you begin feeling overwhelmed or notice yourself becoming emotionally activated, I encourage you to pause and visit the Aftermath Regulation Tools page before continuing.
There is no timeline for deconstruction, and there is no right pace for understanding your own story. It’s not a race, it’s a marathon.
Wherever you are in your journey, I want to meet you there.
Now that we have covered what a foundation is, we move on to the next step: breaking down the foundation we already have.
That is the foundation we have when we first enter a high-control, immersive environment.
Before a new framework can be built, there must first be a dismantling of what already exists.
If everyone already has a framework, how does a high-control environment gain enough influence to replace it?
This is incredibly important because I think it’s one of the easiest places to miss what is actually happening. It’s also one of the reasons so many of us eventually find ourselves asking:
How did this happen to me?
High-control environments don’t generally reshape a person’s worldview through a single mechanism. They do so through many interacting psychological and social processes that continually reinforce one another, simultaneously. No single mechanism explains the experience. Together, they create a framework that becomes the lens through which our reality itself is understood.
The scary part is that it can feel a lot like we went to a service, met some people, made some friends, and suddenly we are part of this big community and life has pretty much changed for us. For some it was a few weeks, others a month.
Do you remember the first service you went to?
You were warmly welcomed by the congregation and even made quick friends with a few people. The next thing you know you’re going out to coffee, attending a few other functions, a service or two, a bible study, maybe a prayer meeting or a concert… maybe even more. The time went by quickly. A little while ago you never met these people, but now for some reason you can’t imagine life without them.
Did you see that? No, we didn’t because it’s all functioning in rapid succession.
Is that how it felt for you? One minute we go to a service, and the next thing we know it’s almost like warp drive. Suddenly, we find ourselves at the end of the paragraph above.
Let’s slow down and uncover what happens, because it happens fast.
Imagine someone hands you a deck of cards.
Now imagine instead of dealing them one at a time, they begin throwing them at you from every direction.
One card says:
“You belong here.”
Another says:
“God has a purpose for your life.”
Another says:
“These people are your family.”
Another says:
“This is the truth.”
Another says:
“You can trust your leaders.”
Another says:
“Serve faithfully.”
Before you’ve had time to fully process one, another arrives.
Some come from the pulpit.
Some come from your friends.
Some come from Bible studies.
Some come from worship.
Some come through small groups.
Some through volunteer work.
Some through books.
Some through conferences.
Some through mentors.
Some through casual conversations in the church lobby.
They’re coming from every direction, all at the same time.
Now place all of that inside an immersive environment where the same ideas
are continually reflected back to you.
An echo chamber.
Every conversation reinforces the last.
Every activity reinforces the last.
Every relationship reinforces the last.
Every sermon reinforces the last.
The cards don’t stop coming.
They begin stacking on top of one another until they create an entirely new framework through which you understand yourself, other people, and the world
around you.
No single card changes you.
No single mechanism changes you.
It is the entire deck, working together within an immersive ecosystem, that begins dismantling the foundation you arrived with while simultaneously constructing a new one.
The framework reinforces the echo chamber, and the echo chamber reinforces the framework.
Each strengthens the other.
The stronger the framework becomes, the more convincing the echo chamber feels.
The stronger the echo chamber becomes, the more the framework goes unquestioned.
The power isn’t in any one card.
It’s in the experience of never having just one idea to consider in isolation.
Every card reinforces the ones before it.
Every interaction reinforces the framework that’s already being built.
Where Do We Go From Here?
That was a lot, wasn’t it?
Are you remembering a few sticking points?
Does anything come to mind yet?
We were quickly shuffled through the entire deck, so fast that we didn’t realize it.
Now that we understand the premise of how, let’s slow down a little more and take it one card at a time.
Take a moment with this before you continue.
In the next article, we’ll turn over the first card.
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