Divine Madness

  Mary strummed the guitar. James was expecting her to start singing some dreary hymn, but she played a few bars and then chanted.

  ‘Boogie, woogie, woogie, woo!’

  Everyone chanted back noisily. ‘Boogie, woogie, woogie, woo!’

  The next line was, ‘La de, la de, la de, la!’

  And everyone chanted back. This chanting went on for ten minutes and James couldn’t help getting into the stupidity of it all, with the two girls sitting on either side of him grinning and putting their arms around him. He looked over at Lauren and noticed she seemed to be having a ball too.

  At the end of it, Mary played a longer and much more dramatic version of the chanting song, getting faster and faster until all the lights got switched back on. She screamed out, ‘Are you angels?’

  And the kids, especially the little ones in the inner circle, jumped up and answered, ‘Yes we’re angels.’

  Mary shouted back, ‘Little angels go to bed.’

  All the little kids began running happily out of the room. A few of them split off and joined parents who’d filed into the gym while the lights had been dimmed, but most were commune members and they headed up a disused escalator to the living quarters.

  James couldn’t help laughing as Mary called him and Lauren across to the centre.

  ‘Did you enjoy yourselves?’ she asked. ‘Are you glad you came?’

  It was half nine and James was sweaty and tired after all the exercise, but he felt jubilant.

  ‘Yeah,’ James nodded. ‘It was a good laugh.’

  Lauren was smiling too. Abigail wandered out from the group of adults at the back of the hall.

  ‘Hi kids,’ she said.

  ‘Hey, Mum,’ James said. ‘Where have you been?’

  ‘I ended up staying here and talking to Elliot,’ Abigail said. ‘I’m thinking about enrolling in one of the counselling sessions for single parents.’

  ‘Well I certainly hope you all come back,’ Mary said. ‘You seem like such a nice family.’

  Elliot joined them again. He was holding a carrier bag stuffed with goodies. ‘I’ll walk you to your car,’ he said, as he handed Abigail the carrier. ‘Those are the books and CDs I spoke to you about and I put in a bag of our Nicaraguan Roast and a few slices of cake for the kids.’

  Abigail looked at all the stuff inside the bag. ‘I must owe you money for some of this.’

  ‘I wouldn’t hear of it,’ Elliot said. ‘Just promise that you’ll give me a call if there’s anything you want to talk about.’

  As James, Lauren and Abigail headed down the mall corridor towards the main entrance, Elliot, Eve, Ruth, Mary and a couple of younger girls Lauren had befriended walked with them. They followed through the automatic doors and stood around the car.

  Even though it was dark, it was still extremely hot and Abigail reached inside the stifling car and turned on the air conditioning. They waited outside for a minute while the interior cooled down.

  Eve smiled at James. ‘You’ll be coming back to see us again, won’t you?’

  ‘Sure,’ James nodded enthusiastically. ‘Next Saturday.’

  ‘Maybe even sooner,’ Elliot said. ‘You could come by with your mother when she attends our single parents’ group on Wednesday.’

  ‘I guess,’ Lauren smiled. ‘Maybe my big sister can come too.’

  The Survivors headed back indoors, waving as Abigail switched on the engine, while James and Lauren belted up in the back.

  ‘That was fun,’ Lauren said.

  ‘I think the mission’s going well,’ Abigail said.

  James realised that he’d been playing sport and chanting with the Survivors all night and hadn’t considered the mission for over an hour.

  He looked anxiously at his sister. ‘I think we might have enjoyed ourselves a bit too much in there.’

  ‘Eh?’ Lauren said, as she wiped her shining forehead on the sleeve of her T-shirt.

  ‘I actually want to go back in there and do that again,’ James explained. ‘With the grinning girls, and everyone touching me and paying me heaps of attention. It felt really nice.’

  Lauren realised what her brother was getting at. ‘We knew how it worked. We read all the books and that, but we still fell for it.’

  Abigail looked between the front seats at her two passengers. ‘Are you kids saying what I think you’re saying?’

  James rubbed his eyes and looked ashamed of himself. ‘It was like falling under a spell.’

  15. CONTEXT

  Abigail was concerned at the way the kids had lost their objectivity and been lured by the Survivors within hours of entering the commune. She’d also enjoyed her evening with the charming Elliot.

  She phoned John first thing Sunday morning and he called the psychologist Miriam Longford for advice. Miriam was arranging a family lunch, but she agreed to speak with Abigail and the kids provided they drove out to her home near the university campus on the opposite side of the city.

  A red setter greeted them on the driveway. James’ hand got a warm lick as he clambered out of the car. Miriam’s young nieces and nephews chased around and splashed in her pool, as she led Abigail and the three cherubs to a muggy double garage. The cars had been pulled out and she’d set some stackable picnic chairs into a circle. It wasn’t ideal, but it was private and the rest of her home crawled with relatives.

  Abigail explained what had happened over the previous forty-eight hours, from Lauren lashing out in class and getting sent to the student counsellor, to their visit to the Survivor commune the night before.

  ‘OK,’ Miriam smiled. ‘It’s understandable that you’re worried by the rush of positive feeling you experienced last night, but I think it will turn out to be a good thing, because it’s given you a warning about the power mind-control techniques can have over people who let down their guard.

  ‘It’s all to do with the power of context. Have any of you ever heard of something called the Elevator Door Experiment?’

  Everyone shook their heads, so Miriam began to explain. ‘A person getting into an elevator will always stand facing the door, so that they can see what is going on and know when it’s time to get out. However, what happens if a person gets in and finds that there are several other people already in the elevator facing away from the door?’

  ‘Oh, I’ve seen this now that you’ve said it,’ Abigail said. ‘If the other people in the elevator are all facing away from the door, then the person getting into the elevator will usually do the same.’

  ‘That’s it,’ Miriam nodded. ‘People think they have free will, but there is actually a strong tendency for individuals to behave in the same way as those around them.’

  ‘Like peer pressure at school,’ Lauren said.

  Miriam nodded. ‘That’s a very good example, Lauren. If you’re at school and all your friends smoke cigarettes, the chances are that you’ll start smoking cigarettes too. I’ve been inside that gymnasium you were at last night. Do you remember the big banner along the back of the hall?’

  ‘Welcome to the Ocean of Love,’ James said.

  ‘That’s right, and I’m afraid you and Lauren accidentally dipped your toes into the ocean. I take it the Survivors asked you to call ahead and say you were coming?’

  Abigail nodded. ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘That’s so they can set up a welcoming committee. As soon as you arrive there’s a friendly face to greet every one of you. Then they take you inside, split you up and everyone starts acting warm and friendly. They asked you to play sport, because it tires you out physically. But the whole time you were being worn out physically, the compliments and touching built you up emotionally.’

  ‘We weren’t supposed to say anything negative when we were playing games,’ James said.

  Miriam nodded. ‘That’s a technique called thought stopping. By encouraging you to think and say positive things, you inevitably start feeling good. And because you only hear positive things from other people, you start feeling guilty and
shut out your own negative thoughts. The good vibe is reinforced with lots of touching, hugging and even the occasional kiss. Within a couple of hours, you two found yourselves exhausted, but happy and uninhibited. That’s exactly the state you want a person to be in if you’re trying to sell them something, whether it’s a second-hand car or a lifelong commitment to a religious cult.’

  James and Lauren both nodded.

  ‘It makes sense now you say it,’ James said. ‘But at the time I didn’t feel like anything special was happening to me.’

  ‘You wouldn’t have,’ Miriam said. ‘When people hear phrases like brainwashing or mind control, they imagine that it involves being stuck in a room with a gun to your head, or being tied up and made to watch videos while your eyelids are propped open with matchsticks. In reality, harsh methods like that only create fear and resentment. The techniques used by groups like the Survivors are extremely subtle and all the more powerful because of it.’

  Abigail looked stressed. ‘The thing is, can we safely send these kids undercover into that environment? They’d read about mind control in books and you’d spoken to us, but James and Lauren still came out of there like a couple of grinning zombies.’

  Miriam furrowed her brow and looked thoughtful for a second. ‘Research has consistently shown that people who understand how mind control works are not susceptible to it.’

  ‘But we did understand it,’ James said anxiously.

  ‘No,’ Miriam said. ‘You read about it in books and you listened to me speak, but you didn’t respect what you’d learned. You went into the commune with your defences down and you let yourself get drawn in by a few pretty girls telling you what a great guy you are.’

  James looked sheepishly at the bare concrete between his Nikes.

  ‘Sorry,’ Lauren said, ‘we didn’t mean to mess up.’

  ‘Don’t be daft, sweetheart,’ Miriam smiled. ‘Older and more experienced heads than yours have thought themselves too clever to fall into the lure of a cult. Hopefully, this has taught all of you an important lesson.

  ‘As long as you immerse yourselves in cult life slowly and consider the motivations behind the things people do and say at the commune, the danger of becoming brainwashed is virtually nil. If you come by my office on the university campus after school tomorrow, I’ll teach you a few basic concentration techniques that will prevent you from being hypnotised or ending up in a state where you’re easily manipulated.’

  *

  Elliot called Abigail on Monday evening and kept her talking about life and religion for over an hour. On Tuesday, Abigail phoned the commune to confirm that she was bringing the whole family the following night when she attended her first session with the single parents’ group.

  They were greeted in the parking lot by Elliot, Mary, Eve and a younger girl called Natasha who had made friends with Lauren on Saturday. James hugged Eve and they kissed each other on the cheek, but this time he reminded himself that Eve’s affection was put on to encourage him and his family to become Survivors.

  Lauren, James and Dana were immediately taken in separate directions by their chaperones. The community room was being used by a group of elderly ladies for a music and movement class, so Eve took James upstairs to a shop with an elaborate glass frontage. It had clearly been a jeweller’s before the mall went bust.

  The inside was filled up with bean bags and foam blocks and a group of teenagers were sprawled over the cushions. There was a TV hanging on the wall and it was showing a programme about the building of the Survivors’ second Ark in Nevada.

  James smiled. ‘You’ve even got your own TV station.’

  ‘The programmes get flown in once a week from the Ark on videotape,’ Eve nodded. ‘It’s a mixture of films, shows from normal TV and documentaries and news programmes that we make ourselves.’

  ‘Looks a bit dull,’ James said. ‘Can’t you flip to something else?’

  ‘No,’ Eve said, looking thoroughly offended. ‘We don’t want to bring the influence of devils into our home. Besides, it’ll be switched off in a minute when our service starts.’

  As James strode uneasily over stacks of bouncy cushions and trailing legs, he was greeted with smiles and handshakes. A few minutes later, a forty-something women dressed in a white robe came in. She introduced herself to James as Lydia, before sitting in the centre of the room.

  ‘Welcome James,’ Lydia gushed, as if she’d been waiting her whole life to meet him.

  As soon as she said it, the two dozen teenagers started clapping, before repeating her welcome. When it quietened down, Lydia stared directly into James’ eyes and smiled at him.

  ‘James,’ she said. ‘You visited us here for the first time on Saturday. Did you have fun?’

  James nodded. ‘Yeah, it was cool.’

  ‘You saw the exhibits in the hall downstairs. You saw the good work we do for the environment and for poor people around the world?’

  He nodded again, though he hadn’t actually paid much attention.

  ‘But I’m told you don’t believe in God.’

  James was surprised to find that his casual remark to Ruth had been reported. He wondered if anything else he’d said would come back to haunt him.

  ‘Well …’ he said weakly.

  ‘That’s OK, James,’ Lydia smiled. ‘Maybe one day you’ll feel differently. We can tell that you’re a kind and considerate person. We understand that you’ve moved to a new town where you don’t know very many people. But hopefully you’ve found friends amongst us here?’

  James nodded. ‘You’re all really nice. In fact you’re amazingly nice.’

  James felt cold inside, because he knew Lydia was trying to manipulate him. But he was still disturbed by how easily he’d bonded with the group four nights earlier. If this had been his real life instead of a mission, he’d still be sucking up the warm feelings while the Survivors took control of his life.

  ‘Does everyone here think James could become an angel?’ Lydia asked.

  ‘Yes,’ every teenager in the room shouted, before breaking out in cheers, whoops and clapping.

  James smiled, but as soon as he found himself feeling genuinely flattered, he used one of the techniques Miriam had taught him. She’d explained that thinking of something you found physically repulsive stops you becoming overwhelmed by strong positive feelings. In James’ case, he’d trained himself to think of a soggy cheese and mayonnaise sandwich that he’d encountered in Arizona ten months earlier. Just imagining the smell of it made him gag.

  ‘James, would you like to learn about the Survivors and the work we do for the planet?’ Lydia asked.

  He nodded uncertainly.

  ‘We’d very much like you to become our friend and learn about us, James. We don’t want to force you into doing anything you don’t want to do. But we would like to offer you this necklace as a token of our friendship.’

  Lydia stood and pulled a leather strap necklace out of a pouch on the front of her robe.

  She stood above James. ‘James Prince, do you take this necklace from us as a symbol of our friendship?’

  ‘Sure,’ James said, making a point of grinning and nodding as if he was really flattered.

  He raised himself up on his kneecaps and allowed Lydia to loop the necklace over his head. Once it was on, she urged James to stand, before giving him a hug. While they embraced, a line of clapping kids had formed behind Lydia and they started hugging him in turn.

  They all repeated the same phrase: ‘Welcome to the Ocean of Love.’

  After the formal greetings, James found himself surrounded by smiling teenage boys and girls, inviting him to barbecues, ceremonies and a fundraising trip at the weekend. When their enthusiasm died down and most of them had wandered out of the room, James found himself back in the company of Eve.

  ‘Wasn’t that exciting?’ she grinned. ‘I’m so pleased you chose to take the necklace. It’s the first step towards becoming an angel.’

  ‘I dunno,’ Ja
mes smiled wryly. ‘You’re a nice bunch, but this is all a bit odd if you don’t mind me saying so.’

  Eve ignored the remark. ‘I visit an old folks’ home after school most days,’ she said. ‘Maybe you’d like to come along with me tomorrow?’

  ‘Why?’ James asked.

  Eve tilted her head to one side and gave him an extra special smile. ‘It’s entirely up to you, of course. But I’d really like to give you a taste of the charity work the Survivors do.’

  16. ELDERLY

  Lauren got her leather necklace that evening in a ceremony identical to her brother’s, except that the surrounding kids were her own age. Abigail emerged from her meeting, holding Elliot’s hand, looking happy and carrying more Survivors literature and a A$229 set of CDs and DVDs in a glossy orange folder entitled Survive Life! – Revolutionise your lifestyle through the teachings of Joel Regan and his Ocean of Love.

  To make their recruitment as Survivors more realistic, Dana had been asked to take a more sceptical approach. She spent the evening with a seventeen-year-old male chaperone, grilling him ruthlessly about every aspect of Survivor lifestyle, from the negative features of living in a commune to questions about how a supposed Christian like Joel Regan had famously sired thirty children with more than a dozen young women. Dana rather enjoyed making her young companion squirm.

  It was gone midnight when the Prince family got home from the commune. James scratched and yawned his way through Thursday’s lessons. At the end of school, he unlocked his bike and walked it across the playing fields to meet Eve at the rear entrance.

  They rode ten kilometres in the blistering afternoon heat. Their destination was a sprawling facility called North Park Elder Care Community. Elliot was waiting for them in the driver’s seat of a white van.

  ‘James,’ Elliot said enthusiastically, as he stepped out. He grabbed the soggy collar of James’ school shirt, making sure he still wore the leather necklace, before pulling him into an enthusiastic hug. Elliot stepped back and reached into his shorts, pulling out a painted wooden bead.