A spiritually abusive environment in which followers of a faith group are manipulated in order to reduce their ability to think critically. The goal is to turn the membership into near robots who are incapable of independent reasoning and judgment. There is no consensus on whether new religious movements utilise mind control techniques. The existence of mind control is a major part of the belief system of the anti-cult movement (ACM). Those in the ACM teach that new religious movements (which they call "cults") widely practise mind control and other psychologically abusive methods. Sociologists and psychologists who have studied new religious movements generally deny that it exists.