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On top of all this, cults tell the new members that they are defective in some way, their lives are not working, they are sinners in the eyes of God, they're poor, they're worthless, useless or even mentally ill. Self confidence is undermined and they begin to look to the environment for clues about how to think and act.
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Because I grew up in the LCM, my experience is a bit different than those who joined as an adults. At some point, however, as I started participating in the LC more and more, I started to get these notions that I was good for nothing, that my goals/ambitions were meaningless, etc.
For me, such notions were exactly what made me so susceptible to the LC environment. By the time I started college, my only real purpose in attending college was because it was a requirement for FTT attendance. Thankfully, I never attended the FTT, and I also figured out what career path I wanted. At the same time, it's shocking to think how easily things could have turned out for the worst.
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It's very common to take new members to seminars and courses in remote areas. In their time off, there's no place to go and so they literally spend 24 hours a day in the cult environment.
Seminars running late at night means there is little time for sleep, and a tired person is a more compliant person, less able to think critically. Control of mealtimes and control of the food is another way to alter somebody's physiology.
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When I was in high school and college, we had somewhat frequent retreats/conferences. In fact, with the campus work, one of the immediate goals was to get the "new ones" to attend a college conference. Such conferences always had intense schedules with little time for rest/recreation. Every time I attended these kinds of events, the vast majority of people there got worn out and tired quickly because of the schedule. I know for me personally, it made me much more willing to sit there during the meetings and take in whatever was spoken, since I just wanted the meeting to be over.
In the same category, I would also include the semi-annual training that I attended. We had 2 study sessions in the morning, then had to commute to Anaheim, followed by 2 meetings that were 2.5-3 hours long. The messages were complete information overload, and I think that kind of environment made people susceptible to uncritically accepting whatever was spoken.