2000: Cults and the Millennium

Conference Speakers

When: April 28-30,2000
Where: Seattle, WA

Featured Speakers

Dr. E. Burke Rochford
Professor of Sociology at Middlebury College in Vermont, will report on his 25 years of research into the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON - International Society for Krishna Consciousness). Dr. Rochford will focus on child abuse in the movement and how the transition from being commune-based to householder-based has helped ISKCON implement reforms that have decreased the abuses that made ISKCON so controversial in the 1970s and early 1980s.
An AFF program (including exit counselor Joseph Kelly, AFF executive director Dr. Michael Langone, Dr. Steve Dubrow-Eichel, and two members of ISKCON, Anuttama Dasa and Radha Dasi) at the 1999 Annual Conference in Minnesota discussed changes in ISKCON. It was one of the best-received programs at the conference. Dr. Rochford's talk will explain how these positive changes came about.

Alan Scheflin, J.D. LL.M
Alan Scheflin will speak on "The Outer Limits of Influence." Mr. Scheflin is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University Law School in California. He has twice been the co-winner of the prestigious American Psychiatric Association Guttmacher Award, first for Trance on Trial and in 1999 for Memory, Trauma Treatment and the Law. His talk will discuss how manipulators can influence people, the factors that limit their influence, and the legal implications of influence that goes beyond that which is normally encountered.

Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D. Emeritus Adjunct Professor of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Singer's study of cultic groups builds on her early research into coercive persuasion during the Korean War. She is the co-author of Cults in Our Midst and Crazy Therapies. Widely regarded as the leading psychotherapist in this field, Dr. Singer has worked with thousands of cult-affected individuals and families.
Dr. Margaret Singer and other AFF helping professionals will participate in a special two-and-one-half hour "Getting Help" program that will include abundant time for questions and answers.

Other Speakers
Livia Bardin, M.S.W.
Psychotherapist; Clinical Social Worker, Washington, D.C.

Carey Bowen
Carey Bowen is organizing several panels in which a mental health professional speaks with one or more former members. These panels will help you better understand why people join cultic groups, how they change in the groups, how they come out, and how they readjust after they leave.

David Clark
Thought Reform Consultant, Philadelphia, PA

Donna & Jonathan Collins, Phoenix, Arizona
Donna Collins (the first western "blessed child" born into the Unification Church) gave a moving talk at AFF's 1998 annual conference in Philadelphia. At this conference Mrs. Collins and her husband Jonathan will join Barbara Underwood Scharff (co-author of Hostage to Heaven) and Gary Scharff, (an attorney with an M.A. in History and Theology from the Graduate Theological Union) in a discussion of recovery issues, including family issues and spiritual searching.

Carol Giambalvo
AFF Outreach Director; Thought Reform Consultant, Flagler Beach, FL
Carol Giambalvo and other AFF helping professionals will participate in a special two-and-one-half hour "Getting Help" program that will include abundant time for questions and answers.

Lorna Goldberg, M.S.W., A.C.S.W., New Jersey Institute of Psychoanalysis, Teaneck, NJ
Lorna Goldberg and other AFF helping professionals will participate in a special two-and-one-half hour "Getting Help" program that will include abundant time for questions and answers.

William Goldberg, M.S.W., A.C.S.W., Director, Community Support Center, Pomona, NY
Bill Goldberg and other AFF helping professionals will participate in a special two-and-one-half hour "Getting Help" program that will include abundant time for questions and answers.

Rosanne Henry, a psychotherapist from Colorado, and former cult member, has co-led AFF's Colorado recovery workshops for seven years. She will talk about issues former members should consider when seeking therapy. Because so few therapists understand cults, she will focus on how ex-members can locate therapists who are most likely to be helpful, how ex-members can teach their therapists about cult issues, and how cult experts can be included in their treatment team.

Joseph Kelly, Thought Reform Consultant Philadelphia, PA

Lois Kendall, Doctoral Candidate in Psychology, Buckinghamshire College, England
English researchers Dr. Rod Marshall and Lois Kendall of Buckinghamshire College will report on their recent research on psychological and measurement issues regarding cultic groups.

Mike Kropveld, Director, Info-Cult, Montreal, Canada

Janja Lalich, M.A., Ph.D. candidate, Education Director, Community Resources on Influence and Control, Alameda, CA
Janja Lalich, M.A., will discuss her dissertation research, which consists of a comparative study of a New Age group (Heaven's Gate) and a political group (the Democratic Workers Party).

Michael Langone, Ph.D., Executive Director, AFF; Editor, Cultic Studies Journal

Rod Marshall, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Buckinghamshire College, England
English researchers Dr. Rod Marshall and Lois Kendall of Buckinghamshire College will report on their recent research on psychological and measurement issues regarding cultic groups.

Herbert Rosedale, Esq.
President, AFF; Senior Partner, Parker Chapin Flattau & Klimpl, New York City

Patrick Ryan
AFF Web site manager; Thought Reform Consultant, Philadelphia, PA

Barbara Underwood Scharff, (co-author of Hostage to Heaven)
Will join Donna Collins (the first western "blessed child" born into the Unification Church) and Gary Scharff, (an attorney with an M.A. in History and Theology from the Graduate Theological Union) in a discussion of recovery issues, including family issues and spiritual searching.
Gary Scharff (an attorney with an M.A. in History and Theology from the Graduate Theological Union)
Will join Donna Collins (the first western "blessed child" born into the Unification Church) and Barbara Underwood Scharff (co-author of Hostage to Heaven), in a discussion of recovery issues, including family issues and spiritual searching.

Rob Tucker
Rob Tucker who directed Toronto's Council on Mind Abuse in the 1980s, will talk about his new book, An Age for Lucifer, which describes what Mr. Tucker sees as an emerging religious system that extends social Darwinism to the realm of spirituality.

Hana Whitfield, Thought Reform Consultant, Cape Coral, FL
Jerry Whitfield, Thought Reform Consultant, Cape Coral, FL

 

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