AFF Conference
AFF’s 2002 annual conference took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Orlando Airport June 14-15, with preconference workshops for families, former group members, and mental health professionals on Thursday, June 14th.
Approximately 200 individuals attended from around the globe. The conference was very well received and many stimulating programs were presented. A detailed report is in preparation.
Ex-Member Workshop in Colorado
AFF’s annual weekend ex-member workshop was held at the St. Malo Retreat Center in Estes Park, Colorado from July 12 -14, 2002. Approximately 20 people took part in this intimate program of sharing and learning..
AFF Bookstore Special – New Edition of Coping with Cult Involvement
Livia Bardin’s Coping with Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families and Friends, has been published in a new bound version. It is now available on our online bookstore at a discounted price of $15.00.
This book, according to AFF’s Dr. Michael Langone, is perhaps the only indispensable book for families and friends with a cult-involved loved one.
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Scientology’s Arch-Enemy Testifies on Organization’s Behalf
Robert Minton, the millionaire who in recent years has reportedly donated $10 million dollars to causes damaging or potentially damaging to the Church of Scientology, has made an about-face and is now testifying on the Church’s behalf in a civil suit that he once supported. According to the Associated Press of July 8th,
Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist, died in 1995 while under the care of fellow Scientologists. Scientology officials said they took McPherson to their Fort Harrison Hotel headquarters so she could avoid psychiatric treatment, which is against church teachings.
The wrongful death suit blames the church for McPherson's death and Circuit Judge Susan Schaeffer is taking testimony on a motion by the Church of Scientology to have it dismissed.
According to court records, the church spent $14.4 million fighting the McPherson case, more than $6 million dealing with lawsuits around the world, and $40,000 on its investigation into Minton, the St. Petersburg Times reported for Sunday editions.
Minton's turnaround came in April after a series of negotiations between Minton and Scientology leaders and lawyers.
Minton, who had been the object of intense investigations by Scientology, told the St. Petersburg Times, according to AP, that "It was like the Terminator was after you." He said that “after he settles his litigation with the church he just wants to walk away.”
Banned Falun Gong Movement Jammed Chinese Satellite Signal
The July 9th Washington Post Foreign News Service reported, “The banned Falun Gong spiritual movement jammed one of China's main television satellites for eight days and briefly beamed a video into millions of homes during last month's World Cup soccer finals, the government said today. The hijacking of the government's Sinosat-1
satellite disrupted TV transmissions from June 23 to 30 and scratched plans for a live broadcast of a speech by President Jiang Zemin. It was the latest act of defiance by a group that has survived a three-year campaign of repression; it also marked the most sophisticated challenge so far to the Communist Party's control of the media.”
VOA News reported on July 8,th “Officials in Beijing are vowing to hunt down and punish sympathizers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, who have been hijacking Chinese satellite TV signals. China blames overseas activists for helping the banned group get its message onto TV screens across the country.”
Hate Games Spreading Across the Web
Reuters published a story on July 9th describing a new study that found that games advocating racism and political violence have proliferated over the Internet since 11 September. The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s report, Digital Hate 2000, identified 3300 “problematic” Web sites, up from 2600 a year ago. There appears to have
been a change in Internet tactics from racist and violent groups. They now focus on spreading their messages and enticing youths with games and music through the Web, rather than recruiting directly. Moreover, alliances seem to be developing between, for example, white supremacists and Islamic extremists.
New Russian Law Bans Religious Extremism
The Keston News Service on July 3rd said that a presidential bill banning religious organizations found to have committed "extremist activity" passed its third and final reading in the lower house of the Russian parliament (Duma) on 27 June, with 274 votes in favor and 145 against. The bill still needs approval from the upper house of
parliament, the Federation Council, and President Vladimir Putin, who proposed it. The bill, "On Counteracting Extremist Activity," deals with the activity of religious as well as social and other organizations and the media.
More news on these stories and many other stories in the next issue of Cultic Studies Review.
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Getting Help Column of Cultic Studies Review
Livia Bardin, M.S.W. has replied to a question submitted to CSR’s Getting Help column: “I left a Bible-based cult almost a year ago. My entire family (parents and four siblings) are still there, and believe I am living in rebellion against God because I left the “only true church.” What is the best way to tell them the truth about
their group, when they twist everything I say, and use it against me? It took me three years to come to the realization that I needed to leave. Will it just take them time, also, even though they react so violently against everything I say?”
Ms. Bardin’s reply will appear in the forthcoming CSR.
We invite others to submit questions for future issues. Several cult experts have volunteered to answer questions accepted for publication.
Rabbi Rudin’s Column, “Cults are Still Dangerous”
Rabbi A. James Rudin, long-time AFF advisor and former director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee, wrote on this subject in his regular column for the Religion News Service. Reflecting on AFF’s recent annual conference, Rabbi Rudin said, “Sadly, cult abuses abound, including mistreatment of young children,
brutal sexual exploitation of women, criminal mishandling of publicly collected funds, systematic breakup of traditional family units, extraordinary financial enrichment of cult leaders and a host of other crimes.”
Rabbi Rudin also lamented the reluctance of many academicians to face up to these and other abuses: “Whenever I raise serious questions about cult actions or cite the criminal actions of such groups, much of the academic community sneers at such evidence and label critics `enemies of religion.’ But truth has a curious way of
surviving such mischievous intellectual games. Cults do inflict damage on their members, sometimes even causing death. The reports from the therapists present in Orlando were painful to hear because they described severe spiritual, emotional and physical damage. Hopefully, the deliberate academic campaign of belittling the personal testimonies of former cult members will cease and
the campus apologists for cults will finally recognize many groups are much more than ‘new religious movements.’ Cults are often something more sinister: they carry out destructive and illegal activities under the protective camouflage of religion.”
Boston Support Group for Ex-Members
Nancy Crosby, the current facilitator of the long-running support group for ex-members in the Boston area, asked us to note the support group’s availability, because many ex-members in the Boston area remain unaware of the group (indeed, somebody called AFF a few days ago asking if there were a support group in Boston). Interested
ex-members can call 617-353-5269 for more information. Ms. Crosby says that she is also willing to consult with people over the phone as she has done for over five years.
Child Custody Workshop
The Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute of the California School of Professional Psychology has announced an upcoming workshop titled, "Conducting Custody Evaluations In the Best Interests of the Child: Techniques, New Legal & Ethical Requirements, & Child Sexual Abuse Issues." The workshop will be held at different times
and places. CE credits are available. For further information contact Melissa Collins at 858-623-2777 ext. 442 or Rocky Rowley at 858-623-2777 ext. 455.
Bob Fellows
Bob Fellows, mentalist and long-time AFF advisor, says that this year he has continued to present the "resisting manipulation" message to audiences as diverse as Dartmouth College (January 5), the Navajo Nation in Chinle, Arizona (Feb. 5-6), a hospital staff in Albert Lea, Minnesota (February 14), a school system outside of Syracuse, NY
(March 18-19), and a hospital continuing education program in Milwaukee (April 17) -- among others.
These presentations are either on the topic of self-responsibility in health and wellness, or "powers of the mind." He always includes his cult awareness message of how easily we can be fooled by social influence no matter how smart we are.
Copies of Mr. Fellows’ book, Easily Fooled: New Insights and Techniques for Resisting Manipulation, are on sale at the presentations, were available at AFF’s recent conference, and will soon be available through AFF’s online bookstore (or simply e-mail us for information). The book was originally written in 1989, and the newer
version published in 2000 has an expanded section on the methods of so-called "psychics" and a new chapter on hypnosis and social influence.
After September 11, 2001, the growing interest in the phenomena of religion motivated Mr. Fellows to develop a course called "World Religions: Opportunities for Understanding." There is a section within the course on "The Uses and Abuses of Faith." Bob will do the course as a workshop at the National Wellness Conference in
Stevens Point, Wisconsin this July, and for a full week at the Northern New England School of Religious Education in Meredith, New Hampshire this August.
Argentine E-mail Course on the Children of God
Curso por e-mail sobre "Los Niños de Dios - La Familia", auspiciado por el Arzobispado de Buenos Aires.
La Fundación S.P.E.S. iniciará en septiembre del 2002, un seminario sobre el movimiento "Los Niños de Dios - La Familia", via e-mail y auspiciado por el Arzobispadod e Buenos Aires.
Dicho curso tratará sobre orígenes, prácticas, creencias, vinculaciones políticas, métodos de captación, infiltración en diversos estamentos de la sociedad y la actividad en el país y el mundo, y estará compuesto en su mayor parte, por documentación de uso interno del movimiento.
Para mayor información y recibir el temario completo, enviar un e-mail a: josemariabaamonde@yahoo.es
Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center Has Opening for Full-Time Counselor
The Albany Ohio residential treatment facility for former group members is now entering its seventeenth year of operation. The client census has grown considerably and Wellspring is accepting applications for a full-time counselor position. The client load is usually 1-2 clients for each two week residential session.
This position also includes providing workshops once or twice a week. Contact Wellspring at 740-698-2053 for more information.
Berlin Former Member Conference
Dave Anderson’s report on a conference in Berlin, Germany of former members of Christian cultic groups.
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Books and Articles Brought to Our Attention
Still Crazy After All These Years
Christopher Caldwell, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, published in the July 3, 2002 Wall Street Journal (p. D7) an interesting book review of The Road to Malpsychia by Joyce Milton. Ms. Milton traces the growth and meanderings of the humanistic psychology movement, which built on psychologist Abraham Maslow’s research into
“self-actualization” and “peak experiences.” However, Maslow’s fears that his work could be misused proved to be true: “Maslow's ideas, as Ms. Milton shows, wound up giving carte blanche to academic con men, like Timothy Leary, who used the lingo of peak experience to proselytize for LSD.” Carl Rogers, according to Milton, was the most damaging successor to Maslow.
Werner Erhard’s est, Chuck Diederich’s Synanon, and others in this lineage are described in Ms. Milton’s attempt to trace the “mainstream fallout of humanistic psychology, charting its legacy in the New Age, self-esteem, and diversity movements.” Caldwell concludes, however, that “Ms. Milton has set herself the difficult task of capturing a Zeitgeist. For the most part, she does so
with common sense and acuity. But… she is better at using her subjects' personal lives to expose their hypocrisy and vested interests than at critiquing their ideas.” Dr. Frank MacHovec will review this book in a forthcoming issue of Cultic Studies Review.
The Man Who Shocked the World
The March 6, 2002 Psychology Today includes an article on Dr. Stanley Milgram, whose shock studies are often cited by cult educators to demonstrate how easily people can be influenced by social factors. “Milgram’s research, like Freud’s, did lead to profound revisions in some of the fundamental assumptions about human nature.
Indeed, by the fall of 1963, the results of Milgram’s research were making headlines. He found that an average, presumably normal group of New Haven, Connecticut, residents would readily inflict very painful and perhaps even harmful electric shocks on innocent victims. The subjects believed they were part of an experiment supposedly dealing with the relationship between punishment and
learning. An experimenter—who used no coercive powers beyond a stern aura of mechanical and vacant-eyed efficiency—instructed participants to shock a learner by pressing a lever on a machine each time the learner made a mistake on a word-matching task. Each subsequent error led to an increase in the intensity of the shock in 15-volt increments, from 15 to 450 volts… That year, the
headline of an article in the October 26 issue of The New York Times blared, ‘Sixty-five Percent in Test Blindly Obey Order to Inflict Pain.’”
“Those groundbreaking and controversial experiments have had—and continue to have—long-lasting significance. They demonstrated with jarring clarity that ordinary individuals could be induced to act destructively even in the absence of physical coercion, and humans need not be innately evil or aberrant to act in ways that are
reprehensible and inhumane. While we would like to believe that when confronted with a moral dilemma we will act as our conscience dictates, Milgram’s obedience experiments teach us that in a concrete situation with powerful social constraints, our moral sense can easily be trampled.”
Aum Shinrikyo: Japan’s Unholy Sect
Rei Kimura has authored a new book on Aum. Information is available at http://www.booksurge.com/author.php3?accountID=GRTU01329
