Introduction to the 2018 Edition Fake News! –Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States of America In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. –George Orwell, (actual name, Eric Blair) in his dystopian novel 1984, published in 1949 Spring, 2018. I am waiting to fly home to Boston, exhausted, but with a deep feeling of fulfillment. Last night I concluded a three-day intervention with a wonderful group of family and friends who had hired me to help a loved one wake up from a deep involvement with a Hindu guru group. Her marriage and their family business were threatened. The new guru had instructed believers to move to India and not speak with ex-members. Her husband and now two adult children had hired me, along with her sisters, to do my best to develop, guide and implement a Strategic Interactive Approach that culminated in this three-day voluntary intervention. Last night and again this morning tears came to my eyes as I read texts from everyone filled with gratitude. Her true believer trance was gone. She was now thinking for herself. Before we began, many had doubted we could be successful because she seemed so programmed. Thankfully, they were mistaken. She agreed to listen because her sisters, children, husband and her close friends begged her to stay and learn. They asked her to have an open mind and learn about cults and mind control from me. With the help of long-term former members who had been her friends while in the group, she was overwhelmed with compelling and believable stories. She learned about horrible abuses of power that her daughter experienced and discovered had happened to others. She sat with and listened to her old friends she had previously dismissed and avoided. Love, patience, and respect guided the process. It worked beautifully! As I am waiting at the airport, I get into a conversation with some fellow travelers who have recognized me from my appearance on the Leah Remini show exposing Scientology abuses. They have many questions. They ask me to tell them more about how I got interested in helping people out of cults. I ask them if they have ever heard of the Moon cult? No, they haven’t. But they have heard of the newspaper owned by them, the Washington Times. As I’m describing how high-demand groups have proliferated over the past few years, reaching what I consider epidemic proportions, they stop me. They can’t believe it’s true. They are amazed to hear that cults are successfully recruiting people. I go back through decades of big stories: “Charles Manson?” The woman had read that he was supposed to get married. “Patty Hearst and the SLA?” They’ve never heard of her. “Do you know about Jonestown and Jim Jones?” Astonishingly, no, they don’t. This edition is being published on the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy, which took place November 18th, 1978. The hardcover edition of Combating Cult Mind Control came out on the 10th anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy. While today most Americans know the expression “drink the Kool-Aid,” many people have never heard of Jim Jones and his cult, the Peoples Temple. Even fewer know the grim story of how cyanide was mixed with Flavor Aid and forced down the throats of over 300 children and hundreds of adults. Jones told them it was an act of “revolutionary suicide.” They believed he was God on earth. In total, he killed 912 people. What about Waco, David Koresh, and Branch Davidians? Heaven’s Gate? The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo and their sarin gas attack in the subways of Tokyo?” No, no. Sadly, no. They are not alone in not knowing. The world has changed. While the names of the big cults of the 1970s and 1980s have disappeared from the headlines, even more, insidious names—Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony—have taken their place. In fact, my traveling companions ask me about ISIS, also known as Islamic State or Daesh—it seems to them that it might be a cult. Yes! I tell them that, in my opinion, it is a political cult that uses religion to lure and influence people. It exhibits many of the classic signs—recruiting people through deception, whisking them away to isolated locations, giving them new names, clothes, controlling their access to food and information, implanting phobias, and making false promises. We talk about North Korea, its nuclear arms development, and assassinations of enemies, cyber attacks against Sony Pictures, whose movie, The Interview, casts the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in a decidedly unflattering light. I tell them that North Korea is a classic example of a mind control regime. They are entirely dependent and obedient to their “great leader,” and his picture is everywhere. North Korean dictator Kim and President Trump, ignoring criminal human rights abuses, decided to meet in person. This event fascinates me as the United States’ unorthodox move follows some of my significant principles of the Strategic Interactive Approach (SIA) including communicating directly in person rather than through others, or phone or email, rapport and trust building by giving respect. I also liked the 4 minute video shown to Kim of a future of economic promise. We then discuss human trafficking—one of the most common felonies committed in the United States, second only to identity theft. Sex and labor trafficking are now multibillion-dollar industries. It is finally getting significant media attention. However, it seems everyone is missing the core issue. The human trafficking racket is accurately understood as a “commercial cult” phenomenon. Pimps are business people who operate like cult leaders. They use psychological techniques to recruit, indoctrinate, and control their members. I tell my companions about a book sold on Amazon, written by a pimp, showing men how to use mind control on women to get them to be sex slaves. I tell them that human trafficking has become a focus of my energies over the past few years. In the summer of 2013, I was invited by Carissa Phelps and her Runaway Girl organization to speak at a training session for six hundred law enforcement personnel on the subject of trafficking. My role was to talk about the mind control tactics used by pimps and human traffickers, the effect on women, and how law enforcement can be most effective in responding. Later, Rachel Thomas, Carissa Phelps, D’lita Miller and I developed the first program for sex trafficking survivors to understand pimp mind control. It is called Ending the Game. Had I taken the conversation further with them—had I scratched the surface of their personal lives a little deeper—chances are they would have mentioned someone they know, a friend or a relative, who has undergone a “radical personality change.” It happens all the time. Someone has been acting strangely, possibly avoiding contact with parents, friends, or community. Maybe they’ve married a controlling spouse or become involved with a charismatic person on campus or a small group of people. One of the most significant changes I have seen over the past decades is the rise of “mini-cults,” which consist of anywhere from two to twelve people. The leader could be a husband or a wife, a teacher, a therapist, or even a client. One of my most memorable cases involved a therapist who had fallen victim to the undue influence of her client. Today, the issue of unethical and psychological social influence permeates the fabric of our society, and societies all over the world. Destructive cults are just one manifestation of the application of what is now routinely studied academically, the science of social influence. The need for this book has not diminished. On the contrary, it is, if anything, even more pressing. Cult Efforts To Stop Exposure Since my deprogramming in May of 1976, I have written three books, given countless talks, workshops, and seminars all over the world, and done an incredible number of media interviews. I have been invited several times to speak in Professor Rebecca Lemov’s History of Brainwashing course at Harvard University. When I ask the students if they are curious how I became interested in the science of brainwashing and mind control, and my involvement in the Moon cult, almost no one in the room knows what I am talking about. Most people have forgotten about the Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon, who founded the Unification Church in 1954, declared himself the Messiah and arranged mass weddings between members—earning the group notoriety during the 1970s and 1980s. Some Americans do remember the Moon cult, but they think the organization disappeared years ago. That is hardly the case. It is still very much alive, even though Moon himself died in 2012. The organization continues to be very active in world affairs. It owns, among many entities, The Washington Times and United Press International (UPI) in Washington, DC. For the past three decades, the media have provided little coverage on this group’s destructive activities. This year, Hyung Jin Moon, made headlines with his Rod of Iron Ministry which advocates assault rifles are necessary for God’s people. His brother Justin Moon owns Kahr arms, a gun manufacturing company that makes pistols, assault rifles, and submachine guns. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Scientology was also very well known. Since the early 1990s, however, it has received much less media attention. Not because of a lack of public interest, but because of Scientology’s bottomless pockets and litigious nature. In fact, Scientology now holds the title of one of the most litigious organizations in the history of the world. Scientology sued TIME Magazine over their 1990 cover story, “Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power,” and forced TIME to defend the article all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but its writer, Richard Behar, was viciously and continuously harassed. Personal and legal harassment sent a strong message to other writers and news producers: Do a story on Scientology, and you will spend a fortune defending yourself while living in fear that you and your family will be harassed. For decades after the TIME lawsuit, I was invited to appear on TV or radio programs, but would be warned by the producers to avoid mentioning Scientology. Because of similar fears about Moon’s organization, which was also wealthy and litigious, I was told that I couldn’t mention the Moonies, or say I’d been a member of Moon’s Unification Church. When I mentioned it anyway, my comments would routinely be edited out, unless it was a live interview. Scientology took over the most important counter-cult organization, the Cult Awareness Network (CAN)—an organization which was established to provide useful, accurate information on mind control groups. Contrary to cult propaganda it was not founded by deprogrammer Ted Patrick. CAN was made up of volunteers across the United States: parents, ex-cult members, mental health professionals, educators, lawyers, and other concerned citizens. When I first wrote this book, CAN was the essential information resource on cults. However, Scientology sued CAN into bankruptcy in 1996, and then bought their name, logo, and telephone number. They later obtained all of CAN’s files and records. Scientology ran CAN as a deceptive front group for years. It now appears to be offline. Scientology has also used legal warrants to raid databases around the world, including the counter-cult site factnet.org. Fortunately, this aspect of their legal maneuvering backfired, leading to greater public interest in the group, and sending Jon Atack’s masterful exposé, Let’s Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky, into the Amazon top 100. The media has done many stories on Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, John Travolta and other celebrities associated with Scientology. Former top executives of the group have left and gone public, revealing how they managed, after 25 years of fighting and dirty tricks, to force the IRS to give them tax exempt status as a “religion” which it is not in my opinion. In the years since the first edition of this book was published, some of the larger mind control groups spent millions of dollars to retain top law firms, public relations agencies, and private investigators. Some of these professionals are paid handsomely to threaten former group members; to underwrite significant disinformation campaigns; to undermine the fundamental human rights of current members; and to defend the mind control organizations against prosecution for blatantly criminal acts. Destructive cults have tried repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, to discredit other activists and me. Most of this has taken the form of disinformation campaigns, but some of it has been much shadier. For example, cult members would call my office, pretending to be ex-members or distraught parents, and ask for help. Their goal was to deceive or manipulate me into saying or doing something that could hurt my reputation. Cult agents have been sent out to sow seeds of distrust among cult activists by telling untruths about fellow activists. By undermining these collaborations and friendships, cult agents have occasionally disrupted or neutralized efforts to help victims of destructive cults. Courageous former members who dare to speak out often suffer significant harm to their reputations, finances, or both. Careers and often marriages destroyed, people followed, tires punctured, dwellings broken into, and frivolous lawsuits filed. A book could be written just telling the stories of the heroes of the mind control awareness movement. Part of the reason I am republishing and updating this book is to share some of those critical and inspiring accounts. Changes Since The 1988 Edition This edition marks the 30th anniversary of this book. So many things have changed since it was first published. I still hear from people all over the world who tell me it was transformative and even saved their lives. Over the years, I have heard from hundreds of people that the stories in this book provided many parallels to their own experiences, and helped transform their lives. I am delighted to republish it fundamentally intact, but with many important updates and additions. Let me describe some of the changes and factors to consider as you read this new edition. When I was deprogrammed from the Moonies in 1976, there was no Internet. Since then, life on planet Earth, especially our relationship to information and people around the world, has changed radically. I used to carry with me pounds of books and photocopies of information when doing my work. There was no Wikipedia. No Google. No Facebook. There were no cell phones, no text messaging, and no tracking GPS chips. Before the Internet, no one knew where to go for help. Perhaps they would talk with friends, relatives, doctors, or clergy. Or they would use the card catalog at their local library to look for a book. People felt helpless, afraid, alone, and confused as they watched a loved one undergo a radical personality change. Similarly, people recruited into a cult had few resources to reality-test what they were told while in the group. When people leave cults they are confused, ashamed, lonely, depressed, and often suicidal, but there were few places to turn to for helpful information or guidance. The advent of the World Wide Web created a new era, as it was a fast and effective way to network and share information. In 1992, computer genius, Bob Penny, built factnet.org, the first dedicated counter-cult website, which was then launched by his fellow ex-Scientologists Lawrence Wollersheim, Gerry Armstrong, and Jon Atack. I had my website in 1995. The Internet provided light on the dark deeds of megalomaniac cult leaders and their unethical, often criminal behavior. In those early days of the Internet, the information control of destructive groups was temporarily broken, and cults scrambled to cope with that fact. Unfortunately, just as diseases evolve to resist or avoid new medical treatments, many organizations now use the Internet to mislead and misinform the world. Some examples: • Unfortunately, Wikipedia is constantly patrolled by agents of destructive groups. Critical information is removed or confusing information is added. These wealthy groups with free labor have the advantage when it comes to information control and currently, Wikipedia has not found a way to protect the public and mitigate their power. Perhaps they are substantial donors? Members continuously try to remove accurate information about their organizations and replace it with falsehoods. Some of the larger organizations have staff whose sole job is to erase truth from the web and upload propaganda. Valuable sites, such as factnet.org, are hacked and driven out of operation. Thankfully, there is the Wayback Machine Internet archive. If you know the critical site URL, there is a chance the useful information has been saved and archived. • Mind-control organizations routinely sponsor websites that purport to provide help, empathy, and guidance to former members, as well as to current members who are thinking of leaving. Some of these sites include links to ostensibly supportive professionals. Unfortunately, some of these websites are shams. They are run by the mind control organizations themselves and are used to lure ex-members back in and to identify and isolate people who are thinking of leaving. There are also some disturbed people, including hucksters pretending to be deprogrammers and cult experts trolling for business. They have questionable personal histories, lack credentials and will attack me or colleagues in an attempt to harm our reputations. Do not believe information that does not make sense. Ask for verifiable proof. Or ask me what is going on. Legitimate experts have legitimate other experts to verify they are responsible and trustworthy. • Because vast amounts of personal information are now available for purchase online, cult recruiters (as well as ordinary scam artists) can now go online and develop extensive profiles about future targets. They then pretend to read people’s minds, or intuit their deepest hopes and fears, or channel spirits, or act as agents of divine inspiration. This technique of mystical manipulation often plays a significant role in a person’s recruitment. The Internet has provided an entirely new way to influence people and control them. Totalitarian countries block access to sites they consider to be “dangerous” for their continued control. AI, sophisticated deep data mining algorithms, and social media represent a far greater danger for mass mind control. In the past several years, a number of fiction movies and television series have been developed around the idea of destructive cults with charismatic leaders. Unfortunately, they all far short in giving useful information that will enable people to truly understand cult mind control and protect themselves and loved ones. What Else Has Changed In this edition, I will often use the terms mind control and undue influence. In previous versions, I regularly used mind control but rarely used undue influence. Both refer to the process of controlling people by mentally hijacking their rational thought processes. Undue influence has been primarily used in a legal context, but one of my hopes is that undue influence will be understood and used by the general public soon. In many ways, undue influence is a better term than mind control, as exploitation is part of the definition of undue influence. In truth, undue influence can infect people to such an extent that they form a programmed cult identity. It is a kind of “virus of undue influence” which invades and alters its host. I have become a member of the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at Harvard, a forensic think tank, where I discuss these concepts with esteemed colleagues. I have taught Psychiatry Grand Rounds at Harvard Medical School and have begun teaching there. And, I have entered a doctoral program at Fielding Graduate University to do scholarly research on my BITE model. Hopefully it might be shown to be a useful instrument for helping to define undue influence. I would like to talk about and define three other terms: intervention, deprogramming, and exit-counseling. Over the years, my work has evolved dramatically to deal with the many new realities in mind control or undue influence. As a result, none of these terms accurately describes what I usually teach and do. An intervention is a sit-down, ideally three-day process in which I, along with former cult members, experts and key family members and friends surprise someone who is in the grips of mind control. We then use friendly persuasion to secure their voluntary agreement to sit with us, listen, and learn. Before the first edition of this book was published, it was relatively simple to do an intervention, and many of them were successful. But after this book’s initial success, many leaders of mind control organizations adapted their strategies in response. So—especially with the major groups I’ve written about—members were told never to go home alone, especially for more than a day or two. Also, since the advent of the smartphone, people under undue influence are regularly monitored and controlled via voice mail messages, texts, phone calls, and emails. As a result, the old intervention techniques are no longer as effective. These days, I agree to do interventions only when I’m sure there is no better way to help, and I am reasonably sure that the person will not get up and walk out (or call the cult). I also stopped using the term exit-counseling many years ago. For one thing, the term proved counterproductive. When a cult member was told that Steve Hassan, an exit-counselor, had arrived to talk with them, they would refuse to speak with me unless they were already interested in leaving. Furthermore, in parts of Europe, the term exit-counseling is used to describe counseling someone who is dying. Although I did some deprogramming very early in my career, I have avoided the practice for over three decades. As you will see, I differentiate deprogramming—which is conducted by force, and which sometimes included actual abduction—from voluntary, respectful, and legal methods of helping. Over the years, my colleagues and I have endeavored to find a more descriptive term than deprogramming. For a vast number of people in the media, as well as the general public, the word has positive connotations. For a time I would say that I was a cult exit-counselor, and everyone would ask, “What is that?” When I added, “voluntary, legal deprogramming,” they would understand that I was involved in helping group members think for themselves and make their own decisions. But the word deprogramming continues to be problematic for me to feel comfortable using as a term. People don’t erase people’s mental hard drives. Instead, I give people a toolkit for helping them make their own decisions and taking back their lives. I help people detect and remove the virus of mind control on their own. Reclaiming one’s power is something they ultimately need to do themselves, for themselves, not something I do to them. However, when people are operating in full cult-identity mode, they often need help to encourage them to step back and reality-test their commitments, including their beliefs and behaviors. Helping people reclaim their integrity and free will is a complicated process. In any case, all of these terms are just sound-bites. The full name for what I teach and do is the Strategic Interactive Approach. A mouthful. What does it mean? It’s a customized, sophisticated, complex systems-theory approach, whereby I create a unique and ethical influence campaign to help individuals acquire a set of experiences and realizations that help them remove many of the invisible chains of mind control. The goals of every SIA effort are to empower the individual to be their own person: to think critically, to evaluate, and to reality-test and to exercise their own free will. The person learns to listen to their inner voice, rather than the instructions of an authority figure. In this process, I engage family and friends and employ a wide variety of helpful strategies and resources. In this edition, I have re-titled chapter 6 Courageous Survivor Stories and added new stories of people who were members of mind control groups, which includes terrorism and sex trafficking. I also have highlighted several people’s courageous activities to help others, and de-stigmatize their own earlier involvement in these groups. These stories shed light on the full range of such organizations. Some are relatively unknown, such as the apocalyptic cult Eternal Values, or the Zen Buddhist organization Shasta Abbey or the Iranian terrorist group MeK. Others, such as Scientology and Transcendental Meditation (TM), are more recognizable to the average reader. Still others, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons, have been highly visible for many decades. In the early editions of Combating Cult Mind Control, I did not include stories about those aberrant Christian groups. However, over the years I have been contacted by many people who were born into those organizations, telling me how the book helped them. Paradoxically, because the earlier editions didn’t mention either group, the book wasn’t banned by church leaders, and so it was widely read by church members as a result. An Invitation To Safety The techniques of undue influence have evolved dramatically, and continue to do so. Today, a vast array of methods exists to deceive, manipulate and indoctrinate people into closed systems of obedience and dependency. Sadly, the essential information in this book is still not widely known or understood. People around the world remain largely unprepared for the new realities of mind control. But we are far from helpless. There is a great deal you can do to stay safe, sane, and whole—and to help the people you care about to do the same. And if someone you love is already part of a mind control group, there is much you can do to help them break free and rebuild their lives. This book will give you the tools you will need. As you read this book, you will learn to develop, use, and trust your critical thinking skills, your intuition, your bodily and emotional awareness, your ability to ask the right questions, and your skills at doing rapid and useful research. You will also learn to cultivate a healthy balance of openness and skepticism. As you will see, the entire process begins and ends with you. Welcome!