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Cult Tactics And Escaping

56 resources

🎬 Videos(13)

Video

Leaving a Cult

International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)

By Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and emeritus adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who counseled and interviewed more than 3,000 current and former cult members, relatives and friends. Leaving A Cult: Information About Exiting and Recovery for Ex-Members, Families, and Friends. What is the family's experience like? How cults use thought reform techniques to control people. How cult involvement affects members. How to help a cult member leave a group. Why exit counseling is important. How family members can help with the recovery process.

Video

What Is A Cult and How Does It Work? (Margaret Singer)

International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)

By Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and emeritus adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who counseled and interviewed more than 3,000 current and former cult members, relatives and friends. What is a Cult and How Does it Work? What are cults? How do cults operate? How many people are involved in cults? What are cult leaders' goals and methods? How do cults recruit? What is thought reform? Inside the group. Development of a cult. Pseudoidentity. Returning to the outside world.

Video

RfRx - The Amway of Cults, Bad Perms & Other 1980s Atrocities with Rachel Roberts, Th.M.

Recovering from Religion

During the decade when Evangelicalism was coalescing with politics, a homegrown cult, known as the Shepherding Movement, reached its zenith. A religious pyramid scheme that bilked people of their money, identity, and freedom quietly penetrated the Southern United States. Rachel Roberts escaped the cult and the 80s, and fortunately outgrew both, just like her teenage bad perm.

Video

Former Cult Member Answers Cult Questions From Twitter

WIRED

Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist who used to be in a cult, answers the internet's burning questions about cults. How did Charles Manson get a cult following? What's the best movie about cults? Why did everyone in the Heaven's Gate cult wear Nikes? How do people get brainwashed? Dr. Janja answers all these questions and much more

📄 Articles(18)

Article

Recovering from Christianity

Kezia Farnham

Imagine losing your friends, family or community. Individuals worldwide tell Artefact their shocking experiences of questioning the existence of God.

Article

Is It Culty?

Is It Culty?

The "Is It Culty?" tool and score serve as an aide for self-reflection as you consider your own subjective experiences with a group. It is for personal use only and is not an empiric scientific or diagnostic measure.

Article

Cult Expert Steven Hassan's Freedom of Mind Resource Center

Freedom of Mind Resource Center

A great resource for people in the midst of breaking free or helping someone break free from a cult. There is a service fee, but their site also offers many free resources about cults. Their focus is on people finding their own path without the influence of others.

Article

Steven Hassan's BITE Model of Authoritarian Control - Freedom of Mind Resource Center

Freedom of Mind Resource Center

Many people think of mind control as an ambiguous, mystical process that cannot be defined in concrete terms. In reality, mind control refers to a specific set of methods and techniques, such as hypnosis or thought-stopping, that influence how a person thinks, feels, and acts. Based on research and theory by

Article

How cults rewire the brain

Diane Benscoter

Diane Benscoter spent five years as a "Moonie." She shares an insider's perspective on the mind of a cult member, and proposes a new way to think about today's most troubled conflicts and extremist movements.

Article

Wild Wild Country

Netflix

When a controversial cult leader builds a utopian city in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal.

Article

Boy Erased

Focus Features

Boy Erased tells the courageous story of Jared Eamons (Hedges), the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, who must overcome the fallout of being outed to his parents (Kidman and Crowe). His parents struggle with reconciling their love for their son with their beliefs. Fearing a loss of family, friends, and community, Jared is pressured into attending a conversion therapy program. While there, Jared comes into conflict with its leader (Edgerton) and begins his journey to finding his own voice and accepting his true self.

Article

Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey

Netflix

An in-depth look into the secretive polygamous sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the rise of self-professed prophet Warren Jeffs. From forced underage marriage and pregnancy to a complete unraveling into an oppressive criminal cult under Warren Jeffs' rule, the story uncovers extraordinary bravery battling tyrannical control in modern America.

📚 Books(13)

Book

Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults

Janja A. Lalich

Heaven's Gate, a secretive group of celibate "monks" awaiting pickup by a UFO, captured intense public attention in 1997 when its members committed collective suicide. As a way of understanding such perplexing events, many have seen those who join cults as needy, lost souls, unable to think for themselves. This book, a compelling look at the cult phenomenon written for a wide audience, dispels such simple formulations by explaining how normal, intelligent people can give up years of their lives--and sometimes their very lives--to groups and beliefs that appear bizarre and irrational. Looking closely at Heaven's Gate and at the Democratic Workers Party, a radical political group of the 1970s and 1980s, Janja Lalich gives us a rare insider's look at these two cults and advances a new theoretical framework that will reshape our understanding of those who join such groups.

Book

Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Relationships

Janja A. Lalich

Cult victims and those who have suffered abusive relationships often suffer from fear, confusion, low self-esteem, and post-traumatic stress. Take Back Your Life explains the seductive draw that leads people into such situations, provides guidelines for assessing what happened, and hands-on tools for getting back on track. Written for victims, their families, and professionals, this book leads readers through the healing process.

Book

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism

Amanda Montell

What makes "cults" so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we're looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join--and more importantly, stay in--extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell's argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .

Book

Uncultured: A Memoir

Daniella Mestyanek Young

Behind the tall, foreboding gates of a commune in Brazil, Daniella Mestyanek Young was raised in the religious cult The Children of God, also known as The Family, as the daughter of high-ranking members. Her great-grandmother donated land for one of The Family's first communes in Texas. Her mother, at thirteen, was forced to marry the leader and served as his secretary for many years. Beholden to The Family's strict rules, Daniella suffers physical, emotional, and sexual abuse--masked as godly discipline and divine love--and is forbidden from getting a traditional education. At fifteen years old, fed up with The Family and determined to build a better and freer life for herself, Daniella escapes to Texas. There, she bravely enrolls herself in high school and excels, later graduating as valedictorian of her college class, then electing to join the military to begin a career as an intelligence officer, where she believes she will finally belong. But she soon learns that her new world--surrounded by men on the sands of Afghanistan--looks remarkably similar to the one she desperately tried to leave behind. Told in a beautiful, propulsive voice and with clear-eyed honesty, Uncultured explores the dangers unleashed when harmful group mentality goes unrecognized, and is emblematic of the many ways women have to contort themselves to survive.

Book

Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out

Rick Alan Ross

You've seen them in movies and on TV, but cults are more prevalent than you think--and they're armed with strategies that can brainwash and persuade even the most unlikely of candidates. But how do individuals get involved with cults in the first place, and what steps can be taken to "deprogram" and heal those who have been drawn into these damaging groups? These questions and more are addressed in Cults Inside Out, written by leading cult expert Rick Alan Ross. Over the course of three decades, Ross has participated in around five hundred cult interventions, provided expert court testimony, and performed cult-related work all around the world. With the help of current and former cult members, Ross demonstrates many of the tactics the groups use for control and manipulation--and, more importantly, some of the most effective methods he and other experts have used to reverse that programming. As a result, readers will find themselves armed with a greater understanding of the nature of destructive cults and an improved ability to assess and deal with similar situations--either in their own lives or the lives of friends and family members.

🎙️ Podcasts(6)

Podcast

podcast

Let's Talk About Sects Podcast

Let's Talk About Sects is an award-winning, 100% independent monthly podcast focusing on a different cult each episode. Host Sarah Steel takes a storytelling, deep dive approach, looking at the history of a sect's leaders, the recruitment of members, their experiences, psychological aspects, and notable incidents during its existence.

Podcast

podcast

Project Hope Podcast

The Project Hope Podcast is for families and friends with a loved one in a group of high demand / high control. Our aim is to provide hope through the stories of people who have both left such groups, as well as families, partners and friends who have struggled with the loss or distance of a loved one to such a group. We interview experts on psychological and social patterns that are found within these dynamics. In both round table and interview discussions we explore and debate some of the baffling and challenging issues that arise for both those leaving these groups, and those on the outskirts, wondering what to do.

Podcast

podcast

The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steven Hassan on Apple Podcasts

Steven Hassan, PhD, is one of the leading experts on cults and undue influence in the world. A former member of the right-wing Moonie cult, Hassan was deprogrammed 45 years ago and has dedicated his life to helping people out of cults and destructive situations. Dr. Hassan is a licensed mental health professional and has written four books, including The Cult of Trump and the seminal book Combating Cult Mind Control. On this podcast, Steve will explain HOW mind-control works, and how to protect yourself from its grips. He will also address ethical influence as the podcast will address the entire Influence Continuum. He'll interview the biggest names in this field.

Podcast

podcast

Leaving Eden on Apple Podcasts

A cult survivor speaks out about her experiences! We talk cults, religions, and cult true crime! Hosted by Sadie Carpenter and Gavri'el HaCohen

🏢 Organizations(6)

Organization

organization

EnCourage Survivors of Cults and Abuse

EnCourage was set up in order to offer support to those who have left a cult, abusive group, one on one cult or been spiritually abused (called former members). This includes first generation (joined or recruited) and second/third generation (born and or raised).

Organization

organization

International Cultic Studies Association

International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), founded in 1979, provides information, education, and help to those adversely affected by or interested in cultic and other high-control groups and relationships. ICSA is unique in how it brings together former group members, families, helping professionals and researchers

Organization

organization

Open Minds Foundation

The Open Minds Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organization, established to raise awareness of and educate on the dangers of coercion and coercive control within our societies, reducing its impact, and in the long term, eliminating it altogether.

Organization

organization

Cult Education Institute

The Cult Education Institute (CEI) is a nonprofit library with archived information about cults, destructive cults, controversial groups and movements.

Organization

organization

International Cultic Studies Association

Provides information, education, and help to those adversely affected by or interested in cultic and other high-control groups and relationships

See Also