Combatting CULT MIND CONTROL

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Combatting CULT MIND CONTROL Combatting CULT MIND CONTROL STEVEN HASSAN IIIIIIIHII Park Street Press / dedicate this book to people all over the world who have ever experienced the loss of their personal freedom, in the hope that it might help ease their suffering. Park Street Press One Park Street Rochester, VT 05767 Copyright © 1988, 1990 by Steven Hassan All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hassan, Steven. Combatting cult mind control / Steven Hassan, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-89281-311-3 1. Cults—Controversial literature. 2. Cults—Psychological aspects. 3. Hassan, Steven. I. Title. BP603.H375 1990 306'. I—dc20 90-43697 CIP Printed and bound in the United States 10 98765432 Park Street Press is a division of Inner Traditions International, Ltd. Distributed to the book trade in Canada by Book Center, Inc., Montreal, Quebec Contents Foreword by Margaret Singer xiii Preface xvii Chapter 1 Exit-Counseling: The Background 1 Chapter 2 My Life in the Unification Church 12 Chapter 3 The Threat: Mind Control Cults Today 35 Chapter 4 Understanding Mind Control 53 Chapter 5 Cult Psychology 76 Chapter 6 Cult Assessment: How to Protect Yourself 95 Chapter 7 Exit-Counseling: Freedom Without Coercion 112 Chapter 8 How to Help 132 Chapter 9 Unlocking Cult Mind Control 148 Chapter 10 Strategies for Recovery 168 Chapter 11 The Next Step 187 Appendix Lifton's Eight Criteria of Mind Control 200 Resource Organizations 206 Endnotes 211 Bibliography 221 Index 233 About the Author 237 I Acknowledgments With heartfelt gratitude, I thank my parents, Milton and Estelle Hassan, for all their love and support. Whenever I needed them, they were there for me. They risked everything to rescue me from the Moonies and I will be forever grateful that they did. I wish to thank my sisters, Thea and Stephanie, as well as my brothers-in- law, Doug and Ken, for all they have done throughout the years. My aunt and uncle, Phyllis and Mort Slotnick, have always been a strong support. In addition I wish to thank Gary Rosenberg, Michael Strom, Nestor Garcia, and Gladys Rodriguez for their willingness to spend five very difficult days in 1976 counseling me back to reality. Without their help, 1 might have spent many more years in the Moonies. Special acknowledgments go to Aureet Bar-Yam who for more than seven years has put up with the incredible demands that my work has required. Her parents, Drs. Zvi and Miriam Bar-Yam, have been a source of much love, inspiration, and help in ways too numerous to recount. I would also like to thank just a few special friends: Gary Birns, Marc and Elyse Hirschorn, Monica Weiss, Lenny Harris, Dr. Karen Magarian, Joan Lebach, Michael Lisman, Russell Backer and Susan Mayer, Michael Stone, Chris and Lee Benton, Steve and Nell Morse, and others too numerous to mention here. They know who they arc Some individuals have been my teachers and, at times, my inspiration. I would like to thank Robert Jay Lifton, M.D; Milton H. Erickson, M.D.; Margaret Singer, Ph.D.; Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman; John Grinder, Ph.D.; and Richard Handler, Bill and Lorna Goldberg, David Gordon, and Stephen Lankton. Warm thanks go to those people who were instrumental in making this book happen. My best friend Chris Kilham helped me find my publisher, Ehud Sperling, who had the boldness, vision, and integrity to bring out this book. I also wish to thank Leslie Colket, managing editor, who believed in this book, made innumerable contributions, and oversaw its development from infancy to completion. I would like to acknowledge Ed Conroy for his editorial contribution, reworking my manuscript. He approached this project with vigor and insight and made it a much stronger book. xii Acknowledgments My thanks also to Susan Davidson and Anna Congdon for their valuable Foreword assistance refining the book into its present form. Many other people have helped me substantially along the way, providing me with information, insight, and editorial comments. I would also like to thank Alan MacRobert, Herb Rosedale, Betty and Kate Kilham, Fred Clarkson, James and Marcia Rudin, Priscilla Coates, David Rich, Carol Turn- bull, Carol and Noel Giambalvo, Chip Berlet, and Ford Greene. Some people mentioned here—friends, colleagues, former clients—were willing to share their stories of cult involvement and thereby enriched this book. I am most grateful for their assistance and their encouragement. In the many The phone was frighteningly loud. The clock read 4:30 A.M. It was difficult to years I have been involved in the cult field, I have met some of the most take in what a reporter from The Berkeley Gazette was saying on the phone: talented, most caring, and best people in the world. "Margaret, I hate to bother you this early, but we have just learned that Jim Jones has decided to pull the trigger down in Guyana. I've been here all night at a house in Berkeley talking with ex-members of People's Temple and with relatives of persons down in Jonestown. There's a mother here whose husband and twelve-year-old son are down there and she is desperate. It is not known if everyone's dead, or if there are survivors. I know I've told you not to work with ex-members of People's Temple because of the dangerous harassment that Jones' so-called 'Angels' direct against former members. But these people need to talk with you and get some help with what has happened." As daylight was breaking, I passed up the steps guarded by somber Berkeley police, as it was feared that Jones had left "hit orders" for members still in the area to wipe out defectors when he ordered the final "White Night," his term for the often rehearsed moment when he would have all his followers drink poison. The reporter, my son (also a reporter), and a few police officers had warned me not to give my usual gratis consultation services to ex-People's Temple members, even though I had long given these services to former cultists. Jones allegedly used his "angels" to wreak vengeance against members who left and against their supporters as well. The woman whose husband and young son were eventually identified as dead in Jonestown was only one of many. I spent hours and days meeting and talking with various survivors as they returned from Guyana to the Bay Area and attempted to get their lives going again after the Guyanese holocaust. There were attorney Tim Stoen and his wife Grace, whose young son had been held captive by Jones and died in Jonestown. There were the members of the basketball team who missed the mass suicide-murder. There was a nine-year- old girl who had survived having had her throat slit by a woman who then killed herself in Georgetown, Guyana, as part of Jones' mass death orders. There was Larry Layton, who faced courts in two countries for allegedly carrying out Jones' orders at the airport in Guyana where Rep. Leo J. Ryan and others died. I began to work with ex-cultists about six years before Jonestown and Foreword Foreword XV xiv continue to do so to this day. I have provided psychological counseling to more We must heed the potentially destructive and frightening impact that the than three thousand persons who have been in cults. I have written about some use of mind control by selfishly motivated groups can have on the very fabric of of this work and have talked with lay and professional groups in many countries a society. This book fills a need and deserves a wide audience about thought reform programs, intense indoctrination programs, cults, and related topics. Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D. My interest in the effects of thought reform programs began when I Adjunct Professor, Department of Psychology worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research after the Korean War. At University of California, Berkeley, California that point I met and worked with Edgar H. Schein, Ph.D., Robert J. Lifton, Recipient of the Leo J. Ryan Memorial Award M.D., and Louis J. West, M.D., pioneers in the study of the effects of intense indoctrination programs. I was involved in the follow-up studies of former prisoners of war, interviewed long-term prisoners of the Chinese, and partici­ pated over the years in much of the work on conceptualizing thought reform programs. As Steve Hassan does in this volume, I have repeatedly described the specific needs of persons who have been subjected to such and have emphasized the lack of knowledge that most citizens as well as mental health professionals have about the processes, effects, and aftermath of being subjected to thought reform programs. Steve Hassan has clearly and convincingly described how mind control is induced. He integrates his personal experience in a cult, and his practical skills developed in twelve years of exit-counseling of persons who have been in mind control situations, with theories and concepts in the scientific literature. The book comes alive with real-life examples. For the first time, an experienced exit-counselor outlines step by step the actual methods, sequence, and framework of what he does and how he works with families and the persons under mind control. He draws on the various scholarly works in the fields of thought reform, persuasion, social psychology, and hypnosis to offer theoretical frameworks for how mind control is achieved.
Recommended publications
  • Religious Advisement Resources Part Ii
    RELIGIOUS ADVISEMENT RESOURCES 2020 PART II Notice Regarding External Resources: The listed resources are provided in this document are operated by other government organizations, commercial firms, educational institutions, and private parties. We have no control over the information of these resources which may contain information that could be objectionable or which may not otherwise conform to Department of Defense policies. These listings are offered as a convenience and for informational purposes only. Their inclusion here does not constitute an endorsement or an approval by the Department of Defense of any of the products, services, or opinions of the external providers. The Department of Defense bears no responsibility for the accuracy or the content of these resources. 1 FAITH AND BELIEF SYSTEMS U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Religious Beliefs and Practices http://www.acfsa.org/documents/dietsReligious/FederalGuidelinesInmateReligiousBeliefsandPractices032702.pdf Buddhism Native American Eastern Rite Catholicism Odinism/Asatru Hinduism Protestant Christianity Islam Rastfari Judaism Roman Catholic Christianity Moorish Science Temple of America Sikh Dharma Nation of Islam Wicca U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Religious Literacy Primer https://crcc.usc.edu/files/2015/02/Primer-HighRes.pdf Baha’i Earth-Based Spirituality Buddhism Hinduism Christianity: Anabaptist Humanism Anglican/Episcopal Islam Christian Science Jainism Evangelical Judaism Jehovah’s Witnesses
    [Show full text]
  • Charisma, Medieval and Modern
    Charisma, Medieval and Modern Edited by Peter Iver Kaufman and Gary Dickson Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Religions www.mdpi.com/journal/religions Peter Iver Kaufman and Gary Dickson (Eds.) Charisma, Medieval and Modern This book is a reprint of the special issue that appeared in the online open access journal Religions (ISSN 2077-1444) in 2012 (available at: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/charisma_medieval). Guest Editors Peter Iver Kaufman Jepson School, University of Richmond Richmond, VA, USA Gary Dickson School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh Edinburgh, EH, Scotland, UK Editorial Office MDPI AG Klybeckstrasse 64 Basel, Switzerland Publisher Shu-Kun Lin Production Editor Jeremiah R. Zhang 1. Edition 2014 0'3,%DVHO%HLMLQJ ISBN 978-3-03842-007-1 © 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. All articles in this volume are Open Access distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles even for commercial purposes, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. However, the dissemination and distribution of copies of this book as a whole is restricted to MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. III Table of Contents List of Contributors ............................................................................................................... V Preface
    [Show full text]
  • Scientology Final
    Shelby Gluskin Ms. Plummer English 211 24 April 2018 Scientology’s Life Span Scientology is constantly being questioned on its legitimacy as a religion and on the almost secretive way in which the church conducts its business. Most people who give Scientology only a cursory glance do not believe that it meets the criteria to both identify and sustain itself as a mainstream religion; however, there is plenty of evidence to dispute this finding. As the Merriam Webster Dictionary defines religion as “the belief in god or a group of gods: an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies and rules used to worship a god or group of gods”, it is hard to dispute that Scientology is in fact a religion (Religion). Scientology is ​ ​ described as the religion of seeking spiritual fulfillment through study (What Is Scientology). As the influence of religion declines in society and fewer people identify themselves as being observant, this church continues to hold and attract members. Scientology is able to maintain its status as a viable and even thriving religion through the covert actions of the Church, excessive funding, and an abundant amount of celebrity endorsement. With the ability to keep negative and threatening secrets out of the view of the public’s eye, Scientology can maintain its carefully cultivated image. The Church of Scientology is able to keep its actions under the radar through intimidation of both members and critics of the organization. The Church is known to go to great lengths to protect the sanctity of the institution, in fact, in the early 1980’s eleven Scientologists were convicted of infiltrating more than one-hundred agencies, government and private (Behar 50).
    [Show full text]
  • Piercing the Religious Veil of the So-Called Cults
    Pepperdine Law Review Volume 7 Issue 3 Article 6 4-15-1980 Piercing the Religious Veil of the So-Called Cults Joey Peter Moore Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/plr Part of the First Amendment Commons, and the Religion Law Commons Recommended Citation Joey Peter Moore Piercing the Religious Veil of the So-Called Cults , 7 Pepp. L. Rev. Iss. 3 (1980) Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/plr/vol7/iss3/6 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Pepperdine Law Review by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Piercing the Religious Veil of the So-Called Cults Since the horror of Jonestown, religious cults have been a frequent sub- ject of somewhat speculative debate. Federal and state governments, and private groups alike have undertaken exhaustive studies of these "cults" in order to monitor and sometimes regulate their activities, and to publicize their often questionable tenets and practices. The author offers a compre- hensive overview of these studies, concentrating on such areas as recruit- ment, indoctrination, deprogramming, fund raising, and tax exemption and evasion. Additionally, the author summarizes related news events and profiles to illustrate these observations,and to provide the stimulusfor further thought and analysis as to the impact these occurrences may have on the future of religion and religiousfreedom. I. INTRODUCTION An analysis of public opinion would likely reveal that the exist- ence of religious cults' is a relatively new phenomenon, but his- torians, social scientists and students of religion alike are quick to point out that such groups, though cyclical in nature, have simi- 2 larly prospered and have encountered adversity for centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • Luna Lindsey Sample Chapters
    Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control by LUNA LINDSEY Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control Copyright ©2013-2014 by Luna Flesher Lindsey Internal Graphics ©2014 by Luna Flesher Lindsey Cover Art ©2014 by Ana Cruz All rights reserved. This publication is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles, professional works, or reviews. www.lunalindsey.com ISBN-10: 1489595937 ISBN-13: 978-1489595935 First digital & print publication: July 2014 iv RECOVERING AGENCY Table of Contents FOREWORD' VIII' PART%1:%IN%THE%BEGINNING% ' IT'STARTED'IN'A'GARDEN…' 2' Free$Will$vs.$Determinism$ 3' Exit$Story$ 5' The$Illusion$of$Choice$ 9' WHAT'IS'MIND'CONTROL?' 13' What$is$a$Cult?$ 16' Myths$of$Cults$&$MinD$Control$ 17' ALL'IS'NOT'WELL'IN'ZION' 21' Is$Mormonism$A$DanGer$To$Society?$ 22' Why$ShoulD$We$Mourn$Or$Think$Our$Lot$Is$HarD?$ 26' Self<esteem' ' Square'Peg,'Round'Hole'Syndrome' ' Guilt'&'Shame' ' Depression,'Eating'Disorders,'&'Suicide' ' Codependency'&'Passive<Aggressive'Culture' ' Material'Loss' ' DON’T'JUST'GET'OVER'IT—RECOVER!' 36' Though$harD$to$you$this$journey$may$appear…$ 40' Born$UnDer$the$Covenant$ 41' We$Then$Are$Free$From$Toil$anD$Sorrow,$Too…$ 43' SLIPPERY'SOURCES' 45' Truth$Is$Eternal$$(And$Verifiable)$ 45' Truth$Is$Eternal$$(Depends$on$Who$You$Ask)$ 46'
    [Show full text]
  • List of Fair Game Operations
    List of Guardian's Office operations From its establishment in 1966 to its demise in the early 1980s, the Guardian's Office (GO) of the Church of Scientology carried out numerous covert operations and programs against a range of perceived opponents of Scientology in the United States and around the world. The GO sought to discredit, destroy or otherwise neutralize – or "depower", in Scientology jargon – any group or individual that it regarded as anti-Scientology. Instructions for such operations were distributed in the form of individually numbered "Guardian Program Orders", abbreviated as GPgmOs, which were distributed from the GO leadership to GO branches in Churches of Scientology and ultimately used to task agents. Operations Operation Big Mouth was a plan devised by the GO to discredit Nathan Dodell, an Assistant US Attorney who represented the government in several cases involving Scientology. Dodell was believed by the GO to be "assiduously collecting files on Scientology to show (a) harassment of the U.S. government [by Scientologists] and (b) violations of the law by Scientology." Jimmy Mulligan, an assistant to L. Ron Hubbard's wife and GO head Mary Sue Hubbard, instructed GO agents to "finally and terminatedly handle Mr. Dodell. He has been on our lines for many, many years. I would like for you to have very accurate and complete surveys done on him in D.C., and mock up and carry out some very professional, smooth, ops [operations] which will depower him fully." The Guardian's Office later concluded that it would be necessary to prove that Dodell was guilty of criminal conduct before the Church of Scientology could get him fired.
    [Show full text]
  • The Israeli Center for Victims of Cults Who Is Who? Who Is Behind It?
    Human Rights Without Frontiers Int’l Avenue d’Auderghem 61/16, 1040 Brussels Phone/Fax: 32 2 3456145 Email: [email protected] – Website: http://www.hrwf.eu No Entreprise: 0473.809.960 The Israeli Center for Victims of Cults Who is Who? Who is Behind it? By Willy Fautré The Israeli Center for Victims of Cults About the so-called experts of the Israeli Center for Victims of Cults and Yad L'Achim Rami Feller ICVC Directors Some Other So-called Experts Some Dangerous Liaisons of the Israeli Center for Victims of Cults Conclusions Annexes Brussels, 1 September 2018 The Israeli Center for Victims of Cults Who is Who? Who is Behind it? The Israeli Center for Victims of Cults (ICVC) is well-known in Israel for its activities against a number of religious and spiritual movements that are depicted as harmful and dangerous. Over the years, the ICVC has managed to garner easy access to the media and Israeli government due to its moral panic narratives and campaign for an anti-cult law. It is therefore not surprising that the ICVC has also emerged in Europe, in particular, on the website of FECRIS (European Federation of Centers of Research and Information on Cults and Sects), as its Israel correspondent.1 For many years, FECRIS has been heavily criticized by international human rights organizations for fomenting social hostility and hate speech towards non-mainstream religions and worldviews, usually of foreign origin, and for stigmatizing members of these groups.2 Religious studies scholars and the scientific establishment in general have also denounced FECRIS for the lack of expertise of their so-called “cult experts”.
    [Show full text]
  • Maine Campus February 28 1980 Maine Campus Staff
    The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Maine Campus Archives University of Maine Publications Spring 2-28-1980 Maine Campus February 28 1980 Maine Campus Staff Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainecampus Repository Citation Staff, Maine Campus, "Maine Campus February 28 1980" (1980). Maine Campus Archives. 1065. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainecampus/1065 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine Campus Archives by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. r1V Spectatorsfeel close to Olympians by Wit Clough Heiden was four seconds behind the Staff writer leader structures composed of silver down-filled in the beginning of the race. However, plastic Richard Wardwell said sheets laced to tubular metal he felt he was amid the crowd's cries of "Eric! Eric!" the almost a part of the Winter framing. Olympic games American speed skater pulled out in the when he took his Upon entering the structure, he saw two short weekend trip to last few laps to win the event. Lake Placid rocking horses. After going through Feb. IS. Wardwell said the crowd a was "great." doorway. Wardwell said Wardwell, who works with the Depart- He said he could there was a "feel the patriotism" of phonograph playing ment of Civil Engineering, said the games American rock and roll music spectators with their shouts of and an easy resembled a high school event--the chair. Four or five pinball com- "USA! USA!" Wardwell also said the machines petitors seemed more like friends occupied the next room, he said.
    [Show full text]
  • Thecultphenomenonhowgroup
    Authors: Mike Kropveld Executive Director Info-Cult Marie-Andrée Pelland Doctoral Student in Criminology Université de Montréal Translated by: Natasha DeCruz Gwendolyn Schulman Linguistic Landscapes Cover Design by: Philippe Lamoureux This book was made possible through the financial support of the Ministère des Relations avec les citoyens et de l'Immigration. However, the opinions expressed herein are those of the authors. The translation from the French version (Le phénomène des sectes: L’étude du fonctionnement des groupes ©2003) into English was made possible through the financial support of Canadian Heritage. ©Info-Cult 2006 ISBN: 2-9808258-1-6 The Cult Phenomenon: How Groups Function ii Contents Contents ....................................................................................................................... ii Preface .......................................................................................................................viii Introduction ...................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: History of Info-Cult.......................................................................................3 Cult Project................................................................................................................3 Description.............................................................................................................3 Cult Project’s objectives.........................................................................................4
    [Show full text]
  • Recommendations of Experts for Improvements in Federal Law Enforcement After Waco
    If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. U.S. Department of Justice Washington,D.C. 20530 Recommendations of Experts for Improvements in Federal Law Enforcement After Waco 145688 U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice This document has been reproduced exactly as received from the person or organization originating it. Points of view or opinions stated in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the National Institute of Justice. Permission to reproduce thisllll~ material has been granted by Publ:Cc Domain U.S. Dep~nt of Justice ustice Re .......... of the N£ Recommendations of Experts for improvements in Federal Law Enforcement After Waco TABLE OF CONTENTS Mandate to the Experts Handling Hostage/Barricade Situations Robert J, Louden Ronald McCarthy Ariel Merari Dealing with Persons whose Motivations and Thought Processes are Unconventional \, Nancy T. Ammerman Robert Canero Lawrence E. Sullivan Coordinating Law Enforcement Efforts in Hostage/Barricade Situations Colin E. Birt Richard J. Davis William H. Webster O @ @ UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT MEMORANDUM J~e ~,1~3 TO: Dr. Nancy Ammerman Mr. Colin B/rt Dr. Robert Cancro Mr. Richard J. Davis Mr. Robert J. Louden Mr. Ronald M. McCarthy Dr. Ariel Merafi @ Dr. Alan A. Stone Dr. Lawrence E. Sull/van Mr..William H. Webster FROM: Philip B. Heymann ~.~. Deputy Attorney General Department of Justice Ronald IC Noble Assistant Secretary (Enforcement) Department of the Treasury Q SUBJECT: your R01e in M~g Recommendations Concerning the Handling of Incidents Such asthe Branch Davidian Standoff in Waco, Texas @ L MANDATE We would like you to assist us in addressing issues that federal law enforcement confi'0n~ ~ bani'cade/hos~g e situatiom such as the stand-off that occurred near Waco, Texas, ~tween February 28, 1993 and April 19, 1993.
    [Show full text]
  • VALID BAPTISM Advisory List Prepared by the Worship Office and the Metropolitan Tribunal for the Archdiocese of Detroit
    249 VALID BAPTISM Advisory list prepared by the Worship Office and the Metropolitan Tribunal for the Archdiocese of Detroit African Methodist Episcopal Patriotic Chinese Catholics Amish Polish National Church Anglican (valid Confirmation too) Ancient Eastern Churches Presbyterians (Syrian-Antiochian, Coptic, Reformed Church Malabar-Syrian, Armenian, Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Ethiopian) Day Saints (since 2001 known as the Assembly of God Community of Christ) Baptists Society of Pius X Christian and Missionary Alliance (followers of Bishop Marcel Lefebvre) Church of Christ United Church of Canada Church of God United Church of Christ Church of the Brethren United Reformed Church of the Nazarene Uniting Church of Australia Congregational Church Waldesian Disciples of Christ Zion Eastern Orthodox Churches Episcopalians – Anglicans LOCAL DETROIT AREA COMMUNITIES Evangelical Abundant Word of Life Evangelical United Brethren Brightmoor Church Jansenists Detroit World Outreach Liberal Catholic Church Grace Chapel, Oakland Lutherans Kensington Community Methodists Mercy Rd. Church, Redford (Baptist) Metropolitan Community Church New Life Ministries, St. Clair Shores Old Catholic Church Northridge Church, Plymouth Old Roman Catholic Church DOUBTFUL BAPTISM….NEED TO INVESTIGATE EACH Adventists Moravian Lighthouse Worship Center Pentecostal Mennonite Seventh Day Adventists DO NOT CELEBRATE BAPTISM OR HAVE INVALID BAPTISM Amana Church Society National David Spiritual American Ethical Union Temple of Christ Church Union Apostolic
    [Show full text]
  • The Strange History of the Brainwashing
    THE BLACKLISTING OF A CONCEPT: THE STRANGE HISTORY OF THE BRAINWASHING CONJECTURE IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION* Author(s): Benjamin Zablocki Reviewed work(s): Source: Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 1, No. 1 (October 1997), pp. 96-121 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.1997.1.1.96 . Accessed: 05/07/2012 07:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. http://www.jstor.org THE BLACKLISTING OF A CONCEPT: THE STRANGE HISTORY OF THE BRAINWASHING CONJECTURE IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION* ________________________________ Benjamin Zablocki ABSTRACT: This is the first part of a two-part article on the concept of brainwashing in the study of new religious movements (NRMs). The use of this term has become so emotionally charged that scholars find it difficult to discuss its merits and scientific utility with calmness and objectivity. I devote Part One of this article to an examination of the cultural and structural sources of an extreme polarization that has occurred among scholars of new religious movements.
    [Show full text]