Steve Hassan Responds to NY Times Column titled “The Cult Deficit”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-the-cult-deficit.htmlAs a former cult member, licensed mental Health counselor, author of three books about helping people protect themselves from cults, help those in them and to recover once out, I have great difficulty with this piece entirely.Cults abound: political cults; therapy cults; religious cults; commercial cults; large group awareness training cults; cults of personality. My definition? Deceptive recruitment (lack of informed consent), control of people’s Behavior, Information, Thoughts and Emotions (BITE) aimed at creating a dependent and obedient cult identity. ISIS, and other terrorist groups- a political/religious cult. Human trafficking (commercial cult- Pimps and traffickers are cult figures), Multi level marketing groups, apocalyptic cults, and the list goes on and on. What is this writer talking about?One of the massive problems? Newspapers and media are afraid of being sued, or have editors and producers who are cult members. lack of knowledge about mind control and brainwashing and how to avoid and detect what is happening to them. Sleep deprivation- a documented problem. Too much screen time- and trance states due to information overload.Wake up and look at the news!Steve Hassan
