Combating Cult Mind Control

 Freedom of Mind: Evaluating Undue Influence in Legal & Mental Health Settings

Earlier this month, I attended the 37th Annual Conference of the International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH) in Lyon, France. The IALMH is founded on the belief that issues arising from the interaction of law and mental health can best be addressed through multi-disciplinary and cross-national approaches, drawing on law, the health professions, the social sciences, and the humanities.   

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The Moon Cult: An Interview with former top American leader Allen Tate Wood

With the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe by Tetsuya Yamagami, the Moon cult is back in the news. Abe became a target, reportedly because he and his father publicly supported the Moon cult. The assassin was reportedly furious because his mother had given away all the family money to the cult. I interviewed former top American political leader of Unification Church, Allen Tate Wood, and wish to expose the mindset of cult psychology.

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Moving from Victim to Survivor in Precarious Times — A Conversation with Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.

I’ve been hosting the Influence Continuum podcast for over seven months, and I’ve spoken with guests on topics ranging from election integrity to 4th Generation Warfare and the Christian Right. It is plausible to say that I would not even be investigating any of these topics had I not encountered the work—and later met—the esteemed guest of my first ever podcast episode, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton.  

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How Colonizers Use Mind Control: A Conversation with Cindy Blackstock

The “merciless Indian savages…” Those words in the United States Declaration of Independence entrenched the way colonial states defined Indigenous peoples as “savage” and their relationship with the “civilized Americans” as represented by federal and state governments. This dehumanizing propaganda was the pen of history, of social norms and laws writing on our societal manuscript about what the United States is and who we are as Americans. It served to normalize and even legitimize the wrongful dispossession of land, resources and even the children from Indigenous peoples.

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Authoritarian Bible Cults Actively Recruiting at College and Online: Interview With Former BCC Member Chris Lee

Searching for spiritual meaning and connection with others is common when young adults enter their college years. There are many positive and ethical religious groups open to these young people, but, unfortunately, there are also

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The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking and the Law

Update: January 2021: Dissertation has been published. <https://www.proquest.com/docview/2476570146/> In 1976, I was deprogrammed from the Moon cult. Since then, I have helped thousands of individuals leave and recover from the harmful influence of destructive cults.

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Helping Folks Exit The Cult of Trump: The #IGotOut Movement

Do you have friends or family members who are believers in QAnon or the Cult of Trump? Are you surprised by this and wonder how this could have ever happened? Under the right circumstances, even sane, rational, well-adjusted people can be deceived and persuaded to believe the most outrageous ideas and leader. President Trump uses the same deceptive psychological techniques that cult leaders do (cult leader’s playbook) that influence his devoted followers’ behavior, information, thoughts, and emotions. (Learn more about the BITE model of Authoritarian Control.)

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Social Media, Cyber Warfare, Data Mining and AI Used to Target, Manipulate and Control People

“The Great Hack”, “The Social Dilemma”, and “People You May Know” are three excellent documentaries that everyone must see to understand how modern day authoritarians are recruiting and indoctrinating people to do their bidding. Private and personal information is being harvested and used to create sophisticated psychological and political profiles which allow political and cult groups to target and influence people. I wrote about such groups in The Cult of Trump. Millions of Facebook profiles were harvested for Cambridge Analytica in a major data breach. Facebook users’ profiles were hijacked in order to target the US electorate. This caused intentional political upheaval. The Shadow Network, the book by Anne Nelson on the Council for National Policy, figures mightily. Fourth generation warfare is a psychological warfare strategy designed to delegitimize leaders and institutions and to sow distrust, confusion, and disorientation in order to ready people to be mind controlled by an authoritarian leader.

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Undue Influence, Judge Barrett and the People of Praise Covenantal Community

In an AP article written about Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court and her involvement with the People of Praise, Vice President Mike Pence was quoted from a television interview as saying, “The intolerance expressed during her last confirmation about her Catholic faith I really think was a disservice to the process and a disappointment to millions of Americans.”

In this blog, I assert that the issue is really not about religion, or about Catholicism, or religious freedom, but rather a legal issue: undue influence. This is the subject of my doctoral research which is focused on offering a scientifically validated instrument to help ascertain if undue influence has been exerted.

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“New Age” Cults With Joseph Szimhart–Artist & Cult Information Specialist

The internet provides an ideal breeding ground for groups with concerning beliefs and practices to recruit unsuspecting people who are confused, frustrated and wishing to find a way to have hope for the future. Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton wrote about the profound psychological effects that the invention and use of nuclear bombs had on human consciousness. He described an important unconscious motivator, what he called “symbolic immortality.” All modes of leaving a legacy could now be imagined to be wiped out if two superpowers decided to launch all their nukes at each other. Except for one thing: the mode of transcendence. In other words, if humans can believe in other realities, heaven, aliens, spiritual immortality through devotion to a guru or cult leader, people could believe life had meaning. Current circumstances of a global pandemic, economic crisis and incredible levels of corruption at the highest levels of power–in the United States within The Cult of Trump, but throughout the world, where authoritarians seek to use the digital tools to recruit, destabilize enemies, and control their people by using BITE (Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotion) control.

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Sex and Labor Trafficking Awareness, Survivor Empowerment, and Saving Children From Abuse: A Discussion With Rachel Thomas, M. Ed.

This week, I interviewed Rachel Thomas, who is not only a survivor of human trafficking but an author, teacher, speaker, and mentor. I have known her for years. We met through Carissa Phelps (founder of runawaygirl.com) at a Joint Regional Intelligence Center training for approximately six hundred law enforcement, including members of Homeland Security, the CIA, Police Chiefs, and others. This was an opportunity to teach about trafficking and mind control, and promote a better understanding of how to treat those who’ve been recruited into trafficking by pimps and traffickers. We helped them realize trafficked people are victims of mind control and, as such, need to be treated with respect. They are someone’s child and their lives have value. They did not want to be enslaved, exploited, and abused.

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The Dangerous World of Harmful Yoga Cults With Yoga Teacher and Author Matthew Remski

Earlier this month, Matthew Remski interviewed me for his podcast “Conspirituality” (my interview starts at the 37-minute mark) where we talk about my newest book, The Cult of Trump, and explore the overlaps between the cults of personality that destroy political, wellness, and spiritual cultures. We discuss changes in cultic technique in the age of lockdown, and how best to maintain contact with a person transformed by manipulation.

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