The Freedom of Mind approach to recovery and healing from destructive cults is customizable and designed to meet the needs of most any person who has been influenced by a cult. People who were born or raised in a cult have spent their early developmental years under cult control. Other people may have entered into [...]
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, 2017 Reliable Information? or Ideologically Biased? We have been living in the Information Age, the Knowledge Age, with access virtually 24/7 to anything and everything. Many in today's world go to Wikipedia to learn about cars, animals, medicines and even cults. And that is okay. For the most part, Wikipedia [...]
The Trauma of Being Cut Off: Disfellowshipped While Still Indoctrinated Unless it has happened to you, it is impossible to describe the pain, confusion and suffering a person endures when they are excommunicated from an authoritarian Bible group like the Watchtower Society. People's entire identities are molded around ideological conformity and dependence on commands from [...]
Introduction In my decades of work with helping those born into high control groups, the effects are usually quite devastating. Despite the conditions in which young people are raised, I have also seen remarkable courage and resiliency to overcome their childhood trauma, especially if they can receive proper support and counseling. I have blogged before about [...]
Freedom of Mind Resource Center: 2017, A Year in Review Hi, Steve Hassan, founder of Freedom of Mind Resource Center, here. I wanted to wish everyone a very happy holiday and a very good new year. It's been awhile since I blogged because of my doctoral work at Fielding Graduate University. I just [...]
Hulu has created a television series based on Margaret Atwood’s book, The Handmaid’s Tale, and it is highly recommended viewing*. Last year, Hulu produced The Path and I was interviewed by Vanity Fair for my perspective. This time, I am blogging about The Handmaid’s Tale as I believe this is a very upsetting but well made [...]
This past week, a very important legal custody case was decided which involves Infowars’ Alex Jones and his ex-wife Kelly. Kelly Jones was able to successfully show that her children had been turned against her and unduly influenced by Alex Jones. The judge awarded her the power to decide where her children will live from now [...]
This week, there had been a lot in the news about Russia’s possible ban of the Jehovah’s Witnesses-- labeling them an extremist group. While I have personally worked with and become friends with many who have suffered as Witnesses under the policies of Watchtower, I do not agree that banning groups is a responsible policy. In [...]
A few people have asked me recently what a typical cult member looks like. While every group and individual is unique, there are common patterns for how cult members think, feel, speak, and behave. Check out the BITE Model and the right side of the Influence Continuum graphic. Cult members become “clones” [...]
Freedom of Mind, as an organization and as a meme is grounded in a commitment to basic human rights as expressed by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Please take a moment to look at these profound statements. It’s not surprising that many cults hold doctrines and practices which are intolerant and even violent towards [...]
