Opening Our Minds: avoiding abusive relationships and authoritarian groups by Jon Atack is available in paperback, Audible and Kindle on Amazon. I am delighted to help bring attention to a new book which I think is a valuable contribution to our field. Disclosure: Jon is a good friend of mine, for decades, and is the leading
The psychological state of fervor and the emotion of awe might not come to mind when thinking about how cults recruit and control their members. However, cult indoctrination and control depend on the exploit of emotions, particularly in the initial stages. Emotions are the drivers for all human behavior, such as attraction or aversion. This
In the weeks since George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Donald Trump has escalated his authoritarian ambitions, prompting notable military Republicans and insiders to speak out against him. Trump has been harsh on protestors, (not remembering protesting publicly is a right for citizens, told more lies, and even promoted more conspiracy
I am very pleased to share a remarkable new book to help clinicians,–as well as the general public,–to have a deeper understanding of Anti-Semitism. This text by Springer, a leading academic publisher followed the publication of a previous Springer volume, Islamophobia and Psychiatry: Recognition, Prevention, and Treatment. I wrote a previous blog about my chapter
This week’s video is a chat with my good friend, Jon Atack about his recently started YouTube channel: jon atack, family and friends. I told him that I wanted to let my readers know about the really interesting and important content he has been posting. I am excited to announce he now has over 500
Many of you are aware that I have been writing a large number of blogs concerning the current President of the United States, Donald Trump. I have been working tremendously hard on an extremely short deadline to produce a book that connects the dots with my involvement with the Moon cult since 1974 and my
This week, my good friend and former member of Scientology Jon Atack joins me for an in-depth discussion. Jon is an undue influence expert, an author, researcher, and co-creator of the Open Minds Foundation. We discuss narcissistic traits we see between President Donald Trump and pulp science fiction writer and creator of Scientology, Ron Hubbard.
BITE Model In June of 2018, I did an interview with psychologist and ex-Mormon John Dehlin for his Mormon Stories podcast. In preparation for the show, John read Combating Cult Mind Control and told me that the book was transformative. Then he did a wonderful analysis of the BITE model of the Mormon Church which
Indian Activists Advocate the Use of Scientific, Analytical Thinking, Not Just Superstition This week’s blog features an interview with my friend Narendra Nayak who is the President of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA). His organization consists of eighty constituent groups who together seek to promote scientific thinking. For example, members have been a
June 28, 2018 This Influence Continuum graphic describes my model for evaluating influence–from the healthy to the unhealthy. My BITE model offers a list of concerning practices that represent unhealthy mind control: Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional control designed to create dependent and obedient slaves to a person or ideology. One example of many is
opening minds: the secret world of manipulation, undue influence and brainwashing is the newest book written by Jon Atack, ex-Scientologist and author of the best book on Scientology. This masterfully written primer on undue influence is the first project of the newly formed non-profit organization Open Minds Foundation (OMF). Of course, you might expect I
When I first heard that Leah Remini planned to make a show about Scientology, I was cautiously optimistic. Not that many celebrities have been brave enough to share their stories, much less want to really go further than the HBO Going Clear documentary. After watching the first episode, I am happy to say that Leah
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