shunning Archives

Researchers Beware: Wikipedia Entries About High Control Groups Are Not Very Trustworthy

By Steven Hassan / April 4, 2018 February 14, 2021

Jimmy Wales in 2017, Founder of Wikipedia 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, …

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Shunning and the BITE Model of Mind Control in the Jehovah’s Witnesses

By Steven Hassan / March 22, 2018 February 14, 2021

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 …

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A Watchtower Tragedy

By Steven Hassan / October 21, 2016 February 14, 2021

This week, a 27-year old member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Canada lost her life because of her refusal to accept a life-saving blood transfusion. Éloïse Dupuis was admitted to the hospital after her planned home birth resulted in complications. She was immediately given a Caesarean section and her baby was saved. However, during the …

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Cult Survivors Need Compassion and Help to Recover

By Steven Hassan / May 20, 2016 February 14, 2021

On Thursday, news broke that another of the missing Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist extremist cult Boko Haram two years ago has been found. The second in just as many days, she is being hailed officially by the authorities of Nigeria as a success story and paraded in front of the media as proof …

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Reaching Out: Communicating After Cult Exit

By Steven Hassan / April 22, 2016 February 14, 2021

I am often approached by concerned family members of adult cult members who need help. I work with the family by coaching them to use my Strategic Interactive Approach. This involves teaching them how to employ an ethical influence campaign based on compassion, and designed to help the cult member question the group’s leader, doctrine, …

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