Undue Influence

What Can We Learn From the Uncanny Parallels Between the Moonies and the Cult of Trump?

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Last month, Moon Organization leader, Rev. Hyung Jin Moon (Sean Moon), told his followers of his Sanctuary Church to be ready to take up arms and die for President Trump. The bullets in his crown and Moon referring to himself as King, is of course disturbing. Fortunately, after Sun Myung Moon died, there was a power struggle and several of the Moon sons fought with their mother for money and power. Justin Moon, his brother, owns Kahr Arms as well as a large gun factory and controls great wealth. Most people do not know that Moon bought the Washington Star newspaper and created the Washington Times which has been used for decades to promote conservative right-wing points of view. The founding editor of the Times left because of editorial interference (they said he was dismissed) and spoke along with William Cheshire, the editorial page editor who also later resigned. A 1991 presentation was videotaped explaining why they left–the paper was not independent. This presentation also included Michael Warder, editor of Moon’s first U.S. paper, the News World, later called the New York Tribune. Warder, a leader in the Moon organization was a witness in the trial and later conviction of Sun Myung Moon for conspiracy to evade income taxes. The Moonies spent an estimated $2-3 billion dollars on the Washington Times– a propaganda entity which failed to make money for decades. Did Americans, including Republican Presidents have no problem with a Korean with a felony conviction that had ties to South Korean intelligence not a question for anyone?

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Starting to Question if You Are in a Controlling Group or Relationship?

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Have you recently started questioning your life and how you are spending your time and money? Have you read a book or article, listened to a podcast, or watched a documentary about a cult such as NXIVM and saw parallels to your own life circumstance? What about engaging with a former member? Perhaps you have felt a growing disillusionment because you have been treated unfairly? Are you beginning to question if it is time to leave a controlling group or relationship? How can you know for sure? There is actually a formula I have come up with that I believe works because it is process-focused and oriented to the person doing their own reality-testing. The focus of all my work is to empower people to think for themselves rather than trying to persuade someone of what they should believe or do. The assumption of my work is that people do not wish to be exploited, abused, or enslaved. They would like to experience a safe environment, trust, honesty, compassion, integrity and not hatred, fear and polarization.

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

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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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Dismantling QAnon: A TEDxMidAtlantic Must-Watch Program

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Assuming the predictions are accurate and there is a Biden/Harris landslide, what will happen with the millions of people who believe that President Trump is a man of God doing Apocalyptic fulfillment, especially QAnon followers? This is an important question as most of us have friends or family members that are affected. I wanted to share an incredibly important TEDxMidAtlantic event, entitled “Dismantling QAnon.”

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The QAnon Media Ecosystem Is Not Helping People to Exit

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Reporters covering QAnon for the past few years have over time inadvertently done more harm than good. In fact, they probably have done great damage. By amplifying the conspiracy to the level that it is now squarely in mainstream discourse is problematic. The way it is discussed and covered as something edgy and transgressive has done little to slow its spread.

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

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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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People of Praise Covenant Community: BITE Model© of Authoritarian Control Evaluation

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Since Judge Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Supreme Court to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Republicans are seeking to fast-track her confirmation before the end of October. The Trump administration and its Senators are trying to frame some of the opposition to her nomination as religious intolerance. Our concern at Freedom of Mind is not about religious beliefs. It is about authoritarian and abusive practices. In fact, People of Praise has a long history of controversy along with other Covenant communities with similar DNA.  

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

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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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Law Professor Robin Boyle-Laisure Discusses Using Trafficking to Prosecute Cult Leaders Like Raniere of NXIVM

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I recently watched the first four episodes of  The Vow, a new HBO series about the cult of Keith Raniere. It tells the story through the experience of former leaders of the cult Mark Vicente and his wife Bonnie Piesse and Sarah Edmondson and her husband, Anthony Ames and then expands to Catherine and her daughter India Oxenberg and Allison Mack. I think the first few episodes give a window for the public to see how  intelligent, educated well meaning people including actors, filmmakers, businesspeople and billionaires get deceptively recruited into a destructive cult. It is well known in the media as NXIVM but had other recruiting front groups like Executive Success programs or ESP. It was the secret DOS group which branded women by their genitals as a sign of their life commitment to be a slave to their master, ultimately Raniere. Keith Raniere, known to members as Vanguard, is a malignant narcissist and claimed to the world’s most intelligent person. Of course, it was only one of the many lies he told. What is true is that he had previously been busted for running a multi-level marketing group  (MLM) called Consumer’s Buyline which was shut down by twenty Attorneys General as an illegal pyramid scheme. Part of the settlement was Raniere was told to never to operate a multi-level marketing group again. However, the cult he created essentially was just this, as it sold coaching and seminars instead of products. Former NXIVM member Sarah Edmondson talked to me about being recruited into and escaping Raniere’s cult and bringing charges that led to him being convicted of 7 felony counts in the criminal case of United States vs. Raniere, which was conducted in the federal court in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn courthouse). He is awaiting sentencing while in jail. I did a long post on mind control methods used by NXIVM including a BITE model analysis.

Law Professor Robin Boyle-Laisure Discusses Using Trafficking to Prosecute Cult Leaders Like Raniere of NXIVM Read More

NXIVM & Hassan BITE Model and Undue Influence

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These three factors are known in psychological terms as “influence processes” and demonstrate that situations often determine human behaviors, often more than the values and beliefs of the individual. One of the most remarkable discoveries of social psychology is that people are hardwired to unconsciously respond to social cues. For example, a class of psychology students once conspired to use behavior modification techniques on their teacher. As the professor lectured, the students would smile and seem attentive when he moved toward the left of the room. When he moved to the right, the students acted bored and listless. Before long, the professor began to drift to the left, and after a few classes he spent each lecture leaning against the left wall. But when the students let the professor in on the experiment, he insisted that nothing of the sort had happened. He saw nothing odd about leaning against the wall, and angrily insisted that it was merely his personal lecturing style— something he had chosen to do of his own free will. This psychology professor was completely unconscious of how he had been influenced. Of course, under ordinary circumstances, the people around us are not all secretly conspiring to make us do anything. They simply act more or less as they have been culturally conditioned to act, which in turn conditions us. This is the way in which a culture perpetuates itself.

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Former FBI Hostage Negotiation Chief & Author Gary Noesner Discusses Waco, Anti-Government Conspiracy, and Negotiating

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The last few years and, especially 2020, has polarized many people from family, friends, and country. There seems to be a big divide in politics, religious beliefs, and even whether science and experts are trustworthy. Most of us know someone–friend, family member, neighbor–that is caught up in a conspiracy theory or harmful belief system. To help them, I have always been a firm believer in putting yourself in their shoes, to understand how they “see the world” in order to help them. Respect and compassion and patience are all required.

Former FBI Hostage Negotiation Chief & Author Gary Noesner Discusses Waco, Anti-Government Conspiracy, and Negotiating Read More