Last week, I attended the excellent ICSA 2019 Annual International Conference entitled, “Coercive Control and the Psychology of Influence Across Comparative Contexts – Implications for Policy, Practice and the Criminal Justice Process.” I presented a […]
The 2019 International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) Conference in Manchester, England Read More
This past February of 2019, I interviewed Dr. Robert Jay Lifton about his thoughts about the current political situation in America. It is always a privilege. I have been fortunate enough to interview him a
The Solipsistic Reality of President Trump: A Discussion with Dr. Robert Jay Lifton Read More
A few weeks ago, I spoke to a gathering of a group of parentally alienated mothers and fathers in Waltham, Massachusetts. Parental alienation is a phenomenon where children are turned against one of their parents
Parental Abduction and Alienation: A Discussion with Psychiatrist Nick Child Read More
The following excerpt is used with permission from Robert Jay Lifton’s The Future of Immortality and Other Essays for a Nuclear Age (New York, Basic Books, 1987) is a concise explanation of Lifton’s eight criteria
Robert Jay Lifton’s Eight Criteria of Thought Reform (Brainwashing, Mind Control) Read More
This week, I share an interview with my old friend and colleague, Steve Eichel, Ph.D. He is a forensic psychologist, an authority on hypnosis, expert witness, counselor, author, and educator. He specializes in destructive cults,
Trump, Cults, and Deprogramming: A Discussion with Forensic Expert Dr. Steve Eichel Read More
Since 1983, April has been designated as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. It “recognizes the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect and promotes the social and emotional well-being
National Child Abuse Prevention Month: Educate, Protect and Support Read More
This is my first peer-reviewed academic journal article. It’s genesis began when I gave a talk entitled, The “anatomy of undue influence used by terrorist cults and traffickers to induce helplessness and trauma, so creating
The Anatomy of Undue Influence: Scientific Study and Elsevier Journal Article Read More
On January 18, 2019, during the longest government shutdown in history, I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Dennis Tourish. He is a former member of a left-wing political group, having left in the mid-1980s.
This week, I have the pleasure of sharing an interview with Dr. André Gagné. We discuss his journey as a former evangelical pastor, his academic journey becoming a tenured professor and his work involving the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).
André Gagné, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. He works on the Christian Right, fundamentalism, religious violence and the interpretation and reception of the Bible. In his public scholarship, Dr. Gagné seeks to explain how sacred texts and traditions are used by fundamentalist groups and individuals to cultivate violent ideas and/or incite politico-religious violence. He also has a marked interest in studying the beliefs, practices and political inclinations of dominionist movements such as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and Christian Reconstructionism. He is also a Digital Fellow of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) as well as a research associate with the Centre d’expertise de formation sur les intégrismes religieux et la radicalisation (CEFIR).
This week, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Stein, a cult survivor and renowned expert on cults and totalitarianism. Alexandra Stein, Ph.D. is a writer and educator specializing in the social psychology of ideological
Meet Emergency Room nurse, Danielle Jordan Bastein. Kudos to her! Danielle has pioneered the development of a new protocol to more systematically identify warning factors for the ER that a patient might be a trafficking victim. Trafficking victims almost always suffer a myriad of health problems and it is in the ER, that an important opportunity to offer them help exists. This crucial screening protocol would train nurses and other health care workers to ask the right questions and do the right assessment to flag a potential victim. I strongly suggest watching the video in the link above to understand more about this new system, which I believe should be used in every Emergency Room in the world.
Human Trafficking: Learn to Recognize the Signs and Help Save a Life Read More
A few weeks before the 2016 Presidential election, Stanford Russian history Ph.D. Dr. Chrissy Stroop wrote an article, “After the Trump Tapes: Evangelical Authoritarianism Revisited.” In it, she shared her concerns about what she saw was a powerful group of people publicly defined as white evangelical Christians who were supporting Trump and who exhibited the characteristics of an authoritarian movement. While many might not identify with the term Dominionism directly–the belief that Christians should take over America and the world and make it Christian in a very narrow way–they were Christian nationalists pursuing a de facto, and sometimes explicit, Dominionist political agenda. The majority of white evangelicals appear to wish to create a theocracy and abolish the separation of Church and State, something the founders of our country explicitly wish to make sure did not happen.
Exvangelicals Find a Voice and Speak Out Against Authoritarianism Read More
