American Family Foundation

Cultic Studies Review An Internet Journal of Research, News & Opinion Volume 1, Number 1 2002

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CONTENTS Articles Introduction to Inaugural Issue Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. History of the American Family Foundation Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Articles, Peer Reviewed Can Scholars Be Deceived? Empirical Evidence from Social Psychology and History Steve K. Dubrow Eichel, Ph.D.

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Current Status of Federal Law Concerning Violent Crimes Against Women and Children: Implication for Cult Victims Robin Boyle, Esq.

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News Amish Association of Disciples Aum Shinrikyo Aylmer Church of God The Body Caritas Chetananda Children Falun Gong The Family of Rasheen Nyah Friends of Andrew Cohen Government Policy Healing/Curanderismo Hebrew Israelites House of Prayer ISKCON Kashi Ashram / Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati Life Space Living Stream Ministry Ndawula OARA (Operation and Reconnaissance Agents) Opus Dei Polygamy Raëlians Red House / Al Fuqra Religion / China Salvation Army Scientology Sengoku / Jesus Ark Shouters South China Church Symbionese Liberation Army Terrorism Twelve Tribes

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*Note: these pages referenced are different than the original published journal. Please check the end of each article for the original pagination. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 4

Introduction to Inaugural Issue Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Executive Director, AFF AFF is proud to announce Cultic Studies Review: An Internet Journal of Research, News & Opinion (CSR - online ISSN: 1539-0160). AFF will continue to inform its supporters who are not online by publishing this triennial, bound, print version of CSR (CSR – print ISSN: 15391052). The new periodical merges and expands AFF‘s Cult Observer, Cultic Studies Journal, and Cults and Society. The free electronic newsletter, AFF News Briefs, will complement Cultic Studies Review. Current subscribers of the Cult Observer and/or Cultic Studies Journal and/or Cults and Society will receive the new periodical, which will, especially online, include more news and articles than were published in the old periodicals. By taking over the functions of these three periodicals, CSR is able to offer peer-reviewed, scholarly articles, news on groups and topics (e.g., children and cultic groups), opinion columns, personal accounts of exmembers, and high quality articles for laypersons. The first online issue is a free examination copy. This inaugural print version is sent to current subscribers of AFF periodicals. The final issues of Cult Observer and Cultic Studies Journal were mailed in late January and late February 2002, respectively. Number 2 of CSR is expected to be ready in July 2002. Cultic Studies Review‟s interest areas include a family of related yet distinct phenomena (described in an essay posted on www.cultinfobooks.com and www.csj.org, ―The Definitional Ambiguity of ―Cult‖ and AFF‘s Mission‖), as well as practical responses to concerns people have about these phenomena. Thus, Cultic Studies Review provides information on cults, psychological manipulation, psychological abuse, spiritual abuse, brainwashing, mind control, thought reform, abusive churches, extremism, totalistic groups, authoritarian groups, new religious movements, charisma, alternative and mainstream religions, group dynamics, exit counseling, recovery, and practical suggestions for families, individuals, helping professionals, clergy, journalists, researchers, students, educators, and others interested in these topics. This inaugural issue includes a history of AFF in order to give subscribers and interested readers a clearer idea of what AFF has accomplished over the years, what its goals are for the future, and how CSR relates to AFF‘s broader mission. Articles available on the online version of CSR (www.culticstudiesreview.org), but not available in this print version include: Reflecting on Cultural Diversity in Response to Cultic Activity Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq. Twenty-Five Years Observing Cults: An American Perspective Marcia R. Rudin Psychogroups and Cults in Denmark Deacon Robert Kronberg, B.Th. & Kristina Lindebjerg, B.Th. Cult-related Problems in Switzerland: Governmental Cult Policies Susanne Schaaf

Annual

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info-Sekta

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Questions from the Balcony: A Critique of Dick Anthony Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq. Seeking Accurate Information: Part I - A Sketch of Currently Available Popular and Professional Books on Cultic and Related Groups Peter T. Malinoski, Ph.D.

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Book Review: Coping with Cult Involvement by Livia Bardin Doni Whitsett, Ph.D.

If you would like to access future issues of CSR online, please make sure we have your upto-date e-mail address so that we can send you AFF News Briefs, our free electronic newsletter, which will announce future issues of CSR.

This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Review, 2002, Volume 1, Number 1, pages 3-4. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

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History of the American Family Foundation Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Executive Director, AFF Abstract This paper reviews the achievements of AFF (American Family Foundation), a tax-exempt research and educational organization founded in 1979 to study cultic groups and processes, to help people adversely affected by groups and psychological manipulation, and to educate professionals, youth, and the public. The early years of the organization‘s work focused on developing a network of volunteer professionals, articulating a more nuanced perspective on the issue than was available at the time, and developing resources for inquirers. Subsequent work has elaborated upon these research and educational themes. Several appendices detail the organization‘s achievements in these areas. The American Family Foundation (AFF) was founded in Massachusetts in 1979 by Mr. Kay Barney, an engineer and business executive whose daughter had become involved with the Unification Church. During the late 1970s several dozen parents‘ groups had formed around the U.S. Other countries also had parents‘ groups, although there was little international communication at that time. Many of the U.S. organizations became affiliates of the Citizens Freedom Foundation (CFF), which was chartered around the same time as AFF. In the early 1980s CFF became the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), which was ultimately taken over by individuals associated with the Church of Scientology in 1996, when CAN was driven into bankruptcy because of litigation. CAN had been the object of nearly 50 lawsuits, most filed by individuals associated with the Church of Scientology. These organizations came into existence when parents of usually college-age cult members discovered their mutual concern and decided to take concerted action. Some of these parents lobbied for legislation that would make it easier for parents of cult members to force their adult children to submit to psychiatric observation (―conservatorship‖ legislation); others focused on public and preventive education by speaking to schools, churches, synagogues, and civic groups and by telling their stories to journalists. Many also became proponents of ―deprogramming,‖ a process in which an adult child would be ―snatched‖ from the street, for example, or lured to a secure place away from the group‘s pressures so that he/she could be forced to listen to people tell about the negative side of his/her group. Because so many parents had seen similarities between their children‘s behavior and brainwashed prisoners of war in Korea, cult members came to be viewed as brainwashed, or ―programmed.‖ Hence, they coined the term ―deprogramming‖ to describe the process of bringing somebody out of a cult. Although initially ―deprogramming‖ referred to involuntary and voluntary interventions, by the late 1990s most people used the term to describe involuntary interventions only, using ―exit counseling‖ to describe interventions that the group member voluntarily agreed to participate in. In the late 1970s there were also dozens of Evangelical ministries concerned about cults, mainly the Mormons and the Jehovah‘s Witnesses. Some of these organizations had more than a dozen staff members (e.g., Christian Research Institute), but most were ―mom-andpop,‖ volunteer organizations. They tended to define ―cult‖ in theological terms, so that any group that was deviant from orthodox Christianity was considered a cult. Many of the mainstream organizations rested on the pioneering work of Evangelical scholar, Dr. Walter Martin, author of The Kingdom of the Cults.

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Initially there was little communication between the Evangelical ministries and the secular parents‘ groups. Over the years, however, communication between the two groups increased dramatically. A number of people now serve on boards of both secular and religious cult educational organizations. During the 1970s interest in cults increased substantially among sociologists of religion. These sociologists, however, tended to oppose deprogramming and conservatorship legislation. They also appeared to focus on the positive aspects of cults and to downplay the negative. As a result, parents‘ groups did not see them as resources. Because media reports concerning cults focused on the negative, especially after the Jonestown horror of 1978, sociologists came to prefer the term ―new religious movements‖ over ―cult,‖ which they had used prior to the 1980s. Finding little solace among sociologists of religion, parents turned instead to a handful of mental health professionals who seemed to be sympathetic to the notion that formerly traditional young people were indeed changing radically as a result of a group‘s persuasiveness. Most mental health professionals at the time tended to dismiss cult joining as a transient adolescent rebellion or as an expression of deep-seated emotional or family conflicts. But some mental health professionals, most notably Dr. Margaret Singer in California and Dr. John Clark in Massachusetts, believed that cult environments were characterized by socio-psychological forces powerful enough to radically change the behavior and attitudes of recruits.

How AFF was Different Mr. Barney believed in the cause that united the diverse people involved in secular and religious cult education organizations, namely, the necessity to warn people about and free people from the destructive controls wielded by certain new groups that were mostly, but not always, religious. He also believed, however, that it was necessary to take a professional perspective, that is, to study the field scientifically and to apply these findings in a balanced, responsible manner. He also wanted to avoid the internal political debates that took so much time from the parents‘ groups, which were moving toward a national membership organization. Therefore, he founded AFF as a nonprofit, tax-exempt research and educational organization that did NOT have a membership base. The founding board of directors appointed its successors, thereby ensuring a relatively smooth succession. The founding directors included Mr. Barney, Rev. Dr. George Swope, a minister, Ed Schnee, a concerned parent, and David Adler, a publishing executive and former group member. Initially, AFF focused on publishing The Advisor, a bi-monthly newspaper that reported on cult-related news. In 1980-81 he expanded AFF‘s activities by formally joining forces with Dr. John Clark and his colleagues, who included Dr. Michael Langone, current executive director of AFF, and Dr. Robert E. Schecter, editor of the Cult Observer. Dr. Clark, an Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School and Consulting Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), was one of the first prominent mental health professionals to speak out publicly about cult abuses. He had published a paper, ―Cults,‖ in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1979. Dr. Clark‘s team, which had been meeting informally, brought to AFF the professionalism that Mr. Barney and the founding directors thought was needed.

Early Years of AFF In 1981 Dr. Clark‘s team obtained several grants from foundations. These grants enabled them to write a monograph, Destructive Cult Conversion: Theory, Research, and Treatment, in which they proposed a person-situation model of cult conversion. This model, based Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 8

more on the psychology of social influence than so-called ―brainwashing‖ models, laid the groundwork for AFF‘s future theoretical developments. The grants also enabled them to set up systems for responding to the mounting number of information requests from families, former group members, helping professionals, and the media. By 1985 AFF was responding to several thousand information requests (mostly from families and former members) and providing background information to dozens and sometimes more than 100 journalists annually. AFF‘s capacity to respond effectively to inquiries has improved over the years as we have learned more and produced practical books, articles, and other resources. Today, most of our communications occur thorugh email, although the effectiveness of telephone consultations should not be underestimated. Dr. Clark also set out early on to establish an advisory board of professionals and scholars. The first advisory board meeting, attended by several dozen people, was held in 1981. (An advisory board meeting has been held every year since 1981.) Advisors included, and continue to include, mental health professionals, attorneys, academicians, clergy, educators, executives, and former members and family members active in cult education. Advisors help establish goals and objectives for the organization, advise staff on research and publications, write articles and books, and speak to professional and lay groups. Since the first advisory board meeting, AFF advisors have written among the most prominent books in this field, many of which are available through AFF‘s bookstore. Appendix A includes a partial list of articles and books published by AFF and its advisors. The first advisory board meeting in 1981 identified AFF‘s three-tiered mission of education, and victim assistance. Budget limitations have necessitated organization develop these areas in a cyclic manner: sometimes the development been on research; other times on education or victim assistance. But attention paid to all three areas throughout AFF‘s history.

research, that the focus has has been

AFF‘s first research survey, conducted in 1983, had a practical focus, as has most of the research conducted since then. This survey collected quantifiable data on one of the questions that most troubled parents and mental health professionals at that time, many of whom had serious reservations about the deprogramming that was often depicted as the way to get people out of cults: How often does deprogramming work? To answer this question, AFF‘s Dr. Michael Langone surveyed 94 parents who had had their children deprogrammed. Deprogramming failed in 37% of the cases, a significant percentage given the legal and psychological risks of the procedure. The study concluded that ―deprogramming is but one of several helping options and should not be viewed as the `cure‘ for cult involvement.‖ In 1983 Drs. Clark and Langone contributed to a symposium sponsored by Section K (Social, Economic and Political Sciences) of the Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science, entitled, ―Scientific Research and New Religions.‖ Their paper‘s title was: ―New Religions and Public Policy: Research Implications for Social and Behavioral Scientists.‖ This symposium was one of the few gatherings that brought together academicians and professionals from what was already viewed as the two ―camps‖ of ―pro‖ and ―anti‖ cultists. Communication between these two ―camps‖ decreased markedly in the 1980s as members of both ―camps‖ were hired as expert witnesses in the growing number of lawsuits against and by cultic groups. In the late 1990s, however, AFF reopened dialogue between the two ―camps,‖ trying as much as possible to encourage openness to methodological differences among disciplines and to diverse theoretical orientations, while remaining focused on the irrefutable fact under girding AFF‘s mission: some groups harm some people sometimes. In 1984 AFF markedly advanced the quality of its publishing efforts by founding the Cult Observer and Cultic Studies Journal (CSJ). The former succeeded The Advisor and focused Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 9

on press accounts. It was printed, however, as a newsletter, rather than a tabloid newspaper. The latter filled the need for a multi-disciplined, peer-reviewed journal that was open to critical perspectives on cult issues. CSJ‘s editorial board included helping professionals, academicians, attorneys, educators, clergy, and business executives. Over the years CSJ has published more than 160 articles and several hundred book reviews. Many of these articles provide practical help for families, ex-members, and helping professionals, while others report on scientific research, legal issues, theoretical speculations, and other subjects. Several issues were special collections, including Women Under the Influence (edited by Dr. Janja Lalich), published in 1997. One of its early issues (Volume 2, Number 2 – 1985) illustrated well AFF‘s continuing mission of bringing together diverse parties interested in cultic abuses. This special issue was entitled, ―Cults, Evangelicals, and the Ethics of Social Influence.‖ The issue arose from conversations AFF staff had had with the staff of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, one of the leading Evangelical campus ministries. InterVarsity strongly supports freedom of religion and the Christian obligation to preach the Gospel. But InterVarsity recognized that sometimes its lay evangelists, who were often young and inexperienced, lost their ethical bearings and became manipulative or abusive. The InterVarsity staff appreciated Dr. Clark‘s statement that in cults we witness an ―impermissible experiment‖ on the changing of human personality, an experiment that is ―impermissible‖ because cults violate the unwritten ethical codes of human social influence. InterVarsity‘s vital contribution to this special issue was to organize a team of evangelical scholars to come up with an ethical code for the Christian evangelist. Rev. Dr. Robert Watts Thornburg, Dean of Boston University‘s Marsh Chapel, later revised this ethical code with his staff and used it to determine when criticism of campus religious groups was warranted, as well as to keep their own house in order. Other universities also expressed an interest in the ethical code. This special CSJ issue also underlined one of AFF‘s enduring themes, namely, the concern about cults rests not on their creeds but on their deeds, on the unethical ways in which they seek to recruit, retain, and exploit members.

Wingspread Conference This theme was emphasized in a landmark conference that AFF organized in 1985 in conjunction with the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California at Los Angeles and the Johnson Foundation, which hosted the conference at its Wingspread campus in Racine, Wisconsin. This conference brought together 40 individuals, including representatives from England and Germany. Among the participants were mental health professionals, clergy, academicians, journalists, the president of the National PTA, attorneys, campus administrators, and the Head of the Private Office of Richard Cottrell, Member of the European Parliament from Bath, England. The goals of the conference and its recommendations continue to guide AFF to this day. The goals were to: 1. examine our level of knowledge about cultic groups and their effects on individuals, families, and society; 2. identify areas in which scientific studies of cults have been inadequate; and 3. consider ways in which social policy regarding cults might, without violating fundamental civil liberties, be changed for the greater protection of the public. This Wingspread conference made 21 recommendations classified under research, education, and law. The full text of the report was published in Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1986.

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Resources for Families Recognizing that families needed practical, hands-on books to help them deal with loved ones in cultic groups AFF in the mid-1980s began to work on the first of a series of books aimed at families. Cults: What Parents Should Know, published in 1988 was written by former group member and counselor, Joan Carol Ross, and Dr. Michael Langone. This book addressed issues of assessment, defining the problem, communication, planning, and dealing with post-cult difficulties. In 1992 AFF published the first edition of Carol Giambalvo‘s Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention. This book complemented Cults: What Parents Should Know by providing practical details and advice for families considering an exit counseling. Its publication was a landmark event in the supplanting of deprogramming by noncoercive exit counseling approaches. A revised, second edition of this book was published in 1996. In 1996 Livia Bardin, M.S.W. led AFF‘s first workshop for families (these have been held every year since in conjunction with AFF‘s annual meeting). She developed a collection of forms to better equip families (and friends) to help a loved one involved in a cultic group: Summary of Changes, Pre-cult Identity Chart, Group Profile, Member‘s Present Situation, Sending Important Messages, Using the Private Language, Listening and Responding, About the Family, Friends and Family Network, and Strategic Planning Worksheet. In 2000 she completed a book based on her workshops and forms, Coping with Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families and Friends. This book helps families achieve a level of understanding far deeper than that provided by other written resources.

Education AFF initiated a preventive educational program, the International Cult Education Program (ICEP), in 1987. ICEP‘s goals were to develop educational resources for young people, educators, and clergy, to encourage educational programs for youth, and to provide support and guidance to those conducting such programs. Founded and directed by Marcia Rudin until her retirement in 1997, ICEP produced two videotapes, Cults: Saying “No” Under Pressure and After the Cult: Recovering Together, a book, Cultism on Campus: Commentaries and Guidelines for College and University Administrators (revised in 1996 under the title, Cults on Campus: Continuing Challenge), a lesson plan, a collection of pseudoscience fact sheets, four educational flyers, and the semi-annual newsletter, Young People and Cults. Funding cuts prevent AFF from maintaining ICEP as a distinct program today, although its functions continue to the extent resources permit. That many people held AFF‘s educational activities in high esteem became evident in June 1995, when AFF president, Herbert Rosedale (who has served as president since 1987), was asked to deliver a commencement address to the graduating class of the State University of New York‘s Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, ―Promises and Illusions.‖ This address is printed in Cultic Studies Journal, 11(2). In 1987 AFF organized a special conference on Business and the New Age Movement at the American Management Association in New York City. This conference brought together journalists, researchers, and helping professionals to address the legal, ethical, and mental health controversies that surrounded certain training programs in business. As a follow-up to this conference Drs. Arthur Dole, Michael Langone, and Steve Dubrow-Eichel conducted a series of studies designed to clarify what is meant by ―new age.‖ Reports on these studies were published in Cultic Studies Journal. AFF‘s contributions to the examination of cultism‘s implications for business were recognized when AFF‘s president, Herbert Rosedale, was appointed in 1992 Executive in Residence at the School of Business, Indiana University. Mr. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 11

Rosedale also gave a talk on new age training programs and business to the annual meeting of the Association of Private Enterprise Education in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1996. In the late 1980s AFF witnessed a spate of Satanism inquiries arising from what in hindsight was a media craze. In order to provide guidance to young people and educators, AFF‘s Dr. Michael Langone and Linda Blood began work on a paper. This manuscript, however, soon grew into a book, Satanism and Occult-Related Violence, which AFF published in 1990. The book‘s goal was to give some professional balance to the subject. The authors reviewed the relevant professional literature, provided some historical background, and offered concrete advice for families and mental health professionals. The book also addressed the credibility issue with regard to adult survivors of ritualistic abuse -- what was to grow into the false memory controversy. Throughout its history AFF staff and advisors have given talks at universities and professional associations in order to educate academicians, students, and helping professionals. They have also consulted with journalists on hundreds, if not thousands, of occasions. Appendix B provides a list of some of the more noteworthy educational programs and media outlets to which AFF has contributed.

Project Recovery In 1990 AFF turned its research focus from families to former group members, for it had become clear that the majority of former members approaching AFF for help had left their groups on their own without any parental intervention. Many of these individuals were seriously distressed and needed guidance and support. In response to this need AFF initiated a series of study groups, composed of AFF‘s volunteer professionals (i.e., members of its advisory board, which numbered about 120 by 1990) under the rubric ―Project Recovery.‖ The following are merely the more noteworthy achievements that resulted from the work of these study groups: Dr. Edward Lottick‘s survey of 1396 primary care physicians in Pennsylvania, conducted under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. Among other findings, this study reported that 2.2% of subjects said that either they or an immediate family member had been involved in a cultic group. Pennsylvania Medicine (February, 1993) published the results of Dr. Edward Lottick‘s survey. This study, combined with other research data, suggests that approximately one percent, or about two to three million Americans have had cultic involvements. Since other research suggests that people stay in their groups an average of about six years, we estimate that several tens of thousands of individuals enter and leave cultic groups each year. In 1992 AFF conducted its first weekend workshop for former group members at the Stony Point Retreat Center, Stony Point, New York. At least one weekend workshop has been held every year since, and one-day ex-member workshops are typically held prior to AFF‘s annual conference. See Appendix C for a description of AFF workshops. In 1990 Dr. Langone surveyed 308 former group members from 101 different groups. The Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA), the first measure of ―cultishness,‖ was derived from these subjects‘ responses to a segment of the questionnaire. CSJ published a report on the development of the GPA in 1994. A series of studies in the U.S., England, and most recently Spain have used or are using the GPA as a measure. Dr. Langone and Dr. William Chambers conducted another survey of 108 ex-members in order to evaluate how they related to different terms and discovered that exCultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 12

members prefer terms such as ―psychological abuse‖ or ―spiritual abuse‖ to ―cult,‖ ―brainwashing,‖ or ―mind control.‖ Dr. Paul Martin and his colleagues at the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center (a residential treatment center for former group members) analyzed data Wellspring had collected on 124 clients. CSJ published a report on this research in 1992. In 1992 in Arlington, Virginia AFF conducted a conference, ―Cult Victims and Their Families: Therapeutic Issues.‖ In 1995 AFF conducted a joint conference with Denver Seminary: ―Recovery from Cults: A Pastoral/Psychological Dialogue.‖ And in 1996, AFF, in conjunction with Iona College‘s pastoral and family counseling department, conducted a conference, ―Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Groups: Psychological and Spiritual Dimensions.‖ Under Project Recovery, AFF published AFF News, a free outreach newsletter directed toward ex-members. This periodical‘s function is now fulfilled through AFF‘s Web sites and its free Internet newsletter, AFF News Briefs. In 1993 Norton Professional Books published AFF‘s Recovery from Cults, edited by Dr. Michael Langone, a book that the Behavioral Science Book Service chose as an alternate selection. This edited book consisted of chapters written by members of the Project Recovery study groups. In 1993 AFF published Wendy Ford‘s book, Recovery from Abusive Groups, which provides practical guidelines for individuals struggling with post-group adjustment issues. In 1994 Hunter House published Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, written by AFF advisors Madeleine Tobais and Janja Lalich.

Research Advances Project Recovery‘s research component led to an important three-day research planning meeting, which was organized by Dr. Langone and hosted by Dr. Martin and his staff at Wellspring in 1994. A follow-up meeting was held a year later. The action recommendations identified at these meetings continue to guide AFF‘s research program. Appendix D contains an abridged version of these research meeting reports. Among those attending these meetings were two teams of graduate students from Pepperdine University and Ohio University, working under Dr. David Foy and Dr. Steve Lynn, respectively. These students later completed several dissertations and independent research studies (some published in Cultic Studies Journal) relevant to goals of the research plan enunciated at these meetings. Some of this research was reported in a paper presented to the American Psychological Association‘s Division 36, Psychology of Religion in 1996. Other research was reported on at other professional meetings. In 1995 Boston University named AFF‘s Dr. Langone the 1995 Albert Danielsen Visiting Scholar. In this capacity, he conducted a research study that compared former members/graduates of a cultic group and two mainstream religious groups on (a) members‘ perceptions of group abusiveness, and (b) psychological distress. This study‘s design was a direct result of the research planning meetings conducted at Wellspring. In 1994 AFF, with the Cult Awareness Network and the Cult Hot Line and Clinic of the New York Jewish Board of Family & Children‘s Services, funded and received a special report from the American Bar Association‘s Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law: ―Cults in American Society: A Legal Analysis of Undue Influence, Fraud and Misrepresentation.‖ This report, published in Cultic Studies Journal in 1995, reflected AFF‘s desire to support legal research with practical implications for former group members. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 13

In 1996 AFF published The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ (second edition published in 1998). Edited by AFF‘s Carol Giambalvo and Herbert Rosedale, this book provided historical background, personal accounts and analytical chapters on the group about which AFF had received more inquiries than any other during the 1990s.

Resource Guide As the number of resources -- books, articles, pamphlets, videos, lesson plans -- available through AFF grew, it became necessary to describe all of these resources in one document. Thus, in 1998 AFF published Cults and Psychological Abuse: A Resource Guide (revised in 1999). This 119-page book provided brief suggestions for general inquirers, families, exmembers, current members, mental health professional, legal professionals, educators, students, clergy, and occult-ritual abuse inquirers. It also included 18 essays and checklists on topics ranging from ―On Using the Term ‗Cult‘‖ to ―How Can Young People Protect Themselves Against Cults.‖ The book also devoted 36 pages to describing AFF‘s books, reports, information packets, videos, preventive education resources, CSJ reprint collections, and individual CSJ article reprints. This resource guide demonstrates how far AFF has come since its founding, when there were virtually no resources for people concerned about cult involvements.

Conferences AFF has organized conferences since its founding. In recent years AFF‘s conferences have become increasingly international in scope and larger with respect to the number of programs available to attendees. Until 1998 all AFF conferences took place in the Northeast between Washington D.C. and Boston, which is where the bulk of AFF‘s supporters live. But in 1998 AFF decided to move out of that geographical base by organizing a conference in Chicago. In 1999 the annual conference took place in Minnesota; in 2000 in Seattle. Then in 2001 the conference returned to the Northeast, to Newark, New Jersey. In 2002 the annual conference will head south for the first time and will take place in Orlando, Florida from June 13-15th. The 2001 conference had approximately 270 attendees and nearly 70 speakers. Attendees came from two dozen countries, including China, South Africa, Russia, and Brazil. Approximately 40 attendees came from foreign countries. A three-track organization was employed so that during most periods attendees could choose from research, victim assistance, and international/legal programs. As with other annual conferences during the 1990s, this year‘s conference included two preconference workshops, one for families and one for ex-members. The 2002 conference, which will also have three tracks and family and ex-member workshops, will also include a preconference workshop for mental health professionals.

The Web: AFF’s Future AFF‘s Web site was first posted on the Internet in 1995. Begun initially through the volunteer efforts of Patrick Ryan, AFF‘s Web site, www.csj.org, grew considerably over the years. It now has over 1000 pages of material. It won a number of awards, including: A three-star rating by Mental Health Net, the largest catalog of mental health, psychology, and psychiatry resources online. A review in The Web Crawler, one of the main Internet indexes, which reviews very few web pages. Inclusion in the Britannica Internet Guide.

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The Internet has markedly changed how AFF functions. Until the late 1990s AFF traditionally depended upon journalists to get our message out. Most people who contacted us found out about us either through word of mouth or from a newspaper article. Today, because so many people, including nearly all journalists, are on the Web, more than 90% of the people who directly contact us -- usually by e-mail -- for the first time found us on the Web. Inquirers come from all over the world. Indeed, inspection of our Web site‘s statistics reveals that during a typical week the site will be visited by more than 10,000 people from about 70 countries. Through the Internet more people can take advantage of AFF‘s resources in a couple of months than during the prior 20 years. For this reason AFF decided several years ago to transform the organization so as to make it Internet-based. This has been a daunting and unpredictably time-consuming endeavor, for the transformation must occur while we continue to do all the work we have traditionally done – without any increase in manpower. We have made a great deal of progress. For example, all Cultic Studies Journal articles and book reviews are now available in electronic format. With a few clicks of a mouse and within a few seconds we can send five CSJ reprints to an inquirer in Ceylon. We are gradually converting past issues of Cult Observer to electronic format. When this project is completed, we will be able to e-mail about 4000 articles on more than 1000 different groups as easily as we can now send CSJ articles. We are also looking into methods of making such material available on the Web. In addition, we have collected and filed in our electronic folders more than 15,000 newspaper articles on more than 2000 groups. Our goal is to put together an electronic library that will have these resources as well as selected books, articles from journals other than our own, and even videos. How rapidly we progress toward the completion of this goal will depend upon how generously our supporters continue to donate. We are also developing new Web sites. In 2000 a special grant enabled us to launch a project that seeks to use the Internet to provide spiritual and religious seekers, youth in particular, with resources reviewed and recommended by an ecumenical advisory board of experts. AFF‘s partner in this project is the Center for Youth Studies in Hamilton, Massachusetts, directed by Rev. Dean Borgman, the Charles E. Culpepper Professor of Youth Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. This project resulted from our observation that cultic and other dubious groups often project a more sophisticated Web presence than mainstream religions. Such observations are especially troubling given that research indicates that 4% of the more than 8,000,000 teens who use the Internet do so for religious reasons and 16% of teens say the Internet will substitute for their current church experiences within the next five years (Lutz, A., & Borgman, D. Teenage Spirituality and the Internet - manuscript in preparation). We believe that it is important to develop and effectively market a Web site that will direct seekers to credible information sources that will not exploit or mislead them. This project revolves around a Web site, faithresource.org, which contains, or will contain, the following sections, in addition to information on the sponsoring organizations and the project‘s advisory board: Religion Showcase - Provides lists of Web sites, books, articles, periodicals, organizations, and other resources on the world‘s major faith traditions and the major branches of Christianity. Spiritual Abuse - Directs visitors to AFF‘s Web site and other resources focusing on the ways in which spiritual seekers can be exploited, manipulated, and abused.

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Religion News - Directs visitors to credible Web and print resources specializing in religious news. Newsletter - Provides visitors with a free newsletter that informs them about changes to the site, events of note, and, ultimately, conferences and workshops that faithresource.org might conduct. Interactive Web forums for youth - If this project continues to be funded, faithresource.org will, to the extent resources permit, answer, through e-mail, young persons‘ questions about religion, spirituality, and spiritual seeking. Over time a Question-and-Answer Index will be developed and kept on the Web site for the benefit of all visitors (inquirers‘ identities will, of course, remain anonymous). Project staff will answer questions, but, in a form of peer review, the staff‘s answers will not be posted until they have been reviewed and approved by at least two expert advisors. Other interactive forums will also be explored. Currently, this project is more or less on hold, for the seed grant expired in the summer of 2001. We hope, however, to refund it in 2002 and continue its development. In 2002 AFF merged Cultic Studies Journal and Cult Observer into the journal in which this article is published, Cultic Studies Review: An Internet Journal of Research, News & Opinion (CSR). Although designed as an Internet journal, CSR has a print version for those supporters not yet online, libraries, and those supporters who believe that cyberspace can never substitute for the heft of paper in the hand. We decided to merge the two periodicals in order to make more efficient use of manpower and to take advantage of the Internet‘s immunity to printing and postage costs. CSR is supplemented by AFF‘s free electronic newsletter, AFF News Briefs, which also includes a print version. The newsletter provides limited group news, announcements of upcoming events, brief essays, and news on the activities of researchers and cult educators around the world. CSR will soon be supplemented by AFF‘s latest Website, www.CulticStudies.org. This site will complement the current site, www.csj.org. CulticStudies.org is rebuilding and greatly expanding the quantity and quality of free information available to visitors in order to more effectively address the needs of educators, clergy, mental health professionals, and individuals and families needing help. In January 2002 AFF also made public a secure-pay bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com.

Thoughts on the Future Although AFF has grown remarkably since its founding, two vital elements of the organization have remained constant: A focus on professionalism and research aimed at helping those harmed by cultic involvements and forewarning those who might be harmed in the future. Continuity of leadership, management efficiency, and financial discipline. AFF‘s enduring focus on professionalism, its administrative efficiency and effectiveness, and the hard work and dedication of its volunteer professionals have resulted in the following general achievements: 1. A remarkable increase in the quantity and quality of information available to families, former group members, helping professionals, and others. 2. A more nuanced articulation of the cult phenomenon. This journal‘s name and the new Website‘s name, ―CulticStudies.org,‖ for example, emphasize that we do not see the issue that concerns us in black-and-white terms, ―cult‖ and ―not cult.‖ We see a wide range of groups that change over time and reveal a spectrum of ―cultishness.‖ Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 16

3. Much higher levels of understanding within professional communities, especially mental health and education. 4. Increased communication internationally and between the so-called ―camps‖ of cultic studies. AFF‘s day-to-day work over the next several years is likely to revolve around the following programs: 1. Publication of Cultic Studies Review, AFF News Briefs, and books. 2. Providing information to Website visitors and e-mail, phone, and snail mail inquirers. 3. Updating existing Websites and developing a comprehensive electronic library. 4. Conducting and/or supporting scientific research studies, as financial resources permit. 5. Organizing an annual conference and workshops for families, ex-members, and mental health professionals. 6. Working with and supporting volunteer professionals who will continue to contribute to professional publications and to lecture on this subject. Although AFF‘s mission has remained constant, the methods it employs to fulfill that mission have changed with the times. Most of our ―space,‖ for example, now consists of dancing electrons; we use considerably fewer ―square feet‖ of physical space to operate than was the case in 1981. Although raising enough money to do what needs to be done is as difficult as ever, the nature of our support has changed over the years. We are still dependent upon several large contributions. However, we are not nearly so dependent as we were 15 years ago. Small donations, subscriptions, and purchases now constitute more than 60% of our income, compared to about 20% in the early 1980s. The people who contribute to AFF have also changed, although many stalwarts – volunteers and financial supporters -- have stayed with us from the beginning. In 1979 most of the energy behind AFF came from parents of the cult-affected. Today, most of that energy comes from former group members, especially those who have gone on to get advanced degrees after recovering from their group experience. These former group members will develop the new and refined conceptual models and will conduct the research studies that will carry the cultic studies field to a higher level of understanding. AFF began as one man‘s vision to apply scientific methods to the problems of people hurt by groups that deceive, manipulate, and exploit in the name ―love.‖ This has been and will continue to be a difficult task, for the problems that motivate us to action are not easy to define with precision and are difficult to study scientifically. But AFF‘s history demonstrates that this task is not impossible, however difficult. Much has been learned; many people have been helped. Nevertheless, much work remains, and many more people will need help. Appendices Appendix A: Articles and Books The following is a partial list of publications produced or commissioned by AFF or published by its staff and advisors. The first section includes a list of articles published in AFF‘s scholarly Cultic Studies Journal. These reprints can be purchased in our Web Bookstore, www.cultinfobooks.com. We then provide a supplementary list of selected books and articles published by AFF staff and advisors.

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CSJ Reprints Title/Author CSJ Vol.1. No. 1 Women, Elderly, and Children in Religious Cults. Marcia Rudin. Brainwashing and the Moonies. Geri Ann Galanti, Ph.D. Avoiding the Extremes in Defining the Extremist Cult. Stephen M. Ash, Ph.D. Deprogramming An Analysis of Parental Questionnaires. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Family Perspectives on Involvements in New Religious Groups. Lawrence B. Sullivan, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.1. No. 2 Training Issues for Cult Treatment Programs. David Halperin, M.D. Cults and Children: The Abuse of the Young. A. Markowitz, C.S.W. & D. Halperin, M.D. Mental Health Interventions in Cult-Related Cases: Preliminary Investigation of Outcomes. Steve K. Dubrow-Eichel, Linda Dubrow-Eichel, & Roberta Cobrin Eisenberg. Preventive Education on Cultism for High School Students: A Comparison of Different Programs‘ Effects on Potential Vulnerability to Cults. Andrea Bloomgarden & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Counseling and Involvements in New Religious Groups. Lawrence Bennett Sullivan, Ph.D. On Resisting Social Influence. Susan Andersen, Ph.D. & Philip Zimbardo, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.2. No. 1 Psychotherapy and the "New Religions": Are They The Same? Daniel Kriegman, Ph.D. & Leonard Solomon, Ph.D. Some New Religions Are Dangerous. Arthur A. Dole, Ph.D. & Steve K. Dubrow-Eichel. Cult-Induced Psychopathology, Part I: Clinical Picture. Stephen M. Ash, Psy.D. Cults Go To High School: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of the Initial Stage in the Recruitment Process. Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D. & Cynthia F. Hartley. Cult Involvement: Suggestions for Concerned Parents and Professionals. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.2. No. 2 Introduction to Special Issue: Cults, Evangelicals, and the Ethics of Social Influence. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Shepherding/Discipleship: Theology and Practice of Absolute Obedience. Linda Blood. Campus Crusade: Youth Ministers Find Public High School Campuses to be a Fertile Field for Missionary Endeavor. Hope Aldrich. Autobiography of a Former Moonie. Gary Scharff. Why Evangelicals are Vulnerable to Cults. Rev. Dr. Harold Bussell. The Perils of Persuasive Preaching. Rev. A. Duane Litfin. Selections from the Second Vatican Council‘s Declaration on Religious Freedom. New Organizations Operating Under the Protection Afforded to Religious Bodies. Resolution of the European Parliament. Statement of Evaluation Regarding Maranatha Campus Ministries, Maranatha Christian Ministries, Maranatha Christian Church. A Committee of Evangelical Theologians. Guidelines for Opus Dei in Westminister Diocese. Cardinal Basil Hume. Resolution on Missionaries and Deprogramming. Department of Interreligious Affairs, United American Hebrew Congregations. Disciple Abuse. Rev. Gordon MacDonald. How to Talk to People Who are Trying to Save You. Rev. Dr. Ross Miller. Introduction to Contributions of the Inter-Varsity Team. Dietrich Gruen. Prologue: The Evangelicals Set Forth Their Case. Dietrich Gruen. A Code of Ethics for the Christian Evangelist. Ethical Evangelism, Yes! Unethical Proselytizing, No! Rev. Dr. Gordon Lewis. What is Evangelism? Mark McCloskey. Evangelism: Persuasion or Proselytizing? M. McCloskey. The Ethics of Persuasion in a Pluralistic Culture. M. McCloskey. An Ethic for Christian Evangelism. R. Johannesen, Ph.D. A Hypothetical Example. Dietrich Gruen. Religious Freedom at Secular Schools. John W. Alexander. Of Cults and Evangelicals: Labeling and Lumping. Ronald Enroth, Ph.D. Christian Evangelism and Social Responsibility: An Evangelical View. Rev. Dr. Joseph M. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 18

Hopkins. Religious Pluralism, Dialogue, and the Ethics of Social Influence. Rev. Dr. Eugene C. Kreider. Evangelization and Freedom in the Catholic Church. Rev. James J. LeBar. A Catholic Viewpoint on Christian Evangelizers. Rev. Dr. James E. McGuire. Ethics in Proselytizing: A Jewish View. Rabbi Ralph D. Mecklenburger. Evangelicals and Cults. Marcia Rudin. Objectionable Aspects of "Cults": Rhetoric and Reality. Thomas Robbins, Ph.D. Cults, Evangelicals, and the Ethics of Social Influence. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.3. No. 1 Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of Thought Reforming Techniques. Richard Ofshe, Ph.D. & Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D. ―Mind Control" and the Battering of Women. Teresa Ramirez Boulette, Ph.D. & Susan Andersen, Ph.D. Charismatic Covenant Community: A Failed Promise. Adrian J. Reimers. Charismatic Leadership: A Case in Point. Natalie Isser, Ph.D. & Lita Linzer Schwartz, Ph.D. The Spiritual Crucible: A Critical Guide to America‘s Religious/Cultic Renaissance. David Christopher Lane. Sects or New Religious Movements: A Pastoral Challenge The Vatican Report on Cults. Cultism: A Conference for Scholars and Policy Makers. Report of Wingspread Conference. Louis J. West, M.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. The Use of Transcendental Meditation to Promote Social Progress in Israel. Mordecai Kaffman, M.D. Reducing Conflict and Enhancing Quality of Life in Israel Using the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Explanation of a Social Research Project. Charles N. Alexander, Ph.D. & David W. Orme-Johnson, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.3. No. 2 Cultism and American Culture. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D The Rabbi and the Sex Cult: Power Expansion in the Formation of a Cult. Richard Ofshe, Ph.D. Parental Responses to Their Children‘s Cult Membership. Lita Linzer Schwartz, Ph.D. My Experience in YWAM: A Personal Account and Critique. Laurie Jacobson. Some Hazards of the Therapeutic Relationship. Jane W. Temerlin, M.S.W. & Maurice K. Temerlin, Ph.D. The Utilization of Hypnotic Techniques in Religious Conversion. Jesse S. Miller, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.4. No. 1 Some Rigors of Our Times: The First Amendment and Real Life and Death. One ACLU Member Looks at Guyana, Nazis, and Pornography. Fay Stender, Esq. Comments on Stender Article. George Driesen, Peter N. Georgiades. Psychoanalysis and Cult Affiliation: Clinical Perspectives. David Halperin, M.D. The Cult Appeal: Susceptibilities of the "Missionary Kid." Margaret W. Long, Ph.D. Teaching Students Who Already Know the Truth. David McKenzie, Ph.D. A Comment on McKenzie. Ronald Enroth, Ph.D. Reply to Enroth. David McKenzie, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.4. No.2/Vol.5 No.1 Double Issue Cult Vs. Non-Cult Jewish Families: Factors Influencing Conversion. Mark Sirkin, Ph.D. & Bruce A. Grellong, Ph.D. Family Environment as a Factor in Vulnerability to Cult Involvement. Neil Maron, Ph.D. Creating the Illusion of Mind Reading in a Self-Transformation Training. Robert C. Fellows, M.T.S. "Reject the Wicked Man" - Coercive Persuasion and Deviance Production: A Study of Conflict Management. Jerry Paul McDonald. Litigating the Cult-Related Child Custody Case. Randy Francis Kandel, Esq. Confessions of a Cult Watcher. Ronald Enroth, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.5. No. 2 Trouble in Paradise: Some Observations on Psychotherapy with New Agers. Steve & Linda Dubrow-Eichel. Psychotherapy with Ex-Cultists: Four Case Studies and Commentary. L. Goldberg, M.S.W. & W. Goldberg, M.S.W. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 19

Psychotherapy of a Casualty from a Mass Therapy Encounter Group: A Case Study. Anita O. Solomon, Ph.D. Ritualistic Abuse of Children: Dynamics and Impact. Susan J. Kelley, R.N., Ph.D. Authority: Its Use and Abuse - A Christian Perspective. Floyd McClung, Jr. CSJ Vol.6. No. 1 Coerced Confessions: The Logic of Seemingly Irrational Action. Richard Ofshe, Ph.D. Social Influence: Ethical Considerations. Michael Langone, Ph.D. Legal Analysis of Intent as a Continuum Emphasizing Social Context of Volition. Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq. State of Israel Report of the Interministerial Committee Set Up to Examine Cults ("New Groups") in Israel. Litigating Child Custody with Religious Cults. Ford Greene, Esq. Cults and Children: The Role of the Psychotherapist. David Halperin, M.D. Family Responses to a Young Adult‘s Cult Membership and Return. Lorna Goldberg, M.S.W & William Goldberg, M.S.W.. CSJ Vol.6. No. 2 Deprogramming: A Case Study. Steve Dubrow-Eichel, Ph.D.– special issue CSJ Vol.7. No. 1 Cults and the European Parliament: A Practical Political Response to an International Problem. David Wilshire, MA, MP. Prosecuting an Ex-Cult Member‘s Undue Influence Suit. Lawrence Levy, J.D. The New Age Movement: Fad or Menace? Arthur Dole, Ph.D., Michael Langone, Ph.D., & Steve Dubrow-Eichel, Ph.D. The Involvement of College Students in Totalist Groups: Causes, Concerns, Legal Issues, and Policy Considerations. Gregory Blimling, Ph.D. Reintegration of Exiting Cult Members with their Families: A Brief Intervention Model. Kevin Crawley, Diana Paulina, M.Ed., & Robert White, L.D. CSJ Vol.7. No. 2 Psychotherapy Cults. Margaret T. Singer, Ph.D., Maurice Temerlin, Ph.D., & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Persuasive Techniques in Contemporary Cults: A Public Health Approach. Louis J. West, M.D. Cult Violence and the Identity Movement. Thomas J. Young, Ph.D. The False Transformational Promise of Bible-Based Cults: Archetypal Dynamics. Nadine Craig, M.A. & Robert Weathers, Ph.D. Deprogramming: A Case Study - Part II: Conversation Analysis. Steve K. Dubrow-Eichel, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.8. No. 1 Cult Formation. Robert Jay Lifton, M.D. The Effect of Religious Cults on Western Mainstream Religion. Marcia Rudin, M.A. & Rabbi A. James Rudin, M.A. The Historical Dimension of Cultic Techniques of Persuasion and Control. Lita Linzer Schwartz, Ph.D. Residential Treatment: The Potential for Cultic Evolution. David A. Halperin, M.D. & Arnold Markowitz, M.S.W. Cults in Court. Sarah Van Hoey. CSJ Vol.8. No. 2 Conversion, Religious Change, and the Challenge of New Religious Movements. Johannes Aagaard, Ph.D.. Why Cultic Groups Develop and Flourish: A Historian‘s Perspective. Natalie Isser, Ph.D. Ritual Child Abuse: Understanding the Controversies. David Lloyd, Esq. Outreach to Ex-Cult Members: The Question of Terminology. Michael Langone, Ph.D. & William Chambers, Ph.D. Interesting Times. Kevin Garvey & Linda Blood. Task Force Study of Ritual Crime. Michael Maddox, Esq. & the Virginia State Crime Commission. CSJ Vol.9. No. 1 The Cadre Ideal: Origins and Development of a Political Cult. Janja Lalich. Psychiatric Problems in Ex-Members of Word of Life. Gudrun Swartling, O.T. & Per G. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 20

Swartling, M.D. The Council of Europe‘s Report on Sects and New Religious Movements. CSJ Vol.9. No. 2 Psychotherapy Cults: An Ethical Analysis. Kim Boland & Gordon Lindbloom, Ph.D. Cults, Coercion, and Contumely. M. Singer, Ph.D. & M. Addis. The Appeal of the Impossible and the Efflorescence of the Unbelievable: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Cults and Occultism. David A. Halperin, Ph.D. Psychological Abuse. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Post-Cult Symptoms as Measured by the MCMI Before and After Residential Treatment. Paul R. Martin, Ph.D., Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., Arthur A. Dole, Ph.D., & Jeffrey Wiltrout. CSJ Vol.10. No. 1 Undue Influence in Contract and Probate Law. Abraham Nievod, Ph.D., J.D. Undue Influence and Written Documents: Psychological Aspects. Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D. The Dark Underside: Cultic Misappropriation of Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis. David Halperin, M.D. Cult Conversion, Deprogramming, and the Triune Brain. Geri-Ann Galanti. Is the New Age Movement Harmless? Critics vs. Experts. A. Dole, Ph.D., M. Langone, Ph.D., & S. Dubrow-Eichel, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.10. No. 2 Introduction to special issue, "A Dialogue with Dr. Johannes Aagaard." Paul K. Eckstein. Symposium with Johannes Aagaard. Pluralism, Deeds, Creeds, and Cults. Michael Langone, Ph.D. An Exit Counselor‘s Perspective. David Clark. Religious Recoding. Rev. Walter Debold. Returning to Cosmology: The Logic of the Discussion and the Language of the Soul. Paul K. Eckstein. CSJ Vol.11. No. 1 Strongly Held Views About the New Age: Critics Versus Experts. Arthur Dole, Ph.D. & Michael Langone, Ph.D. God‘s Company: New Age Ethics and the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Paul Heelas, Ph.D. Never Say Die. Jeanne Marie Laskas. The Experience of the SPES Foundation: Some Remarks on the Different Attitudes Toward New Religious Movements in Argentina and in Europe. Jose Maria Baamond, Ph.D. Cults in Latin America. Alfredo Silletta. More Than the Devil‘s Due. Adrian J. Reimers, Ph.D. The Group Psychological Abuse Scale: A Measure of the Varieties of Cultic Abuse. William Chambers, Ph.D., Michael Langone, Ph.D., Arthur Dole, Ph.D., & James W. Grice. CSJ Vol.11. No. 2 Lustful Prophet: A Psychosexual Historical Study of the Children of God‘s Leader, David Berg. Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D. Psychological Issues of Former Fundamentalists. James C. Moyers. Promises and Illusions: A Commencement Address. Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq. Sleep Deprivation. Jean-Louis Valatx. CSJ Vol.12. No. 1 Cults in American Society. American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. Judgment by the Fukuoka (Japan) District Court on the Unification Church. Expanding the Groupthink Explanation to the Study of Contemporary Cults. Mark N. Wexler, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.12. No. 2 Clinical Case Studies of Cult Members. Arthur Dole, Ph.D. Personality, Belief in the Paranormal, and Involvement with Satanic Practices Among Young Adult Males. Stuart M. Leeds. Secular and Religious Critiques of Cults: Complementary Visions, Not Irresolvable Conflicts. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. Women and Cults: A Lawyer‘s Perspective. Herbert Rosedale, Esq. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 21

CSJ Vol.13. No. 1 Legal Decision: Borawick v. Shay. Commentary on Borawick v. Shay: The Fate of Hypnotically Retrieved Memories. Alan W. Scheflin, Esq. Commentary on …Borawick v. Shay: Hypnosis, Social Influence, Incestuous Child Abuse, and Satanic Ritual Abuse: The Iatrogenic Creation of Horrific Memories for the Remote Past. Robert A. Karlin, Ph.D., & Martin T. Orne, M.D., Ph.D. Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants. Carol Giambalvo, Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan & Madeleine Landau Tobias. CSJ Vol.13. No. 2 Pseudo-identity and the Treatment of Personality Change in Victims of Captivity and Cults. Louis J. West, M.D. & Paul Martin, Ph.D. Psychosocial Evaluation of Suspected Psychological Maltreatment in Children and Adolescents. American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. Group Influence and the Psychology of Cultism Within Re-evaluation Counseling: A Critique. Dennis Tourish, M.Sc., Ph.D. & Pauline Irving, M.Sc., Dip. C.G., C.Psych., Ph.D. The Threat to Entrepreneurial Freedom and Initiative Posed by "New Age" Management Training Programs. Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq. CSJ Vol.14. No. 1 Introduction: ―We Own Her Now.‖ Janja Lalich. Dominance and Submission: The Psychosexual Exploitation of Women in Cults. Janja Lalich. Gender Attributes That Affect Women‘s Attraction to and Involvement in Cults. Shelly Rosen. Mothers In Cults: The Influence of Cults on the Relationship of Mothers to Their Children. Alexandra Stein. Sex, Lies, and Grand Schemes of Thought in Closed Groups. A Collective of Women. No Place to Go: Life in a Prison Without Bars. Katherine Betz. Wifely Subjection: Mental Health Issues in Jehovah‘s Witness Women. Kaynor J. Weishaupt & Michael D. Stensland. Working with Women Survivors of Cults: An Empowerment Model for Counselors. Penny Dahlen. CSJ Vol.14. No. 2 Hypnosis and the Iatrogenic Creation of Memory: On the Need for a Per Se Exclusion of Testimony Based on Hypnotically Influenced Recall. Robert A. Karlin & Martin T. Orne. False Memory and Buridan‘s Ass: A Response to Karlin and Orne. Alan W. Scheflin. The Individual Cult Experience Index: The Assessment of Cult Involvement and Its Relationship to Postcult Distress. Nadine Winocur, Jonibeth Whitney, Carol Sorenson, Peggy Vaughn, & David Foy. CSJ Vol.15. No. 1 Women, the Law, and Cults: Three Avenues of Legal Recourse—New Rape Laws, Violence Against Women Act, and Antistalking Laws. Robin A. Boyle, J.D. Ideological Intransigence, Democratic Centralism, and Cultism: A Case Study from the Political Left. Dennis Tourish, Ph.D. Residence Halls and Cults: Fact or Fiction? Russell K. Elleven, Ed.D., Carolyn W. Kern, Ph.D., & Katherine Claunch Moore A Comment on the Debate Between Scheflin and Karlin and Orne on the Admissibility of Hypnotically Refreshed Testimony. Gilbert C. Hoover, IV, Esq. In Favor of a Per Se Exclusion of Hypnotically Influenced Testimony: A Reply to Hoover. Robert A. Karlin, Ph.D. and Martin T. Orne, M.D., Ph.D. Brief Report: Perceived Psychological Abuse and the Cincinnati Church of Christ. Donna L. Adams CSJ Vol.15. No. 2 Special Collection. Recovery From Cults: A Pastoral/Psychological Dialogue – Personal Accounts Moments of Grace. Nancy Miquelon Nothing Need Go to Waste. Patrick Knapp From Counterfeit to Truth: A Personal Quest. Carson Miles Bible-Cult Mind Control. David Clark Overcoming the Bondage of Revictimization: A Rational/Empirical Defense of Thought Reform. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 22

Paul R. Martin, Ph.D., Lawrence Pile, Ron Burks, & Stephen Martin Cult Experience: Psychological Abuse, Distress, Personality Characteristics, and Changes in Personal Relationships Reported by Former Members of Church Universal and Triumphant. Irene Gasde, Richard Block, Ph.D. CSJ Vol.16. No. 1 How Childlren in Cults May Use Emancipation Laws to Free Themselves. Robin A. Boyle Psychological Distress in Former Members of the International Churches of Christ and Noncultic Groups. Peter T. Malinoski, Michael D. Langone, & Steven Jay Lynn In Good Faith: Society and the New Religious Movements, Summary Report. Swedish Government Commission CSJ Vol. 16. No. 2 Shipwrecked in the Spirit: Implications of Some Controversial Catholic Movements. Judith Church Tydings Comment on "Shipwrecked in the Spirit": An Urgent Pastoral Concern. Michael Duggan Proposing a "Bill of Inalienable Rights" for Intentional Communities. Benjamin Zablocki How Should the Communities Movement Handle Questions of Abuse? Responding to Benjamin Zablocki‘s Proposed "Bill of Rights." Laird Sandhill Comment on Leeds (1995). Paul Cardwell, Jr. CSJ Vol. 17 Child Fatalities from Religion-Motivated Neglect. Seth M. Asser, M.D. & Rita Swan, Ph.D. Prophets of the Apocalypse: White Supremacy and the Theology of Christian Identity. Dennis Tourish, PH.D. & Tim Wohlforth Domestic Violence as a Cultic System. David Ward Brainwashing and Re-Indoctrination Programs in the Children of God/The Family. Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D. & Deana Hall The Two ―Camps‖ of Cultic Studies: Time for a Dialogue. Michael Langone, Ph.D. ―Mind Control‖ in New Religious Movements and the American Psychological Association. Dr. Alberto Amitrani & Dr. Raffaella Di Marzio Blind or Just Don‘t Want to See? Brainwashing, Mystification, and Suspicion. Dr. Alberto Amitrani & Dr. Raffaella Di Marzio The Relation of Group Philosophy to Different Types of Dangerous Conduct in Cultic Groups. Dianne Casoni, Ph.D. The Falun Gong: Beyond the Headlines. Patsy Rahn CSJ Vol. 18 Cults, Psychological Manipulation and Society: International Perspectives – An Overview. Michael Langone, Ph.D. What Should We Do About Cults: An Italian Perspective. Dr. Raffaella Di Marzio Cults, Freedom of Belief, and Freedom of Religion. Judge Denis Barthelemy The Crimes and Teachings of Aum Shinrikyo. Hiroshi Hirata, Attorney at Law Cults in Japan: Legal Issues. Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Attorney at Law What Should be Done About Cults? Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. The Millennium is Here – And so are the Cults. Lita Linzer Schwartz, Ph.D. Cults on Campus: Perceptions of Chief Counseling Officers. Russel K. Elleven, Ed.D.; Jennifer Van Veldhuizen, & Elizabeth Taylor, Ph.D. Healing from Experiences with Unhealthy Spiritual Groups and Cults: Treatment Using Myths and Folk Tales. Leland E. Shields & F. Jeri Carter, Ph.D. Enemies Within: Conflict and Control in the Baha‘I Community. Karen Bacquet Arousal, Capacity, and Intense Indoctrination. Robert S. Baron, Ph.D.

Other Articles and Books (Selected) American Family Foundation. (1999). Cults and psychological abuse: A resource guide. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation. Andersen, S., (1985). Identifying coercion and deception in social systems. In B. Kilbourne (Ed.), Scientific Research and New Religions: Divergent Perspectives. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division, 12-24. Appel, W. (1983). Cults in America: Programmed for paradise. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 23

Aronoff, J.B., Lynn, S.J., & Malinoski, P.T. (2000). Are cultic environments psychologically harmful? Clinical Psychology Review, 20, 91-111. Bardin, D. (April 19, 1994). Psychological coercion & human rights: Mind control (―brainwashing‖) exists. Cult Abuse Policy & Research Bardin, L. (2000). Coping with cult involvement: A handbook for family and friends. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation. Burks, R., & Burks, V. (1996). Damaged disciples: Casualties of authoritarian churches and the shepherding movement. Bussell, H. (1994). By hook or by crook. New York: McCracken Press. Chambers, W., Langone, M. & Malinoski, P., (1996, August 12). The Group Psychological Abuse Scale. (Paper presented to Division 36 of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.) Cialdini, B. Robert. (1984). Influence: How and why people agree to things. William Morrow. Clark, J. G. (1979). Cults. Journal of the American Medical Association, 242, 179-181. Clark, G. (1978). Problems in referral of cult members. NAPPH Journal, 9(4). 27-29. Clark, J. G., & Langone, M. D. (1984). The treatment of cult victims. In N. R. Bernstein & J. Sussex (Eds.), Handbook of child psychiatry consultation. New York: SP Medical and Scientific Books. Clark, J. G., Langone, M. D., Schecter, R. E., & Daly, R. C. B. (1981). Destructive cult conversion: Theory, research, and treatment. Weston, MA: American Family Foundation. Dole, A.A., Is the New Age dangerous to youth: Critics vs. experts? (1994). Poster Presented at the International Association for Applied Psychology. Dole, A.A., New Age terms rated for harmfulness: Experts vs. critics. (1995). Poster Prepared for Presentation at the Annual Meeting of American Psychological Association. Dole, A.A., Some conceptions of the New Age. (1993). Journal of Religion and Health. 32(4) 261-275. Dole, Arthur, & Dubrow-Eichel, Steve. (1981). Moon over academe. Journal of Religion and Health, 20, 35-40. Eisenberg, G. (1988). Smashing the idols: A Jewish inquiry into the cult phenomenon. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson. Enroth, R. (1993). Churches that abuse. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Enroth, R. (1995). Recovery from churches that abuse. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Ford, W. (1993). Recovery from abusive groups. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation. Giambalvo, C. (1992). Exit counseling: A family intervention. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation. Giambalvo, C., & Rosedale, H. L. (1996). The Boston Movement: Critical perspectives on the International Churches of Christ. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation. Goldberg, L., & Goldberg, W. (1982). Group work with former cultists. Social Work, 27, 165-170. Halperin, D. (1982). Group processes in cult affiliation and recruitment. Group, 6(2), 13-24. Halperin, D. (1983). Psychodynamic perspectives on religion, sect, and cult. Boston: John Wright. Halperin, D. (1990). Psychiatric perspectives on cult affiliation. Psychiatric Annals, 20(4), 204-218. Hochman, J. (1989). Iatrogenic symptoms associated with a therapy cult: Examination of an extinct "new psychoterhapy" with respect to psychiatric deterioration and "brainwashing." Psychiatry, 47, 366-377. Hochman, J. (l990). Miracle, mystery, and authority: The triangle of cult indoctrination. Psychiatric Annals, 20,179-187. Isser, N., & Scheartz, L. L. (1988). The history of conversion and contemporary cults. New York: Peter Lang. Keiser, T., & Keiser, J. (1987). The anatomy of illusion. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas. Lalich, J. (Ed.). (1998). Women under the influence. Special issue of Cultic Studies Journal, 14(1). Landa, S. (1991). Children and cults: A practical guide. Journal of Family Law, 29(3), 591-634. Langone, M. D. (1989). Beware of "New Age" solutions to age old problems. Business and Society Review, 69, 39-42. Langone, M. D. (1990. Working with cult-affected families. Psychiatric Annals, 20(4), 194-198. Langone, Michael D. (1991). Assessment and treatment of cult victims and their families. In P. Keller (Ed.), Innovations in clinical practice: A source book (Volume 10). Sarasota (FL): Professional Resource Exchange. Langone, M. D. (Ed.). (1993). Recovery from Cults: Help for victims of psychological and spiritual abuse. New York: W. W. Norton. Langone, M. D. (1996). Clinical Update on Cults. Psychiatric Times. Langone, M. D. (1996). An investigation of a reputedly psychologically abusive group that targets college students: A report for Boston University‘s Danielsen Institute. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 24

Langone, Michael D., & Blood, Linda. (1990). Satanism and occult-related violence: What you should know. Weston, MA: American Family Foundation. Langone, M. D., & Clark, J. (1985). New religions and public policy: Research implications for social and behavioral scientists. In B. Kilbourne (Ed.), Scientific research and new religions: Divergent perspectives. American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division, 90-114. Langone, M. D., & Martin, P. R. (1993, Winter). Deprogramming, exit counseling, and ethics: Clarifying the confusion. Christian Research Journal, 46-47. LeBar, J., Burtner, K., Debold, W., & McGuire, J. (1989). Cults, sects, and the New Age. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor Press. Lottick, Edward A. (1993). Survey reveals physicians‘ experience with cults. Pennsylvania Medicine, 96(2), 26-28. Markowitz, Arnold. (19983, August). Jews in cults. Moment, 22-28. Markowitz, Arnold. (1989). A cult hotline and clinic. Journal of Jewish Communal Services, 4, 56-61. Martin, P. R. (1989, Winter/Spring). Dispelling the myths: The psychological consequences of cultic involvement. Christian Research Journal, 9-14. Martin, P. R. (1993). Cult-proofing your kid. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Nieburg, H., & Langone, M. D. (1994). Psychosocial aspects of cults and Satanism. Academy Forum, 38, 1-2. Ofshe, R. (1992). Coercive persuasion and attitude change. In E. Borgatta & M. Borgatta (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Sociology, 212-224. Rosedale, H. L., Kisser, C., & Singer, M. T. (1993, March 30). Statements to the Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives. Rosedale, H. L., & Langone, M. D. (1998). On using the term "cult." In American Family Foundation, Cults and psychological abuse: A resource guide. Bonita Springs, FL: American Family Foundation., 22-28. Ross, J. C., & Langone, M. D. (1988). Cults: What parents should know. New York: Lyle Stuart. Rudin, M. (Ed.). (1991). Cults on campus: Continuing challenge. Weston, MA: American Family Foundation. Rudin, M., & Rudin, A. J. (1980). Prison or paradise: The new religious cults. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Singer, M. T. (1979, January). Coming out of the cults. Psychology Today, 72-82. Singer, M. T. (1986). Consultation with families of cultists. In L. C. Wynne, S.H. McDaniel, & T. T. Weber (Eds.), The family therapist as consultant. New York: Guilford Press. Singer, M.T. (1987). Group psychodynamics. In R. Berkow (Ed.), The Merck Manual of diagnosis and therapy (15th edition, psychiatry section). Rahway, NJ: Merck, Sharp and Dohme. Singer, M. T. (1992). Cults. In S. B. Friedman, M. Fisher, & S. K. Schonberg (Eds.). Comprehensive adolescent health care. St. Louis, MO: Quality Medical Publishing, Inc. Singer, M. T., & Lalich, J. (1995). Cults in our midst. San Francisco: Josey-Bass. Singer, M. T., & Lalich, J. (1997). Crazy therapies. San Francisco: Josey-Bass. Singer, M. T., & Ofshe, R. (1990). Thought reform programs and the production of psychiatric casualties. Psychiatric Annals, 20(4), 188-193. Sirkin, M. (1990). Cult involvement: A systems approach to assessment and treatment. Psychotherapy, 27, 116-123. Sirkin, M., & Wynne, L. Cult involvement as relational disorder. Psychiatric Annals, 20, 204-218. Temerlin, M., & Temerlin, J. (1982). Psychotherapy cults: An Iatrogenic perversion. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, 19, 131-141. Tobias, M. L., & Lalich, J. (1994). Captive Hearts, Captive Minds. Alameda, CA: Hunter House. West, L. J. (1989). "Brainwashing," behavioral control and the risk of harm. Prepared for the American Bar Association‘s National Institute on Tort and Religion, program titles: Tort Liability for Brainwashing: A Debate. West, L. J. (1990, July; 1991, May; 1991, October). Psychiatry and Scientology. The Southern California Psychiatrist. West, L. J., & Singer, M. T. (1980). Cults, quacks, and nonprofessional psychotherapies. In H.I. Kaplan, A.M. Freedman, & B. J. Sadock (Eds.), Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry, III. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkens. Whitsett, D. P. (1992). A self-psychological approach to the cult phenomenon. Clinical Social Work Journal, 20(4), 363-375.

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Appendix B: Educational Programs and Media Contacts AFF conferences have been held in Seattle, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Hartford, Boston, Washington, D.C. and Denver. The following list is but a sample of the organizations for which AFF staff and advisors have conducted professional education programs. American Psychiatric Association American Group Psychotherapy Association American Psychological Association (at least 6 programs) American Sociological Association Eastern Psychological Association New England Psychological Association American Counseling Association American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress National Institute of Health Michigan Mental Health Association University of Pennsylvania University of San Francisco Stanford University City University of New York New York City‘s New School SUNY Utica/Rome Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism University of Hartford University of Vermont UCLA University of Southern California University of Denver University of Saskatoon Savannah State College Mt. Sinai Medical School First and Second International Congresses on Cults (Barcelona, Spain) School of Business, Indiana University. Baylor College of Medicine Boston University. Amherst College University of Massachusetts Denver Seminary Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Carrier Foundation Massachusetts General Hospital State University of New York‘s Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome (commencement address) Iona College Association of Private Enterprise Education Renfrew Foundation New School Cornell University University of Florida Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Texas A & M University State University of New York, Purchase College. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 26

University of Pittsburgh University of South Florida, Fort Myers Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Listed below are media organizations that have consulted AFF on cult-related stories. This is only a partial list, for our staff was not always able to enter a written record of conversations with journalists. Moreover, AFF advisors also speak extensively to journalists, and do not always keep a record. It should be noted that many media organizations contact us many times over the years. CNN New York Times CBC Newsweek Nippon TV Congressional Quarterly Researcher The London Times The Today Show The McLaughlin Group CBS World News Psychiatric Times TV 2 Denmark McNeil/Lehrer Report Pittsburgh Sunday Tribune-Review Wisconsin State Journal Geraldo Show Discovery Channel‟s Justice Files St. Paul Pioneer Press Providence Journal-Bulletin Chicago Tribune Jewish Action Current Health:The Continuing Guide to Health Education New York Post NBC Nightly News Essence Magazine Dunne Productions Link Magazine Boulder Daily Camera German Life Magazine The Eagle Christian Research Journal

Stern TV ABC News-–Primetime Live German Media Group CNBC-TV Manhattan Spirit VBS News, Before Your Eyes BBC News Detroit News LA Opinion Ft. Worth Star Telegram Good Day NY News Section The Rolanda Show (TV) WIBW-Radio (Kansas) CBS 48-Hours The Advocate Staten Island Advance KNBC-TV Scholastic Magazine Microsoft Sidewalk Fortune Magazine Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida Magazine People Magazine KALX-Radio (Berkeley) WISH-TV (Indianapolis) Home News and Tribune (NJ) Black Entertainment TV KRON, California Enterprise-Mountaineer (NC) Mademoiselle Cosmopolitan Magazine

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ABC Primetime-Live Albuquerque Journal Cybertimes (NY Times online publication) Elle Magazine Pioneer Press/Knight Ridder Chain Dateline NBC NYU Student Newspaper Facts on File News Services The Journal Media One (Chicago) True Vision Productions BBC Inside Story Self Magazine The Wall Street Journal South China Morning Post King-TV (Seattle, WA) Tampa Security Report Washington Post The Leeza Show Jewish TV Network (Los Angeles) The Muskogee (OK) Daily Phoenix German Radio Network Chicago Daily Herald The Teagle (TX) CNN-Washington Rockland (NY) Journal News Westchester-Ganette Newspaper Chain Sunday Greenwich (CT) Times. ABC TV News Campus Security Report Hard Copy KTRS Radio, Detroit Residence Life Magazine Rolling Stone Scholastic Magazine Star Magazine WMUZ Radio, Detroit Westchester Newspapers Pittsburgh Sunday Tribune-Review CBS-60 Minutes Philadelphia Inquirer NHK Japanese TV

Life Magazine Fortune Magazine BBC Inside Story South China Morning Post. Associated Press Atlanta Journal-Constitution Boston Globe Calgary Herald Charlotte Observer DNET News Dallas Morning News Denver Post Fox News, Inside Edition Japan Times Los Angeles Times Univision Miami Herald New York Post PBS News Philadelphia Weekly Religion News Service Reuters Rocky Mountain News South China Morning Post St. Petersburg Times Toronto Star Variety Washington Jewish Week U.S. News & World Report

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Appendix C: AFF Workshops AFF offers regularly scheduled and specially arranged small-group workshops for former members of abusive groups, and the families, spouses, and friends of people involved in abusive groups. The workshops offer extensive interaction between workshop leaders and participants. Typically, 10-25 people will participate. The workshops provide practical information and a healing atmosphere for individuals struggling with the sometimes longterm aftereffects of an abusive group experience or the confusion, frustration, and fear that people often experience when a loved one becomes involved in an abusive group. All sessions are led by individuals knowledgeable about group psychological abuse and the special needs of former members of abusive groups and family and friends concerned about group members or former members. Some workshops are a part of AFF conferences. For information on upcoming workshops, contact AFF. Ex- Member Workshops These workshops are for former group members only, not family or friends (AFF has other workshops for these persons). Topics discussed typically include: The nature of psychological manipulation and abuse Conditions of thought reform programs General recovery needs of former members Coping with depression and guilt Effects of hypnosis and trance techniques Coping with feelings of anger Coping with anxiety Decision-making Reestablishing trust in yourself and others Dependency issues The grieving process Reintegration/identity issues Spiritual and philosophical concerns The workshops are organized and coordinated by Carol Giambalvo, a thought reform consultant, former member of a controversial group, and author/editor of Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention and The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ (Herbert L. Rosedale, co-editor). Ms. Giambalvo serves AFF as Director of Recovery Programs, which include workshops, special publications, professional liaison, and outreach. Family Workshops Topics discussed typically include: The nature of psychological manipulation and abuse Why people join and leave high-control, abusive groups How to assess your situation How to communicate more effectively with your loved one Problem-solving Formulating a helping strategy When exit counseling might be appropriate and how to prepare Ethical issues Special concerns of spouses How to help your loved one after he or she leaves the group

How to cope with apparent helplessness without losing hope AFF Family Workshops are organized and coordinated by Livia Bardin, M.S.W., a therapist in private practice. Ms. Bardin serves on AFF‘s Social Work Committee and Family Education Service Advisory Board and is editor of the newsletter of the Greater Washington Society of Clinical Social Workers. She is author of Coping with Cult Involvement: A Handbook for Families and Friends. Appendix D: Research Plan One of AFF‘s most important goals is to inspire, encourage, coordinate, support and contribute to research initiated by AFF staff, volunteer professionals, and others who are interested in the cult problem. In September 1994 AFF‘s Dr. Michael Langone organized a two-day research-planning meeting in which 16 professionals convened to discuss ongoing and planned research. A second meeting took place in April 1995. Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center hosted both meetings. The research outline below summarizes the results of these meetings and subsequent discussions with AFF research advisors. This outline continues to guide our research work. (In order to enhance scientific clarity the term, ―psychologically abusive group,‖ is used instead of ―cult,‖ with which considerable ambiguity and controversy is associated.) Although much useful research has been conducted, fully implementing this ambitious research plan will take many years. Those interested in contributing to the research program outlined below should contact Dr. Langone (AFF, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 34133; [email protected]). The questions that guide our research follow: 1. How can we productively conceptualize the term ―psychologically abusive group‖ and the relevance of certain types of ―harm,‖ ―group variables,‖ and ―person variables‖ to psychologically abusive groups? Answering this question will require a series of conceptual essays [one of which, Dr. Langone‘s essay ―Psychological Abuse,‖ has already been published in Cultic Studies Journal, 9(2), 1992] that will lay the groundwork for a psychological theory of groupperpetrated psychological abuse. This theory should clearly imply empirical studies that can test the theory‘s validity. How can we productively measure group psychological abuse and relevant group, person, and harm variables? Drs. William Chambers, Michael Langone, and Arthur Dole developed the 28-item Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA Scale) from a factor analysis of the responses of 308 subjects rating their groups on 112 questions [Cultic Studies Journal, 11(1), 1994]. The GPA Scale needs to undergo a full course of psychometric development, including reliability and validity studies and the collection of data from a wide range of cultic and noncultic groups. If the GPA Scale lives up to its promise, it should prove useful in distinguishing cultic from noncultic groups and in differentiating various types of cultic groups. It will provide, for the first time, an objective measure of the ―cultishness‖ of a group. Drs. Langone and Chambers presented a paper with Ohio University graduate student, Peter Malinoski to the American Psychological Association. This paper, which is available from AFF, summarizes research with the Group Psychological Abuse Scale (GPA) through 1996. Dr. Rod Marshall and Lois Kendall of Buckinghamshire College in London gave an updated report on their research, which used the GPA along with other instruments, at AFF‘s annual conference in Seattle, April 28-29, 2000 (they gave a report at the 1999 conference as well). Other researchers are also collecting or analyzing data involving the GPA.

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Despite the GPA Scale‘s promise, it is also desirable to supplement the self-report GPA with other self-report scales and observational measures of psychologically abusive group environments. In regard to the first goal, Dr. Nadine Winocur developed a related scale as part of her doctoral dissertation at Pepperdine University. She and her colleagues report on the Individual Cult Experience Index in Cultic Studies Journal, 14(2), 1997. Because of the complexity of the second goal, the first step will be to write a carefully thought out methodological essay on issues to consider in developing observational measures of abusive groups. In testing the GPA, AFF has found that families of individuals involved in cultic groups also find the scale useful. In order to meet their needs more effectively AFF would like to develop a companion scale for families. This scale will explore how families are affected by and perceive cultic groups. Research conducted at Ohio University, Boston University, Buckinghamshire College, and Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center have utilized a battery of standardized psychological instruments to assess harm in populations of former group members. See Question 4 below. How can we usefully classify psychologically abusive groups? It would be helpful to write a critical review of existing classification systems, including those proposed by sociologists (An ―unassigned‖ task at present). The psychometric development of the GPA Scale may lead to an empirically based classification scheme. With regard to psychologically abusive groups, what is the relationship between person variables, group variables, and psychopathology? AFF‘s Executive Director, Dr. Michael Langone, whom Boston University named the 1995 Albert V. Danielsen Visiting Scholar, conducted a study at Boston University of the International Churches of Christ movement. He used the GPA Scale and a new scale (the DDD Scale—Deception, Dependency, and Dread Scale) to assess the abusiveness of the Boston Movement, as rated by former members. He also used a psychological test battery to assess the nature and degree of psychological distress experienced by former members of the Boston Movement and two comparison groups: graduates of a mainstream campus ministry and former members of a mainstream religion. This test battery is identical to that used in an Ohio University study described below. Dr. Langone‘s report to the Danielsen Institute is available from AFF. A team of three psychology graduate students under the direction of Ohio University‘s Dr. Steve Lynn gave a standardized test battery to clients of the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center and a matched comparison group of college students in order to assess the nature and degree of psychopathology among former cult members. A report on this research was published in Cultic Studies Journal, 16(1), 1999. Members of this team also wrote a comprehensive review of the empirical literature in this field [Aronoff, J.B., Lynn, S.J., & Malinoski, P.T. (in press). Are cultic environments psychologically harmful? Clinical Psychology Review]. The Marshall and Kendall studies, mentioned above, are also using a standardized battery to assess harm. A team of four psychology graduate students under the direction of Pepperdine University‘s Dr. David Foy have used the Los Angeles Symptom Checklist (a standardized instrument designed to measure symptoms common to victimization populations) to measure distress and the Group Experience Index (GEI) to assess the severity of exposure to cult-related pressures and abuses in order to study the relationships between post-cult distress and Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 31

variables related to pre-cult history and adjustment, cult-related experiences, and post-cult history. A multiple regression research design was used to evaluate the relative contributions of the variables under investigation to post-cult distress. The Winocur article mentioned above also reports on this aspect of these studies. Data from the AFF questionnaire from which the GPA Scale was derived await analyses and reporting by Dr. Langone and colleagues. This questionnaire explored subjects‘ psychological and social history, background variables related to cult joining, characteristics of the group environment, subjects‘ responses to the cult experience, subjects‘ post-group experiences (including recovery), and subjects‘ evaluations of helping resources. Dr. Arthur Dole has written a methodological paper, published in Cultic Studies Journal, 12(2), 1995, explaining how to apply case study methodology to the cult area. Over the next few years, AFF would like to enlist the support of clinicians in this field to conduct a series of case studies using Dr. Dole‘s methodology. Although considerable research has been conducted, much more research is needed to adequately answer this question. What is the prevalence of membership in psychologically abusive groups and how many such groups are there in the United States? The first research-planning meeting decided that existing prevalence data are sufficient for current research purposes and that a full-scale epidemiological study on cultic groups would be an inappropriate use of limited resources at this time. It was decided, however, that surveys of professional populations (e.g., clergy, psychologists), such as Dr. Edward Lottick‘s survey of primary care physicians [Lottick, E.A. (Feb. 1993). Survey reveals physicians‘s experiences with cults. Pennsylvania Medicine, 96, 26-28 -- available from AFF], would provide useful data at relatively low cost (and would also contribute to professional education). Such surveys will be conducted as funds allow. Scientifically determining the number of psychologically abusive groups, or cults, in the U.S. is a daunting task. Perhaps the most feasible approach would be to compile a comprehensive list of groups about which AFF receives inquiries, select a random sample from this list, and conduct in-depth studies of this sample, using when possible the GPA Scale and/or other scales to be developed in the future. This study would enable us to make reasonable and empirically based generalizations about the broad population of groups we receive inquiries on (e.g., what percentage appears to be abusive). This study obviously will require considerable funding. AFF believes that if we could develop an effective and efficient survey instrument, colleges and universities could use this instrument to help them assess cult-related problems on their campuses. Dr. Russell Eleven‘s research, which was published in Cultic Studies Journal, 15(1), 1998, has laid the groundwork for the development of such a measure. This research would be enhanced if a survey instrument with practical educational uses were developed. What is the relationship between person, group, and treatment variables and amelioration in post-group distress? Currently, the most thorough outcome evaluation of psychological treatment for former group members is that of Dr. Paul Martin and his colleagues at Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, published in Cultic Studies Journal, 9(2), 1992. Although controlled outcome studies are obviously preferred, such studies require considerable funding. In the meantime, the state of knowledge would be advanced if other clinicians in this field attempted to evaluate treatment effectiveness using standardized pre- and post-measures, as Wellspring does. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 32

What are the legal implications of the cult phenomenon? The American Bar Association report published in Cultic Studies Journal, 12(1), 1995 provides a literature review and analysis of case law relating to mind control issues, undue influence, and fraud. Cultic Studies Journal has also published articles on other aspects of the legal dimension of this subject, including custody, violence against women laws, emancipation of minors, hypnotic testimony, and certain reports of governments. The international dimension of the cult issue greatly complicates the legal arena. It would be helpful to develop a manual of pertinent laws, precedents, and unresolved issues in various countries in order to make the scholarly analysis above accessible to greater numbers of people. Obviously, this is a major task that would require funding and the skills of a legal scholar. What are the cultural implications of the cult issue? AFF believes that the cultural implications of cultism can be explored fruitfully by answering the following key question: How does a free, constitutionally based society protect itself against the totalist impulses and practices of cultic groups without becoming closed and repressive? The answer to this question includes, but is not limited to, legal considerations. A key component of the answer, for example, has to do with the ethics of how we influence each other, a subject on which AFF has published a number of articles. Answering this question also demands an analysis of fundamental societal values and how conflicting values can most effectively be reconciled. ********** Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., a counseling psychologist, is AFF‘s Executive Director. He was the founder editor of Cultic Studies Journal (CSJ), the editor of CSJ‘s successor, Cultic Studies Review, and editor of Recovery From Cults. He is co-author of Cults: What Parents Should Know and Satanism and Occult-Related Violence: What You Should Know. Dr. Langone has spoken and written widely about cults. In 1995, he received the Leo J. Ryan Award from the "original" Cult Awareness network and was honored as the Albert V. Danielsen visiting Scholar at Boston University. ([email protected])

This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Review, 2002, Volume 1, Number 1, pages 3-50. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

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Can Scholars Be Deceived? Empirical Evidence from Social Psychology and History Steve K. Dubrow Eichel, Ph.D. RETIRN, Philadelphia, PA Abstract This paper explores several telling anecdotes and reviews psychological research demonstrating that scholars, however proud they may be of their independent thinking, can be influenced and even deceived by subjects, events, and processes in their research. Arthur Conan Doyle‘s belief in fairies, Uri Geller the so-called psychic ―spoon bender,‖ and the ―discovery‖ of Noah‘s Ark are cases that exemplify how researchers can be influenced. Next cognitive dissonance, demand characteristics, and other variables studied by social psychologists are discussed to help illuminate why scholars can be deceived. My purpose in this paper is to deliver this not-so-earth-shattering news: Scholars can be deceived -- sometimes quite spectacularly. The evidence is overwhelming, and space permits me to present only a few examples, gleaned from history and experimental social psychology, of everyday scientists and renowned scholars who have been duped into believing the unbelievable, accepting the unacceptable, and, in the worst cases, enticed into lending their names in support of the perpetrators of the worst evils of the twentieth century. Some of my examples involve well-intended scholars who were hoodwinked and bamboozled. Other scholars have actively if naively aided and abetted fraudulent research. And finally, some have knowingly permitted or even perpetrated deception for reasons of personal gain or to advance a private agenda. But some--perhaps many--scholars have simply reacted predictably to ordinary yet powerful social influences with varying degrees of awareness and hubris. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Fairies Perhaps no name is more associated with deductive reasoning and solid detective work than that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Doyle was also, however, a believer in spiritualism who declared the evidence for life after death to be ―overwhelming.‖ Doyle proved to be significantly less studious than his literary alter ego when he was asked to investigate evidence provided by two Yorkshire girls, Frances and Elsie, who claimed that they were in contact with fairies and gnomes and had actually photographed them. After the girls supplied him with these photographs, Doyle was sufficiently impressed to engage the assistance of Edward Gardner. Gardner, also an avowed spiritualist and theosophist, was entrusted to find professional photographers who could authenticate the photos of fairies and gnomes dancing in the Yorkshire woodlands. This was Doyle‘s first mistake: Given the radical nature of the claim (that fairies and gnomes exist), his investigators should have included skeptics as well as believers. Doyle did not believe this precaution was necessary, however, because the photos were taken by children who, he stated, were incapable of being clever enough to falsify them. In addition, Doyle trusted the opinion of his friends who knew the two Yorkshire girls to be of high moral character. In other words, Frances and Elsie were both too dull and too innocent to engage in photographic fakery.

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Perhaps in part because of the attention they were receiving from the famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Yorkshire girls soon produced a new series of photographs. These, however, were eventually proven to be fraudulent. Frances and Elsie (also known as Iris and Alice to protect their privacy) never admitted to forgery. And indeed, the first set of photographs has never been adequately explained. However, in the 79 years since the appearance of the first set of photos, I am not aware of any credible replication of these photographic explorations into the realms of fairies and gnomes. The question of the existence of these creatures appears to have been answered. (This fascinating case is wellsummarized in James Randi‘s (1982) provocative book, Flim-flam.) How did Doyle come to believe in the existence of fairies and gnomes? It seems clear, at least to several historians, that Doyle was rendered vulnerable to this hoax by his deeply held belief in spiritualism. To spiritualists of that era, believing in the existence of a nether world populated by spirits such as fairies and gnomes was not outrageous. At least one historian has also insinuated that Doyle‘s great need to believe in spiritualism may have been caused by unresolved grief over having lost his son in World War I. Uri Geller and the Scientologist Can belief systems make us more vulnerable to deceptions and con artists? A more recent example might be the tainted investigation of Uri Geller, the purported Israeli psychic. Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff, scientists associated with the prestigious Stanford Research Institute (SRI), rocked the scientific community with their articles on Geller and another psychic, Ingo Swann. Their findings on Geller were published in Nature, one of the most respected scientific journals. Geller became an overnight sensation, and ultimately a very wealthy one at that. I want to make two points here. First, one of the reasons we do not hear very much about Uri Geller these days is because his so-called psychic powers have been thoroughly debunked, most notably by MacArthur Fellow and magician-turned-debunker James Randi (1982). About 10 years ago, I saw Randi bend spoons and stop watches, and I can understand how anyone could mistake these tricks as proof of astounding paranormal ability. To my knowledge, Geller has never done the reverse--straighten a bent spoon--a feat that apparently cannot be performed by magicians, and thus a feat that might be better proof of psychokinetic talent. My second point is that, according to Randi (1982), two of the individuals I have mentioned (parapsychologist researcher Puthoff and the purported psychic Ingo Swann), were practicing Scientologists at the time of the SRI studies. Scientology doctrine, as I am certain at least some of you know, accepts psychic abilities as both real and attainable by any Operating Thetan. I would argue once again that, like Doyle, this researcher‘s beliefs made him vulnerable to being hoodwinked. Noah’s Ark My third and final example (Cerone, Oct. 30, 1993; Feder, 1998) does not involve knighted authors or Stanford researchers, but rather an intentional hoax perpetrated on mass media, unwittingly aided by the Institute for Creation Research (ICR), an organization that seeks and proffers scientific evidence in support of a literal interpretation of the Bible. The hoax played off claims made in the film, ―In Search of Noah‘s Ark,‖ originally released by Sun International Pictures in 1973. This movie asserted that remnants of the original ark had been sighted on Mt. Ararat in Turkey. On February 20, 1993, CBS aired ―The Incredible Discovery of Noah‘s Ark,‖ which featured an interview with George Jammal. Jammal was already known to Sun International and the ICR from initial interviews about his Ark discoveries in 1986. In the 1993 CBS documentary, Jammal provided physical evidence: a piece of wood he claimed was from Noah‘s Ark. In reality, Jammal had prepared the piece Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 35

of wood by soaking it in a variety of sauces including wine, teriyaki sauce, spices, alcohol, and seeds, then microwaving and baking it. When Jammal‘s claims made it into Time magazine, the trickster decided it was time to come clean (and to obtain legal counsel). He admitted to the hoax, provided proof of his long-standing membership in an anti-religious organization, and stated that his intent was to show how easy it is to pull the wool over the eyes of the ICR, Sun International, mass media, and Bible-literalist scholars throughout the world. The Social Psychology of Influence Social psychology is often a mundane science, yet some of its most resilient findings have involved the study of social and psychological influence. Some of these findings are especially relevant to those of us engaged in researching new religious movements. What factors--unrelated to actual facts--enter into the decision-making processes of scholars and scientists? Some are obvious, some not so obvious, and most are rather banal. Social psychological research has repeatedly demonstrated that we are more likely to believe and judge as accurate statements made by those we perceive as attractive and prestigious (cf., Cialdini, 1984; Baron & Byrne, 1991). Individuals judged to be prestigious do not have to actually make these statements; merely being associated with these statements (the halo effect) is enough to significantly affect us. Thus, when a group sponsors a conference listing Nobel laureates and professors from famous universities among its speakers, it may not matter what the speakers say or even if they actually attend. The same holds true when we hear statements made with great confidence. The more confident the speaker sounds, the more likely we will judge him or her to be accurate (Bloomfield, Libby, & Nelson, 1996). This is why hypnotically refreshed testimony has been disallowed in some American courtrooms. Even though hypnosis does not in fact produce more accurate recollections than other methods, hypnotized witnesses tend to testify with increased confidence and may, consequently, exercise ―unfair influence‖ over juries (Brown, Scheflin & Hammond, 1998). Scheflin (1996), however, argues on legal grounds that such testimony should not automatically be banned and should be considered on a case-by-case basis. The influence of scientists‘ prior beliefs on their judgments of evidence quality may also significantly bias their evaluations. University of Texas psychologist Jonathon Koehler (1993), for example, studied 297 advanced graduate students in the sciences and 195 practicing scientists. He found that research results supporting the scientists‘ prior beliefs were evaluated as more accurate and credible. In both studies, this effect was larger for general, evaluative judgments than for more specific, analytical judgments. John Innes and Colin Fraser (1971) of the University of Birmingham summarized the research on bias in terms of their source, namely the political ideologies, cultural backgrounds, biographical characteristics, and personal characteristics of scientists. In considering the implications of biases, three reactions to bias were discussed: ignoring, controlling, and understanding. Innes and Fraser proposed that understanding the operation of bias might be furthered by working towards a taxonomy of biases, organized in terms of the sources of biases and the points in the research process at which they intrude. The issue of financially-induced bias is trickier than one might think. For one thing, it is not always clear who is paying for what. Many organizations, including some new religions, may use front groups to bankroll books, studies, and conferences. Of course, this tactic is certainly not unique to NRMs. The tobacco industry bankrolled dozens of studies, some by highly-respected researchers, most of whom (perhaps not surprisingly) concluded that the connection between smoking and health problems might be spurious, or was strongly Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 36

mitigated by other, non tobacco-related factors. Here‘s a more recent, personal example. I recently received (unsolicited) the ―1998 Annual Report of the National Center for Responsible Gaming.‖ According to its mission statement, the NCRG exists ―to help individuals and families affected by gambling disorders‖ by, among other things, ―supporting the finest peer-reviewed basic and applied research on disordered gambling behavior.‖ A close examination of the report yielded the following information: of the 20 individuals on the Board of Directors, 11 listed casinos, parent companies of casinos, or gaming industry professional associations as their affiliations. The donor list is even more interesting. Of those donating at least $300,000, 6 of 7 were casinos. Of those donating $100,000 to $299,000, all 3 were casinos. Of those donating $50,000 to $99,000, all 7 were casinos. Would anyone really be surprised to learn that the studies supported by the NCRG tend to emphasize the role played by biological and comorbid psychiatric factors in the development of compulsive gambling? If bad biology or mental illness is found to be the root cause of gambling problems, then the gaming industry could use these results to deny any liability for harm suffered by compulsive gamblers. My point is simple: It is not unreasonable to question the objectivity of gambling research paid for by the gaming industry, just as it was highly appropriate to question studies on the health risks of smoking that were financed by the tobacco industry. Might the same be true in the study of NRMs? I am currently reviewing two books that present the results of sociological surveys of the U.K. and U.S. membership of the Soka Gakkai International. The SGI is a new religious movement that practices the Buddhism founded by a 13th century Japanese monk, Nichiren Daishonin. Both books are published by the Oxford University Press, certainly a publisher with name recognition and associated prestige. Both books are, in my opinion, extremely well-constructed and informative studies that are unabashedly friendly toward the SGI. The first study, by Bryan Wilson and Karel Dobbelaere (1994) was published as A Time to Chant. It was funded by Oxford University and the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. The second study, by Phillip Hammond and David Machacek (1999) has just been published as Soka Gakkai in America. It was funded by the Boston Research Center, which, to their credit, the authors squarely identify as an arm of the SGI. The Hammond and Machacek book even provides an accounting of how much funding was provided ($28,000). This is only part of the story, however, because both books have been heavily advertised in official SGI publications, and I know members are strongly encouraged to buy them. If the Philadelphia keikon is at all indicative of other SGI community centers, thousands of these books have been advanced ordered. I bought A Time to Chant at the Philadelphia keikon, which at the time stocked a dozen or so copies. (The SGI bookstore salesperson told me ―Oh yes, we sell a lot of these.‖) I conservatively estimate that these books have sold or will sell well into the thousands, perhaps even into the tens of thousands. In academia, this constitutes a runaway best seller. And while I doubt any of the authors are using their royalty checks to purchase beach front property on Martha‘s Vineyard, I would not be surprised if, compared to other sociologists, they have a somewhat easier time getting published by Oxford (or some other press) in the future. And publishing in academia means survival and, better yet, advancement. But academics may not generally respond to overt financial reward, for most of us like to think our opinions cannot be bought. However, cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957; Kelman, 1974), one of the most researched and cross-validated constructs in social psychology, helps us to understand why it is unnecessary to buy us outright. In general, if you want to influence scholars, don‘t pay them too much! You‘d do much better to underpay them. Since few of us want to think of ourselves as ―cheap labor,‖ when we are underpaid for our services we tend to resolve the ensuing dissonance by experiencing our behavior as a product of true conviction rather than avarice. This is the psychological mechanism behind Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 37

many initiation rituals. From religious rites to fraternity hazing, cognitive dissonance leads to attitude change, ―hardening‖ of belief systems, and greatly increased affiliation (bonding and loyalty). I have briefly reviewed our vulnerability to making inaccurate judgments as a result of our prior beliefs, expectations, attractions, and financial relationships. Many or even most of you were probably aware of these social psychological influences. So you and I are immune to them, right? Not according to Robert Kraut and Steven Lewis of the Bell Labs. In their study, published in the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, they found that we scholars are only moderately accurate at estimating the impact of these incidental influences on our judgments (Kraut & Lewis, 1982). Misplaced Loyalties The next two examples hit closer to home for me, although they are admittedly quite extreme. I want to make my own bias clear here. I am the son of two Holocaust survivors, with no surviving direct relatives on my father‘s side. For my entire adult life this fact has had a profound influence on how I perceive social movements. I am antitotalitarian at a very gut level, and that has biased me in the direction of being critical of any movement with a totalistic world view and a strong emphasis on obedience to authority. As many of you may know, the National Socialist German Worker‘s Party--the Nazi Party--started out as what I would now label a political cult. The Nazi Party gained some surprising supporters and apologists. Most would later claim that they continued to support the Party because they simply could not believe anyone would be capable of the atrocities being reported in sporadic leaks from political prisons and concentration camps. Carl Jung, the kinder, gentler psychoanalyst who is the psychospiritual godfather of the contemporary New Age movement, conducted seminars in 1932 with Wilhelm Hauer, the founder of the German Faith Movement. Shortly after the seminars, the German Faith Movement was officially adopted by the ascendant Nazi party as the official religion of Germany. Although Jung then distanced himself somewhat from Hauer‘s official position, he continued to urge Hauer to publish with him and to hold joint seminars on ―comparative religion‖ (Noll, 1995). The renowned founder of modern existentialism, Martin Heidegger, was a much more blatant toady for Nazism. Heidegger wrote his first book in 1927, and swore loyalty to Hitler in 1933. That same year, he eagerly replaced the dissenting rector at the University of Freiburg. Heidegger headed the movement to unite workers and students into the Party and signed orders firing Jewish professors. When Hitler wanted him in Munich in 1933 and Berlin in 1935, Heidegger remained at Freiburg, and after 1934 he resigned as rector, pleading too much political influence. His fervent support of Nazism during the year he was rector was given when their power was weakest, and because Heidegger appeared to have distanced himself from the Party after 1933, investigations by the French after the war cleared him of war crimes. However, thanks largely to the German historian and Heidegger biographer Hugo Ott (1993) and to Victor Farias (1987), the author of Heidegger and Nazism, even Heidegger‘s supporters have had to admit that he was and remained a wholly convinced Nazi, organizing paramilitary camps for his students, spouting martial rhetoric about the ―inner truth and greatness of National Socialism,‖ and denouncing colleagues -- including his own teacher -as Jews. According to reviewer Anthony Gottlieb (1990) of The New York Times, the jurors at the denazification hearings in 1945, which more or less cleared Heidegger‘s name and made his rehabilitation possible, were hoodwinked -- as was Martin Heidegger.

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Conclusions Where does all this evidence leave us? Am I advocating that all research is ultimately subjective and flawed, or that since everything is subjective, there exists a multitude of constructed and equally valid realities? Hardly. Even the ―hard‖ sciences are not completely objective, and periodically undergo radical paradigm shifts (Kuhn, 1962). Perhaps I am philosophically a positivist at heart, for I believe we are capable of gradually drawing closer and closer to the truth in most matters, even in the most complicated and illusive matter of human behavior and experience. And, I believe, the truth or falseness of some things--like the existence of fairies or gnomes, or the validity of a Dianetics personality test---are just downright demonstrable. Science has rules, flawed as they may be, for adjudicating a theory ―mostly‖ or ―partially‖ true, or ―mostly‖ or ―partially‖ false. In science, three characteristics of a study, construct, or theory--replicability, parsimony and predictability--are routinely assessed as a means of judging overall validity. Thus, although (using standard scientific principles) nobody has yet been able to explain Elsie‘s and Iris‘ first set of fairy photographs, the fact that nobody has been able to replicate this feat without resorting to fraud has rendered the fairy construct moot. The same has held true for a great many other extreme claims in science, from reports of fantastic psi abilities to the now-debunked initial report of the successful generation of power using cold fusion. On the other hand, we have a huge literature, with studies that have been replicated utilizing broad assortments of subjects and situations, of the relative ease with which even the most renowned scholars and scientists can be influenced, manipulated, and fooled. All the social sciences fall short in the realm of predictability. Here I will again remind you of my antiauthoritarian bias. I admit that I do not know if any sociologists of religion have ever predicted any of the heinous behaviors and tragic outcomes that have occurred among some new religionists. On the other hand, I do know a number of NRM critics (―cult experts‖) who, employing a totalist or ―mind control‖ paradigm, correctly predicted the course ultimately taken by David Koresh during the Waco standoff. I know several early ISKCON defectors who predicted the eventual discovery of rampant physical and sexual abuse in the Krishnas‘ gurucula school system; the same holds for Rajneeshpuram. And prior to the tragic bombing of the MOVE compound I (along with Roberta Eisenberg and Dr. Linda Dubrow) correctly predicted the course of the showdown with MOVE during a meeting in City Hall with an aide to the Philadelphia Commissioner of Health. More recently, following the Heaven‘s Gate suicides, a number of cult critics (my own group again included) sadly and correctly predicted the eventual suicide of Wayne Cooke, who seemed shaky during interviews and then killed himself following the initial mass suicide. NRM apostates who have been deprogrammed or exit-counselled have been largely discounted by scholars in the fields of religion and the sociology of religion. I submit that this is a result of bias and is in effect throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is a fact that the simplistic ―brainwashing‖ paradigm adopted by some deprogrammed or exitcounselled apostates did not predict or explain the large number of voluntary defectors, or the inability of NRMs to effectively recruit and retain new members. Eileen Barker is correct when she states that (and I am paraphrasing), if cults are trying to brainwash people, they are doing a lousy job of it. But the fact--and I admit to this fact--that the majority of cultists do not appear to be harmed by their involvement does not necessarily mean that their group is harmless, or that they have not been exposed to harmful influence. History is replete with examples of the poor judgment and even tyranny of majorities; it is why we have checks and balances in our republic. Perhaps we need to be more like biochemists and physicians in our research strategies. When a drug works on 90% of patients, but seems to be associated with harmful Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 39

side effects in the other 10%, medical researchers do not simply discount the complaints of the minority. The FDA and the courts do not accept these kinds of percentages, either. Rather, these researchers work hard to determine what is causing the harmful effects, and if the effects cannot be remedied, the drug may be pulled off the market. Although FirstAmendment rights preclude ―pulling cults off the market,‖ these rights certainly do not, as some researchers seem to imply, ban criticisms of cults. Indeed, the added protection the First-Amendment gives to religious cults obligates us to be forthright and bold in our criticisms in order to safeguard the rights of cult victims. I wish to end my comments with some thoughts that might allow for future cooperation in our respective fields of research and study. I believe anyone who studies highly controversial and polarizing social movements needs to be especially respectful of how prior biases impact on subsequent research strategies and interpretations of data. In fact, I go so far as to state that it is not enough to rely on ourselves and our like-minded peers; we need to routinely employ critical consultants from ―the opposing side‖ to keep us honest. This advice applies to cult critics as well as so-called cult apologists. It is time for us to admit that we have all probably been misled and perhaps even duped a few times. I know of at least one instance in which I jumped to a conclusion about a group without examining all of the facts. We need to be more careful about our research designs and tentative with conclusions that employ one paradigm when others may also be applied. I have worked as a forensic psychologist, so let me shock you by saying that people sometimes lie! Sometimes research subjects are deceptive even after we ask them to tell the truth! Sometimes people even learn how to deceive themselves, and sound as though they really believe their own lies. I want to remind us all that, in the field of parapsychological research, deception and outright fraud--and the inability of scholars and scientists to accurately detect them--are so rampant that the Parapsychological Association itself has officially recognized the need to have psi experiments reviewed by magicians and other illusionists skilled at detecting sleight-of-hand and other forms of trickery. I wonder what we would discover in the field of cultic/NRM studies if our own research were subjected to analogous procedural checks and balances. References Baron, R. A., & Byrne, D. (1991). Social psychology: Understanding human interaction (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Bloomfield, R., Libby, R., & Nelson, M. W. (1996). Communication of confidence as a determinant of group judgment accuracy. Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, 68, 287-300. Brown, D., Scheflin, A. W., & Hammond, D. C. (1998). Memory, trauma, treatment, and the law: An essential reference on memory for clinicians, researchers, attorneys, and judges. New York: W. W. Norton. Cerone, Daniel. (1993, October 30). Admitting ‗Noah‘s Ark‘ Hoax, Los Angeles Times, p. F-1. Cialdini, R. B. (1984). Influence: The new psychology of modern persuasion. New York: Quill. Farias, Victor (Ed.) 1987. Heidegger and Nazism (translated from the French by Paul Burrell, German material translated by Gabriel R. Ricci). Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Feder, Kenneth L. (1998). Frauds, myths and mysteries - Science and pseudoscience in archaeology, 3rd ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing. Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson. Gottlieb, A. (1990, January 7). Heidegger for fun and profit. The New York Times. Hammond, P., & Machacek, D. (1999). Soka Gakkai in America: Accommodation and conversion. New York: Oxford University. Innes, J. M., & Fraser, C. (1971). Experimenter bias and other possible biases in psychological research. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 297-310. Kelman, H. C. (1974). Attitudes are alive and well and gainfully employed in the sphere of action. American Psychologist, 230, 310-324. Koehler, J. J. (1993). The influence of prior beliefs on scientific judgments of evidence quality. Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, 56, 28-55.

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Kraut, R. E., & Lewis, S. H. (1982). Person perception and self-awareness: Knowledge of influences on one‘s own judgments. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 42, 448-460. Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Noll, R. C. (1995). The Jung cult: Origins of a charismatic movement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Ott, Hugo. (1993.) Martin Heidegger: A political life (trans. Allan Blunden). New York: Basic. Randi, J. (1982). Flim-flam! Psychics, ESP, unicorns and other delusions. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus. Scheflin, A. (1996). Commentary on Borawick v. Shay: The fate of hypnotically retrieved memories. Cultic Studies Journal, 13(1), 26-41. Wilson, B., & Dobbelaere, K. (1994). A time to chant: The Soka Gakkai Buddhists in Britain. New York: Oxford University.

The paper on which this article is based was originally delivered at the CESNUR Annual Conference in 1999. ********** Steve Dubrow Eichel, Ph.D., ABPP, is a licensed and Board Certified Counseling Psychologist. Dr. Dubrow Eichel is a Co-Founder of RETIRN (Philadelphia, PA) and was the 1990 recipient of the John G. Clark Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Cultic Studies. He is a former-president of the Greater Philadelphia Society of Clinical Hypnosis. ([email protected]) This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Review, 2002, Volume 1, Number 1, pages 51-64. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

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Current Status of Federal Law Concerning Violent Crimes Against Women and Children: Implications for Cult Victims Robin Boyle, Esq. St. John’s University School of Law Abstract The author presents key provisions of The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, which is federal legislation divided into two Acts. In Parts I and II of this article, the author describes how The Violence Against Women Act of 2000 reauthorized critical grant programs created by the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, established new programs, and strengthened federal laws. In Part III of this article, the author explains that The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 prevents the trafficking of women and children. In Part IV the author suggests how both Acts have implications for cult members or former members of cultic groups. At the 1997 AFF national conference, as a luncheon speaker, I spoke about the Violence Against Women Act and state and federal antistalking laws. In 1998, also as a luncheon speaker at the AFF national conference, I addressed related legal issues. 1 Since then, there have been changes in these laws, which in this paper I will describe and relate to the situation of cult victims. My original thesis in my 1997 & 1998 speeches was that there are no specific laws that protect women from cults, nor are there specific laws that women can use as remedies against cults per se. But I maintained then, as I do now, that cult victims may use certain legal remedies that are available to society at large. I. Overview: History of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 In 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (―VAWA 1994‖), 2 which was unprecedented. It helped to create community-based programs to prosecute domestic violence as a crime. As a result of the 1994 legislation, the Violence Against Women Office (―VAWO‖) of the Office of Justice Programs, United States Department of Justice was created in 1995.3 The VAWO‘s purpose is to ―lead the national effort to stop domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking of women.‖4 The VAWO works with the Office of the U.S. Attorney to ensure enforcement of federal criminal statutes. It also administers grants to states, Indian tribes, and local communities amounting to over $270 million.5 Why does the legislation focus primarily on women as victims of crime? At the time of the VAWA 1994 enactment, national reports showed that women, more often than men, were more likely to be victims of stalking, rape, and other such crimes.6 On October 28, 2000, President Clinton signed The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (―2000 Act‖).7 The 2000 Act ―improves legal tools and programs addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The Act reauthorizes critical grant programs created by the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and subsequent legislation, establishes new programs, and strengthens federal laws.‖ 8 Specifically, the VAWO provides grants to victim advocates and law enforcement for programs such as: ―emergency shelter[s], law enforcement protection, and legal aid.‖9 The 2000 Act also Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 42

addresses the trafficking of women and children. The VAWO ―is leading efforts nationally and abroad to intervene in and prosecute crimes of trafficking in women and children . . . .‖10 Thus, the 2000 Act is divided into two Acts: the Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (―VAWA 2000‖) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (―TVPA 2000‖). A.

Federal Civil Remedy Struck Since VAWA 1994

VAWA 1994 created a federal civil remedy for women who were victims of physical violence.11 A significant provision allowed women to sue their abusers for monetary damages.12 Today, the federal civil remedy is no longer available. In my 1998 article in the Cultic Studies Journal, I had described a case that was winding its way through the federal courts called Brzonkala v. Va. Polytechnic & State University.13 In that case, a college student brought a federal civil lawsuit against male students who had raped her in her dormitory room. The case was eventually heard by the United States Supreme Court, which struck down, in a sharply divided 5-4 decision, the section of VAWA 1994 that provided civil remedies for women who bring suit against their attackers.14 The Court held that Congress overstepped its power when it gave women the right to sue their attackers. 15 Congress must base its legislative enactments upon particular clauses or amendments to the Federal Constitution.16 For the VAWA 1994, Congress had drafted the legislation, and this particular provision, based upon the right of Congress to regulate activity among states when that activity affects interstate commerce as this right is conferred under the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution.17 Unfortunately, the Supreme Court held, in part, that the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution did not provide Congress with authority to enact the civil remedy provision of the VAWA. 18 The majority held that the provision at issue19 failed to regulate activity that substantially affected interstate commerce, 20and, furthermore, that ―[g]ender-motivated crimes of violence are not, in any sense of the phrase, economic activity.‖21 Additionally, the Court held that the provision at issue ―contains no jurisdictional element establishing that federal cause of action is in pursuance of Congress‘ power to regulate interstate commerce.‖ 22 The attorney from NOW Legal Defense Fund, who represented the plaintiff in the case, said that the Act‘s civil remedy ―‗gave women a way to take matters in their own hands.‘‖ 23 In response to the decision, the attorney was particularly concerned with the Court‘s ―rejection of Congress‘s findings about the harmful effects that rape and domestic violence have on employment and other interstate commerce.‖24 In response to the court decision, Attorney General Janet Reno issued a news release stating that she was: deeply disappointed by the Court‘s ruling, but that decision does not affect the other important aspects of VAWA, including our responsibility to implement the criminal provisions of VAWA. Nor does it affect Congress‘ authority to re-authorize and improve VAWA. I urge Congress take prompt action to get [the VAWA 2000] passed to end violence against women.25 B.

New Bill Pending

Currently, there is a Congressional bill pending that seeks to restore the Federal civil remedy for violent crimes that are gender-motivated.26 In order to pass constitutional muster, the bill identifies three possible triggering events for this kind of lawsuit. One is that the abuser or the victim travels in interstate or foreign commerce, or uses a facility or instrumentality of such, or the abuser employs a weapon or drug that has traveled in interstate or foreign commerce. Another triggering event is that the offense interferes with commercial or other economic activity in which the victim is engaged. The third event is where the offense was committed with intent to interfere with the victim‘s commercial or other economic activity.27 Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 43

C. Decrease in Intimate Partner Violence The Attorney General announced last year that the Bureau of Justice Statistics released a Special Report on Intimate Partner Violence indicating that violence against women by intimate partners fell by 21% from 1993-1998.28 While that figure is encouraging, the Attorney General nevertheless stated that it is still high: ―intimate partner violence made up 22% of violent crime against women‖ during that period.29 ―In 1998, women made up nearly 75% of the 1,830 intimate partner murder victims. And the percentage of female murder victims killed by intimate partners has remained constant at about 30% since 1976.‖30 II.

The Violence Against Women Act of 2000

When Congress reauthorized the VAWA31 in 2000, it reappropriated money to fund the numerous programs originally created under the VAWA 1994 as well as new programs. Mental health and legal professionals who assist victims of cults should be aware of the programs that are available to women and children who have been abused by someone they know. Additionally, mental health and legal professionals may be interested in applying for grants to establish programs or to perform research studies. The website for the VAWO includes information about grants provided to states and local communities.32 One can click on a map of the United States and view what each state has received, as well as individual program summaries.33 In addition to the numerous programs it authorizes and reauthorizes, the VAWA 2000 expands definitions for certain legal terms. These terms and improved definitions may be useful for members attempting to bring civil claims against other cult members or leaders, and for prosecutors who attempt to win convictions against cult members and their leaders. Highlights of the VAWA 2000 are:34 A.

Dating Violence

Historically, prosecutors have had difficulty securing convictions against abusers who have dated their victims.35 The VAWA 2000 provides a better definition for the term ―dating violence,‖ which will aid prosecutors in their work.36 The term and its improved definition have been added to several grant programs administered by VAWO that seek to encourage arrests and reduce violence.37 The definition of ―dating violence‖ as it now appears in the current VAWA 2000 is: ―violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim.‖38 The existence of such a relationship is determined by the following factors: ―1) length of the relationship; 2) type of relationship; and 3) frequency of interaction between the persons involved.‖39 Various programs created and funded under the VAWA 2000 now include prevention and prosecution of ―dating violence.‖ 40 Personal relationships between cult members and leaders may involve ―dating violence.‖ This improved legislation may provide assistance. B.

Interstate Domestic Violence

The VAWA 2000 clarifies language pertaining to the crime of ―Interstate Domestic Violence.‖41 In this crime, the offender is the ―spouse or intimate partner‖ of the victim. The offender travels in interstate or foreign commerce with the ―intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate‖ his victim or he causes the victim to travel in interstate or foreign commerce. 42 This new language brings the provision more solidly under the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution.43 With this crime, the offender commits or attempts to commit a violent act against the spouse or intimate partner. Note that ―spouse or intimate partner‖ is now defined as: ―a spouse or former spouse of the abuser, a person who shares a child in common with the abuser, [or] a person who cohabits Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 44

or has cohabited as a spouse with the abuser.‖ 44 This expansive definition could be applied to many abusive cultic relationships. C.

Interstate Stalking

The VAWA 2000 clarifies certain Interstate Stalking45 provisions of the VAWA 1994 to bring it more solidly within the ambit of the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution. 46 The new provision adds that the offender had the intent to ―kill‖ or to ―intimidate another person,‖ and both the old and the new provisions include that the offender had the intent to ―injure‖ or ―harass.‖47 In both the old and the new law – the victim must have had a ―reasonable fear of . . . death . . . or serious bodily injury‖ to herself or immediate family member.48 Included within the provisions of this crime is the use of ―the mail or any facility of interstate or foreign commerce.‖49 The VAWA 2000 reauthorizes the grants to improve processes for entering data regarding stalking and domestic violence.50 Grants are available for improved local, state, and national crime information databases.51 D. Legal Assistance for Victims The VAWA 2000 authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to provide legal assistance for victims of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault.52 Last Fall, $23 million53 in grants were made available to private nonprofits, Indian tribal governments, and law school clinics as eligible grantees; for Fiscal Year 2001, Congress has appropriated $31.5 million to Legal Assistance for Victims.54 According to VAWO, the programs help victims with securing and enforcing protection orders, divorces or separations, spousal and child support orders and resolving child custody and visitation conflicts. Funds can also be used to help victims with access to benefits and health care, housing and employment. In addition, grant funds can be used to recruit [and] train attorneys who provide pro bono civil legal assistance to domestic violence victims.55 These services should be useful for women who cannot afford to pay the fee of their attorney. The first year that grants were distributed for this purpose was in 1998. 56 Since then, there have been successful clinics and more applications each year.57 The grants were distributed in all 50 states, three territories, and the District of Columbia.58 The civil legal services are paired with domestic violence victim advocacy programs 59 – for example, a hospital and a law school clinic.60 Thus far, none of the legal clinics have targeted a cultic population.61 The deadline for fiscal year 2001 has passed, but posting will be made December 2001 or January 2002 for grant applications. 62 Mental health or legal professionals may call the Department of Justice to be placed on a mailing list for grant opportunities, or log onto a website for information.63 E. Shelter Services for Battered Women and Children VAWA 2000 reauthorizes the shelter services for battered women and children created under VAWA 1994 at $175 million for fiscal years 2001-2005.64 F.

Transitional Housing Assistance for Victims of Domestic Violence

The VAWA 2000 creates a new grant program for transitional housing assistance for victims of domestic violence.65 The program is to be administered by the Department of Health and Human Services authorized at $25 million for fiscal year 2001.66

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G.

National Domestic Violence Hotline

VAWA 2000 reauthorizes the National Domestic Violence Hotline 67 at $2 million for fiscal years 2001-05.68 H.

Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies Program

The VAWA 2000 reauthorizes the grants to Encourage Arrest Policies Program; 69 Congress has appropriated $33.9 million for Fiscal Year 2001.70 Last Fall, ninety-four communities in 41 states and the District of Columbia received nearly $29 million to continue their efforts in arresting batterers and in enforcing protection orders.71 The grants program ―fosters collaboration among law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges and victim advocates to treat domestic violence as a serious crime.‖72 Among other things, grants are distributed for programs that aim to: facilitate widespread enforcement of protection orders; develop and strengthen policies and training for police, prosecutors, and the judiciary on domestic violence and sexual assault against older individuals and individuals with disabilities; and strengthen legal advocacy services for victims of domestic violence. For example, these funds are being used to educate criminal justice personnel about domestic violence and how to improve the handling of domestic violence cases. 73 Computer tracking systems are being developed and coordinated to ensure improved communication among police, prosecutors and the courts. Funds are also being used to create specialized units in police departments and prosecutors‘ offices that focus on domestic violence. 74 These grant programs were first started in fiscal year 1998.75 As of last Fall, 176 jurisdictions participated in the program, with at least one jurisdiction in almost every state receiving funding.76 Thus, individuals seeking to obtain court orders of protection from an abusive partner, in or out of a cultic relationship, should have an easier time than in the past in obtaining it and having it recognized. The VAWA 1994 and the VAWA 2000 sought to encourage states to respect protective orders from sister states.77 I.

Grants to Combat Violent Crimes Against Women

The VAWA 2000 reauthorizes the Combat Violent Crimes Against Women programs at $185 million for the fiscal years 2001-2005;78 Congress has appropriated $209.7 million for Fiscal Year 2001.79 STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Formula Grants are one of the largest funding programs in this area. 80 Among other things, the VAWA 2000 establishes four new purposes for which funds may be used: 1) to support statewide, coordinated community responses; 2) to train sexual assault forensic medical personnel examiners; 3) to develop, enlarge, and strengthen programs to assist law enforcement, prosecutors, courts and others to address and recognize the needs and circumstances of older and disabled individuals who are victims of domestic violence and sexual assault; and 4) to provide assistance to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in immigration matters.81 For instance, STOP funds may be used to ―develop domestic violence units in police departments and prosecutors‘ offices and develop computerized systems to identify and track arrests and protection orders.‖82 STOP grants have been awarded to all ―50 states, the District of Columbia and five territories to encourage cooperation among law enforcement, prosecution and victim service providers to improve the response to domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.‖83 VAWA 2000 also provides that courts may be eligible to receive STOP grants.84

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J. Studies Related to Violence Against Women The VAWA 2000 requires that the Attorney General conduct national studies and report to Congress on ―State laws that address discrimination against victims of domestic violence and sexual assault related to the issuance of insurance policies.‖ 85 The Attorney General is also required to conduct a national survey of ―plans, programs, and practices developed to assist employers and employees on appropriate responses in the workplace relating to domestic violence, stalking, or sexual assault.‖86 Congress has appropriated $5 million for Fiscal Year 2001 for studies related to violence against women.87 Recently in New York City, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani signed into law an ordinance prohibiting employers from ―firing or refusing to hire people who are threatened, stalked or attacked by a current or former spouse, significant other or roommate.‖ 88 Nationwide, it is estimated that there are 30,000 to 40,000 incidents of on-the-job violence annually where the victims know their attackers intimately.89 K. Rape Prevention and Education The VAWA 2000 reauthorizes and expands its grant program for rape prevention and education at $80 million for fiscal years 2001-05.90 Rape prevention grants focus on educational seminars, hotlines, training for professionals, preparation of informational material, and education about drugs used to facilitate rape. 91 Grants are available for the education and training of judges and court personnel on subjects such as custody and visitation issues in families with domestic violence and evaluating expert testimony in custody and visitation determinations involving domestic violence.92 L.

Title III – Limiting the Effects of Violence on Children

1. Safe Havens for Children Pilot Program The VAWA 2000 creates a pilot program making grants available to states, units of local governments, Indian tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations to provide supervised visitation of children in domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and stalking cases. 93 The VAWA 2000 authorizes $15 million for fiscal years 2001-02. 2. Reauthorization of Victims of Child Abuse Programs The VAWA 2000 reauthorizes a program whereby courts appoint Special Advocates for children at $12 million for fiscal years 2001-05 (Court Appointed Special Advocate Program).94 It also reauthorizes training programs for judicial personnel and practitioners specializing in child abuse (Child Abuse Training Programs) at $2.3 million for fiscal years 2001-05.95 Furthermore, it reauthorizes grants for televised testimony at $1 million for fiscal years 2001-05.96 Congress has appropriated $14.5 million for Fiscal Year 2001 for Victims of Child Abuse Programs.97 3. Report on Effects of Parental Kidnapping Laws in Domestic Violence Cases The VAWA 2000 requires a study and report to Congress on federal and state laws relating to parental kidnapping and child custody.98 M. Other Provisions The VAWA 2000 establishes a national Domestic Violence Task Force ―to coordinate research on domestic violence and to report to Congress . . . .‖ 99 The legislation also includes laws that protect battered immigrant women,100 as well as older and disabled women, from domestic violence.101 Grants are available to schools for campus security.102

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III. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 The newly enacted Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 103 (―TVPA 2000‖) relies extensively upon the efforts of the President and federal agencies. The aim of the trafficking provisions is to ―combat trafficking in persons, a contemporary manifestation of slavery whose victims are predominantly women and children, to ensure just and effective punishment of traffickers, and to protect their victims.‖104 In enacting TVPA 2000, Congress‘s findings were that ―the degrading institution of slavery continues throughout the world.‖105 Additionally, Congress found that ―[a]t least 700,000 persons annually, primarily women and children, are trafficked within or across international borders. Approximately 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the United States each year.‖106 Although ―[m]any of these persons are trafficked into the international sex trade, often by force, fraud, or coercion,‖107 trafficking is not limited to the sex industry. Congress also found that ―[t]his growing transnational crime also includes forced labor and involves significant violations of labor, public health, and human rights standards worldwide.‖108 A critical finding of Congress was that the ―[t]rafficking in persons substantially affects interstate and foreign commerce. Trafficking for such purposes as involuntary servitude and other forms of forced labor has an impact on the nationwide employment network and labor market.‖109 This finding is significant because a court is less likely to strike the Act if it is grounded solidly upon the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution. The TVPA 2000 requires the President to establish an Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking110 and to establish an Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking 111 within the Department of State. It charges the President to measure and evaluate the progress of trafficking prevention, protection, and assistance to victims.112 To prevent trafficking, the President may take such initiatives that will enhance economic opportunity for potential victims – lending programs, training in business development, and job skills training.113 These programs are authorized based upon the findings of Congress that persons most vulnerable to trafficking are women and children who are uneducated, poor, and with little job skills.114 Programs should also aim to retain children in schools and to educate persons who were victims of trafficking.115 To aid in prosecuting these crimes, the TVPA 2000 directs the Attorney General and other federal agencies ―to expand benefits and services,‖116 including legal services, to ―victims of severe forms of trafficking,‖117 regardless of victims‘ immigration status.118 The TVPA 2000 authorizes grants to states, tribal governments, local governments, and nonprofits ―to develop, expand or strengthen‖119 services for victims of trafficking. (Professionals engaged in assisting cult members may be interested in looking into grant opportunities.) It requires that federal regulations be promulgated to ensure that victims of trafficking are provided with shelter, medical care, assistance and protection, and that they have access to information.120 While in the custody of the Federal Government, measures are to be taken to ―protect trafficked persons and their family members from intimidation and threats of reprisals . . . .‖122 The TVPA 2000 requires the President to withhold ―nonhumanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance‖123 to countries that fail to comply with the Act‘s ―minimum standards‖ 124 for the elimination of trafficking.125 The TVPA 2000 strengthens the prosecution and punishment of traffickers by defining certain crimes for the first time. The crime of ―Forced Labor‖ was given definition that includes the use of ―threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against,‖ another person, ―by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern . . . by means of . . . abuse or

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threatened abuse of law or the legal process.‖126 20 years, or both.

Violators face fines or imprisonment up to

Just like any other organized entity that forces the labor of persons, cults may be punished for the crime of Forced Labor. While researching an article 127 regarding children and cults, I found that children whom I interviewed complained about being forced to work for the church in which they were raised. A young man whom I interviewed told me that all members of his church were compelled to work in the church business of carpet and floor cleaning, upholstery work, woodwork and painting. This particular individual was forced to do manual labor for the church from the time he was 12 years old, for which he was never paid.128 He observed that the church dissuaded its members from attending college because it would lose the labor of young people. 129 There are many examples like this one. The issues for prosecutors and for the courts would be whether the kind of conditions that I just described meet the elements of the crime of Forced Labor. Another new provision criminalizes sex trafficking of children. 130 The provision is based upon the Commerce Clause.131 The offender either ―recruits, entices, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains by any means a person‖ (in other words, the offender being the primary actor) or ―benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value from participation in [such] venture‖ (in other words, the offender benefits from the crime). 132 The offender must ―know[] that force, fraud, or coercion . . . will be used to cause the person to engage in a commercial sex act, or that the person has not attained the age of 18 years and will be caused to engage in a commercial sex act. . . .‖133 This language indicates that the offender is liable in absence of knowledge that the victim is under 18. The punishment, depending upon the age of the child, ranges from a fine to life imprisonment.134 IV. Implications for Cult Members or Former Members Cult members or former cult members could utilize the new federal laws and programs discussed above to seek justice for wrongful acts committed against them. For example: A. The VAWA 2000 provides better definition for the term ―dating violence,‖ which will aid prosecutors in their work. Under the Act, various programs include prevention and prosecution of ―dating violence.‖ These programs may benefit cult members who find themselves in situations where dating violence occurs by another member or leader. The statutory definition, ―violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim,‖ could assist prosecutors in securing convictions against cult members or leaders with whom victims have close relationships. In the past, prosecutors would have a difficult time convincing juries that a live-in companion or a social acquaintance should be convicted of a violent crime, and that would have been true for cultic relationships as well. Under this new definition, prosecutors would have more arsenals. (For further detail, see II A above.) B. The VAWA 2000 clarifies language pertaining to the crime of ―Interstate Domestic Violence.‖ Where a cult member or leader travels in interstate or foreign commerce, such as crossing a state border, with the ―intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate‖ a fellow cult member or former one, such offender has committed a crime. The statutory language as to the relationship between the offender and the victim could be broad enough to encompass cultic relationships where the offender and victim were married, or share a child, or who cohabit together. (For further detail, see II B). C. The VAWA 2000 clarifies language pertaining to the crime of ―Interstate Stalking.‖ Under the new law, conceivably prosecutors could build a criminal case against a stalker, who is a member or leader of a cult, who stalked another cult member or stalked someone in an attempt at recruitment. Under this new law, the prosecutor must show that the

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offender had the intent to ―kill,‖ ―intimidate another person,‖ ―injure,‖ or ―harass‖ the victim. For further detail, see II-C.135 D. Cult members or former members could seek legal assistance for civil matters from programs established by grants authorized by the VAWA 2000, called ―Legal Assistance for Victims‖ programs. The money for these programs established pairings of medical facilities, for example, with a law school legal clinic. Cult members or former members who wish to seek legal assistance for orders of protection, divorce, child support could approach a VAWO program in their community. The website for VAWO could provide useful information. (For further information, see Part II D above.) E. Cult members or former members may also be in need of shelter services for battering or for transitional housing assistance as a result of domestic violence. Federal money and programs have established shelters and assistance. (For further information, see Part II D-F above.) F. Cult members or former members may be assisted by the new trafficking laws of the TVPA 2000, which authorizes grants for services of victims of trafficking. In addition to services that may be provided locally, the federal law provides for the prosecution and punishment of traffickers. Hypothetically, cults could fall within the category of ―forced labor,‖ which the federal statute targets. The federal statute also encompasses sex trafficking of children, which may apply to certain cultic groups. (For further information, see Part III above.) V. Conclusion The foregoing is an outline of the highlights of federal legislation and programs relating to crimes against women and children. Our individual states also have enacted laws to protect victims of crimes of domestic violence, sexual assault, rape, and stalking. Thus, many of the crimes written into the Federal Violence Against Women Acts of 1994 & 2000 are also addressed by state law. One purpose for enacting federal legislation is to provide uniformity to our laws, to encourage uniformity in law enforcement and prosecution, and to encourage cooperation from sister states in recognizing orders of protection. The federal law also helps to provide money for programs that filters down to the local communities. I encourage mental health and legal professionals to look into grant money that will become available next winter for studies and programs that could be formed in their communities. Those who know someone experiencing violence at home may want to direct them to law enforcement or appropriate victim service agencies. Notes 1. The Cultic Studies Journal published the speeches in article form: Robin A. Boyle, Women, the Law, and Cults: Three Avenues of Legal Recourse--New Rape Laws, Violence Against Women Act, and Antistalking Laws, 15(1) C.S.J. 1 (1998) [hereinafter Boyle, Three Avenues]; Robin A. Boyle, How Children In Cults May Use Emancipation Laws To Free Themselves, 16 C.S.J. 1, 10-11 (1999) [hereinafter Boyle, Emancipation]. 2. Violence Against Women Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-322, Title IV, 108 Stat. 1902 (codified in scattered sections of 18 & 42 U.S.C.) (1994) [hereinafter VAWA 1994]. 3. See Catherine Pierce, Acting Director, About the Violence Against Women Office, available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/about.htm (last visited August 3, 2001) [hereinafter VAWO Release]. For more information about VAWO, contact: VAWO/ 810 7th Street, NW/ Washington, DC 20531/ telephone: (202) 307-6026; fax: (202) 307-3911. 4. VAWO Release, supra note 3. 5. See id. 6. See Boyle, Three Avenues, supra note 1 at 2 (citing Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, U.S. Dep‘t of Justice, Pub. NCJ-154348, Violence Against Women: Estimates from the Redesigned Survey 1 (Aug. 1995)). The report stated that for domestic violence crimes women were approximately six times more likely than men to experience violence committed Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 50

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41.

by an ―intimate.‖ The incidence of domestic violence increases in poor families and for younger women, ages 10 to 29. 22 U.S.C.A. § 7101 (West Supp. 2001). VAWO Release, supra note 3. Id. Id. VAWA 1994, supra note 2. 42 U.S.C. § 13981(c) (1994); see Boyle, Three Avenues, supra note 1, at 25. Boyle, Three Avenues, supra note 1, at 26-28 (citing Brzonkala v. Va. Polytechnic & State Univ., 935 F. Supp. 779 (W.D.Va. 1996), rev‟d, 132 F.3d 949 (4th Cir. 1997)). United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000) (Morrison is the companion case that was decided along with Brzonkala). Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote the decision. He was joined by Justices Sandra Day O‘Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Id. at 627; see Brook A. Masters, „No Winners‟ in Rape Lawsuit; Two Students Forever Changed by Case That Went to Supreme Court, The Wash. Post, May 20, 2000, at B1. See Morrison, 529 U.S. at 607. U.S. Const. art. I § 8, cl. 3. Morrison, 529 U.S. at 609-10. Specifically, § 13981 of VAWA 1994, 42 U.S.C. § 13981 (1994). Morrison, 529 U.S. at 610-12. Id. at 613. Id. Joan Biskupic, Justices Reject Lawsuits For Rape; Court Again Limits Congress‟s Power, The Wash. Post, May 16, 2000, at A1 (quoting Martha F. Davis). Id. News Release, Statement of the Attorney General on Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (May 2000), available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/collected.htm (last visited August 3, 2001) [hereinafter Release, Reauthorization of VAWA]. H.R. 429, 107th Cong. (2001) (sponsored by Representative John Conyers D-MI). See id. See Release, Reauthorization of VAWA, supra note 25; see also News Release, Intimate Partner Violence Against Women Declined From 1993 Through 1998: One-third of All Murdered Females Were Killed by Partner (May 17, 2000), available at http://www.usnewswire.com/OJP/docs/ipv.txt (last visited August 3, 2001). Release, Reauthorization of VAWA, supra note 25. Id. The Violence Against Women Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-386, 114 Stat. 1491 (2000) (to be codified in scattered sections of 8 & 42 U.S.C. [hereinafter VAWA 2000]. VAWO, available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/about.htm (last visited August 3, 2001). Id. In the left column will be an option for ―State-by State VAWO Grant Activities.‖ Click there and then click on individual states of your choice. The highlights are summarized from the web site of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, located on the web at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo (last visited August 3, 2001). See Boyle, Three Avenues, supra note 1, at 6-11 (discussing the difficulties in prosecuting sex crimes committed by someone whom the victim knows). VAWA 2000 § 1109. VAWA 2000 added the term ―dating violence‖ to programs such as the Grants to Encourage Arrest Policies and Enforcement of Protection Orders Program and the Grants to Reduce Violent Crimes Against Women on Campus Program. VAWA 2000 §§ 1108, 1109. VAWA 2000 § 1109. Id. See supra note 32 for webpage. VAWA 2000 states that an offense of interstate domestic violence is: (1) a person who travels in interstate or foreign commerce or enters or leaves Indian country with the intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate a spouse or intimate partner, and who, in the course of or as a result of such travel, commits or attempts to commit a crime of violence against that spouse or intimate partner . . . (2) A person who causes a spouse or intimate partner to travel in Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 51

42. 43.

44. 45. 46.

47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53.

54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77.

interstate or foreign commerce or to enter or leave Indian country by force, coercion, duress, or fraud, and who, in the course of, as a result of, or to facilitate such conduct or travel, commits or attempts to commit a crime of violence against that spouse or intimate partner . . .. VAWA 2000 § 1107(a). Id. For example, the VAWA 1994 act used the phrase ―State line,‖ whereas the VAWA 2000 uses ―interstate or foreign commerce or enters or leaves Indian country.‖ VAWA 2000 § 1107(a)(1); 18U.S.C. § 2261(a)(1)(1994). Another change is that the VAWA 2000 act includes that the offender in subdivision (1) possessed the intent to kill, while the VAWA 1994 only refers to the intent to injure, harass, or intimidate. VAWA 2000 § 1107(a)(1); 18 U.S.C. § 2261(a)(1)(1994). VAWA 2000 § 1107 (amending 18 U.S.C. § 2266). VAWA 2000 § 1107 (amending 18 U.S.C. § 2261). VAWA 2000 reads: ―Whoever (1) travels in interstate or foreign commerce or within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or enters or leaves Indian country.‖ VAWA 2000 § 1107(b). Whereas, the VAWA 1994 provision read: ―Whoever travels across a State line.‖ 18 U.S.C. § 2261A (Supp. V 1999). VAWA 2000 § 1107(b); 18 U.S.C. § 2261A (Supp. V 1999). Contrasting VAWA 2000 with VAWA 1994. VAWA 2000 § 1107(b)(2) (amending § 2261A). VAWA 2000 § 1101(a)(3)(A)(iii). See id. VAWA 2000 adds Title II – Strengthening Services to Victims of Violence – Legal Assistance for Victims. VAWA 2000 § 1201. News Release, Justice Department Awards Over $23 Million For Civil Legal Assistance To Victims of Domestic Violence (Oct. 19, 2000), available athttp://www.usnewswire.com/OJP/docs/ojp000114.html (last visited August 3, 2001) [hereinafter Legal Assistance Release]. Telephone Interview with Frances Cook, Attorney Advisor, U.S. Dep‘t of Justice (May 4, 2001) [hereinafter Cook]. Legal Assistance Release, supra note 53. Telephone Interview with Corrin Ferber, Program Administrator for Domestic Violence Victims‘ Civil Legal Assistance Grant Program, U.S. Dep‘t Of Justice (April 27, 2001)[hereinafter Ferber]. Id. See Legal Assistance Release, supra note 53. Id. See Ferber, supra note 56. Id. Id. For information about grants – call (202) 307-6026. Log onto the website at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fundopps.htm. VAWA 2000 § 1202(a). Id. § 1203. Id. § 1203(f). The National Domestic Violence Hotline is: (800) 799- SAFE or (800) 787- 3224. VAWA 2000 § 1204. Id. § 1101(c)(2). See Cook, supra note 54. News Release, VAWO, Almost $29 Million in Justice Department Funds Continue Local Efforts to Address Domestic Violence (Nov. 8, 2000), available at http://www.usnewswire.com/OJP/docs/ojp117.html (last visited August 3, 2001). Id. See id. See id. See id. See id. VAWA 2000 § 1101(a)(2)(B); 18 U.S.C. § 2265(a). Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 52

78. VAWA 2000 § 1103 (reauthorizes STOP grants). 79. See Cook, supra note 54. 80. OJP Resource Guide Third Edition – 4: Preventing Violence Against Women, available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/resguide/chap4.htm (last visited August 3, 2001). 81. VAWO at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/laws.vawa_summary2.htm (last visited August 3, 2001). 82. News Release, VAWO, Justice Department Awards Over $162 Million to States, Rural Communities and Colleges and Universities to Address Violence Against Women (Oct. 12, 2000), available at http://www.usnewswire.com/OJP/docs/ojp000113.html (last visited August 3, 2001). 83. Id. 84. VAWA 2000 § 1102(a). 85. Id. § 1206. 86. Id. § 1207. 87. See Cook, supra note 54. 88. Tim Pareti, Employer Awareness: Lawyers can Help Ward Off Liability When Domestic Violence Spills Into Workplace, A.B.A. J. 70 (May 2001). 89. See id. 90. VAWA 2000 § 1401(c)(2). 91. Id. § 1401(a). 92. Id. § 1406. 93. VAWA 2000 § 1301. 94. Id. § 1302(a). 95. Id. § 1301(b) 96. Id. § 1301(c) 97. See Cook, supra note 54. 98. VAWA 2000 § 1303. 99. Id. § 1407. 100. Id. § 1501 et. Seq. 101. Id. § 1402 102. Id. 1108. A National Institute of Justice Research Report released in December 2000 announced findings by researchers that estimate more than 350 rapes per year occur on a college campus with approximately 10,000 female students. Bonnie S. Fisher et al., The Sexual Victimization of College Women, NIJ, Dec. 2000, available at http://www.ojp.usdoj.,gov/nij/pubs-sum/182369.htm. (last visited August 3, 2001). 103. Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, 22 U.S.C.A. § 7101 (West Supp. 2001). You may find it on the web at: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/laws/vawo2000 (last visited August 3, 2001). It is referred to as Division A of the larger piece of legislation, and the VAWA 2000 is Division B. 104. 22 U.S.C.A. § 7101(a). 105. Id. § 7101(b)(1). 106. Id. Id. § 7103(e). 107. Id. § 7101(b)(2). 108. Id. § 7101(b)(3). 109. Id. § 7101(b)(12). 110. Id. § 7103(a). 111. Id. § 7103(e) 112. Id. § 7103(d)(2) 113. Id. § 7104(a). 114. Id. § 7101(b)(4). 115. Id. § 7104(a)(4). 116. Id. § 7105(b)(1)(B). 117. ―Severe Forms Of Trafficking In Persons‖ is defined as: (A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by fraud, or coercion, or in which the persons induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or (B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. Id. § 7102(8) (A) & (B). Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 53

118. Id. § 7105(b) & (e). 119. Id. § 7105(b)(2). 120. Id. § 7105(c). 121. Id. § 7105(c)(1)(C)(i). 122. Id. § 7107(a). 123. ―Minimum Standards‖ is defined as: (1)The government of the country should prohibit severe forms of trafficking in persons and punish acts of such trafficking. (2) For the knowing commission of any act of sex trafficking involving force, fraud, coercion, or in which the victim of sex trafficking is a child incapable of giving meaningful consent, or of trafficking which includes rape or kidnapping or which causes a death, the government of the country should prescribe punishment commensurate with that for grave crimes, such as forcible sexual assault. (3) For the knowing commission of any act of a severe form of trafficking in persons, the government of the country should prescribe punishment that is sufficiently stringent to deter and that adequately reflects the heinous nature of the offense. (4) The government of the country should make serious and sustained efforts to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. Id. § 7106(a). This requirement does not go into effect until 2003. 124. Id. § 7107(a)(1). 125. Id. § 7109(a). 126. Boyle, Emancipation, supra note 1, at 10-11. 127. See id. 128. See id. 129. 22 U.S.C.A. § 7109(a). 130. It reads: ―Whoever knowingly (1) or in affecting interstate commerce . . . .‖ Id. 131. Id. 132. Id. §1591 (a). 133. Id. §1591 (b). 134. See Boyle, Three Avenues, supra note 1, at 28-31 (describing developments in the antistalking laws).

Acknowledgements The preceding is derived from a speech delivered by Robin Boyle, Panel Participant for the Workshop entitled Cults and the Law: Practical Issues, which was held in May 2001 at the annual AFF conference in Newark, New Jersey. The author thanks her husband, Paul Skip Laisure, Esq., and her Teaching Assistant, Nicole Fusilli, for their editorial assistance. Additionally, she thanks the American Family Foundation and its President, Herbert Rosedale, for providing a forum for these issues to be heard. ********** Robin Boyle, Esq. teaches legal research and writing at St. John‘s University School of Law, and she lectures on topics concerning cults and the law. Two of her articles have appeared in the Cultic Studies Journal described in supra note 1. This article is an electronic version of an article originally published in Cultic Studies Review, 2002, Volume 1, Number 1, pages 65-89. Please keep in mind that the pagination of this electronic reprint differs from that of the bound volume. This fact could affect how you enter bibliographic information in papers that you may write.

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News Amish Account of Amish Banishment Irene Miller Garret's recent memoire, Crossing Over: One Woman's Exodus from Amish Life," provides a window into the Old Order Amish community, whose strict rules and insularity proved too much for the spirited Garrett. She remains excommunicated from the Amish church — she ran away from home to marry an outsider who worked for Amish families in Kaolona, IA — and shunned by her family. Garrett says that women are "secondclass, subservient to men" among her Amish kin, and that certain "inconsistencies" in the community bother her: a few select members of the church could break rules while most others could not. She also questioned the notion that the outside world was wicked. Since her marriage, Garrett has earned a GED, in her new Kentucky home, and hopes to attend nursing school. (Cynthia J. McGroarty, Knight-Ridder Tribune New, Houston Chronicle, 1/18/2002, Internet) Association of Disciples China Cracks Down on Protestant Group / China Chinese police arrested, and sentenced without trial to reeducation through labor, leaders of the evangelical Protestant "Association of Disciples" for setting up a chapter in northwestern Lintao city, Gansu province. According to the China News Service, the leaders were also accused of setting up "home sects" in villages, of "cheating the people," and "disturbing social order." A large rally was held to announce the sentences and "educate" the local population of the dangers of the group, which boasts up to 500,000 followers. The whereabouts of "guru" Ji Sanbau are unknown. (Yahoo! News, 1/11/02, Internet) Aum Shinrikyo New Aum (Aleph) Leader / Japan Fumihiro Joyu, the high-profile spokesperson for Aum Shinrikyo, now called Aleph, has been elected to lead the group. In December 1999, Joyu was released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for perjury and forgery. He was one of only a few senior Aum leaders not charged in connection with the 1999 nerve gas attack, which left 12 people dead and injured thousands. News 24, 1/28/02, Internet) Aum Terrorists Planned to Spring Leader / Russia Three Russian Aum members — Dmitri Shigachev, 24, Sergei Topeko, 28, and Dmitri Voronov, 32, stand accused — and admit the substance of the accusation — of having plotted to bomb various locations in Tokyo in a bid to spring Aum Shinrikyo guru Shoko Asahara from prison. Banned in 1995 after the cult's lethal sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway commuters, Aum's Russian branch nonetheless maintains a shadowy existence, with some 300 believers in Moscow performing devotions under the supervision of four Japanese Aum priests. (In Japan, Aum now calls itself Aleph.) Shigachev, the youngest of the three defendants, is the trio's leader. In 1999 he used the Internet to recruit collaborators for a daring plan he had conceived. The logic was simple. "Asahara," co-defendant Topeko told the court, "should be free. Since there were no legal means to free him, we had no choice but to use terrorism and violence to demand his release." Flush with funds from an Aum-affiliated Japanese entrepreneur Shigachev met in Phuket, Thailand, the little group set to work. Topeko procured the weaponry. Voronov, a Vladivostok used-tire salesman, made local preparations, securing a garage to hide the Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 55

arms in, renting an apartment-hideout for Asahara, and so on. In December 1999, Shigachev and Topeko rode the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok with three sandbags filled with hand grenades, handmade bombs, and Tokarev and Kalashnikov firearms and ammunition. The following March, Shigachev traveled to Tokyo to scout the terrain. Bombs were to be placed at Ueno Station, Shibuya Parco, a Shinjuku high-rise, a Shinagawa hotel, and in a gas storage facility of the Tokyo Detention Center, where Asahara is being held. Then the Japanese government would be warned: Free Asahara or expose the metropolis to devastating death and destruction. Meanwhile, eerily foreshadowing the flying lessons taken by the Sept. 11 hijackers, the three men apparently took boating lessons as part of their preparations to spirit Asahara across the Sea of Japan to Russia. Voronov's Chechen mother said: "My son was working with an oil exploration team in Chechnya when he fell from a tower. The doctors could do nothing for him. He visited Asahara, and in three days his injuries healed. That's when he became a believer. We escaped the Chechen war. In Russia we were recognized as refugees, but were given no support. We drifted to Vladivostok. There was nothing here either. I can understand why my son became involved in something like this . . . " (Japan Times, 12/23/01, Internet) Aum Leadership Change / Japan Fumihiro Joyu, 39, a longtime spokesman for the Aum Shinrikyo cult and its de facto number two man, has announced that he will take over the group. He told a news conference at an Aum facility in Tokyo's Setagawa Ward that current leader Tatsuko Muraoka, 51, will step down and become chairwoman. (Kyodo News, Japan Today, 12/28/01, Internet) Warning on AUM's "Open Door" Policy / Japan Aum Shinrikyo is trying to increase its appeal by portraying itself as an ''open cult'' in an effort to expand its operations, according to the annual report of the Public Security Investigation Agency. The report says that the group has established new headquarters at three Minami-Karasuyama condominium complexes in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, where the cult's regional leaders from across Japan meet monthly. The group has now opened a total of 11 facilities to local residents and posted contact numbers for more than 600 Aum followers on its Web site. Searches of Aum facilities by the agency have uncovered a number of collections of Aum founder Shoko Asahara's preaching, discoveries the agency says reconfirm the cult's ''deceptive character.'' The cult has amassed huge funds through operating a series of personal computer shops and conducting ''initiations'' at which it collects monetary offerings. (Kyodo, 12/22 and 23/01, Internet) Death Penalty Sought for Aum Leader / Japan Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for former Aum leader Tomomitsu Niimi, the group's former "home affairs minister." He is being tried for the murders of 26 people in seven separate attacks, including the 1995 subway operation. Niimi gained notoriety at the start of his trial in 1996 by refusing to enter pleas and pledging eternal loyalty to Aum guru Shoko Asahara. He is also accused of helping to organize the 1989 strangulation of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, one of the first people to raise questions about the cult's activities. Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, is being tried separately for allegedly masterminding the subway gas attack and other killings. The cult, which advocated overthrowing the Japanese government by sowing chaos, was declared bankrupt in March 1996 but has regrouped under a new name, Aleph. It is under surveillance by Japan's Public Safety Agency, which has warned that the group is still a threat. (AP, 12/26/01, Internet) Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 56

Aum Programmer Accused of Data Theft / Japan A computer programmer with ties to Aum is suspected of downloading confidential computer data from eight major companies and giving it to the cult, Tokyo police say. The victims of the alleged theft are all clients of NTT Communications Corp., where the Aum member worked as a subcontractor. (Kyodo News, Japan Today, 12/19/01, Internet) Aum Visitors Rejected by Russia / Russia Russia refused entry to 16 Aum members in 2001, Federal Security Service (FSB) head Nikolay Patrushev said. The FSB declined to make public the nationality of the members or the purpose of their attempted visits. Aum, now outlawed in Russia, claims it used to have tens of thousands followers in the country. (Kyodo News, Japan Today, 12/19/01, Internet) Aum Death Sentence Upheld Despite "Mind Control" Claim / Japan A Japanese court has upheld the death sentence of Aum Shinrikyo co-founder Kazuaki Okazaki, 41, convicted in 1998 of killing an anti-cult lawyer, his wife, and baby son. This was the first death sentence of a member of Aum — now called Aleph— the group that released nerve gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995. Okazaki argued that he acted while while under the "mind control" of Aum founder Chizu Matsumoto, better known by his pseudonym, Shoko Asahara. (BBC News, 12/13/01, Internet) Russian Aum Members Convicted in Bomb Plot / Russia Five Russian members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult were convicted Wednesday of planning to set off bombs in Japanese cities to force officials to free the cult's leader. They received sentences ranging from 41/2 to 8 years. They hoped by terrorizing Japan to win the release of Shoko Asahara, who was jailed pending trial as the suspected mastermind of the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, the prosecutor said. (Chicago Tribune, 1/24/02, Internet) "Of course, I remain a believer in Aum Shinrikyo, as I was up to my arrest. But our attitude toward our actions have changed — of course we regret them," Dmitry Sigachyov, leader of the Russian group, said in his final court statement. (Reuters, 1/23/02, Internet) Aum, in Tokyo, denied that the group had assisted in the planned attack. (Courier-Mail, 1/25/02, Internet) Compensation to Aum Victims / Japan A woman on welfare who was a victim of Aum Shinrikyo's 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system will be able to keep her welfare money, as well as 3 million yen in compensation she was awarded after the attack. Normally, officials scrutinize how welfare recipients use the extra money and order most to repay their benefits, ministry officials said. "This decision was made in consideration of the unusual nature of the incident and the background in which the government canceled Aum's debts to give priority to compensation to victims," said an official from the ministry's Public Assistance Division. (Japan Times, 1/12/02, Internet) Life Sentence Upheld / Japan The Tokyo High Court has upheld a life imprisonment ruling by a lower court for a former AUM Shinrikyo cult member over his role in the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Koichi Kitamura, 33. The judge said that life imprisonment is not too harsh a sentence for Kitamura. Despite the that fact he did not play a leading role in the crime, he was aware of the plan in advance and clearly realized the killing power of sarin gas, said Presiding Judge Tetsuya Yoshimoto. (Xinhua via COMTEX, 1/29/02, Internet)

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Aylmer Church of God Couple Reasserts Right to Spank The Aylmer, Ontario, couple who had seven children temporarily taken away from them because of their fundamentalist Christian belief in corporal punishment, say they will defy a court order that prohibits them from spanking the kids. In a written statement to media, the couple, who remain unidentified to protect the children, said the youngsters, aged 6 to 14, were traumatized by being removed by family services officials and police July 4. "We maintain the right to pursue our personal religious convictions based on the word of God, the Bible. As a result, we will no longer comply with ... the agreement," they wrote. "It constitutes an infringement on our right to preserve our religious freedom. We have mutually reached this conclusion based on the word of God, of our own free will, and without coercion from the church." Pastor Henry Hildebrandt, of the Church of God, whose teachings ask parents to discipline children by striking them with a rod or switch — rather than the hand, which is reserved for kindness — said: "Because of the teaching of the Bible, the church could no longer encourage the family to abide by the interim agreement, because the hearing [on the matter] was being postponed and postponed." The agreement also bars the parents from taking the kids out of Ontario and requires them to accept counselling to learn "alternate methods of discipline." Hildebrandt said the church has no problem with those stipulations but is opposed to social workers making unannounced visits, which he says have "severely psychologically traumatized" the children. (Toronto Star, 12/10/01, Internet) Aylmer Church of God Corporal Punishment Case Standoff A child welfare agency's bid to stop Aylmer Church of God pastor Henry Hildebrandt from counseling two members of his congregation on corporal punishment issues was rejected by Ontario family court judge Michael O'Dea. The agency also asked O'Dea to find the couple in contempt of court over a statement they released to the media indicating their religious beliefs stopped them from complying further with a court order that prohibits physical discipline until the case is resolved. The judge rejected both applications, but ordered everyone involved in the controversial case to stop talking to the media. He also ordered the parents to prevent their children from being contacted by reporters and from receiving electronic mail from supporters outside their congregation. The couple's seven children, aged six to 14, were removed kicking and screaming from their home last summer by social workers supported by police. Two weeks later, a judge ordered the children released, pending a final court decision last fall. One of the terms of release was a temporary prohibition on physical discipline. But autumn came and went without a decision, prompting Hildebrandt to announce last month—with support from his church's international council—that he was no longer advising the parents to comply with the spanking prohibition. The couple released a statement of their own, indicating the restriction infringed on their personal religious convictions and they could no longer comply. (Christian Week Online, 1/22/02, Internet) The Body State Takes Custody of Sect Child – Jacques Robidoux / The Body Massachusetts has been granted temporary custody of a baby believed born to Rebecca Corneau, the member of an Attleboro religious sect, whose stillborn son was secretly buried in Maine in 1999, along with his stillborn cousin, Samuel Robidoux. Prosecutors allege, in Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 58

the ongoing case, that Samuel Robidoux starved after his aunt said that she had a vision instructing his parents to feed him nothing but almond milk. Authorities suspect the birth because Mrs. Corneau, who was seen to be pregnant during a court appearance not long ago, no longer seemed so when she made her most recent appearance. Authorities say they were turned away from her home when they tried to determine if Mrs. Corneau had given birth. The Corneau's four other children live with relatives who are not sect members, while Samuel's parents, sect leader Jacques Robidoux and his wife face murder charges in a trial expected to start in March. (Boston Globe, AP, 1/3/02, Internet) Attleboro Sect Couple Facing Jail over Duty of Care Issue – Jacques Robidoux / The Body Prosecutors looking for the newborn of a religious sect (led by Jacques Robidoux) couple offered them some immunity if they reveal the burial site of the remains of the baby they say was miscarried. Rebecca and David Corneau were jailed Tuesday for contempt for refusing to reveal what happened to the baby she was carrying. After weeks of refusing to even acknowledge she was pregnant, the couple did say Rebecca Corneau had a miscarriage. In a letter sent Thursday, Bristol District Attorney Paul J. Walsh Jr. said their statements would not be used against them for the misdemeanor — illegal disposal of the baby. He did not rule out other charges, however. ''We want to know where the remains are,'' said First Assistant District Attorney Gerry FitzGerald. (Boston Globe, 2/9/2002, Internet) The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had for a time prevented the jailing of the Corneaus, who refused a lower court order to turn over the conjectured newborn to a Juvenile Court judge. In early January, the state Department of Social Services initiated a "care and protection" proceeding seeking temporary custody of a baby the department believed Rebecca Corneau bore in November or December. Fourteen other children — including the Corneau's four daughters — have been taken in similar proceedings after a judge found the sect members unfit parents because sect members do not seek medical care for their children, do not send them to school, and use a paddle to punish them for behavior such as soiling a diaper. Three sect members have been charged in the 1999 starvation death of one sect child, and prosecutors did not file charges in the death of the Corneu's son, who investigators believe died shortly after birth from a complication that could have been treated through modern medicine. [The group buried two of the children in rural Maine.] Under state law, all children who are subject to the care and protection proceeding must be presented to the court, but the Corneaus have refused to present their newborn. Indeed, they have refused to confirm whether a baby was born [although Mrs. Corneau appeared to be pregnant until recently]. They have cited their protections in the state and federal constitutions against being forced to implicate themselves in a crime. (Paul Edward Parker, Providence Journal, 1/25/02, Internet) Rebecca Corneau carried a paddle around her waist that she used for hitting children, according to a sworn affidavit from M. Carol Bridges, an investigator with the state Department of Social Services. Officials had previously said members of the sect were declared unfit as parents, and the children were placed for adoption because the sect members did not secure proper medical care for the children or send them to school. The court documents say publicly for the first time that physical abuse was also a factor that led to Corneau and her husband losing parental rights to at least one of their girls. "The child, age 26 months at the time of her removal from her parents' care, was spanked or paddled by her parents for soiling her diaper," Bridges's affidavit says. "When the child Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 59

was placed in foster care she had bruising on her buttocks consistent with paddling. Her older sisters also had thickened skin on their buttocks consistent with paddling." The affidavit also says, "This practice was common in the religious group in which the Corneaus were members. The practice of severely paddling the children was believed to be necessary in order . . . that the children's 'will' be 'broken.' " (Paul Edward Parker, Providence Journal, 1/10/02, Internet) Commentary: Basic Right Endangered in Attleboro Case Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe, 1/9/02, Internet "Does a woman's right to control her fertility extend to childbirth? Or have the abortion wars so warped our perspective that we now define reproductive choice only as a woman's right to prevent or terminate an unwanted pregnancy? "The question arises in the troubling case of Rebecca Corneau, the mother whose membership in a religious sect in which two children died under suspicious circumstances prompted a judge to declare her and others in the group unfit parents. "Corneau was not charged in either the death of her son, Jeremiah, who she says was stillborn, or the death of 10-month-old Samuel, who prosecutors say was starved by his parents, Jacques and Karen Robidoux, the sect's leaders. "The Robidouxs rightly will stand trial in March for their son's death, but Corneau's branding as an unfit mother seems to stem solely from her membership in a sect that refuses to accept modern medical care. In the fall of 2000, fearing that the fetus she was carrying might meet the same fate as Jeremiah, Attleboro Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth P. Nassif imprisoned Corneau to await the birth and to submit to prentatal medical exams against the beliefs of what he called her ''bizarre and dangerous cult.'' Her newborn daughter was placed in foster care with her three other children. Nassif's stunning assertion of jurisdiction over the body of a pregnant woman never charged with a crime was never subject to appellate review because Corneau refused legal representation. "Now, based on visual clues that Corneau recently might have been pregnant but no longer appears to be so, Nassif is back, taking the extraordinary step of awarding the state temporary custody of an infant who might not exist. Since the state has yet to prove a child was born, one has to ask how the judge can assert that the phantom infant is in danger of abuse and neglect. . . . "No one wants to see a life endangered, but DSS officials, Nassif, and Bristol District Attorney Paul F. Walsh have forgotten that the law stands on evidence, not on speculative fears. Carney is not being hyperbolic when he cautions against a ''witch hunt'' in this case." Principles Clash in Attleboro Sect Case Eileen McNamara, Boston Globe, By Globe, 2/3/02, Internet The ''independent'' investigator appointed by Attleboro Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth P. Nassif to assess whether David and Rebecca Corneau were fit parents is a self-styled cult buster committed to luring members away from ''aberrant religious groups.'' The Rev. Robert T. Pardon heads The New England Institute of Religious Research, a ''mission'' he founded to provide ''training in ministering to those caught up in such destructive groups.'' His Web site names the sect to which the Corneaus belong as one such cult. The court's choice of Pardon to make an ''impartial'' assessment of parental fitness bolsters the couple's contention that bias might have skewed the court's custody decisions. ''Who cares if he's biased,'' responds Carol Yelverton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 60

Social Services. ''He's not some nut; he was educated at Princeton. Our focus is that two babies are dead and we don't want any more.'' The Corneaus are the focus of a debate that pits an individual's right to practice religion against the state's responsibility to protect children. The couple's four known children are in the custody of DSS, placed there after Nassif found them in need of protection from ''a bizarre and dangerous cult.'' Nassif already has awarded custody to the state. ''We can't take chances with a baby's life,'' says Yelverton. ''Given the history, we have to take every precaution. We would do that in any case.'' Well, not every case. Just last week, Eric E.G. James of Roxbury was charged with an assault that left his 2-month-old son near death. James had history. In October 2000, he was living with his girlfriend when her 1-month-old son was beaten to death. That homicide case is still open. DSS found evidence of abuse, but did not keep tabs on Christine Carreiro's roommates or her reproductive state. ''We can't wait by the door to see if a couple has another baby,'' says Yelverton. But didn't DSS do just that in the Corneau case? ''No,'' she says. ''We were called by people who saw her pregnant and in active labor.'' The vigilance of our child protection system, then, is dependent on the presence or absence of nosy neighbors? Or a judge and a guardian ad litem with an agenda. The conventional role of guardian ad litem is to provide an independent evaluation of a family's situation to the court. Pardon clearly had other interests in October 2000 when Nassif named him guardian for Katerina Corneau, the baby born in a prison hospital after Nassif jailed Rebecca for refusing to submit to medical exams prohibited by her religious beliefs. The vigilance of our child protection system, then, is dependent on the presence or absence of nosy neighbors? Or a judge and a guardian ad litem with an agenda. The conventional role of guardian ad litem is to provide an independent evaluation of a family's situation to the court. Pardon clearly had other interests in October 2000 when Nassif named him guardian for Katerina Corneau, the baby born in a prison hospital after Nassif jailed Rebecca for refusing to submit to medical exams prohibited by her religious beliefs. ''I can testify to you that your beliefs and practices are not consistent with His Word, nor, more profoundly, with His character,'' Pardon wrote to the Corneaus on Dec. 10, 2000, after they declined to meet with him. ''One day all of us will stand before Him and give an account of our lives and the choices we have made ... Lives are being destroyed, David, and all in the Name of God. How God must weep over your decisions.'' Judge Keeps Corneaus in Jail - Jacques Robidoux / The Body Rebecca and David Corneau, members of the Attleboro (MA) sect called The Body, jailed for refusing to reveal the location of their baby, will spend at least one more month behind bars, a Bristol County Juvenile Court judge ruled on March 15. Authorities believe that a child was born last fall to the couple, who with their brethren shun modern medical practices. The Corneaus contend that she suffered a third-trimester miscarriage, and that the child was stillborn, although they would not further discuss the matter. The Judge first jailed the couple for contempt in early February after they failed to cooperate in a custody hearing [concerning the conjectured child.] The Corneaus said that their beliefs prohibit them from taking an oath. The judge said that he did not believe them. And no witnesses testified

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about a miscarriage or birth because the Corneaus said that their faith does not require them to offer proof. (CNN News, 1/15/02, Internet) Another Corneau child died soon after birth several years ago and was secretly buried in Maine alongside an infant cousin, who prosecutors say was starved to death by the cult. Sect members have been charged in the cousin's death. Massachusetts Court of Appeals Justice Janis Berry has called The Body a cult that endangers children. The state took custody of the Corneaus' four other children. (Boston Globe, 3/25/02, Internet) Caritas Caritas Called "Cult" in Ex-member Suit Five former members of Caritas, a multimillion-dollar organization that promotes visions of the Virgin Mary, have sued the organization in Alabama state court claiming that leader Terry Colafrancesco lures people into Caritas with promises of spiritual enrichment and then drains them of money, forces families to live in nasty trailers at the group's compound, and controls their lives almost totally. Plaitiffs include a one-time Colafrancesco lieutenant and five parents suing on behalf of their children, who still live among some 50 mostly Roman Catholics at the Caritas mission, 50 miles south of Birmingham. Since the visit to Alabama in 1988 of Marija Pavlovic Lunetti, one of six young people who claim to have seen the Virgin in the town of Medjugorje, in the former Yugoslavia, Caritas has become one of the largest organizations dedicated to spreading the messages of Medjugorje. (AP, Birmingham, AL Ledger -Inquirer, 12/13/01, Internet) Chetananda Correction It was incorrectly stated in the Cult Observer summary (Vol. 18, No. 3, 2001) entitled, ―Women Call Swami Chetananda Controlling and Abusive‖ (taken from articles in The Oregonian, July 15, 16, 19, 2001, Internet), that former followers have sued Chetananda. The sources did not say this, and we have no report of any such suit. Also, the summary referred to ―Donna‖ Swift. The name should be ―Dana‖ Swift. Children Youth Prisons in California Called Abusive A suit filed in federal court in Sacramento against the California Youth Authority on behalf of 11 prisoners, contends inhumane conditions are pervasive. It describes such practices as the use of cages as classrooms and the forcible injection of mind-altering drugs to control the behavior of inmates. . . It contends that prisoners with disabilities are sometimes isolated in dungeon-like holes splattered with feces and blood and that the inmates live in fear of physical and sexual violence. Instead of rehabilitation and education, the system of 11 prisons and four camps, with about 6,300 prisoners, had become known for brutality and other abuses. Reports that mentally ill youths were stripped to their underwear and isolated in cages 23 hours a day, that prisoners were subjected to biomedical experiments and sexually and physically abused by guards, and other problems led the state inspector general, Steven White, to conclude that "it would be impossible to overstate the problem." As a result, the California Board of Corrections ordered a review of the Youth Authority by more than 100 experts. (New York Times, 1/26/02, Internet)

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Child Rape Charge for Mormon Fundamentalist Tom Green, the man with five wives, 31 children and two more on the way, is set to be charged with the child rape of one of his wives. Green, 53, a Mormon fundamentalist from Utah, was jailed for five years last August after being convicted of bigamy and failure to pay child support. He was tried and found guilty in May and sentenced to five years in prison for living with five wives at the same time and fraudulently collecting $150,000 in welfare. (Daily Telegraph, 1/12/02, Internet) Falun Gong Academic Supporters Jailed / China Four Chinese academics from Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, a university staffer, and a graduate student, all convicted of spreading material on the Internet about Falun Gong, have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 12 years. (AP, 12/24/01, Internet; Elizabeth Rosenthal. New York times, 12/24/01, Internet; Reuters, 12/23/01, Internet)) Overseas Followers Appeal for Support Falun Gung's overseas followers have stepped up appeals for public support, often evoking the movement's principles of tolerance and compassion, and hundreds of American politicians have responded with letters and proclamations, including the mayor of San Jose and members of California's congressional delegation. But in so doing, U.S. politicians often unwittingly endorsed a philosophy that is intolerant in many respects and in conflict with the values of Western democracy. "They know how to play politics with American elected officials," says Ming Xia, a political science professor at the City University of New York. He calls Falun Gong "Janus-faced," saying that it presents itself in China as a moral revival movement, but in the West as a movement for freedom of religion and thought. Orville Schell, dean of the journalism school at the University of California, Berkeley, says that the West's blind embrace of Falun Gong fits into a well-established pattern of viewing communist China in black-and-white terms, missing the complexities and nuances. "Anyone the Chinese government opposes gets lionized as righteous." Falun Gong, a blend of Eastern religious concepts, including Chinese folk beliefs that resonate with its largely Chinese following, blends philosophy with meditation, moral precepts, and slow-motion exercises, all aimed to achieve a loftier spiritual plane. The teachings of leader Li Hongzhi—in exile in the U.S.—include a strong anti-homosexual element, and the idea that mixed-race or "cross-bred" people are rootless and deviant, the result of a plot by evil extraterrestrials who populate his expanded cosmology. He teaches that aliens came in droves during the Industrial Revolution and aim to take over human souls through science, monitoring people by assigning every computer a number. This does not seem to bother research chemist Sherry Zhang, or California marketing consultant Alicia Zhao, also a Falun Gong practitioner, who believe that aliens might exist. (Sarah Lubman, San Jose Mercury News, 12/23/01, Internet) The government crackdown on Falun Gong moderated in the second half of 2001, as many followers left the movement and others hid their belief and practice, but the government's propaganda war against the group has recently heated up as part of a general tightening up on media expression of ideas that "threaten social stability." (Reuters, 12/31/01, Internet) Foreign Protesters Detained / China An American and a Canadian were detained in early February while protesting China's effort to blame the banned Falun Gong sect for a fiery group suicide attempt last year. The two men unfurled a banner on Tiananmen Square in the center of Beijing and shouted the Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 63

group's name. Within seconds, police rushed over, tore down the banner, and pushed the two men into a nearby van as scores of curious Chinese tourists watched. The men identified themselves as Levi Browde, 29, a software expert from New York, and Jason Loftus, 22, an engineering student from Barrie, Ontario, Canada. Falun Gong activists abroad deny the people involved were followers and suggest Chinese officials staged the event. (Reuters, 1/22/02. Internet; AP, 2/11/02, Internet) Hunger-Striking Falun Gong Member Dies / China Wan Guifu, 57, a member of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, died Dec. 18 at the hospital of the Dashaping labor camp in the city of Lanzhou, according to authorities. Falun Gong says that 335 detained members have died of abuse since the group was banned in 1999. The government denies mistreating detainees, and says followers have died of ill health or committed suicide. Wan was detained for distributing Falun Gong materials in Lanzhou, according to Falun Gong, and the retired autoworker stopped eating Oct. 15 to protest his confinement. (AP, 1/2/02) Falun Gong Detainees Brainwashed? / China Reports that Falun Gong followers were being tortured in Chinese jails prompted Teng Chunyan to risk all and come home from New York City. Now she, too, is in prison, but insists she cherishes every moment there. Teng said she has undergone a radical "mental transformation.'' No longer a crusader, she says Falun Gong is a cult that brainwashed her. "I really treasure each day of my time here,'' said Teng, dressed in a blue prison uniform. "I think it's all the start of a new life. It's given me many opportunities to learn things that I didn't know before.'' Her friends are shocked. They suspect that 38-year-old Teng, who lived in the New York City borough of Queens and ran a successful acupuncture clinic on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, has been abused and forced to recant. (AP, 1/6/02, Internet) Meanwhile Trinity College (Dublin) student and Falun Gong practitioner who has been imprisoned in a Chinese labor camp for more than two years will be freed in March, according to the Department for Foreign Affairs, which said that Chinese authorities agreed to release Zhao Ming during Irish government minister Brian Cowen's trip to the country. Zhao was studying computer sciences in Dublin when he was arrested during a visit to China in 1999. The government agreed to release Zhao because he has been sufficiently "re-educated." His supporters in Ireland say that the 30-year-old student was forced to undergo "brainwashing" sessions and forced to stand still for up to 18 hours a day. Both the Taoiseach [prime minister], Bertie Ahern, and President Mary McAleese raised the case with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji during his controversial visit to Ireland last year. (online.ie, 1/25/02, Internet) Falun Gong Called "Terrorist Cult" / China China's government considers Falun Gong, which involves exercises and meditation, a dangerous cult that undermines Communist Party authority. Police have detained thousands of Chinese followers in Tiananmen Square. "Faced with the cult's attacks, we must stay on high alert," said the party-run People's Daily in an editorial. "Only when it is thoroughly rooted out can social harmony and tranquility come in exchange." (Reuters, 1/22/02. Internet; AP, 2/11/02, Internet) Beijing is trying to legitimize its two-year crackdown on Falun Gong by placing it in the same category as terrorist organizations. In a three-day national conference on religion that ended on Wednesday, leaders repeatedly said Falun Gong was not a religion but an evil cult, with some members practicing violent and terrorist acts. The state propaganda machine reinforced the conference's message by broadcasting that a fanatical Falun Gong practitioner in Hainan was arrested on Tuesday for killing his uncle with a kitchen knife so they could attain salvation. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 64

China's president, Jiang Zemin, has tacitly acknowledged international criticism on the issue, telling the meeting that China should "strengthen propaganda" on "the reality of the situation". China must seek to counter international criticism of its policies towards religion, he said. He has long been seen as the prime mover behind the two-year crackdown on Falun Gong that has resulted in the jailing of tens of thousands of followers without trials. (South China Morning Post, 12/14/2001, Internet) Falun Gong Hijacks TV Time / China A state TV station signal in Changchun, China was "hijacked" by the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect in early March, another sign of defiance to tough measures taken against it over the past three years. The hijackers screened a film of the sect's spiritual master, Li Hongzhi, the leader of what Beijing calls an "evil cult." "There was a brief blackout and then there was Li Hongzhi speaking, and banners saying Falun Dafa [another name for the sect] is good," a viewer told Reuters in Beijing. The viewer said that the interruption lasted for 50 minutes, but according to the local cable Company there was only a 10-minute break in normal transmission. (John Gittings, The Guardian, 3/8/02, Internet) Hong Kong Charges Falun Gong Protesters / Hong Kong Hong Kong authorities took their first legal action against Falun Gong on March 15, filing charges accusing 16 sect members [and four Swiss followers who joined them] of obstruction during a protest outside China's liaison office that ended in a scuffle with police. The charges have set off a debate over whether the government is trying to silence the meditation sect and erode Hong Kong's freedoms, as members and civil rights activists fear, or if it is simply having police enforce the law against overzealous demonstrators, as the government says. Sect supporters accuse Hong Kong of acting under pressure from China to crack down on the group. Hong Kong denies the charge, even though it has gradually adopted language similar to Beijing's, calling Falun Gong a "cult'' that bears close scrutiny. But the Security Bureau says that as long as Falun Gong abides by the law in Hong Kong, the government will not intervene in its activities, despite the fact that it has been banned in mainland China.'' (AP, 3/15/02, Internet) "The Family" of Rasheen Nyah "The Family" Guru Allegedly Used drugs and Guilt to Dominate Female Recruits Three members of "The Family" a group of women and children dominated by a Winnfred Wright, aka Rasheen Nyah appeared in court in mid-February on charges of second-degree murder and child endangerment in the death of his 19-month-old son at the group's home in Marin County. Mary Campbell is the mother of the dead boy; Deirdre Hart Wilson and Carol Louise Bremner lived at the group's home; a fourth, Kali Polk-Matthews, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse. Campbell and Wilson are pregnant. Rasheen/Wright, also scheduled for arraignment on the charges, apparently used his women to recruit more female followers in San Francisco's Sunset District. His women offered prospects free spiritual sessions, or a chance to be photographed for a "world mural" depicting 90 different women. After agreeing to come to the home, a visitor would be introduced to "Rasheen," the lone male of the house, as well as to the other women, and children. The visitors would be offered, variously, tarot card readings, Bible study, crack cocaine, or sex, according to accounts provided to San Francisco police in the early 1990s.

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Methods A decade ago, San Francisco police asked cult expert Margaret Singer to analyze the group, for despite several encounters with The Family, they found themselves powerless to act. Singer learned that Wright espoused "a mishmash of Rastafarianism, karma, and white guilt. The white women who lived with him "had to work off the white mistreatment of black people. It was their responsibility to work off their karma." A woman had told investigators that when she went to the house in Marin she met two others who appeared to have bruises, and one who had a black eye. The visitor found herself alone with a man introduced as "Rasheen" who smoked an odorless substance from a glass pipe. After donning a kimono, she underwent a massage but repeatedly refused requests to disrobe. At one point, as she read from the Book of Revelation, she looked up and saw that Rasheen had exposed himself. She left, was persuaded to return and left again at dawn and went to police. In another incident, the hosts lighted incense and offered herbal cigarettes. The visitor told authorities that after a massage, she felt drugged and ended up having sex with Rasheen, who was depicted as "Adam" to her "Eve." She reported the incident to police, but later refused to press charges. Police also knew of the 1990 death at the home of an infant girl, whose lifeless body was kept in a hammock for three days before the medical examiner's office was summoned. A year later, the child's mother left the group, taking her 2-year-old son and her 4-day-old daughter with her, and got a restraining order against a member of the group, which is when police were first told about The Family. Singer, a clinical psychologist and author of Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives [and member of advisory committees of AFF, publisher of the CSR], said that the frightened ex-member told how Rasheen would spend $1,200 for two days' worth of crack. Singer also related that one woman's trust fund was being "smoked away." The women in the group were ruled through domination, according to the one who left. "He walked around the house with a riding crop he used to beat the women." According to Singer, "he once beat a woman so hard he broke his arm." In 1993, police officers checked out reports of possible child neglect at the home, but found no problems. A few hours later, a neighbor of Wright's came to the police station and said that after the officer left, Wright began "to rant and rave." That bitch f-- with the wrong person," Wright screamed from a patio, according to a police report on the incident. "She f-with me?? I'm gonna f-- her up! . . . If I can't get her, than I'll get my niggas after her. I got lotsa niggas!" Who Were These Women? Exactly what drew the four women in custody to Rasheen/Wright is unclear, but their backgrounds indicate a level of sophistication that is puzzling, considering the condition of the 12 other children in the Marin house some of whom were suffering from rickets, a disease rarely seen in North America. Bremner, 45, was an impassioned leader of the protest movement against South African apartheid when she studied political science at the UC Berkeley in the mid-1970s, yet she was so sweet-natured she was known as "Carol the Saint." "What's mystifying and horrifying is how somebody, certainly on the left and very purposeful about politics, could have fallen into what looks like a tragic abyss," said Bennett Freeman, who was part of the protest movement with Bremner and continued in politics after college he was appointed deputy assistant secretary of state by President Clinton.

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His friend had "an instinctive sympathy for poor people, oppressed people," said Freeman. "She was very selfless." Campbell, 37, mother of the baby who died in November, worked at the Hotel Nikko as a sales assistant in the late 1980s. "Mary always had a smile and was a bit on the outrageous side, showing up for work at this conservative hotel in short skirts and Raggedy Ann stockings," said a friend from those days, who didn't want to be named. "She was pretty suggestive. Liked to (have sex) and didn't mind telling people about it." The friend said the starvation of Campbell's child was all the more puzzling "since at the hotel we used to get free food and she was always eating everything she could get her hands on." Wilson, 37, is the granddaughter of the Xerox corporation founder. And Polk-Matthews, 20, was a once-promising student at an exclusive San Francisco high school. Kali Polk-Matthews, at 20 the youngest and evidently the most recent addition to the group, was a standout soccer athlete and scholar at the private Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco. She attended one year at Spelman College in Georgia, but last summer "took a year off to go travel with friends," a close friend said. "Kali was the sweetest teenager I ever met," said the friend. "She organized clothing and food drives for battered women and their children, with no help from adults," the friend said. Expert's Analysis Singer, who said she was called in by San Francisco police in the early '90s to debrief the woman who fled the group, said that Rasheen/Wright attracted women by his charismatic personality. He then kept them and their children enthralled "the way so many of these guys do, by convincing them that being with him was the best thing in the world, . . . that he has special powers, special knowledge, and that leaving him would be horrible." Of the woman she interviewed, Singer said, "I was surprised, but not much, that a woman of her education and with a very upper-class East Coast background had gotten involved with a man like this. She had gotten away from the cult and the police wanted me to learn how this guy had gotten this woman to do what he wanted. "My answer was the same as with so many of these situations: glib talk." "Groups like Rasheen/Wright's are different from cults like, say, the Heaven's Gate UFO suicide cult, Singer said, in that they do not spread beyond a small clan and a charismatic leader. Often, there is nothing overtly illegal going on, although they seem strange. "I've seen more and more of these kinds of little cults in the past five, 10 years," Singer said. "They are not religious in nature. They are mostly these little guys, like Wright, who see the big cults and think, 'Hey, I can do that too.' (Wright himself came from a modest background and "had no money," said Singer, who is well known for interviewing and analyzing the Charles Manson "Family," and Patricia Hearst after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.) Defense Jack Rauch, representing Bremner, insisted that depictions of the group were wrong. "From what I know, this doesn't look like a cult," said Rauch, whose client has been with Rasheen/Wright for 20 years. "The one lady who decided to leave left of her own free will and volition. My client raised two happy, healthy teenage daughters. They were just very private in the way they lived because they felt people would not understand." Rauch said the group kept to itself for fear of being mocked. "The whole group is devastated," he said. "It's their lifestyle that's interesting to everybody, not what was done. . . . "Sex and race seem to be what is titillating here, but it really has to do with their vegetarianism and their slowness in seeking traditional medical treatment." There were 12 children living in the Marin home when the defendants were taken into custody, many of Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 67

whom were malnourished. (Jaxon Van Derbeken, Peter Fimrite, Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/14, 15/02, Internet) Friends of Andrew Cohen Andrew Cohen's FACE Causing Concern / England Ian Haworth, director of the Cult Information Centre, in London, says he has received complaints from families about their relatives' involvement in FACE — Friends of Andrew Cohen Everywhere, also known as the Impersonal Enlightenment Fellowship, and the Moska Foundation — a small religious group of upscale membership with a facility in London's chic Belsize park section. Cohen is a native New Yorker with a Jewish background who travels the world giving seminars that reflect the ideas of Eastern religions, with a touch of "psychobabble." The Massachusetts-based Cohen has about 800 disciples worldwide — 80 in London, where several are well-known entertainment and media names. The 46-year-old Cohen's mother is worried about his delusions of grandeur: "He thinks he is God," she says. "He behaves like an emperor. He makes people feel so guilty about themselves they hand over all their money." The middle-class members who live in one of eight flats in the neighborhood, and join for an hour of meditation morning and evening, and eat meals together, are expected to donate around $60 per month, but in practice give much more. There are countless meetings as well as weekly discussions where members challenge each other about how faithfully they are living out Cohen's teachings. Haworth is especially worried about this hothouse environment: "We've had allegations that community members live together so one can watch the other. . . The group is all-important and each person enforces following the group's ideas." (Charlotte Williamson, Evening Standard, London, 12/21/01, Internet) Government Policy Commentary: China's "Crackdown" on Religion From: "China's Human Rights Abuses: Giving the Devil His Due," by John W. Whitehead, Rutherford Institute Report, 1/9/02, Internet) "Indeed, the persecution of religion has been so systematic that the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's 2001 annual report noted that religious freedom in China has "sharply deteriorated." Among the Commission's details of the Chinese government's intensified crackdown on religious communities were: the destruction or government confiscation of as many as 3,000 churches, temples and shrines in China; increased government control over official Protestant and Catholic churches; the extension of restrictions on Tibetan Buddhists' religious practices to apply to ordinary citizens in private homes; "oppressive, often brutal measures" targeting Muslims; a rise in the reported number of cases of torture by government officials; and instances of foreigners being detained and/or sentenced for religious activities in China. "As a result of these atrocities, the Commission on Human Rights recommended that the American government "persistently urge" the Chinese government to take steps to protect religious freedom. It also suggested that the American government use its influence with other governments to ensure that Beijing not be selected as the site of the International Olympic Games." Treatment for "Rocking The Boat" in Rural China As a result of protesting a land dispute with her local government in rural Suileng County of Heilongjiang Province, in northeast China, stubborn Huang Shuron has been forcibly committed to a series of psychiatric hospitals, five times in the last three years.

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Forty-two and divorced, Mrs. Huang has spent a total of 210 days in custody, at times subjected to powerful drugs and electroshock therapy, although friends and family, experts in Beijing, and even some of the psychiatrists who have hospitalized, her say she is perfectly sane. "I would agree that I'm strong- willed and very determined, perhaps too determined," she said recently, shortly after being released for the fifth time, after 52 days, by doctors who concluded that they could not justify keeping her. Fearing that she would be recommitted if she remained in her hometown, she has fled with her two teenage children to Beijing, where she survives by selling discarded trash. Although Beijing's two-and-a-half-year crackdown on the banned Falun Gong has stirred fresh concern over the political misuse of psychiatry, there is little evidence to suggest that the Chinese government routinely uses psychiatric hospitals to imprison political dissidents, as was common in the Soviet Union. But far more common are cases in which local governments try to employ psychiatric commitment as a convenient way to silence troublemakers and pests. (Elizabeth Rosenthal, New York Times, 2/6/02, Internet) Healing/Curanderismo Use of Hispanic Folk Remedies Growing Curanderismo, a system of folk healing that unites herbal medicine, psychology, Catholicism, and the occult is growing more visible among Hispanics, for whom it is a balm for physical and emotional woes frequently trusted more than conventional medicine. Many doctors and nurses believe that traditional healers, usually known as curanderos, can be valuable allies in promoting good health among Latinos, offering the comfort that timestarved physicians often cannot. Yet they also believe that curandero cures can be ineffective, fraudulent, or dangerous, and could discourage people from seeking necessary medical care. Ari Kiev has written a book on the subject, Curanderismo: Mexican-American Folk Psychiatry. (John Keilman, Chicago Tribune, 1/2/02, Internet) Hebrew Israelites Hebrew Israelites Buries Its First Victim of Mideast Violence The Hebrew Israelites, African-Americans from Chicago who believe they are the true descendants of the biblical tribe of Judah, have buried their first victim of the Mideast violence. Aharon Bn-Ellis 32, who was working as a singer at the party, was shot dead when a Palestinian gunman charged into a Jewish coming-of-age party and opened fire, killing six and wounding dozens. The funeral ceremony, led by five priests dressed in white and sky blue tunics with white crocheted skullcaps, featured a mix of Hebrew psalms and popular music. Although Israel does not accept the polygamous group as Jewish, mourners included the chief rabbi of Dimona, where the group is settled, the mayor, a representative of the Israeli government, and a representative of the U.S. ambassador. One of the priests prayed that the government would accept the Hebrew Israelites, who were granted residency in 1990, 21 years after they first settled, but not citizenship. The community has grown from its original 39 followers of Chicago bus driver Ben Ami to more than 2,000. (AP, 1/20/02, Internet) House of Prayer House of Prayer Members, Pastor Indicted in Abuse Case A Fulton County (GA) grand jury has indicted 11 members of the House of Prayer, a small northwest Atlanta church, on charges of cruelty to children and aggravated assault, capping a nearly yearlong investigation into allegations of abuse of the congregation's children, 49 of whom the state took into protective custody. Among those indicted is the House of Prayer's pastor, the Rev. Arthur Allen, Jr. Conviction on the felony charges can lead to prison terms of one to 20 years. Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 69

The charges stem from an incident near the end of the church service when two boys ages 10 and 7 were suspended in the air and whipped by several adult church members, leaving open wounds on their torsos, according to the 14-count indictment. Both boys' parents are among the 11 charged. The group's services can last as long as eight hours, and they regularly feature public beatings that sometimes last 30 minutes. Allen calls it "tough love" — corporal punishment as an act of human kindness — the best way of instilling discipline in children growing up on crime-ridden streets. "If we can use milder punishment, then I'm for it. But sometimes it doesn't work, and I can't let them just take over the house," the reverend said. Members of the House of Prayer say that when they spank their children, they're following God's law, but "This is not a normal whipping," Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard said. "These are severe and extreme beatings. We think that is a clear line of demarcation." A defiant Allen declared he and other church members would plead not guilty and will defend themselves without a lawyer's help. "I'm delighted for the opportunity to face these charges," said Allen, "to resolve everything one way or another. My faith is still in the Lord. I'm not wavering." Allen's followers, carrying signs and child-size coffins, walked from the Fulton County Courthouse to the Division of Family and Children Services then to the state Capitol, on the opening day of the state legislative session, to protest the state's actions. Allen, who exerts strong influence over his congregation, has never denied the boys were whipped, but he and other church members say such spankings are necessary to maintain discipline. And they have charged that law enforcement and social services agents have interfered with their religious freedoms by seeking to impose limits on how they punish their children. The district attorney met with Allen hoping to mediate the case without taking it to trial. "I was not able to persuade Reverend Allen to change his philosophy regarding the punishment of children," Howard said, so the criminal case moved forward. The state, meanwhile, will move forward as planned with efforts in Juvenile Court to terminate the parental rights over eight children and put them up for adoption. Two others are scheduled to be released from state custody soon. Authorities said that state officials will not take the other 39 children into custody for a second time. They were seized from their homes last spring, some in emotional scenes repeatedly played on Atlanta television stations. The children were released after officials acknowledged they had no evidence indicating that more than three children had been abused. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/15, 19/02, Internet; BBC, 1/19/02, Internet) ISKCON/Hare Krishna/Children Hare Krishnas to Declare Bankruptcy to Avoid Suit Hare Krishna congregations named in a lawsuit alleging sexual and emotional abuse of boarding school students will file for bankruptcy reorganization in several sates. The group hopes that if their plan is approved by federal bankruptcy judges, the $400 million (£280 million) lawsuit filed in Dallas by former boarding school students will be dismissed. Anuttama Dasa, a Maryland-based spokesman for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, or ISKCON, said: "We don't believe that innocent members and congregations should be held accountable for the deviant behavior of individual acts committed 20 or 30 years ago." ISKCON also plans to set up a fund to compensate children who may have been victimized in Hare Krishna schools during the 1970s and 1980s. The Texas lawsuit alleges young children at Krishna schools in India and the United States were terrorized by their instructors. The suit claims that young girls were given as brides to older men who donated to the religious community. Children were also allegedly deprived of

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medical care, scrubbed with steel wool until their skin bled, and prevented from leaving the school. (Ananova, 2/7/02, Internet) Hare Krishnas Win Suit for "Mocking" Them / United Kingdom ISKCON in the U.K. recently won a suit against the House of Fraser, Ltd., that includes an award of £17,500 in compensation, legal costs, and a public apology, all for "mocking" the group in an ad. The House of Fraser published a double-page advertisement in the April 2001 issue of The Face magazine that featured Hare Krishna Hindu devotees and included the text: "Linea Directions wear it and pity those who can't; exclusive to House of Fraser. If I wasn't a chanting, cymbal banging easily led nutcase who'd been brainwashed by some loony religious sect, I could be wearing Linea Directions' extra-fine marino sweater and linen jeans." Shivarama Swami, the head of the Hare Krishna movement in the UK, said of the decision: "This is not just a victory for the Hare Krishna movement, or even just a victory for Hinduism; this is a victory for the rights of religious worship and expression. This will set a standard for the future and be a warning to other companies not to use someone's religious faith as a nasty and spiteful advertising campaign." (Press release from ISKCON, 2/25/02, Internet) Kashi Ashram/Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati Kashi Ashram Leader Accused of "Brainwashing" Several former key members of Ma Jaya Bhagvati's Kashi Ashram. Headquartered near San Sebastian, Florida, are accusing her of brainwashing, intimidation through violence, illegal drug use, and siphoning off nonprofit funds for shopping and gambling sprees. Bhagavati is a Jewish housewife with three children, formerly known as Joyce Greene, who, at age 32, left New York City after a vision of Jesus and two Hindi spirit guides ignited in her an interfaith odyssey of preaching racial, ethnic, and religious tolerance. Her organization's crusade against AIDS and its promotion of world peace have earned the group citations for public service. Kashi now presides over an 80 acre sanctuary with 150 residents, including a blend of teachers, psychologists, lawyers, bankers, and other assorted white- and blue-collar vocations, each of whom is given a Hindu name. United in communal living, they help with maintenance, prepare vegetarian meals, practice yoga, meditation, and celibate lifestyles. Former Kashi PR director Richard Rosenkranz said, "I know I'm going to look like a total dupe, a fool, a moron, but it will not stop me from telling the truth? No. This needs to come to an end. This sham needs to stop." Financial questions Salvatore Conti, a jeweler from Woodridge, NY, moved to the ashram in 1989 and became involved, as treasurer, in raising money, through sales of Bhagvati's paintings and ceramics, for construction of a 40-room convalescence house for AIDS patients. "I'm a gay man, and I've lost many friends to the AIDS virus," he said. "I very much admired what she wanted to do." But the house never went up, he said, because Bhagavati squandered the half-million dollars raised for its construction. Conti said that he watched Bhagavati go on spending splurges — "never less than $1,000 a week" — for clothes, jewelry, CDs in triplicate, vacations disguised as missionary work, and cosmetic surgery. "Spending money was a compulsive thing with her," and her appetite included casino gambling, at which he says sarcastically, "this spiritual woman once spent

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$30,000 on slot machines in a single night." He alleges that "She took everybody for a ride, and most of the people in the ashram don't have a clue. In fact, she was making so much money they didn't know how to hide it, so they had to form a new corporation for it." Rosenkranz, meanwhile, said that his mother invested $1 million in a trust fund for his daughter that cannot be accessed until the teenager turns 40. "She [his mother] was concerned that he [the grandson] would give it all to Ma." Physical violence In a 1997 autobiography called It's Here Now (Are You?), spiritual chanter Bhagavan Das writes that he was confronted by Bhagavati's followers when he tried to leave Kashi. "I was beaten until I was bruised and bleeding. Fortunately, they didn't break any bones. I ... thought, 'We have given (Bhagavati) the power of God. It's time to leave." Paul Rousseau, now 36, who grew up in the Ashram, says: "It was an insular environment, and I didn‘t want to leave. I realize now, looking back, just how clever Joyce (Bhagavati) really was, how well she manipulated us. When my parents took me back to Canada (following a court order), I wanted to go back to Kashi. In fact, I ran away twice. They [at the Ashram] told me all I had to do was accuse my parents of rape, destroy the house, and generally go wild, and they'd send me back to the ashram. Would I have lied for Kashi?" said the computer engineer, now living in Silicon Valley."Sure. I did lie for them. They were my family." Kashi's current PR director says the financial allegations are part of a "smear campaign" orchestrated by Rosenkrantz, a "disgruntled former employee" engaged in alimony negotiations with his soon-to-be ex-wife, who lives at the ashram. Concerning the convalescence home, he said that building "is a long-term process that we have in no way abandoned. This is a smear campaign leveled at a holy being whose deeds have touched millions of lives in positive ways." Bhagavati denies that she lost $30,000 on the slots, saying that she does not frequent casinos. Kashi associates such as Judy Martin label allegations of control and abuse ludicrous. Now a radio/television journalist in New York City, Martin said that when she was vacillating between pursuing her career or staying at the ashram, Bhagavati encouraged her to choose New York. "For every person who feels compelled to say something negative about Ma," said Martin, "There are thousands more like me who are in gratitude." And ashram resident Robin Bruner, a child psychologist, said that she's never seen or even heard of anyone getting beaten at the ashram. (From "Ex-members rip enclave," by Billy Cox, Florida Today, 2/2/02, Internet) Life Space Life Space Guru Gets 15-year Sentence in Mummy Case / Japan The Chiba District Court has found Koji Takahashi, 63, leader of the Life Space "selfenlightenment" group, guilty of killing Shinichi Kobayashi, 66. Takahashi was sentenced to 15 years in prison for murdering Kobayashi, whose mummified body was found at a hotel in Chiba Prefecture in 1999. According to the ruling, Takahashi ordered Kobayashi's son Kenji, 33, and other followers to take Kobayashi from a hospital in Hyogo Prefecture where he had been treated for a stroke, and move him to a hotel in Narita, where the group performed hand-tapping. The court found that Takahashi failed to allow Kobayashi to receive medical treatment. As a result, Kobayashi suffocated and died three days later. Even after the arrest and indictment of Takahashi and the others, about 100 of his supporters continue to publicize his beliefs on Web sites and in books, and many of them

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still reportedly regard him as a guru. While Kenji Kobayashi has vowed to quit Life Space after receiving the suspended sentence, the victim's eldest daughter continues to work with the group, according to people close to the cult. (Kyodo, Japan Times, 2/602, Internet) Living Stream Ministry American Connection to Bible "Smuggling? / China Living Stream Ministry is one of several Orange Country CA-based organizations allegedly spreading the Gospel by smuggling Bibles to countries like China, where the government labels the books "propaganda materials" and has indicted Hong Kong businessman Li Guangqiang for "using a cult to undermine the enforcement of law," a capital offense. (John Gottlesohn, Orange County Register, 1/22/02, Internet) Ndawula Ndawula "Cult" Leaders Charged in Uganda Following a police raid on his camps, Ndawula cult leader John Musoke Ssemanda [sic], two of his priests, and a priestess, have been charged with managing an unlawful society, while eighty-eight of their followers have been cleared of criminal liability and released. Authorities fear that the group may go the way of Joseph Kibwetere's Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God [when more than 800 people in that millennial group died, apparently murdered, in 2000.] Ndawula has said that people are attracted to his spiritual powers. Some come to him when they are mad [crazy], he said, "and I heal them." Follower Godfrey Ssebakijje, one of those arrested, said: "Nobody forces us to go to Ndawula. We go for spiritual healing." Ssemanda, 42, who claims that he is possessed by the spirit of an 18th century Buganda king, Kabaka Ndawula, looked very thin as he stood in the dock and denied the charges. Priestess Mary Nakalema, 26, and priests Geoffrey Wassajja and Godfrey Kizito, all residents of Buwaali Village, also denied the charges. Ndawula followers jammed the courtroom, and when Ssemanda left the court, on bail, supporters pumped their fists and hugged him. Police said that the cult has around 6,000 followers, from different tribes, some from as far away as Tanzania, and that some members of the provincial government have been "going to the cult." (New Vision, Kampala, Uganda, 12/21 and 22/01, Internet) OARA – Operation and Reconnaissance Agents Brainwashing Defense Fails Teen in Alleged OARA Group A 16-year-old member of a would-be paramilitary group was sentenced in Fairplay, CO, to 60 years in prison for his role in the killings of a teen-age friend and the boy's grandparents. Isaac Robin-McCain Grimes pleaded guilty in October to charges of second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of Tony Dutcher, 15, and his grandparents Carl and JoAnna Dutcher. The three were found stabbed and shot to death at the grandparents' trailer home near Guffey during the New Year's 2000 holiday. Grimes confessed about a year ago to killing Tony Dutcher, who had been his friend. A psychologist hired by the defense testified during the sentencing hearing that Grimes had been brainwashed by two older defendants in the case and had been fearful that his family would be killed if he didn't go along with the slayings. As part of a plea agreement, Grimes will testify against Jonathan Matheny, 17, who is accused of shooting and killing the older couple, and Simon Sue, 19, the alleged mastermind of the slayings. Glen Urban, 18, was sentenced to two years in jail last month for being an accessory to murder.

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The teen-agers were members of a paramilitary group allegedly headed by Sue that called itself OARA - Operation and Reconnaissance Agents. Members have claimed it was aligned with a political organization in Guyana, but authorities have disputed that, alleging that Sue told Grimes and Matheny to kill the Dutchers because they were racist. (AP, 3/14/02, Internet. For background on alleged "cultic" aspects of this case, see "Youthful Cultic Leadership, and Murder," The Cult Observer (predecessor of Cultic Studies Review) Vol. 18, No. 3, p. 9. Opus Dei Opus Dei Gains Prestige / Italy Indicating the growing power and prestige within the Catholic Church of the Opus Dei organization was the turnout at a congress in Rome in January to mark the 100 th anniversary of the birth of the group's founder, Josemaria Escriva. Pope John Paul II was among 1200 participants, and the Italian government unveiled a postage stamp in Escriva's honor. Critics accuse Opus Dei of being a fundamentalist sect with a conservative political agenda intent on promoting a rigid form of Catholicism. But the most pointed attacks have come from several former members who allege that Opus Dei is a cult that brainwashes its members and conducts its affairs in secret. In 1981, allegations of this kind led the then head of the Catholic church in England, Cardinal Basil Hume, to forbid the group from recruiting members under the age of 18, and in 1986, to the Italian parliament demanding a government inquiry into the group's operations. (The inquiry exonerated Opus Dei of any illegal conduct.) In recent years, on the other hand, some people involved in Opus Dei have said that the experience has enriched their spiritual lives. (Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, 1/22/02, Internet) Polygamy Activists Call for End of Polygamy Abuses The following is excerpted from a February 5 press release produced by The Polygamy Justice Project, The Child Protection Project, and The International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) of the New York University School of Law Clinical Program. Activists are demanding that the United States put a stop to the serious human rights abuses against women and children that are being carried out in the name of religious freedom by polygamists in Utah . . . and neighboring states. They say that women and girls in polygamous communities are subjected to a pattern of abuses that violate not only U.S. law, but also U.S. obligations under international law. Federal and state governments have not adequately enforced the law, advocates charge, allowing to go unpunished abuses such as incest, violence, child marriage, trafficking in girls, coerced marriage of adult women, sexual abuse, and the denial of education and access to information. "As U.S. citizens, we like to believe that we are on the cutting edge of progress as a society. But women and children in polygamous communities in the U.S. are suffering daily from human rights violations that the perpetrators claim are justified by their religious beliefs," said Laura Chapman, director of the Colorado-based Polygamy Justice Project. "No religious belief excuses the reality." Polygamy Experience Chapman, who fled from a fundamentalist Mormon group 10 years ago, is all too familiar with the "crippling" effects of life in these communities. "Whenever I describe practices that were considered normal within my family and our polygamous community, people can't believe that this could be happening in the U.S. in the 21st century," said Chapman, whose Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 74

efforts to help two girls escape forced marriages in polygamous families were chronicled on CBS's "48 Hours." . . . Many of these polygamous families belong to a religious group known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, which broke away from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (the "Mormon Church") over the mainstream Church's official ban on polygamy. Although polygamy is prohibited by the Utah State Constitution and its bigamy statutes, the prosecution of Tom Green in 2001 for polygamy was the first since 1953. Most observers believe that Mr. Green was prosecuted only because he had embarrassed state officials through his aggressive promotion of polygamy in the media at a time when preparations for the Winter Olympics had focused public attention on Utah. Women and girls who have fled polygamous families report that religious teachings emphasize their duty to submit to the authority of their fathers, husbands, and male religious leaders, and link polygamy to their spiritual salvation. The religious teachings of these polygamous groups and the closed nature of their communities create conditions in which women and girls are especially vulnerable to violence, coercion, and abuse. . . Constitutional Defense These violations cannot be excused in the name of religious freedom. Leaders of polygamous groups and several public officials have claimed that religious freedom protects the right to practice polygamy. They argue that government action against polygamyrelated abuses amounts to religious persecution. But religious practices that violate the human rights of others are not permitted by international law, which stipulates that religious practices can be restricted when necessary to protect the rights and freedoms of others. Nor does the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protect religious practices that cause harm to others. The harm associated with polygamy-related abuses puts these practices beyond the scope of religious freedom under the Constitution, including: the physical and mental harm caused by violence and abuse; the harmful effects of child marriage on a girl's health, educational opportunity and psychosocial development; and the harmful emotional and psychological consequences of isolation within communities that instill a belief in women's subordination. Officials in Utah, Arizona and the U.S. Federal Government have allowed those responsible for polygamy-related abuses to escape justice, with few exceptions. Raëlians Raël Predicts Human Clone in 2 Years The Canadian leader of a "cult" which believes in UFOs has predicted that a human clone would be born within two years, despite U.S. government attempts to block it. Claud Vorilhon, now known as Raël, has said that his effort to clone a person is back on track. His company, Clonaid, was still in the process of recreating a terminally-ill man at a secret location (after abandoning a U.S. laboratory in the wake of a warning from the United States Food and Drug Administration that it would not allow human cloning experiments). "The process is going well," Raël told journalists. "A baby will be born 12 to 24 months from now." Dressed in white and with his hair swept up in a small knot, Raël said that fears of the human cloning producing "a monster" or "Frankenstein" were unfounded because faulty cells would be discarded in the Clonaid process. "My mission is to prepare human beings for future technology," said the Raëlian leader, a self-confessed lover of the Internet and video games who was in London to promote his new book. (Reuters 2/14/02, Internet)

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Red House / Al Fuqra Rural Muslims Draw Attention Federal prosecutors believe that a Red House, VA mobile home compound of African American Muslims is linked to a violent Muslim sect called Al Fuqra. The community is one of a handful established across the country by followers—300 all told— of the Muslims of Americas, a group that promotes advanced studies in Islam and encourages its members to live in small villages, "free from the decadence of a godless society." After the Sept. 11 attacks, federal officials arrested three Muslims of the Americas on gun charges, and prosecutors linked them to Al Fuqra, which they say has committed firebombing and murders in the past two decades. Muslims of the Americas considers accusations of terrorism as manifestations of a Zionist conspiracy to target Muslims. The Red House Muslims, who deny the very existence of Al Fuqra, say they are law abiding citizens and followers of Sheif Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a cleric in Pakistan who used the Koran to treat illness and who founded Muslims of the Americas in 1980. Red House resident Abdul Jabbar, 26, a chemist, said he came from South Philadelphia to escape crime, not commit it. Local law enforcement officials say they have had peaceful relations with the Muslims. (Jo Thomas with Ralph Blumental, New York Times, 1/3/02, Internet) Religion/China Arrest for Smuggling Bibles Hong Kong businessman Li Guangqiang was arrested in early January for smuggling into China "cult publications" — apparently Christian religious books — according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Li was detained last May for importing thousands of Bibles for a banned Christian group, the The Shouters, because it was not the version approved by Chinese authorities. The Shouters, who employ a charismatic style of worship that includes shouting out prayers, was banned by China in 1995 as "an aberrant religious organization," according to Amnesty International. And Li was indicted for "using a cult to undermine the enforcement of the law," according to the Hong Kong-based information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. While President Bush has expressed concern over Li's case, a ministry spokesman said that "no other country should interfere in the independence of China's judicial system." (AP, 1/8/02, Internet) See: "Groups Urge Bush to Protest Execution of Chinese Pastor," Religion Today, Special Report, 1/4/02) Salvation Army Russian Court Says Salvation Army A Paramilitary Group / Russia A Moscow court has ruled that the Salvation Army is a "paramilitary organization," and the Army said that it will fight attempts to expel it from the country. The Eastern European Commander of the Salvation Army told the BBC that his organization is being targeted because it "would not go down the road of paying bribes." Authorities say the reason for the ruling is that the Salvation Army is not properly registered, and they question its use of uniforms and rank. The crackdown comes under a 1997 law that bans religious groups for trying to convert followers to faiths considered new to Russia. A Moscow spokesman for the Army said its work is being hampered and members intimidated by police taking names at services. (Nick Wells, Bloomberg, 12/21/01, Internet) Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 76

Scientology Georgian Church Warns against Scientology / Georgia The office of the Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church has issued a statement warning the public not to fall under the influence of the "false doctrine of the totalitarian sect of scientology." The sect, which preaches ridding the individual of "reactive mind" and understanding the "power of personal cognition," has been operating in Georgia for the past three years and poses a danger to the spiritual and physical health of the individual,‖ the statement issued by the Patriarch's Office said. (BBC Monitoring Newsfile, 12/28/01, Internet) Black Tie Affair in Clearwater The Church of Scientology, long on the fringe of the Clearwater, FL community [where Scientology has its world headquarters], was expecting a full house on Jan. 26 at its blacktie affair for the area's power elite. The party is another indicator that Scientology is gaining acceptance in a community historically suspicious of the church, if not hostile to it. Politicians and civic leaders who years ago would have had serious reservations about wining and dining with Scientologists are writing checks for the gala dinner. "As recently as ten years ago, I don't think a lot of people would come to the event, or even consider coming," said Clearwater businessman Phil Henderson, who will attend with his wife, Denedin (FL) City Commissioner Janet Henderson, a candidate for state representative. "But they (Scientologists) have changed their ways." Others who reportedly plan to attend include the Pinellas County Sheriff, Everett Rice, the mayor of Clearwater, and leaders of the Clearwater YMCA and NAACP. "The Church is trying to reach into the community and show off their facility. They're just trying to be good citizens," said Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback. It is estimated that the event will cost about $400 per person, and a total of $100–$200,000. Recalling a political forum to which Scientolgy invited local candidates, the wife of State Sen. Jack Latvala said that very few attended. Now, she says, Scientologists belong to the same civic groups she does. "I really don't think of it as the church. They are out in the community being citizens . . . They are involved with nonprofit organizations that do good things. They give money to non-profits and charities." Local officials who sent regrets include Police Chief Sid Klein and the editors of the St. Petersburg Times. Scientology is not allowing the Times to send a reporter and photographer to cover the event. [The Times has for some years criticized Scientology for some of its activities in Clearwater] Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback said of the gala: "I think they're making genuine efforts to reach out and be good citizens. This is but one example. They've got quite a hill to climb. The history of the organization in the city of Clearwater is not all that glowing, but the current folks over there have worked hard to live that down." (Deborah O'Neil, St. Petersburg Times, 1/26/02, Internet) German States to Stop Scientology Scrutiny / Germany German states plan to end their surveillance of the Church of Scientology after a Berlin court ordered intelligence agencies to stop using spies to monitor the organization, according to Der Spiegel. Germany refuses to recognize Scientology, saying it masquerades as a religion to make money. In some regions, Scientology members are barred from government jobs. Several states should stop telephone surveillance and using inside informers to monitor Scientology's activities. The court said the domestic security service could no longer use paid informers to spy on Scientology. While the judgment applies to the capital, the Church of Scientology is planning to take the case to other regional courts to have the ruling Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2002, Page 77

applied nationwide, Spiegel said. An internal report compiled jointly by the states' interior ministries says that Scientology "presents itself as a religion which poses no threat to the safety of the constitution," Spiegel reported. The court said that intelligence services could still use other forms of surveillance. (Reuters, 12/13/01, Internet) Former Minister Allegedly Cheated Investors Out of Millions The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has banned former Wall Street icon Reed E. Slatkin, who is accused of running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in American history. Authorities say Slatkin, an ordained minister in the Church of Scientology, offered people huge returns on investments in such legitimate companies as Colgate-Palmolive Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. But instead of investing their money, Slatkin allegedly maintained a $593-million triangle scheme in which early investors — including Fox News commentator Greta Van Susteren and other media celebrities — would be paid off with the funds collected from later clients. Slatkin, who allegedly pocketed more than $65-million in the scam, denies any wrongdoing. (Michael Friscolanti, National Post, 1/12/02, Internet) Photo Exhibit on Scientology Founder An exhibition of more than 200 rare photographs that portray the life and work of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard opened in early February at the Amerisia Building, on Broadway, in New York City. Actress Catherine Bell, who portrays Lt. Col. Sarah "Mac" MacKenzie on the CBS television series "JAG," will open the exhibit with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The exhibit is sponsored by the Friends of L. Ron Hubbard Foundation, and titled "Images of a Lifetime." (Deseret News, 2/202, Internet) Tom Cruise lobbies for Scientology in Germany Actor Tom Cruise, an outspoken adherent of the Church of Scientology, has lobbied the U.S. ambassador to fight for the group's rights in Germany, where it is not recognized, diplomats say. Cruise was in Germany on a promotional tour for his latest film "Vanilla Sky" with his lover and co-star Penelope Cruz. Embassy officials said Cruise had met Ambassador Dan Coats, a former U.S. senator, in Berlin for more than an hour last week during which he made a passionate appeal for his support for improving the organization's status in Germany. The government placed Scientology under official scrutiny in 1997, provoking an outcry among supporters in the United States, including several celebrities. They say Germany's refusal to recognize Scientology undermines their human rights. In the January issue of the U.S.-based magazine Vanity Fair, Cruise credited his 13-year devotion to Scientology with helping him deal with adversities from dyslexia to his estrangement from his late father to persistent rumors that he is gay. (Adam Tanner Reuters, 1/30/02, Internet) Sengoku / Jesus Ark Cult leader 'Sengoku Jesus' Dies / Japan Takeyoshi Sengoku, the founder of a controversial religious cult, Jesus Ark, that hit the headlines in 1980, has died at age 78. He attracted considerable public attention when his followers — mostly young women who had family problems — severed contact with their relatives between 1978 and 1980. The press nicknamed him "Sengoku Jesus," and reported that his followers had been "spirited away." After 1980, following the dissolution of his group, Sengoku settled in Fukuoka Prefecture and managed a bar, where he held Bible study sessions. He also worked as a private counselor for local residents. (Japan Times, Kyodo, 12/15/01, Internet)

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"Shouters" "Shouters" in Smuggling Case Say They Are Not A "Cult" / China Underground Christians in Fujian province yesterday challenged the legal basis of the mainland's prosecution of a Hong Kong man and two mainlanders for trying to smuggle Bibles to them. The followers of the "Shouters" claim they are not a cult — as they have been described by the mainland Government — and insist that the Bibles they were trying to obtain could not be called "cult material." They also said they should not be called Shouters as they had stopped their practice of shouting out their devotion to Jesus Christ. (South China Morning Post. 1/12/02, Internet) Meanwhile, Li Guangqiang, the Hong Kong businessman sentenced to two years in prison for bringing the bibles into China, was released on medical grounds, two weeks before President Bush was set to arrive in China. United States Secretary of State Colin Powell slammed Li's jailing and said the US had been appalled at his treatment. (South China Morning Post, 2/6/02, Internet; Reuters, 2/10/02, Internet) South China Church South China Church Leaders Sentenced / China The founder of the banned South China Church, Gong Shengliang, and his niece, have been sentenced to death by a court in Jingmen City following conviction on charges including "using a cult to undermine the enforcement of law," according to the Information Center for Human rights and Democracy. The niece's sentence was suspended for two years. Such sentences are usually commuted to life in prison. Seventeen other church members received sentences of from two years to life. The 50,000 member fundamentalist, evangelical church — spread over some ten provinces in eastern and central China — defied the law requiring Protestants to worship only in the statecontrolled nondenominational church. At a secret trial on December 18, Gong was also convicted of complicity in rape and injuring 14 people during church rituals. Gong's niece was also charged with being the founder of the "Hunan Special Periodical," an underground Christian publication, of which a total of 500,000 copies in 48 issues were printed since it began in 1994. The South China Church is one of 16 "underground" Christian churches identified by the Chinese government, and the leaders of two of them have already been executed. (AP, 12/30/01, Internet; BBC Monitoring Asia-Pacific-Political, 12/31/01 Internet; Craig S. Smith, New York Times, 12/31/01)) Symbionese Liberation Army/Patty Hearst Patty Hearst Eagerly Awaits The Trial Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army almost three decades ago, says that she is eager and willing to testify in the coming trial of four former SLA associates for a fatal bank robbery in 1975. "You know, it's been so long . . . and I feel that now there can be closure to this case," said Hearst, now Patricia Hearst Shaw, in a wide-ranging interview with Larry King. Prosecutors believe that new evidence, plus testimony from Hearst, who drove the getaway car, can convict the accused. Hearst had little good to say about her former captors. She believes that the "small revolutionary group" had its own jihad. They wanted to overthrow the government of the United States. They called themselves an army. They planned on forming cells and going on until they started a full-scale war in this country." She compared the SLA to the men who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and to the Charles Manson cult. "Charles Manson wanted to start a war too," she said, recalling how Manson had his followers scrawl words in blood at one of their crime scenes that he hoped would trigger a

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race war. The son of the woman murdered during the robbery said that he thought Hearst was "a victim of the SLA as much as our family was." Hearst, who spent 21 months in prison until pardoned by former President Clinton, told King that she had been brainwashed by the SLA, a claim that her prosecutor at the time, Jim Browning, doesn't buy. "She has never admitted any culpability whatsoever, and that makes me uncomfortable," he says. "The question was, was she forced or not? The jury decided she was not." (John Koopman, San Francisco Chronicle, 1/23/02, Internet) Larry King Interviews Patty Hearst on Mind Control Patty Hearst told Larry King what it was like for her mind to be a "prisoner," as he characterized her condition. "Most of the time I was with them, my mind was going through doing exactly what I was supposed to do." KING: What you were told? HEARST: Yes. I mean — even if I weren't told, I had been educated very well in what to do. I had been, you know, held in the closet for two months and, you know, abused in all manner of ways. I was very good at doing what I was told. And as far as thinking... KING: Was that Stockholm Syndrome part of the thinking or not? HEARST: I'm sure it was. Of course it was. I mean, they call it Stockholm Syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder. And, you know, I had no free will. I had virtually no free will until I was separated from them for about two weeks. And then it suddenly, you know, slowly began to dawn that they just weren't there any more. I could actually think my own thoughts. It was considered wrong for me to think about my family. And when Cinque was around, he didn't want me thinking about rescue because he thought that brain waves could be read or that, you know, they'd get a psychic in to find me. And I was even afraid of that." CALLER: Hey, Ms. Hearst, I would like to know, have you ever felt guilty being a part of the SLA and how do you handle the fact that so many others think you are just as guilty? HEARST: You know, when I first was arrested and first going through the therapy with the psychiatrist because I did feel really horrible. And I --- it was the kind of guilt that was --- a lot of it stemmed from feeling so horrible that my mind could be controlled by anybody, that I was so fragile that this could happen to me. And because really we all think we're pretty strong and that nobody can make us do something if we don't want to do it. That's true until somebody locks you up in a closet and tortures you and finally makes you so weak that you completely break and will do anything they say. And there was the feeling of guilt and self-loathing and despair and pain that was just overwhelming. KING: A brainwashed person doesn't know from time element when they're being brainwashed, do they? They don't wake up one day and say, I have been brainwashed? HEARST: No. No, they don't. They -- I know for me, I thought that I was kind of fooling them for a while, and the point when I knew that I was completely gone, I'm quite convinced, was at the Mel Sporting Goods Store when I reflectively [sic] did exactly what I had been trained to do that day instead of what any sensible person would have done or person still in control of their senses and their responses, which would be the minute the Harrises had left the van to have just run off and called the police. At that point, you know, looking back, I can say that I was gone. I was so far gone I had no clue how bad it was. (CNN Larry King Live, 1/22/02, Internet)

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Terrorism Muslim Extremists Found Guilty of Treason in Malaysia A Malaysian court found 19 members of an Islamic cult guilty Thursday of waging an armed revolt to overthrow Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government and replace it with an Islamic state. The cult's leader, Mohamed Amin Mohamed Razali, a former soldier and martial arts fanatic, convinced followers that they were protected by mystical powers. Fox News, 12/27/01, Internet) Bin Laden as Cult Leader The videotape of Osama bin Laden's vicious dinner talk served to persuade all but the most irrational that he was behind more than 3,000 murders on Sept. 11 and also that he is the megalomaniacal leader of a cult based on the disfiguring of a great religion . . . A great revelation in bin Laden's table talk is the pathology of the cultish system that he and his followers have constructed. Dreams shaped by that system are taken as divinely bestowed visions that foretell reality. This reveals a self-deluding confusion of wish and reality. It serves as a reminder. International Herald Tribune 12/20/01, Internet) Twelve Tribes Twelve Tribes Café in Australia The Twelve Tribes, an anti-Semitic cult whose U.S. parent has a court history of child abuse and abduction, is selling food and refreshments at this year's Woodford Folk Festival. The cult, which advocates strict discipline, female submission, black slavery, and lying in the name of righteousness, cites Bible texts to justify beating small children with canes. A festival spokesman said that the Twelve Tribes had operated the stall for several years, that their presence was a "non-issue," and that the stall was not used to recruit new members. Brisbane cult expert Jan Groenveld said that the group's commercial operations may look benign, but that the public should be wary if approached by cult members with invitations to visit their community. (Chris Griffith and Amanda Watt, Courier Mail, Australia, 12/29/01, Internet)

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