Steve Hassan is a leading expert on cults and mind control. His work has been quoted many times on this blog. Mr. Hassan has reworked his website recently and it is much more presentable. Today, as I visited his website – www.freedomofmind.com , I found a very interesting interview which Hassan did with Robert Jay Lifton. The post is dated July 19, 2011 and we have embedded the video below. The beginning is a shot of all the books by Lifton that Hassan has on his bookshelf. Hassan invites others to watch with this statement, “I invite you to take the time to watch this strictly amateurish video done solely by me.” So, we have taken the liberty to embed the video.
Robert Jay Lifton interviewed by Steve Hassan July 13th 2011 from Steven A Hassan on Vimeo.
Here is part of the introduction to the post as Hassan features the cover of the latest book about Lifton and his reflections: “I wanted to let people know that last Wednesday, I had a profound experience with renown psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, author of 20 books, including Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Destroying the World to Save it, The Nazi Doctors, Home from the War, and Death in Life to name just a few of the most important volumes. Dr. Lifton has a new book of his memoirs that has just come out, entitled, Witness to an Extreme Century, and I called Dr. Lifton to see if he would sit down with me and catch up, and at the same time allow me to interview him on video to put online. The book is available at www.amazon.com
I found very interesting two statements of note from the beginning of the interview. (loosely paraphrased) Dr. Lifton explained that regardless of the conference or aspect of his work he is asked to speak on, invariably someone will come up to him and thank him for his work on thought reform. They mention coming out a cult and reading chapter 22 of his book on Thought Reform and how much it helped them. (I must agree!) Also, Hassan makes an analogy of his work as being in many ways like throwing a rope to someone who has been “drowning” and helping them regain their life and direction as they leave a mind control group. Conversely, Hassan goes on to mention that those who have family and relatives still in mind control groups walk around as “mourning a living death”. That is pretty accurate. Here is the link to the post: http://freedomofmind.com/2011/07/19/7701/ . As I write this post, I am listening to the interview and find it full of understanding and insight to Lifton’s work and how it has affected many folks over the years.
Hassan’s post was not my original intent for this post. I began reflecting on a quote by Hassan in his first book, Combatting Mind Control, (Copyright ©1988, 1990 by Steven Hassan, Park Street Press, ISBN 0-89281-311-3) – the quote is about those that leave cult mind control groups –“Although we may succumb to mind control in weak moments, it is by no means permanent. Whenever recruits leave the group environment long enough to discover revealing books, articles, or testimonies by former members, they almost always break away.” (page 77) During the aforementioned interview, Lifton reiterates that mind control is not absolute or permanent. People can break free.
As I consiidered this, I began to realize how important the Internet has been to people in mind control cults to break free. In addition to my own situation when researching the shepherding movement on the Internet helped me break away from Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF); I have learned other ways that access to information – whether through the Internet or otherwise – has been critical to helping other cult members leave control groups. The following is just a brief list of instances I know of and have learned about in the past few months.
Shari Howerton in her book, “Breaking the Chains” (Copyright©2009 by Shari Howerton, ISBN 978-0-9713499-4-0) tells how she participated in certain forums that eventually led to public discussion of sensitive issues in her former church.
Janis Hutchinson, author of “Out of the Cults and Into The Church” (Copyright©1994 by Janis Hutchinson, ISBN 0-8254-2885-8) has her own website. (http://www.janishutchinson.com/ )She works with ex-Mormons mainly and any simple search will reveal many websites and resources for those coming out of the Mormon group.
Recently, a friend of mine who came out of the Worldwide Church of God mentioned that the main splinter group from that cult has split again as an anonymous person had posted on a forum the happenings within that church and caused many to question the leadership. Again, the freedom to search and find answers has helped cult members to get free.
A survivor of the Exclusive Brethren has shared with me about the control the leadership of that group has attempted over Internet access. Certainly, free Internet access is seen as a danger to them as many would find out Truth about their group. This survivor has a blog that reveals the false foundation of that group. Here is one example of a blog for this group: http://peebs.net/
Don and Angela Tumioli- survivors of the New Testament Churches of America provide “A safe place for eX-members of New Testament Christian Churches of America, Inc.” at http://ntccxerblog.blogspot.com – Their site among can easily be found by searching “ex-NTCC”. This is a good way to find forums and suvivor blogs about any cult group – search “ex-(group name)”
There are way too many to list. Cult Survivor blogs and forums seemed to have exploded as people find their voice and share what happened in their group. Did WOFF and Jane Whaley attempt to suppress or control access to outside information? For sure they did. Every mind control group does this. I remember such a feeling of uneasiness I read about the shepherding movement as began to recognize the similarities between WOFF and the controls within that movement. But, I knew the evidence would be denied. I was not wrong. Jane Whaley threw me out without even hearing the evidence or attempting to answer any questions I had. It appears that Jane’s tactic of dealing with those who have legitimate concerns was/is to ignore and/or impugn them. Does WOFF sound like an emotionally healthy environment?
So, searching for forums for survivors, books on your group and survivor blogs has become easier and easier- for those that will be brave and look. I will admit, not all on the Internet is true or good. But, for those wanting to know about the signature practices or doctrines of their particular group and how they compare to other churches or groups, the information is available.
Google Alerts® brought me a surprise on Tuesday. The name of this blog is “woffwatch”. It is a new blog and it is found here: http://woffwatch.blogspot.com/ . The author writes in their first post:
“It (this blog) is designed to generate discussion and information about the Word of Faith Fellowship movement/congregation in Spindale, North Carolina, USA…. I have family in this group and perhaps you might too, or be a former member, or might have some information about WOFF. I invite you to share your ideas and information.”
I was surprised and pleased to see another resource and perspective on WOFF and the “attributes”. This blog will be worth watching. Are there any others out there about WOFF?
Let me close with this quote:
R.G. Puckett :“Tell the truth and trust the people because time and truth travel together. All it takes for the confirmation of truth is the passage of time…”
Some may disagree. But, I will keep telling truth. I can’t control the time it takes for truth to be confirmed.
Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Comments are invited from all readers, including present or former members. Polls are not scientific and no private information is gathered.
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(Please, take time to read the Terms of Use for this personal blog. As mentioned, the information about WOFF is from my memories and recollections as perfect as that may be or not be. ) Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 321.