- Updated Archives
2002
The following link will take you to a archived version of The Digital Courier.
- December 22, 2002 Expert: Cults focus on control, by James Lewis, The Digital Courier, Forest City, North Carolina via the Wayback Machine
Few people in the world probably know about cults more than Dr. Paul Martin at the Wellspring Retreat in Ohio...
- November 2002 Cults of hatred, APA Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC (Panelists at a convention session on hatred asked APA to form a task force to investigate mind control among destructive cults...)
- November 2002 Mind control: psychological reality or mindless rhetoric?, by Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo, APA Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC (One of the most fascinating sessions at APA's Annual Convention featured presentations by former cult members...)
- October 24, 2002 Chinese team dealing with Falun Gong visits cult rehab center, Associated Press via The Beacon Journal (ALBANY, Ohio - A team of Chinese professionals traveled to a residential treatment center in southeast Ohio to learn treatment techniques for dealing with Falun Gong, a controversial spiritual movement.
Five members from the Bejing-based Chinese Anti-Cult Association visited the Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center this week.
The center, 80 miles southeast of Columbus, is promoted as the only accredited residential-treatment center in the country for former cult members...
...Wellspring founder and director Paul Martin, a psychologist who is a former cult member, said what some view as a religion, others call a cult.
"What we deal with here are groups that are destructive, that are very, very pathological. It's a con," Martin said...)
- August 22, 2002 Legal details keep Danish fugitive in United States for now, Associated Press via Yahoo! News (LOS ANGELES - A Danish man arrested in February for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars through a humanitarian foundation will remain in the United States while legal paperwork is finished.
Mogens Amdi Petersen, 63, agreed to extradition because he wanted to face his critics in Denmark and because of ongoing health problems, said Petersen's attorney, Robert Shapiro.
...Petersen founded the Tvind organization in 1970 in Denmark, but then disappeared amid allegations of fraud in 1979...
...Tvind was designed to train teachers and students to administer humanitarian programs in southern Africa. But former members of the organization in Denmark describe it as a cult, saying members were asked to surrender their assets and that their money went to supporting Petersen's lavish lifestyle.)
- August 2, 2002 Copyright as Cudgel, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Chronicle Review (...Consider the recent case of the Church of Scientology International and the search engine Google...)
- July 30, 2002 Method Without Madness?, Los Angeles Times (...Their emerging understanding contradicts the notion that suicide bombers are deranged fanatics. The evidence is just the opposite: They tend to be free of obvious mental illness. Many are competent, successful, even loving and loved...
...In 1978, more than 900 American followers of People's Temple leader Jim Jones...
...Five years ago, Marshall Applewhite and 38 of his followers in the Heaven's Gate cult killed themselves in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif...
...After Sept. 11, investigators found letters in Arabic believed to have been written by Atta, the presumed ringleader. The letters emphasize the importance of "obeying 100%"; instruct the attackers to be courageous, "as our predecessors [were] when they came to the battle"; and promise that "paradise has been decorated for you with the best of its decorations and ornaments."...)
- July 15, 2002 Cults: Still here, still dangerous - Charlotte Observer (...The conference provided a clear answer to those people who still ask: "What ever happened to cults?" The tragic answer is that cults remain destructive both in the United States and increasingly throughout the world.)
- July 2, 2002 Controlled by a Cult, WHDH-TV - Boston - The News Station
- June 14-15, 2002 Conference: Understanding Cults and New Religious Movements -- Perspectives of Researchers, Professionals, Former Members, and Families - American Family Foundation (AFF)
- May 26, 2002 Margaret Singer has made history delving into the psychology of brainwashing, by Kevin Fagan, San Francisco Chronicle (..."They're all the same, really, these groups - they prey on the most lonely, vulnerable people they can find, cage you with your own mind through guilt and fear, cut you off from everyone you knew before, and when they're done doing that, they don't need armed guards to keep you," Singer says. "You're afraid that if you leave, your parents will die, you will die, your life will be ruined."...)
(Photo of Margaret Singer, SLA "soldier," Heaven's Gate leader Marshall Applewhite, David Koresh, Charles Manson, Synanon "women's liberation" event, burning of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco and Jim Jones of the People's Temple included.)
- April 24, 2002 Students should question groups, by David Johnson, The Spinnaker, The University of North Florida
- April 6, 2002 Steve Hassan To Teach Workshop at Cambridge College, Steven Hassan's Freedom of Mind Resource Center
- March 11, 2002 Cults hunting students, Challenge Weekly Christian Newspaper (...Along with the spiritual deception, Mr Vrankovich says the cults use sophisticated psychological techniques to recruit and control their members. The new Cultwatch web site www.HowCultsWork.com details these methods...)
- February 28, 2002 RAISED IN A CULT: THE UNTOLD STORY, The Montel Williams Show (Today's guests are finally being given the opportunity to speak publicly about the torture they say they endured by religious cults. Melody spent 22 years deeply involved with the Hare Krishna's and is currently involved in a lawsuit against the organization...)
- February 28, 2002 RAISED IN A CULT: THE UNTOLD STORY, The Montel Williams Show, Burrelle's Information Services (The untold story; guests discuss the abuses they endured while growing up as cult members.)
- Sunday, February 24, 2002
Tonight Steven Hassan on Radio (Steven Hassan, cult counselor and mind control expert)
According to Steven Hassan - He will appear tonight on KFI AM 640 with Rabbi Mentz at 11 pm pacific time - 2 am eastern time.
The show is a follow up show that was done last week with two ex-Scientologists according to Steve Hassan.
You may read the post from Steven Hassan at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freedomofmind/message/8231
According to KFI AM 640 you may listen online.
The KFI AM 640 web site is located at http://www.kfi640.com
- February 22, 2002 'Family' court papers describe ritual beatings, 'target practice' - San Francisco Chronicle (The 13 near-starving children of a self-styled holy man in Marin County...Wright, 45...remain in jail without bail on charges that they abused and killed one of their 13 children...detectives and Margaret Singer, a cult expert who has assisted police, investigated and concluded fit the definition of a cult...)
- February 20, 2002 Students easy targets for cult groups, by Jake Stanley, The Guardian, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio (...colleges and universities nationwide have instituted offices and programs to deal with cults, or high-pressure groups on campuses....
...International Church of Christ...Some of their destructive tactics included making students drop out, working for no pay and lying to their members about finances...)
- March 6, 2002 Cults on campus, Greg VanArsdall, Letter to Editor, The Guardian, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio (...As a current member of an organization implicated in Mr. Stanley's article, "Students easy targets for cult groups," I am concerned that the article's description of my organization differs dramatically from my own experience with them...)
- February 15, 2002 Students susceptible to cults' lures, by Laura Withers, The Post, Ohio University (...People are vulnerable at different times in their lives, such as after getting divorced or leaving home for the first time, she said. For this reason, college students are at high risk of being targeted for cults when they feel pressure to make friends and fit in....
..."The antidote to this is critical thinking," Burks said. "Cults don't like people who are constantly thinking and asking questions."...)
- February 14, 2002 Cult recovery center product of experience, by Laura Withers, The Post, Ohio University ("Mental rape" is the term Paul Martin, director of Wellspring cult recovery retreat and resource center, uses to describe the mind control and manipulation...)
- February 13, 2002 Cult survivors speak, by Laura Withers, The Post, Ohio University
- January 30, 2002 Brainwashing could explain actions, Los Angeles Times via The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Paul Morantz is a Los Angeles-based lawyer who has specialized in cult and brainwashing cases for 20 years...In a 1988 case involving the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, in which I was appellate counsel, the California Supreme Court recognized that thought reform, brainwashing or coercive persuasion constituted outrageous conduct and said that victims could sue for both compensatory and punitive damages...)
- January 29, 2002 Cults: How students are perfect targets, Diamondback, University of Maryland
- January 28, 2002 High-pressure groups hit CSULB, by Christine Shin, Daily Forty-Niner, California State University, Long Beach (...If a group is harassing or stalking an individual, there is help out there...)
- January 25, 2002 Lindh: a Young Man Caught in Evil's Net, Paul Morantz, Los Angeles Times via the Wayback Machine (Paul Morantz is a lawyer in Pacific Palisades who has specialized in cult and brainwashing cases for 20 years...In a 1988 case involving the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, in which I was appellate counsel, the California Supreme Court recognized that thought reform, brainwashing or coercive persuasion constituted outrageous conduct and said that victims could sue for both compensatory and punitive damages...)
- 2002? Cults on Campus, Fly! Magazine (...What you would not expect is to be approached by a cult and asked to join for a fee. This however is often what happens today in many campuses all over Britain. The problem has become so acute that NUS has issued a set of guidelines in a booklet outlining the nature of the cults, how they recruit and how to avoid becoming a victim to their careful recruitment process...
...NUS and the CIC recently teamed up to produce a booklet called 'Cults on Campus'...)
|
