Today we explore strategies you can use to get out of a cult or help a loved one get out. To setup the framework for our discussion, we look at numbers and definitions. The numbers are huge. Up to 10,000 cults still exist today in the United States. That number is growing. IGotOut.org suggests that “Millions of people have been affected by undue influence. Many of us have had religions chosen for us or we’ve joined self-help or spiritual groups that became harmful or destructive. We have suffered from coercive control and mind manipulations while bending to narcissists. We’ve given our power of decision making over to an organization and their leadership.”

And language matters. The way we talk about cultic abuse influences how our good intentions are received. Someone who might shy away from what Gerette calls the C-word (cult), could respond better to “Controlling Group,” or “High Demand Group,” or “Spiritual Abuse.”

We discuss Dr. Hassan’s “reality testing,” and Gerette’s escape after 18 years from the Center for Transformational Learning and the strategies that worked for her. We also talk about strategies we can employ when helping others who might be embroiled in a controlling group.

If you have been in ANY culty high-control group or religion, share your story with the hashtag #igotout. Share on your own platform OR if you need to be anonymous and/or would like support, there are resources at www.igotout.org.

To Learn more about Writing to Reckon, visit www.gerettebuglion.com/writingtoreckon.

Learn more about the signs of thought control and other aspects of Dr. Hassan's work by visiting www.freedomofmind.com.

The subject of today’s podcast is Emotion Control. Like it or not, as human beings, we creatures tend to respond emotionally. Comfort, praise, recognition, and a sense of belonging are among our top stimuli. Our yearning for these is manna from heaven to cult leaders. They prey upon exactly this type of vulnerability. They lure us in under the veil of comfort and specialness and then set up an “us” versus “them” dichotomy. While under cultic influence, Dr. Hassan was told that the Moonies were his true family, all others were false – even evil. Vaxxers versus Anti-vaxxers is a similar kind of fault line. 

Today we discuss the ways cult leaders disrupt the normal right brain/left brain integration necessary to make rational decisions. By sidestepping reason, cult leaders foment fear and self-doubt. We also explore phobia Indoctrination, the Christian persecution complex, and FreedomofMind.Org’s itemized list of methods cult leaders use to control their followers. 

If you have been in ANY culty high-control group or religion, share your story with the hashtag #igotout. Share on your own platform OR if you need to be anonymous and/or would like support, there are resources at www.igotout.org.

Learn more about the signs of thought control and other aspects of Dr. Hassan's work by visiting freedomofmind.com.

“Freedom of thought is a universal human right.” This statement is the first thing you see on the IGotOut.org website. As modern, functioning adults, we like to think that we are in control of our own thoughts. This is not always the case. As we know from Gerette’s book An Everyday Cult and from this podcast, we know that destructive cults use any number of techniques to get members to stay and commit themselves to what may be harmful activities. Thought Control is the most insidious. 

Listen in as we discuss the different techniques cult leaders use to control the thoughts of their followers. Some techniques are extreme, others are subtle but insidious...

If you have been in ANY culty high-control group or religion, share your story with the hashtag #igotout. Share on your own platform OR if you need to be anonymous and/or would like support, there are resources at www.igotout.org.

Learn more about the signs of thought control and other aspects of Dr. Hassan's BITE Model visit freedomofmind.com or freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model.

Controlling information is a critical way authoritarian leaders and cult leaders control the hearts and minds of their followers. This week we discuss how they do it and how you can take some agency regarding the information you consume. 

Dr. Hassan suggests that we must each do independent research, that we must ask difficult questions, and really dig beyond the cult-controlled internet algorithms to challenge our own beliefs. 

Gerette describes her experience within CTL, whose leaders subtly controlled information by dominating cult members’ free time. She sheds some light on the difference between information control in an Everyday Cult versus that in more controlling cults. 

We talk about personal truths, political truths, and objective truths. And how ambiguity tolerance—allowing for the possibility of another person’s personal truth to coexist with one’s own—can open the door to a more objective reality. 
 
If you have been in ANY culty high-control group or religion, share your story with the hashtag #igotout. Share on your own platform OR if you need to be anonymous and/or would like support, there are resources at www.igotout.org.

Our focus today is Behavior Control, the first methodology in the BITE model, which refers to control of Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotion. Dr. Hassan developed BITE as a model for evaluating degrees undue influence. As functioning adults, we like to think that we are in control of our own behavior. Last week’s conversation about Influence leads us to reexamine that possibility.

In this episode, we discuss how we become vulnerable to behavior control, types of behavior control, and how our environment shapes our behavior. Vulnerability to influence is part of the human condition. Dr. Hassan suggests that we are susceptible to behavior control from the moment we are born. Using healthy cynicism, curiosity, and discernment, we can begin to understand exactly who or what is control of our behavior. 

In the end, love is stronger than mind control.

If you have been in ANY culty high-control group or religion, share your story with the hashtag #igotout. Share on your own platform OR if you need to be anonymous and/or would like support, there are resources at www.igotout.org.

Can understanding the nature of influence support people in cult recovery?  Dr. Steve Hassan, former cult member, author, educator, and world authority on cults will be our honored guest throughout this season . 

His published works include: The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control, Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs. Today we are going to discuss his dissertation published January 2021: “The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking and the Law.”

Our focus today is the BITE model, which refers to Behavior-Information-Thought-Emotion control. Dr. Hassan developed BITE as a model for evaluating degrees undue influence. 

Gerette references the book Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini.

Steven Hassan, PhD is a mental health professional and expert in undue influence tactics used by authoritarian leaders and destructive cults. His foundational online course is “Understand Cults: The Basics.” He is the Founding Director of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center, which provides training, consulting and support to individuals who are struggling to leave or recover from a cult and to families and organizations that are concerned about cult behaviors. He also is the founder of Freedom From Undue Influence, a not-for-profit entity with the purpose of conducting and publishing the research on undue influence that is needed to update legal and social policies. He developed the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control to identify control tactics and the Influence Continuum Model to discern ethical from unethical influence. He developed the Strategic Interactive Approach (SIA), as an effective and legal intervention alternative for families to help cult members. Dr. Hassan believes that access to the truth, freedom of thought, and freedom from undue influence are basic human rights. A complex systems approach, based in science and supported by the rule of law, is necessary to protect these rights. He is a member of the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He is an experienced educator having served as an instructor for the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop, as an elective teacher and a presenter for the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program, and in other educational and training capacities for other higher education, professional, law enforcement, governmental, non-governmental and advocacy group audiences. Dr. Hassan began helping people affected by undue influence after he was deprogrammed from the Moon cult in 1976 at age 22. His 45 plus years of experience give him a unique perspective on the damaging effects of undue influence and exploitation by destructive cults. He is a frequently requested speaker and media interviewee. Dr. Hassan holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Cambridge College and a Doctorate in Organizational Development and Change from Fielding Graduate University School of Leadership Studies. Visit freedomofmind.com to access information and services. 

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We explore what Gerette has identified in her book as the final stage of cultic involvement: Waking Up Again and Again. In this ongoing phase, one becomes fully aware of the reality of cultism. Awake, cult survivors remain ever watchful for the potential for harmful power dynamics that play out in the world or in themselves. Waking Up Again and Again is the effort required to be a conscious, conscientious, human being.

In this episode on post-cult life, we discuss the human need to be part of a group, cult-hopping, self-care, the importance of recognizing one’s own vulnerability, and how to be an ally.

Tune in for frank talk about everyday cults and how they can endanger everyday people like you and me. 
 
 Views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of Gerette Buglion arising from her personal 18-year cultic involvement and from her subsequent work in cult recovery and education. We are deeply grateful to Moon Panda for the use of their song "Slow Drive." Yes, Everyday Cults. Everyday People is a kind of slow cruise around the cult world, taking in the varied landscapes. Let us know what you liked and where you'd like to head for Season Two. Contact Gerette through her website GeretteBuglion.com or through direct message on Instagram or Facebook.

In this episode of Everyday Cults. Everyday People, we explore what Gerette identified in her book as the fourth stage of cultic involvement: Snapping—as in snapping out of it.
 
 This is the period of dawning recognition; it’s the acknowledgement that you have been indoctrinated. It demands a huge shift in consciousness. For many, it is also an awakening of conscience when you see how you or your loved ones have been harmed by the group. It may also be a realization that you have been complicit with something that is in direct contradiction to your deepest personal values or even morality itself.
 
 We discuss complicity, accountability, and then ask the one question cult survivors hate to be asked.  
 
 Tune in for frank talk about everyday cults and how they can endanger everyday people like you and me. 
 
 Views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of Gerette Buglion arising from her personal 18-year cultic involvement and from her subsequent work in cult recovery and education. We are deeply grateful to Moon Panda for the use of their song "Slow Drive." Yes, Everyday Cults. Everyday People is a kind of slow cruise around the cult world, taking in the varied landscapes. Let us know what you liked and where you'd like to head for Season Two. And tune in next week for our wrap up of Season One. We will discuss the fifth stage of cultic involvement: Waking Up Again and Again.