CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/3/2024
Patrick Ryan
The ICSA International Conference is One-Day AWAY! We cannot wait to share an incredible conference with you.
Today, we are highlighting a pre-conference workshop titled Support/Discussion Group for SGAs/MGAs: Child Raising Issues. This workshop is open to second and multi-generation adult survivors ONLY.
It's not too late to register for this year's conference! Register NOW! The conference is both in person and online, so you can enjoy 100+ conference sessions from the comfort of your own home.
July 4-6, 2024 with pre conference workshops on July 3, 2024Facultad de Geografía e Historia. Universitat de BarcelonaMontalegre, 608001 BarcelonaRegister NOW! For more information and to register, visit https://www.icsahome.com/events/conferenceannual
In-person support groups for those dealing with relational trauma, whether it is with a group, family or individual, will be available in Spanish on Wednesday evening and English on Thursday both at 6 pm following the last conference session. The discussion will include traumatic narcissism and gaslighting as well as ways to heal emotionally. Shared experiences are welcome.
ICSA Conference Session: Wellness Beyond Boundaries: Navigating Alternative Healthcare Spaces in Times of Crisis, (Kim Peirano), July 4, 2024
Embarking on a healing journey when living with chronic pain, illness, or facing a terminal diagnosis often leads individuals to seek solace in spirituality. However, navigating the realm of spiritual guidance during these vulnerable moments can be a perilous endeavor. The journey is fraught with the risk of encountering well-intentioned mentors and guides overstepping their expertise, inadvertently causing harm to those desperately seeking support.
As a complementary healthcare provider and transformational coach, my commitment extends beyond merely offering support; it involves empowering individuals to navigate the complex landscape of medical care while fostering spiritual well-being. Unfortunately, the alternative healthcare space is rife with mentors who morph into gurus, dispensing medical advice without the requisite qualifications. This presentation delves into the crucial task of discerning ethical practitioners from those who are dispensing disinformation, misinformation and harmful advice.
We will unravel the consequences of entrusting one's well-being to practitioners who exceed their scope of practice, exploring scenarios ranging from harmful nutritional deficiencies to the failure to secure proper medical care, and even the ultimate cost—death. The impact of cult-like wellness gurus and their followings extends far beyond rhetoric, influencing tangible outcomes that jeopardize both emotional and physical safety.
Join me in unraveling the intricacies of this phenomenon, as we delve into key indicators to identify trustworthy practitioners and illuminate warning signs indicative of those who may compromise well-being. In a world where the line between coach and guru blurs, understanding how to guide clients and patients toward appropriate care becomes paramount. Let's collectively equip ourselves with the knowledge needed to ensure the safety and well-being of those navigating the delicate intersection of spirituality and healthcare.
ICSA Conference Session: Exorcism, Deliverance and the Cultivation of Fear in Christian Cultic Groups (Stephen Parsons), July 4, 2024
Since the emergence of Pentecostal Christianity at the start of the 20th century, there has been a strong upsurge in teaching about demons and other malevolent entities. Also, among what we would describe as Christian cultic groups, the language of possession/oppression has entered the discourse of preaching and teaching. This has helped to create a paranoid atmosphere within many congregations. The proposed paper will examine some of the history of this demonic movement within the Church but also will show how any obsession with personal evil will commonly become a means of coercive control and will be used by leaders to maintain their power. The successful introduction of demonic beliefs into Christian groups will create an environment of fear which helps to reinforce the demands of the leadership. A Christian leader in a cult-like group not only claims the power to protect the faithful from a Hell beyond the grave, but he is also the one to resolve issues of health, physical and mental, by deliverance techniques. Examples of LGBT individuals being offered exorcism will be examined. It will be suggested in conclusion that while the demonic realm may be a reality in rare circumstances, the majority of cases must be regarded as crude manipulations of human fear and paranoia in order to satisfy the greed for money and power among the leaders of many Christian cultic groups.
ICSA Conference Session: Spiritual Abuse Issues Among Girls and Women Living in a Closed Patriarchal Community (Madeline Lamboley), July 4, 2024
According to Damgaard (2021), spiritual abuse is a wound, a mistreatment of the soul that touches one of the deepest, most intimate aspects of a person's being. Deception is at the heart of all forms of spiritual victimization, making it difficult for victims to identify it. Spiritual abuse creates significant damage to trust others, particularly among girls and women living in closed patriarchal communities. Power in these communities is held by men because they are men, and the control structure built within a group, promotes "the enslavement of women". Girls and women living in an environment of coercive control such as patriarchal communities, see their choices, their decisions and their behaviours dictated by spiritual or religious norms often internalized since childhood. This presentation will explore how women who live or have lived in patriarchal communities understand the spiritual abuse they experienced during and after their involvement with this kind of community. It will also identify the forms of victimization recognized by women, including coercive and sexual violence. It will also help to understand how socialization in a patriarchal community can foster women to feel responsible for abuse that they experienced even leading some to describe themselves as "abandoned by God," "incompetent," or even feeling like "sinners." To achieve these objectives, the qualitative data used was collected from three interview samples conducted with 47 women living or having lived in a patriarchal community. The data analysis will first define what is meant by spiritual abuse and by the expression of closed patriarchal communities to grasp the extent of the hold in which women find themselves, particularly when they decide to leave this situation. Finally, we will explore how this spiritual violence affects these women's ability to consent, as well as their capacity to recognize and denounce the violence they have experienced.
Bio: Madeline Lamboley is an Associate Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the Université de Moncton. Her doctoral thesis focused on the forced marriage of immigrant women in Quebec. In this regard, she is involved in several working committees and, more broadly, on honor-based violence. Women in vulnerable situations, particularly immigrant women and women living with coexisting problems, and their needs in terms of intervention are at the heart of her teaching and research. She is particularly interested in the Francophone minority context. Her recent research focuses on the role of the social network and the entourage of women victims of intimate partner violence in their long-term recovery from violence.
ICSA Conference Session: The Cultic Manipulations of America's Troubled Teen Industry (Philip Elberg ), July 4, 2024
I introduced myself to ICSA (then AFF) and introduced ICSA to the world of troubled teen programs twenty or so years ago at a conference where I described my litigation against a program led by a destructive cult leader. I am pleased that In the years since that presentation, many victims of the troubled teen industry have come to understand the traumatic effects of what they experienced in the language of cults and cult recovery.
What has not been well understood is that “survivors” of troubled teen programs are more akin to recovering second-generation cult members. They did not join their cult. It was their parents, vulnerable because they were frustrated by their inability to deal with an adolescent they thought was “out of control’ and feeling frustrated by the confusing and inconsistent help they received from the mental health profession, that succumbed to manipulative marketing and educational consultants that offered a cure for their angst and their child’s troubles.
It is my intention to reintroduce ICSA to the troubled teen industry and explain how the Straight program, WWASP, CEDU and their progeny have manipulated and taken advantage of vulnerable parents and harmed adolescents in the process using LGATS, junk science and the promise of a parental respute. I will explain how divorce and adoption have made adolescents and their parents particularly vulnerable to the industry’s marketing.
The theme of this year’s conference fits perfectly into this talk because the words “evidence based” are too often just words with no legal significance that have allowed the industry to successfully tout what they offer as evidence based when, in fact they have created an alternative universe that ignores all of the available evidence and research about what adolescents need.
Bio: Phil Elberg is the brother of Gail Elberg, a lifelong member of the Fred Newman cult. He is also a New Jersey Attorney who served as President of the ICSA. He was the first recipient of the Margaret Singer Award in 2004 for his contribution to the understanding of coercive influence. During a successful career as a practicing lawyer, he represented individuals harmed in abusive rehabilitation facilities and by medical professionals. With a small group of activists and friends, he was a leader in the fight to close abusive, tough-love behavior modification facilities.
ICSA Conference Session: Empowering Self-help Consumers to Avoid Predatory (and Culty) Self-improvement Resources, (Jean Brown, SEEK Safely), July 4, 2024
Seeking is a natural human impulse. For all of human existence, we have sought answers to the big questions about why we are here and what our purpose is, whether there is a higher power, and how to live lives of meaning and purpose.
A huge global industry has developed to “help" seekers on their self-improvement journeys. From seminar programs to coaching to books to influencers and wellness programs, the self-help industry generates $43 billion/year globally.
There is a fine line between self-help and cults. Many groups, actually cults, present themselves as a source of self-improvement, spiritual fulfillment, or leadership development. NXIVM is an excellent recent example. When the sparkly self-improvement pitch meets the highly motivated individual, it is a perfect storm for a so-called “guru” to cultivate that coercive control relationship.
How do we allow this beautiful experience of seeking while protecting ourselves from manipulators who would take advantage of our desire for self-improvement to control us instead? How do we empower seekers to remain in control of their own self-improvement journeys?
In this presentation, Jean Brown, a Board member of the non-profit SEEK Safely, will present a tool the organization has developed to help seekers define a personalized guide to assessing self-improvement resources and maintaining control throughout a program of self-improvement. This tool uses the four points of a compass to help seekers define their values, goals, vulnerabilities, and existing strengths and resources as a starting point for their self-improvement work.
Bio: Jean Brown is a founding Board Member of SEEK Safely, a non-profit organization that aims to empower seekers of self-improvement and bring about positive changes to this unregulated $15 billion/year industry. SEEK was founded by the family of Kirby Brown, who died at a self-improvement event in 2009 and was Jean's oldest sister. Jean curates SEEK's content and produces and co-hosts the SEEK Safely podcast.
Jean has a Master's degree in Public Policy, which has been helpful as SEEK is supporting a self-help consumer protection bill in the state of New York. She is also a writer and co-authored a memoir with her mother. "This Sweet Life" details their experience of learning what happened to Kirby, their grieving process, and the criminal trial of the self-help guru responsible for the event. Jean presented at ICSA 2023 on the topic of "The Fine Line Between Self-help and Cults."
The goal is to empower seekers of self-improvement with the knowledge and ability to avoid ever getting pulled into a cult-like group in the first place.
ICSA Conference Session: Use of the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act for Cult Survivors of Sexual Assault (Carol Merchasin Of Counsel McAllister Olivarius), July 4, 2024
It is notoriously difficult to hold cults to account for the damage they inflict. For survivors of sexual assaults, these difficulties are compounded by a criminal justice system that can be difficult to navigate, upsetting to deal with, and limited in the range of outcomes it offers.
In this presentation, I will explore options for holding cults responsible for sexual assaults using US civil law, specifically the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act. By drawing on personal investigations into cults, as well as court records and client testimonies, I will examine the range of outcomes survivors have been able to achieve through civil law and identify the problems and barriers they have encountered. The presentation will address the following questions:
• How can cult survivors use state and federal human trafficking laws to seek justice?
• What are the benefits and obstacles in the use of human trafficking laws?
• Can the organizations that enable sexual abuse be held accountable?
• What other civil claims are available to survivors of cult sexual assaults?
• Can new laws on the statute of limitations help survivors?
• What other civil claims are available to survivors of cult sexual assaults?
• Can new laws on the statute of limitations help survivors?
Bio: Carol Merchasin is counsel at the international law firm McAllister Olivarius, where she heads up cases involving sexual misconduct in religious, faith-based, and spiritual communities. As an investigator, she has worked to uncover sexual misconduct within the Shambhala International lineage of Buddhism, the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers. She has worked with survivors of abuse and misconduct across a number of global spiritual and religious movements and has extensive experience as both a litigator and an investigator.
Before joining McAllister Olivarius, Carol was a partner in the Philadelphia office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius where she was a member of the firm’s employment law practice and the director of Morgan Lewis Resources, providing training on harassment and discrimination as well as investigation services for clients. She has conducted dozens of workplace investigations and taught investigative techniques to human resource professionals at many Fortune 50 companies. She is based in New Jersey and is registered as an attorney with the Massachusetts Bar.
"For better or worse, Netflix has dominated the true crime market. Every week, there’s another sensationalized retelling or exposé of some tragic, often obscure, crime. I used to be most indifferent if not exactly thrilled. True crime as a genre is intrinsically exploitative, and the most sensational stories, especially those streaming on Netflix, are rarely told with the kind of care or tact they deserve (which is to say nothing of their brazen AI manipulation). It should come as no surprise, then, that Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult has broken into the Top 10.you can probably guess what happened next if you’ve seen any Netflix documentary before. Those involved are taking umbrage with the program’s assertions, including dancer Miranda Derrick whose family is featured prominently in the three-part series. Broadly, she denies the allegations, namely that she’s been brainwashed, though pending legal action has kept her from saying more.
The most damning allegations center around Robert Shinn, an LA pastor at the Shekinah Church and founder of 7M Films talent management company. Whether it’s true or not isn’t for me to say, though it isn’t the first time Netflix has faced legal action."
" ... [T]hree investigative reports completed by Carol Merchasin, J.D. & Dr. Josna Pankhania into abuse within the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres."
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