Deprogramming
Encyclopedia
Deprogramming refers to actions that attempt to force a person to abandon allegiance
to a religious, political, economic, or social group. Methods and practices may involve kidnapping
and coercion
. Similar actions, when done without force, are called "exit counseling
".
Deprogramming is often commissioned by relatives, often parents of adult children, who object to someone's membership in an organization or group. The person in question is taken against his/her will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping and civil rights.
In America, the legality of involuntary deprogramming has been attacked by members of new religious movements, by the American Civil Liberties Union
, and by professor Eileen Barker
and other scholars. Their common argument asserts that it is dangerous and illegal to kidnap someone from any organization in which they voluntarily participate. Barker further argues that if the involuntary deprogramming fails then it will only widen the rift between the member of the new religious movement and his or her family.
While detractors of the practice focus on the sometimes illegal and violent activities by untrained and unlicensed practitioners, supporters of deprogramming portray the practice as an antidote to deceptive religious conversion practices by what they consider to be cults, such as mind control
, brainwashing, thought reform
, or coercive persuasion. They describe it as a last resort for families who feel that their loved ones have been taken away from them.
While during the 1970s and 1980s deprogramming was the main technique used to convert members of a faith, if not the only available, in later years other types of interventions
followed, such as exit counseling
, that are less traumatic for the follower and don't use any coercion.
Sometimes the word deprogramming is used in a wider sense, to mean the freeing of someone (often oneself) from any previously uncritically assimilated idea
.
, a former deprogrammer, wrote:
(or brainwashing). Books written by deprogrammers and exit counselor
s say that the most essential part of freeing the mind of a person is to convince them that they had been under control.
In practice, the vast majority of the time spent during deprogramming sessions is attempting to prove that the cult deceived and manipulated the recruit into joining. .
Ted Patrick
, one of the pioneers of deprogramming, used a confrontational method:
A number of criminal proceedings against Patrick and other practitioners have resulted in felony convictions for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.
Patrick described details of some of his abductions in his book Let Our Children Go! (E. P. Dutton, 1976, page 96)
Sylvia Buford, an associate of Ted Patrick who has assisted him on many deprogrammings, described five stages of deprogramming (Stoner, C., & Parke, J. (1977). All God's children: The cult experience - salvation or slavery?
Radrior, PA: Chilton ):
, which has in some cases been part of the procedure. The percentage stated of cases involving kidnapping varies considerably, depending on the source. Joseph Szimhart, a former deprogrammer, says "until 1992, in a low percentage of my cases, included situations in which families elected to confine and sometimes abduct a 'cultist' to a deprogramming." (Kent & Szimhart, 2002). Former deprogrammer Rick Ross
states that 90% of his deprogrammings since 1982 had been voluntary http://www.rickross.com/reference/deprogramming/deprogramming9.html
Steven Hassan
in his book Releasing the Bonds spoke decidedly against coercive deprogramming methods using force or threats.
The deprogramming case observed by Dubrow-Eichel did not include any violence.
Sociologist Eileen Barker
wrote in Watching for Violence:
In Colombrito vs. Kelly, the Court accepted the definition of deprogramming by J. Le Moult published in 1978 in the Fordham Law Review:
Exit counselor Carol Giambalvo writes in From Deprogramming to Thought Reform Consultation
Since the success of the deprogramming determined the legality of the endeavor (successful=converted member from his/her beliefs, or unsuccessful=traumatized kidnap victim), progressively extreme measures were taken.
model. In the United States, from the mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s mind control
was widely accepted, and the vast majority of newspaper
and magazine
accounts of deprogrammings assumed that recruits' relatives were well justified to seek conservatorship
s and to hire deprogrammers. It took nearly 20 years for public opinion to shift.
One aspect that gradually became disturbing from a civil rights point of view, was that relatives would use deception, or legal dealings or even kidnapping to get the recruit into deprogrammers' hands, without allowing the person any recourse to a lawyer or psychiatrist of their own choosing. Previously, there would be a sanity hearing first, and only then a commitment to an asylum or involuntary therapy. But with deprogramming, judges routinely granted parents legal authority over their adult children without a hearing.
One of main objections raised to deprogramming (as well as to exit counseling
) is the contention that they begin with a false premise
. Lawyers for some groups who have lost members due to deprogramming, as well as some civil libertarians, sociologists and psychologist
s, argue that it is not the religious groups but rather the deprogrammers who are the ones who deceive and manipulate people.
After 10 or 15 years of this, some of these adult children began suing their parents or deprogrammers. Since that time, involuntary deprogramming has been virtually unknown in the United States.
Also, in the mid-1980s, psychologist Margaret Singer
stopped being accepted as an expert witness
after the APA declined to endorse the DIMPAC report. See also Brainwashing controversy in new religious movements.
Deprogrammers claim that the voluntary participation in a group is due to mind control
, a controversial theory that a person's thought processes can be changed by outside forces. They justify this intervention or therapy as necessary to bring the person out from under the influence of the group's mind control. The existence of mind control is widely disputed. Modern behaviorist psychology
, however, can do much to explain the ability of external forces to control actions even if it has studied little regarding the internal thought processes associated with them (although relational framing and other theoretical constructs hedge into such territory). Present-day psychological principles suggest that traditional deprogramming approaches would almost certainly be inferior to other forms of intervention. Even supposing mind control is possible, it would be extremely difficult to prove to a legal standard that any individual person's mind has been controlled. In light of the legal and psychological issues, less intrusive and more patient-oriented interventions will likely replace this practice completely.
Involuntary deprogramming has fallen into disfavor because of its controversial aspects. A number of prominent anti-cult group
s and persons have distanced themselves from the practice, noting that a less intrusive form of intervention called exit counseling
has been shown to be more effective, less harmful, and less likely to lead to legal action. Some organizations, such as the Church of Scientology
, insist that the practice is still commonplace, and they often make statements that their critics and opponents are deprogrammers.
The American Civil Liberties Union
published a statement in 1977 in which they position deprogramming as a violation of constitutional freedoms:
In the 1980s in the United States, namely in New York
(Deprogramming Bill, 1981), Kansas
(Deprogramming Bill, 1982), and Nebraska
(conservatorship legislation for 1985), lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to legalize involuntary deprogramming.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
, founder of the Unification Church
(many of whose members were targets of deprogramming) issued this statement in 1983:
, a noted cult intervention advocate who took part in a number of deprogramming sessions, was sued by Jason Scott
, a former member of a Pentecostalist
group called the Life Tabernacle Church, after an attempt at intervention after a forcible abduction was unsuccessful. The jury awarded Scott $875,000 in compensatory damages and $1,000,000 in punitive damages against the Cult Awareness Network
(CAN), and $2,500,000 against Ross (later settled for $5,000 and 200 hours of services "as an expert consultant and intervention specialist"). The jury held that Ross and his associates "intentionally or recklessly acted in a way so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community." In a note to the defendants United States District Judge John C. Coughenour concluded: "Finally, the court notes each of the defendants' seeming incapability of appreciating the maliciousness of their conduct towards Mr. Scott. Rather, throughout the entire course of this litigation, they have attempted to portray themselves as victims of Mr. Scott's counsel's alleged agenda. Thus, the large award given by the jury against both the CAN and Mr. Ross seems reasonably necessary to enforce the jury's determination on the oppressiveness of the defendants' actions and deter similar conduct in the future." This case was seen as effectively closing the door on the practice of involuntary deprogramming. The judgment forced CAN into bankruptcy, and shortly afterwards its name and assets were purchased by a representative of the Church of Scientology
, which had been frequently criticized by CAN.
Ted Patrick was found guilty of kidnapping Roberta McElfish, a 25-year old woman of Tucson, Ariz., in order to deprogram her in 1980 from a group known as the Wesley Thomas Family. The handful of cases in which Patrick lost involved jurisdictions in which his Common Law "defense of necessity" argument was not recognized by the court, or in which the court prevented the defense from informing the jury that Patrick had been hired by the subject's parents.
In the case of Kathy Crampton, whose abduction and deprogramming were televised nationally, she went back to the Love Family group several days after the apparently successful deprogramming. Patrick was charged for kidnapping, but he was acquitted with the reasoning: :"[w]here parents are, as here, of the reasonable and intelligent belief that they were not physically capable of recapturing their daughter from existing, imminent danger, then the defense of necessity transfers or transposes to the constituted agent, the person who acts upon their belief under such conditions. Here that agent is the Defendant [Ted Patrick] (District Court of the United States 1974: 79; New York Times 1974).
According to Kathy's mother, Henrietta, the Love Family bestowed "virtue names" on senior members. The leader, Paul Erdman, was "Love Israel." Others had names like "Strength" or "Honesty Israel," but only "Love" had a name which could equate to "God." New members who participated in the "sacramental" use of LSD in Erdman's presence invariably learned that "Love is greater than equal to God," and that they had to give him all of their money and possessions. When Henrietta asked her daughter whether she could say that Love might not be God, she reported that "the muscles stood out on her neck, she broke out in a sweat and she said that she could not say that." Henrietta described an earlier visit to her daughter in Seattle in which Kathy, a former high school song girl, came to the door with her face covered with pus from a scabies infection. Love prohibited members from seeing physicians or optometrists. Henrietta contacted the Health Department and other officials, pressuring them to quarantine the commune, and Love eventually changed his policy. With her new war cry of "the man who did this to my daughter is going to pay," Henrietta sought out Ted Patrick and joined his Volunteer Parents of America group. Shortly, unimpressed by Patrick's control of his group, she became one of the four founders of the new Citizens Freedom Foundation, (CFF), which was eventually absorbed by the old CAN.
Steve Hassan, author of the book Combatting Cult Mind Control
, states that he took part in a number of deprogrammings in the late 1970s, and has spoken out against them since 1980. Hassan states that he has not participated in any deprogrammings since then, even though page 114 of Combatting, Hassan states that deprogrammings can be kept as last resort if all other attempts fail. He is one of the major proponents of exit counseling
as a form of intervention therapy, and he refers to his method as "strategic intervention therapy."
Proponents of the distinction, however, state that deprogramming entails coercion and confinement. In exit counseling the cult member is free to leave at any time. Deprogramming typically costs $10,000 or more, mainly because of the expense of a security team. Exit counseling typically costs $2,000 to $4,000, including expenses, for a three-to-five day intervention, although cases requiring extensive research of little-known groups can cost much more. Deprogramming, especially when it fails, entails considerable legal and psychological risk (for example, a permanent alienation of the cultist from his or her family). The psychological and legal risks in exit counseling are much smaller. Although deprogrammers prepare families for the process, exit counselors tend to work more closely with families and expect them to contribute more to the process; that is, exit counseling requires that families establish a reasonable and respectful level of communication with their loved one before the exit counseling proper can begin. Because they rely on coercion, which is illegal except in the case of conservatorship and is generally viewed as unethical, deprogrammers' critiques of the unethical practices of cults will tend to have less credibility with cult members than the critiques of exit counselors.http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0121a.html
Allegiance
An allegiance is a duty of fidelity said to be owed by a subject or a citizen to his/her state or sovereign.-Etymology:From Middle English ligeaunce . The al- prefix was probably added through confusion with another legal term, allegeance, an "allegation"...
to a religious, political, economic, or social group. Methods and practices may involve kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
and coercion
Coercion
Coercion is the practice of forcing another party to behave in an involuntary manner by use of threats or intimidation or some other form of pressure or force. In law, coercion is codified as the duress crime. Such actions are used as leverage, to force the victim to act in the desired way...
. Similar actions, when done without force, are called "exit counseling
Exit counseling
Exit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
".
Deprogramming is often commissioned by relatives, often parents of adult children, who object to someone's membership in an organization or group. The person in question is taken against his/her will, which has led to controversies over freedom of religion, kidnapping and civil rights.
In America, the legality of involuntary deprogramming has been attacked by members of new religious movements, by the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
, and by professor Eileen Barker
Eileen Barker
Eileen Vartan Barker OBE, born in Edinburgh, UK, is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics , and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights...
and other scholars. Their common argument asserts that it is dangerous and illegal to kidnap someone from any organization in which they voluntarily participate. Barker further argues that if the involuntary deprogramming fails then it will only widen the rift between the member of the new religious movement and his or her family.
While detractors of the practice focus on the sometimes illegal and violent activities by untrained and unlicensed practitioners, supporters of deprogramming portray the practice as an antidote to deceptive religious conversion practices by what they consider to be cults, such as mind control
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
, brainwashing, thought reform
Thought reform
Thought reform can refer to:* Brainwashing, efforts aimed at instilling certain beliefs in people against their will.* Coercive persuasion comprises social influences capable of producing substantial behavior and attitude change through the use of coercive tactics and persuasion, via interpersonal...
, or coercive persuasion. They describe it as a last resort for families who feel that their loved ones have been taken away from them.
While during the 1970s and 1980s deprogramming was the main technique used to convert members of a faith, if not the only available, in later years other types of interventions
Intervention (counseling)
An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. The term intervention is most often used when the traumatic event involves addiction to drugs...
followed, such as exit counseling
Exit counseling
Exit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
, that are less traumatic for the follower and don't use any coercion.
Sometimes the word deprogramming is used in a wider sense, to mean the freeing of someone (often oneself) from any previously uncritically assimilated idea
Idea
In the most narrow sense, an idea is just whatever is before the mind when one thinks. Very often, ideas are construed as representational images; i.e. images of some object. In other contexts, ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear as images...
.
Background and basic description
Steven HassanSteven Hassan
Steven Alan Hassan is a licensed mental health counselor and an exit counselor. Hassan was an early advocate of exit counseling, and is the author of two books on the subject of "cults", and what he describes as their use of mind control, thought reform, and the psychology of influence in order...
, a former deprogrammer, wrote:
- In the early 1970s, Ted PatrickTed PatrickTheodore Roosevelt Patrick, Jr. is widely considered to be the "father of deprogramming." Some criminal proceedings against Patrick have resulted in felony convictions for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.-Early life:...
—a man with plenty of street smarts but, at the time, no formal training in counseling—believed that members of his family were being brainwashed by David BergDavid BergDavid Brandt Berg , frequently known by the pseudonym Moses David, was the founder and leader of the New Religious Movement formerly called Children of God, now called "The Family International".-Early years :Berg was born to Hjalmer Emmanuel Berg and Rev...
, the leader of a group called the Family International, now known as "The Family." Patrick was determined to take action. He reasoned that since cults use indoctrinationIndoctrinationIndoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology . It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned...
methods that "program" beliefs through hypnosisHypnosisHypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
, repetition, and behavior modificationBehavior modificationBehavior modification is the use of empirically demonstrated behavior change techniques to increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors, such as altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of...
techniques, he would reverse the process. He called the new procedure "deprogramming." - Deprogramming is essentially a content-oriented persuasion approach that sometimes involves abduction and typically involves forced detention. The actual deprogramming takes place when it is deemed possible to "pick up" the cultCultThe word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
member, and when it is convenient for the deprogrammer. Typically, the cult member is driven to a secret location and guarded 24 hours a day, often with no privacy, even in the bathroom. Windows are sometimes nailed shut to prevent escape. The deprogramming continues for days, and sometimes weeks, until the cult member snaps out of the cult's mind controlMind controlMind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
(or successfully pretends to do so). http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/books/rtb3.htm
Deprogramming procedures
There has never been any standard deprogramming procedure and the descriptions vary greatly. There are many anecdotal reports and studies involving interviews of former deprogrammees. Deprogrammers generally operate on the assumption that the people they are paid to extract from religious organizations are victims of mind controlMind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
(or brainwashing). Books written by deprogrammers and exit counselor
Exit counseling
Exit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
s say that the most essential part of freeing the mind of a person is to convince them that they had been under control.
In practice, the vast majority of the time spent during deprogramming sessions is attempting to prove that the cult deceived and manipulated the recruit into joining. .
Ted Patrick
Ted Patrick
Theodore Roosevelt Patrick, Jr. is widely considered to be the "father of deprogramming." Some criminal proceedings against Patrick have resulted in felony convictions for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.-Early life:...
, one of the pioneers of deprogramming, used a confrontational method:
- "When you deprogram people, you force them to think...But I keep them off balance and this forces them to begin questioning, to open their minds. When the mind gets to a certain point, they can see through all the lies that they've been programmed to believe. They realize that they've been duped and they come out of it. Their minds start working again."
A number of criminal proceedings against Patrick and other practitioners have resulted in felony convictions for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.
Patrick described details of some of his abductions in his book Let Our Children Go! (E. P. Dutton, 1976, page 96)
"Wes had taken up a position facing the car, with his hands on the roof and his legs spread-eagled. There was no way to let him inside while he was braced like that. I had to make a quick decision. I reached down between Wes's legs, grabbed him by the crotch and squeezed—hard. He let out a howl, and doubled up, grabbing for his groin with both hands. Then I hit, shoving him headfirst into the back seat of the car and piling in on top of him."
Sylvia Buford, an associate of Ted Patrick who has assisted him on many deprogrammings, described five stages of deprogramming (Stoner, C., & Parke, J. (1977). All God's children: The cult experience - salvation or slavery?
All Gods Children (book)
All Gods Children: The Cult Experience - Salvation Or Slavery? is a non-fiction book on cults, by Carroll Stoner and Jo Anne Parke. The book was published in May 1977 in hardcover, and again in 1979 in paperback by Penguin Books.- Reception :...
Radrior, PA: Chilton ):
- Discredit the figure of authority: the cult leader
- Present contradictions (ideology versus reality): "How can he preach love when he exploits people?" is an example.
- The breaking point: When a subject begins to listen to the deprogrammer; when reality begins to take precedence over ideology.
- Self-expression: When the subject begins to open up and voice gripes against the cult.
- Identification and transference: when the subject begins to identify with the deprogrammers, starts to think of him- or herself as an opponent of the cult rather than a member of it.
Deprogramming and kidnapping
Deprogramming has often been associated with kidnappingKidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
, which has in some cases been part of the procedure. The percentage stated of cases involving kidnapping varies considerably, depending on the source. Joseph Szimhart, a former deprogrammer, says "until 1992, in a low percentage of my cases, included situations in which families elected to confine and sometimes abduct a 'cultist' to a deprogramming." (Kent & Szimhart, 2002). Former deprogrammer Rick Ross
Rick Ross (consultant)
Rick Alan Ross works as a consultant, lecturer, and intervention specialist, with an interest in exit counseling and deprogramming of former cult members. He runs a blog at CultNews.com, and in 2003 founded the Rick A...
states that 90% of his deprogrammings since 1982 had been voluntary http://www.rickross.com/reference/deprogramming/deprogramming9.html
Deprogramming and violence
The deprogramming accounts vary a lot regarding the use of force, with the most dramatic accounts coming from deprogrammed people who returned to the group.Steven Hassan
Steven Hassan
Steven Alan Hassan is a licensed mental health counselor and an exit counselor. Hassan was an early advocate of exit counseling, and is the author of two books on the subject of "cults", and what he describes as their use of mind control, thought reform, and the psychology of influence in order...
in his book Releasing the Bonds spoke decidedly against coercive deprogramming methods using force or threats.
The deprogramming case observed by Dubrow-Eichel did not include any violence.
Sociologist Eileen Barker
Eileen Barker
Eileen Vartan Barker OBE, born in Edinburgh, UK, is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics , and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights...
wrote in Watching for Violence:
- "Although deprogramming has become less violent in the course of time ... Numerous testimonies by those who were subjected to a deprogramming describe how they were threatened with a gun, beaten, denied sleep and food and/or sexually assaulted. But one does not have to rely on the victims for stories of violence: Ted PatrickTed PatrickTheodore Roosevelt Patrick, Jr. is widely considered to be the "father of deprogramming." Some criminal proceedings against Patrick have resulted in felony convictions for kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment.-Early life:...
, one of the most notorious deprogrammers used by CAGs (who has spent several terms in prison for his exploits) openly boasts about some of the violence he employed; in November 1987, Cyril VosperCyril VosperCyril Ronald Vosper was a Scientologist and later a critic of Scientology. He wrote The Mind Benders, which was the first book on Scientology to be written by an ex-member and the first critical book on Scientology to be published .-Biography:Vosper was born in 1935, in Hounslow, Middlesex...
, a Committee member of the British cult-awareness group, FAIRFamily Action Information ResourceIn November 2007, FAIR , Britain's main "anti-cult" group, re-established itself as The Family Survival Trust ....
, was convicted in Munich of "causing bodily harm" in the course of one of his many deprogramming attempts; and a number of similar convictions are on record for prominent members of CAGs elsewhere."
In Colombrito vs. Kelly, the Court accepted the definition of deprogramming by J. Le Moult published in 1978 in the Fordham Law Review:
- "Deprogrammers are people who, at the request of a parent or other close relative, will have a member of a religious sect seized, then hold him against his will and subject him to mental, emotional, and even physical pressures until he renounces his religious beliefs. Deprogrammers usually work for a fee, which may easily run as high as $25,000. The deprogramming process begins with abduction. Often strong men muscle the subject into a car and take him to a place where he is cut from everyone but his captors. He may be held against his will for upward of three weeks. Frequently, however, the initial deprogramming only last a few days. The subject's sleep is limited and he is told that he will not be released until his beliefs meet his captors' approval. Members of the deprogramming group, as well as members of the family, come into the room where the victim is held and barrage him with questions and denunciations until he recants his newly found religion "
Exit counselor Carol Giambalvo writes in From Deprogramming to Thought Reform Consultation
- "It was believed that the hold of the brainwashing over the cognitive processes of a cult member needed to be broken – or "snapped" as some termed it – by means that would shock or frighten the cultist into thinking again. For that reason in some cases cult leader's pictures were burned or there were highly confrontational interactions between deprogrammers and cultist. What was often sought was an emotional response to the information, the shock, the fear, and the confrontation. There are horror stories – promoted most vehemently by the cults themselves – about restraint, beatings, and even rape. And we have to admit that we have met former members who have related to us their deprogramming experience – several of handcuffs, weapons wielded and sexual abuse. But thankfully, these are in the minority – and in our minds, never justified. Nevertheless, deprogramming helped to free many individuals held captive to destructive cults at a time when other alternatives did not seem viable. "
Since the success of the deprogramming determined the legality of the endeavor (successful=converted member from his/her beliefs, or unsuccessful=traumatized kidnap victim), progressively extreme measures were taken.
Controversy and related issues
Public support for deprogramming hinges on the degree to which people agree or disagree with the mind controlMind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
model. In the United States, from the mid-1970s and throughout the 1980s mind control
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
was widely accepted, and the vast majority of newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
and magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
accounts of deprogrammings assumed that recruits' relatives were well justified to seek conservatorship
Conservatorship
Conservatorship is a legal concept in the United States of America, where an entity or organization is subjected to the legal control of an external entity or organization, known as a conservator. Conservatorship is established either by court order or via a statutory or regulatory authority...
s and to hire deprogrammers. It took nearly 20 years for public opinion to shift.
One aspect that gradually became disturbing from a civil rights point of view, was that relatives would use deception, or legal dealings or even kidnapping to get the recruit into deprogrammers' hands, without allowing the person any recourse to a lawyer or psychiatrist of their own choosing. Previously, there would be a sanity hearing first, and only then a commitment to an asylum or involuntary therapy. But with deprogramming, judges routinely granted parents legal authority over their adult children without a hearing.
One of main objections raised to deprogramming (as well as to exit counseling
Exit counseling
Exit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
) is the contention that they begin with a false premise
False premise
A false premise is an incorrect proposition that forms the basis of a logical syllogism. Since the premise is not correct, the conclusion drawn may be in error...
. Lawyers for some groups who have lost members due to deprogramming, as well as some civil libertarians, sociologists and psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
s, argue that it is not the religious groups but rather the deprogrammers who are the ones who deceive and manipulate people.
After 10 or 15 years of this, some of these adult children began suing their parents or deprogrammers. Since that time, involuntary deprogramming has been virtually unknown in the United States.
Also, in the mid-1980s, psychologist Margaret Singer
Margaret Singer
Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer, was a clinical psychologist and a part-time Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S....
stopped being accepted as an expert witness
Expert witness
An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...
after the APA declined to endorse the DIMPAC report. See also Brainwashing controversy in new religious movements.
Deprogrammers claim that the voluntary participation in a group is due to mind control
Mind control
Mind control refers to a process in which a group or individual "systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator, often to the detriment of the person being manipulated"...
, a controversial theory that a person's thought processes can be changed by outside forces. They justify this intervention or therapy as necessary to bring the person out from under the influence of the group's mind control. The existence of mind control is widely disputed. Modern behaviorist psychology
Behaviorism
Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...
, however, can do much to explain the ability of external forces to control actions even if it has studied little regarding the internal thought processes associated with them (although relational framing and other theoretical constructs hedge into such territory). Present-day psychological principles suggest that traditional deprogramming approaches would almost certainly be inferior to other forms of intervention. Even supposing mind control is possible, it would be extremely difficult to prove to a legal standard that any individual person's mind has been controlled. In light of the legal and psychological issues, less intrusive and more patient-oriented interventions will likely replace this practice completely.
Involuntary deprogramming has fallen into disfavor because of its controversial aspects. A number of prominent anti-cult group
Anti-cult movement
The anti-cult movement is a term used by academics and others to refer to groups and individuals who oppose cults and new religious movements. Sociologists David G...
s and persons have distanced themselves from the practice, noting that a less intrusive form of intervention called exit counseling
Exit counseling
Exit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
has been shown to be more effective, less harmful, and less likely to lead to legal action. Some organizations, such as the Church of Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
, insist that the practice is still commonplace, and they often make statements that their critics and opponents are deprogrammers.
The American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
published a statement in 1977 in which they position deprogramming as a violation of constitutional freedoms:
In the 1980s in the United States, namely in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
(Deprogramming Bill, 1981), Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
(Deprogramming Bill, 1982), and Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
(conservatorship legislation for 1985), lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to legalize involuntary deprogramming.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon is the Korean founder and leader of the worldwide Unification Church. He is also the founder of many other organizations and projects...
, founder of the Unification Church
Unification Church
The Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
(many of whose members were targets of deprogramming) issued this statement in 1983:
People and Places
During the 1990s, Rick RossRick Ross (consultant)
Rick Alan Ross works as a consultant, lecturer, and intervention specialist, with an interest in exit counseling and deprogramming of former cult members. He runs a blog at CultNews.com, and in 2003 founded the Rick A...
, a noted cult intervention advocate who took part in a number of deprogramming sessions, was sued by Jason Scott
Jason Scott case
The Jason Scott case was a United States civil suit, brought against deprogrammer Rick Ross, two of his associates, and the Cult Awareness Network , for the violent abduction and failed deprogramming of Jason Scott, a member of a Pentecostalist church. Scott was eighteen years old at the time of...
, a former member of a Pentecostalist
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
group called the Life Tabernacle Church, after an attempt at intervention after a forcible abduction was unsuccessful. The jury awarded Scott $875,000 in compensatory damages and $1,000,000 in punitive damages against the Cult Awareness Network
Cult Awareness Network
The Cult Awareness Network was founded in the wake of the November 18, 1978 deaths of members of the group Peoples Temple and assassination of Congressman Leo J. Ryan in Jonestown, Guyana. CAN is now owned and operated by associates of the Church of Scientology, an organization that the original...
(CAN), and $2,500,000 against Ross (later settled for $5,000 and 200 hours of services "as an expert consultant and intervention specialist"). The jury held that Ross and his associates "intentionally or recklessly acted in a way so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community." In a note to the defendants United States District Judge John C. Coughenour concluded: "Finally, the court notes each of the defendants' seeming incapability of appreciating the maliciousness of their conduct towards Mr. Scott. Rather, throughout the entire course of this litigation, they have attempted to portray themselves as victims of Mr. Scott's counsel's alleged agenda. Thus, the large award given by the jury against both the CAN and Mr. Ross seems reasonably necessary to enforce the jury's determination on the oppressiveness of the defendants' actions and deter similar conduct in the future." This case was seen as effectively closing the door on the practice of involuntary deprogramming. The judgment forced CAN into bankruptcy, and shortly afterwards its name and assets were purchased by a representative of the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
, which had been frequently criticized by CAN.
Ted Patrick was found guilty of kidnapping Roberta McElfish, a 25-year old woman of Tucson, Ariz., in order to deprogram her in 1980 from a group known as the Wesley Thomas Family. The handful of cases in which Patrick lost involved jurisdictions in which his Common Law "defense of necessity" argument was not recognized by the court, or in which the court prevented the defense from informing the jury that Patrick had been hired by the subject's parents.
In the case of Kathy Crampton, whose abduction and deprogramming were televised nationally, she went back to the Love Family group several days after the apparently successful deprogramming. Patrick was charged for kidnapping, but he was acquitted with the reasoning: :"[w]here parents are, as here, of the reasonable and intelligent belief that they were not physically capable of recapturing their daughter from existing, imminent danger, then the defense of necessity transfers or transposes to the constituted agent, the person who acts upon their belief under such conditions. Here that agent is the Defendant [Ted Patrick] (District Court of the United States 1974: 79; New York Times 1974).
According to Kathy's mother, Henrietta, the Love Family bestowed "virtue names" on senior members. The leader, Paul Erdman, was "Love Israel." Others had names like "Strength" or "Honesty Israel," but only "Love" had a name which could equate to "God." New members who participated in the "sacramental" use of LSD in Erdman's presence invariably learned that "Love is greater than equal to God," and that they had to give him all of their money and possessions. When Henrietta asked her daughter whether she could say that Love might not be God, she reported that "the muscles stood out on her neck, she broke out in a sweat and she said that she could not say that." Henrietta described an earlier visit to her daughter in Seattle in which Kathy, a former high school song girl, came to the door with her face covered with pus from a scabies infection. Love prohibited members from seeing physicians or optometrists. Henrietta contacted the Health Department and other officials, pressuring them to quarantine the commune, and Love eventually changed his policy. With her new war cry of "the man who did this to my daughter is going to pay," Henrietta sought out Ted Patrick and joined his Volunteer Parents of America group. Shortly, unimpressed by Patrick's control of his group, she became one of the four founders of the new Citizens Freedom Foundation, (CFF), which was eventually absorbed by the old CAN.
Steve Hassan, author of the book Combatting Cult Mind Control
Combatting Cult Mind Control
Combatting Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults is a non-fiction work by Steven Hassan. The author describes theories of mind control and cults based on the research of Margaret Singer and Robert Lifton as well as the cognitive...
, states that he took part in a number of deprogrammings in the late 1970s, and has spoken out against them since 1980. Hassan states that he has not participated in any deprogrammings since then, even though page 114 of Combatting, Hassan states that deprogrammings can be kept as last resort if all other attempts fail. He is one of the major proponents of exit counseling
Exit counseling
Exit counseling, also termed strategic intervention therapy, cult intervention or thought reform consultation, is an intervention designed to persuade an individual to leave a group perceived to be a cult...
as a form of intervention therapy, and he refers to his method as "strategic intervention therapy."
Deprogramming and exit counseling
Deprogramming and exit counseling, sometimes seen as one and the same, are distinct approaches to helping a person to leave a cult. Some people blur the distinctions on purpose: some practitioners do so to avoid criticism; some opponents do so to intensify criticism.Proponents of the distinction, however, state that deprogramming entails coercion and confinement. In exit counseling the cult member is free to leave at any time. Deprogramming typically costs $10,000 or more, mainly because of the expense of a security team. Exit counseling typically costs $2,000 to $4,000, including expenses, for a three-to-five day intervention, although cases requiring extensive research of little-known groups can cost much more. Deprogramming, especially when it fails, entails considerable legal and psychological risk (for example, a permanent alienation of the cultist from his or her family). The psychological and legal risks in exit counseling are much smaller. Although deprogrammers prepare families for the process, exit counselors tend to work more closely with families and expect them to contribute more to the process; that is, exit counseling requires that families establish a reasonable and respectful level of communication with their loved one before the exit counseling proper can begin. Because they rely on coercion, which is illegal except in the case of conservatorship and is generally viewed as unethical, deprogrammers' critiques of the unethical practices of cults will tend to have less credibility with cult members than the critiques of exit counselors.http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0121a.html
See also
- Opposition to cults and new religious movements
- Intervention (counseling)Intervention (counseling)An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one, or often many, people to get someone to seek professional help with an addiction or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem. The term intervention is most often used when the traumatic event involves addiction to drugs...
- http://www.un.org/es/documents/udhr/ http://deprogrammer.info]
External links
- Apologetics Index Collection of research resources on religious cults, sects, world religions, doctrines, and related issues. While operated from an evangelical Christian perspective, the entries also include links to material from a variety of viewpoints.
- Brainwashing and Mind Control Controversies - Center for Studies on New Religions
- Center for Freedom of Mind - espouses "mind control" idea
- Deprogramming on xFamily.org, a wikiWikiA wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
about the Family International cultCultThe word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices... - Religion News Blog Up-to-date news about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues.
- The Oracle of Ifa and the Verdict of the Court: A failed attempt to deprogram from the African "Ifa" religion article by Wim Haan (see Ifá religionIfáIfá refers to the system of divination and the verses of the literary corpus known as the Odú Ifá. Yoruba religion identifies Orunmila as the Grand Priest; as that which revealed Oracle divinity to the world...
) - Deprogramming Article in Unification ChurchUnification ChurchThe Unification Church is a new religious movement founded by Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. In 1954, the Unification Church was formally and legally established in Seoul, South Korea, as The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity . In 1994, Moon gave the church...
sponsored wiki-encyclopedia.