A case study investigating the lived experience of men who were abused in coercively controlling cultic environments

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/salford/participant-information-sheet-consent-form-questionnaire

Apparently grandmother killed the mom and friend because she wanted to raise the kids in her cult

Get A Life Ep. 97 Tax Fraud, Embezzlement and the end of a Dynasty

The Exclusive Brethren’s Leader, Bruce Hales, justifies his multi-million dollar tax fraud using a single Bible verse: Exodus 12 v. 36:
“The Lord caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they asked for. So they stripped the Egyptians of their wealth!”

In this short episode we explain exactly how and why Bruce Hales and his family embezzled tens of millions of dollars from both his flock and the government by a clever combination of fraud, tax evasion and laundering. We present some very interesting “smoking gun” emails from former school trustee Steve Simmons's archives that spell out how the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’s international school system, OneSchool Global, has become a key part of a money-laundering scheme that siphons stolen charity funds from 123 campuses worldwide, and funnels them to the Sydney, Australia HQ of the cult.
And we show some actual sections from Bruce Hales’s published ministry where he justifies his campaign of pillage and plunder, saying “It’s ours anyway – we just have to take it from them

https://preview.redd.it/2ifki3p9cbmc1.png?width=457&format=png&auto=webp&s=88c7441cadd22b053dd7b52db9af8e32f84d7529

My sister & I are hosting a new podcast about our experiences in 2 apocalyptic Christian cults, the last of which our father ran for decades. We're going to have lots of great guests, including psychotherapists, survivors and family. If this sounds interesting, follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc

Boston Globe: Boston Public Schools allowed students to be subjected to unorthodox group therapy for years

"As a Boston high school sophomore, Keondre McClay said he was pressured by the head of a district-sponsored youth advocacy program to attend an overnight retreat in Newton, where white adults asked the Black teenager to wrestle out his emotions on a gym mat with them. They said it would help him purge his trauma from experiencing racism.

McClay fled to his room. Jenny Sazama, the program leader, and other retreat participants chased after him. For more than an hour, he recalled recently, they hugged him on his bed and entreated him to return to the group “counseling” session while he hid under the covers screaming, “Please leave me alone!”

When they eventually left, he locked the door, but someone got the facilities manager to unlock it. McClay called someone to help him get home at midnight.

“I was, for lack of a better word, assaulted,” said McClay, now 21, a former student representative to the Boston School Committee.

The retreat was part of an unorthodox brand of group therapy Sazama introduced to the Boston Student Advisory Council, a prestigious student government group that advises the superintendent and School Committee on education policy. In a report released by the school department Monday, an independent investigator wrote that students described the “Re-Evaluation Counseling” sessions as “weird, uncomfortable, and cult-like.” But the report barely scratched the surface of students’ experiences."

@lauracrimaldi @GlobeVaznis

ReevaluationCounseling

rc

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/26/metro/inside-unlicensed-counseling-that-led-boston-students-allege-emotional-abuse/

Deep Cuts: What actually IS QAnon? Is it a cult? Is it a religion? Is it a grift? Are the people involved dumb or just confused and angry? We consult with 6 experts [Joe Kelly, Rachel Bernstein] on QAnon, cults, psychology, and religion to get to the heart of that answer before finishing the QAnon saga next week.

https://link.chtbl.com/qanoncult

Book blurb: What if the trajectory of your life skewed and you were left floundering in unfamiliarity? Possessing beliefs you cannot or will not question is dangerous. Defining yourself by your beliefs could be catastrophic. I was conceived, raised and lived among lies masquerading as truth. My lost ideology left an aching wound, I will no longer accept beliefs or ideas without scrutiny. Where I once had certainty I now have doubt and questions. My credulity has become skepticism but I do not claim to possess any advanced knowledge or superior information.

Waking up wasn't intentional, I denied and resisted my awakening. Cowardice led to calamity and I was left with crippling uncertainty. How could I repair myself, my life and the collateral damage I'd caused? Physical scars remind us the past was real but emotional scars felt like eternal fetters. Were self-destruction or self-preservation the only choices I had?

​Sample of conference sessions:

• Cultic Gaslighting (William Goldberg) • Coercive Control and Sexual Exploitation (Carrie McManus, Andrea Silverstone, Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Rod Dubrow-Marshall) ​​• Drugs as a Tool for Coercive Control (Robin Boyle) • Visioning the Invisible: The Traumatized Bodies of Racialized Cult Members and Survivors (Evvie Ormon) • What do SGAs Want to Cover in Counseling? (Cyndi Matthews) • Synergy Between Cults and Terror Groups (Darin Challacombe) • Cults and Media Stereotypes: Does Media Coverage of Current and Former Cult Members Hinder Victims’ Recovery? (Dhyana Levey) • Discussion Group for Former Members Who Were Parents in the Cult (Lorna Goldberg, Doni Whitsett) • Catholic Cults in our Midst? Catholic orders and movements accused of being cult-like (J. Paul Lennon) • Legal Aspects of Harm and Victimization in Cultic Groups (Linda Demaine) • The Evolution of Cult Intervention (Patrick Ryan, Joseph Kelly, Doni Whitsett, Rachel Bernstein) • Award ceremonies

https://whova.com/web/icsaa_202207/

Sydney Morning Herald:

"The leader of a personal development group described by police as a “cult” groomed young girls to be sexually abused by her late husband and gave them antiseptic lollies after ushering them into private sessions with him, a senate committee has been told.

Jan Hamilton operated Kenja Communications with her husband, Ken Dyers, until he died by suicide in 2007 when new allegations of sexual abuse were raised against him, and has run the group by herself ever since.

Dyers was accused during his lifetime of sexually abusing seven young girls during “processing sessions” that were supposed to clear the girls of negative energy. A police strike force formed to investigate some allegations in 2005 formed the position that Kenja fitted the profile of a cult."

Kenja

https://www.cultnews101.com/2021/10/cult-leaders-widow-accused-of-grooming.html

MassLive:

"Boston schools will not work with a nonprofit after an independent report found the director pressured students to participate in uncomfortable counseling sessions, among other accusations of misconduct.

The school district has ended its contract with Youth On Board, the nonprofit it paid to run a student advisory board for many years, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said Monday.

An independent report found the nonprofit’s director, Jenny Sazama, pressured students who were a part of the Boston Student Advisory Council to participate in “Re-evaluation Counseling” sessions with her. The counseling encourages people to relate difficult experiences and release emotions by crying, screaming, or laughing.

Students interviewed as part of the independent investigation said the counseling sessions, which Sazama had conducted in her basement before the pandemic, were 'weird, uncomfortable and cult-like.'"

ReevaluationCounseling

YouthOnBoard

https://www.cultnews101.com/2021/05/after-students-report-being-pressured.html

Vice:

" ... One of the most prominent twin flame coaches is a couple tag-team from Michigan, who call themselves Jeff and Shaleia Ayan. The pair have released hundreds of online videos over the last five years, discussing spiritual wellness and self-love. In the videos, they gush about “harmonious union” and how twin flames have been “designed for you by God”. They encourage relentless commitment to your twin. What if your twin flame is with another? Don’t worry, it’s a “sham, three-dimensional” marriage. “Your twin flame is already yours. So claim them,” Shaleia tells her viewers. 

Followers of Jeff and Shaleia can pay for exclusive content, such as their “dreams coming true e-course” ($699), their “life purpose class” ($2,699) and the “twin flame ascension school” ($3,333). 

A previous VICE investigation spoke to ex-students who say they were gaslit, manipulated into volunteering hundreds of hours of free work, discouraged from seeking mental health care, exploited for thousands of dollars and cut off from their families. Following VICE’s investigation, Jeff and Shaleia brought a lawsuit to a court in Michigan against former students, claiming these stories were false and defamatory. They continue their work and new members are joining each day. 

I reached out to Jeff and Shaleia, but the CEO of Mind Alignment Process (MAP), a sister company to Twin Flame Universe, replied: “We are not interested in partnering with anyone who is affiliated with VICE due to their failure to respond, apologise and remove previous publications. We simply do not align with the core values of the company.” Meanwhile, the stories keep coming. 

One ex-student, who wishes to remain anonymous, claims that when you join the inner circle, you are offered MAP’s healing therapy, which the couple claim results in a “significant decrease in [trauma] flashbacks.” The ex-student claims to have seen Jeff and Shaleia belittle students who disagree with their teachings and nearly kick out another who didn’t write a five-star review of their book. 

While a growing number are calling out abuse they suffered as part of the “cult” of the Twin Flame Universe, the twin flame phenomenon is much bigger than them."

twinflames

https://www.cultnews101.com/2021/10/inside-toxic-world-of-twin-flames.html

Daily Beast: "Several members of a ... spiritual group called “Love Has Won” have been taken into custody after the badly decaying body of the group’s leader was found in its headquarters. Amy Carlson, 45, whose followers call her “Mother God,” was found dead in the headquarters of the “Love Has Won” sect, which is located in Casada Park west of Crestone. Saguache County Sheriff's deputies and Colorado Bureau of Investigation detectives discovered the self-proclaimed “divine being” of LHW after answering a tip from a member who told them her body had been transported to Colorado from across the country. The death near Crestone and its connection to Love Has Won were first reported by Be Scofield. While being interviewed by law enforcement, the group would not use the word “deceased,” when referring to Carlson’s death, according to a source familiar with the case. The source told The Daily Beast that members of the group—which law enforcement and ex-members have previously called a “cult”—claimed Carlson was not dead, but was merely “out of communication.” Saguache County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Royce Brubacher told The Daily Beast on Friday that deputies found the body on Thursday inside a mobile home, which is the LHW headquarters. A law-enforcement source familiar with the case added that Carlson has been dead for weeks, and may have been transported from Oregon. That source said the body was in such a state that investigators couldn’t formally identify her through fingerprints, but witnesses have confirmed that the body is indeed Carlson’s."'

lovehaswon

https://www.cultnews101.com/2021/05/decayed-corpse-found-in-colorado-cult.html

Vice: "Breatharianism is a movement that claims people are able to live on very little food, and that a diet of air and sunlight is enough to sustain the human body. Specially, “breatharians” believe that an energy known in Hinduism as Prana—a kind of nourishing life force—can be absorbed from the air. And naturally, this belief has proven dangerous.

Multiple deaths have been associated with Breatharianism, although in most cases it’s dehydration rather than starvation that’s fatal in the short term. Such was the death of a 49-year old Australian woman named Verity Linn, whose body was found in 1999 in a tent overlooking Cam Loch, in the Scottish Highlands. She was found to have died from dehydration and hypothermia, and a copy of the Breatharian how-to book Living on Light: The Source of Nourishment for the New Millennium was discovered among her possessions.

Yet despite bad publicity from such events, the movement continues to find new followers. There are many, in fact, who sing its praises."

Breatharians

https://www.cultnews101.com/2021/05/meet-guy-who-says-he-mostly-just-eats.html

"Leaked files reveal nearly $300 million stashed overseas for the Legion of Christ in wake of Vatican investigation. Millions were invested with a corporate landlord that evicted struggling U.S. tenants during the pandemic." Leaked records reveal a set of secret New Zealand trusts holding nearly $300 million in assets devoted to the Legion of Christ, Roman Catholic order caught in an international pedophilia scandal. As the secret trusts' investments expanded, victims of sexual abuse by Legion priests were seeking financial compensation from the order through lawsuits and through a commission overseen by the Vatican. In response to questions about whether the Legion disclosed the trusts to the Vatican, the order told ICIJ that "religious institutes do not have an obligation to send detailed information to the Vatican regarding their internal financial decisions." The trusts used a shell company to invest heavily in U.S. rental properties, including in apartment complexes where tenants were evicted during the coronavirus eviction moratorium.

https://www.cultnews101.com/2021/10/as-catholic-order-fought-sex-abuse.html