Conference Handbook

 ICSA Annual International Conference

Denver, Colorado

June 22-24, 2006

Conference Home

Table of Contents

updated 6/16/06

Welcome Letter

Dear Friend:

Welcome to the 2006 Annual International Conference of the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA).

The conference registration envelope, which supplements this Conference Handbook, includes:

·         Your name tag

·         Bookstore order form

·         ICSA’s publication list (for mail ordering)

·         Index cards for writing down questions to submit during conference programs in which a speaker prefers this method

·         A Call for Papers for ICSA’s 2007 conference in Brussels, Belgium

·         Flyer for the July 20–22, 2006 ex-member workshop in Estes Park, Colorado

·         Information on Denver-area recreational opportunities

·         A global evaluation form on the conference. Session evaluation forms will be made available in the meeting rooms. You may mail evaluation forms to ICSA or leave them in the bookstore.

·         Donation form and reply envelope (Thank you!)

Individuals with “Assistance Team” on their badges (yellow highlight) have volunteered to talk to those who may feel a need to deal with pressing personal issues during the conference. If you have questions or need help concerning conference issues, ask one of the conference staff, identifiable by their name badges (pink highlight).

We have several luncheon and dinner talks and awards presentations. Check the schedule in the conference handbook.

See conference staff if you would like a certificate of attendance. You must submit evaluation forms on all the sessions you attend in order to obtain an attendance certificate.

This is a public conference. If you have matters that are sensitive or that you prefer to keep confidential, you should exercise appropriate care. Private audio- or videotaping is not permitted. We hope to make videos available through our e-Library.

People have come great distances to attend this conference. Every attendee is entitled to courtesy and respect. Contact security, identifiable by their badges, if you feel it is necessary.

Press who attend the conference may come from mainstream and nonmainstream, even controversial, organizations. If a journalist seeks to interview you, exercise appropriate care — e.g., request a consent form. If you desire to refuse an interview request, feel free to do so. Remember, if you give an interview, you will have no control over what part of the interview, if any, will be used.

ICSA conferences try to encourage dialogue and are open to diverse points of view. Hence, opinions expressed at the conference or in books and other materials available in our bookstore should be interpreted as opinions of the speakers or writers, not necessarily the views of ICSA or its staff, directors, or advisors.

We believe that this will be an interesting and stimulating conference, and we hope that you will attend other ICSA conferences and workshops. We depend upon contributions. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Philip Elberg, Esq.

President

Agenda

Biographical Sketches of Speakers

Carmen Almendros is a Ph.D. candidate in the Clinical and Health Psychology program at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She is a research and teaching staff member of the Biological and Health Psychology Department at the same university. (carmen.almendros@uam.es)

Sandy Andron, Ed.D., is director of education at Temple Kol Emeth. Additionally, he serves as an education consultant who served for over twenty-five years as director of a religious education high-school program in Miami, Florida. His work in the anti-cult movement includes creation of a high-school curriculum, Cultivating Cult-Evading. He was the recipient of the Leo J. Ryan Award in 1988 from the then-Cult Awareness Network, for which he served as vice-president for five years. He has handled media resources in south Florida for over a quarter century, has lectured throughout the world, and has been a seminar leader/director and keynoter. Some of his specialty areas include elementary education, high-school English, gifted, the martial arts, and magic.

Marybeth F. Ayella, Ph.D., teaches sociology at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Dr. Ayella has taught a course entitled Cults as Social Movements since 1987. Since 2002 she has taught a course on deadly cults and terrorism entitled Extremist Movements. She is the author of Insane Therapy: Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult, published by Temple University Press. She is presently researching a book on sex and gender in cults. (mayella@mailhost.sju.edu)

Livia Bardin, M.S.W., an independent scholar, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker in the Washington, D.C., area. She experienced child welfare firsthand as a foster-care case manager in Washington’s child welfare system. She holds a Certificate in Family Therapy from the Family Therapy Practice Center in Washington and recently retired from the private practice of psychotherapy. She currently chairs ICSA’s Family Workshop Advisory Board, and has presented ICSA-sponsored workshops for family and friends of cult members. Ms. Bardin has provided trainings on cult-related issues for mental-health professionals in the Washington area, and is the author of Coping with Cult Involvement, a handbook for families and friends of cult members. (liviabardin@aol.com)

Elliot Benjamin, Ph.D., is the author of the book Modern Religions: An Experiential Analysis and Exposé, which describes his experiences with Scientology, est, Unification Church, Divine Light Mission, Gurdjieff, Eckankar, Self-Realization Fellowship, Course In Miracles, Reiki, Avatar, Conversations With God, Neopaganism, and more. Elliot facilitates workshops in the Belfast, Maine, area on the topic of spirituality and awareness of cult dangers, and offers counseling to ex-members of spiritual cults. (ben496@prexar.com)

Chip Berlet is senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank near Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Berlet is co-author (with Matthew N. Lyons) of Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort, (New York: Guilford Press, 2000). He edited Eye’s Right!: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, (Boston: South End Press, 1995). Both books were awarded a Gustavus Myers Award for outstanding scholarship on the subject of human rights and intolerance in North America. He has appeared as an expert on television programs such as ABC’s Nightline and NBC’s Today Show. Berlet has also contributed to edited collections, scholarly journals, academic conferences, and popular periodicals ranging from The New York Times to the Progressive magazine. He is an advisory board member of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University and has written academic studies, encyclopedia entries, and magazine articles on apocalyptic belief and demonization as recruitment and organizing strategies by totalitarian groups. He recently was named to the editorial board of the journal Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions. (c.berlet@publiceye.org)

William H. Bowen is the president of Silentlambs, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to helping survivors of abuse. A second-generation Jehovah’s Witness, he has been active in the movement for forty-three years, and served as an elder starting in 1985.

Russell Bradshaw, Ed.D., is an associate professor, Lehman College, City University of New York (since 1987), where he is in charge of the M.A. Program in Social Studies Education grades 7-12.

John Burke, Ph.D., is a post-doctoral resident at the Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Health Management Organization of San Jose, California. He also serves as the United Presbyterian Pastor of the Bonny Doon Presbyterian Church of Santa Cruz, California. He recently received his doctorate in clinical psychology with a dissertation entitled Borderline Personality Disorder in Adult Males in Correctional Settings. His clinical psychology Internship was in the Colorado Department of Corrections from 2002 to 2003. Previously, he has worked for the County of Santa Cruz Juvenile Probation Department as a Substance Abuse Counselor; he also served as a Board Member and Board Chair for many years on behalf of the New Life Community Services, Inc., a 33-bed, not-for-profit, social model, inpatient alcohol and chemical dependency treatment facility in Santa Cruz, California. Dr. Burke previously taught at Bethany University in Scotts Valley, California, as an Assistant Professor of Addiction Studies from 1993 to 2002. He is also the published author of Internet Databases with Cold Fusion 3, a book describing use of personal databases on the Internet, published by McGraw-Hill, and is a contributing author to Running the Perfect Web Server, 2^nd Ed., (MacMillan Publishing). He presently lives with his wife Barbara and their three children, Peter, Sean, and Michella, in Santa Cruz, California.

Paul Carden is the executive director of the Centers for Apologetics Research (CFAR) in San Juan Capistrano, California. He has more than twenty-five years’ experience in the field of cult-related research and outreach. (www.TheCenters.org)

José Antonio Carrobles, Ph.D., is full professor of psychology in the field of personality, assessment, and treatment, and past head of
the Department of Biological and Health Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. His work focuses in the areas of psychopathology and clinical and health psychology. He is president of the European Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Therapies (EABCT). He has directed numerous doctoral theses and is author of an important number and variety of articles and books in his areas
of specialization. He has organized and participated in numerous national and international psychology congresses, among which his participation as president of the Scientific Committee at the 23rd International Congress of Applied Psychology held in Madrid in 1994 stands out. He is member of the editorial boards of several national and international journals.

Gina Maria Catena, MS, CNM, NP, is a certified nurse-midwife and nurse practitioner. Ms. Catena was raised in the Transcendental Meditation group since the mid-1960s, as one of the first Children of the Age of Enlightenment. She married and was a parent in the group until the age of thirty. After twenty-two years of childhood and young adulthood enmeshed in the TM culture, she left the group with three children. She lives with ongoing cult influence through three generations of her immediate family. Ms. Catena is currently working on several projects about family influence in cults. She has a master’s degree from the University of California at San Francisco, a BA in art history, and a BS in nursing, with a minor in psychology. (ginacatena@sbcglobal.net)

Laura Chapman is a child protection worker in Colorado. She was born and raised in a Mormon fundamentalist polygamist group. Laura escaped with five children fourteen years ago. Since then she has earned two college degrees. In 2002 she brought the brutal truth of the human-rights violations of women and children in polygamy to the attention of the United Nations. She was nominated for the Robert Kennedy award for her efforts to rescue two teens from arranged marriages.

Donna Collins was the first “Blessed Child” of the Unification Church in the West. Her parents founded the UC in England. Her story is told in detail in the ICSA video, Blessed Child. Currently, she is a writer who lives with her family in Sarasota, Florida.

Lorraine Derocher, M.A., has just finished her master’s in sociology at the Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada). Her research is focusing on the social integration process that adults who lived their childhood in a sectarian group have to face the day they decide to leave their group. She is also involved in the research team of the organization Safe Passage Foundation that aims to face the problem of children in cults.

Mary Jo Downey researched the cultural functions of American “atrocity” narratives (cf. Bromley and Shupe) for her Ph.D. at the University of Buffalo.  A graduate of Unification Theological Seminary, she was a member of the Unification Church for 25 years.  Currently she is an adjunct instructor (and the solo parent of her blessed child, Eiry) in upstate New York.

Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Ph.D., is a counseling psychologist in private practice in Wales. She co-founded RETIRN (the Reentry Therapy, Information and Referral Network) in the United States in 1983 and RETIRN/UK in the United Kingdom in 2004. RETIRN (www.retirn.com) is a private practice comprising mental-health professionals who specialize in helping individuals and families who have been adversely affected by destructive cults and other extremist and high demand/manipulative groups. (LJDMarshall@aol.com)

Roderick Dubrow-Marshall, Ph.D. (Nottm) is dean of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Glamorgan, RCT, Wales. His principal research is on social influence, including the psychological effects of cultic group membership, influence in organizational settings, and the psychological processes involved in social group identity and prejudice. He is also a member of the national committee of FAIR (Family, Action, Information, Resource), UK and a UK representative on the General Assembly of the European Federation of Centres for Research and Education on Sects (FECRIS). (rdubrowm@glam.ac.uk)

Steve K. D. Eichel, Ph.D., ABPP, is a licensed and board-certified counseling psychologist. Dr. Eichel is a co-founder of RETIRN (Philadelphia, PA) and was a 1990 recipient of the John G. Clark Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Cultic Studies. He is a former president of the Greater Philadelphia Society of Clinical Hypnosis and president of the American Academy of Counseling Psychology. (steve@DrEichel.com)

Philip Elberg, Esq., president of ICSA, is a partner in the Newark, New Jersey, law firm of Medvin and Elberg. He represented several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Kids of North Jersey, a treatment center for adolescents with “behavior disorders.” The case was initiated as a medical malpractice action but evolved into a claim that the treatment center operated as a destructive cult for the benefit of its founder, Miller Newton. The case was settled on the eve of trial for $4,500,000. A reported New Jersey Court decision describes Mr. Elberg’s work on the case as “heroic.” He currently represents another patient of the same facility who was treated at Kids for thirteen years; he has become committed to obtaining public awareness of the potentially dangerous practices of some adolescent treatment facilities.

Andrea Moore Emmett is a journalist and author. She was the researcher for the two-hour A&E documentary, Inside Polygamy. Ms. Moore Emmett is the recipient of five Headliners Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards and a Utah Professional Chapter of Women in Communications Leading Changes Award. Ms. Moore Emmett is the author of God’s Brothel, a book about women who escaped polygamy. She also works as a reporter for All Headline News and speaks across the country concerning abuses against women and children within polygamy.

Jorge Erdely Graham, Ph.D., is associate editor of Revista Académica para el Estudio de las Religiones, a pluralistic, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed periodical that focuses on religious globalization and human rights in the Hispanic world. He is the author of several published scientific papers and twelve books on extreme religious groups, theology, and human rights. Among them, the international best-seller Pastores que Abusan, Suicidios Colectivos Rituales, and his latest, The New Jihad: Myths and States of Denial. Dr. Erdely is an Oxford Theological Foundation Fellow. He is currently Research Director of el Centro de Investigaciones del Instituto Cristiano de México and, among others, a member of the Asociación Latinoamericana para el Estudio de las Religiones, the regional affiliate of the International Association for the History of Religion (IAHR). He currently focuses his research on the interrelation between globalization, contemporary religious pluralism, and human rights in Latin America (www.revistaacademica.com).

Steven Gelberg, M.A., while a member from 1970 to 1987, served as the Krishna Movement’s principal liaison to the international academic community (e.g., he edited Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna: Five Distinguished Scholars on the Krishna Movement in the West, Grove Press, 1983), and its Director for Interreligious Affairs. He is author of a number of scholarly articles on ISKCON (and related historical, social-scientific, and cultic issues) published in various academic books and journals. He subsequently earned a master’s degree (comparative religion) from Harvard Divinity School in 1990. He currently lives with his wife and cat near San Francisco, where he is an accomplished fine-art photographer working on a book, Photography and Imagination. His essay “On Leaving ISKCON,” to be published in revised form in a forthcoming volume from Columbia University Press, is available online at http://surrealist.org/betrayalofthespirit/gelberg.html.

Carol Giambalvo is an ex-cult member who has been a thought-reform consultant since 1984 and a cofounder of reFOCUS, a national support network for former cult members. She is on ICSA’s Board of Directors, director of ICSA’s Recovery Programs, and is responsible for its Project Outreach. Author of Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention, co-editor of The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ, and co-author of “Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants,” Ms. Giambalvo has written and lectured extensively on cult-related topics. (affcarol@worldnet.att.net)

Lorna Goldberg, M.S.W., L. C. S. W., is a psychoanalyst in private practice with children, adolescents, and adults. She has co-led a support group for ex-cult members with her husband, William, for over twenty-five years. She is on the Board of Directors of ICSA/ICSA and is dean of faculty, Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies, Teaneck, New Jersey. She has written extensively for social work and ICSA publications. (Lorna@blgoldberg.com)

William Goldberg, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., a therapist in private practice, has co-led a support group for ex-cult members with his wife, Lorna, for over twenty-five years. He is the director of Training and Staff Development of the Rockland County (NY) Department of Mental Health. Mr. Goldberg is an adjunct lecturer in the Social Work Department of Dominican College. (Bill@blgoldberg.com)

Rosanne Henry, M.A., L.P.C., a member of ICSA's Board of Directors, is a psychotherapist practicing in Littleton, Colorado. For the past fifteen years she has been helping those harmed by cults through the original CAN and ICSA. Her private practice specializes in the treatment of cult survivors and their families. She is a former member of Kashi Ranch. (rosanne@cultrecover.com)

Dr. Sharon Hilderbrant is a licensed clinical psychologist who has worked with individuals, families, and groups who have experienced long-term spiritual abuse in a religious setting. She applies systems theory and addiction models to her recovery program. Most of her clients have come out of Bible-based organizations, and many have chosen to retain their Christian faith, desiring to recover from the abuse and learn how to recognize healthy faith communities. Once, when asked by a newspaper journalist whether it is possible to practice an orthodox faith without the excesses and abuses that are frequently committed, her answer was a confident “Yes!”

Gillie Jenkinson is in private practice as a counsellor and psychotherapist (Diploma in Pastoral Counselling and MA Gestalt Psychotherapy) and is accredited by the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). She specialises in working with survivors of abuse, including cultic and sexual abuse, and has worked for Sheffield Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service since 1995. In 1999 Gillie did a one-month internship at Wellspring Retreat and Rehabilitation Center in Ohio. She is experienced in face-to-face work, helpline support, and group work. She is also a supervisor and does training in working with cult and sexual abuse/rape survivors.  Her contact details are: gilliepsychotherapistukcp@hotmail.co.uk or +1433 639032.

Joseph F. Kelly, a thought-reform consultant since 1988, spent fourteen years in two different Eastern meditation groups. He has lectured extensively on cult-related topics, and is a co-author of “Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants,” published in ICSA’s Cultic Studies Journal. (joek1055@hotmail.com)

Masaki Kito, Esq., is a founding partner of Link Sougou Law Office in Tokyo, established in 2001. He is one of the leading public commentators on cults in Japan, making frequent appearances in the various media, including TV. He has been an advocate for the victims of various cultic groups for over fifteen years in Tokyo. Currently he is the vice chairperson of the Consumer’s Problems Committee of the Japan Federation of Bar Association (JFBA).

Pat Knapp, M.A., Philosophy of Religion, Denver Seminary. His thesis was entitled The Place of Mind-Control in the Cult Recovery Process (November 2000). He was a member of a high-control, Bible-based group from 1970 to 1984. Over the past twenty years he has been involved in teaching, witnessing, and counseling those affected by various forms of religious abuse. He is currently working on a book project regarding recovery issues for those from religiously dysfunctional (cultic) backgrounds. www.soulcrafteastofeden.blogspot.com

Michael Kropveld, executive director and founder of Info-Cult, the largest resource centre of its kind in Canada. Since 1980 Mike has assisted thousands of former members and members of “cults,” “new religious movements,” and other groups, and their families. He has spoken in Canada and internationally to hundreds of professional and community groups on the cultic phenomenon. He is also involved in counselling and is consulted by, among others, mental-health professionals, law-enforcement agencies, and media, and he has served as an expert witness on cult-related criminal and civil cases. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs locally, nationally, and internationally. In 1992 he was awarded the 125 Commemorative Medal “in recognition of significant contribution to compatriots, community and to Canada” by the Government of Canada. He co-authored the book The Cult Phenomenon: How Groups Function (March 2006) and its French version (Le phénomène des sectes: L’étude du fonctionnement des groupes). Both versions are downloadable at no charge from Info-Cult’s Web site, www.infocult.org, or available in print format.

Janja Lalich, Ph.D., is associate professor of sociology at California State University, Chico. Her research and writing has focused on cults and controversial groups, with a specialization in charismatic authority, power relations, ideology, and social control, and issues related to gender and sexuality. Her most recent book, Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults, (University of California Press) presents a new approach to understanding cult commitments, and is based on her comparative study of Heaven’s Gate, which committed collective suicide in 1997, and the Democratic Workers Party, a radical left-wing political cult. Other works include being guest editor of Women Under the Influence: A Study of Women’s Lives in Totalist Groups (a special issue of Cultic Studies Journal 14,1, 1997); and coauthor of “Crazy” Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? (Jossey-Bass, 1996); Cults in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995); and Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships (Hunter House, 1994). Dr. Lalich recently completed a newly revised and expanded edition of her first book, Captive Hearts, Captive Minds, which is now available as