Conference: Understanding Cults and New Religious Movements -- Perspectives
of Researchers, Professionals, Former Members, and Families
Listed below are first the
presenters and their affiliations and then the presenters with one-paragraph
biographical sketches, when available.
Presenters with Affiliations
Richard Abanes,
Religion journalist and author of nearly a dozen books on cults and new
religious movements
Lourdes
Arguelles, Ph.D.
Professor of Education and Women Studies, Claremont Graduate University, CA
Livia Bardin, M.S.W.,
Clinical Social Worker in private practice, Washington, D.C.
Rachel Bernstein, MS.Ed., M.F.T.,
Marriage and family therapist in private practice, Los Angeles, CA
Chanon
Bloch, L.C.S.W.,
psychotherapist in private practice, Los Angeles, CA
Miriam
Williams Boeri, Ph.D., Department of
Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Rollins School of Public
Health, Emory University
Harold
Bussell, D.Div.
Senior Pastor, El Montecito Presbyterian Church, Santa Barbara, CA
Paul Carden,
Executive Director, Centers for Apologetics Research, San Juan Capistrano,
California
Cliff
Cheng, Ph.D.,
School of Religion, University of Southern California
David Clark,
Thought Reform Consultant; AFF Video
Education Committee Chair, Philadelphia, PA
Katherine Clemons, a former member of the Jim
Roberts Group, is a seminar organizer, communications coordinator, and
special assignments teacher for the Eagles Home School Group in Las Vegas,
NV
Mary Jo Cysewski, M.A., M.F.T.,
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice, Beverly Hills,
CA
Kathleen
Danielsen,
Software engineer, San Francisco, CA
Zixian
Deng, Department
of Political Science, University of North Texas
Sarah Edmonds, Ph.D.,
Psychology Faculty, Northcentral University, Prescott, AZ
Vincent Egan, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Postgraduate Forensic
Psychology Programme, Department of Psychology,
Glasgow Caledonian University City Campus
Andrea Moore Emmett, Journalist, Salt Lake City, Utah
Ronald Enroth, Ph.D.,
Professor of Sociology, Westmont College,
Santa Barbara, California
Jorge Erdely, Ph.D.,
Director, Centro de Investigaciones, Instituto Cristiano de Mexico, Mexico
City
David Foy, Ph.D.,
Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University
Carol Giambalvo,
Director of Recovery Programs,
AFF; Thought Reform Consultant, Flagler Beach, FL
Jim Guerra. Former member of the Jim Roberts
Group and author of From Dean's List to Dumpsters: Why I Left Harvard to
Join a Cult
John Hochman, M.D.
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA
Massimo Introvigne, Center for
Studies on New Religions, Torino, Italy
Joseph Kelly,
Thought Reform Consultant,
Philadelphia, PA
Stephen Kent, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology, University
of Alberta
Fuzuki Kuroda, M.A.,
Clinical Psychologist, Graduate
School of Sociology,
Kansai University, Japan
Janja Lalich, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor of Sociology, California State University,
Chico
Michael Langone,
Ph.D., Executive Director, AFF;
Editor, Cultic Studies Review
Lawrence Levy, Esq.,
Attorney in private practice,
Sherman Oaks, CA
Ronald Loomis,
Cult Educational Consultant, New London, Connecticut
J. Anna
Looney, Department of
Sociology, Rutgers University
Samuel
Luo, San Francisco, CA
Rod Marshall, Ph.D.,
Dean of Faculty of Applied Social Sciences and Humanities, Buckinghamshire
Chilterns University College, Wycombe, and FAIR, England
Paul Martin, Ph.D.,
Director, Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center,
Albany, Ohio
Cesar Mascarenas,
M.D., Professor and Researcher,
Faculty of Post-Graduate Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
Julia McNeil is co-founder and director of the
Safe Passage Foundation
Kimiaki Nishida,
Ph.D., Associate Professor of
Social Psychology, University of Shizuoka,
Japan
K. Gordon Neufeld,
M.F.A., Freelance Writer, Calgary, Alberta
Chris Olson, a former member of the Jim Roberts
Group, is a clergy intern in St. Paul, MN
Anne M. Rivero,
L.C.S.W., Psychiatric Social
Worker, Kaiser Permanente of Southern California
Herbert Rosedale,
Esq., President, AFF; Senior
Counselor, Gilchrist & Jenkins Parker Chapin, New York City
Patrick Ryan,
Thought Reform Consultant, Philadelphia,
PA
Yoshihide Sakurai,
M.A., Department of
Sociology, Hokkaido University, Japan
Marina Sarran, Department of
Sociology, University of California at Santa Cruz
Alan Scheflin, J.D.,
L.L.M., Professor of Law, Santa
Clara University Law School, Santa Clara, California
Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff, Writer
and former Editor, Gentle Spirit Magazine, Gig Harbor, WA
Scott Shaw,
former Vineyard member, Chucamonga, CA
Shingo Takahashi,
M.D., Associate Professor of
Psychiatry, Toho University, Japan
Elizabeth Wang, M.D., Research Scientist, Scion
Pharmaceuticals, Boston, MA
Jonibeth Whitney,
Ph.D., Psychotherapist, Los
Angeles, California
Doni Whitsett, Ph.D.,
L.C.S.W., Clinical Associate
Professor, School of Social Work, University of Southern California;
psychotherapist in private practice, Encino, CA
Benjamin Zablocki,
Ph.D., Professor
of Sociology, Rutgers University
Presenters' Biographical Sketches
Richard Abanes, religion journalist and author
of nearly a dozen books on cults and new religious movements, including
American Militias: Rebellion, Racism, and Religion (1996). In 1997 he
received the The Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North
America for his "outstanding work on intolerance in North America."
Dr. Lourdes Arguelles, Ph.D. (New York
University) is Professor of Women Studies and Education at Claremont
Graduate University, California. A leading voice in human rights for Latino
immigrants in the United States, she currently focuses on the fields of
interdisciplinary studies, communities and the impact of religious
globalization. She holds a post-graduate certification in clinical
psychology from the University of York, Canada, and has worked extensively
as a psychotherapist for political refugees from around the world who have
been victims of torture and terrorism.
Livia Bardin, M.S.W., Therapist, Clinical Social
Worker. Ms. Bardin specializes in cult-related cases. A member of the Family
Therapy Practice Academy of the Clinical Social Work Federation, she chairs
AFF's Family Workshop Advisory Board and
since
1997 has presented AFF-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)
Rachel Bernstein, MS.Ed., L.M.F.T., is a
marriage and family therapist in private practice in Los Angeles, where she
runs a monthly support group for former cult members. She is the former
coordinator of the Cult Clinic in Los Angeles, and The Maynard Bernstein
Resource Center on Cults. She counseled families and former members at the
Cult Hotline and Clinic in New York, developed their Speaker's Bureau, and
facilitated the support group for families of those in cults.
Arnold Chanon Bloch is a psychotherapist with a
Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Southern California
and a Master's degree in Jewish Communal Service from Hebrew Union College.
His many years of clinical experience include helping families develop
strategies for reaching out to loved ones engaged in destructive group
situations and helping cult victims recover from trauma. Mr. Bloch works
with children, adolescents, and adults in individual, couple, group, and
family modalities. Groups he facilitates include groups for fathers and
sons, couples, and adolescents. Mr. Bloch has appeared on numerous radio and
television shows as an expert on the subject of vulnerability to destructive
influences, such as missionary groups, cults, and gangs. A former
coordinator/therapist at the Los Angeles Cult Clinic, he co-authored an
article entitled "From Consultation to Therapy in a Group for Parents of
Cultists," which was published in Social Casework.
Miriam Williams Boeri joined The Children of
God/The Family in 1971 as a young college student. In 1988, while living in
Italy, she left the group along with her five children and returned to the
United States to continue an interrupted education. This year she finished
her graduate studies in Sociology and receives a hard-earned doctorate.
Boeri also wrote a book about her experiences in the cult, Heaven’s
Harlots: My Fifteen Years as a Sacred Prostitute in the Children of God Cult,
published in 1998. An article she wrote about the experiences of former
members of this cult will be published this year in the June issue of the
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography.
(miriamwilliams@mindspring.com)
Rev. Dr. Harold L. Bussell received an M.A. in
Psychology from Santa Clara University in 1974 and a D.Div. in 1980 from
Andover Newton Theological Seminary in Massachusetts. He established a drug
rehabilitation center in Paris, France in 1968-1970, was a pastor in
Saratoga, California from 1970-1976, served as Dean of Students at Gordon
College in Wenham, Massachusetts from 1976-1988, and was the Senior Pastor
of the First Congregational Church in Hamilton, Massachusetts from
1984-1996. Since 1996 he has been Senior Pastor at El Montecito Presbyterian
Church in Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of Unholy Devotion
and By Hook or By Crook, as well as numerous articles in a variety of
journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Paul Carden is the executive director of the
Centers for Apologetics Research in San Juan Capistrano, California. He has
more than 20 years’ experience in the field of cult-related research and
outreach.
Cliff Cheng, Ph.D. (University of Southern
California) is a social scientist who does research on cults and
discrimination at the University of Southern California School of Religion.
He has taught at the University of California Irvine and UCLA. He has
published or presented over 140 papers. In 1998 he was named Ascendant
Scholar by the Western Academy of Management. He previously served as Los
Angeles City Human Relations Commissioner.
David Clark, Thought Reform Consultant,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Clark has been active in this field for
more than 20 years and is the chair of AFF’s Video Education Committee. Mr.
Clark is on the Board of the Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation and reFOCUS.
He was a contributing author for the exit counseling chapter in the W.W.
Norton book, Recovery from Cults. In 1985 he received the Hall of
Fame Award from the "original" Cult Awareness Network. He was a founding
member of the "original" Focus and reFOCUS, a national support network for
former cult members. He has been a national and international conference
speaker on the topic of cults and has been interviewed by newspapers, radio,
and TV stations on the topic of mind control and cults for over two decades.
(cultspecs2@comcast.net)
Katherine Clemons joined the Jim Roberts Group
at its inception in 1971, and left in 1978. Since leaving JRG, known for
its repression of women, Katherine has been involved as the president of her
own company and in key leadership roles within the church community.
Katherine also serves as a seminar organizer, communications coordinator,
and special assignments teacher for the Eagles Home School Group in Las
Vegas. She is the Founder and Moderator for two websites: one for former
members of the JRG, and one for both former members and families with
children yet remaining in the cult.
Mary Jo
Cysewski, M.A., M.F.T.,
is a
marriage and family therapist in private practice in Los Angeles, where she
provides individual and family therapy. Ms. Cysewski specializes in
cult-related cases. She also provides monthly support groups for former
cult members and for families who have a loved one who is involved in a
cult.
Kathleen Danielson, currently a software
engineer in the Silicon Valley, was raised by fundamentalist missionaries.
She is interested in contributing to research of traumatic abuse and
psychological manipulation within fundamentalist religions, particularly
with respect to children who are born and raised under its influence.
Zixian Deng is a Ph.D. Candidate in Political
Science, University of North Texas. He specializes in civil societies,
human rights development, and the state, and has training in religion and
philosophy. His publications include "Measuring Tolerance" (co-author,
forthcoming Social Science Quarterly). He began publishing his
research on Falungong in early 1999 (see www.wys.org/pages/falun.html) and
has since written extensively on its development and has participated in
various debates on its theological foundation.
(dengzixian@hotmail.com)
Sarah Edmonds, Ph.D. is currently a full time
faculty member at Northcentral University, an online distance learning
institution. She received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from
Syracuse University in 1993 and is a licensed psychologist in Arizona and
California. She has published research in the area of traumatic loss and has
given public talks on abuse of power within the psychotherapy relationship.
She was a member of a new age/eastern religious group, Sri Chinmoy, for 5
years.
Vincent Egan, Ph.D., Professor of
Psychology, directs the post-graduate forensic psychology courses at Glasgow
Caledonian University, Scotland. A chartered clinical and forensic
psychologist, he was lead psychologist on a personality disorder assessment
and treatment unit in a Medium Secure Unit for mentally disordered
offenders. His main current research areas are assessing criminogenic
cognitions and the pathognomic significance of unusual and extreme interests
and belief systems. He is author of almost 50 publications and has been a
member of the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences
for almost 20 years. He has previous (academic) lives in the field of
mental speed models of human cognition and the effects of HIV on the central
nervous system.
Andrea Moore Emmett is a journalist and
researcher. She was the researcher for the two hour A&E documentary, Inside
Polygamy, and has provided research for ABC's 20/20. 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. Moore Emmett has spoken across the
country concerning abuses against women and children within polygamy and has
just finished a book, to be published soon, detailing the lives of women who
have left the religious groups who practice this lifestyle.
Ronald Enroth, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology,
Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA. An acknowledged national resource
person on cults and new religious movements, Dr. Enroth has spent more than
twenty-five years researching and writing in the area of the sociology of
religion. In addition to many journal and magazine articles, he has
authored or co-authored nine books, including two on the topic of abusive
churches.
Jorge Erdely, Ph.D. is Editor of the Latin
American Journal for the Academic Study of Religions, a pluralistic,
multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed periodical that focuses on religious
globalization and human rights in the Hispanic context. He is the author of
several published scientific papers and ten books on extreme religious
groups, theology, and human rights. Among them, the international
best-seller: Pastores que Abusan, Suicidios Colectivos Rituales
and his latest, Terrorismo Religioso. In 2001 Dr. Erdely was a
post-doctoral Oxford Theological Foundation Research Fellow. He is currently
Director of the Research Center of the Mexican Christian Institute and a
member of the Asociacion Latinoamericana para el Estudio de las Religiones,
the regional affiliate of the International Association for the History
of Religion (IAHR).
David Foy, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology,
Graduate School of Education and Psychology, Pepperdine University. Dr. Foy
is also adjunct professor of psychology, Headington Program in International
Trauma, Fuller Theological Seminary, and senior research consultant,
National Center for PTSD, Menlo Park Division. He is a recipient of the
Robert S. Laufer Memorial Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement,
given to an individual or group that has made an outstanding contribution to
research in the PTSD field.
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 AFF’s Board of
Directors, Director of AFF’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)
Jim Guerra, a former member of the Jim
Robert's group, was recruited from Harvard College in 1976 and spent 10
years hitchhiking around the country, seeking converts to this vagabond
Christian ministry. He left the group in 1986, returned to school, and
graduated Magna Cum Laude from University of Maryland in 1989. After
graduating he wrote
From Dean's List to Dumpsters: Why I Left Harvard to Join a Cult. He
has appeared with Charlie Rose, and spoken extensively about his experience
on college campuses, public schools, churches and synagogues. An avid
Dodger fan, Jim carefully selected the woman who was to become the Dodger's
Assistant Director of Player Development for his wife. Married to Luchy, and
blessed with two children, Jim now resides in La Verne, California.
Professionally, Jim teaches mathematics in Claremont, California, and
organizes short-term mission trips for his church to Mexico.
John Hochman, M.D.,
Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine.
Massimo Introvigne, Jur.D. is a
partner in one of Italy's largest law firms and a member of the "Religions"
division of the Italian Association of Sociology. He is the author of more
than thirty books and one hundred articles in international journals on the
sociology and history of religious movements, and has been the chief editor
of the award-winning Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy (2001).
Joseph F. Kelly, a thought reform
consultant since 1988, spent 14 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 AFF’s Cultic Studies Journal.
(freecognition@mindspring.com)
Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D., Professor of
Sociology, University of Alberta, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses
on the sociology of religion and the sociology of sectarian groups. He has
published articles in Philosophy East and West, Journal of Religious
History, British Journal of Sociology, Sociological Inquiry,
Sociological Analysis, Canadian Journal of Sociology,
Quaker History, Comparative Social Research, Journal of
Religion and Health, Cultic Studies Journal, Skeptic,
Marbourg Journal of Religion, and Religion. His current research
concentrates on nontraditional and alternative religions.
Fuzuki Kuroda, M.A. Clinical Psychologist,
Graduate School of Sociology, Kansai University, Japan. Ms. Kuroda is a
doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology. She focuses on the various
psychological problems for post-cult trauma syndrome. Her primary work is
counseling ex-members.
Janja Lalich, Ph.D. is Assistant 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 forthcoming 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). (JLalich@csuchico.edu)
Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., a counseling
psychologist, is AFF’s Executive Director. He was the founder editor of
Cultic Studies Journal (CSJ), the editor of CSJ’s successor, Cultic
Studies Review, and editor of Recovery From Cults. He is
co-author of Cults: What Parents Should Know and Satanism
and Occult-Related Violence: What You Should Know. Dr. Langone has
spoken and written widely about cults. In 1995, he received the Leo J. Ryan
Award from the "original" Cult Awareness network and was honored as the
Albert V. Danielsen visiting Scholar at Boston University.
(aff@affcultinfoserve.com)
Lawrence Levy, Esq., a trial attorney in
Southern California, has been involved in “cult” litigation for over twenty
years. He has represented clients against Church Universal & Triumphant,
Scientology, Hare Krishna, The Way International, and other groups.
Ronald N. Loomis has been educating others about
cults for some 25 years at over 100 colleges and universities throughout the
US and Canada. He is a Past President of the original Cult Awareness
Network (CAN) and was a founding member of the Steering Committee of the
International Cult Education Program (ICEP) and was Chair of the Interim
Planning Committee (IPC), which created the Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation
(LJREF) and the Cult Information and Resource Center (CIRC), (CULTINFO). In
1999, he served as a principle expert witness for the Legislative Task Force
on Cults in Maryland. He has been cited in such publications as The New
York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Congressional Quarterly,
The Christian Science Monitor, The Toronto Sun and Newsweek Magazine.
He has been interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), The
Today Show at the request of NBC News, The Discovery Channel, ABC
Productions, and Current Affair. He is featured in the educational
video, Cults, Saying No Under Pressure, and he authored a chapter in
the book Cults on Campus. He has been an expert advisor to The
Roberts Group Parents Network (TRGPN) since it was founded in 1997.
(rloomis07@SNET.NET)
J. Anna Looney is in the final stage of her
doctoral studies in Sociology at Rutgers University. For the last four
years, she has worked closely with Ben Zablocki and John Levi Martin as a
research assistant in all phases of data collection for the Urban Communes
Project, Zablocki's longitudinal panel study begun in 1974. Looney is
currently concentrating on the study of New Religious Movements. She has
taught undergraduate courses in Social Gerontology, Sociology of the Family,
and the Sociology of Women.
looney@sociology.rutgers.edu
Samuel Luo is a certified massage therapist
working in San Francisco. In 1999, Sam’s parents were both recruited by the
Falun Gong in San Francisco. Since then, his parents have suffered serious
physical and mental harm because of their involvement in the Falun Gong.
After his stepfather had a stroke in January 2002, Sam committed himself to
revealing the truth about the Falun Gong. Since then he has been researching
information about this group.
Rod Marshall, Ph.D.(Nottm) teaches Psychology at
Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in Wycombe, England, where he
is head of the Department of Human Sciences and Acting Dean of Faculty,
Applied Social Sciences and Humanities. His principal research is on the
psychological effects of cultic group membership, social influence in
organizational settings, and the psychological processes involved in social
group identity and prejudice. He is also a member of Politics, Psychology
Resistance, a UK group of researchers, practitioners, and clients working
against the harmful effects of psychology, including within the mental
health system, as well as a member of the national committee of FAIR
(Family, Action, Information, Resource), UK.
(rod.marshall@bcuc.ac.uk)
Paul Martin, Ph.D., a former member and leader
of Great Commission International (currently called Great Commission
Association of Churches), is a psychologist and Director of the Wellspring
Retreat and Resource Center in Albany, Ohio, a residential rehabilitation
center for ex-cult members. Dr. Martin is author of Cult-Proofing Your
Kids. He has written numerous articles on cults, including several
contributions to Cultic Studies Journal, and has been interviewed by
many newspapers and radio and TV stations concerning cults.
Cesar Mascarenas, M.D., is Director of Medical
Research, Research Center of the Mexican Christian Institute, and Dean and
Professor, Post-graduate Studies and Research Department, School of
Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
(cesar.mascarenas@aventis.com)
Julia McNeil was born and raised in The Family
(formerly the Children of God). She left the group when she was 20, and has
spent the last six years as a project manager specializing in web based
application development. She is the founder and administrator of an online
support group for young people who were also born and raised in The Family,
and is a co-founder and director of the Safe Passage Foundation, an
organization incorporated in May 2003 that provides support and advocacy for
people raised in restrictive and isolated communities.
Raymundo Meza Aceves, Esq.
is Director of the Departamento de Investigaciones
sobre Abusos Religiosos, a México City based Human Rights organization.
He graduated as a lawyer from the prestigious Escuela de Estudios
Superiores of the National University of Mexico and specialized in Criminal
Law. He holds Post-graduate Diplomas in Human Rights by UNESCO and the
Department of Political Science of UNAM. Mr. Meza is the author of several
research works on religious pluralism, government corruption and religious
crime. He is a legal consultant to several Latin American NGO’s and Human
Rights Organizations and is frequently consulted by national and
international media covering both, religious discrimination and religious
violence. His must recent published work (November 2002) are two chapters in
the book Rostros de la Impunidad, a survey on gender violence by
civil and religious leaders, both cultic and mainstream.
(Mexico City: RNCV, 2002).
K. Gordon Neufeld, M.F.A., graduated from
the University of British Columbia with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing in
1997 and a B.A. in English in 1976. A freelance writer, he is the author of
Heartbreak and Rage: Ten Years Under Sun Myung Moon (College Station,
TX: VirtualBookworm.com, Inc., 2002). He is a regular contributor of book
reviews to Books in Canada magazine, and has published in the
Vancouver Sun, the Calgary Herald, and the Baltimore City
Paper. His opinion piece about the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s mass
marriages appeared in First Things magazine in January, 2003. He is
working on a novel and a collection of short stories.
Kimiaki Nishida, Ph.D., a social psychologist in
Japan, is Associate Professor at the University of Shizuoka and a Director
of the Japan Cult Recovery Council. He is a leading Japanese cultic studies
scholar and the editor of Japanese Journal of Social Psychology. His
studies on psychological manipulation by cults were awarded prizes by
several academic societies in Japan. And he has been summoned to some courts
for explaining "cult mind control." (nishidak@u-sjozuoka-ken.ac.jp)
Chris Olson was a member in the Jim Roberts
Group in 1971. After spending several years in business, Chris earned a
Bachelors Degree in Organizational Management from Colorado Christian
University. In 1998 she earned a Master's of Divinity from Yale University,
and is currently a chaplain intern in St. Paul, MN. She will soon enter a
Master's program in Counseling and Psychotherapy.
Anne M. Rivero received her Bachelor's degree in
Psychology and her Master's degree in Social Work at the University of
California in Los Angeles, where she also worked as a social worker in the
Neuro-psychiatric Institute. Ms. Rivero also worked as a psychiatric social
worker with Latino immigrants suffering from severe psychopathology at the
Los Angeles County Hospital, which at that time was affiliated with the
School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. For the last
ten years, Ms. Rivero has been a psychiatric social worker at Kaiser
Permanente in Southern California. Ms. Rivero has published articles in
several edited books and in the Journal of Urban Anthropology dealing
with transnational migration and mental health. She is a licensed
psychiatric social worker in the State of California.
Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq., President of AFF, is
with Jenkens & Gilchrist & Parker Chapin in New York City. He has written
several articles on cults and the law, contributed a chapter to Recovery
From Cults, and is co-editor of The Boston Movement: Critical
Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ. Mr. Rosedale has
lectured widely on cults and was the Executive in Residence at the School of
Business, Indiana University in 1992.
Patrick Ryan, a former member of Transcendental
Meditation, has been a thought reform consultant since 1984. He designs and
implements AFF's Internet Web site. Mr. Ryan is the founder and former head
of TM-ex, the organization of ex-members of TM. He has contributed to AFF’s
book, Recovery From Cults, and has presented programs about hypnosis
and trance-induction techniques at several AFF workshops and conferences. (Patrick.ryan@affcultinfoserve.com)
Yoshihide Sakurai
is Associate Professor, Department of
Sociology, Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan.
He is also an executive board member of
the Japan Cult Recovery Council. He has been conducting research on the cult
controversy in Japan, especially the Unification Church of Japan.
Marina Sarran was born and raised in Italy and
currently speaks four languages. As a comparative sociologist, she has been
working with Dr. Dane Archer on several cross-cultural research projects at
the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests include
sexuality, verbal and nonverbal communication, violence, social control,
power and policies in total institutions.
Alan W. Scheflin, J.D., LL.M., is
Professor of Law at Santa Clara University Law School in California. Among
his many publications is Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law
(co-authored with Daniel Brown and D. Corydon Hammond), for which he
received the 1999 Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric
Association. Professor Scheflin is also the 1991 recipient of the
Guttmacher Award for Trance on Trial (with Jerrold Shapiro). A
member of the Editorial Advisory Board of AFF’s Cultic Studies Review,
Professor Scheflin received the 2001 American Psychological Association,
Division 30 (Hypnosis), Distinguished Contribution to Professional Hypnosis
Award. This is the "highest award that Division 30 can bestow." He was also
awarded in 2001 The American Board of Psychological Hypnosis, Professional
Recognition Award. This Award was created to honor his achievements in
promoting the legal and ethical use of hypnosis.
Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff is a writer, speaker,
and early pioneer of the home schooling movement in the U.S. She was the
editor of Gentle Spirit Magazine, a magazine for home schooling
mothers, from 1989 through 2001. She has spoken and published extensively
in the areas of home schooling, the history of home schooling, home birth,
homesteading, the "simple living" movement, and women's issues.
Excommunicated and driven out of business by national leaders of the
religious home schooling movement in 1994, Seelhoff filed and won a lawsuit
against them in federal court in 1998. Seelhoff is the mother of 11
children and has home schooled her children for 20 years.
Scott Shaw is a former actor and 10-year member
of the Vineyard Anaheim. He spent 3 years in the core group.
Shingo Takahashi, M.D., Ph.D., is a
director of the Japan Council to Combat Cults, founded in 1995. He studied
cultural psychiatry in Honolulu (East-West Center) and religious
psychopathology at Heidelberg University after completing his Ph.D. at the
graduate school of Toho University. He has published five books on
possession syndrome (Kitsunetsuki, i.e., fox-possession), magical healing,
and psychopathy. He is also a criminologist and profiler for murder
investigations. He has written approximately 200 original papers in
psychiatry (regrettably, all in Japanese) and is a TV commentator on
criminological and psychological matters.
Elizabeth Wang, M.D. practiced as an
ophthalmologist in China and served as a visiting fellow at the National
Institute of Health and a Research Associate at the Dana Farber Cancer
Institute of Harvard Medical School. She is now working at Scion
Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as a Scientist.
Jonibeth Whitney, Ph.D. Dr. Whitney received
her degree in multicultural/community clinical psychology at the California
School of Professional Psychology. For her doctoral dissertation she
examined the relationship between childhood abuse and the severity of
subsequent cult experiences. She also co-authored “The Individual Cult
Experience Index: The Assessment of Cult Involvement and Its Relationship to
Postcult Distress,” published in Cultic Studies Journal. Dr. Whitney
works in private practice and is involved in cult-related research.
Doni Whitsett, Ph.D, L.C.S.W.. is a Clinical
Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of
Southern California, teaching various courses in Practice, Behavior, and
Mental Health. She also has a private practice in the San Fernando Valley.
Dr. Whitsett has been working with cult-involved clients and their families
for over ten years, and gives lectures to students and professionals in this
area. Her publications include “A Self psychological Approach to the Cult
Phenomenon” (Journal of Social Work, 1992) and “Cults and Families” (Families
in Society – in press), which she co-authored with Dr. Stephen Kent.
Benjamin D. Zablocki, Ph.D. Professor of
Sociology at Rutgers University has been studying cults, communes, and
charisma for 36 years. He is the author of The Joyful Community
(1971) and Alienation and Charisma (1980) as well as numerous
articles on these topics. He is co-editor (with Thomas Robbins) of a book,
Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial
Field, published in 2001 by University of Toronto Press. This book
attempts to find a middle ground between the theories of the “cult
apologists” and the theories of the “anti-cultists.”
(zablocki@sociology.rutgers.edu.)
