ICSA Member Update

February 2010, Vol. 1, No. 1 

News on the activities of ICSA members (in no particular order).

Past Issues

Doug Agustin 

Doug Agustin gave a talk on Undue Influence as used by cults on December 16, 2009 to the Buffalo, MN. , Universalist Church seniors.  He will also give a similar talk to junior high students with the 1st Universalist Church of Minneapolis, MN.  Mr. Agustin has used a PowerPoint presentation on influence, which he adapts to the age of his audience.  If you would like a copy of his PowerPoint, contact ICSA.

Christine Rugullies

On December 25 and 26th, 2009 Christine Rugullies was interviewed as part of a cover story aired by New England Cable News (NECN). She spoke about her recovery from life in a religious cult. The interview is available on the NECN website under Arts and has the approximate title "Lisbon, Maine Doll Maker." They showed her book, Caryatid: Memoir of Life in a Religious Cult, which is available on Amazon.com

Colleen Russell, L.M.F.T.

Colleen Russell, L.M.F.T., reports the following:

Ms. Russell participated in a panel presentation on cults at the Mosaic Law Congregation, Sacramento, California, on November 12, 2009.  She was invited to talk about her experience in two cults:  a "Christian"/"Mystical" cult that she and her mother were recruited into when she was 14; and an "Eastern"/"New Age" cult into which she was recruited at 19 and in which she remained until the age of 27.  Former members Gina Catena, David Cole, and Steven Gelberg also presented, followed by a question and answer session with the approximately 30 people in attendance.  The previous week, Janja Lalich discussed the difference between cults and religions with the Rabbi. 

Ms. Russell also led a lively, interactive Workshop for Former Members in a comfortable, vacant apartment space directly above her Mill Valley office from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, December 5, 2009.  Coffee, tea, and light refreshments were served. The 10 participants were asked to bring paper and pens and discussion was based on topics they raised.  A handout packet was distributed.  Participants said they'd like to attend more workshops that she plans to offer.

In addition, Ms. Russell will talk about her eight years facilitating an on-going group for former members of cultic groups at the Northern California Group Psychotherapy Society's Clinical Conference at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California (June 4-6, 2010), and will present on a similar subject ("Group for Former Members, Opportunities for Healing and Change") at ICSA's annual conference in New York (July 1-3, 2010).

Serving as primary residential therapist at Wellspring Retreat for Former Cult Members, Colleen Russell, LMFT, provided services for two weeks in April, 2009.  Ms. Russell reports that it was her pleasure to meet with former members in individual therapy daily, and participate in the workshop, daily as well. 

Ms. Russell will host a Workshop For Former Members at her Mill Valley, California office on March 13, 2010 from 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.  Dr. Janja Lalich will be a special guest co-facilitator. An open discussion will focus on typical post-cult aftereffects and responses, the process of recovery and personal development, strategies and successes for creating a life of one’s own making. Call with any questions and to register:  Colleen Russell, 415.383.7721.  If you are planning to attend, registration fee must be received by March 6th, 2010.  Additional information is at www.ColleenRussellmft.com  "event" page.

Janja Lalich, Ph.D.

In addition to the Sacramento presentation noted above, Janja Lalich, Ph.D., Professor Sociology at California State University, Chico, served as an expert witness in the South Lake Tahoe, California, murder trial of Ulysses Roberson in November 2009. In December the jury found Mr. Roberson, a polygamist and sex offender, guilty of murdering his 4-year-old son in December 1985 or January 1986. The boy's body has never been found. Several of the women Roberson had been involved with also testified during the trial, which went on for more than two months. In January 2010 Roberson was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on a second-degree murder conviction. 

Also in September 2009 Dr. Lalich appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, speaking about coercive influence in the case of kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard. Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 at age 11 on her way to school in Meyers, California, and held for 18 years by Philip and Nancy Garrido in the ramshackle backyard of their home in Antioch. During that time, Dugard has two children fathered by Mr. Garrido; the first was born when Dugard herself was only about 14 years old.

David Cole 

David Cole, head of Bay Tree Publishing, says that in November 2009, his firm brought out a new book on cult issues, Cults, Terror, and Mind Control by Raphael Aron ($18.95 paperback). Aron is Director of Cult Counselling Australia and a therapist who has worked for 35 years with individuals involved with cults. More information on the book can be found at http://baytreepublish.com/clt-tr-mndc-fr.html

Jill Henry

Jill Henry of Australia's Cult Information and Family Support (CIFS) says that on November 28, 2009 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. an introductory workshop on cults and coercive persuasion and manipulative and deceptive group practices was held at Celia Connolly's office in Maroubra, Sydney.  Ms. Connolly is a Psychologist and Clinical Supervisor of Mandala Community Counselling Service and is also in charge of training. The workshop's emphasis was on working with clients who have been in such groups or cults (as they have been traditionally known).  Refreshments were served in the break to enable time for discussion and questions.  The workshop fee was only $15.

Mandala Community Counselling Service is unusual in Sydney (and in Australia) in that it provides ongoing, free counselling for the disadvantaged and marginalized as well as people who may not have been originally deemed distressed but need help as a result of various events and stresses and are unable to pay for services to be found in the private sector. Jill Henry is on the board of Mandala, which is manned almost entirely by volunteers with money raised from charitable institutions to pay for insurance, intake work, and in particular clinical supervision. While there are other organizations that provide counseling for disadvantaged individuals, none provide continuous, ongoing, psychotherapy, when needed, with the same counselor each week in the same place. One of the principal aims of Mandala is to build resilience rather than provide band-aid treatment in a limited number of sessions. As clients get well many donate to Mandala, thereby increasing the revenue needed to pay for essential services. 

The workshop was for existing and new Mandala counselors and psychotherapists, several of whom have private practices in Sydney and some who work for various government and state organizations. The invitation was sent only to counselors of Mandala Community Counselling Service; eight therapists attended. What is relevant is that CIFS is able to refer people to Mandala Community Counselling Services, if they are unable to pay for ongoing counseling. We want Mandala's counselors to have the relevant information about cults with a formal avenue to acquire more information where necessary. Training is ongoing, and we attempt to train a number of new counselors in psychodynamic psychotherapy every 18 months. These candidates are expected to have basic training in counseling before doing the course at Mandala.

The eight therapists attending were given an introductory overview and shown snippets of videos, in particular, a video called, "Beyond Our Ken," a documentary on a group called Kenja.  In Australia, this group has had a fair amount of publicity.  Its leader committed suicide.  The attendees were given the following links:

http://www.cifs.org.au/   (Cult Information and Family Support in Australia) http://www.icsahome.com/

http://www.cultrecover.com/

http://www.blgoldberg.com/ (with particular emphasis on the page called Guidelines for Therapists)

Follow up: All those who attended said they wish to be on the list for future referrals from CIFS. Two of these therapists are already seeing clients who have previously been in cults.

Monique van Heynsbergen

Monique van Heynsbergen of Amsterdam, Netherlands was in the Focolare for 24 years. She left 20 years ago. After a long process of healing she is only now able to help other people.  For two years, she has been supporting ex-cult members (mostly of Focolare) all over the world. The amount of contact is growing, taking up many hours a day of her time.  Her 2009 activities have included:

May 2009: Publication of the book Bevrijd – Over identiteitsverlies en de lange weg naar heelwording (Monique Goudsmit ps.) (English translation: Liberated – Losing identity and the long road to healing). ISBN 978-94-90075-10-1  Publ. by Calbona/Rotterdam NL  www.boekenroute.nl /  www.bol.com.  English and Italian translations will be available in the future.  

October 2009: Ms. van Heynsbergen was interviewed about her healing story after an article on Focolare appeared in Trouw, a daily newspaper in the Netherlands. Title of the article: "Ik had mijn ziel verkocht" (translation: "I sold my soul"). The English version of the article can be requested from ayla2008@live.nl  

December 2009: Ms. van Heynsbergen was interviewed for an article, entitled "Focolare: een sekte?" (transl. "Focolare: a cult?"), which was published in the Belgian magazine, Focus. An English version will be available soon.

In February 2010 she was interviewed by the Dutch magazine, Vriendin. The article will be published in March.

Hope Valley Counselling and ICSA Cooperate on Conference

On 10th July, 2009 ICSA and Hope Valley Counselling Limited successfully hosted a day conference in central London entitled, "Cults – The Unique Issues and Ways to Recover." The venue was provided by a UK charity, which does not wish to be named but to which we are most grateful. Twenty three participants attended and there was an opportunity for networking and forming new friendships.

The speakers were: Mrs. Lorna Goldberg, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. of New York and President of ICSA; Mr. William Goldberg, M.S.W., L.C.S.W. of New York; Dr. Nicola Crowley, a Consultant Psychiatrist working in General Adult Psychiatry within the NHS in UK; and Ms. Gillie Jenkinson, M.A. Gestalt Psychotherapy and accredited psychotherapist in UK.  

Gillie Jenkinson welcomed everyone and started by dedicating the day to Dr. Betty Tylden, who died on February 3rd 2009 aged 91. She was an eminent family psychiatrist and well known for her work with people traumatized by religious cults that use mind control techniques. The day was also dedicated to Dr. Paul Martin who was seriously ill (and subsequently died on 14th August 2009). Dr. Martin was a Psychologist and the founder of Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center in Ohio, and his contribution to both research and clinical work with ex-cult members was immeasurable.  

Dr. Crowley was the first to speak. She presented an interesting and lively look at "Pathological Spirituality." She summarized Chapter 13 of a book published by RCPSYCH publications entitled, Spirituality and Psychiatry, which chapter she co-authored with Gillie Jenkinson.  

William and Lorna Goldberg shared two sessions, interweaving their presentations, which were entitled, "How Relationships with Family Members are Affected by a Recruit’s Entrance into and Departure from a Cult."  This stimulating and interesting talk covered the feelings a family may hold towards their family members when they enter a cult, while they are cult members, and when they leave the cult. They also covered issues faced by those born and/or raised in a cult - second generation cult leavers. They noted the great strengths this group demonstrates, but also addressed the many hardships they face. These include financial hardships, lack of family support, lack of education, under-employment, confusion with the mainstream culture and language and difficulty establishing a safe place. They noted how many second generation cult leavers have suffered years of abuse and that this needs addressing by society. 

Gillie Jenkinson presented a paper on the clinical issues faced by ex-cult members with emphasis on cult pseudo-personality. She summarized her thinking that the cult pseudo-personality is not a dissociative disorder but an introjected personality that needs chewing over so that the individual can decide which bits to keep and which bits to get rid of. She then addressed what helps ex-members recover from their abusive cult experience taken from her MA research.  

A question and answer time was allocated at the end of the day and all questions were kept for this slot.  Evaluation sheets were handed out at the end of the day. We asked the participants to grade the day on a scale of 1-10; the average rating was 8.

Mary Garden  

Mary Garden of Australia (author of The Serpent Rising) published a review of Jane Stork's memoir, Breaking the Spell (her life as a Rajneeshee), which has just been published in the latest Humanist magazine.  Here is the link:  http://www.thehumanist.org/humanist/09_nov_dec/Garden.html

INFORM Seminar

INFORM Seminar XLIII, "New Movements within the Islamic Tradition," took place at the London School of Economics, Saturday 21 November 2009.  Speakers included: Eileen Barker (Professor Emeritus, LSE; Chair & Honorary Director, Inform), “One Religion, Many Directions: A Brief Introduction to Islamic Diversity," and Masoud Banisadr (Former member, Mojahedin-e Khalq; author of Masoud: Memoirs of an Iranian Rebel), "My Life in a Terrorist Cult.”

INFORM will host a seminar on "Cults and Crime" at the London School of Economics on April 24, 2010.  Speakers include ICSA members Eileen Barker, Ph.D., Francois Bellanger, Ph.D., Michael Kropveld, and Michael Langone, Ph.D.  More information:  http://www.inform.ac/

Salvation Road - A Play

Salvation Road, a new play that was featured at the ICSA conference in Philadelphia last summer, was  performed at the Walnut Street Theatre Independence Studio on 3 in September as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, a citywide festival of new theatre, dance, and music.  "Salvation Road" is the story of a cynical high school student whose philosophy of detachment is shattered when his sister becomes involved in a new religious movement and cuts off her family as a "toxic threat" to her faith.  ICSA member Charles Breinig produced the play and reserved the Sunday Sept. 6, 2 p.m. show for an ICSA benefit. All proceeds from that performance went to ICSA.

See reviews of the play:  http://www.icsahome.com/infoserv_conferences/salvation_road_reviews.pdf

The play is written by D. W. Gregory, author of Radium Girls, which has seen more than 100 productions worldwide and is a popular title among high school and university theatre groups.  Salvation Road is written to appeal to a young audience through an engaging story.

Following the Philadelphia production, the play will be promoted to high school and university performing troupes. It could also be performed by church or synagogue drama groups.  

If you would like to get involved by educating your local school, church, synagogue, university, seminary, etc; by using this play, send an email to CharlieNoSpam-SR@yahoo.com

Doni Whitsett, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.

Doni Whitsett, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., Associate Clinical Professor at University of Southern California, presented at the Spirituality and Social Work conference at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Her topic was "Spiritual Abuse in Cults aka High Demand Groups."

Paul Grosswald, Esq.

This April, ICSA Member Paul S. Grosswald, Esq., will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his escape from Scientology.  Since that time, Paul has given over 200 cult awareness seminars at schools, churches, synagogues and other civic organizations.  In August 2009, the Village Voice website published an article about one of Paul’s cult awareness seminars.  The article is available at:   http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/08/scientology_esc.php?page=1  

Paul graduated magna cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 2001, and currently practices law in New York and New Jersey.  He frequently advises cult members, ex-members, and their families regarding cult-related legal issues.  Paul recently helped a former Scientologist recover over $10,000 from the church.

Michael Kropveld

Mike Kropveld Executive Director of Info-Cult organized and moderated a panel “Victimes de dérives sectaires” at the 5e colloque de Plaidoyer-Victime. Participants at the workshop came from various government agencies and community groups.

Radio-Canada, Second Regard “Entre sectes et religions” had an interview with Mr. Kropveld. That broadcast as well as other Programs already Broadcast can be accessed from the following page of Info-Cult's website: http://infosect.freeshell.org/infocult/ic-events.html.

Roger Gonnet

In 2009 Roger Gonnet testified about Scientology's practices before courts in Europe.  A French court in October convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it almost $900,000, although the judges did not accede to the prosecution’s demand to ban the church.  

FECRIS Press Release

The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), at its Substantive Session of July 2009, granted Special consultative status to the European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism (FECRIS), thanks to the efforts of its Vice-President, Danièle Muller-Tulli. 

This umbrella association, which regroups over fifty associations in 31 countries, mainly in Europe but with correspondents in other continents, is concerned by the proliferation of contemporary groups with cultish and totalitarian tendencies. It is also an INGO with participative status with the Council of Europe since 2005.  fecrispres@googlemail.com   http://fecris.org

Eric Podico 

Mr. Eric Podico, vice-president of Vigi-Sectes in France (www.vigi-sectes.org), has completed an article (in French, 15 pages format A5) about the translations of the English New World Translation of the Jehovah Witnesses. He studied their "translation" in 9 languages (French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog). He concludes that the New World Translation in foreign languages (non English) is faithful to the English New World Translation, but not to the Hebrew and Greek scriptures, as the JW organization claims. Interestingly, some languages (like Chinese) make the falsifications / gap with the  Hebrew and Greek scriptures even stronger, and others, like the Japanese NWT version, is closer to the Greek (it's an exception). Mr. Podico believes that his study may be useful to pastors or linguists interested in the Watchtower Society translations.  (He says that he would gladly translate his study into English, if some are interested).  Mr. Podico also downloads the text of JW translations, and tracks the changes they make year after year. 

Ferran Alonso

Ferran Alonso, Ph.D. candidate and Strategic Analyst in the Cabinet for Security in the Catalan Home Affairs Department, contributed to a conference in Spain's Basque country.  Entitled, "Encuentro de Expertos y Víctimas del Sectarismo," ("Encounter Between Experts and Victims of Cultism") the conference, which took place in San Sebastian, was organized by la Asoc. LARGANTZA elkartea, en colaboración con RedUNE, Red de Prevención Sectaria, en la ciudad de San Sebastian (Gipuzkoa). Mr. Alonso's talk was entitled: "Marco Legal y Funciones Policiales Respecto a las Dinamicas de Persuasion Coercitiva" (Legal Framework and Police Responsibilities with Respect to Coercive Persuasion Dynamics."

Jonibeth Whitney, Ph.D.

Jonibeth Whitney, Ph.D., was interviewed in August 2009 for a History Channel show entitled, "That's Impossible: Mind Control."

Barbara Anderson 

Ex-JW Barbara Anderson had a busy speaking tour in Europe during 2009:

On June 17, 2009, she met with a group of about fifty-people in Vatican City, Italy, in one of the Vatican’s Music Rooms. She spoke on the topic “Secrets of Pedophilia in the Jehovah’s Witness Religion.” 

June 18, she met with a Vatican prelate in his office in Vatican City, who specializes in cults, to discuss Jehovah’s Witnesses. Subsequently, an interview was recorded and broadcast on Radio Maria to six-million Catholics around the world. 

June 22, she met in Paris—in the morning—at the headquarters of UNADFI (anti-cult organization) with Mme Catherine Picard, president, surrounded by members and employees of the association. In the afternoon, initiated by the ADFI Paris Ile de France, she held a conference and debate at the home office of the ADFI Association of the 18th subdivision. She spoke about “Why is it dangerous to become a Jehovah’s Witness? A debate and interview then ensued. The head of France’s Department of Education was in attendance.

June 23, in the afternoon, she met in the National Assembly rooms with a member of Parliament representing the parliament group of studies on cults.

June 24, in the morning, she met in the offices of the MIVILUDES, with the general secretary of that interdepartmental commission who reports to the Prime Minister to discuss Jehovah’s Witnesses.

July 3, in Geneva, Switzerland, at the ICSA Conference, she spoke on the subject, “Secrets of Pedophilia in the Jehovah’s Witness Religion.” 

July 4, she spoke in Cervia, Italy, at a conference organized by GRIS, a Catholic anti-cult organization, on the topic, “Secrets of Pedophilia in the Jehovah’s Witness Religion.”

July 5, GRIS arranged for her to speak in Rimini, Italy, on the subject, “Why Jehovah’s Witnesses Are Dangerous to Associate With.” There were two Rimini newspapers who published articles about her visit and lectures, as well as one Rimini television station that featured her lecture and an interview.

Raffaella Di Marzio

Dott. Raffaella Di Marzio of Rome, Italy has just published a book in Italian: Nuove Religioni e Sette: La psicologia di fronte alle nuove forme di culto (Edizioni Magi)  English translation: New Religions and Cults: Psychology confronts forms of cults.  http://www.magiedizioni.com/magiedizioni/NUOVE_RELIGIONI_E_SETTE.html