CW: Religious talk, All sorts of abuse (more detailed list is talked through in the intro to the episode)
As we mentioned in the last episode, M and Karen are moving! You might have heard us mention that M and Karen used to have another podcast before this one, so while we’re on a brief break as they move, we’ve ported over an episode from there. The audio is a little scratchy in places, and I’m sorry I couldn’t clean it all up. So for this week, enjoy an extra long episode where the three of us talk about cults. We’re going to look at the history of cults in the U.S., our own personal experiences in cults or almost being in cults, and some cults that are still active near us.
In this episode, we talked about the history of cults in the United States a little, but we didn’t explore it in depth. So here’s a book that will explore that further if you’re interested.
Starting from the top down, this article talks about the cult Karen sidestepped out of. It will give you a lot more information about it than Karen managed to learn from her brief experience with the members of it.
This one talks about the World Mission Society Church of God and how it recruits using college campuses.
In this episode, M mentioned that they were very briefly associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So, I’ll leave you with this article from a former member who lays out why she left and the cultish way they do things.
The cult I spent about 6 months in doesn’t have an online presence since the website they were on went down, so I’ll leave start you now with information about the cults from our state that we talked about.
The biggest one is the Tony Alamo Cult. This cult was massive and utilized sweatshops and child labor here in the north of the state to produce jackets owned by huge celebrities like Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, etc. And recently, those jackets, vintage now, have come back in style with celebrities long after his arrest and the knowledge that he was operating a cult and that this is how those jackets were made came to light.
This article gives you a look inside the cult from the perspective of some of the survivors, and there’s some good quotes in here by one of the kids who worked making those jackets from the previous article.
This article is about the Nahziryah Monastic Community, or The Purple People, and what happens with them. This is written for our state’s encyclopedia, so it’s straight facts with lots of resources at the bottom for further reading.
In this one you get the story from Shakeenah, one of Rev. Kadem’s wives who escaped from the Nahziryah Monastic Community.
Now this one is for the silly “cult” I talked about at the end (they vaguely describe themselves as that or as a new religious movement). This is the official website where you can watch the “sermons” if you want to, read up on their beach and park cleanup efforts, and more.
Time for the really serious stuff. Thriveworks (who put together this short list) is the counseling center I used to go to, so I can tell you they do good work there. If you are concerned you’ve been approached by a cult, or if you just want to be aware of cult recruitment tactics, and definitely if you want to know when you’re likely to be most vulnerable, this is a good, quick read.
If you want a more extensive article about cult mind control techniques, check out the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control from Dr. Steven Hassan. Steve has a unique perspective as both a former cult member who was deprogrammed in 1976 and as a clinical professional. His expertise includes undue influence in cases of destructive one-on-one relationships, families, parental alienation, mini-cults, religious cults, therapy and self-improvement groups, professional abuse, institutional abuse, corporations, multi-level marketing, political groups, human trafficking, hate and violent extremism.
Are you worried you’re already in a cult? Do you know someone who is? This page is going to go over some stuff from the BITE Model, but for the purposes of this point, this page is going to give you some tips and resources for leaving a cult and recovery resources for after.
This link will talk to you about the issue of cults taking their recruitment efforts virtual as well as deprogramming for people pulled into virtual cults.
What is life like when you leave a cult? In this article, three cult survivors talk about their experiences being in a cult, leaving a cult, and the process of joining regular society after.
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