Book Reviews

The Protean Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation. Robert Jay Lifton. Basic Books, New York, 1993, 262 pages.

The Greek god Proteus was a shape shifter able to adapt himself to every changing situation. His name makes an apt title for this book by Robert Jay Lifton about the human person in a changing world. One will find here a psychological description of this changing world followed by a description of the type of person whom Lifton labels protean. Then, there is a comparison with the chief alternative to proteanism: that is, fundamentalism.

A reader may question, "What is a review of this book doing in the Cultic Studies Journal?" The answer lies not merely in the respect that Lifton has earned as the premier authority on totalitarian thought control. But also, the fact is that this book offers a clear and necessary understanding of the mind of contemporary men and women so mysteriously susceptible to manipulation.

Everyone who works at the "cult problem" is asked continually, "What sort of people are they who are being recruited into these controlling groups?" And we respond, more often than not, "There is no profile; anyone can be caught." One of the most useful leaflets that we distribute is entitled, Could this happen to you? And it clearly gives the reader an affirmative answer. Anyone is vulnerable.

Somewhere in the course of this book Lifton says that "the dream of the human heart is that life may complete itself in some meaningful pattern before death." That thought suggests another: Could it be that this common aspiration contributes to the human susceptibility to propagandists? Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, for example, turned dreams into nightmares.

Further on, Lifton speaks of the characteristically human search for ethical commitment. He says that "being responsible is what it is to be human." Paradoxically, this idealism may also leave one open to manipulation. Long ago Shakespeare sensed this when he had Polonius advise Laertes, "See thou character...."

Toward the end of the book Lifton cites Vaclav Havel who, imprisoned at the time by the then totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia, discovered in himself the struggle to break out of the context of falsity. It was in prison that Havel strove as he says, "to describe and analyze my fundamental experience of the world and of myself."

Every reader of the Cultic Studies Journal is aware that the list of Lifton's publications is a very long one—which includes the classic Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, as well as The Nazi Doctors, The Future of Immortality, and a dozen more. Nevertheless, Lifton admits that the material in this particular book has occupied his thinking for 30 years. He focuses here on "the many-sided self of modern man who seems to be in constant motion." He reminds us that our present world is one "marked by breathtaking historical change and instantaneous global communication." In the midst of earth-shaking occurrences such as the fall of Communism, the destruction of the Berlin Wall, and the tragic events of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, each individual person "has been evolving a sense of self appropriate to the restlessness and flux of our time, a time in which human history has become more open, more dangerous, and more unpredictable."

In Lifton's view, life is no longer governed by rites of passage and therefore modern men and women must pursue a personal search for authenticity and meaning. In actuality, the modern pilgrimage takes place between two poles, which we can label the protean and the fundamentalist.

Lifton explains that the human potential for proteanism includes a capacity for flexible imagination and action. The subtitle of the book, "Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation," reflects the author's optimism about the future of mankind.

Here are a half dozen of Lifton's convictions that may stir up some profitable reflection:

1.	Culture is inescapable from symbolization.

2.	We are cultural animals for whom the resources of culture are ingredient and not merely accessory to human thought.

3.	The knowledge that we are to die is crucial to the sense of self.

4.	The sacred and the secular have become unbonded.

5.	Our human thinking consists of a continual creation and re-creation of images and forms.... Our symbolization of self focuses on our own narrative, a life story that is constantly re-created.

6.	America is a protean nation, a nomad people, ever beginning anew.

The alternative to the protean mentality is the fundamentalist—which can express itself either in politics or religion. The person who sees things through the prism of fundamentalism draws primarily upon a sacred past (in the name of a harmony that never was). His vision of the future is of one that will rise out of a violent end to profane history. He would replace history with doctrine. He mistrusts intellectual or spiritual suppleness and he would obliterate the subversive effects of humor. The author says aptly, "Armageddon with its destructiveness fits this nuclear age."

Fundamentalism, although obsessed with chaos and loss of control, creates a fellowship of the only immortals. The self fragments, and the capacity for empathy is lost. There develops a psychic numbing which impairs symbolization and involves a threatening imagery having to do with death and its equivalents and an impediment to meaning.

It is Lifton's view that the protean self can help people to renew their relationship to culture, both Western and non-Western. He tells us, "the protean path is a path of hope. It embraces an act of imagination and is, as such, a profound beginning."

This book will prove most helpful for those who are called to counsel people in shepherding and discipleship groups. However, it must be repeated that the fundamentalist mind-set is not restricted to the religious realm. It "flowers" in political ground as well.

This review has attempted to digest the psychological facts and conclusions of the author's 30 years of observations and reflections. The reader would be misled if he or she were left with the impression that the work is all abstraction which is best left for philosophers. Far from it. As Harvey Cox says, "It is based on interviews with a variety of engaging and very real people." They are all here. And for bringing them together we are, once again, indebted to Robert Jay Lifton.

Walter Debold

Seton Hall University

South Orange, New Jersey

The Cult Experience: An Overview of Cults, Their Traditions and Why People Join Them. John J. Collins. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, IL, 1991, 133 pages.

John Collins describes his books as an introduction to the major related topics and an attempt to explain why people join cults. He offers a few definitions of the word cult but then proceeds throughout the book to describe a wide variety of religious sects, utopian societies, tribal groups, and the like that he considers representative of the diversity available in the "supermarket of cults" (p. 110). However, his own definition demonstrates the bias of his perspective. According to Collins, "Cults are small, new, innovative, and marginal religious groups based on a charismatic founder/leader who, based on some special supernatural knowledge and/or experience, is capable of helping followers deal with their individual and/or societal dissatisfactions" (p. 104).

This definition certainly does not apply to the religious organizations that Collins believes typify the cult experience in the United States (e.g., the Church of Scientology, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness [Hare Krishnas], and the Divine Light Mission) or to the other well-known cults such as the Unification Church, the Children of God, the Church Universal and Triumphant, Rajneesh, or the Peoples Temple. Collins cites only selected anthropological and sociological literature. Meanwhile he discounts or ignores the findings of many other scholars, ex-cultists, investigative journalists, law enforcement agencies, and legislative inquiries, all of which have documented harmful exploitation and control occurring in such cults. For example, with respect to Scientology, Collins quotes only a few very tolerant sources (the most recent from 1976) and ignores major exposés such as L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman? (B. Corydon & L. R. Hubbard, Jr.; Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1987), Bare-faced Messiah (R. Miller; London: Michael Joseph, 1987), and A Piece of Blue Sky (J. Atack; Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, 1990).

Collins also ignores the vast and relevant literature on hypnosis and suggestibility, on coercive persuasion and thought reform, and on the symptoms of dissociation and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently observed in former cult members. Collins considers brainwashing to be merely a rationale for deprogrammed ex-members to account for how "silly and naive" they were to join the cult. Thus, rather than hold the cult responsible for its depredations, he blames those victims—ex-members—who become anticult activists for their fervor, in contrast to the noninvolved former cult members who "simply drop out of their cults" (p. 45).

Collins's book suffers from other serious flaws. He minimizes the role of deception in recruitment by cults, the manipulative techniques used to ensnare and hold new members, and the venal motives of so many cult leaders and their lieutenants. He fails to address the psychological problems of members who have been harmfully exploited and the trauma involved in coming out of a cult. He ignores the medical literature on PTSD and dissociative disorder seen in cult refugees. Finally, by discrediting the claims of cult victims and ignoring the past 40 years of work on coercive persuasion, thought reform, and the psychology of totalism, Collins lends legitimacy to destructive cults as they continue in their greedy and ruthless pursuit.

Louis Jolyon West

Professor of Psychiatry

Neuropsychiatric Institute

University of California, Los Angeles

Mystical Diets. Jack Raso. Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 1993, 291 pages.

Jack Raso, M.S., R.D., presents Mystical Diets which exposes paranormal, spiritual, and occult nutrition beliefs and practices. Chapter One, "From believer to skeptic: my personal odyssey," is worth the price of the book as Raso describes his past experiences as a supplement junkie, health food store "nutritionist," health seeker, and his eventual acceptance of reality. Raso identifies the thread that runs through most of the healing systems covered by the book as a belief in a "vital force" ("healing power") that goes by many names. Included among the mystical diets are Macrobiotics, Natural Hygiene (naturopathy, T.C. Fry, Harvey Diamond), Edgar Cayce (A.R.E. Clinic), Ayurvedic Medicine, FAIM (Atkins, Huggins, Schachter, Wright, McGrady), Anthroposophical Medicine, Gerson cancer treatment, Matol Km, Nature's Sunshine, Nutripathy, mail order nutrition (a survey of products advertised in popular publications), chiropractic nutrition, nutrition diploma mills ("nontraditional" health education), [along with] a useful glossary to help sort out terms. The individuals, products, and services named in this short review are only a sampling of what this book covers. The book is available through NCAHF Book Sales, P.O. Box 1747, Allentown, PA 18195, for $24 + $2 p&h.

Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult. George A. Mather and Larry A. Nichols. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1993, 342 pages.

From A.A. (abbreviation for the occultic Argentium Astrum) to Zwinglianism (of Christian origin), the numerous listings in the Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult present an impressive, encyclopedic composite of religious and pseudoreligious groups found in America today.

The book is coauthored by the Reverends George Mather, founder and director of the New England Institute of Religious Research, and Larry Nichols, an ordained minister in the Lutheran Church and a philosophy instructor, with a Foreword by Ronald Enroth, an authority on current religious movements in America. According to Enroth, it is critical, especially for Christians, to develop discernment skills and a basic knowledge concerning the multitude of conventional and unconventional religious organizations found in a society encouraging religious pluralism.

In 1989 I was exposed to a religious group within a traditional Protestant church whose terminology and behavior were foreign to anything I had ever witnessed in my lifelong Christian experience. I became so frustrated with the buzzwords and strange nomenclature that I began compiling a list of the alien verbal expressions and "Christian" notions. Later, I determined, I would convert my list into a "religious talk" dictionary for the enlightenment of others—once I could decipher the mumbo-jumbo myself. After conducting a bit of research, I sent questionnaires composed of religious groups and terminology to several ministers as well as a group of Christian laypeople. Though my mailing list was restricted, the responses to the questionnaire indicated a definite need for a dictionary of current religious movements—one including terminology used by the groups.

I was delighted when I saw the first advertisement for the Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult, four years after wishing for one. I ordered it immediately and put my project aside. After perusing my new dictionary, I initially felt disappointed. Some major authoritarian, "shepherding" groups I am personally interested in were not included; neither was their lingo. However, the authors explain in their introduction that they were only able to select a small percentage of groups for inclusion in their first volume as there are thousands of groups in existence. The selection process was based on two criteria: the choosing of groups most accessible through availability of information and those perceived to be among the most interesting, widespread, and influential on America's religious scene today. The collection of compari sons and contrasts between the various religions and traditional Christianity is written from a Christian perspective, as candidly confessed by the authors. However, I would like to see more Christian terms and concepts included in later listings.

The book is arranged alphabetically, and each group or term is identified by its association (Christian, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Mormon, New Age, occult). Essays on various religious groups are presented as well as definitions of terms and ideology adopted by the groups chosen for inclusion in the book. Biographical sketches of certain group leaders are also included. Interspersed throughout the book are excellent photographs depicting assorted ceremonial paraphernalia, places of interest, and individuals referred to in the essays.

The Appendices contain The Ecumenical Creeds of Christendom; diagrams and charts summarizing 20 modern religious groups; a list of some of the cults, sects, and religions included in the volume; and a diagram illustrating how many of these cults, sects, and religious groups emerged from the influence of major religious traditions—Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu. An excellent, group-categorized bibliography is included providing extensive suggested reading for those desiring to learn more about one of the specific groups included in the dictionary.

I am delighted that the authors intend to publish future editions of this dictionary. I hope new listings, from Amish to YWAM, will be incorporated in the next edition. In addition, I hope to see an examination of some of the fast-growing offshoots of established Christian denominations born in dissension and currently demonstrating aberrant, detrimental proclivities in their methodology or theology.

It is my hope that the first volume of the Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult will be the first of a regularly updated series. I highly recommend the premier edition as an essential reference tool, a must-have basic for one's personal or professional reference.

Maxine Pinson, Publisher/Editor

Savannah Parent

Savannah, Georgia

The New Age in Argentina: Fraud or Spiritual Growth? Alfredo Silletta. Beas Ediciones, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1993, 220 pages.

La Nueva Era en Argentina: Engaño o Crecimiento Espiritual? (The New Age in Argentina: Fraud or Spiritual Growth?) is the author's latest publication on the subject of dangerous, thought-repressing groups and movements. This time Silletta has chosen to concentrate on what he describes as a "nontraditional cultural movement"—namely, the New Age (Nueva Era) in Argentina. His book is a brief, extremely condensed, pocket guide to an array of themes, history, theories, and people connected directly or indirectly with the New Age movement.

In the introduction Silletta proposes to study the roots of the movement in the South American country, and to also look at the sociocultural conditions that made the soil fertile for the New Age to flourish there.

The first chapter gives the reader a general overview of the rise of New Agers in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and also outlines the different techniques alleged by New Age practitioners as ways to reach a deliberate change of consciousness. In the second chapter the author briefly explains in layperson's terms the different sets of ideas from which the New Age has borrowed its beliefs, including esoteric and occult theories, psychology and alternative therapies, Eastern religions, Christianity, astrology, shamanism, and ufology.

Chapter 3 mentions the influences of certain scientific theories on the New Age movement—ranging from positive (the movement's concern for the environment and the planet Earth) to negative and dangerous (their belief in the individual being almighty)—which often result in utter narcissism, selfishness, insensitivity, and psychotic crises. Silletta also points to what he perceives as the parallelism between Nazism and the New Age, including allowing feelings and intuition to dominate the intellect, or the irrational to control the rational.

The fourth and final chapter gives the lowdown on Argentina's entertainment paparazzi and prominent public figures who have been victimized by the latest fads in mind-altering techniques. Like their U.S. counterparts, they too have become the movement's perhaps cheapest and most effective way to advertise.

At the conclusion of his book, Silletta laments how the New Age movement attempts to find a common denominator to both science and religion, reason and magic, East and West, minimizing world problems as "states of mind" easily resolved once humanity awakens to New Age consciousness. Silletta criticizes the movement's emphasis on sending telepathic messages or channeling the advice of extraterrestrial beings to improve the world, instead of acting to bring about change.

The New Age in Argentina is a very practical quick-reference guide for the person with background knowledge of the New Age movement, as well as a useful overview for the reader who is exploring for the first time the main characteristics of the movement. The book's brevity, unfortunately, is also its major disadvantage. The book is condensed and abbreviated in character; Silletta simplifies his arguments, thus shortchanging certain topics and assuming too great a familiarity on the part of the reader. The book, nonetheless, highlights the positive and negative aspects of the New Age movement, thus whetting the reader's appetite for further research.

Gladys Martin

Berea, Ohio