------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Letter about Dr. Arthur Dole Arthur Dole ("Is Brainwashing an Unproved Hypothesis?", Cult Observer Guest Column, Vol. 8, No. 3), posing some questions to skeptics about "brainwashing," says, "What, if anything, do you gain (consulting fees, access to research data, free trips to scientific conferences) from the groups you are defending?" This question suggests that scholars who view brainwashing differently from Dr. Dole are being "kept" by sinister groups and are, in effect, being bribed. I suggest that Dr. Dole has unsheathed a two-edged sword. The crusade against "cults" might be viewed as partly a gravy train for deprogrammers, "counselors," clinicians, journalists, lecturers, "brainwashing experts," activist ex-converts, lawyers, and others. Rewards for anti-cult crusading range from consulting and expert testimony fees to opportunities to interview "cult victims" and appointments to editorial and organizational boards. I would ask Dr. Dole: what justifies the double standard whereby the credibility of an "expert" is undermined if he is assisted directly or indirectly by "cults" but not undermined if he gains such support from litigants against religious groups? Regarding Dr. Dole's comment about the presentations by Dick Anthony and Perry London: neither denies the reality of manipulative social influence, charlatanism, or confidence games, or that some of these things sometimes occur in religious movements. The question that Anthony was addressing was probably in part whether concepts drawn from physically coercive settings such as P.O.W. camps are appropriate for studying even somewhat manipulative "voluntary associations" such as certain religious groups. I fear that given the occurrence of certain meditation practices, ritual chanting, imaging, speaking in tongues, communal living, or pressures for conformity in certain groups, members will be automatically and arbitrarily designated as involuntary participants such that the movements can be destroyed by civil suits brought by heavily debriefed ex-devotees or other modes of intervention. I believe that the availability of nebulous "mind control" notions makes it too easy for ex-participants in bizarre, stigmatized groups to disclaim any responsibility for commitments they made and behavior they enacted and to retrospectively and conveniently define their involvements in unpopular groups as unmotivated - not something they did but rather something that was done to them. 2 A Post Script, by Mr. Herbert Rosedale Herbert Rosedale, President of the American Family Foundation (publisher of the Cult Observer), writes: "I must take issue with Dr. Robbins'implication that Perry London and Dick Anthony would accept the reality of mind control at least in P.O.W. situations. I participated in an American Bar Association panel with London and Anthony in which London flatly denied that mind control was a reality even in North Korean P.O.W. camps; he said that those who appeared to have "converted" to the North Korean way of thinking - a few - did so for reasons other than mind controlling manipulations. London thought Robert Lifton's analysis was wrong." There may indeed be plenty of instances of manipulation, fraud, exploitation and rottenness in "cults," but brainwashing notions, as applied to group practices, potentially disassociate social control from depending upon such concrete instances of abuse and imply a categorical designation of all members of certain groups as involuntary slaves and coerced victims. On a personal note: in the last decade, as a critic of coercive deprogramming and brainwashing theories of cult conversion, I have pocketed no consulting fees, made no court appearances to drop pearls of remunerated expertise, and taken no trips paid for by a sectarian or advocacy group other than one to a 1985 conference in Pittsburgh to which the sponsoring Hare Krishna organization paid my air fare. Yours truly, Thomas Robbins. Thomas Robbins, Ph.D., a sociologist who has written widely about cults and new religions, is a Research Associate with the Santa Barbara Center for Humanistic Studies. Prof. Dole Replies I am very pleased that you have commented on my guest column. In respect to my question, "What if anything do you gain from the groups you are defending?", I argue that anti-cult people should also address this matter. In my own case, my primary motivation stems from my daughter's experience in the Unification Church, and I can't say that I have made many trips on the " gravy train." In fact, when I receive a fee for speaking, routinely I donate it to the American Family Foundation [publisher of the Cult Observer], or the Cult Awareness Network. So far as Dick Anthony and Perry London are concerned, I wish that during their panel presentation they had recognized more fully the reality of manipulative social influence, charlatanism, or confidence games among some religious movements. I am heartened that in your writings you do acknowledge fraud, exploitation, and rottenness in "cults." However, I differ from you in your interpretaation of "mind control" and "brainwashing." Perhaps the facts are too complex to reduce to a simple formulation, and instead we should concentrate on who, in particular instances, is damaged unfairly - cultists and their dear ones, the public, or wealthy and powerful religious groups. I hope at some time we can discuss these matters in person. Sincerely, Arthur A. Dole. Arthur Dole, Ph.D., is a member of the Research Advisory Comittee of the American Family Foundation (publisher of the Cult Observer) and Emeritus Professor, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. ================================================================= If this is a copyrighted work, you are acknowledging by receipt of this document from FACTNet that on the basis of reasonable investigation, you have not been to obtain a copy elsewhere at a fair price, and that you are and will abide by the following copyright warning. 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F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ------------------------------------------------------------------- CARD CATALOG ENTRY DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0791AG.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer July 1991 SORT TO: AFF CONTRIBUTOR: American Family Foundation (AFF) LOCATION OF ORIGINAL: American Family Foundation (AFF) NOTES: Back issues and selected reprints of the Cultic Studies Journal are available from the American Family Foundation, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959-2265. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: | 1 Letter about Dr. Arthur Dole | 2 "Postscript" from Mr. Herbert | Rosedale For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 8/22/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================