The Cult Observer is published ten times each year by AFF, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959. (212) 249-7693. Subscriptions. Contributors of $30 or more to AFF (Canada: $35; other: $42 – in U.S. dollars only) will receive The Cult Observer, Young People and Cults, and the AFF Annual Report for one year. AFF is a research and educational orga-nization founded in 1979 to assist cult victims and their families through the study of cultic groups and unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control. AFF shares its findings with professionals, the general public, and those needing help with cultic involvements. AFF's staff works with more than one hundred professionals volunteering their time to AFF's Research Advisory Commit-tee, professional education and other com-mittees, and special research and writing projects. AFF volunteer professionals include educators, psychiatrists, psycholo-gists, social workers, sociologists, attorneys, clergy, business executives, journalists, law enforcement officials, college and university administrators, scientists, and others. AFF is supported solely by tax-deductible contributions. THE CULT OBSERVER Vol. 11 No. 8 1994 ISSN 0892-340X Editor R.E. Schecter Editorial Board Lois Bell Michael Kropveld Eugene H. Methvin Herbert L. Rosedale, Esq. Marcia R. Rudin Forwarding Address Requested AFF P.O. Box 2265 Bonita Springs, FL 33959 Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 69 Bonita Springs, FL 33959 AFF News AFFcommittee members, and others who are vital to AFF's research, information, and education functions, will learn of one another's recent activities in this column. Of course, much more work occurs than is reported to us. We'll try to relate the news in the order we receive it. A Review of Press Reports on Cultism and Unethical Social Influence P R O F E S S I O N A L P R O F I L E I N T E R N A T I O N A L I N T H E C O U R T S I N T E R N A T I O N A L RECOVERY FROM CULTS Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse A 432-page hardcover book published by W. W. Norton and Company, edited by Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., including contributions from 23 experts in the field from a wide variety of professional perspectives. This landmark volume is for ex-members, their families, and helping professionals. Preface by: Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph. D. Section I: Mind Control A Little Carrot and a Lot of Stick; Reflections on Brainwashing; Understanding Mind Control Section II: Leaving Cults A Personal Account: Eastern Meditation Group; A Personal Account: Bible-based Group; Post-Cult Problems: An Exit Counselor's Perspective; The Importance of Information in Preparing for Exit Counseling Section III: Facilitating Recovery Post-cult Recovery: Assessment and Rehabilitation; Guidelines for Therapists; Guidelines for Clergy; Guidelines for Psychiatric Hospitalization of Ex-cultists; Guidelines for Support Groups; Guidelines for Families; Guidelines for Ex-members Section IV: Special Issues Children and Cults; Ritualistic Abuse of Children in Day-Care Centers; Teen Satanism; Legal Considerations: Regaining Independence and Initiative Order/Contribution Form Please send me ____ copies of Recovery From Cults @ $40 each, including postage and handling ($42 North America; $50 Europe; $55 other countries). Enclosed is my check (U.S. funds only) for $_________ (including extra donation of $________ payable to AFF, P.O. Box 2265, Bonita Springs, FL 33959 (212-249-7693) Name __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________________________________________________ City ______________________________ State _____ Zip/Country _____________________ Phone ___________________ Manson Continued from page 5 AFF News Continued from page 2 G U E S T C O L U M N I N T H E C O U R T S G U E S T C O L U M N I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y Reflections on Child Custody and Cults Continued from page 10 Continued on the next page Kelly Abduction Conviction Overturned 3 Women Say They Were Fired for Refusing Scientology-Based Course 4 People's Temple . . . Branch Davidians . . . Order of The Solar Temple? 5 French IRS Cracks Down on Scientology 7 Polish Opposition to Children of God 8 Reflections on Child Custody and Cults 10 Kelly Abduction Conviction Overturned The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in September, threw out the abduction conviction of deprogrammer Galen Kelly, who has served 17 months of a 7-year sentence, on the grounds that the prosecution had knowingly allowed a key witness to perjure herself on the witness stand and improperly withheld evidence useful to Kelly's defense. Kelly was convicted of mistakenly snatching Debra Dobkowski, head of the Circle of Friends cult Washington, DC cell, instead of her roommate, Beth Bruckert, also a member of the group. Kelly is now eligible for a new trial. On the stand, Dobkowski denied belonging to the Circle of Friends and described the group's leader, George Jurcsek, as merely a business acquaintance. Yet only four days before the Kelly trial started, the IRS raided Dobkowski's Capitol Hill townhouse pursuant to a search warrant with an affidavit alleging crimes they believed cult members had committed, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bank fraud, mail fraud, and a crime called “restructuring” —breaking up large hunks of cash into deposits of less than $10,000 so that a bank won't report the transactions to the IRS, as the law requires. Dobkowski eventually pleaded guilty to all charges except conspiracy, and is now serving a 21-month sentence; the other indicted members fled from the law. Despite her guilty plea in her own trial, according to the appeal decision's review of the matter, Dobkowski continued to assert that a letter and documents she had addressed to “George” about how she was faking sickness to her EPA employers, all the while collecting sick pay and doing other paid employment, were not to George Jurcsek, but merely correspondence to her “higher self.” During her sentencing, Dobkowski repeated this assertion to a probation officer, apparently to protect Jurcsek from implication in the conspiracy. The Government, the appeal decision said, took the position that these assertions constituted “bizarre” lies. After the IRS raid, Leiser examined the evidence seized and revealed to Kelly's defense team what he deemed to be relevant to the case. But the appeal court now says he should have given the defense the affidavit and a letter by Dobkowski. “In our view, the opinion states, “the extremely damaging information contained in the affidavit leads to the inescapable conclusion that a reasonable probability exists that the result of the trial would have been different had the Government disclosed the affidavit to Kelly.” The affidavit, which demolishes Dobkowski's credibility, details her relationship to Jurcsek and the cult [which has been successfully prosecuted for financial crimes in the past]. “. . . the record before this court demonstrates overwhelmingly that Dobkowski's testimony was false in numerous respects and . . . the Government should have at least known it was false.” Indeed, anti-cult forces have questioned the prosecution's fairness, and pilloried Leiser for his drive to prosecute cult deprogrammers. (He unsuccessfully prosecuted Kelly in 1992 for conspiring to kidnap Lewis du Pont Smith, a follower of Lyndon LaRouche.) Former U.S. Attorney Breckenridge Wilcox, who represents a Circle of Friends defector, says: “He [Leiser] seems to have an agenda that a prosecutor shouldn't have.” In recent years, cult groups including the Church of Scientology have formed a united front against deprogrammers and critics. So when Scientology spokeswoman Sue Taylor appeared in the courtroom with Leiser during the Dobkowski trial, anti-cult forces cried foul, saying Leiser was aligning the government with cults. The anti-cult complaint against Leiser must be viewed in the light of his success in extracting plea bargains from three members of the team that Kelly assembled in the Dobkowski case. Should the government re-try Kelly, those confessions will bolster the prosecution's case. (From “Return of the Cult Snatcher,” Washington City Paper, 9/23/94, 9) Kelly alleges that he was “set up” by the cult be- cause he has been a persistent critic. According to Kelly, when he was informed by Beth Brucker's mother that Dobkowski was not the woman whom she had asked Kelly to deprogram, Dobkowski nonetheless told Kelly that she intended to report the incident as a kidnapping, that Kelly had been “neutralized,” and that he would be unable to cause further trouble for the cult. In the words of the appeal decision: “Kelly's defense was that Dobkowski had intentionally pretended to be Beth and had accompanied him to Virginia in order to frame him by fabricating a kidnapping, thereby discrediting him and obtaining retribution for Kelly's participation in Jurcsek's prosecution [in earlier cases]. “To prove his defense, Kelly sought to demonstrate that Beth and Dobkowski must have learned that he had been retained to extricate Beth from the cult through his prior contacts with Beth's employer and that Dobkowski had switched shifts with Beth on May 5th, had cut her hair to resemble Beth's, had driven Beth's automobile to work rather than her own, and had responded to the name Beth when she was approached in order to make him believe that she was Beth. Kelly also attempted to show that because of his outspoken criticism of the Circle of Friends and his involvement in the prosecution of Jurcsek, Kelly was well known to cult members, was considered to be an enemy of the cult, and was known as such to Dobkowski, who was the leader of the Washington, DC membership of the cult and was in close contact with Jurcsek.” The case, so far as the appeal court is concerned, came down to Kelly's word against Dobkowski's, and the latter was clearly a liar. But evidence to show this was simply not made available to the defense. Women Say They Were Fired for Refusing Scientology-based Course Two women who worked for a veterinarian in the Westchester County [NY] town of South Salem have complained to the New York State Department of Human Rights that they were dismissed from their jobs because they refused to take classes they said promoted the Church of Scientology. The classes were contracted by veterinarian Martin Goldstein from the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, known as WISE, to improve efficiency and morale But Susan K. Budleman, 25, and Karen Dvorak, 25, said the first class they attended had little to do with professional management and more to do with exercises in mind control. Fearing that the course was a recruitment program for the Church of Scientology, they said they refused to continue, their jobs were diminished, they were harassed, and then finally let go. Dr. Goldstein filed a statement with the unemployment division of the State Department of Labor maintaining that the women, a receptionist and a bookkeeper, were dismissed simply for poor performance and misconduct. Similar Case In a similar case in Nassau County, two women who worked in a physical therapy center in Great Neck said they were discharged from their jobs because they refused to take Scientlogy-based courses. The New York State Department of Human Rights found probable cause of religious discrimination, though it will be several years before a final determination is made, said Herbert Rosedale, the lawyer who handled that complaint and who is also representing Ms. Budelman and Ms. Dvorak. [Rosedale is president of AFF, publisher of The Cult Observer.] Ms. Budelman said the first class required participants to sit across from a co-worker with eyes closed while remaining perfectly still. If the instructor determined that this had been done successfully long enough, the student went to the next stage, staring at the co-worker for 15 minutes without breaking eye contact or smiling. In other exercises, participants recited numbers and were trained to think optimistically. Felt Programmed “I felt like I was being programmed for something, and at that point I started to get scared,” Budleman said. WISE management uses all the same language of the Church of Scientology, and I didn't want to get involved in that in any way. It's not my idea of a value system or spiritual system, and I didn't see how this was supposed to give me management skills or tell me where I was supposed to put a file when I was done with it. (From “Women Say Refusal to Take Course Cost Jobs,” New York Times, 7/25/94) Ms. Dvorak, a Methodist, said “This isn't 'let's slam the employer' . . . but it's been an education. I am not one to hurt Dr. Goldstein. My goal is to educate people about Scientology, and how it can infiltrate a business.” “He's just so happy with what Scientology has done for him that he wants to share it,” said Ms. Budleman, who is Jewish. “I don't think he realized he was overstepping the boundaries of the Constitution.” Rosedale said that programs by Sterling Management, which is sponsored by WISE, often appear in medical, dental, and veterinary practices in the area. (From “Women Claim Religious Discrimination,” The Ridgefield [NY] Press, 7/28/94, 7B, 8B) Ted Koppel Apologizes to Moonies Ted Koppel apologized to “Nightline” viewers on October 6 for referring to Unification Church members as”Moonies” on the previous night's program. The churc had objected to his usage. (Cult Observeri report) Evangelist Must Pay Donors TV preacher Robert Tilton was ordered by a Dallas jury to pay a Florida couple $1.5 million for using the couple's $3,500 donation to finance a “lavish lifestyle.” Tilton had told the couple he would use the money to build a counseling center for people suffering from depression. (From “Televangelist ordered to Pay $1.5 million to Donors,” Church & State, June 1994, 21) Alamo Convicted Evangelist Tony Alamo was convicted of tax evasion in June. Bail was refused the onetime fugitive, and he was waiting in jail for sentencing in August. He is currently facing a felony child abuse charge in California, site of a former commune, where in 1992 he agreed to pay $5 million to former workers whom he is alleged to have exploited. But he filed bankruptcy shortly thereafter, and has not paid anything to date. Federal authorities and the IRS seized Alamo -controlled property in California and Arkansas in 1990 and 1991 to satisfy liens against him and his organizations to satisfy legal judgments in favor of the IRS and former members, whose civil cases alleged, among other things, violations of federal labor laws, intentional infliction of emotional distress, malicious prosecution, and alienation of affections—he is said to be a bigamist with as many as eight wives. (From “Tony Alamo convicted, denied bail,” Cult Awareness Network News, July 1994, 3, 6) Legal Continued on page 9 Conviction Overturned Continued from page 3 Reflections on Child Custody and Cults Michael D. Langone, PH.D. The central question in a custody dispute is “What is in the best interests of the children?” Regarding this question, I make the following assumptions about children's needs: 1. When parental separation occurs, contact with both parents is preferable, provided both parents are loving and act responsibly toward their children. 2. Children need to feel secure and their lives ought to be reasonably predictable. 3. Children need to feel worthwhile, that is, esteemed in their own eyes, in their parents' eyes, and in the eyes of their immediate community. 4. Children need to learn interpersonal, intellectual, and practical skills that will prepare them for independent living in the adult world. 5. Children's parents should have sufficient flexibility and understanding to adjust their expectations and disciplinary methods according to the changing developmental needs of their children. I do not here attempt to justify these assumptions because I believe that they are widely accepted in the psychological community. The comments that follow are generalizations. Each case is unique, and professionals should always remain alert to exceptions to clinical generalizations. Assumption One: Contact with Both Parents Cultic groups—to be distinguished from benign new movements, which are not exploitatively manipulative—tend to disrupt family relationships and “demonize” those who disagree with or otherwise threaten the group or its leadership. This tendency to disrupt family relationships is a natural outgrowth of the isolationism, subjectivism, and closed logical system of psychologically abusive groups. As exemplified in the case of David Koresh, the group's social and conceptual systems are structured so as to prop up the leader's typically exaggerated view of his or her importance. Information from outside can threaten this fragile, closed system. When one parent belongs to such a group and has custody over his or her children, a nonmember parent who attempts to spend much time with the children can seriously threaten the internal equilibrium of the group, which will, therefore, attempt to keep the nonmember parent away. This tendency to disrupt family relationships can be exacerbated by the tendency of many such groups to hold themselves above the law or to lie to those who seek to contact children under the influence of the group. Additionally, the tendency to demonize critics of the group can be traumatic for children, who are likely to feel torn between a member parent and a nonmember, demonized parent. Assumption Two: The Need for Security and Predictability Cultic groups foster unhealthy forms of dependency by focusing on submission and obedience to those in authority. Such groups operate under a dynamic of deception, dependency, and dread (the “DDD syndrome”) in order to win and maintain control over members. Research studies, most notably the work of Dr. Paul Martin and associates, demonstrate that psychologically abusive groups tend to create a state of anxious dependency in their members. Such a state maximizes the leadership's capacity to control members, in that members' dependency on leadership reinforces their isolation from outside sources of information while their anxiety (typically stimulated in subtle ways by leadership) prevents them from becoming complacent about their relationship to leadership. Hence, they are always trying to please while never feeling that they measure up. Such a state of affairs can have serious consequences for children. First of all, the children are raised in an environment in which dire threats (the “devil”) and regular criticism of their failings make them feel insecure and dependent upon leadership for whatever intermittent reinforcement leadership provides. Such an environment is the opposite of what the psychological community would recommend for the rearing of children. A second detrimental consequence of such psychologically abusive environments results from the tendency for leadership to treat parents as “middle management” with regard to their own children. Parents are seduced and/or pressured into relinquishing primary responsibility for making decisions that impinge upon their children's welfare. Thus, educational decisions, disciplinary measures, medical decisions, etc., will frequently issue from the group's leader, directly or indirectly. If the leader does not value children or subscribes to a belief in corporal punishment, severe harm can be inflicted upon the children. There have been many such cases in the literature. Parents' becoming “middle management” with regard to their own children is most detrimental when leadership uses the children as pawns to test the loyalty of parents. Jim Jones's suicide drills (there were dozens of practice runs before the actual suicide in Guyana) tested parents' loyalty to him because they had to give their children the poison. Although Jonestown is obviously an extreme example, the extreme merely underlines the principle, which can be very destructive even in much less extreme situations. Assumption Three: Children Need to Feel Worthwhile The black/white attitudes of cultic groups place children in a position of either submitting totally or risking severe psychological, and sometimes physical, punishment. Neither of these options—suppression of natural tendencies to test limits and assert individuality vs. exposure to possibly severe and persistent punishments—is conducive to the growth of self-esteem and a secure sense of belonging to a caring community. Black/white attitudes are reinforced by the closed logical systems of such groups. Belief systems are usually so structured that leadership is always right. If a group advocates meditation or prayer to cure physical ills and a member who meditates or prays remains sick, then the obvious conclusion leadership draws is that the member is not meditating or praying enough, or not doing it correctly. Children raised in such environments cannot develop confidence in themselves or their immediate environment because they can be criticized even when they obey, for they are obeying irrational belief systems that often have negative consequences in the real world. But because the belief system by definition is unassailable, the child will always be “wrong.” Assumption Four: Learning Skills It is almost self-evident that groups that are isolationist, subjectivist, and logically closed will hinder children's attempts to learn the interpersonal, intellectual, and practical skills that mainstream society puts so much effort into teaching children. If reason is denigrated because reason threatens the irrational beliefs of leadership, a child's capacity to reason will be stunted, If the outside world is viewed as evil, a child's opportunity to interact with a variety of people and to learn practical skills in the world will be restricted. Assumption Five: Parental Flexibility The black/white attitudes, anxious dependency, closed system of logic, and isolationism of psychologically abusive groups demand rigidity, not flexibility. Moreover, the tendency to demonize those who disagree or disobey will come into conflict with normal developmental changes, such as teenagers' tendency to test limits by breaking rules. Parents of adolescents must learn to let go of their control as their children learn to behave independently and responsibly. Parents must be flexible; otherwise their children will have much difficulty in learning how to become independent and responsible. Psychologically abusive environments, because they foster rigidity, make even more difficult a developmental stage that can be trying to even the most flexible and understanding of parents. Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. a psychologist with extensive experience working with former cult members and their families, is editor of the Cultic Studies Journal, a publication of AFF, which also publishes The Cult Observer. Dr. Margaret Singer presented a morning- long seminar on cults to an invited audience at the Boston University School of Theology on October 10. Among those present were AFF President Herbert Rosedale, Executive Director Dr. Michael Langone, Cult Observer Editor Dr. Robert Schecter, benefactor Carol Turnbull, AFF founding president, Kay Barney, new AFF associate, Charles Alling, Jr. (see profile, page 11), BU faculty members, and a contingent of former members of such groups as Jehovah's Witnesses, the Boston Church of Christ, the Unification Church, The Way International, and even one from the relatively obscure Da Free John cult. Dr. Singer spoke of her involvement in the early 1950s in studies of Korean War prisoners, and recalled how she, Robert Lifton, and Edgar Schein told the government, then, that the Chinese were not using new technologies, or special drugs, nor did they rely on force, to gain the kind of compliance with which we became familiar in newsreels of the time. The Chinese leaders depended quite simply on the manipulation of social and psychological influence with which we have become more familiar in our own time, where cultic “entrepreneurs” use the very same methods. Dr. Singer then gave an overview of the growth of a variety of cults since then. Her best estimate is that 2,000 to 5,000 cults now exist in the U.S., with a membership of between 10 and 20 million in and out in the past two decades. She estimates current cult membership at between 2.5 and 3 million. She strongly recommended that her audience read (or re-read) Orwell on language control as a route to mind control. To the therapists and pastoral counselors present, Dr. Singer urged that they “get 'networking', as they say,” with ex-members of various groups, “learn about cults in general, then about the specific groups they [ex-cultists] were in.” She pointed out that the problem of people leaving cults and going to the clergy for help was a “ticklish” one, if the clergy had no knowledge of cults or what sort of help the the cult-leavers needed. And she warned that, in dealing with this population, “straight old psychotherapy is not the way to go.” Before World War II, “rehabilitation therapy” was con-sidered the right way, with hospitals, social service agencies, and training schools offering social, psychological, and educational rehabilitation. After the war, that sort of helping therapy was “put down,” and insight-oriented therapy became the vogue. Education and rehabilitation were lost in the new approach.. Dr. Singer feels that there is a lack of understanding among therapists about hypnosis and disssociative states. Whereas “we all dissociate” from time to time and to varying degrees, “ex-cultists overdo it all the time,” as a result of their training in meditation, mind-emptying, hyper-ventilation, and “high-speed decreeing” resulting in giddiness (interpreted as a “spiritual experience”). Of the ex-members in the room, Dr. Singer said she knew many of them who didn't know their “high intensity” groups were cults until they had left. She said she found it shocking that at professional meetings after Jonestown and Waco, psychiatrists and psychologists talked about “so many people with psychopathology getting into cults.” She found it urgent to tell them “at meetings and elsewhere that all of us are vulnerable.” An ex-member of one of the biggest cults, who had been very highly placed, recently told her that she had suffered fear, dread, and anxiety” every day, and that as she got nearer to the top, “the worse the punishment” for errors. Dr. Singer's comment, “There's no tenure in cults,” drew a responsive laugh from her audience. She was, of course, extensively interviewed by the media following the recent cult deaths in Switzerland. How can one predict that a cult will go to such extremes? She suggested to her Boston audience that the leader's teachings and fantasies hold the key. Jim Jones, Koresh, and Luc Jouret foretold the end long before it happened. Finally, but by no means least, Dr. Singer was heard on a nationally-broadcast public radio program, Newsweek on Air, announcing the forthcoming publication of her long-awaited book, Cults in Our Midst, from Jossey-Bass publishers, a division of Simon and Schuster. In an interesting juxtaposition of events, the NBC “Monday Night Movie” on October 17, about a woman lured into a psychotherapy cult by a psychiatrist-guru, graphically demonstrated the use of hypnosis and dissociative states in recruiting and retaining a group's followers. The drama, based on a family's true story, was forced in its limited time to compress many facts to near-incomprehensibility, but its overall message about adult vulnerability was well presented. Most important for AFF, at the end, “cult expert and author Michael Langone, Ph.D.,” spoke of the thousands of destructive cults in the U.S. with some several million members. Dr. John Gordon Clark, one of AFF's founders, was honored by the Massachusetts General Hospital at its “Ether Day” observance on October 14 for his forty years of service in psychiatry, with these words: “He single-handedly waged a brave battle against cults and bigotry.” Continued on page 11 Germany Protests Scientology “Attack on Germany” Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League of the Jewish organi-zation B'nai B'rith, a leading American human rights group, attacks Scientology in a letter published in the September 29, 1994 New York Times. “The advertisement of the Church of Scientology ('Never Again,' Sept. 22) parades concern about neo-Nazi skinhead activity on Germany. But the ad is a broad-scale, unjustified attack on the democratic German government for having banned the Scientology movement. “There are real problems in Germany today, and the Gov-ernment could and should do more to combat the extremists and to educate for greater tolerance and pluralism. That in no way justifies the assault—the imagery of Nazi-like society—depicted by the Scientology ad. “Making things worse is the Scientology effort to link the German ban of the group to Nazi persecution of Jews. This is a disgrace and reflects the group's willingness to go to any lengths to take revenge on a government that has taken action against it.” Charles B. Alling, Jr. (B.A. Yale) is an illustrious addition to the AFF Advisory Board, whose most notable early achievement was as a captain and pilot of a World War II B-17 Flying Fortress, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and five Air Medals. His post-war career in the business world took him from management, as an executive vice president in various companies, to management consulting, partnership in a Wall Street investment banking firm, and on to an international executive search firm. He then joined Spencer Stuart and Associates, in New York City, where for eight years he was senior director and managing director of the New York office and, subsequently, of the Eastern U.S. region. He was also, at this time, a member of the Financial Services Group and manager of the U.S. Insurance, Not-for-Profit Foundations, and Professional Trade Associations practices. He recruited board members, chief executives, and chief operating officers for over 35 major organizations. In 1988, he says of Spencer Stuart, “They were good to me, so I went to graduate school at Oxford and studied ethics.” The upshot of this was The Alling Institute for Ethics, with a faculty of thirteen and “a wonderful board,” which later merged with The Foundation for Leadership Quality and Ethics, of which he is still a board member and Chairman Emeritus. Mr. Alling's abiding interest in the “crisis of ethics in business,” particularly as it relates to global responsibilities for Earth's environment and the new “geoeconomic era,” continues despite his retirement, as he is currently involved with the Uni-versity of South Maine Community Leadership Institute, the Bio-Ethics Institute, and Kennebunk (ME) Health Services. With a talented daughter, a gifted marine biologist of extraordinary empathy and wisdom (“The Oracle” to family and friends) who was one of the eight scientists chosen for the two-year Biosphere experiment, Mr. Alling learned some unwelcome new lessons about the world of cults. His family's saga may well be left for a lengthier report, but for now it will suffice to say that nothing in his life had prepared him for this experience. He can see that “a lot of good came out of [the organization],” but that the leader's “mysticism,” his insistence that “the world is a terrible place” that he must save, left no room for ordinary human ties, to the bitter cost of many followers. In his search for help, Mr. Alling came, through fortuitous circumstances, to know AFF President Herbert Rosedale, and he has now joined with us to assist in our challenging work. We wish him a hearty welcome. . French IRS Cracks Down on Scientology From Emmanuelle Kaufmann in Paris The Church of Scientology in Paris was put into re- ceivership by the Paris Court of Commerce in June. The state is said to be seeking payment of some 60 million francs ($12 million): 20 million in taxes on profits and 30 million in social security employer contributions. Other actions are being taken against several provincial branches of Scientology. (From “IRS Takes Aim at the Church of Scientology,” France-Soir,” 6/11/94, and Lib‚ration, 6/11-12/94). [In 1994, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service recognized most Church of Scientology institutions as tax exempt.] “As with Mafiosi or drug barons, you have to hit their coffers if you want to strike them down,” says Janine Tavernier, the chairwoman of UNADFI, an association combatting cults. “They have hidden for too long behind the statute protecting not-for-profit associations and masquerading as a church in order to take people in and ruin them financially, pretending to give them spiritual enlightenment and well-being. . . They make people work full time for a pittance, and of course illegally.” Scientology's sparring with justice goes back several years and is getting more frequent. In May, June, and July of 1990 there was a first strike by the government in Nice, Marseille, and Lyon, with 20 indictments handed down. All over France victims have sued for damages and refunds. Recently, Scientology offered to settle out of court and pay compensation so as to avoid public hearings and the ensuing bad publicity. Some of the victims, hard pressed by their creditors—they had borrowed heavily from banks, often under false pretences, at the urging of Scientology, have accepted the settlements. It is unusual for the Court of Commerce to concern itself with an association. But the courts have already ruled that Scientology was conducting business and therefore had to pay taxes and social contributions like any other business. Mrs. Danielle Gounord, the former chairwoman of the Church of Scientology in France, now its spokesperson for Europe, tried to impress the judges with a decision by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to declare Scientology tax-exempt. Large posters were plastered in Paris supporting the Scientology view. But French authorities were not impressed. State and church are separate, and no cult is recognized as a church. In any case, the French analog of the U.S. IRS doesn't concern itself with religious matters, only with the question of profit making, or not. (From stories in Le Monde, 6/12-13/94, Le Quotidien, 6/11-12/94, and Le Journal du Dimanche, 6/12/94) France Soir (6/11/94) notes that Scientology has been sued in several countries for fraud, deception, and practicing medicine illegally. Most of these actions, notes Agence France-Presse (6/10/94) have been triggered by former members who have been stripped of their money to pay for “initiations” which may cost well in excess of 100,000 francs ($20,000) over the years. Cult Education Conference in Sweden A conference on “Destructive Cults in Today's Soci- ety” was convened in Uppsala, an hour north of Stockholm, in October, by FRI, the leading cult education organization in Sweden. Participants included Americans Dr. Paul Martin, director of Ohio's Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center [and an associate of AFF, publisher of The Cult Observer] and UCLA Professor Louis Jolyon West [AFF's Research Committee head]. They were joined by academics, clinicians, and members of government agencies, including a member of the Swedish parliament, the director of the city council, a director of the Church of Sweden, and representatives of Uppsala social services. FRI told The Cult Observer that material on cults from FRI has sold very well, mostly to schools, but also to churches and other civic organizations. Through the government job program, young people have been working at the FRI office, and in this way FRI has gained valuable help, free of charge, since the salaries are paid by the program. Sesam, the organization of former cult members, is now a year old, and has done a lot to help through support meetings, social activities, and lectures, and the search for financial backing has been successful. One of the princesses of the royal family has even given financial aid. FRI and Sesam are going to cooperate on a rehabilitation project due to begin in October. Dr. Martin will lead the seminars of the project, entitled, “Wellspring in Sweden.” Public informational meetings on cults are held each Friday at the FRI office. The meetings, very popular, especially among high school students, and informal, consist of three parts: an explanation of mind control, the viewing of a videotape from school study material on cults, and a period of questions directed to the former members. (Cult Observer Report) Polish Opposition to Children of God Polish Catholic newspapers and church leaders urged authorities in August to reject a bid for le- gal recognition by the Children of God, which some say continues to use pedophilia and prostitution to evangelize. Known more commonly today as The Family, the group is seeking official recognition as a religious association,which would allow it to teach in schools and youth centers and to buy and sell property. If refused official recognition, the sect would be free to continue its activities if it did not “violate the rights of a third party,” said the Polish government's Religious Affairs Office. The Family has been active in Poland since the late 1980s and currently has 20 houses and apartments, mostly in the vicinity of public schools. Family affiliates are active in 77 other countries and, in the last five years, have faced at least 22 court cases in Europe and the Third World involving abduction and child molestation charges. In a recent circular, the Warsaw Archdiocese warned priests that Family members had attempted to gain control over children and young people. “They distribute texts about love and about a Jesus who wishes to embrace everyone,” the circular said. “They also use various methods to attract people; proposing help in learning foreign languages, charitable support, and offering colorful magazines.” Parents Organize Early in July, several dozen Polish families with missing children formed an association to resist the spread of sects, which have increased since the end of communist rule. [AFF, publisher of The Cult Observer, has received requests for information from the group, Association Civitas Christiana, Documentation and Information Office on New Religious Movements and Sects, which is affiliated with Denmark's Dialog Center International, a cult study and monitoring group.] In a commentary, Poland's Slowo Katolicki daily said most sect recruits from the Catholic Church had been “superficial” Catholics, and that the church was trying to counter the influence of sects by strengthening its “community structures” and promoting Catholic movements. “The spread of sects, new religions, and confessional groups is a sign of the times,” the paper added. “It is also a challenge to the church. Mass Catholicism can generate anonymity on a large scale, as well as loss of self in the throng of believers.” From “Some Catholics Urge Poland to Refuse Status for Sect,” by Jonathan Luxmoore, Catholic News Service, 8/1/94) Canada “Healers” Plead Guilty Monique Forgues and two associates pleaded guilty in Montreal in March to the fraudulent practice of medicine. They advised patients to stop taking medications prescribed. Former clients of the healers were to have testified that Forgues and her colleagues said they healed through the intervention of a long-deceased doctor. The case was initially brought thanks to the work of Info-Cult, the leading Canadian cult research and education organization, which had gathered testimonies from some 20 ex-clients of the “doctors from heaven” and instituted an inquiry on the subject. Alluding to the deaths of three deceased “clients” of Forgues—clients persuaded not to take their medication, whose cases were not part of the recent pleading—coroner Claude Pacquin said: “To convince someone that physical sickness is ruled only by laws of a spiritual order is in my opinion as grave as a person who convinces someone to throw himself down into the Place Ville-Marie because he has been assured that divine laws have primacy over the law of gravity.” (From La Presse, Montreal, 3/16/94) Peoples Temple. . . Branch Davidians . . . Order of the Solar Temple. . .? Early fall, in the basement of a farmhouse in Chiery, Switzerland. Twenty-three bodies, mostly adults, but also a few children. The dead were wearing ceremonial robes and lying in a circle with their heads pointing outward near what seemed to be a small chapel. Most had gunshot wounds to the head. Some bodies later revealed the ingestion of powerful drugs. Some had plastic bags over their heads, and their hands were tied. Meanwhile, in burned chalets at Valais, some 45 miles away, 25 more bodies, but here no signs of violence; there were even farewell letters. Across the Atlantic, in Quebec, five bodies, among them a child and two adults brutally murdered, two others simply in repose, are found in a house set ablaze by a remote device similar to those found responsible for fires in the Swiss death scenes. The dead, members of the Order of the Solar Temple (Temple Solaire), include leader-founder Luc Jouret, a 46-year-old homeopathic doctor who variously claimed to be a surgeon, obstetrician, and messiah, a Belgian citizen born in the former Congo and trained in medicine at the Free University of Brussels, from which he received a medical degree. Jouret dabbled in radical politics as an activist with the Walloon [French speaking community] Communist Youth organization in the '70s. By the mid-'80s he had become a combination evangelist and spiritual healer, attracting a following of well-off seekers of enlightenment. In 1986 he moved to Quebec, where some members worked on a communal farm while he and other leaders lived comfortably in the Laurentian mountain ski resort of Morin Heights, an hour from Montreal. From Morin Heights, Jouret and Joseph di Mambro, 70, a successful French Canadian businessman who served as administrator and chief disciplinarian of the group, said to number about 200 on the eve of the disaster, invested heavily in real estate through a number of dummy companies according to Canadian and Swiss press reports. In many ways, the group epitomized the New Age sects that have proliferated in Europe, Canada, and the United States in recent years. Jouret's theology was a mix of Christian ritual, Asian mysticism, medieval occultism, crystal gazing, herbal healing, and communal living. A former follower said last year that Jouret “pretended to be Christ.” In the Quebec village of Ste. Anne de la Perade, the group purchased a former monastery in the late 1980s and raised organic vegetables on about 1,000 acres near the St. Lawrence River, and ran a bakery. Jouret preached a message of a fiery apocalypse following the environmental ruin of the planet and a period of rampant violence and economic collapse. An ex-member said he told people that a great catastrophe was coming and that only the chosen would survive. Another former follower last year described midnight ceremonies held beneath a full moon in which adepts, dressed in hooded robes embroidered with crosses, listened as Jouret urged them to amass guns to prepare for the coming apocalypse. Quebec police investigated Jouret on suspicion of stockpiling weapons [the conjectured stockpiles have not been found], death threats against Quebec political leaders, the bombing of hydroelectric towers belonging to Hydro-Quebec, and attempts to infiltrate the hierarchy of the state-owned utility. Despite this, Quebec prosecutor Jean-Claude Boyers, who investigated the weapons charges last year, says Jouret and his codefendants “looked like businessmen, there was nothing crazy about them.” Swiss authorities said that Canada had asked last year for help investigating Jouret's financial affairs [documents suggest disputes over money within the group], but the police found he was obeying Swiss law and took no further action. Jouret fled Canada for Switzerland last year following conviction on firearms possession charges [a gun with an illegal silencer], apparently convinced that he was the victim of a state conspiracy to obliterate the sect and ruin him personally. (From “Cult Leader is sought as more bodies found,” and “Canadian police join Swiss in bid to unravel deaths,” by Colin Nickerson, Boston Globe, 10/7/94, 2) Suicide? One of Switzerland's leading cult specialists, Jean-Francois Mayer, said he received three documents in the mail signed by a fictitious “Mr. Depart,” and he thought they were sent by cult members. “What I read confirmed the theory of horrible mass suicide,” Mayer told Swiss radio. He quoted the documents as saying: “We are leaving this earth to find in all lucidity and freedom a new dimension of truth and absolution, far from the hypocrisy and oppression of this world, in order to achieve the seeds of our future generation.” (From “Cult Leader is sought as more bodies found,” by Colin Nickerson, The Boston Globe, 10/7/94, 2) Mayer said Jouret “created an atmosphere of an impending catastrophe around him.” (From “Secretive and Charismatic Cult Leader,” New York Times, 10/6/94, 1) “I am always correcting the term 'mass suicide,' ” said Margaret Singer, a San Francisco clinical psychologist [and associate of AFF, publisher of The Cult Observer], best known for her study of the 1978 Jonestown massacre. “It's done at the direction of a powerful leader who so controls information and information sources that he's the only one talking to them and urging them on. Often they're at his mercy because there are armed guards.” Singer said that cult leaders “bind” and gain control over followers by depicting the outside world as a threat. (From “Manipulative leader, isolation key factors in cult suicides,” Los Angeles Times, cited in The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, 10/6/94, A16) Occult Aspect According to Johannes Aagaard, a professor of theology at Denmark's Aarhus University and head of the Dialog Center, which monitors cults, Jouret's followers included people who simply attended his lectures, a closer group interested in astrology, and a small inner circle. The last, he said, blended interests in the medieval Knights Templar; the Essenes, a Jewish ascetic sect associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls; and Rosicrucianism, an eclectic system that claims to be descended from a medieval fraternity of the “Rose Cross” and that teaches that human beings can discover universal truth. Catherine Wessinger, of New Orleans' Loyola University, said that Jouret's group was not in many ways very different from other European sects interested in the occult, but while most such groups see change as coming gradually, they do not usually go in for the sort of “catastrophic apocalypticism” that apparently marked the Jouret group. (From “Leader of the Sect: 'New Age' Warmed by Apocalyptic Visions,” by Gustav Niebuhr, The New York Times, 10/7/94, A11) Continued on the next page International Scope An interesting fact: the events happened in Canada and Switzerland, two “peaceful” countries where such events are not supposed to take place. Such disasters seem reserved for the gun-toting and gun-using U.S., perhaps Third World and developing countries. (But it does not seem to have been a “home-grown” movement in Switzerland; and in Canada it was in Quebec, really a different country from Canada, right?) I see it as an international cult, and that's what makes it potentially very different from Waco and Jonestown. Bulk of membership not on lower end of class structure and not tied to US styles. Victims were French, Swiss, and Canadian. No Americans? Indeed, Switzerland seems to be a haven for sects: some 600 have estab bases there. (Wm Drozdiac, Wash Post, 10/6/94A 16) Still Unsubstantiated Before identifying Jouret's body, police thought he might have engineered the tragic events and then fled with millions. There have been allegations that Jouret and the group were involved in a money laundering scheme to hide arms trafficking profits. This is unconfirmed. And there have been reports of large sums of money held in Australia. Nor is this confirmed Who they were and why they died is still highly speculative. We don't know exactly what went on and who the players were. Curiously, former members, and current members still alive, have not yet come forward to tell their stories (at least not to the public), and this itself is curious and alone makes one hesitant to draw conclusions as yet. Luc Jouret exercised extreme power over followers in the group, who idolized him. But it seems that he may not have been the only or even the most powerful leader. The group had a cell structure in which one cell could not be sure what was happening with another. There is evidence to suggest that businessman Joseph Di Mambro may have been the brains behind the organization, with Jouret as a manipulated front man. Jouret himself had been kicked out of similar mysterious “orders” in the past, most recently out of the Quebec branch itself several years ago. It may be that some of the Quebec membership, known to have been with the Swiss branch at the time of the disaster. People's Temple . . . Davidians. . . Order of the Solar Temple? Continued from page 5 Alamo Convicted Continued from page 4 Continued from page 3 Matamoros Ritual Killers Sentenced A court in Mexico in July sentenced the “high priestess” of a drug smuggling ring that practiced human sacrifice to 62 years in prison for her involvement in the ritual slayings of a Texas college student and 12 others near the border town of Matamoros in the late '80s. Sara Maria Aldrete Villareal, who was a Texas college honor student at the time, is said to have practiced with her fellow smugglers a variation of the Afro-Caribbean religion Palo Mayombe, believing that human sacrifice would protect them from capture. (From “ 'High priestess,' four others sentenced to prison in Mexico for ritual slayings,” Cult Awareness Network News, July 1994, 2) Award in Recovered Memories of Abuse Trial In a landmark trial in which a non-patient was allowed to sue a therapist for malpractice, the jury, in a 10-2 vote awarded $500,000 to a father, Gary Ramona, who said his 23-year-old daughter Holly's Orange County, CA psychotherapists, a family counselor, and an M. D. psychiatrist at Anaheim's Western Medical Center, were responsible for her false memories of sexual abuse. The legal implications of the case could alter the way therapists do their jobs. (From “Jury Awards Father $500,000 in Recovered Memories Trial,” Psychiatric Times, June, 1994, 4, 1, 7) Legal Continued from page 6 Recovered Memories Trial Continued from page 8 Cult Education Lesson Plan for Schools Too Good to be True: Resisting Cults and Psychological Manipulation, a new lesson plan about cults, psychological manipulation, and occult rituals for use in middle schools, high schools, churches, and synagogues is now available for purchase from the International Cult Education Program (ICEP). Too Good to be True, designed for three to five class sessions, is an effective way to teach middle and high school students about cults and the pressure and manipulation recruiters use to get people to join groups and stay in them, how to recognize mind control and psychological manipulation, and how to develop critical-thinking skills in order to resist them. It consists of the following components available in different combinations and priced according to the option chosen: 1) a 30-page student text; 2) an 11-page teacher's guide; 3) Cults & Mind Control, a 6-page handout for students; 4) Cults: Questions & Answers, a 13-page pamphlet; 5) “Cults: Saying No Under Pressure,” a 29-minute videotape developed by ICEP and the National Association of Secondary School Principals' InService Video Network and narrated by Charlton Heston. Sales Options and Prices Option 1 — one student text, one teacher's guide, one copy Cults & Mind Control: $16.00, $4.00 postage and handling ($6.00 postage and handling for Canadian and overseas orders) Total: $20.00 ($22 for Canadian and overseas orders) Option 2 — one student text, one teacher's guide, one copy Cults & Mind Control, one copy Cults: Questions & Answers: $18.00, $4.00 postage and handling ($6.00 postage and handling for Canadian and overseas orders) Total: $22.00 ($24 for Canadian and overseas orders) Option 3 — one student text, one teacher's guide, one copy Cults & Mind Control, one copy “Cults: Saying No Under Pressure:” $71.00 ($4.00 postage and handling ($6.00 postage and handling for Canadian and overseas orders) Total: $75.00 ($77 for Canadian and overseas orders) Option 4 — one student text, one teacher's guide, one copy Cults & Mind Control, one copy Cults: Questions and Answers, one copy “Cults: Saying No Under Pressure:” $73.00 ($4.00 postage and handling ($6.00 postage and handling for Canadian and overseas orders) Total: $77.00 ($79 for Canadian and overseas orders) American Family Foundation financial supporters may subtract $2.00 from the price of each option. Additional copies of the materials may be purchased. For further information or to obtain an order form, contact International Cult Education Program, P.O. Box 1232, Gracie Station, New York, NY10028, 212-439-1550.