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Lewis du Pont Smith, Lyndon LaRouche, Edgar Newbold Smith, Donald Moore, Jr., Galen Kelley The father of du Pont fortune heir Lewis du Pont Smith, and two other men, one a former police officer, the other a deprogrammer, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Alexandria in mid-October on charges that they planned to kidnap Smith and his wife and persuade them to give up their allegiance to jailed political extremist Lyndon LaRouche. The lawyer for Philadelphia socialite Newbold Smith, 66, said that his client intended to plead not guilty. "We are looking forward to our day in court," he said. "We firmly believe that when the facts come out he will be vindicated." Indicted along with Newbold Smith were Donald Moore, Jr., 45, formerly a lieutenant in the Loudoun County (VA) Sheriff's Department; Galen Kelley, 45, a private investigator and self-described deprogrammer from Esopus, NY; attorney Robert "Biker Bob" Point, 38, of South Amboy, NJ; and Angelo Russo, 45, of Newburgh, NY. The indictment alleges that Kelley and Russo paid an unnamed woman $200 to become a member of an Upper Derby (PA) health club frequented by Lewis Smith in order to learn where he lived, worked, and socialized. The indictment also detailed phone conversations among the accused planning the abduction. Moore is also charged with entering Lewis Smith's property to conduct surveillance in September. (From "Indictment accuses 5 of du Pont-heir plot," by Bill Ordine, Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/14/92, B4) Acted Out of Love Edgar Newbold Smith, who has spent several years trying to free his son from LaRouche's influence, says, "Everything I have done I've done sheerly out of love for Lewis Smith and nothing else, and I think that will become clear. I was very close to my son throughout his life, until he joined that organization." Legal sources familiar with the investigation say that attorney John Markham, the federal prosecutor in the 1988 conspiracy trial against LaRouche, will try to woo the jury by portraying his client as an adoring father desperate to recover his son. Smith told the Post that his son was transformed by his association with the LaRouche organization in the mid-1980s. "When Lewis is himself, he's one swell guy. He's got a heart about 10 feet high," Smith said. "But when he's in that organization, he's not himself anymore - unfortunately." Edgar Smith brought several court actions against Lewis in the 1980s after his son lent more than $200,000 to the LaRouche group and expressed little interest in recovering it, and the father persuaded a Pennsylvania judge to declare Lewis incompetent to manage his own funds. Nonetheless, Lewis Smith [who receives court-approved money from his late mother's estate] recently bought a $500,000 house in suburban Philadelphia and was seeking ways to convey the property to the LaRouche organization, according to sources close to the investigation. Smith noted that the last time he saw his son, two years ago, after the father had suffered a pulmonary embolism, Lewis was preoccupied with LaRouche. "It sounds as if he came out of warmth for me, but the questions he asked me could only have been directed by somebody else," Smith said. Smith added that his son also tried to convince him that LaRouche, serving a jail term for conspiracy, fraud, and tax violations, was framed. "He asked me who I knew in the Justice Department," implying that Newbold Smith could help right the supposed wrong. Despite his battles, Smith said, he still feels deeply for his son. "My feelings for him have never changed. I feel very loyal to him and very, very sorry for his plight." (From "Du Pont Heir's Father Says He Acted Out of Love," by Robert F. Howe, Washington Post, 10/14/92, D1, 6) Cult Awareness Network The FBI said that two of the accused, Moore and Kelley, have an "association" with the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network that acts as a clearinghouse for information on groups that use "mind control" to recruit and maintain followers. CAN Executive Director Cynthia Kisser said that the organization advocates deprogramming "but only by legal means. We see the benefits of voluntary deprogramming to restore freedom of choice through clear thought. . . but we understand that a parent would want to consider such a desperate measure [as abduction] to get [his] son away from a destructive cult," Kisser said. (From "FBI arrests former cop," by Jeff Nelson, Loudoun Times-Mirror, Leesburg, VA, 10/8/92, A1, 3) Father and Son Lewis Smith told the Washington Post that the alleged plot was spurred by his father's obsession with thwarting his son's independence and trying to force him to conform to a du Pont tradition of passing great wealth from one generation to the next. "His love for me is like his love for his yacht, like an object," Lewis Smith said. "If he can't control it, like a piece of furniture, he wants to sit on it," added Smith, who is limited by court order [pursuant to psychiatric and other testimony at court hearings] to a $15,000 monthly allowance out of his $10 million holdings.The son also said, "I love my father as any son would love his father. But I have pity for what he has become." Remarking on what he called a caring but frequently confrontational reIationship with his father, Lewis Smith said, "I had a pattern of growing up doing things that were somewhat objectionable to my father. I grew a beard in college and became a vegetarian for a year. This totally enraged him. This was not in the tradition of a Main Line blueblood." That rage consumed Newbold Smith when Lewis joined the LaRouche organization in the mid-1980s, his son said. Regarding his father's indictment, he said: "I wouldn't want to see my father go to jail. But if he had to spend a few months before probation he should spend it with Lyndon LaRouche in Rochester, " Minnesota, where LaRouche is serving his sentence. "If anyone could have a rehabilitative effect on my father it would be Lyndon LaRouche. It would be poetic justice." (From "Bad Blood Between Them," by Robert F. Howe, Washington Post, 10/22/92, B1, B7) 2 Litigation with Cult Awareness Network. Scientology. A federal judge in Illinois has issued injunctions against two Scientologists, in a case brought by the Cult Awareness Network, ordering the two to stop using and to destroy CAN trademarked stationery and promotional materials indicating that they or their groups are CAN affiliates. CAN members have been receiving letters purportedly from other CAN members questioning the organization's policies and operations. (Cult Observer Report, 10/1/92) A California Scientologist, meanwhile, has withdrawn a suit he brought - one of many such brought by Scientologists across the nation - against CAN executive director Cynthia Kisser and CAN California affiliate member Priscilla Coates alleging that they discriminated against him by refusing him membership in CAN because of his religious beliefs. (Cult Observer Report, 10/31/92) 3 Yahweh Ben Yahweh Sentenced to 18 Years A federal judge in Miami sentenced Yahweh ben Yahweh to 18 years in prison in early September for his conviction on murder conspiracy charges. Yahweh was convicted in May for ordering the murders of 14 persons [allegedly enemies of his authoritarian organization, including apostates] and the firebombing of apartments in Delray Beach, FL, where two tenants were killed. (For background on the case see The Cult Observer, Vol. 9, No. 5, page 4 and Vol. 9, No. 7, page 6) Prosecutors were upset with the relative leniency of the sentence, which means that Yahweh could be eligible for parole in six years. Indeed, U.S. District Judge Norman Roettger agreed. "From the evidence I heard, the crimes were so horrendous, so gross, that the 20-year maximum is simply not commensurate with the crimes," he said. "Be that as it may, the Nation of Yahweh, under the direction of the defendant, cleaned up its act or acts and tried to be a good citizen. "The judge cited the group's work in the Miami area, including renovation of motels and establishing a grocery store in run-down sections, as factors to reduce Yahweh's sentence. Yahweh's defense attorney Alcee Hastings called him a "spiritually endowed person." Yahweh still faces two Florida state murder charges, and his trial is set to begin in November. (Cult Awareness Network News, October 1992, 6, from newspaper reports) 4 New Alliance Party Sues Election Commission. Lenora Fulani. New Alliance Party presidential candidate Lenora Fulani, on the ballot in all 50 states, has sued the IRS and Treasury Secretary Nicolas Brady for the refusal of the Commission on Presidential Debates' refusal to include her in the nationally televised events. Before Ross Perot got back in- to the race, the commission had said that "after careful consideration . . . [it] determined that no nonmajor party candidate currently seeking election to the office of President or Vice President . . . has a realistic chance of being elected in 1992. Invitations to debate have not been extended to any nonmajor party candidate." When Perot reentered the race, he was invited to debate. (From "Fulani sues system over exclusion from debates," by Kilvyn Anderson, Delaware County [PA] Times, 10/14/92, 33) 5 CUT Member Loses Custody of Children. Carol Ann Scheibler. Carol Ann Scheibler, a Church Universal and Triumphant member who brought her children to live near the group's Montana headquarters in 1989, was officially deprived of joint custody of her children by an Illinois judge in August because, he ruled, the children were being harmed in their present environment. Marion County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Metz III said that the children's welfare, such as health care and educational needs, was not being provided, that the children "are not being appropriately prepared to fit into society," that the children's relationship with their father and other relatives was being adversely affected because they were being isolated in Montana, and that the children "are being taught a fatalistic and suspicious way of life, which encourages them to lie to protect the cult." The judge ordered that the husband, Scott Scheibler, be given full custody of the children, but that Mrs. Scheibler have "reasonable visitation rights." Testimony indicated that Mrs. Scheibler went to Montana shortly after her divorce and spent several months helping to build CUT bomb shelters, relying on public assistance to make ends meet, and using the children's child support payments for her own needs approximately nine months a year, the judge said. Other testimony indicated that Mrs. Scheibler kept her three oldest children out of school for a year and a half because she would not let them get inoculation. As a result, the children fell behind in their schooling. At one point they were enrolled in an unaccredited home school with a CUT member for only five hours a day. Part of that time was spent "decreeing," which, according to testimony, is CUT's "intense, repetitive chanting of prescribed prayers of a self-hypnotic nature over an extended period." The judge's ruling also said testimony presented showed that "CUT is, in fact, a cult," under the control of Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Prophet, according to the ruling, controls every aspect of the church and its members and "instills in its followers an immediate fear and dread of nuclear holocaust and a need for bomb shelters for the protection of the believers." The ruling also said Mrs. Scheibler expressed to others a concern over the presence of space aliens on Earth and the dangers they present. The judge's order states that "a clear threat to the children's emotional health has been demonstrated regarding presence in underground shelter drills or visits, and in the imposition upon them of a fatalistic approach to life and a fear of the end of the world." 6 Lifespring's Possible Financial Problems At an October hearing in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York - Judge Gerhard Goettel presiding in the case of Ruehle v. Lifespring and its head John Hanley - Lifespring counsel stated that they were uncertain whether Lifespring could post a $500,000 bond, and that Lifespring had lost $1 million last year and $300,000 so far this year. The attorneys involved have been fired by Lifespring but refuse to surrender files relevant to the case unless the $500,000 bond is posted to guarantee payment of legal fees, a claim for which is before the court. A new firm retained by Lifespring says it will not undertake to represent the group without the files. The alleged Lifespring debts are the result of litigation brought by persons who suffered from the Lifespring training. (Cult Observer Report, 10/2/92) 7 Doomsday Cult Lead Dies. Anthony Marcolongo, Church of Our First Love, Sean Dwyer Anthony Marcolongo, the controversial leader of a Drexel Hill (PA) doomsday cult that moved to western Pennsylvania in 1989, died in an automobile accident in early October. The accident occurred near the 177-acre farm where Marcolongo moved with 30 Church of Our First Love sect members in 1989 after they disassociated themselves from South Carolina radio preacher Brother R.G. Stair, who preached that most major U.S. cities would be hit by nuclear weapons before the end of 1988. Within the past year, 25 of 28 members left the church, charging Marcolongo with drug and alcohol abuse, and six women have filed statements with police alleging that Marcolongo sexually abused them while they were members, accusations Marcolongo had denied. (From "Doomsday leader dies in car crash," by Bill Alnor, Delaware County Times [Primos, PA], 10/5/92) Obedience Theme Several ex-followers said ex-diner owner Marcolongo brainwashed them. They claimed they were subjected to a rigorous routine of personal sacrifice and obedience until they were worn down, physically and mentally. It seemed to start, they all said, at a diner in Hokmes [PA], when a young woman declared Marcolongo to be a "prophet," and once they believed that, they were set up. "In the beginning, we met three times a week," an ex-member said. "Then it was four times a week. Then we started fasting, and then we were meeting seven days a week." In July 1988, Marcolongo reportedly began preaching messages on unquestioning obedience, which set members up to obey him unconditionally. Ex-members said that Marcolongo often taught from the Old Testament prophets in the Bible and highlighted examples of people dying because they didn't obey. One Drexel Hill couple, who have since left the sect, sold their house, two cars, and expensive jewelry and gave all the proceeds to Marcolongo's church, which then bought the $92,000 farm. Failed Deprogramming Some ex-members say that an alleged abduction and failed 1988 deprogramming of follower Sean Dwyer, 25, galvanized the sect and strengthened Marcolongo's control. One said, "They [the deprogrammers] tried to build this rich type of Sun Myung Moon cult leader image on Anthony, and this guy (Dwyer) was around him (Marcolongo) every day and he knew he wasn't living that way." When the deprogrammers finally let Dwyer go, said the ex-member, he came back "a spiritual hero." She said that upon Dwyer's return, Marcolongo referred to a section in the Bible where Jesus told his disciples of a coming day when two people will be in a field and one will be taken and that Dwyer had survived the ordeal and "came back to what was true and what was right. After that, our 'us against the world' mentality strengthened," she said. Law officers in both eastern and western Pennsylvania decided even before the accident not to prosecute Marcolongo on sexual abuse charges because, in their estimation, there was insufficient evidence of forcible compulsion. "The bottom line," said Clearfield County District Attorney Fred Ammerman, " is that these ladies have done this voluntarily . . . you got a bunch of women that when they were asked from time to time to masturbate (Marcolongo) they did it. They were 100 percent supportive of this group and these people did these actions voluntarily. The basis of their complaints was that he exercised a religious influence on them to do these things. In Pennsylvania an element of a sexual abuse charge is that they were forcibly compelled to do these things, but their own statements clearly indicated that there is no forcible compulsion, and my office is in total agreement with the Pennsylvania State Police that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Mr. Marcolongo." Most of the women said that law officials have no understanding of mind control and the fear they felt of the consequences if they had not succumbed to Marcolongo's alleged advances. They were convinced that if they didn't obey Marcolongo they would go to hell. Another woman said that prosecutors failed to understand that they were all worn down physically. "We worked 18 hours a day, slept four to five hours per night, and our sleep was interrupted by one hour per night in prayer." It took three to four years of Marcolongo wearing them down and getting them to an isolated place before they submitted to his advances. (From a series in the Delaware County Times [Primos, PA] 8/31/92, 1, 4-5, by Bill Alnor, "Prophet of sex abuse") 8 TM's Presidential "Brain" Test. John Hagelin. John Hagelin, the presidential candidate of Transcendental Meditation's Natural Law Party, challenged George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot in July to submit to a "brain-mapping" to measure if they are mentally fit for the White House. "This is a tool that so far government has not used - and I suspect I know the reason why," said the 39-year-old TM practitioner and physicist. He said he has already been brain tested by electroencephalogram and claimed to rank in the top 1 percent among those who have submitted to an EEG. The Natural Law party [which has candidates contesting numerous constituencies around the country] wants to use meditation to cure the nation's ills. (From "Candidates Challenged to Mental Test," by Bull Workman, San Francisco Chronicle, 7/10/92, A2) 9 "Reparenting" Therapy Abuses. Margaret Bean-Bayog, Paul Lozano, Margaret Singer The abusive possibilities of the "reparenting" technique of psychotherapy have received attention in recent months due to the celebrated case of Boston psychiatrist Margaret Bean-Bayog and her former patient Paul Lozano, whose therapy included, among other things, age regression in order to deal with long-standing personal and developmental problems. Changes: The Magazine for Personal Growth (August 1992, pp. 57-63) reviews extensively the history and current state of the reparenting movement. Along the way Changes identifies eight danger signs for psychotherapy patients generally, including engaging the patient in an intensely personal relationship, robbing the client of independence, and using social influence and persuasion to trap the client into a cult-like system. Psychologist Margaret Singer [a director of the American Family Foundation, publisher of the Cult Observer], who is regarded as an expert on cult-like therapies, told Changes that "reparenting assumes that some set of personality traits can be built into someone. And there is no evidence that this really works or is truly safe to do." She says that ex-clients of reparenting therapists who come to her are often shell-shocked. "Their whole sense of self and how to make decisions tend to have been badly attacked. In trying to break connections with the past, the therapists put such an onslaught on the person they end up feeling unsure about everything in life." 10 Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses. Free Minds Journal The July/August issue of Free Minds Journal (formerly the Bethel Ministries Newsletter) says the Manhattan Beach, CA publication is now "promoting awareness of the Watchtower (Jehovah's Witnesses) and other authoritarian religions" through a study of mind control techniques and studying more secular ways to counsel persons out of association with the Witnesses and similar controlling groups, this after a decade of having dealt exhaustively with doctrinal aspects of cult membership. (Cult Observer Report, 10/1/92) 11 Campus Recruitment. California State University, Church of Christ, Maria Graves The Daily Forty-Niner of California State University at Long Beach carried a story in its June 25 issue by Tony Gervase about sophomore Maria Graves, a student who tells how she was able to break away from the Los Angeles Church of Christ (a spin-off of the controversial Boston Church of Christ movement) only with great difficulty after being wooed and indoctrinated for over a year. The church is known for high-pressure recruiting, the exercise of total control over members, and a tendency to lead students to neglect school and shun friends and family. 12 TM's Chopra on National Health Board Deepak Chopra, M. D., promoter of Transcendental Meditation's Ayurvedic medicine - and one of the subjects of a scathing report in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year, is reportedly serving on a National Institutes of Health board that is considering the effectiveness of non-traditional approaches to health and medical treatment. (Cult Observer Report, 8/27/92). Chopra is also the subject of a lengthy interview defending the validity of Ayurveda and defending the benefits of "Quantum Holistic Healing" in Better World (formerly Meditation Magazine), Vol. 1, No.2, 1992, 41, 46-47. 13 Leaving the Ashram, Common Boundarys Disillusionment, exploitation, corruption, and control are some of the themes developed by former followers of groups such as Yogi Bhajan's 3HO, John Roger's Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, the Fellowship of Friends, Swami Muktananda, and even a Roman Catholic holy order, in the New Age journal Common Boundary's July/August 1992 issue (pp. 32-39). (Cult Observer Report) ================================================================= DOS FILENAME OF TEXT FILE: CO0992AB.TXT DOS FILENAME OF IMAGE FILES: none ADMINISTRATIVE CODE: OK SECURITY CODE: SCO DISTRIBUTION CODE: RO DESCRIPTION FOR BBS FILE LISTING: The Cult Observer, September 1992 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. U.S.A. STORIES | 1 Indictment for Alleged Deprogramming | Plan. Lewis du Pont Smith, Lyndon | LaRouche, Edgar Newbold Smith, Donald | Moore, Jr., Galen Kelley | 2 Litigation with Cult Awareness | Network. Scientology. | 3 Yahweh Ben Yahweh Sentenced to | 18 Years | 4 New Alliance Party Sues Election | Commission. Lenora Fulani. | 5 CUT Member Loses Custody of Children. | Carol Ann Scheibler. | 6 Lifespring's Possible Financial | Problems | 7 Doomsday Cult Lead Dies. Anthony | Marcolongo, Church of Our First | Love, Sean Dwyer | 8 TM's Presidential "Brain" Test. | John Hagelin. | 9 "Reparenting" Therapy Abuses. | Margaret Bean-Bayog, Paul Lozano, | Margaret Singer | 10 Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses. Free | Minds Journal | 11 Campus Recruitment. California State | University, Church of Christ, | Maria Graves | 12 TM's Chopra on National Health Board | 13 Leaving the Ashram, Common Boundarys For additional verification see the contributor of the document. UPDATED ON: 9/26/94 UPDATED BY: FrJMc =================================================================