Word: cults
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Five years ago, the parents of Andrew Wilson '71 paid more than $3000 to have their son "deprogrammed" from the Unification Church. But last week, at a lecture by cult critic Dr. Margaret Thaler-Singer, Wilson, who has remained a church member, distributed material labeling the deprogramming process "a denial of basic civil rights of freedom of thought and religion...
Singer, professor of Psychiatry at the University of California at Berkeley, who in the past has defended forcible deprogramming, told an audience of 100 at the Science Center that once a person has joined a cult, it is extremely difficult for him to leave because cult leaders often succeed in destroying a person's ability to think critically...
...lecture last Friday, Singer described the effects of cults on members and ex-members, which she said to include subservience and inability to make decisions. One ex-cult member was so accustomed to taking orders that she could not deny any man who tried to make sexual advances with her, Singer said. "This is the biggest re-adjustment problem, making these people understand that they have control over their own lives," she added...
Attributing popularity of cults in recent years to societal breakdown during the drug culture, war protest and sexual revolution of the sixties, Singer, who has studied over 500 current and former cult members, said that people turn to cults to escape real-world complexities. "Whenever existing social structure is weakened, gurus, messiahs and pied-pipers have arisen," she added...
...Cults rob members of their free-will, Singer said, adding that cult leaders instruct recruits not to fight indoctrination by repeatedly telling new members to "melt, bliss-out and reach mindlessness...