Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives

Over the past two decades, in the United States alone, an estimated twenty million people have joined cults. Today, 3000 to 5000 cults are working to recruit new members and at any point in time, two-and-a-half to three million Americans are active cult members. Often a cult is disguised as a legitimate business or organization: a restaurant, self-help group, psychotherapy clinic, or leadership training program could be a front for the cult. Anyone - no matter what age or income level - could be susceptible to the covert and seductive nature of a cult. Singer's book reveals what cults are and how they work, and offers information on how to help people escape cult entrapments and recover from the experience.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Part One: What Are Cults? 1. Defining Cults 2. A Brief History of Cults 3. The Process of Brainwashing, Psychological Coercion, and Thought Reform 4. What's Wrong with Cults? Part Two: How Do They Work? 5. Recruiting New Members 6. Physiological Persuasion Techniques 7. Psychological Persuasion Techniques 8. Intruding into the Workplace 9. The Threat of Intimidation Part Three: How Can We Help Survivors to Escape and Recover? 10. Rescuing the Children 11. Leaving the Cult 12. Recovery: Coming Out of the Pseudopersonality Postscript: The Millennium, Cults, and the End of the Century.

About the Author :
MARGARET THALER SINGER, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and adjunct professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. In her career, she has counseled and interviewed more than three thousand current and former cult members and their relatives and friAnds. An expert on post-traumatic stress as well as cults, she lectures widely in the United States and abroad. JANJA LALICH is a former cult member and is now a writer, consultant, and cult information specialist. She is also the coauthor of Captive Hearts, Captive Minds (1994).

Review :
"The definitive A to Z work on cults.... It would have been a tremAndous resource and comfort to me and my family through our ordeals.'' --Patricia Ryan, daughter of Congressman Leo Ryan, who was assassinated by members of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple "This straightforward overview offers a clear explanation of the nature of cults and the threat they pose to individuals, families, and society. Perhaps the most striking point made here is the contention that most Americans will be vulnerable to cults at some point in their lives." Essential reading for all citizens in a free society to learn how even here it is possible to coercively persuade people to give up their freedom and harm themselves and their children in the process.'' --Edgar H. Schein, author of Coercive Persuasion (1961), and professor of management, MIT Sloan School of Management Many Americans feel helpless when manipulative, mind-stealing seducers take our children, our parents, our wealth... Singer explains the process, exposes their methods, and strengthens us all.'' --Mike Farrell, actor and producer, member of the board of advisors of the Cult Awareness Network Should be read by everyone who wishes to understand the incoherence in the therapeutic movements damaging families and destoying public confidence in mental health professionals. This is a superbly written, carefully detailed, enlightening book.'' --Paul McHugh, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins Medical School Age, education, sophistication, and wealth are not vaccinations against getting involved in a cult.'' --Margaret Singer "The author, an expert on the phenomenon of cults, presents a comprehensive, sobering account of their history and workings." "The author, an expert on the phenomenon of cults, presents a comprehensive, sobering account of their history and workings." --Bulletin og the Menninger Clinic