This is a special collaboration between Cult Hackers and The World of Work Project, exploring cultic practices in the workplace. Stephen welcomes Jane Stewart and James Carrier to discuss where work and cults intersect, how employees can spot potential risks, how managers and leaders can avoid cultic practices and how society can spot cultic groups. Part 1 explores the specific areas of concern and interest including charismatic and transformational leadership, meaning and purpose through work and employee voice.

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To lift the mood this week Stephen and Celine review three of their favourite comedy movies, all with tangentially cult related themes; Shaun of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End. Also Stephen talks about the LEJOG cycling challenge for 2023.

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To support Stephen’s ride for the Family Survival Trust 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cult-hackers

Jolyn Armstrong is a certified trauma recovery coach and has an interesting personal perspective, having gone through the experience of a son becoming incarcerated for a serious crime and of overcoming her own religious trauma. During the conversation Celine and Stephen discuss the use of coaching in recovery, the difficulty of finding friends after leaving a cult and the similarities between incarceration and disfellowshipping for family members. 

Jolyn's website landing page:

https://gvtraumarecovery.com/culthackers

Please Note: Cult Hackers cannot and does not endorse any particular trauma recovery treatment or method.

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Today Stephen briefly considers a week of hell, and then Cult Hackers revisits an episode from the archives exploring the supernatural, the Devil and the demons' interest in second-hand furniture. Celine and Stephen explore how upon leaving a religious Bible Cult long held beliefs about the spooky and supernatural are re-evaluated. There's also an example of a 'cold reading' from Derren Brown's book Tricks of The Mind

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References

Tricks of the Mind

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Channel 4; Reprint edition (8 Oct. 2007)

Today Celine and Stephen explore a group they've not talked about before, Christian Science. Hilary Alexander was raised as a Christian Scientist and in this interview she talks about the process of leaving and making sense of the world afterwards. Christian Science – not to be confused with Scientology – is a religion that was started by Mary Baker Eddy in the late 19th century and as you’ll hear from Hilary has some pretty unusual beliefs that lead to some dangerous practices – perhaps the most important of these is the refusal by many adherents to use modern medicine or medical procedures.

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After leaving a cult or fundamentalist group with an all-encompassing belief system, it’s great fun to explore science and philosophy and it’s not long before the quantum world is likely to attract attention. Today Celine and Stephen have the company of a special guest to explore quantum physics and try to separate the science from the woo.

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Videos about quantum physics

The Double Slit Experiment

https://youtu.be/A9tKncAdlHQ

Apertures and Diffraction - Exploring Wave Motion

https://youtu.be/BH0NfVUTWG4

Quantum Physics Explained

https://youtu.be/Usu9xZfabPM

In this week's episode we explore how cults use power to ensure the obedience of their followers, drawing from French and Raven's Bases of Power and the work of Max Weber.

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French and Raven review on the six bases

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm

University of Regina article

https://uregina.ca/~gingrich/o12f99.htm

Assimilation, group identity and leaving is hard. In this bonus episode taken from our short series, Cults on Film, Stephen explores the science fiction favourite baddie, the Borg, from the movie Star Trek First Contact and the TV Series Star Trek Voyager, as a metaphor for cults and coercive control. 

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More about the movies and TV shows in this episode

Star Trek First Contact

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731/

Star Trek Voyager

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112178/

Jennifer French has a Masters in the Psychology of Coercive Control and is host of the Project Hope Podcast. She was a member of a Christian Mystical Cult and as a result became estranged from her family for over a decade. She talks openly about her experience of joining and leaving her group and the long process of reconnecting with her family. It's an emotional episode.

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Jennifer's website 

https://www.jennifer-french.com/project-hope-podcast

Celine and Stephen explore how cults use the promise of happiness to attract people and keep them on the hook. Also what is the science on happiness? Is happiness genetic? Is it dependant upon external factors? Does money make you happy? Are married people happier? All this and lots more in this week's episode.

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Links

Low expectations

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/ambigamy/201408/the-secret-happiness-and-compassion-low-expectations

Explaining Happiness

https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1633144100

The discontented pony

http://ponymadbooklovers.blogspot.com/2018/07/book-review-by-tintin-discontented-pony.html