Cult Hackers

Sherrie D'Souza is the International Development Director and board member of 'Recovering From Religion' an organization that specialises in helping people deal with the effects of leaving damaging religious groups and making sense of life afterwards. Sherrie was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and speaks about her childhood, growing up and becoming an adult within the group as well as the difficulty of leaving. 

Recovering from Religion Website

https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/#rfr-welcome

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Welcome to the first official episode of Cult Hackers (formerly 'What should I think about..?') For our first show we have a wonderful and knowledgeable cult hacker, former cult member Nicola Ranson.

The Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country became a worldwide hit with its fascinating story of a cultic group's strange journey from free love to bio terrorism. Nicola Ranson is now a mental health professional and author, with her memoir 'A slice of orange' coming out in 2023. She was a member of the Rajneesh group for ten years and talks about her attraction to the group, life within it, her journey out and how she made sense of her life after leaving.

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Nicola Ranson

https://nicolaranson.org/

In the last ever episode of 'What Should I Think About...?' (soon to become Cult Hackers), Andrew Jasko, M.Div. joins us.

Andrew is a Religious Trauma Coach with an MA in Counselling Psychology. On the podcast today he talks about his own experience of being the subject of prophecy within a Pentecostal Church, his struggle with his faith, his experience of religious trauma and his journey out of the church. He also talks about his views on consciousness, spirituality and mysticism and affably responds to Stephen's skeptical challenges.

Andrew Jasko website and blog

https://lifeafterdogma.org/

Did Jesus have a work-life balance problem? What are the 'work' commitments for members of cults? As a former Jehovah's Witness Stephen reflects upon the work commitments of an active Jehovah's Witness? What may be the long-lasting psychological effects of being 'always on' for ex members? 

These are all subjects explored in this week's episode, plus how organizational psychologists research the subject and how that might be able to help us think about getting the balance right. And Celine points out some of Stephen's possible issues in this area.

Please Note: This podcast is soon to be renamed Cult Hackers. The feed will remain the same.

References

Making Whole-Souled Sacrifices for Jehovah, The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom—2012

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2012045#h=10:0-17:389

Summer Reminders, Our Kingdom Ministry—1993

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/201993207?q=summer+reminders&p=par

McDowall, A., & Lindsay, A. (2014). Work–life balance in the police: The development of a self-management competency framework. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(3), 397-411.

Taking action against cults and spiritual abuse requires changes in law and policies often at the National or State level. How is this achieved?

Today we welcome Lisa Kendall, herself a former member of a cult called 'The Move of God', and the Founder and Director of the Counter Cult Coalition. Lisa has a Masters in Public Administration from Portland State University. We also welcome Jake Giovati from the University of Buffalo School of Law. 

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Counter Cult Coalition Facebook Group

https://www.facebook.com/countercultcoalition/

Prompted by a Tweet, Celine and Stephen explore the judgement that Jehovah's Witnesses literature can cause psychological damage and that it employs NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) in order to influence people. Lots of questions follow: What is the claim? How could we scientifically research it? What is NLP?

Contact us

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Become a patron

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References and Reading

Forum 18 Story

https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2767

Neuro-linguistic programming: cargo cult psychology?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242770183_Neuro-linguistic_programming_cargo_cult_psychology

Darin Challacombe is a social scientist and researcher in the field of terrorism. He recently gave a talk at the ICSA conference about the synergy between cults and terror groups. Stephen grabbed the opportunity to speak to him about what the similarities and differences are. Darin also discusses some groups who morph from cult to terrorist as well as the strategies being deployed to disrupt radicalisation of vulnerable individuals.

Darin's Twitter handle is @ksresearcher

Contact us at https://www.evilsheep.co.uk/contact

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Does it matter what cults believe? Or is it only what they do that matters? Should we respect beliefs that aren't true? How should we engage with beliefs? Should we challenge each others beliefs? And how should the podcast engage with cult escape stories that include finding a new set of religious or mystical beliefs?

In today's podcast Celine and Stephen explore these questions by looking at some unorthodox belief systems; The Aetherius Society, the Breatharians, Fruitarians and the Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought, as well as 'men's movement' committed to bringing back the patriarchy!

This podcast was recorded before the attack on author Salman Rushdie.

Links

To become a patron https://www.patreon.com/whatshouldithinkabout

To contact us https://www.evilsheep.co.uk/contact

References

The Aethrian Society

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/opinion/gods-from-space-aetherius.html

The Cult Next Door

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08c3vrx

What function do heroes serve? Why were we not allowed to have posters of our heroes on our bedroom walls? Who are our modern day heroes? What happens when our heroes disappoint us or show us they are human? What cultural differences are there between the USA and the UK around heroes? 

On this special episode, author Ali Millar talks about the release of her wonderful new book 'The Last Days' and why she had to tell her story, growing up in, and eventually leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses. We explore with her the experience of childhood indoctrination and the lessons it teaches, Ali's leading a 'double life', her experience with an eating disorder and the harrowing experience of a judicial committee. We also discuss the question of how society should treat damaging groups.

Ali's website

https://www.alimillar.com