I received an email from a viewer named Jason, who spoke in very derogatory terms about Janja Lalich, a cult researcher and academic who along with other researches and advocates such as Michael Langone and Margaret Sanger, put together an analytical checklist of characteristics for destructive cult groups. Since his questions and the points he made about Ms. Lalich and the checklist were too lengthy to take up in my weekly Q&A show but did not warrant an entirely separate video on just that subject, I decided to answer his concerns in this podcast. The entire checklist is covered point by point and I use numerous comparisons to Scientology and other cult types to show how Ms. Lalich’s checklist is very useful in isolating whether any group in question could be potentially destructive or constructive.

The checklist itself can be seen here.

Music by Pale Blue and LinoRise. Commercial break courtesy of RetroTy.com.