Anthony Spurgin's parents joined a Traditionalist Catholic group when he was 12. At the age of 14, rather than going to high school, Anthony became part of a Traditionalist Catholic home-schooling co-operative. He talks about the traumatic effects of involvement with the group and especially the focus on sex as sinful. This talk shows how important it is to assess groups to see if they are authoritarian. A wide-ranging conversation about Christianity and religion in general.

A talk that will be very useful for anyone who suffers from bipolar disorder or for friends and family. John describes the symptoms of the different forms of bipolar disorder, and tells us how he manages his own condition. John explodes popular myths about bipolar disorder in a fascinating conversation.

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Joe Szimhart shares his remarkable knowledge of religious belief and helps Jon to assess the value of 'being here now.' Observations about Scientology, Ron Hubbard's childhood, Jon's brief time in a Zen monastery and Joe's experiences in the Church Universal and Triumphant. With reference to the origins of karma as a teaching, the separate 'bodies' of CUT as compared to Hubbard's 'exteriorization'. How groups induce 'transcendent' states through repetition, fixation and mimicry, fasting and sleep deprivation which actually create different neurological states. A wide-ranging discussion taking in many points about Scientology, its offshoot Eckankar, Paul Brunton, TM, Meher Baba and Uncle Tom Cobley and all.

It can be very hard to take responsibility for your actions if you blame the manipulations of a cult for them. As Hoyt says, it is vital to take responsibility for your own story: it is a lot easier to fool someone than to persuade them they've been fooled. Some people blame themselves entirely for their negative behavior and others shrug it off because of 'mind control'. To recover from a cult experience, we have to weigh up the balance between the manipulation of the cult and our own agency.

Before creating Scientology, Ron Hubbard performed a ritual to incarnate the Wh*re of Babylon. Is Scientology itself perhaps an elaborate magic ritual? Hubbard also admitted to addiction to barbiturates in a Scientology lecture. At twelve, Janis was one of the original 'Commodore's Messengers' and spent time with Hubbard almost every day for eleven years both on ship and ashore. She talks about he Kali Ritual aboard ship and is confident that Hubbard was not using street drugs.

John Hunter PhD continues his fascinating explanation of the processes used in Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGATs). We begin with the ominously named Elaboration Likelihood Model, which explores how likely it is that someone will think before acting. John touches on Daniel Kahneman's System One - quick thinking - and System Two - considered thinking. He talks about the 'philosophically pompous' statements found in LGAT literature and their demand that people put their experience above their reasoning. John is at the leading edge of research into authoritarian cults.

A look at group psychosis, mass sociogenic illness, and the folie a plusiers with the eminent social psychiatrist Dr Steven Moffic. How groups can come to share absurd fantasies that can lead to atrocities. Recorded on 9/11 and especially relevant to the events of that day in 2001. Truth and Reconciliation and how music can help to integrate disparate communities.

Kidnapping, imprisonment, and traumatic rituals have been normalized in the 'brat camps' of the US. Kacey has interviewed survivors of this American equivalent of China's brainwashing program. Including a brief segment of genius and the need to transform our educational system.

Over the millennia, many groups have predicted the End Days as an aspect of phobia induction - a way of scaring recruits into following orders by scrambling their critical thinking. The Jehovah's Witnesses have issued a string of failed prophecies (the first for 1914, but also for 1975), Moonie founder Sun Myung Moon, Edgar Cayce and Jerry Falwell were among many who offered 2000 as Earth's last year.

s Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrant join the ranks of infamous child abusers such as the Duggars, the Turpins, and Lori Vallow, Jon and Spike have some news - the Franke/Hildebrant case is part of a much larger pattern, where, as Voltaire did not exactly say, those who believe in absurdities will commit atrocities. Simply put, when the parents espouse extreme beliefs, it is the children who suffer the most.