A former cult member and a leading researcher on cults and mind control, Steven Hassan has been actively defending the freedom of mind for decades. His influential work has brought immense relief to innumerable individuals and families across the globe who fell victim to cults and mind control.
His book titled FREEDOM OF MIND; Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults and Beliefs includes 13 chapters where Hassan explains his novel approach called SIA (Strategic Interactive Approach). The SIA focuses on the process of change and the growth of the family and support network as well as the cult member. When each family member is responsible for growth and change, the cult member’s perspective changes. The SIA aims to help the cult member realize that he has been under the influence of the group and eventually, recognize the pervasiveness of the group’s control over his life.
In chapter one, Hassan talks about common characteristics of cults such as authoritarian leadership, deceptive practices and tightly controlled emotional and intellectual environment. In chapter two, he introduces his BITE model as a practical tool to assess how a person or group controls a person’s life. The four parts of his model include Behavior Control, Information Control, Thought Control and Emotions Control. In chapter three, Hassan mentions the attitudes and beliefs essential in SIA.
From chapter four onwards, the required measures to be taken in order to successfully implement the SIA are discussed. Initially, one has to evaluate the situation. Questions such as how the individual is doing, how the individual got stuck in the cult in the first place and how deeply he is involved should be asked. Then, a team that generally consists of immediate family members and close friends must be formed. Every single member of the team needs to be empowered and their problems should be resolved first. This will pave the way for better interaction with the cult member. In addition, recognizing characteristics of the cult in which your loved one is involved is necessary. It helps to identify specific ways that the cult deceives members and keeps them dependent whether by distorting the truth, misinterpreting religious texts, or deliberately spreading lies about its critics.
Chapter eight deals with the dual identities of cult members and how they vacillate between an authentic identity and a cult identity and when dealing with them, you have to be sensitive to the differences between the two identities. Initially, you need to develop rapport with and show interest in the cult identity. Afterward, you have to reconnect with and elicit the authentic identity. This can be done through the SIA since it reconnects the person to his or her past memories and experiences, facilitates positive exposure to non-members, provides enhanced access to outside information and brings to consciousness the negative experiences the person has had in the group. In chapter eight, effective and goal-oriented communication strategies within the SIA are discussed and techniques such as anticipating and rehearsing best case, worst case and most probable responses and role-play situations are explained.
In chapter ten, cult members are helped to unlock their irrational fears or phobias through three steps. In the first step, the cult member is told what a phobia is, how it differs from a legitimate fear, and its potential impact. In the second step, you explain how other destructive groups or people deliberately install phobias to control people. You provide several examples of cult phobias, and ask the cult member what he thinks of these other groups. You give examples of how former members of other groups came to understand phobia indoctrination, and applied the cure to themselves. Finally, in step three, you discuss the specifics of your loved one’s relationship or group. Once the person sees that his situation—like the other groups you discussed—involves phobia indoctrination, much of the hold will loosen.
Chapter eleven deals with how friends and families of the cult member should get prepared and become a team to be able to encourage change and growth and promote the cult member’s freedom of mind. The two–day preparation meeting is a chance for all key family members, friends and other resource people, like former members to come together and truly become a team while learning the essentials. The main focus of the Strategic Intervention is to inspire the family and other Team members to do mini-interactions. It is hoped that these will motivate the cult member to seek out information–talk with former members, research on the Internet, or arrange to meet qualified professionals. Ideally, a loved one will leave the group after a series of successful mini-interactions. If after many interactions your loved one is still firmly entrenched in the group, you may want to consider a formal, three-day intervention. Chapter twelve explains how the intervention should take place. The first day is spent building rapport and trust, gathering information, getting everyone to connect as much as possible with the cult member, and laying the groundwork for the next two days. On day two, the intervention delves more deeply into the cult influence. An expert might talk about phobias and do a phobia intervention with the person. Talking about personal experiences or introducing a former cult member might be helpful. On day three, more in–depth discussions are pursued about the specific beliefs of the group, such as theological questions. Day three builds on the progress made in the previous two days. Hopefully, by this time, the person is making important connections, and asking direct questions about his own group. Finally in chapter thirteen, the author calls for global awareness of how sophisticated destructive cults have become and of the fact that they are using the Internet to manipulate and recruit innocent people. According to Hassan, social influence is everywhere and there needs to be a way to help people to easily discern what is happening, how it works and how to detect and protect themselves from negative influence.
One example of such groups is the Iranian protest group led by Maryam Rajavi, called the Mujahedeen Khalq or Warriors of God. Elizabeth Rubin, a contributor to the New York Times Magazine, maintains that the group is in fact a cult. Rubin writes that “an unlikely chorus of the group’s backers—some of whom have received speaking fees, others of whom are inspired by their conviction that the Iranian government must fall at any cost—have gathered around Mujahedeen Khalq at conferences in capitals across the globe. “Indeed, the Rajavis and Mujahedeen Khalq are spending millions in an attempt to persuade the Obama administration, and in particular Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to take them off the national list of terrorist groups,” Rubin writes. “Mujahedeen Khalq is not only irrelevant to the cause of Iran’s democratic activists, but a totalitarian cult that will come back to haunt us.”
The author hopes that after reading this book, readers will be better able to protect themselves, their family and their society from the dangers of destructive groups and cults.