Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that attempts to help someone who has "strongly held convictions," often coming from cults or New Religious Movements (NRM). Deprogramming aims to assist a person who holds a controversial or restrictive belief system in changing those beliefs and severing connections to the associated group which created and controls that belief system.
The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was an anti-cult organization created by deprogrammer Ted Patrick that provided information on groups that it considered to be cults, as well as support and referrals to deprogrammers. It was founded in the wake of the 1978 cult mass murder/suicide at Jonestown, Guyana. After CAN lost a lawsuit and filed for bankruptcy in 1996, Scientologists were able to acquire CAN's name, phone numbers, assets, files and records, and reopened under the name New Cult Awareness Network; the irony being that the Church of Scientology as a "cult" was one of CAN's main targets.
Steven Alan Hassan (pronounced ; born 1954 is an American author, educator and mental health counselor specializing in destructive cults. He has been described by media as "one of the world's foremost experts on mind control, cults and similar destructive organizations," though social scientists are divided on his work. He is a former member of the Unification Church, founded Ex-Moon Inc. in 1979, and in 1999 founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center. He has written on the subject of mind control and how to help people who have been harmed by the experience. He created the BITE Model evaluation of controlling social groups to quantify cult-like behavior.
David G. Bromley is a professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, specialized in sociology of religion and the academic study of new religious movements. He has written extensively about cults, new religious movements, apostasy, and the anti-cult movement.
The anti-cult movement consists of various governmental and non-governmental organizations and individuals that seek to raise awareness of cults, uncover coercive practices used to attract and retain members, and help those who have become involved with harmful cult practices.
Anson D. Shupe, Jr. was an American sociologist noted for his studies of religious groups and their countermovements, family violence and clergy misconduct. He was affiliated with the New Cult Awareness Network, an organisation operated by the Church of Scientology, and had at least one article published in Freedom magazine.
Stephen A. Kent is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He researches new religious movements (NRMs), and has published research on several such groups including the Children of God, the Church of Scientology, and other NRMs operating in Canada.
Ronald M. Enroth was a professor of sociology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, and an evangelical Christian author of books concerning what he defined as "cults" and "new religious movements" and important figure in the Christian countercult movement.
Saul V. Levine is a Canadian psychiatrist and author, professor emeritus at various universities for psychiatry at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; Stanford University Medical School; and University of Toronto (1970–1993). He was chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego, from 1993–2011. He was department head of psychiatry at Sunnybrook Medical Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Another Gospel: Cults, Alternative Religions, and the New Age Movement is a non-fiction book discussing new religious movements and the New Age movement, written by Ruth A. Tucker. The book was published in 1989 by Zondervan, a Christian publishing house. Another edition was released by the same publisher in 2004.
Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion is a non-fiction book on cults and coercive persuasion, written by Marc Galanter. The book was published in hardcover format in 1989 by Oxford University Press, and again in hardcover in 1999 in a second-edition work. The second edition was reprinted by Oxford University Press in March 2007.
All Gods Children: The Cult Experience – Salvation Or Slavery? is a non-fiction book on cults, by journalists Carroll Stoner and Jo Anne Parke. The book was published in May 1977 in hardcover, and again in 1979 in paperback by Penguin Books.
James R. Lewis was an American philosophy professor at Wuhan University. Lewis was an academic, scholar of religious studies, sociologist of religion, and writer, specializing in the academic study of new religious movements, astrology, and New Age.
Theodore "Ted" Roosevelt Patrick, Jr. is an American deprogrammer and author. He is considered to be the "father of deprogramming."
The Jason Scott case was a United States civil suit, brought against deprogrammer Rick Ross, two of his associates, and the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), for the abduction and failed deprogramming of Jason Scott, a member of the United Pentecostal Church International. Scott was eighteen years old at the time of the abduction and thus legally an adult. CAN was a co-defendant because a CAN contact person had referred Scott's mother to Rick Ross. In the trial, Jason Scott was represented by Kendrick Moxon, a prominent Scientologist attorney.
Twisted Scriptures: Breaking Free from Churches That Abuse is a non-fiction book by Mary Alice Chrnalogar, published by Zondervan. Chrnalogar instructs readers on how to determine if a religious group is manipulative or abusive, and describes techniques of mind control. The book was first published in 1997 by publishers Whitaker House and Control Techniques, and republished in 2000 by Zondervan. A Spanish language edition was published in 2006 by Vida.
The "New Cult Awareness Network" is an organization that provides information about cults, and is owned and operated by associates of the Church of Scientology, itself categorized in many countries as a cult. It was formed in 1996, with the name purchased from the now defunct Cult Awareness Network, an organization that provided information on groups it considered to be cults, and that strongly opposed Scientology.
Faults is a 2014 psychological thriller dark comedy film written and directed by Riley Stearns in his feature film debut. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, Beth Grant, Chris Ellis and Lance Reddick. The film premiered at the 2014 SXSW on March 9, 2014, and was picked up by Screen Media Films for theatrical release on March 6, 2015.
The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions is a 1980 nonfiction book on anti-cultism, deprogramming, and new religious movements (cults) by sociologists of religion Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley. A foreword was written by Joseph R. Gusfield. It was published by SAGE Publications in its Library of Social Research series as volume 113. Some have described the volume as a companion to their previous work, "Moonies" in America: Cult, Church, and Crusade (1979). Shupe and Bromley approach the anti-cult movement in the United States through a resource-mobilization lens.
Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare is a 1981 nonfiction book by Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley about the "cult scare" in America in the 1970s. It was published by Beacon Press in Boston. Shupe and Bromley analyze six specific new religious movements (cults) – the Unification Church, the Church of Scientology, the Children of God, the Divine Light Mission, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and the Peoples Temple – in order to partially dispel myths about them.
