Customer Reviews

Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace

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The outline of the book is straightforward: Part one identifies what a cult is. Ms. Singer takes care to emphasize that the term "cult" is a netural one.

Part two details the methods used by these cults. And it is in this area that the distinction between legitimate groups are distinguished from manipulative groups whose ultimate goal is to serve the will of the cult leader without criticism, rather than a beneficial goal beyond the personal service of the cult leadership.

A true self-help group, like Alcoholics Anonymous or a local church, will allow for the possibility that the convert might leave, and will not view it as a threat to the organization. As detailed by the anecdotal evidence in the book, the lengths to which the (malignant) cult leadership will stifle internal dissent and outside criticism, demonstrates the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of these cults and their inherent distrust of an individual's self-determination. This, I can tell you, is *not* what goes on in your normal neighborhood church.

The final part is instructive as it is heartbreaking, as it emphasizes the loss of children's life, and on how to get people out of the cult. As Singer's anecdotal stories about ex-cult members compound upon the reader, the proper reaction to these types of groups should be growing contempt, as many of the members seem unable to formulate any mental or spiritual foundation after having been manipulated so perversely.

OK, folks, I'm one of the "culties" Singer wrote about. I have an IQ of 140, an MBA and a successful business career. None-the-less, for 27 years I followed the "advice" and received the twisted, NOT "unconditional love" of a guru. Along with my "special" friends we supported him while he lied to us about just about everything... his background, our "faults and inadequacies," and especially, about our likelihood of surviving without his "help." Pretty bizarre, definately true, and all too common. Singer and Lalich's book describes perfectly the way he ate away at our self-confidence and kept us dependant. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT BOOK! We are all more susceptable to brainwashing than we want to believe. Read the book, discuss it with your friends, with your children, with your parents. Learn the difference between a convincing argrument and being brainwashed. The mind you save may be your own. This should be required reading in every school and in every parent's group in the country.

Cults use motivational psychology to create closed controlling environments where cult members have little opportunity for free thinking. Societal organizations such as the advertising and sales industries, schools, and governmental organizations also use motivational psychology, but these organizations exert less control over members' lives. Some cults control *all* aspects of their members' lives, including where members work and live, members' social companions, members' sexual companions (if any), and even when members can use the bathroom. Cults achieve complete control through a program of deliberate isolation plus psychological reward and punishment. Cult members mechanically serve the cult leadership's goals and fantasies, often accumulating money, wealth and power for the cult leadership.

Professor Singer is a psychologist with over fifty years of research and clinical experience, and her collaborator Janja Lalich is a former cult member. Together they have produced a well-written text describing 'What Are Cults' and 'How Do They Work'. This very readable text is filled with specific examples describing how cults affect their membership, and examples describing the obstacles that former cult members face if they return to overall society. The discussion describes the use and effects of extreme motivational psychology within cults. The discussion also assists understanding motivational psychology use and effects within overall society.

"Cults In Our Midst: ..." was written in 1995. Since 1995 the United States' sexual mores (reflected by the entertainment media) have liberalized, sexually transmitted disease has increased, and societal affluence has lessened. If this text was revised in 2003, I believe that additional discussion of (lack of, or unconventional) sexuality and (lack of) food as motivators and punishment would be warranted.

I have the unfortunate situation of being a father(divorced)with two children who dissapaered in a religious /o cuasi-religious Cult. In my quest for answers and for learning, I met with Janja Lalich and we became friends and pen-pals. I have read hundreds of books on the New Age movement, and I have also compared them with Cults in our Midst. This book very succintly describes with graphic and explosive words what a Cult leader is, and as I am an Attorney and are familiar with Law suits against Cults such as Scientology, New Aghe, Sevnth Day Adventist, Jehovah Witnesses, and others, Margaret Thaler Singer and Janja Lalich(who is a former cult member herself)describe what the characteristics of a Cult leader are with wisdom and tought, and it makes for very good material for people like me who suddenly one day woke up and found ourselves in this impossible situation; together with personal therapy and support groups, I highly reccomend people in similar situations like mine to read it and open their eyes to the danger of these societal menaces who destroy minds and families, excelent work, Paul Hirsch Pels

Like others, I found the book useful, particularly for case studies and as a general introduction. I was unimpressed by the rather vague characterization of the differences between mainstream schools of thought (military, religious etc.) and cults as the Authors identify them - I'm left with the idea that she's particularly concerned with not attacking deeply rooted beliefs and patriotic feelings, but the analysis of the difference - if there really IS a difference - is largely unconvincing. It is important to notice that the treatment of Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT) programs is incomplete in the paperback edition, due to a pending cause with Landmark Education. All references to the widespread (and wealthy enough to stop just about anyone) Landmark Forum have been removed. So if you want her description and analysis of it, you'll need to get the hardback edition.

A word of warning against cult apologists - see the review by Lucille M. Cozzolino. Her suggested reading by James Lewis and Gordon Melton is nothing more than pushing the view of cult apologists.

They insist there is no such thing as brainwashing, mind control or whatever you wish to call it.

Melton, by the way, after the Aum Shinrikyo sarin gas attacks in Japan, was flown to Japan by the cult and once there he declared that the group could not have produced the Sarin poison gas. WRONG. They did.

For good insight into cults, try the Rick Ross website at http://www.rickross.com/ There is plenty of information on different groups, and much can also be learnt from the message boards.

It is interesting to note that the reviewer Lucille M. Cozzolino has published only one review. It is a pattern that was commonly seen when Jon Atack released A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed.

Don't be fooled, there are cults out there and they can be dangerous. Self-help seminars, so-called 'human potential' organisations, are also potentially dangerous and should be thoroughly investigated before one commits to a course with one of them.

Many of them employ mind control methods similar to those used by cults and the effects can be devastating. Again, for information on this, the Rick Ross website is excellent.

I speak from experience.

Dr. Singer has written a very valuable resource for all readers who are interested in cults, who have a loved one in a cult, or who, like myself -- ended up being greatly deceived by a cult. Dr. Singer was supportive and helpful to me when I finally extracted myself from the cult I had been a member of for six years. She took the time to speak to me numerous times on the telephone and through various e-mails. Her book is a tremendous resource for anyone interested in this subject. It is literally one of the best published and I've researched religious cults for over a decade now. For a comprehensive look at mind altering organizations, this is a book no one should pass up.

I'm not an expert on cults. I've never (to my knowledge) participated in one. I have made a study, however, of human belief, and what I found in this book was fascinating and illuminating. I must confess that what I got the most out of it was not what Singer was writing, but what I found between the lines. There is clearly a continuum of cultic thought, technique, and behavior, and all groups and institutions fall somewhere along that continuum. Singer deals almost exclusively with those groups that land way out on one extreme, but when she discusses Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGAT) she eludes to this continuum. Where she falls short, I believe, is in recognizing (or discussing) that probably all religious belief falls rather far along this continuum, and no doubt had its roots way to the extreme. I would expect that it could be argued that Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Joseph Smith, Zoroaster etc. etc. etc. and the movements they began could all be evaluated against the criteria of a cult and found to exhibit most if not all the designating factors. They move away from the end of the spectrum where the hard-core cults are found when they mainstream and become more popular...it's simply too difficult to control that many people and that many variables. Religions have made a choice...sacrifice control for size, power and influence. Cults have not yet made that choice, prefering instead to retain the control and live with the limited power and influence that an individual cultic figure can muster.

The information found in this book is very valuable in helping each of us assess our own vulnerabilities to charismatic and interesting people and causes. That should not frighten us away from striving for those experiences, only warning us to approach with caution, with our eyes wide open and our radar screens well lit!

As someone affected by the cult problem, I can say that Singer's book is accurate and necessary for anyone affected by cults, or who wants to learn to protect themselves from cults

I had seen so many cults on campus at the schools I have attended I think this should be required reading. Singer takes the disaster that is cult involvement and shows the telltail signs of this plague that is eating away at the fabric of societies vulnerable populations. Don't be confused though it could happen to anyone and does. This book could save you or someone you love alot of trouble. I was never in a cult but had been on the fringes of a couple and could only say I thought the people trying to recuit me were vaguely obnoxious, and manipulative but couldn't really put my finger on what it was because I couldn't identify them as cult members. This is no longer a problem. This book is engaging and very important. Read it for the people in your life and yourself.