Tommy’s story line and the processes of traumatic dissociation, reenactment, and misguided healing, that culminated in Tommy becoming (and failing as) a cult leader.
For over half a century, the Transcendental Meditation Program has enjoyed undeserved, positive pop-cultural visibility in the West, receiving endorsements from the famous and influential, recently including notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry, Tom Hanks and Michael J. Fox. How can this popular perception be successfully challenged?
After having been at the mercy of the leader of a psychotherapy cult or a counselor in an abusive residential treatment center.
Pat Ryan and Joe Kelly have worked helping people exit and recover from cults for many years. In this week’s video, they join Jon to talk about the nature of authoritarian control, the nostalgia some people hold for the early days of their involvement, and how no two experiences are ever the same.
Families usually seek information from us because they have a loved one involved in what they think might be a cult or related group that concerns them. (Sometimes an entire family has been in a group or the loved one is out of the group.
Research suggests that in the West hundreds of thousands of individuals join and leave cultic groups each year. Research studies also suggest that at least a sizeable minority of those who join cultic groups are adversely affected.
Is there a certain type of person who is more likely to join a cult? No.
Individual vulnerability factors matter much more than personality type when it comes to joining or staying in a cult or abusive relationship.