Newsletter: Staying Determined to Work Actively for Freedom and Human Rights
Rising to today’s challenge to work together for Social Justice
This week’s Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum podcast features Dr. Christine M. Cocchiola and Amy Polacko, who together wrote the book Framed: Women in the Family Court Underworld, a collection of 22 case studies highlighting the experiences of protective mothers and their children navigating the complex family court system. Contrary to our society’s pre-conception that our family court system favors women, Cocchiola and Polacko describe the reality where women often find themselves blamed, pushed aside, and their valid concerns about handing their children over to abusers are ignored. You can also read the related blog post with the interview video here on Substack.
Next week’s podcast will feature an interview with musician and former Hare Krishna devotee Steven J. Gelberg, who discusses his experiences in the group and talks about his soon-to-be-released book, Tuning In: Experiencing Music in Psychedelic States, where he explores the role of music in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and psychedelic use generally. We also talk about the more recent finding that Tulsi Gabbard, nominated by Trump to be Director of National Intelligence, shows ties to Krishna Hinduism and ISKCON. Chris Butler, who is the guru of Tulsi Gabbard, was a disciple of the Krishna movement and Prabhupada. The group is known for its homophobia.
I was delighted to appear in an episode of the Mark Thompson Show entitled “Breaking The Cult of Trump,” where we talked about my own cult experiences and the cult of Trump. It seems that many people are now realizing that Donald Trump is a cult leader and that his followers need to be “broken out” of their cultic “shell.” There is also an excellent piece by Ron Roberts in The Daily KOS, titled “1,459 More Days to Go,” which cites me as an expert on the psychology of Trumpism.
My blog post for January in Psychology Today is called “9 Things You Need to Know About Destructive Cults”, where I sketch out people's top misconceptions about cults and the experience of being in a high-control group. We must fight misinformation wherever we find it, particularly on this topic, so please share it widely.
I plan to do a multi-platform livestream tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 29th, from 3 to 4 p.m. EST; I welcome everyone to tune in with questions and comments! Last week’s livestream was a great success; if you missed it, you can see the replay here.
Last Friday, I spoke at Fielding Graduate University’s Institute for Social Innovation Symposium, where I gave a talk entitled “Combating Cult Mind Control & Promoting Freedom of Mind.” I spoke about my research, which focuses on developing a model to assess the degree of authoritarian control exerted by a group or individual and also gathering online data from individuals on specific groups and dictatorships, particularly about the model underlying my online survey, the BITE Model of Authoritarian Control.
And have you filled out our bitemodel.com survey yet? Please consider doing so for healthy relationships and groups, too! Please give the name of the healthy group. You can make multiple entries if you have been involved in more than one group. Please feel free to share it on Reddit, Facebook, and anywhere ex-members can be found. We wish to collect a database, especially of authoritarian groups.
Dr. Christine M. Cocchiola and Amy Polacko address the critical issues of family court practices in their book Framed: Women in the Family Court Underworld, a collection of 22 case studies highlighting the experiences of protective mothers and their children navigating the complex family court system. The book is a resource for women going through divorce, married women noticing early warning signs, and those considering marriage, offering practical advice and raising awareness of systemic challenges.
Read the blog post or listen to the podcast below:
Cults are a hot topic. But, perhaps not surprisingly given the methods of influence they use, they are opaque to the public.
After decades of studying cults and the methods of undue influence they and others exert, I've identified common misinformed beliefs about cults. One consequence of such mistaken beliefs is that many people either doubt the influence of destructive cults or misunderstand them.
How can you tell if that group your family member has joined is safe? Is your relationship hitting a “rough patch,” or is there actual cause for concern? With this anonymous, easy-to-use diagnostic tool, you can answer simple questions and determine if any group or relationship is beneficial or destructive, ethical or unethical, healthy or unhealthy. And now, you can share your results on your social media if you wish!
As always, please let us know what you think about these pieces or what you’d like to see us discuss in the future. Thanks so much!
🔸️NONE of the orange baby man's clown show would be happening if he was disqualified day one after forensic psychiatrist Dr Bandy X Lee's report of the FIVE DANGEROUS MENTAL PATHOLOGIES of Donald Trump.
🔸️The 1973 Goldwater Rule is obsolete. It said a public figure should be personally examined to diagnose. Today, social media continues to record thousands of hours of pathological behavior from the one foot tall orange baby man in diapers for all to see. No personal examination needed.
🔸️Voters DEMAND mentally fit leadership. It is the sacred duty of Senate leadership to protect American voters from dangerous mentally unfit candidates and to prevent autocratic abuse.
"Stephen Xenakis-Fitness for Duty Exams: Preventing Autocratic Abuse"
https://youtu.be/vdtChF07ryU?si=XJzMjvTsSfKn5UTn