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Combating Cult Mind Control: The Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults Kindle Edition
Dr. Stephen Hassan, a world-renowned cult expert with firsthand experience of escaping the Unification Church Cult in the 1970s (often referred to as The Moonies), offers his critical insights in the landmark book “Combatting Cult Mind Control. The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults.” This essential guide explores the methods by which groups and individuals can manipulate people's minds and behaviors in a subtle and covert manner. Hassan combines his personal narrative with extensive psychological research to provide strategies for protection, intervention, and healing for those affected by destructive cults.
In this volume you will find:
- Stories of people who fell under the sway of cults and other forms of undue influence but who were able to break free
- New information on the many sophisticated ways social media are now used for mind control
- Updates on the many types of organizations that use mind control
- Information on the neuroscience behind mind control
Hassan lays out a clear, research-based path for understanding and countering manipulative influences. The book introduces the Freedom of Mind approach, Hassan's own method developed from psychological principles aimed at helping people reclaim their autonomy from manipulative influences.
Using scholarly evidence and straightforward discussion, "Combating Mind Control" provides an informative guide for recognizing, understanding, and resisting undue influence, emphasizing the power of informed, critical thinking, and personal autonomy.
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LanguageEnglish
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Publication dateMarch 27, 2015
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Reading age13 - 18 years
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File size2982 KB
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Product details
- ASIN : B00V9DU340
- Publisher : Freedom of Mind Press; 4th edition (March 27, 2015)
- Publication date : March 27, 2015
- Language : English
- File size : 2982 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 393 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #112,490 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4 in Religious Studies - Psychology
- #15 in Occult Cults & Demonism
- #28 in Psychology & Religion
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Steven A. Hassan, PhD, MA, M.Ed., LMHC, NCC is one of the foremost authorities on cults and mind control. He has been involved in educating the public about mind control, brainwashing, and destructive cults since 1976. He holds a Master's degree in counseling psychology from Cambridge College, is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is a Nationally Certified Counselor (NCC). Steven received a Master's in 2020 from Fielding Graduate University. He later earned a doctorate in the Organizational Development and Change (ODC)program at Fielding’s School of Leadership Studies. Hassan did a TEDxBeaconStreet talk in 2018 entitled: Is Technology Controlling Your Mind? He was a participant in the "Dismantling QAnon" TEDXMidAtlantic program in 2020. How to tell if you are brainwashed? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzSwZpHDAaU&t=3s
Steven has written four books that have received extensive praise from former cult members, families of former members, clergy, cult experts, and psychologists. Simon and Schuster published his latest book, The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How The President Uses Mind Control. Hassan read the audiobook. Kirkus Reviews gave a positive review.
His previous books are Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults (1988, 1990, 2015, 2018), Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves (2000), and Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults & Beliefs, (2012, 2013). Audible published Combating Cult Mind Control in August 2018.
Dr. Hassan has created an online course called Understanding Cults: A Foundational Course for Clinicians, which is helpful for former members, family, and all interested in learning more about the issues involved in authoritarian mind control cults and relationships. https://freedomofmind.com/understanding-cults-a-foundational-course-for-clinicians/
His Doctoral dissertation is entitled "THE BITE MODEL OF AUTHORITARIAN CONTROL: UNDUE INFLUENCE THOUGHT REFORM BRAINWASHING MIND CONTROLTRAFFICKING AND THE LAW."
Steven Hassan has also developed a cutting-edge curriculum called Endingthegame.com, which aids sex trafficking victims to understand pimp/trafficker mind control indoctrination and leave the commercial cult. He was invited to a closed Aspen Institute meeting to discuss ISIS in August 2015.
Hassan's insightful perspective and expert commentary have made him a definitive source for hundreds of national, international, and local media outlets, including CNN, MSNBC, Fox, 60 Minutes, Dateline, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, People Magazine, Oprah Winfrey Show, Nightline, Larry King Live, The Today Show and Good Morning America. A list of recent media can be found at https://freedomofmind.com/media/
Hassan is the founder of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc. www.freedomofmind.com and Freedom From Undue Influence, a division of the non-profit Dare Association, Inc. www.freedomfromundueinfluence.org
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Find us on:
TEDX talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPXBtsR44N0&feature=youtu.be
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FOMInc
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/freedomfromundueinfluence/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CultExpert
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenhassan/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cultexpert/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cultexpert?_t=8UPvtJEeKp4&_r=1
YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/cultcast
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/freedomofmind
Blogs: https://freedomofmind.com/blog/
Recent media: https://freedomofmind.com/media/
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As I mentioned to the Editor of this blog, as a book reviewer I would love to contribute some articles about books written by or for Jehovah’s Witnesses. There are a number of books available, I hope to help give a quick general overview of these books so that you can decide which you’d like to read.
I chose this book as the first to review because it marked the beginning of my journey out of “the truth”. As such, it is a personal favorite of mine. It is the first book I read when I finally realized that “the truth” was in fact… not truth at all. Usually I don’t get particularly personal when writing a book review for my blog, but it’s impossible to divorce my feelings and impressions of this book from my own “waking up” story. So I will try to keep it short and to the point but you know how it is. I mean… we are all sisters here right?
As it is for many, my waking up process was stretched out over a series of years. I liken it to a crack in the windshield of a car, it starts tiny. I gained more cracks over the years for a multiple of reasons, some doctrinal some personal. I could feel the religion slipping away from me little by little, but it was as though my brain refused to acknowledge the reality. One afternoon, July 28, 2016 to be precise, I drove home from work listening to a podcast interview with a Mormon who had left his church. I heard a voice in my head saying, “that’s what you’re doing, you’re leaving.” I was stunned at this thought. It was too much to think about and it made me feel afraid. I turned the podcast off, and searched online for a recording of the Watchtower but found I couldn’t concentrate. It was boring and unbearable. I reached a local pizza place and walked in half in a daze, ordered dinner to-go for my family and sat down at a table to wait. I searched my phone, desperate for an article, a talk, something from Watchtower to restore my equanimity.
Google. *tap*
Watchtower… just pick something. *tap*
JW Facts? *tap*
United Nations… oh my god… United Nations.
The windshield of my faith shattered in an instant. I collected my pizza, made my way home and explained to my mother that it was all over.
As you all know, that moment is not the end of the story but the beginning. Now is the hard part. Now is when we pick up the pieces and try to understand what has happened to us. I asked, how could this happen to me? I’m a bright woman, I’m not stupid. How did I allow an organization to deceive and control me to this extent for so long? Why did I not see it? I needed to understand, first, why I had let Watchtower exert control over me to begin with, and second, how to extricate myself from the disaster of my faith now that I’d pulled it all down.
Thankfully I found this book pretty quickly. It helped me to regain a measure of understanding. I imagined that reading about Mr. Hassan’s personal experiences with cult indoctrination was inoculating me against further manipulation. I was frightened by the prospect of returning to a state of indoctrination. How can I keep from going back? How do I keep other groups from taking advantage of me? I know that my inclination will probably be to allow others to reinsert a measure of control into my life so how do I prevent that? This book helped me to understand that all the questions I was asking and the sense of insecurity I felt was a natural part of being subjected to undue influence for so many years.
I’m sure I’m not telling you anything new when it comes to the B.I.T.E. model. This model is used to explain the ways in which a cult asserts its power over you. I touched on these points in a review for another book, but I think they really belong here with this book, where I found them to begin with:
Behavior – The lives of JW’s are highly controlled. Their dress and grooming, what jobs they perform, their entertainment, the amount of time they spend studying Witness publications and witnessing to outsiders is all highly controlled. And then there is their prohibition of holidays and their stand on blood transfusions.
Information – JW’s are not allowed to listen to any information about the Jehovah’s Witnesses unless it comes directly from Watchtower. This includes anything on the internet or from the news media. JW’s are not allowed to speak with people who have left the organization. You cannot even acknowledge that persons existence. Needless to say, lack of un-biased information is dangerous.
Thoughts – All thoughts are to be regulated. Doubts about the religion are not tolerated. You can be brought before a Judicial Committee and expelled from the congregation for holding a different opinion from the Governing Body. If you voice that opinion then watch out!
Emotions – Guilt and fear figure mightily in this religion. No matter what you do in service of this religion, it is never, ever enough. JW’s are encouraged to spy and tattle on each other to the elders in the congregation for even minor offenses. JW’s are not allowed to speak with anyone who is expelled (disfellowshipped or disassociated), even if it is an immediate family member.
This synopsis is admittedly superficial, there is much more information to be found in Mr. Hassan’s book. If you are newly awake to your time within the Watchtower organization this is an excellent book to read. It is the first that I recommend to anyone who is leaving the Jehovah’s Witness religion.
If you are finding it difficult to understand why the cracks in the windshield can make you feel so free and so lost all at once, allow the examples in the book to assure you, these feelings are temporary and you can regain the control you once relinquished to The Cult. With understanding you can start to live the life you were meant to live.
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” Khalil Gibran
Song for this book: Level up by Vienna Teng
If you have not been in a cult then I still recommend reading this book. You will have a better understanding of understanding of yourself and how to keep yourself safe from any kind of mind control.
Thank you
Thank you
I particularly like this quote from the book (Chapter 12: Next Steps) on page 308, paragraph 2 on the Jehovah's Witnesses:
“Any country that grants tax-exempt status to organizations that abuse children, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, should be held responsible for that abuse. Tax-exempt organizations like Jehovah's Witnesses, that have had policies in place for decades that systematically protect pedophiles from criminal prosecution, and which disfellowships victims and their families for speaking out, should lose their exemption. The leadership should be prosecuted for conspiracy to cover up illegal activities. The tragedy is that many children or young adults who run away from totalistic groups, like the Watchtower, end up homeless and in the control of pimps who exploit and control them for money and sex. They move from one mind control situation into another.”
Jehovah's Witnesses leadership is like a dog that does his business inside the house on the carpet. Instead of doing his or her business outside, the owner has to continue to clean up after this dog. What can you do as the owner? Do you keep allowing the dog to keep doing his business inside the house? Or, do we take the dog and put his nose in his business. We tell the dog that this activity is not condoned in our house. We give the dog negative reinforcement. When the dog finally does what we want him or her, we give them positive reinforcement.
What Steve Hassan has written is exposing what the dog is doing for decades. Now is not the time to ignore these dogs bad habits, or bad fruitage. In addition, Steve Hassan has given us a solution to our bad dog.
Steve Hassan is telling us that what these religions are doing is not socially acceptable in today's society. As a society, we need to stand up and tell these religions to shape up. Also, as a society, we need to tell the judicial system that covering up badness and letting them off the hook is also socially unacceptable behavior. The judicial system needs to grow up and take control of the situation and stop allowing bad behavior and religious legal departments to dictate to the judicial system what is right and what is wrong. Shame on you, American Judicial System, for not putting pressure on these religions. The judges need to take control of the situation and not be swayed by religious lawyers who tickle the ears of judges. This is not asking your neighbor for a cup of sugar. This is allowing child abuse to be protected under the United States Constitution. The Judicial System has not shown up for children's rights. The judges care more about religion's rights than individuals rights. This is wrong. The scales of justice in this instance are not balanced. We the People. Not, We the Religions.