Conference Report
Human Rights in the new Millenium
Leo J. Ryan Foundation
March 17-19, 2000 This was the second year the Leo J. Ryan Foundation has had a conference, and it was really a good one. I think this can be credited to Julia Bronder, the Executive Director of the Foundation, who pulled it all together very well. She would have spoken at the Clearwater Conference in December except for a family emergency.

The main speakers after the meals were Ron Loomis, Steve Hassan, Bob Minton, Stephen Kent, Deborah Layton and Robert Jay Lifton Ron Loomis' presentation was his standard talk he delivers at colleges around the country, Cults 101. I thought it was really well done, condensing a lot of material into a short amount of time. A good model for anybody who is thinking about speaking in front of groups on the topic of cults. Steve Hassan discussed his new book, Releasing the Bonds. I was particularly encouraged to hear that he sees the role of the exit counselor reform consultant changing as a result of the Internet. The counselor is no longer the guy with all the articles in his bag, all that is available on the net. Web sites allow counselors to concentrate on helping the group member, not on preserving the media archive. Bob Minton's talk was on the Lisa McPherson Trust, and the city of Clearwater. He described the attitude of Scientology, the community and the city management towards the new group. Stephen Kent described the political and legal situation in Europe with respect to cults and Scientology in particular. He told me afterwards that the paper is being submitted for publication, and should be on the web in the near future. Very well researched and organized, I think readers of a.r.s will appreciate it greatly. Deborah Layton wrote "Seductive Poison", a book on her experiences in Jonestown and her escape before the suicide/murders. I thought she was a powerful speaker, and coming just after the announcement of the deaths in Uganda it was a very emotional talk. Robert Lifton was amazing in his talk on Aum Shinrikyo and his new book "Destroying the World to Save it." I think the entire audience was mesmerized by his command of the material and his presentation skills.

I attended several of the breakout sessions. Steve Hassan described in more detail how his Strategic Interaction Approach works, addressing not only the pre-cult personality but the cult self. I was very interested his analysis of the ways that cults can take aspects of the pre-cult personality and use them for their own purposes. He described how the Moonies offered him a very attractive alternative to the disillusionment he faced as a young adult, where all the answers can't be fixed by your parents any more. The use of family terminology, "father" and "mother"

reinforces the illusion that the cult has all the answers. He described three tiers of approach to a cult member, Trust, Information (where the net comes into play), and Freedom of Mind. He suggested helping the member reconnect with the childish parts of his personality that were co-opted by the cult, and teaching them to view their cult memories in a dissociative manner, as if from an outside observer. He also described how using the example of other cults can be useful in preparing the member for examining his/her own cult experience.

Joe Kelly and Pat Ryan discussed altered states of mind and how hallucination and suggestion work to fool members into believing the cult's claims. The example of levitation was very interesting, how trance states and hypnosis can make members of meditation cults believe that they and others can actually fly across the room, not just hop around on the padded floor.

The Lisa McPherson Trust session on the Internet was well received. Grady Ward led the session, describing how far the Internet has come in providing cult awareness information, and how cults have been working to destroy what has been achieved. Stacy Brooks described her experience with the Trust and how so many active members have been following the material available on web sites, newspapers, etc.

Flo Conway and Joe Sigelman spoke on "Church vs. State", and had some interesting analysis of the changing government attitudes towards cults, including the Waco incident. I was particularly interested to hear their analysis of how the impact of the religious right has affected how cults are handled in the U.S.

The session on the Maryland Task Force on Cults on Campus included Denny Gulick, a professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland and a proponent of cult education on campus, Ron Loomis who testified before the task force, and Frantz Wilson, a member of the task force and parent of a member of the Black Hebrews, a cult that believes black people should inherit the state of Israel as the true descendants of Isaac and Jacob.

The findings and recommendations of the report are excellent, incorporating specifically the characteristics of destructive groups, and the university system already had a training session for some Resident Assistants, as recommended by the task force. Recruitment by RAs into dangerous groups was one of the factors that led to the creation of the task force, though the efforts of the parents of cult members.

Scientology turned out in larger numbers than last year. At one point John Carmichael held his own session in the hotel restaurant, speaking loudly enough to be heard though most of the lobby and conference area. Also present: Cheryl Duncan, Sylvia Stanard, Matt Bratschi, Gerard Renna and Carol Yingling (spelling? not related to Monique, I hear). Thirteen members tried to rush the conference at one point, led by John's claim that something Bob had said invited them in without paying the registration fee. They did not succeed. The hotel was papered on three levels with hate fliers on Saturday morning, which I picked up well before most people were awake.

To Sylvia Stanard: If you have a problem with your daughter being photographed and her picture made available on the OSA Babes web page, I suggest you don't send her out to handle PR events any more. She may not be on staff for OSA, but she was certainly doing OSA work when I photographed her. She handed out hate fliers against me, Arnie and the rest of the picketers that day, and I have no regrets about taking that picture, or its inclusion on any web site that wishes to archive it.

Overall, I found the Scientologists very easy to approach and to hold conversations. Sylvia, Matt and Gerard being better at communication than the others.

The conference was a complete success according to everybody I spoke to, with the exception of a strange reporter who claimed to be from the New York Press, an "alternative right wing newspaper." I don't know how right wing, but he drank too much, laughed loudly at inappropriate times, was argumentative to people, and a general pest. The organization plans another conference next year, but the date and place have not yet been decided upon. If it's in range for me to travel, I'll certainly be there again.

-- Rod Keller / rkeller@voicenet.com / Irresponsible Publisher Black Hat #1 / Expert of the Toilet / CWPD Mouthpiece / Killer Rod The Lerma Apologist / Merchant of Chaos / Vision of Destruction Bigot of Mystery / OSA Patsy / Quasi-Scieno / Mental Bully

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