>Subject: Re: Who's insane here: US justice, or the insane?
>From: scamizdat@linkline.com (Not Grady Ward)

>Starshadow to write:

>>You are quite the bigot, aren't you, Jim?

>No, he isn't. He's got actual professional experience and first hand,
>hands-on dealings with victims of numerous destructive cults. I don't
>doubt for an instant that his knowledge of the consequences of harmful
>cults vastly exceeds yours.

Thank you for your support. You are right, I had lots of experience talking with people from all walks of life, from all over the country and beyond who had serious problems with cult involvement, either themselves or a family member. I talked with fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends of people who had been lured into a destructive, coercive cult. Most of these cults were quasis-religious in nature. The victims had been lured in by some form of psychological coercion or deception. I also talked with many clergy...minsters, priests, rabbis whose members had been lured into some cult.

While many cults such as Scientology use very sophisticated froms of hypnosis and mind control, many use the simple form of psychological coercion...fear.

'You had better believe in what we believe in or else...'

>I can recall a comment Shydavid made years back, back when AstroNet
>was alive. He commented that CAN was a Christian cult that worked to
>extract new members from _other_ cults. In retrospect, that wasn't
>true, the work of CAN was positive and beneficial to all -- except to
>the criminal ans abusive cults who were -- and still are -- abusing
>their victims.
>
>--- SCAMIZDAT -AB-

CAN with its five staff members and network of supporters did remarkable work.

It was a lifeline. It was a remarkable experience and I treasure the experience of working with the dedicated CAN staff and supporters. CAN had files with public domain information and materials from former members on most of the cults-groups out there, and you wouldn't believe what is out there.

Ironically, a big help in the CAN office was our trusted volunteer, Jolie Steckart, whom we knew as Laura T... She really worked hard and knew where every file was. Sadly, we discovered that all the while she had been stealing internal CAN information and relaying it to Scientology agents. Julia Roberts could do a good job of protraying her. She vanished after whe was outed by Bob Minton.

One thing I found is that many people will get out of a cult on their own sooner or later. But usually, years go by before this happens and they have wasted years of their life. What I usually recommend, depending on the circumstances, is to do whatever it takes to get the individuals out as soon as possible.

Jimdbb

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