Cult News

Another well known “cult apologist” has surfaced in news coverage of the Elizabeth Smart abduction.

Rodney Stark, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington, was quoted in the Desert News.

Though Stark’s comments within the Desert News article are general observations, he has a long history of working closely with groups called “cults” and they frequently cite his writings.

The academic has defended such organizations as the Unification Church of Rev. Moon and testified as an expert witness regarding the “Local Church.” Critics have called both of these groups “cults”.

Stark was included amongst a list of scholars that have received money and/or expenses from “cults” in connection with research, court testimony and/or “cult” sponsored conferences, within an article titled “Brainwashed! Scholars of Cults Accuse Each Other of Bad Faith.”

A cult doesn’t require a large following and some are very small.

“Heaven’s Gate” had less than fifty members, when its leader Marshall Applewhite told his followers to commit suicide.

Some cults are a family unit, such as the women and children led by Winifred Wright, recently prosecuted and sentenced to prison after the death of a child.

All a cult actually requires is a leader and at least one follower.

This seems to describe Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, the duo that kidnapped and held Elizabeth Smart for nine months.

Within a 27 page manifesto now made public, Mitchell speaks as “the voice of God” and then explains his singular status as “God’s chosen prophet,” reports the Salt Lake City Tribune.

The transient’s writings are not original, but rather an idiosyncratic, eclectic mix of the bible, Book of Mormon and plagiarized excerpts from other sources pieced together arbitrarily.

What is telling though is the importance Mitchell places upon himself. He is the central character and defining element of his manifesto.

This is consistent with what noted psychiatrist and cult observer Robert Jay Lifton describes within his paper titled “Cult Formation.”

Lifton lists three essential ingredients for the formation of a destructive cult.

The first is “a charismatic leader who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose their power.”

Mitchell’s limited charisma only netted him one follower, until he kidnapped Elizabeth Smart.

Like other cult leaders such as Jim Jones and David Koresh, Mitchell’s manifesto reflects a man who sees himself as “chosen” and everyone else as wrong and/or evil.

He warns, “Repent, God says, and deliverance will come; and ‘for this cause I have raised up my servant Immanuel David Isaiah [Brian Mitchell], even my righteous right hand, to be a light and covenant to my people…'”

Barzee was “brainwashed” into embracing this worldview according to her children. And it appears that Elizabeth Smart was similarly influenced.

Lifton says this is the second component necessary to create a cult, an observable process he calls coercive persuasion or thought reform.”

Apparently, the abduction of Elizabeth was tied to a plan regarding plural wives.

Mitchell’s manifesto states, “Thou shalt take into thy heart and home seven times seven sisters, to love and to care for.” Elizabeth was to be “the jubilee of them all, first and last,” reports the Desert News.

Like other cult leaders Mitchell was obsessed with his proclaimed role and seemed to believe that the end justified the means.

According to Barzee the 14-year-old girl was part of a “prophetic” revelation. A woman that visited her in jail said, “God told them to take Elizabeth. They were doing what God asked them to do,” reports the New York Times.

It seems for some time the strange street preacher that once wandered about Salt Lake City was seen by residents as a harmless eccentric.

Benign “cults” typically don’t draw much concern.

However, Mitchell and Barzee moved from bizarre and benign to criminally destructive.

Evidence of “economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader” is the final factor cited by Lifton to determine a destructive cult.

The troubled couple certainly had the right to believe anything, but that right never included the freedom to do whatever they wished in the name of their beliefs.

Mitchell and Barzee are now where they both belong, behind bars. Perhaps the “chosen prophet” should have foreseen such an end.

It looks like some “cult apologists” are trying to soften coverage of the Smart case. Two that recently popped up in related articles are James Richardson, quoted in the New York Times and H. Newton Malony commenting within the Los Angeles Times.

Both Richardson and Malony have been recommended by the Church of Scientology repeatedly as “religious resources” and/or “experts.”

In 1997 during heated media coverage of the “Heaven’s Gate” mass-suicide, both professors were promoted in a press release from the so-called new “Cult Awareness Network,” an organization that essentially now acts as a front for Scientology and other groups called “cults.”

Malony said today in the LA Times that Elizabeth Smart’s strange behavior during her captivity might be attributed to “religious conversion” and “that adolescence is the time when the experience is most likely to happen.”

Does Malony really think that such an adolescent change of faith begins at knifepoint and continues in captivity?

The professor of religious studies at Fuller Theological Seminary is probably more interested in blunting or negating any critical discussion about cult indoctrination. And this theologian has historically made it clear that he doesn’t appreciate talk about the role of “brainwashing” in that “conversion” process.

LA Times reporter Benedict Carey seems to stretch credulity when he writes that somehow the “pressures of adolescence and personality development” may explain Elizabeth Smart’s behavior.

Is this reporter somehow blaming the victim?

James Richardson cryptically commented within a NY Times piece today that Elizabeth was kept “under horrendous conditions, kidnapped and held in captivity. We still don’t know the extent of the physical coercion.”

Here Richardson appears to be saying that “captivity” and/or “physical coercion” is necessary for “brainwashing.”

Again, this would negate or blunt comparisons to the indoctrination process used by many “cults,” which most often does not include holding members prisoner or the use of physical force.

The LA Times article is titled “Specialists in the psychology of abuse and persuasion say survival, not mind control, could explain the girl’s behavior.”

However, Malony’s expertise is really in theology and Richard Hecht who is also quoted by the Times is actually a religious studies professor at UC Santa Barbara and not a “specialist in the psychology of abuse and persuasion.”

Interestingly, Gordon Melton, perhaps the most popular “cult apologist,” is also closely associated with UC Santa Barbara.

Hecht says that “brainwashing,” as an explanation for Elizabeth Smart’s behavior, is “far too simplistic.”

But many of the simple facts cited within the LA Times article are actually common features of a thought reform program, popularly called “brainwashing.”

For example, Hecht cites Elizabeth’s “loss of any context and connection with the outside world.”

This is what Robert Jay Lifton, noted psychiatrist and recognized expert in the psychology of persuasion, calls “mileu control” or control of the environment. And this is the foundational element of any thought reform program.

Carey notes that Smart “lost many of the things and people that reinforced her budding identity.”

This simply reiterates the need people have for accurate feedback from others, which cults frequently eliminate through isolation and control of the environment.

Carey then adds, “It appears she had very little say in even the smallest decisions while captive, such as what she wore and what she ate.” He concludes, “Denied any autonomy, even a resilient human nature may begin to make compromises.”

Such “compromises” is what Lifton includes within a mindset he describes as the “psychology of the pawn.”

Lifton writes, “Unable to escape from forces more powerful than himself, he subordinates everything to adapting himself to them.”

This is often accomplished by subjecting virtually every aspect of daily life, such as what is worn, eaten or “even the smallest decisions,” to the doctrine of the group.

Lifton includes this within his criteria “doctrine over person” and the “demand for purity.”

He says, “The good and the pure are of course those ideas, feelings, and actions which are consistent with the totalist ideology and policy.” And add this becomes evident in the subject by “the continual shift between experience itself and the highly abstract interpretation of such experience — between genuine feelings and spurious cataloguing of feelings.”

Fear also is a factor.

Carey says “fear and disorientation,” were factors that must have driven Elizabeth to an “attachment to the adults who had control over her well-being.”

This is what cult experts have often called “learned dependency.”

Margaret Singer clinical psychologist and an expert in the process of “brainwashing” explains cults, “Create a sense of powerlessness, covert fear, and dependency.”

This is one of Singer’s “six conditions” for a thought reform program.

Ultimately the LA Times reporter admits, “The effect of Mitchell’s religious pretensions cannot be ignored”

However, Carey claims “conversion” requires “fellow believers to teach values and rituals, as well as exert social pressure.”

Is it possible that Carey and his experts cannot recognize that Elizabeth was virtually suffocated by the “social pressure” of “believers” Mitchell and Barzee, who taught the girl their “values and rituals”?

Singer also discusses this aspect of cult indoctrination within the context of “Instill[ing] new behavior and attitudes.” And that cults “put forth a closed system of logic; allow no real input or criticism.”

And this was certainly observed by numerous eyewitnesses, including the police officers that ultimately dealt with the odd trio.

It is the effective influence of that program, which essentially explains Elizabeth’s silence, submission, and seemingly strange behavior.

Repeatedly witnesses have reported that she was within situations where help was readily accessible, but the girl said and did nothing to alert anyone.

Thought reform also explains Elizabeth’s reluctance to identify herself and her evasiveness when questioned by police. It may also be the reason she gave them the name “Augustine,” possibly a new identity instilled by Mitchell.

Again and again the facts support that Elizabeth Smart was subjected to a type of thought reform program or “brainwashing” process, directed apparently instinctually by her captor Brian Mitchell.

When major news stories about cult “brainwashing” are reported it is important to discuss the facts intelligently, rather than attempt to disguise or dismiss them and engage in some form of denial.

The LA Times reporter ended his story stating, “Assuming she was ‘brainwashed’ allows the family to gloss over the emotions that must have tormented her, emotions that Elizabeth must come to terms with eventually, experts say.”

But besides verging on “victim bashing,” such a conclusion ignores the obvious.

Elizabeth Smart will eventually need to sort through what happened during those nine months of captivity.

Patty Hearst, once a cult kidnap victim said, “I had a psychologist [Margaret Singer] who was incredibly good. I realized…you don’t have to think the things that they’ve been telling you think. You don’t have to participate in the disciplining of your mind to not have thoughts that they disapprove of. You do really remarkable and frightening things to yourself when you’re under the control of people like this.”

Based upon her own painful experience Hearst has advice for the Smart family. She says Elizabeth will “need a really good psychologist who can also work with the family.”

But let’s hope the Smarts find help from professionals who are recognized “specialists in the psychology of abuse and persuasion,” rather than apologists or generalists that might “gloss over” what really happened.

Elizabeth Smart was not simply a victim of the “Stockholm syndrome,” which draws its name from a 1973 hostage situation related to a bank robbery in Sweden. At that time robbers held hostages for several days and their prisoners developed a seemingly strange affinity for their captors.

Instead, Smart who was abducted by force, controlled and isolated by her captor Brian Mitchell, also known as “David Emmanuel Isaiah,” was apparently “brainwashed.” And her father recently used that word to explain his daughter’s behavior.

More information emerged yesterday during news conferences and through various reports, which support that conclusion.

“Brainwashing” is the word often used to describe a process more precisely called “thought reform.”

When initially questioned by police Elizabeth Smart identified herself as “Augustine” and seemingly attempted to frustrate the efforts of officers to help her.

Eventually Elizabeth broke down and admitted her real identity. But why did she not do so immediately? Police also said she spoke in a prosaic biblical language.

Other witnesses supposedly saw Smart at a “party” with her captor Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee. Elizabeth stood silently behind her captor submissively, robed in what some have called a “berka.”

Asked why the women wore these garments and were veiled Micthell reportedly said, “To protect them from the sins of the world.”

However, it appears the kidnapper actually wanted to hold Elizabeth within a “world” of his own creation.

Another witness said, “She didn’t seem like she was kidnapped. She acted like she was part of the family,” reports Associated Press.

One Salt Lake City resident told reporters he provided shelter for Mitchell, Barzee and Elizabeth for several days and that the girl never expressed fear, tried to escape, call police or sought his help.

How did Mitchell, a self-proclaimed “prophet” and supposed messenger of God change the 14-year-old Salt Lake City teenager into his willing follower?

Thought Reform, often called “brainwashing,” depends upon control of the environment. And certainly Mitchell controlled Elizabeth’s completely. He also isolated the teenager from her familiar support system of family, friends, school and church.

After gaining environmental control Mitchell then effectively could filter all information flowing to Elizabeth. She became dependent upon him to interpret everything, from her daily surroundings and situation to the bible and perhaps even the meaning of life.

The teenager then had no outside frame of reference or accurate feedback from others to oppose Mitchell’s growing influence.

Step-by-step this control led to the undue influence witnessed by those recently interviewed. Elizabeth gradually seemed to assume a cult identity, which may have included the new name “Augustine.”

What can the family do now?

Elizabeth Smart’s happy reunion with her family is proof that her authentic personality, developed through 14 years of nurturing within her home and community, is by far more powerful than whatever cult identity Mitchell may have imposed upon the girl.

Now the family instinctually seems to understand what Elizabeth needs immediately, which is unconditional love, acceptance and sense a safety.

Elizabeth’s father Ed Smart is now carefully avoiding any painful confrontation with his daughter about what happened during her nine months with Mitchell. He said, “What is going to come out is going to come out, I don’t have it in me to try and make this harder for her than it is.”

He acknowledged though that Elizabeth seems changed by her experience and sees her now as “a young woman.”

The Smarts will no doubt soon seek professional help to assist them in their daughter’s recovery process. This may include mental health professionals, their church and others familiar with the cult phenomenon.

Polygamists in Utah have made many Mormons in that state increasingly familiar with the kind of control and undue influence young girls suffer from in cult-like groups. Some teenagers in recent years have fled polygamy and their abusers were arrested and sent to prison.

Intense indoctrination, control and resulting unreasonable fears are apparent amongst the victims of polygamists, much like the “brainwashing” that may have overcome Elizabeth Smart.

Patricia Hearst spoke about her own kidnapping ordeal in 1974 on CNN News. She was abducted and later “brainwashed” by a political cult called the Symbionese Liberation Army.

Hearst said, “You’ve, in a way, given up, you’ve absorbed the new identity they’ve given you. You’re surviving — you’re not even doing that – you’re just living while everything else is going on around you.”

Steven Stayner was abducted at the age 7 by a sexual predator and held for several years. He explained, “When I disappeared, Steve Stayner died and Dennis Parnell was born — the name I went by — and then it’s kind of like going back again to switch from Dennis Parnell back to Steve Stayner again.”

Has “Augustine” switched back to Elizabeth Smart?

It seems so, but the girl who is now a “young woman” may take years to fully sort through and recover from her ordeal and it is unlikely that her life will ever really be the same again.

Speculation that Salt Lake City kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart was held within a “psychologically controlling” environment is now emerging, reports the Salt Lake City Tribune.

One expert commented about the influence Brian David Mitchell may have had over Smart saying, “We have no idea what psychological or pressure manipulations he used with her.”

Mitchell seems like the model for a cult leader. He changed his name to “David Emmanuel Isaiah” and allegedly sees himself as a “prophet.” He then became a wandering preacher, often delivering sermons to the homeless.

Mitchell, once an active member of the Mormon Church and a “temple worker,” later abandoned his faith and service to begin a series of bizarre adventures including a stay with survivalists and eventually became homeless himself, reports the Desert News.

Mitchell also wrote his own version of the Book of Mormon and ultimately believed he was “above God,” though directed by heaven.

His wife Wanda Ilene Barzee, who is now also charged with kidnapping, accompanied the wandering prophet.

One of Brazee’s children said, “He obviously brainwashed my mom.”

It appears that Mitchell may have also “brainwashed” Elizabeth Smart to some extent over the many months he held the 15-year-old captive.

Smart was dressed oddly when first identified by witnesses. She wore a veil, as if she was a plural wife within a harem. According to a family spokesperson the girl was never far from the watchful eyes of her captors.

The Smart kidnapping has eerie parallels to the abduction of Patty Hearst.

Hearst, an heiress to a newspaper publishing fortune, was abducted by a cult called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) and held for more than a year. She suffered gross abuse from her captors and was “brainwashed,” according to court testimony.

However, Patty Hearst did not receive much public sympathy and was sentenced to prison for her role in a bank heist staged by the SLA.

Later, President Jimmy Carter commuted that sentence and Bill Clinton eventually pardoned Hearst before leaving the White House.

The saga of Hearst’s kidnapping, confinement and “brainwashing” may be helpful in understanding how Mitchell could hold Elizabeth Smart for so long without an escape.

How much more vulnerable was this child than the 19-year-old college student Patty Hearst? And what forms of psychological control and manipulation did Smart endure at the hands of this self-proclaimed “prophet” in the “name of God”?

It’s official, Rev. Arthur Allen Jr. is now “on the lam.”

The leader of the group known as the “House of Prayer” was convicted for “child cruelty” and then sentenced to jail time and ten years probation.

But Allen, who once claimed he “should be congratulated” and “given a medal” for the brutal beatings of children within his church, apparently won’t allow any court to lord over him.

So instead the pastor chose to skip town along with some of his flock. He is now a wanted fugitive, reports the WXIA TV in Atlanta.

Allen previously proclaimed that the terms of his probation would not allow him “to preach all the Bible” and that would be “just ungodly.”

However, most Christians would readily observe that the whippings House of Prayer children endured were “ungodly.”

The fleeing pastor will eventually be caught and have a “day of reckoning.” This won’t be his final judgement, but it will likely require extended incarceration. Allen can then “preach all the Bible” behind bars.

A father has joined the growing list of parents removing their children from the influence of the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF) in Spindale, North Carolina.

A primary reason cited in this court action was exposure “to the doctrines and discipline of Word of Faith Fellowship,” which has been called a “cult” by some critics.

A 6-year-old boy was taken away from his aunt who is a follower of WOFF leader Jane Whaley. That child will now stay with his stepmother, reports The Digital Courier.

However, Shana Muse, another parent who wants her four children out of the Whaley group, is still waiting after months of red tape and courtroom wrangling.

The judge and sheriff quickly complied with the request of the 6-year-old boy’s parents, so why does Muse continue to endure seemingly endless legal delays?

Judge Robert S. Cilley cited a previous custody case in his recent ruling to remove the 6-year-old boy. He acknowledged that WOFF has had “an adverse effect on the health, safety and welfare of children.”

So what about the Muse children and their “health, safety and welfare”?

County Social Services are supposedly investigating allegations of abuse within WOFF.

Meanwhile Muse has taken a job to pay expenses while she waits for the court to conclude her case.

Self-help guru Depak Chopra has a plan to avert war with Iraq. Has Chopra come up with a new paradigm for peace in the Middle East?

He wants to build a Disneyland for Iraqis.

Chopra says, “Let children breath free air at a place where fun and joy abide. What better way to reduce fear and anger?”

The self-help guru added that MTV videos and CNN might also pierce the wall of Iraq’s cultural isolation and somehow change the mindset of its populace.

Right.

But one military analyst said Chopra’s ideas were a “Mickey Mouse Peace Plan,” which could easily be perverted by Sadaam, reports The National Post.

Looks like Mr. Chopra should stick with his books and seminars. He has made millions selling a steady stream of such material to a public looking for the next self-help quick fix. But in the real world of global conflicts his solutions seem ridiculous.

Chopra’s mentor Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has his own plan for global peace.

The old yogi now 92 wants the world to help him build “peace palaces.” The result will reportedly somehow replace the bad karma of war with a “sort of karmic mellow,” reports the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Maharishi’s plan, like most of his ideas, would require putting some cash in the guru’s pocket. After all, palaces are not built for free and money seems to be this man’s mantra.

The “Montel Williams Show” today featured actress Kelly Preston the wife of John Travolta in a program titled “A Mother’s Crusade.”

The show is actually a rerun that was initially aired in early December of last year.

Ms. Preston claims her “crusade” is prompted by a personal experience. Her son Jett Travolta was diagnosed with “Kawasaki Disease,” which may have been caused by exposure to carpet cleaner.

Montel Williams, often an advocate regarding children and health issues, says on his website that Preston wants “to help parents safeguard…children from environmental toxins.” The actress is also involved in a non-profit organization called the “Children’s Health Environmental Coalition” (CHEC)

Jim and Nancy Chuda founded CHEC after their five-year-old daughter Colette died from a rare form of cancer in 1991, which they believe was due to exposure to toxins within the environment.

Colette Chuda was the goddaughter of singer Olivia Newton-John. Newton-John, also supports CHEC, she and Kelly Preston recently appeared together in a CHEC educational video.

But is Kelly Preston using this issue to promote Scientology?

Both Kelly Preston and her husband John Travolta are devout members of the Church of Scientology.

On the Montel Williams show Preston repeatedly promoted the book “Clear Body Clear Mind” by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. And calls Hubbard’s approach to purging toxins from the body “brilliant.”

Preston also apparently used “Montel” as a venue to feature her fellow Scientologist Michael Wisner. He was introduced as the “Toxicologist to the Stars.” Wisner then also promoted Hubbard’s teachings and a for-profit private clinic in Sacramento.

However, the touted “Toxicologist” apparently failed to help his own son Gregory Wisner who died with the toxin cocaine still present in his body, after being involved in a program that featured his father’s approach.

Wisner’s son participated in a detoxification drug treatment program called Narconon, which is based upon the very same process Preston described on Montel to “clear” the body of toxins.

Scientologists more commonly call this process the “Purification Rundown.”

The National Institute of Health advised one expert that there is “no peer reviewed scientific literature to support this program.”

Subsequently the Swedish expert concluded within his final report, “There is no documentation to show that the Hubbard method of detoxification…conforms to scientific standards and medical experience.” And that “the risks and side effects of the treatment method have also not been evaluated in a serious way.”

However, no possible “risks and side effects” were ever mentioned on the Montel Williams Show.

Nor are any reports cited that the Hubbard approach to “clear” the body by sweating in saunas and taking large doses of niacin may actually cause liver damage.

Montel’s show today was devoid of any meaningful critical balance that might help viewers develop a more informed understanding about this supposed process of “purification.”

Instead, Williams provided a platform for Kelly Preston to essentially use his show much like an infomercial to promote her Scientology beliefs.

However, Preston and Wisner scrupulously avoided even mentioning the “S” word (Scientology) explicitly.

Interestingly, Jett Travolta, who did not appear on the show, is rumored to suffer from autism. This illness was another issue never mentioned during the program.

Apparently, L. Ron Hubbard’s “Clear Body, Clear Mind” is unable to end autism.

Autism is a neurological disorder. And despite all the heavy promotion, L. Ron Hubbard was not a medical expert or even a doctor. It appears that the Travoltas have not consulted the proper specialists in the field to address their son’s condition and instead have relied upon Scientology.

But don’t expect Kelly Preston to discuss this on “Montel” either.

It seems that Montel Williams, Olivia Newton-John, the Chudas and CHEC are being used as pawns by Scientology through Kelly Preston.

This is not new.

Scientology frequently uses its celebrity members like John Travolta, Tom Cruise and others to advance various programs and essentially shill and/or recruit for the organization.

Sadly, it looks like Montel may have unknowingly become the latest shill for Scientology.

All charges previously filed against Amway by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in India have now been dropped, reports Chandigarh Newsline.

Charges were filed in December that claimed Amway somehow was involved in a purported “money circulation scheme.”