Cult News

The “Battered Woman Syndrome” often cited in court and by helping professionals assisting those victimized within abusive and controlling relationships parallels many of the same features identified within destructive cults.

In this sense abusive and controlling relationships, though seemingly romantic, can be seen as a type of “cult” with a dictatorial leader, usually a man, dominating a single follower as his victim.

This has been called the “cultic relationship” and/or a “one-on-one cult.”

Over the years cult intervention professionals have been called upon to apply the same expertise developed to free cult victims as an approach to free those caught within the web of abusive controlling relationships.

The Ross Institute of New Jersey has recently released an educational DVD/video titled In the Name of Love: Abusive Controlling Relationships, which shares the body of knowledge developed around this subject in an easy to follow format.

This educational tool makes an otherwise often confusing situation more easily understood.

The DVD/video offers a synthesis of what is known about brainwashing and how this process directly applies to both the Battered Woman Syndrome and most specifically to the dynamics and personalities most often involved in abusive controlling relationships.

In the Name of Love also recounts personal stories, such as the experience of singer Tina Turner and the tragic circumstances that led up to the death of Nicole Brown Simpson. Such compelling examples are helpful to better understand the personal cost, internal turmoil and dangers of such relationships.

What are the warning signs?

What can someone concerned do?

What type of individual fits the profile of an abuser?

Why don’t those abused leave a bad relationship?

These and other important questions are answered within the DVD.

Darla Boughton the manager for a popular forum related to this subject says, “This DVD is a magnificent breakthrough–a must-have for every classroom, women’s shelter, and abuse Web sites everywhere.”

Much too often society blames the victim rather than attempting to understand the disturbing dynamics within abusive controlling relationships.

One third of American women reportedly have been abused under such circumstances, and millions more are potentially at risk.

Today US District Court Judge Gene Carter dismissed a lawsuit filed in Maine by the Gentle Wind Project (GWP) against Rick Ross and the Rick A. Ross Institute For The Study of Destructive Cults, Controversial Groups and Movements (RI).

The judge also denied the plaintiff’s motion for any further discovery, effectively ending the litigation in Maine entirely regarding both this “cult watcher” and the nonprofit RI database.

Previously, Maine magistrate David Cohen recommended that the suit be dismissed and the presiding federal judge agreed, ruling swiftly.

Judge Carter also refused to hear any oral arguments on the matter.

GWP is a nonprofit charity run by John and Mary Miller of Kittery, Maine. The group holds seminars across the country and sells “healing instruments” for suggested donations reportedly ranging from $450 to upwards of $10,000. GWP claims that its instruments are based upon a healing technology that is supposedly channeled telepathically from “spirit world.”

Some time ago I called the group “rather odd” in a Flaming Website award, which was given after GWP published a rant about me at their Web site. That rant was prompted by a link posted at the RI Links page to a Web site launched by former members of the group James Bergin and his wife Judy Garvey, which is critical of the group.

The Garvey/Bergin Web site describes the healing tools as modern day “snake oil” and claims that the group manipulates its members. The couple left GWP about four years ago after a 17-year involvement.

GWP’s lawsuit initially included several defendants, now only two essentially remain, Ms. Garvey and Mr. Bergin.

One defendant Ian Mander of New Zealand did not respond to the legal action and has been declared in default. He continues to carry negative information about GWP with a link to the Garvey/Bergin site. Mander warns that GWP is an “extreme New Age group. Believed by many to be a…cult/scam.”

Other defendants in the lawsuit Steve Gamble and Ian Fraser negotiated a settlement, which restricted the content and meta tagging of their Web site, and included deleting their link to the Garvey/Bergin site. That settlement allows them to retain some information about GWP, but within certain guidelines.

One defendant dismissed from the suit through settlement, noted anti-cult professional Steven Hassan, has complied completely with GWP demands by deleting any and all information about the group from his Freedom of Mind Web site.

The remaining active defendants Bergin and Garvey also received good news today from the court; one of the primary counts against them was dismissed.

Since the filing of the lawsuit GWP has garnered increasing media attention, which has largely been critical of both the group and its products.

“Our concern is that they are scamming people by selling basically pieces of paper and plastic,” attorney Carl Starrett of the Special Investigations Agency of California told a San Diego news channel last year.

Starrett later said, “The whole thing is ludicrous. They’re bilking people.”

“It seems the Gentle Wind Project is selling what Health Canada considers ‘risk class 1′ devices, something the group is not allowed to do without a license” reported Now Magazine.

Robert Baratz, president of the National Council Against Health Fraud in the U.S. said that GWP’s scientific explanations of their instruments are “high-sounding phrases that mean nothing.”

While doing a story about the lawsuit a reporter for the Ellsworth American dug into the publicly accessible financial records of GWP.

The group’s latest IRS disclosure shows assets of $2,077,324 as of August 31, 2003, up from $1,918,205 the year before. Revenue for the 2002-03 fiscal year totaled $1,969,923, with expenses totaling $1,810,804.

Direct donations, accounted for $1,889,227 of revenues.

Expenses during the 2002-03 fiscal year included $1,015,899 for “program services.” The project spent $358,995 in compensation to officers and directors.

As president of the corporation, Mary Miller earned $71,799 during the 2002-03 fiscal year, the same salary as the corporation’s treasurer and clerk.

GWP also spent $379,845 for other salaries and wages. Expenses also included $43,474 for employee benefits and $176,072 for “supplies.”

The project’s books also show that gifts, grants and contributions collectively totaled $4,112,751 during the fiscal years that began in 1998 through 2001. Total revenue for that same period was $5,593,033.

One filing notes a $231,660 loan to a GWP employee who is the brother of a corporation officer. No purpose for the loan is listed.

The Attorney’s General office in Maine is reportedly “looking into” GWP.

According to court records GWP has paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Prominent Massachusetts attorney Douglas Brooks who was generously assisted by local counsel William H. Leete Jr. of Portland, Maine represented the Ross Institute pro bono.

GWP’s current attorney Daniel Rosenthal seems unfazed by the group’s latest legal setbacks. “It streamlines things and creates a tighter focus,” he told the Portland Press Herald.

However, it seems like Gentle Wind has blown its situation badly through all its legal wrangling and would have been better off as a quiet breeze.

Jenna Elfman is concentrating much of her time these days on Scientology. The former star of “Dharma and Greg” is taking course after course and crowed about it in last month’s issue of Scientology’s magazine Celebrity.

A Scientologist since 1991 Ms. Elfman was first introduced to the religion, often called a “cult,” by her husband Bodhi.

“I’m on OT VII now,” she boasted.

There are eight so-called “OT” (“Operating Thetan”) levels in Scientology. Members of the group can essentially buy their way to the top through increasingly expensive courses and Elfman certainly has plenty of cash from her Dharma days, not to mention residual income paid out through reruns.

Scientology “is a complete understanding of what is happening on the planet right now…as you go up the OT levels, you learn a lot more specific details,” said the former Dharma and diehard Scientologist.

This can be seen as a somewhat cryptic allusion to Scientology’s secret theology based upon what sounds more like Sci-fi than religious doctrine.

When Scientologists reach “OT 3” they are told “specific details” about an incident that allegedly occurred some 75 million years ago. Back then a galactic ruler named “Xenu” purportedly paralyzed people and sent them to earth in space ships. They were then arranged around a volcano and murdered with H-bombs, but their souls are still supposedly hanging around haunting humanity.

These pesky little ghosts are called “Body Thetans” or “BTs.”

And if you have big bucks like Elfman it’s no problem paying Scientology to eventually “clear” you of their negative influence.

The sitcom star now says it’s her shared “duty to clear the planet.”

“I intend to make Scientology as accessible to as many people as I can. And that is my goal,” the TV actor turned missionary told Celebrity.

Then Elfman went on and on sounding more like one of those cartoon characters from her recent “Looney Tunes” movie instead of someone grounded in reality.

She warned readers “the more successful I became, the more suppression I bumped into…especially in the entertainment industry, which really is home to rabid suppression.”

Has Dharma gone Daffy Duck?

Or, is “rabid suppression” just some sort of religious rationalization used to explain away her growing list of movie flops?

Perhaps Elfman’s fellow Scientologist John Travolta was bitten by this same “rabid” bug, considering the string of dogs he has starred in the last few years.

Scientologists believe that “suppression” largely comes from so-called “Suppressive People” (“SPs”) that are out there posing a potential menace.

“You want to survive as an artist or a leader,” cautioned Elfman, “…know you are going to be under attack…you have to be able and willing to confront evil if you want to survive.”

And diehard Scientologist Dharma has apparently confronted this perceived “evil” quite literally by “cleaning house of those people, who were very good at convincing [her] that they were there to help, when they were absolutely not,” the star summarized.

Hopefully, she still has a good agent.

“I don’t have time as a leader, as an OT and as an artist to be suppressed,” Elfman explained.

Those nasty “SPs” don’t scare diehard Dharma either.

“An SP? Why would that be scary? They’re the biggest cowards that exist,” she said.

Elfman then appeared a bit fanatical expressing her religious enthusiasm.

“Bring it on. Please. Please just try and attack me. I welcome it. Now that I’m willing to confront them, they scurry away…They scurry, because I’m willing to confront them,” she taunted.

Has good old hippie-dippy Dharma gotten a bit paranoid since her show was cancelled?

Well don’t expect Elfman to see a psychiatrist.

“Dianetics is the modern science of mental health…psychiatry…that’s incorrect technology,” says the former sitcom star.

What is Ms. Elfman planning for her future?

To be “absolutely relentless and unreasonable about grasping [Scientology technology] and owning it,” she says. “That way, I can have complete KSW (Keeping Scientology Working)…[and] forge ahead with a very high speed of particle flow.”

Huh?

Her religious rant continued, “If we want to clear this planet, we’ve got to know and apply this tech. It’s just a rule. It just is…I can’t even emphasize it enough. It’s just truth. You can’t go beyond truth, it just is…if you want to Keep Scientology Working, you need to do the PTS/SP Course. Either that or you could be dead. You pick.”

For Jenna Elfman at least, it seems to be Scientology “do or die.”