In case anyone is interested in learning the truth about what is
or is not a "cult", and how mind control tactics operate, I wanted to
offer a short reading list on the topic. I've been studying it a lot
lately, and the following are my best recommendations. Even if you're not
interested in cults, you should still read #3.


(1) _Combatting Cult Mind Control_ by Steven Hassan (Park Stree Press, 1988)
        -- This is the best one. Clear, concise, and powerful. Author is a
           former top level Moonie who now does professional exit-couselling
           for cult members. He really understands what's going on.

(2) _Cults in America: Programmed for Paradise_ by Willa Appel (Holt,
        Rinehart and Winston, 1983)
        -- Also a good overview of the phenomena, but by an outsider (an
           anthropologist). Very interesting discussion of the psychological
           needs fulfilled by fairy tales, and how cult doctrines are very
           similar to fairy tales (good vs. evil, very simplistic). Lots of
           other good stuff as well.

(3) _Influence: How and Why People Agree to Things_ by Robert B. Cialdini,
        Ph.D. (Wm. Morrow & Co., 1984)
        -- An incredible book. I can't recommend it enough. The author is a
           social psychology professor who spent 15 years studying the
           tactics used by "compliance professionals," including salesmen,
           fundraisers, marketing pros, cult leaders, Chinese brainwashing
           camps, etc. He carefully details the underlying psychological
           mechanisms that make all these tactics work, and how everyone
           is vulnerable to them because they take advantage of instinctual
           responses. Very enlightening!

(4) _The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering Patterns of Cult Behavior in American
        Society_ by Arthur J. Deikman, M.D. (Beacon Press, 1990)
        -- Also fascinating. The author is a clinical professor of psychiatry
           who started studying cults, and then realized that the methods of
           manipulation used in them are found throughout society, in many
           types of groups -- corporations, political parties, schools,
           and traditional religions. Cults simply take them to the n-th
           degree. This is a real eye-opener.


(This file was found elsewhere on the Internet and uploaded to the
Patriot FTP site by S.P.I.R.A.L., the Society for the Protection of
Individual Rights and Liberties. E-mail alex@spiral.org)