Published on Aug 27, 2015 Cults, cult leaders, and brainwashing--from David Miscavige and Scientology, to the Kabbalah Center, to the Charles Manson Family and the Children of God are explored with cult specialist Rick Alan Ross. We define what makes a cult, how to deprogram victims, and the most dangerous currently active cults in this exploration of the groups and religions that can tear people out of family and society, on Media Mayhem hosted by Allison Hope Weiner.
GUEST BIO: Rick Alan Ross is a private consultant, lecturer, and cult intervention specialist. He began his work as an anti-cult activist and community organizer in 1982. Ross first became concerned about controversial groups and movements in response to a radical religious group that had covertly targeted his grandmother’s nursing home. Since that time he has raised awareness about cults and facilitated more than five hundred interventions to rescue people from cultic situations.
Ross is one of the leading experts on cults in the world today. He has consulted with the FBI, the BATF, and various other law enforcement agencies, as well as the governments of Israel and China, on the subject of cults. Ross has been qualified, accepted and testified as an expert court witness in eleven different states within the United States including US federal court. He has worked as an expert analyst for CBS News, CBC of Canada, and Nippon and Asahi in Japan.
Ross has lectured at more than 30 universities and colleges including the University of Chicago, Dickinson College, Carnegie Mellon, Baylor, Wuhan University of China, Assumption University of Thailand and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He has also been published within peer-reviewed academic journals on the topic of cults.
Regarding his cult intervention work Ross states that historically about 75 percent of the people that he conducts an intervention with decide to leave the group by the end of such an effort. He has done interventions across the United States and around the world. Ross did two successful interventions with the notorious Branch Davidians led by self-styled messiah David Koresh.
Ross has appeared in fourteen documentaries and has been interviewed and quoted in media all over the world.
EPISODE BREAKDOWN: 00:01 Welcoming Rick Alan Ross to Media Mayhem.
01:18 The characteristics of a cult.
05:40 How to prevent cult reform.
09:20 The difference between organized religion and cults.
14:55 Charles Manson, Scientology and victims of thought reform.
17:38 David Miscavige and cult leaders.
20:27 Kabbalah and the Berg family.
25:03 Religious marketing and mystical pages.
28:30 Deprogramming and cult intervention.
31:38 The most dangerous active cults.
35:11 Financial harm and cult demands.
39:35 Thank you and goodbye.
Disclaimer:This news page is about groups, organizations or movements, which may have been called "cults" and/or "cult-like" in some way, shape or form. But not all groups called either "cults" or "cult-like" are harmful. Instead, they may be benign and generally defined as simply people intensely devoted to a person, place or thing. Therefore, the discussion or mention of a group, organization or person on this page, is not necessarily meant pejoratively. Readers are encouraged to read widely on a topic before forming an opinion. Never accept information from a single source at face value. This website only holds a small amount of information and should not be relied on as a complete source. For example, if you find older information, this should be weighed up against newer information as circumstances can change.
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