cult recovery 101

Steve K. D Eichel

The Manipulation of Spiritual Experience: Unethical Hypnosis in Destructive Cults

The Manipulation of Spiritual Experience: Unethical Hypnosis in Destructive Cults

The process of cult and mass therapy indoctrination may involve repeated inductions of trance-like states of consciousness similar to hypnosis. Environmental (milieu) control, social manipulation, isolation and the use of prescribed consciousness-altering techniques (e.g. repetitive and/or continuous chanting, meditating, or praying) are some of the methods employed by cults to produce these altered states of awareness.

Deprogramming: A Case Study Part 1: Personal observations of the Group Process

This special issue of the Cultic Studies Journal is, to our knowledge, the only professional, detailed analysis of deprogramming, a central source of controversy in cultic studies.  The observer of the deprogramming, Dr. Steve Dubrow-Eichel, completed this study as part of his doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania.