tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/cults-34683/articlesCults – The Conversation2023-11-20T13:17:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2168902023-11-20T13:17:41Z2023-11-20T13:17:41ZWhat a biannual gathering of 1967 Impalas reveals about the blurry line between fandom and religion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559492/original/file-20231115-25-wna49s.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C81%2C2992%2C2123&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In the cult TV series 'Supernatural,' the car driven by the two protagonists is a star in its own right.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Mikles</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Among the many spooky events happening over Halloween weekend was the biannual “Haunting of Impalas” at Family Business Brewing, a 15-acre brewery in Dripping Springs, Texas, owned by actor and musician Jensen Ackles. </p>
<p>Along with Jared Padalecki, Ackles is the star of “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/">Supernatural</a>,” a television series that ran from 2005 to 2020. </p>
<p>A weekly science-fiction show akin to “The X-Files,” “Supernatural” follows two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, as they drive in a classic 1967 Chevrolet Impala across the U.S., fighting monsters and uncovering their convoluted family past. Show creator <a href="https://www.appeal-democrat.com/supernatural-impala/article_052d3db8-efcf-543e-9415-ac878d13a4d0.html">Eric Kripke</a> has described the show as “a modern American Western – two gunslingers who ride into town, fight the bad guys, kiss the girl and ride out into the sunset again.” </p>
<p>With a subtle nod to the show’s tagline: “Saving People, Hunting Things – The Family Business,” <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2018/05/03/supernatural-star-jensen-ackles-opens-a-new-texas-brewery-and-keeps-it-all-in-the-family/?sh=4cceec783796">Ackles opened the brewery in 2017</a>. It has since become a popular destination for fans of the TV series. </p>
<p>“Supernatural” has been called a <a href="https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a405263/supernatural-the-fall-and-rise-of-the-cws-cult-drama/">“cult” drama</a>, with <a href="https://www.creationent.com/cal/supernatural_sf.htm">conventions that draw fans from</a> all over the country. Religious terms like cult are often used to convey how serious the fandom is. But as two <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4EKx-aoAAAAJ&hl=en">scholars of</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MoKFgEgAAAAJ&hl=en">religion</a>, we see the connection between fandom and religion as one that’s stronger and deeper than many people might realize.</p>
<h2>If you build it, they will come</h2>
<p>The Haunting of Impalas – fans call a gathering of the cars a “haunting” – has been held at the brewery as a free event since 2019, first as a casual meet-up and then as an official event sponsored by the brewery. </p>
<p>As much a character on the show as Ackles and Padalecki themselves, <a href="https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/The_Impala">the characters’ black 1967 Impala</a> has become iconic for fans. Elaborating on the debt “Supernatural” owes to Westerns, show writer <a href="https://www.appeal-democrat.com/supernatural-impala/article_052d3db8-efcf-543e-9415-ac878d13a4d0.html">Kripke said of the Impala</a>, “If you’re going to have cowboys, they need a trusty horse.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Trunk of car opened with weapons displayed, with two jugs of beer and a cooler in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559461/original/file-20231114-27-ocetr3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each car has its trunk filled with objects recreated from the show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=548507675853451&set=pb.100065145835517.-2207520000">A Haunting of Impalas/Facebook</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The car serves as the brothers’ home on the road, as their protection from evil and as a repository of monster-hunting weapons. In a nod to the car’s central role, some devoted fans of the show have since bought and restored black 1967 Impalas, which they bring together at the Haunting of Impalas event. </p>
<p>Fans have lovingly recreated each Impala – sometimes even accurate to a specific episode. Lined up, each car reveals a secret trunk compartment filled with weapons from the show, such as vampire-killing machetes, silver bullets for werewolves and holy water for demons.</p>
<p>Further care is taken to reflect other details found in the Impala over the seasons: a small green army man stuck in the ashtray or a partially eaten pie. At the brewery, four Impalas, as well as one <a href="https://www.imcdb.org/v687978.html">AMC Gremlin</a> that appeared in several episodes, were lined up for examination as close to 100 people milled about in the hour we visited. The social media accounts for the brewery registered over 1,500 RSVPs, and one organizer estimated that roughly 1,000 people were in attendance over the course of the day.</p>
<h2>‘People just want to have an experience’</h2>
<p>In our work, we’ve seen this behavior before. But it’s been in churches and temples rather than the parking lot of a brewery. </p>
<p>Spectators approached the Impalas with a hesitant reverence, eager to touch the trunk or take a photo sitting in the driver’s seat. One Impala received special interest, as it had actually been used in Season 12 of the show – a fact at least a dozen individuals told us in hushed tones. Its owner hovered around the car with a polishing cloth to quickly whisk away any fingerprints left by visiting fans, but was eager to point out each place an actor had signed the car or otherwise left their mark.</p>
<p>Many of the Impalas at the event had been driven across the country for days to participate. Organizer Travis Perdue, a fan in his early 40s, could tick off the whereabouts of other “Supernatural” Impalas – and the owners who had been too sick to come or otherwise detained.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and yellow vintage cars lined up in a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559460/original/file-20231114-15-uxa7kv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some fans drive their Impalas across the country to participate in the biannual event.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/177108586326697/photos/pb.100065145835517.-2207520000/544828619554690/?type=3">A Haunting of Impalas/Facebook</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When asked if this event felt spiritual, Perdue explained, “It’s not about the cars; it’s not about the weapons. It’s something else. People just want to have an experience.” </p>
<p>He said that he frequently sees fans getting emotional near the cars. More than a handful of them have burst into tears. He said one person even passed out upon seeing the restored Impala. </p>
<p>We witnessed one man loudly tell his wife, with tears in his eyes, “If I had one of these, I could die happy.” </p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=GMrhDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Elementary+Forms&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk0ovl1LqCAxXjlmoFHT8qA8EQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=Elementary%20Forms&f=false">Sociologist Emile Durkheim has written</a> that when people encounter their community’s sacred symbols, it can overwhelm them – that the feelings these objects inspire act like “material forces that mechanically generate physical effects.”</p>
<p>The Impalas are not the only potent symbols on display at the event, either. Most of the attendees wore some sort of Supernatural-themed apparel – a shirt, a bag or even a tattoo. </p>
<p>Inside several of the cars were facsimiles of the monster-hunting journal written by John Winchester, Sam and Dean’s father in the show. Each journal featured dozens of hand-inked pages, recreations of newspaper articles, a pin for military service in Vietnam and eerie photographs. Like monks producing <a href="https://new.artsmia.org/programs/teachers-and-students/teaching-the-arts/five-ideas/medieval-illuminated-manuscripts">illuminated manuscripts</a>, a team of fans crafted each journal by hand. </p>
<p>Perdue, who’s worked on the journals, explained that the first facsimile took eight months of research to design, and each subsequent copy took six weeks to produce. They sell them to other fans for $650, and Perdue has a waitlist of dozens of people. But the group makes no money off the journals. Rather, he is motivated by the joy of making such a precious item for other fans.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Open notebook with handwritten notes in it next to two FBI badges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559494/original/file-20231115-21-3yxpxc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some fans have painstakingly recreated the monster-hunting journal from the show.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natasha Mikles</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fandom as religion or vice versa?</h2>
<p><a href="https://mdsoar.org/handle/11603/25282">Many scholars </a> have noted the religious aspects of fan culture. </p>
<p>Perhaps, however, we might reverse the comparison and note that religion operates more like a fandom. </p>
<p>Because of America’s <a href="https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-59;jsessionid=61B32340E18C9B2F4044EED035BD2F4D?rskey=Gdlnlh">Protestant heritage</a>, Americans often assume religion is about beliefs; That’s because Protestantism renounces “salvation through works” in favor of “<a href="http://protestantism.co.uk/solas">sola fides</a>,” or “faith alone.” </p>
<p>But most religions don’t work this way. As religion scholar <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393422047">Stephen Prothero points out</a>, “Religions are often called ‘belief systems.’ But the Christian tradition is the only major religion that puts a strong emphasis on beliefs.”</p>
<p>According to Prothero, the common denominator that all religions share is not beliefs but stories. As he puts it, “All religions are ‘story systems.’” Outside of Christianity’s emphasis on creeds, most religious traditions emphasize practices, experiences and stories – exactly the things that drew fans to the Haunting of Impalas. </p>
<p>Pilgrimage – journeying to see sacred places and objects – is found in many religions. In 2023, the Hajj drew about <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/25/largest-hajj-pilgrimage-in-history-begins-in-saudi-arabia">2 million</a> pilgrims to Mecca despite dangerously high temperatures. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2023.2168736">Even more common is mimesis</a>, or replicating sacred stories through art and ritual. In the Mexican tradition of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Las-Posadas">Las Posadas</a>, a procession recreates the story of Mary and Joseph being turned away from the inn before smashing a pinata shaped like the star of Bethlehem. </p>
<p>What made “Supernatural” great was not the supernatural. Fans know the Winchester brothers are imaginary. And yet the Winchesters’ story seems to represent something greater than themselves. The Impalas become an object of pilgrimage because they present a physical connection to things that are otherwise intangible and transcendent – a modern mythology and a community of like-minded people. </p>
<p>Religious studies is largely a Western invention, and so it has historically carried a lot of <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400849659-008/html?lang=en">Protestant assumptions</a>, even when discussing non-Christian religions, including the idea that the essence of religions is a set of intellectual propositions about God or the afterlife.</p>
<p>But if scholars of religion shift their analysis from beliefs to stories and communities, who is to say that the world’s religions are not just larger fandoms of figures like Jesus, Buddha or Krishna?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Since 2019, fans of the TV series ‘Supernatural’ have flocked to Austin, where their encounters with 1967 Impalas customized to mimic the one used in the show arouse elation, astonishment and tears.Joseph P. Laycock, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State UniversityNatasha Mikles, Assistant Professor in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Texas State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2065142023-06-20T20:13:12Z2023-06-20T20:13:12ZThe Clearing’s investigation of The Family invites us to ask: what’s the appeal – and risk – of crime stories based on real events?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532675/original/file-20230619-1900-bfjb11.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1296%2C724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Miranda Otto (left) in The Clearing</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s a scene in the Disney+ series <a href="https://www.disney.com.au/disney-plus-star/australian-originals/the-clearing">The Clearing</a> in which Amy, a 12-year-old girl, readies herself for punishment at the hands of her minder. Amy has failed to control the behaviour of seven-year-old Asha, her new “sister”. Her family is a doomsday cult, and the cult has only recently abducted Asha from the side of the road.</p>
<p>We watch Amy’s face closely as she grimaces and contorts with each vicious strike of the minder’s paddle. The shot pans from Amy’s face to a phone handset, laid out on the bench. Then we cut to another scene: Adrienne — Mummy, Amy calls her — sits perfectly coiffed in a wing chair, drinking from fine glassware and chatting nonchalantly. In her hand she holds a phone handset to one ear; through it she listens to the beating, Amy’s distress audible down the line.</p>
<p>As I watch the scene, a block of chocolate half-eaten by my side, I flinch with each paddle strike, too. Next to me, my partner sips his tea, his own face drawn into a grimace above the cup. And I’m suddenly reminded, in the comfort of my living room, that this story is based on one that’s true.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532674/original/file-20230619-15-a8a9mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Clearing is based on a true story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Where lies the truth?’</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.disney.com.au/disney-plus-star/australian-originals/the-clearing">The Clearing</a> is based on the 2020 novel <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/jp-pomare/in-the-clearing-now-a-disney-star-original-series">In the Clearing</a>, by Melbourne-based New Zealand author J.P. Pomare.</p>
<p>Pomare’s book takes as its base the non-fiction book <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/the-family-9781925321678">The Family</a> (2017), written by journalists Chris Johnston and Rosie Jones. (Jones has also made a documentary about the group.) So, viewing the series means watching an adaptation of an adaptation (Pomare’s novel) – and the original non-fiction text is itself an adaptation from real life. </p>
<p>True-crime texts – and their fictional counterparts – allow audiences to vicariously experience the darker aspects of humanity, venturing into the grimmest facets of what it is to be human. And whether they come packaged as a podcast, reportage, novel, or television series inspired by real life, true-crime texts operate by narrativising events: by turning them into stories.</p>
<p>Watching The Clearing prompts me to wonder: what happens to these stories when they undergo variation after variation? Johnston and Jones write in their non-fiction account: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Where lies the truth? Each child had their version; everyone in this story has their version of the truth. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>What happens to these versions when we move away from investigative journalism and into fiction? And does getting further from the facts necessarily mean moving further from the truth?</p>
<h2>The attraction of true crime</h2>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/lindsey_a_sherrill_are_you_an_ethical_true_crime_fan_4_questions_to_ask/c?language=en">TED Talk</a> on ethical true crime, Lindsey A. Sherrill discusses the eudaimonic attraction of true crime. </p>
<p>Eudaimonic motivation is based not on pleasure-seeking — we rarely feel good, she explains, when watching true crime — but a desire for knowledge. It’s a motivation that turns on the excitement of learning something new. Journalist <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-true-crime-is-popular-but-is-it-ethical/">Jana G. Pruden</a> adds, “When a crime or tragedy happens, we want to know what happened, why it happened, whether it could have been prevented, and what its effects are.”</p>
<p>The story behind the Australian cult of The Family (not to be confused with the US-originated <a href="https://theconversation.com/have-i-just-joined-another-cult-daniella-grew-up-in-the-family-then-joined-the-army-where-she-experienced-toxic-control-again-196385">Children of God cult</a>, also known as The Family) was first assembled into a true-crime narrative by newspaper journalist <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/not-the-messiah-anne-hamilton-byrne-s-legacy-of-ruined-childhoods-20190615-p51y1u.html">Chris Johnston</a> (The Age) and documentary-maker <a href="https://vicscreen.vic.gov.au/news/rosie-jones-journey-with-the-family">Rosie Jones</a>, who teamed up when they realised they were working to expose the same group.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532692/original/file-20230619-21-2d7o4f.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1159&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Their book contains first-hand accounts and anecdotes from former cult members and people who had contact with the group. It also contains considerable testimony from <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/she-can-rot-a-former-detective-s-relief-at-cult-leader-s-death-20190614-p51xue.html">Lex de Man</a>, the police officer who fought to pursue its leader, Anne Hamilton-Byrne, on criminal charges such as fraud, false imprisonment, assault and drug offences – including the administering of LSD and psilocybin to children. (LSD was something of a sacrament in the cult, with guided drug trips known as “clearings”, a name that would inspire the title of the novel and television series.)</p>
<p>The book details alarming stories of abuse from the former children, whom the group kept at various properties, including Uptop, a property near <a href="https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to-see/parks/lake-eildon-national-park">Lake Eildon</a> in Victoria’s Central Highlands – from 1971 until 1987, when police raided the property and removed them.</p>
<p>Johnston and Jones write: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Hamilton-Byrne children all thought they were brothers and sisters as they were growing up, but of course they were not. Some had been scouted for adoption by cult insiders at Melbourne hospitals and taken for Anne with fake paperwork. Or they were gifted to Anne by parents who were involved with the cult. These parents felt it was an honour to give over a child: their son or daughter would be raised by the hand of God.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hamilton-Byrne preached a type of new-age spiritualism that mixed elements from Hindu, Buddhist and Christian teachings. She cited the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Maitreya-Buddhism">Maitreya</a>, a female Buddha from Tibetan mystical literature, claiming she herself was an avatar sent to rescue her followers from the wheel of birth, death and suffering. </p>
<p>With this perceived gravitas, Hamilton-Byrne was able to order couples from her flock to separate and re-pair with others, to donate their assets (as well as a portion of their salaries) to her, to commit fraud, surrender their children, and subject those children to gruelling regimes and punishments, all on her behalf.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/X_KeVkZ_JhM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A trailer for Rosie Jones’ documentary film, The Family.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The book offers an account of the culture and circumstances that enabled the crimes and abuses enacted at the behest of Hamilton-Byrne and her husband Bill, attempting to make some sense of this bizarre, misguided and cruel group of people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/have-i-just-joined-another-cult-daniella-grew-up-in-the-family-then-joined-the-army-where-she-experienced-toxic-control-again-196385">‘Have I just joined another cult?’: Daniella grew up in The Family, then joined the army – where she experienced toxic control, again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Turning fact into fiction</h2>
<p>Writers have long turned to fiction to make sense of social issues. In the acknowledgements section of his novel, Pomare writes: “the seed of the story [In the Clearing] was born out of my fascination with the cult [of The Family], the resilience of the children survivors, and the enigmatic leader”. </p>
<p>Gary Rolfe is a researcher who argues practitioners in the helping professions (nurses, teachers and social workers) benefit from the emotional and affective notion of “truth” fiction provides. “The writing of fiction is itself a form of social research which provides access to a particular kind of truth,” <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623940220129898">he writes</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the scientific sense, all of art, including fiction, is a lie, since it is not derived from empirical research, but from the imagination. But this lie enables us, as Foucault pointed out, to “induce effects of truth” by resonating with our inner feelings.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Writers pursue this truth by mixing research with imagination and lived experience. </p>
<p>Recently, Emma Cline’s novel <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-girls-9781784701741">The Girls</a> (2016) took the Manson Family as its base to explore the power of seduction and the lure of connection through Evie, an unmoored teenager hungry for community. In <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/beautiful-revolutionary-9781925713039">Beautiful Revolutionary</a> (2018), Laura Elizabeth Woollett reimagined the events that led to the Jonestown mass deaths, closely examining the descent of its protagonist, Evelyn, into perversity under the influence of leader Jim Jones. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532676/original/file-20230619-26-vsc0do.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In In the Clearing, Pomare imaginatively refigures the cult of The Family to explore its legacy for childhood survivors. In the book — which the screen adaptation more or less follows (at least, in the early episodes I watched) — Pomare intertwines the reality of documented life inside the cult with an entirely fictional plot. </p>
<p>We follow the quest of Freya, who is triggered by her traumatic childhood to find out who is inhabiting the mysterious van parked by the lake near her house. And to find out who has been speaking to her child from the other side of the school fence, and who (without giving away any spoilers) is responsible for a terrible crime. Her present-day quest is just one narrative thread; we eventually discover how it’s connected to the Family-like doomsday cult.</p>
<p>This quest is the terrain of the psychological crime–thriller, which turns on the suspense of withheld information and its layered uncovering. But it’s the mix of plot and affect, of story and circumstance, that, as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2023.2165133">Sue Turnbull points out</a>, crime novels manipulate as vehicles to engage with larger social issues.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-lies-conmen-and-coercive-control-how-cults-corrupt-our-desire-for-love-and-connection-185385">Religious lies, conmen and coercive control: how cults corrupt our desire for love and connection</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Crime as entertainment</h2>
<p>The ethics of exploring true crime through entertainment is prickly. Can coding the most horrific events of a person’s life into a narrative and packaging it as entertainment ever be ethical? The simple answer is: it depends. </p>
<p>But the conditions of that “depends” are a shifting, complex, context-specific spectrum of circumstance. And the further we venture from reportage into fiction, the more fraught this context becomes.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532696/original/file-20230619-29-dbdvhc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>At its best, true crime can thaw cases long gone cold, overturn wrongful convictions, even prompt justice reform. In August last year, for instance, Chris Dawson was found guilty of murdering his wife Lynette Dawson, in a four-decades-old cold case revived by the true crime podcast <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/podcasts/the-teachers-pet-podcast/news-story/84a5923fee8e9013b9b0f05197cf9416">The Teacher’s Pet</a>. </p>
<p>True crime can also prompt us to think about biases of class, gender, sexual orientation and race, by giving a voice to members of the community who might not otherwise find a platform. Indeed, this platform has given a voice to the child survivors of The Family, whose abuse was never validated or answered for in the justice system. And true crime can provide a <a href="https://www.survivorsguidetotruecrime.com">community for victim–survivors</a>, who might find solace and empowerment through engaging with the stories of others.</p>
<p>But at its worst, true crime can be exploitative and prurient, produced for titillation – ignoring its impact on victim–survivors or those close to them. True-crime creation and consumption exists within a commercial realm. And this is perhaps the most icky part of it. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532815/original/file-20230620-27-y25rnr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Most recently, the debate of public interest versus private injury flared over <a href="https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81287562">Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story</a>. Family members of Dahmer’s victims, who say they weren’t consulted during the show’s production, publicly <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-10-28/jeffrey-dahmer-netflix-ryan-murphy-family-members">aired their grievances</a>. </p>
<p>Their voices grew louder when Evan Peters, who played Dahmer in the show, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/jeffrey-dahmer-victim-mom-evan-peters-golden-globes">won a Golden Globe</a> – and when Peters, the show’s creator Ryan Murphy, and Netflix enjoyed <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/09/28/dahmer-is-netflixs-biggest-show-debut-since-stranger-things-season-4/?sh=6aa0b23bd01f">considerable success</a> from the project. Some commentators <a href="https://ethics.org.au/where-are-the-victims-the-ethics-of-true-crime/">called for remuneration</a> for the families of Dahmer’s victims, arguing that “the integration of advertising into true crime feels particularly craven”. </p>
<p>Remuneration debates aside, I think exploring crime through storytelling can be in the public interest – whether we engage with the investigative framework of a book such as The Family or with a fictional interpretation of real events, such as the novel or screen adaptation of In The Clearing.</p>
<p>Media scholar <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2023/what-are-the-ethics-of-creating-fictionalised-true-crime-.php">Sue Turnbull explains</a> that while a show like Dahmer or a film like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13694628/">Nitram</a> (which depicts the events that led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/forgetting-martin-bryant-what-to-remember-when-we-talk-about-port-arthur-58139">Port Arthur massacre</a> in 1996) might on one level be exploitative, on another </p>
<blockquote>
<p>it may be revelatory in terms of the psychology and context it explores. When did things start going wrong? What makes a serial killer? At what point could he have been stopped and at what point do the failures occur?</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532698/original/file-20230619-21-nu3mjf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is a film like Nitram exploitative – or might it be revelatory?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman Entertainment</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sometimes events are owed public attention. Certainly, a group such as The Family, whose legacy of trauma continues to impact its childhood survivors today, is worth our collective attention. Indeed, understanding how and why this cult could inflict such damage for so long is arguably in the public interest. Examining how and why these events unfolded might help us to recognise this behaviour in its early stages. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/true-crime-entertainment-like-the-teachers-pet-can-shine-a-light-on-cold-cases-but-does-it-help-or-hinder-justice-being-served-189787">True crime entertainment like The Teacher's Pet can shine a light on cold cases - but does it help or hinder justice being served?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How stories invite us to feel</h2>
<p>When we engage with a series, book or film – or a podcast – we enter into an unspoken contract with its creator(s). As reader response scholar <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/consuming-content/">Amber Gwynne writes</a>, “we intuitively recognise the rules of engagement”. </p>
<p>We understand, for instance, that the events depicted in a novel are based on imagination. This contract stands, too, when we engage with fiction that claims to be inspired by a true story; we appreciate that details will be enhanced, omitted or invented to serve the demands of a satisfying story.</p>
<p>The truth of fiction, then, turns not on depicting scenarios that unflinchingly, exactly depict real events, but on prompting affective and emotional responses – instinctive reactions and the emotions we construct from them. In other words, when we engage with fiction, we <em>feel</em> something. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1037/gpr0000124">Research has shown</a> that the more emotionally invested a reader is in a story’s character or world, the larger the impact that story will have on their social cognition. (Which is the process of using the information we get from our social contexts to affect our own behaviour.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532700/original/file-20230619-807-zpbt2v.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When we engage with fictional storytelling like The Clearing, we feel something.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This empathetic identification, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2023.2165133">Turnbull explains</a>, can “help our moral development in two main ways: it can educate the emotions, and it can educate our perceptions in a way that an argument cannot”.</p>
<p>In the Clearing considers <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-not-ready-to-criminalise-coercive-control-heres-why-146929">coercive control</a>, corruption, child abuse, misguided loyalty and manipulation, and their long-lasting, intergenerational effects on adults who experienced <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">trauma</a> as children. </p>
<p>In this way, Pomare’s novel invites affective and emotional engagement, delivered within a plotline that satisfies the conventions of crime fiction. We come for the plot, but stay for the feelings it generates – or the complicated immersion in a particular social circumstance. (Okay, we also stay for the plot resolution.)</p>
<p>In the screen adaptation, The Clearing, the showrunners take a slightly different approach, sparring with slightly different social processes from the novel. For example, Adrienne, the cult leader based on Hamilton-Byrne, features more frequently in the screen version than the novel. This shift in focus sharpens the lens more clearly on her particular approach to coercion. </p>
<p>But both versions depict a search for answers, within in a context that generates feelings we might not experience in our everyday lives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trauma-is-trending-but-we-need-to-look-beyond-buzzwords-and-face-its-ugly-side-201564">Trauma is trending – but we need to look beyond buzzwords and face its ugly side</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Fiction: a ‘lie that helps us see the truth’</h2>
<p>Both the novel and Disney+ series begin with the abduction of Sara (soon renamed Asha) as she walks home from the bus stop. This fictional event doesn’t mimic any real-world <em>modus operandi</em> of the cult — they never abducted children in this way. The names used in the book and show are fictional. Freya and Billy’s world is entirely imagined. The Family never had an obsession with keeping exactly 12 children, as these fictional versions do.</p>
<p>But does any of this matter?</p>
<p>I suggest it doesn’t. Consider the scene in which Amy is being punished. Johnston and Jones’s research tells us Hamilton-Byrne had her followers terrorise the children: their weapons of control included dunking children’s heads in water troughs and withholding food. We know she used a variety of methods to coerce and control the members of her cult, convincing them she was an incarnation of Christ and that her word was divine. The adults did her bidding on her instruction. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532703/original/file-20230619-29-2i559t.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chris Johnston and Rosie Jones’s research tells us that Anne-Hamilton Byrne had her followers terrorise the children in The Family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney+</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Because of this knowledge, we can understand the scene in which Adrienne is listening to Amy’s beating over the phone as metaphorical. It almost doesn’t matter whether this scene played out in exactly this way; it’s how we feel about it, as viewers, that matters. This is what Rolfe was talking about when he wrote about fiction being a “lie that helps us see the truth”.</p>
<p>We need to really think about how crime-fiction texts depict characters and events – and whether the framing is fair. In these interpretations of The Family and Hamilton-Byrne, I’d say the framing <em>is</em> fair. In fact, the exposure of a group whose motto was “unseen, unheard, unknown” – across a documentary, a book of reportage, a novel and now a streaming series – feels particularly reparative. </p>
<p>But readers and viewers will balance their own scales.</p>
<p>Fiction can be good in any number of ways. So I use the term “good fiction” here as shorthand for texts that prompt us to ethically engage with pressing social issues. “Good” crime fiction crafts a quest for truth around affect, or the feelings it prompts us to feel: entertaining us while inviting us to empathise and engage with the social world. </p>
<p>Good crime fiction communicates weighty social concerns to an engaged audience. And good crime fiction, in that sense, can serve as a platform for debate and discussion about the human experience at the heart of its events. This is the truth we can excavate with fiction’s tools.</p>
<p>For the facts and figures of true events, we must look to reportage. But you already knew that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martine Kropkowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The story of Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s cult The Family has been told in a non-fiction book and documentary, a novel, In the Clearing, and now a Disney+ series. What can stories like this teach us?Martine Kropkowski, PhD Candidate, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2050512023-05-09T10:39:49Z2023-05-09T10:39:49ZKenya cult deaths: a new era in the battle against religious extremism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525114/original/file-20230509-19-9sk5c5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Worshippers gather at the New Life Prayer Centre and Church. The head of the Church was recently arrested.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by SIMON MAINA/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/kenya-cult-deaths-a-new-era-in-the-battle-against-religious-extremism-205051&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>More than a hundred people in Kenya – among them children – have been <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/counties/kilifi/shakahola-cult-number-of-bodies-from-mass-graves-hits-109-4214878">found dead</a> close to a small village in the south-east of the country. Most of the deceased were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/09/autopsies-missing-organs-kenya-cult-deaths-police">reportedly followers</a> of pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie. While starvation appears to be the main cause of death, some of the victims were strangled, beaten or suffocated, <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/health/national/article/2001472118/children-in-shakahola-cult-were-strangled-johansen-oduor-says">according</a> to the chief government pathologist.</em></p>
<p><em>Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, who has studied the drivers of religious extremism, particularly among violent extremist groups in the east African region, talks to The Conversation Africa’s Julius Maina about the cults and religious extremism challenges in Kenya where freedom of religion or belief is protected by the constitution.</em> </p>
<h2>What do we know so far about the cult deaths in Kenya?</h2>
<p>No fewer than 109 men, women and children are known to have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/02/kenyan-cult-leader-accused-of-inciting-children-to-starve-to-death">died</a> after a Kenyan charismatic church pastor encouraged his followers to fast to death to <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/amp/coast/article/2001470894/four-people-starve-to-death-while-fasting-to-meet-jesus">“meet Jesus”</a> in the afterlife. Bodies of the dead were recovered from numerous mass graves on a farm at Shakahola, a village on Kenya’s south-east coast, where Pastor Paul Mackenzie had his Good News International Church. Autopsies revealed that most had starved to death. But a small number, some children, had been strangled or suffocated to death.</p>
<p>Mackenzie now faces charges over the deaths. The victims came from all corners of the country, drawn to a man whose controversial teachings had come under government scrutiny as far back as <a href="https://www.kenyans.co.ke/news/88517-ig-koome-how-pastor-mackenzie-countered-police-arrests-2017">2017</a>. Mackenzie’s apocalyptic narratives focused on the end of times, and were against the modern or western <a href="https://www.tuko.co.ke/people/family/503292-the-making-a-cult-rise-pastor-paul-mckenzies-good-news-international-empire/">ways of life</a> such as seeking medical services, education or music. His conspiracy theories emphasised the Catholic Church, the US and the United Nations as “<a href="https://www.tuko.co.ke/people/503407-world-order-pastor-mc-kenzie-taught-catholic-church-usa-agents-satan/">agents of Satan</a>”.</p>
<p>His other brush with the law came in 2019, when he faced counts of incitement to disobedience of the law and <a href="https://www.citizen.digital/news/preacher-paul-mackenzie-freed-re-arrested-in-malindi-n319020">distributing unauthorised films</a> to the public.</p>
<p>That same year, he <a href="https://www.fox44news.com/news/world-news/kenyan-pastors-appear-in-court-over-deaths-of-parishioners/">closed the church</a>, sold his TV station and moved to a ranch in a forested area of Kilifi county, where hundreds of families built houses. The church and TV station were sold to Ezekiel Odero, another televangelist. Odero is well known for his so-called miracle healing crusades, which draw <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRuvtXIN6wA">tens of thousands</a>. He is also under <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/news/east-africa/kenyan-pastor-odero-faces-court-over-shakahola-cult-massacre-4222776">investigation</a> for offences associated with the Shakahola mass suicide.</p>
<p>Religious <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002716678986">extremism</a> or religious movements with a <a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/commission-on-devil-worship-the-1995-cult-report-that-government-ignored-4217722">cultic flavour</a> are not new in Kenya.</p>
<h2>How will this change the way religious extremism is viewed in Kenya?</h2>
<p>New religious movements or individual preachers in Kenya rarely attract public scrutiny. There is also little public awareness of the social impact of such groups. Public debates in Kenya are more likely to focus on the occult – with <a href="https://www.globalsistersreport.org/column/religious-tackle-devil-worship-recruiting-phenomenon-45856">“devil worship”</a> as the popular catchphrase. </p>
<p>As far as religious extremism is concerned, Kenya’s focus has been on Islamic extremism, including what constitutes “terrorism”. These are highly politicised debates.</p>
<p>The president’s description of the Shakahola incident as “<a href="https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/ruto-speaks-shakahola-cult-paul-mackenzie-belongs-in-jail-4210598">akin to terrorism</a>” opens up a new epoch in which Kenyans can begin to look at all religions as potential incubators of extremism. Preventive measures can therefore be designed to address not just Islamist extremism but all forms of religious extremism.</p>
<h2>In what ways is the cult similar to violent extremism?</h2>
<p>I would place the Shakahola cult deaths within the narrow confines of cultism and religiously inspired violent extremism. A cult is a group of people inspired – or brainwashed – by a charismatic leader to follow extreme religious beliefs or practices at any cost to themselves. Such beliefs and practices rarely resemble those of established faiths or groups.</p>
<p>This is very close to violent extremist groups such as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19392206.2021.196392">Al-Shabaab</a>
or <a href="https://www.asjp.cerist.dz/en/downArticlepdf/20/8/23/1326">Daesh</a> who follow rigid religious value systems and beliefs. Such groups may differ in their justification for using violence to achieve political, ideological or social change. But both religiously inspired cults and extremist groups do tend to reimagine or reinterpret traditional scripture.</p>
<p>Both cults and violent extremist movements have similar push and pull factors at the individual level. In the cult death case, followers came from all over Kenya to seek out Mackenzie. Many of those individuals and families abandoned all their comforts to join his church in a remote location without basic amenities. Recruits to extremist networks such as Al-Shabaab show similar tendencies. They pledge to give up their earthly comforts for a higher calling in the name of misinterpreted or imaginary versions of religious texts.</p>
<p>In each case, the victims are exposed to mind control by charismatic religious preachers. The only difference is in the mode and motive for death in the name of the chosen cause. In Shakahola, it was massive casualties through starvation. The alternative might be suicide bombings aimed mainly at political objectives.</p>
<h2>How have Kenya’s constitutional freedoms been misused by religious extremists?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.klrc.go.ke/index.php/constitution-of-kenya/112-chapter-four-the-bill-of-rights/part-2-rights-and-fundamental-freedoms/198-32-freedom-of-conscience-religion-belief-and-opinion#:%7E:text=(1)%20Every%20person%20has%20the,%2C%20thought%2C%20belief%20and%20opinion.">Freedom of religion or belief</a> is guaranteed by the Kenyan constitution: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Every person has the right to freedom of conscience, religion, thought, belief, and opinion. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The question that confronts Kenya is whether “fasting to death” falls within constitutional rights to freedom of religion. How does this sit with <a href="https://www.klrc.go.ke/index.php/constitution-of-kenya/112-chapter-four-the-bill-of-rights/part-2-rights-and-fundamental-freedoms/192-26-right-to-life">the right to life</a> in the constitution? </p>
<h2>What needs to be done to prevent this from happening again?</h2>
<p>In Kenya, countermeasures dealing with Islamist extremism have shown us that religious institutions and activities can be scrutinised and regulated to prevent extremism and terrorism.</p>
<p>These can be extended to religious cultism without infringing the constitutional right to freedom of religion or belief. Kenya needs an honest discussion about how regulations can safeguard the right, to prevent fake religious leaders from misusing it. </p>
<p>President Ruto has <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2023-05-05-shakahola-deaths-justice-lessit-to-chair-inquiry-commission/">commissioned a team</a> to investigate the Shakahola deaths. The team has the broader mandate of developing a legal framework for scrutiny and self-regulation of religious institutions. This is a complex task. What we can learn from Kenya’s previous attempts to curb religious radicalisation is that <a href="https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/ear-33.pdf">public participation</a> is key in designing and putting legal frameworks to action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205051/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Both cults and violent extremist movements have similar push and pull factors at the individual level.Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen, Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences, Technical University of MombasaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961482023-01-30T14:28:04Z2023-01-30T14:28:04ZThe Badoo ritual gang created fear in Lagos: here’s what made victims vulnerable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504020/original/file-20230111-16-rmyhvy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Head of a Celestial Church of Christ parish stands in front of the church where worshippers were killed and valuables stolen by the Badoo gang in 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Violent cult gangs are well known in Nigeria. Though there are no statistics on their numbers and impact, Lagos State in southwest Nigeria <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/01/shocking-tales-of-cult-gangs-that-terrorise-lagos/">has more than 10 of these groups</a> controlling different areas. They operate in neighbourhoods and their memberships cut across age groups. They control certain territories as their own, extorting money from businesses and residents.</p>
<p>But the Badoo cult gang that operated in Ikorodu area of the state between 2016 and 2018 was different. It was a violent ritual gang. The <a href="https://www.channelstv.com/2018/01/02/police-arrest-suspected-badoo-cult-leader-chief-herbalist/">capture</a> of its leader and herbalist ended its operations. The Badoo cult <a href="https://www.pulse.ng/gist/badoo-ikorodu-resident-narrates-how-the-deadly-cult-gang-started/d99wpd7">was known</a> for killing its victims in mysterious circumstances for ritual purposes.</p>
<p>Through mastery of the environment and target selection, the Badoo cult gang was able to impose fear in the minds of residents. Unlike other known violent cult gangs, like the <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/5843fa644.html">Eiye</a> and <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/50ebf7a82.html">Black Axe</a> cults, the Badoo cult gang did not use guns in its operation; its weapons were the pestle, mortar, grinding stone and white handkerchief. The pestle was used to hit victims on the head and the handkerchief to clean their blood – indicating the motive as ritual.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/25166069221127375">Our study</a> explored how the ritual gang selected its victims and how it operated. This was with a view to understanding how environment predisposes people to become victims of crime.</p>
<p>Our findings could stimulate policy actions towards improving environmental design and crime prevention. </p>
<p>The study was carried out in Ikorodu, Lagos state, where more than 20 attacks took place. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with three traditional rulers, three religious leaders (one Muslim and two Christians), the leader of the vigilante group in Ikorodu who was involved in arresting some Badoo suspects and 13 other participants who lived near houses that were attacked by members of the gang.</p>
<h2>Selecting targets</h2>
<p>Each gang member was assigned responsibilities. A key gang member, usually a community insider, would provide information on households that looked like easy targets. We found that women spies were sent to the potential area of attack, because they would be less likely than men to raise any community suspicions. This way, the gang would gain advance knowledge of the targets and how to get into their houses. An informant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They might be going round to know that a particular house has no burglar proofs. The women give them information on where they would strike. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of the targets could be characterised as soft targets in isolated spaces in the community. The targets were also relatively poor people. They lived in partially completed structures, usually single room apartments and sometimes without burglar proofing. Some stayed in stand-alone house quarters detached from main buildings. One participant said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The people they attacked were not rich. The husband was a motorcyclist while the wife roasts corn by the side of the road. Their house has no burglar proof and the door is made of plywood. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Operation patterns</h2>
<p>Our participants and reports indicated that the gang operated in the early hours of the day, usually between 1am and 3am.</p>
<p>While parading arrested gang members, the then Commissioner of Police of Lagos State, Edgar Imhohimi, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmKzVeYk_vc">described</a> what they had done:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The gang of three murderers and ritualists usually spray a powdery substance into the victims’ dwelling place that will make their targets fall into deep sleep before the group ends their lives by smashing their skulls with grinding stone. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another participant in our study, a victim of Badoo attacks, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They hit my husband on the head with a stone, something like the stone they use to grind pepper, that native grinding stone. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our informants’ responses suggest that buildings under construction or unoccupied are a threat to security, and overgrown vegetation obstructs visibility. Isolated houses may compromise the security of neighbourhoods and make inhabitants of those structures easy targets. </p>
<h2>Combating crime</h2>
<p>The reign of terror of the Badoo cult gang in Ikorodu eventually ended when the formal and informal agencies of social control collaborated. That is, the police enlisted the support of local vigilance groups. This shows that cooperation between the police and local security operatives could work well in combating crime. Local people use traditional methods of vigilance similar to those that the Badoo gang used. And they know their community.</p>
<p>Security could also be improved by clearing overgrown vegetation and paying attention to empty or isolated buildings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196148/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oludayo Tade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Through their mastery of the environment and target selection, the Badoo cult gang was able to unleash terror among residents.Oludayo Tade, Sociologist/Criminologist/Victimologist and Media Communication Expert, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963852023-01-25T20:23:04Z2023-01-25T20:23:04Z‘Have I just joined another cult?’: Daniella grew up in The Family, then joined the army – where she experienced toxic control, again<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506036/original/file-20230124-13-scojeu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3994%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>On Daniella Mestyanek Young’s first day of military training, she stands among her fellow recruits holding a duffle bag high in one arm above her head. As she ponders the other bodies lined up in her peripheral vision, all struggling to maintain the same pose, it gradually occurs to her that this feeling — of being owned, coerced, programmed — seems unsettlingly familiar: “Have I just joined another cult?”</p>
<p>This sense of suspicion forms a pattern in Mestyanek Young’s life, which she documents with remarkable insight in her memoir, <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Daniella-Mestyanek-Young-Uncultured-9781761068843/">Uncultured</a>, exploring the systems of control in which toxicity can thrive. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Uncultured – Daniella Mestyanek Young (Allen & Unwin)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Mestyanek Young was born into religious cult the Children of God, also known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Family_International">The Family</a>. (Not to be confused with <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-thefamily-rpt/10279232">Anne Hamilton Byrne’s Australian-based cult</a>, also known as The Family.) </p>
<p>Mestyanek Young spent her childhood shuffled from compound to compound in Brazil, Mexico and the United States. At 15, she fled what she would come to recognise as a cult, made her way to Texas and put herself through school and college, eventually graduating as valedictorian and joining the US army, where she served as an intelligence officer. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503765/original/file-20230110-23-9f0guc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Daniella Mestyanek Young explores the systems of control in which toxicity can thrive, from within a cult and then the US army.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But this book is not simply a survival story. It’s an exposé of the abuse that can run unchecked within cults. It’s a story about <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">trauma</a>, a war memoir, a meditation on the difference between culture and cults. And it’s a searing indictment of groups that continue to view those who are not men as subservient to those who are. </p>
<p>But at its core, Uncultured is a book about groups. It asks readers to look closely at the power mechanisms at work within the communities we call our own.</p>
<h2>The Children of God</h2>
<p>Mestyanek Young describes her childhood as a third-generation cult member (one of the “children of the children of the Children of God”) in chilling detail — but also striking detachment. The cult, also known as The Family, is infamous for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-44613932">its widespread and systematic abuse</a>, especially of children. </p>
<p>The hierarchy cited the proverb, “Spare the rod, spoil the child”, to justify its exploitative treatment of children. It subjected children to routine beatings and demanded they remain perpetually available to satiate the sexual impulses of the cult’s adults. Mestyanek Young’s father was 49 years old when she was born; her mother was only 15.</p>
<p>Even as a young child programmed from birth, Mestyanek Young intuited that something about her world was deeply wrong. At just six years old, already questioning the legitimacy of the Bible, Mestyanek Young was locked in a room and repeatedly raped and beaten by one of the cult’s men, a distinguished <em>uncle</em>. </p>
<p>Despite the cult’s coercion tactics, however, Mestyanek Young was able to observe its inner workings from an unusually critical perspective, haunted by a sense that “even though I was the one getting punished, somewhere deep inside I suspected the wrong thing wasn’t me”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-lies-conmen-and-coercive-control-how-cults-corrupt-our-desire-for-love-and-connection-185385">Religious lies, conmen and coercive control: how cults corrupt our desire for love and connection</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Defining a cult</h2>
<p>Uncultured invites readers to reconsider what they think about the ways cults emerge and function. The Children of God falls easily under a recognisable definition of cult. </p>
<p>It had a leader, David Brandt Berg, thought charismatic by followers at the time. It had vernacular: defectors were <em>backsliders</em>; untouchable members of the hierarchy were <em>selah</em>. It divided the world into moral, inside members and evil, outsider <em>systemites</em>. It limited medical care and exploited its members’ labour. Its exit costs were high: excommunication, not only from loved ones but also from the stability, comfort and sense of purpose that scaffolds a life built around a clear mission.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="members of the Children of God cult" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505497/original/file-20230120-10996-ay5ejj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Children of God cult and its leader, David Brandt Berg, who was thought charismatic by followers at the time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cults have attracted significant scholarly attention over the last several decades, and <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Escaping-Utopia-Growing-Up-in-a-Cult-Getting-Out-and-Starting-Over/Lalich-McLaren/p/book/9781138239746">working definitions suggest</a> a cult is </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] a very specific kind of social group that uses similar methods to entice supporters, transmit its ideology, control its members, and put its worldview into practice. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But Mestyanek Young takes a more expansive view. By drawing parallels between the systems of coercion and control she experienced in the Children of God and those she experienced in the army, she implicates a broad array of institutions in her characterisation of cult-like behaviour.</p>
<h2>The cult(ure) of the army</h2>
<p>As a recruit and officer in the US army, Mestyanek Young constantly recalls instances from her childhood that correspond to her military experiences. </p>
<p>She sees parallels everywhere: in the pageantry, the unrelenting demands, the chanting, the bespoke language, the ingrained sexism; in the unquestioning fidelity to superiors, the unique learning resources, the absolute, continual, exhaustive expectations of its members. She also sees parallels in the camaraderie, the sense of belonging, and the satisfaction of pursuing a clear objective alongside driven, like-minded people. </p>
<p>In particular, this book compels us to reflect on the entitlement of men in both groups: <em>uncles</em> and captains, for example, who operate within cultures that excuse the abhorrent behaviours of the worst of their members. The structure of both groups enables men to access the bodies of their subordinates in a way that is not only tolerated but expected.</p>
<p>Mestyanek Young details how the impulses of men were baked into the structure of power within both the Children of God and the US army – in the latter, particularly when she was deployed overseas.</p>
<p>As a member of the Children of God, Mestyanek Young was taught to “share in God’s love” by engaging in sexual acts without question whenever propositioned. In the army, Mestyanek Young found herself in a sexual relationship with her superior, a captain to whom “under the cover of darkness, I hadn’t felt at all powerful enough to say no”. </p>
<p>She was warned to not get herself raped on deployment, and simultaneously told that one in four women will be raped on deployment — by the men they serve alongside. </p>
<p>The army’s rape culture was buoyed by vernacular such as “rape alley”; by lore that positioned army women as one of only three categories: a bitch, dyke or slut. And by a culture that expected women to keep themselves safe, but didn’t expect men not to commit rape. </p>
<p>Mestyanek Young recounts the way workplace rape was shrugged off through a conversation with her superior, who casually remarks, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You know, before I got over here [to Afghanistan], I used to think that the women who said they were scared were just being dramatic. But the more I get used to what it’s like over here, the more I think that you probably <em>will</em> get raped on this deployment.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A former soldier’s ‘familiar’ perspective</h2>
<p>Reading this memoir as a former solider in the Australian army, I found Mestyanek Young’s detailing of casual sexism exhaustingly familiar. </p>
<p>When I was a serving member, the often-used phrase, “There are no women in the army, only soldiers”, was meant to signal a type of equality: an erasure of the female gender that somehow signalled inclusivity. </p>
<p>But this type of phrase is not just a thought-stopping cliché masking an untruth. It’s not just a phrase that was deployed selectively and unfairly. It’s an erasure that misses the insights and additions from diverse points of view that can enrich an organisation.</p>
<p>On patrol in Kandahar, for example, Mestyanek Young enjoyed seeing children – in particular young girls – playing on the streets. On one patrol, Mestyanek Young notices there are none of these girls around. And this observation saves her patrol’s life: they pause, find an explosive device and abort the mission. </p>
<p>On the way to the helicopters, the patrol commander says, “I love having you girls on the team — you notice the silliest things.” Mestyanek Young reflects:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What if, our being so different, with such divergent life experiences, and all the <em>silly</em>, little things we notice, was the entire point? What if we could save lives, just by being women?</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505713/original/file-20230122-41040-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A US soldier meets Afghan girls during an information gathering operation in Kandahar City, 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mestyanek Young makes a number of salient points here. Firstly, it’s important that those inside a cult – those “good” members – challenge toxic culture. And strategies that normalise casual sexism and rape culture within organisations, which lead to the unique trauma women suffer when they deploy on a nation’s behalf, must be addressed. </p>
<p>We can extend Mestyanek Young’s observation on the value of diversity to endless group settings. But it can be difficult to see what’s going on from inside a cult – an organisation gone toxic. </p>
<p>Mestyanek Young demands that we look critically at our institutions, and the culture and cult behaviours that operate inside of them. She implores us to unpack the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-anzac-legend-has-blinded-australia-to-its-war-atrocities-its-time-for-a-reckoning-151022">programming we have undergone</a> as members of a society that finds it difficult to question the authority of its defence force. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-soldiers-commit-war-crimes-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-185391">Friday essay: why soldiers commit war crimes – and what we can do about it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Maybe groups are just groups</h2>
<p>There’s no shortage of literature and scholarly debate about cults. What this book does particularly well is take our knowledge about cults and overlays it, by implication, on all types of groups. </p>
<p>Uncultured shows readers the methods of enticement, coercion and control that work so effectively within cults, so they might identify them in other areas of life. </p>
<p>She writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Maybe groups are just groups. Evil cults. Great armies. Wonderful families. Amazing countries. Pile whatever modifiers on them you want. Each one has the same inherent strengths, weaknesses, and potential pitfalls.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The book prompts us to reflect on our own groups — not just the social ones, but on our workplaces, institutions and governments — to reflect on our relationship to and within them. Because recognising toxic group behaviour in one context immunises us against it in all of the others. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505714/original/file-20230122-7722-gbdrsn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Are we being asked to hate? Is diversity of viewpoint actively suppressed? How much of my time am I devoting to this group, versus how much time I have for other things? What are the exit costs? </p>
<p>Scholars will continue to debate <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-cult-165512">the precise definition of a cult</a>. Discussions delineating the hazy line between a cult and culture will continue, and they should. But, as Mestyanek Young implies through this book, perhaps precise definitions aren’t really the point. Perhaps, identifying the systems of control that can grow and fester within all types of groups is what we should be focusing on. </p>
<p>Mestyanek Young’s observations about groups, and programming strategies, have many applications. Our current environment, for example, of <a href="https://theconversation.com/facebooks-algorithms-fueled-massive-foreign-propaganda-campaigns-during-the-2020-election-heres-how-algorithms-can-manipulate-you-168229">algorithmic news curation</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-all-polarization-is-bad-but-the-us-could-be-in-trouble-173833">increasingly polarised politics</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-be-too-quick-to-blame-social-media-for-americas-polarization-cable-news-has-a-bigger-effect-study-finds-187579">ideologically driven broadcasting networks</a> divides people into the “in” and “out” groups so central to cultic structures. </p>
<p>Against Uncultured’s thesis, we can understand these strategies as amounting to programming: a type that coaches people to make decisions based on identity and group-think, rather than reasoning and cooperation; a type of programming that has long been the <em>modus operandi</em> of cults.</p>
<p>In an era that includes extremist groups having <a href="https://www.un.org/en/un75/new-era-conflict-and-violence">unprecedented access</a> to the general public through the internet, right through to business leaders, such as <a href="https://www.economist.com/business/2021/02/10/the-cult-of-an-elon-musk-or-a-jack-ma-has-its-perks-but-also-perils?gclid=Cj0KCQiA5NSdBhDfARIsALzs2EAQqYie4vLQN2-Roam8BuPEv-qfCHN2YwvXB4fmm5xAwa-I_b9M0zEaApETEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">Elon Musk</a> and <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/11/inside-the-fall-of-wework">Adam Neumann</a> displaying behaviour some have described as cult-like, Uncultured is a timely and captivating read.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martine Kropkowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Daniella Mestyanek Young grew up in the Children of God cult, also known as The Family. She escaped aged 15, then joined the US army after college – and recognised similar systems of toxic control.Martine Kropkowski, Tutor, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1853852022-07-10T20:27:17Z2022-07-10T20:27:17ZReligious lies, conmen and coercive control: how cults corrupt our desire for love and connection<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473149/original/file-20220708-13-1tfmom.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C3001%2C1949&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young women members of the Charles Manson family kneel on the sidewalk outside the Los Angeles at Hall of Justice March 29, 1971, with their heads shaved.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wally Fong/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Project Mayhem is an all-male cult – but unlike the real cults that Sarah Steel writes about in <a href="https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781760986131/">Do As I Say</a>, Project Mayhem is fictitious. It comes from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk in his masterpiece novel <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/fight-club-9780091835132">Fight Club</a>, a dark exploration of contemporary masculinity that describes how a group of men come together to form a fringe group with fringe ideas – and how this can go wrong. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Do As I Say: How cults control, why we join them, and what they teach us about bullying, abuse and coercion, by Sarah Steel (PanMacmillan)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Project Mayhem exhibits many key elements of what we see in <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-label-cult-gets-in-the-way-of-understanding-new-religions-94386">cults</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=908&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473138/original/file-20220708-15-wlj7k3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1141&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In Do As I Say, Steel (creator of the podcast <a href="https://www.ltaspod.com/">Let’s Talk About Sects</a>) explores how cults usually exhibit some of the following attributes: they have unique in-group language, they require intense work schedules of members, their leaders will often deliver endless sermons, and they will restrict access to media. Members are directed not to ask questions, and professional help or healthcare and outside information are restricted. </p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly, cults use a method that experts now refer to as coercive control – an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim into conforming. </p>
<p>This form of psychological manipulation is <a href="https://theconversation.com/coercive-control-is-a-key-part-of-domestic-violence-so-why-isnt-it-a-crime-across-australia-132444">a key part</a> of the fabric of domestic abuse relationships. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-coercive-control-was-made-illegal-in-australia-114817">It's time 'coercive control' was made illegal in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Triggering events</h2>
<p>Steel reveals members of cults usually experience a triggering event prior to joining. This is backed up by various scholarly <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254706697_Radicalization_into_Violent_Extremism_I_A_Review_of_Social_Science_Theories">sources</a> who’ve written about religious conversion and those who join extremist groups. </p>
<p>A triggering event may be something like a divorce, the death of a loved one, or another event that’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-half-of-australians-will-experience-trauma-most-before-they-turn-17-we-need-to-talk-about-it-159801">traumatic</a>, or perceived as traumatic. These themes have been noted by sociologists such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/pioneering-sociologist-foresaw-our-current-chaos-100-years-ago-105018">Emile Durkheim</a> and Max Weber, who <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-the-Study-of-Religion/Hinnells/p/book/9780415473286">wrote about</a> how fringe religious groups come about during times of societal unrest. </p>
<p>For Durkheim, religion (and other social norms and values) act as a kind of social “glue”. In times of rapid social change, existing rules, habits and beliefs no longer hold. This produces an environment ripe for exploitation – usually by a charismatic man with all the answers to your problems. </p>
<p>Durkheim referred to this personal feeling of change (loss of existing rules, values, beliefs) as “anomie”, which basically means everything in your life has gone to shit, producing a desperate need to find meaning, belonging and control again (or perhaps for the first time). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-kind-of-person-joins-a-cult-or-joins-a-terror-group-62969">What kind of person joins a cult or joins a terror group?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Cults and control</h2>
<p>This is where the study of cults gets interesting and even controversial. As Steel outlines with countless examples, cults often seek to control every aspect of one’s mental and physical existence. </p>
<p>Unless one is born into the group, as Steel also notes, people (overwhelmingly women) choose the group for themselves, albeit without information about its darker aspects. The question is: why on earth would anyone find groups like these appealing?</p>
<p>The need for order, structure and certainties are part of the answer. These have been shown to be common psychological traits for those who lean more to the political right. However, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341306723_Clarifying_the_Structure_and_Nature_of_Left-Wing_Authoritarianism">research is showing</a> these factors are growing universally common. </p>
<p>This is the tragedy of cults and other extreme groups: as Steel notes, they exploit freedom of belief, freedom of association and freedom of religion – with often abusive and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-05/religious-group-arrests-over-8yo-elizabeth-struhs-death/101208762">damaging outcomes</a>. </p>
<p>Everyone loves freedom, for good reason. It’s the foundation of liberal democracy. But unrestrained freedom without a sense of structure, meaning, and order is psychologically unstable – for societies and individuals.</p>
<p>Take, for instance, the feminist issues Steel raises in relation to cults: curtailment of reproductive rights and rights for children, and issues with problematic male leadership. Within many cults, Steel notes, women’s rights are severely curtailed through controlling relationships, limited choices and subservience to the often-male leader, or men in general. </p>
<p>As Steel explains, Australia has been clear that when it comes to immigration, if imported misogynistic belief systems clash with Australian values, Australian values (including women’s rights) should win. But cults appear to slip through the cracks, as they can hide behind freedom of religion. </p>
<p>Where women’s rights should prevail, according to Steel, there appears to be less appetite to investigate and prosecute woman’s rights violations within religious organisations. Steel also provides some social commentary around the “problematic” way we raise young men as leaders. But there are some other factors worth considering.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-label-cult-gets-in-the-way-of-understanding-new-religions-94386">Why the label 'cult' gets in the way of understanding new religions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Cults and the appeal of ‘family’</h2>
<p>Why do ostensibly free individuals join these types of restrictive and often damaging groups, obsessed with female reproduction and sex? </p>
<p>From the 1960s, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/freer-sex-and-family-planning-a-short-history-of-the-contraceptive-pill-92282">contraceptive pill</a> for women (making it easier to choose pregnancy or not), the legalisation of abortion (which has just become complicated in the United States, of course, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade-but-for-abortion-opponents-this-is-just-the-beginning-185768">the repeal</a> of Roe v Wade) and easier access to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-will-my-divorce-affect-my-kids-101594">divorce</a> have meant new levels of freedom for women. More choice – for men and women – as to what a family might look like has also introduced uncertainty.</p>
<p>During this same period, there’s been a massive increase in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2946680">fatherlessness and single motherhood</a>. And in the US, 2019 Justice Department figures <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles/172210.pdf">show</a> 70% of juveniles in state-operated institutions are fatherless. Cults are religiously conservative expressions of a wish to return to the time when sex was a huge deal, because the cost to both men and women was so high – and to return the man to inside the family unit (at any abhorrent cost).</p>
<p>Chuck Palahniuk has lamented that his book is one of only two works of fiction that address contemporary masculine issues and what it means to be a modern-day man (the other being <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-dead-poets-society-turns-30-classroom-rapport-is-still-relevant-and-risky-115448">Dead Poets Society</a>). The main characters in Fight Club discuss whether they should get married. Jack says to Tyler, “I can’t get married, I’m a 30-year-old boy”. Tyler responds, “We’re a generation of men raised by women, I’m wondering if another woman is really the answer we need?”</p>
<p>Steel notes cults are a feminist issue – which they undoubtedly are. But women’s issues do not exist in a vacuum. The factors that have led to single-mother houses, with fathers absent, have been pervasive since the 1960s. Generations have experienced fatherlessness. And there’s a phenomenon of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi1oN1icAYc&ab_channel=TEDxTalks">dad-deprived boys</a>. So it shouldn’t be surprising cults mimic a family with a male leader.</p>
<p>The characters in Fight Club go on to create Project Mayhem, a cult in which you “do not ask questions”, with the catchphrase “In [cult leader] Tyler we Trust”. Sound familiar? Where Fight Club diverts from reality is that a cult or a terrorist group is never purely nihilistic, like Project Mayhem, a group with the anarchic goal of tearing down society completely and starting again. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472432/original/file-20220705-21-ks34xd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Project Mayhem in the book (and film) Fight Club is essentially a masculinity cult.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cults and terrorist groups differ in that the former seeks to control themselves and the latter seeks to control themselves and society. There is some overlap, as religious cults often have apocalyptic and doomsday “prophecies” – but they require members to have their own houses in order before the apocalypse, to avoid hellfire. </p>
<p>Do As I Say is a heartbreaking and compelling read for anyone interested in the way in which cults and extreme groups come to be, control and ultimately exploit the very freedoms we enjoy in the West. </p>
<p>Sarah Steel shows how our desire for meaning, love and social connection can have tragic outcomes when misdirected. This book should give us pause to consider how we can put meaning, order, and structure into our own lives without giving into religious lies, conmen and the most restrictive conditional love.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shane Satterley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What is the appeal of cults? How do they work? And what is the damage they do? A new book, by the creator of the podcast Let’s Talk About Sects, answers these questions and more.Shane Satterley, PhD Candidate, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851252022-06-28T14:26:10Z2022-06-28T14:26:10ZHow the self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Canada’ is causing true harm to her subjects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471128/original/file-20220627-14-h5z7t0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C778%2C469&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Romana Didulo salutes in a photo on her Telegram page.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Antihate.ca/Telegram)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-the-self-proclaimed--queen-of-canada--is-causing-true-harm-to-her-subjects" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53654318">sovereign citizen movement</a> is expanding rapidly, and can now be found in at least <a href="https://www.hstoday.us/featured/perspective-growing-threat-of-sovereign-citizen-extremism-spans-borders-and-ideologies/">26 countries</a>. </p>
<p>The movement is anti-government in nature, and its followers believe they’re immune from the laws of their government. They also have a proclivity for violence, as demonstrated by a number of <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/77328/sovereign-citizens-more-than-paper-terrorists/">high-profile incidents</a>, <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2021/07/03/armed-standoff-with-police-shuts-down-part-of-i-95-in-wakefield/">including an armed standoff in Massachusetts in July 2021.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Police scour trees next to a highway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471210/original/file-20220627-7096-umnv5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471210/original/file-20220627-7096-umnv5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471210/original/file-20220627-7096-umnv5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471210/original/file-20220627-7096-umnv5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471210/original/file-20220627-7096-umnv5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471210/original/file-20220627-7096-umnv5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471210/original/file-20220627-7096-umnv5z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police work in the area of an hours-long standoff with a group of armed men that partially shut down a major highway in in Wakefield, Mass., in July 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a behavioural scientist and researcher of this movement, I have been monitoring Romana Didulo, a conspiracy influencer based in British Columbia, who has proclaimed herself “Queen of Canada,” “commander-in-chief,” “Head of State and Government” and “president and national Indigenous chief of the Kingdom of Canada.” </p>
<p>Recently, Didulo has promoted herself to “<a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7n8aw/queen-of-canada-roman-didulo-qanon-global">Queen of the World</a>.” </p>
<h2>‘Queen of Canada’ tours the country</h2>
<p>She tours Canada in a recreational vehicle, accompanied by an entourage. They hold “meet and greets” where Didulo speaks formally. These are recorded and posted on <a href="https://t.me/s/romanadidulo">multiple channels on Telegram</a>, an encrypted messaging app. </p>
<p>Didulo has nearly 66,000 followers, known as “I AMs.” They are currently raising funds to purchase a new $65,000 RV for their queen.</p>
<p>Didulo is a sovereign citizen of a different variety. She espouses a dogma comprised of a mixture of <a href="https://gnet-research.org/2022/01/06/qanon-and-beyond-analysing-qanon-trends-a-year-after-january-6th/">QAnon conspiracy theories</a>, pseudo-legal sovereign-citizen beliefs and new age spirituality. </p>
<p>She tells her followers of her supernatural abilities. She claims she can become invisible by “cloaking” herself. This power is not unusual for beings of her race, she says. She is not of this Earth. She is a member of a highly advanced, alien race — an Arcturian, an alien being with special celestial powers. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1522416104022450176"}"></div></p>
<p>They possess “med beds.” <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-qanon-conspiracy-involves-a-magical-bed-for-zombie-jfk">Med beds</a>, according to Didulo, are advanced healing chambers that cure medical ailments, regrow limbs and organs, reverse aging and can even make one immortal. </p>
<p>She promises full access to these beds, complete with their miracles, to all of her followers. Telegram posts suggest that many of her followers are fervently awaiting her promised technology, possibly delaying legitimate medical care. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470891/original/file-20220625-15980-ajt7eu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470891/original/file-20220625-15980-ajt7eu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=147&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470891/original/file-20220625-15980-ajt7eu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=147&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470891/original/file-20220625-15980-ajt7eu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=147&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470891/original/file-20220625-15980-ajt7eu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470891/original/file-20220625-15980-ajt7eu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470891/original/file-20220625-15980-ajt7eu.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A follower asks Didula a question about Med beds on her Telegram page.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fantastical stories</h2>
<p>Didulo’s speeches are filled with fantastical stories, including how she became the reigning monarch of Canada. She claims the Chinese military had clandestinely invaded secret, underground tunnels that criss-cross Canada. With great difficulty, she commanded her forces and cleared the tunnels of the Chinese communists. </p>
<p>She also claims to have access to the billions of dollars stored at the Vatican. She claims to be a “shape shifter” who can assume any physical appearance she chooses. The “U.S. commander-in-chief” has assigned Didulo to end the war in Ukraine by acting as the “mediator” between United States and Russia. She claimed recently that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a close friend, had personally gifted her an autographed watch. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1496938611480088582"}"></div></p>
<p>It’s tempting to take Didulo lightly, but she is not an innocuous figure. She has strong influence over her many followers. Most recently, she <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3na53/qanon-queen-bills-electricty-canada">has “decreed</a>” that in Canada, all utilities are free, taxes are optional and all debts have been wiped clean. In response, some followers have stopped paying their bills, have had their utilities shut off and lost their homes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470881/original/file-20220625-26-gdjwmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470881/original/file-20220625-26-gdjwmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=217&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470881/original/file-20220625-26-gdjwmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=217&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470881/original/file-20220625-26-gdjwmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=217&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470881/original/file-20220625-26-gdjwmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470881/original/file-20220625-26-gdjwmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470881/original/file-20220625-26-gdjwmr.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=273&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Didulo followers plea for Didulo's help after they stopped paying utility bills." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470893/original/file-20220625-23-2mxniq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470893/original/file-20220625-23-2mxniq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=187&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470893/original/file-20220625-23-2mxniq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=187&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470893/original/file-20220625-23-2mxniq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=187&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470893/original/file-20220625-23-2mxniq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=234&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470893/original/file-20220625-23-2mxniq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=234&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470893/original/file-20220625-23-2mxniq.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=234&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Didulo followers ask for help on her Telegram page.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Anti-vaxxer</h2>
<p>Last year, she instructed her followers to send <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-queens-followers-are-sending-insane-anti-vaxx-notes-to-hospitals">“cease-and-desist” letters</a> to school and health-care officials involved in COVID-19 testing, vaccines or masking efforts. </p>
<p>Didulo believes that anyone who received the COVID-19 vaccine has had their DNA restructured and is slowly, but inevitably, turning into a controllable robot. She does, however, offer a cure that requires listening daily to sounds at certain designated frequencies.</p>
<p>In 2021, she was detained for allegedly encouraging her followers to <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8417379/queen-of-canada-covid-online-threats/">“shoot to kill”</a> anyone involved in vaccinating young people against COVID-19, adding that the “traders” — or traitors — will face a military tribunal punishable by “fire squad or hanging.” </p>
<p>One of her followers <a href="https://www.insider.com/qanon-queen-of-canada-fan-arrested-school-threat-police-said-2021-12">was subsequently arrested</a> after posting online threats aimed at his daughter’s school.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother and child stand in a line waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471196/original/file-20220627-26635-k6xnuf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471196/original/file-20220627-26635-k6xnuf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471196/original/file-20220627-26635-k6xnuf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471196/original/file-20220627-26635-k6xnuf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471196/original/file-20220627-26635-k6xnuf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471196/original/file-20220627-26635-k6xnuf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471196/original/file-20220627-26635-k6xnuf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People wait to get their children vaccinated at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Montréal in November 2021. T.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Threatens violence</h2>
<p>Didulo seems to have a vindictive streak. She brags about being a dictator. Anyone complaining that her decrees are ineffective will be banned from her Telegram pages. Ex-followers report that she has threatened to shoot them or “hang them …from military helicopters” and hover them “above a volcano or commercial crocodile farms…” </p>
<p>She commonly refers to herself in the third person, often proclaiming her importance. She says she renamed the city of Victoria “Queen Romana City” and Prince Edward Island to “Province of Queen Romana.” </p>
<p>Didulo is deceiving her followers. Her decrees are hurting them. Nothing she suggests is legal or true. Her followers are hurt, but they are not blameless. They are drawn to her because of greed. They want something for nothing. She promises them free money, no bills, no taxes and all they have to do is believe. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1529092990349762565"}"></div></p>
<p>In reality, they are trying to steal gas, electricity, water and to refrain from repaying the money they’ve borrowed from banks. As they see it, they are entitled to free money and utilities. They want gas without paying for it. They want to stop paying the mortgage company, but still hold onto their homes. </p>
<p>For people motivated by greed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2020.1779765">her philosophies and teachings offer a justification for thievery</a>. All they have to do is believe that the real leader of Canada and the world is a shape-shifting alien, a starseed from Arcturia. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205211073669">Like most followers of conspiracy theorists espousing outlandish falsehoods</a>, Didulo’s disciples will learn the hard way that they’ve been duped. In the meantime, they can cause serious real-world problems, and even terror, for <a href="https://www.kake.com/story/43913691/kake-news-investigates-group-members-harass-family">their fellow law-abiding citizens</a>. That’s why Didulo’s rise must not be ignored.</p>
<p>Her tactics and edicts are nonsense with no basis in reality. They do not work and will never work. They are not legal, and there are no loopholes that excuse people from being good, responsible citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Sarteschi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Romana Didulo has declared herself the Queen of Canada. Thousands of people follow her and her outlandish conspiracy theories, and here’s why that’s so dangerous.Christine Sarteschi, Associate Professor of Social Work & Criminology, Chatham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583722021-04-14T12:37:44Z2021-04-14T12:37:44Z‘Deprogramming’ QAnon followers ignores free will and why they adopted the beliefs in the first place<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394793/original/file-20210413-17-1nr6rgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C12%2C8167%2C5444&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many of those arrested in the U.S. Capitol siege on Jan. 6, 2021, were QAnon believers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/supporters-of-u-s-president-donald-trump-fly-a-u-s-flag-news-photo/1294904312?adppopup=true">Win McNamee/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972970805/experts-in-cult-deprogramming-step-in-to-help-believers-in-conspiracy-theories">Recent calls</a> to <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/03/14/cult-recovery-experts-explain-how-to-deprogram-qanon-adherents/">deprogram QAnon conspiracy followers</a> are steeped in discredited notions about brainwashing. As popularly imagined, brainwashing is a coercive procedure that programs new long-term personality changes. Deprogramming, also coercive, is thought to undo brainwashing.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.radford.edu/content/chbs/home/phre/faculty-staff/pbthomas.html">professor of religious studies</a> who has <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/nr/issue/14/2">written and taught</a> about alternative religious movements, I believe such <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/05/desperate-families-are-seeking-groups-that-deprogram-extremists/">deprogramming conversations</a> do little to help us understand why people adopt QAnon beliefs. A deprogramming discourse fails to understand <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195338522.013.029">religious recruitment and conversion</a> and excuses those spreading QAnon beliefs from accountability.</p>
<h2>A brief brainwashing history</h2>
<p>Deprogramming, a method thought to reverse extreme psychological manipulation, can’t be understood apart from the concept of brainwashing. </p>
<p>The modern concept of brainwashing has its origin in <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-brainwashing-and-how-it-shaped-america-180963400/">Chinese experiments with American prisoners of war</a> during the Korean War. Coercive physical and psychological methods were employed in an attempt to plant Communist beliefs in the minds of American POWs. To determine whether brainwashing was possible, the CIA then launched its own secret mind-control program in the 1950s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief">called MK-ULTRA</a>. </p>
<p>By the late 1950s researchers were already <a href="https://ahrp.org/1953-dr-wolff-and-dr-hinkle-investigate-communist-brainwashing/">casting doubt on brainwashing theory</a>. The anti-American behavior of captured Americans was best explained by temporary compliance owing to torture. This is akin to false confessions made under extreme duress. </p>
<p>Still, books like “The Manchurian Candidate,” released in 1959, and “A Clockwork Orange,” released in 1962 – both of which were turned into movies and heavily featured themes of brainwashing – reinforced the concept in popular culture. To this day, the language of brainwashing and deprogramming is applied to groups holding controversial beliefs – from <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/warren-jeffs-nephew-claims-brainwashed-080009502.html">fundamentalist Mormons</a> to <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/can-trumps-cult-of-followers-be-deprogrammed">passionate Trump supporters</a>. </p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, brainwashing was used to explain why people would join new religious movements like Jim Jones’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/before-the-tragedy-at-jonestown-the-people-of-peoples-temple-had-a-dream-103151">Peoples Temple</a> or the <a href="https://familyfed.org/">Unification Church</a>.</p>
<p>Seeking guardianship of adult children in these groups, parents cited the belief that members were brainwashed to justify court-ordered conservatorship. With guardianship orders in hand, they sought help from cult deprogrammers like <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/07/205521/cult-deprogramming-history-documentary-mia-donovan">Ted Patrick</a>. Deprogrammers were <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1838878.html">notorious for kidnapping</a>, isolating and harassing adults in an effort to reverse perceived cult brainwashing.</p>
<p>For a time, U.S. courts <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/46/1092.html">accepted brainwashing testimony</a> despite the pseudo-scientific nature of the theory. It turns out that research on coercive conversion <a href="https://www.cesnur.org/testi/melton.htm">failed to support</a> brainwashing theory. Several professional organizations, including the American Psychological Association, have <a href="https://www.cesnur.org/testi/molko_brief.htm">filed legal briefs</a> against brainwashing testimony. Others argued that deprogramming practices violated civil rights. </p>
<p>In 1995 the coercive deprogramming method was litigated again in <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1097138.html">Scott vs. Ross</a>. The jury awarded the plaintiff nearly US$5 million in total damages. This bankrupted the co-defending Cult Awareness Network, a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/US/9612/19/scientology/">popular resource</a> at the time for those seeking deprogramming services.</p>
<h2>‘Exit counseling’</h2>
<p>Given this tarnished history, coercive deprogramming <a href="https://www.cesnur.org/2003/shupe_darnell.htm">evolved into “exit counseling.”</a> Unlike deprogramming, exit counseling is voluntary and resembles an intervention or talk therapy.</p>
<p>One of the most visible self-styled exit counselors is former deprogrammer Rick Alan Ross, the executive director of the Cult Education Institute and defendant in <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1097138.html">Scott v. Ross</a>. Through frequent <a href="https://culteducation.com/media.html">media appearances</a>, people including Ross and Steve Hassan, founder of the <a href="https://freedomofmind.com/">Freedom of Mind Resource Center</a>, continue to contribute to the mind-control and deprogramming discourse in popular culture. </p>
<p>These “cult-recovery experts,” some of whom were involved with the old deprogramming model, are now being used for <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cult-trump-election-qanon-conspiracy-theories-b1812078.html">QAnon deprogramming advice</a>.</p>
<p>Some, like Ross advocate for a more aggressive intervention approach. Others, like Hassan, offer <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/04/perspectives/qanon-cult-truth/index.html">a gentler approach</a> that includes active listening. Cult specialist <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/03/02/972970805/experts-in-cult-deprogramming-step-in-to-help-believers-in-conspiracy-theories">Pat Ryan</a> says he only recommends intervention after a thorough assessment in conjunction with a mental health professional.</p>
<h2>Choice vs. coercion</h2>
<p>Despite the pivot to exit counseling, the language of deprogramming persists. The concept of deprogramming rests on the idea that people do not choose alternative beliefs. Instead, beliefs that are deemed too deviant for mainstream culture are thought to result from coercive manipulation by nefarious entities like cult leaders. When people call for QAnon believers to be deprogrammed, they are implicitly denying that followers exercised choice in accepting QAnon beliefs.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-brainwashing-myth-99272">denies the personal agency</a> and free will of those who became QAnon enthusiasts, and shifts the focus to the programmer. It can also relieve followers of responsibility for perpetuating QAnon beliefs. </p>
<p>As I suggested in an <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-qanon-uses-satanic-rhetoric-to-set-up-a-narrative-of-good-vs-evil-146281">earlier article</a>, and as evident in the QAnon influence on the Jan. 6, 2021, capital insurrection, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/usa/capitol-riot-exposed-qanons-violent-potential">QAnon beliefs can be dangerous</a>. I believe those who adopt and perpetuate these beliefs ought to be held responsible for the consequences.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>This isn’t to say that people are not subject to social influence. However, social influence is a far cry from the systematic, mind-swiping, coercive, robotic imagery conjured up by brainwashing.</p>
<p>Admittedly, what we choose to believe is constrained by the types of influences we face. Those restraints emerge from our <a href="http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/180/decision-making-factors-that-influence-decision-making-heuristics-used-and-decision-outcomes">social and economic circumstances</a>. In the age of social media, we are also constrained by algorithms that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/08/technology/youtube-radical.html">influence the media we consume</a>. Further examination of these issues in relation to the development of QAnon would prove fruitful. </p>
<p>But applying a brainwashing and deprogramming discourse limits our potential to understand the grievances of the QAnon community. To suggest “they were temporarily out of their minds” relieves followers of the conspiracy of responsibility and shelters the rest of society from grappling with uncomfortable social realities. </p>
<p>To understand the QAnon phenomenon, I believe analysts must dig deeply into the social, economic and political factors that influence the adoption of QAnon beliefs.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article was amended on April 15 to clarify Pat Ryan’s approach to intervention</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158372/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A professor of religious studies argues that describing QAnon followers as brainwashed overlooks their role in accepting and spreading potentially dangerous beliefs.Paul Thomas, Chair and Professor of Religious Studies, Radford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1408092020-07-02T12:26:45Z2020-07-02T12:26:45ZThe invention of satanic witchcraft by medieval authorities was initially met with skepticism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344310/original/file-20200626-104484-1dbzjs6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3344%2C2773&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Woodcut, circa 1400. A witch, a demon and a warlock fly toward a peasant woman.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-1400-a-witch-a-demon-and-a-warlock-fly-towards-a-news-photo/51240919">Hulton Archive /Handout via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a midsummer day in 1438, a young man from the north shore of Lake Geneva presented himself to the local church inquisitor. He had a confession to make. Five years earlier, his father had forced him to join a satanic cult of witches. They had flown at night on a small black horse to join more than a hundred people gathered in a meadow. The devil was there too, in the form of a black cat. The witches knelt before him, worshiped him and kissed his posterior.</p>
<p>The young man’s father had already been executed as a witch. It’s likely he was trying to secure a lighter punishment by voluntarily telling inquisitors what they wanted to hear.</p>
<p>The Middle Ages, A.D. 500-1500, have a reputation for both heartless cruelty and hopeless credulity. People commonly believed in all kinds of magic, monsters and <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15568.html">fairies</a>. But it wasn’t until the 15th century that the idea of organized satanic witchcraft took hold. As a historian who <a href="https://history.iastate.edu/directory/michael-bailey/">studies medieval magic</a>, I’m fascinated by how a coterie of church and state authorities conspired to develop and promote this new concept of witchcraft for their own purposes.</p>
<h2>Early medieval attitudes about witchcraft</h2>
<p>Belief in witches, in the sense of wicked people performing harmful magic, had existed in Europe since before the Greeks and Romans. In the early part of the Middle Ages, authorities were largely unconcerned about it. </p>
<p><a href="https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/Witches442/PaganTraces.html">A church document</a> from the early 10th century proclaimed that “sorcery and witchcraft” might be real, but the idea that groups of witches flew together with demons through the night was a delusion. </p>
<p>Things began to change in the 12th and 13th centuries, ironically because educated elites in Europe were becoming more sophisticated.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344356/original/file-20200626-104489-1x8hg5c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Henricus de Alemannia lecturing students at the University of Bologna in the second half of the 14th century – one of the earliest illustrations of a medieval university classroom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laurentius_de_Voltolina_001.jpg">Laurentius de Voltolina/Kupferstichkabinett Berlin</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Universities were being founded, and scholars in Western Europe began to pore over ancient texts as well as learned writings from the Muslim world. Some of these presented complex <a href="https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-08213-4.html">systems of magic</a> that claimed to draw on astral forces or conjure powerful spirits. Gradually, these ideas began to gain intellectual clout.</p>
<p>Ordinary people – the kind who eventually got accused of being witches – didn’t perform elaborate rites from books. They gathered herbs, brewed potions, maybe said a short spell, as they had for generations. And they did so for all sorts of reasons – perhaps to harm someone they disliked, but more often to <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/popular-magic-cunning-folk-in-english-history-9780826442796/">heal or protect</a> others. Such practices were important in a world with only rudimentary forms of medical care.</p>
<p>Christian authorities had previously dismissed this kind of magic as empty superstition. Now they took all magic much more seriously. They began to believe simple spells worked by summoning demons, which meant anyone who performed them secretly worshiped demons. </p>
<h2>Inventing satanic witchcraft</h2>
<p>In the 1430s, a small group of writers in Central Europe – church inquisitors, theologians, lay magistrates and even one historian – began to describe horrific assemblies where witches gathered and worshiped demons, had orgies, ate murdered babies and performed other abominable acts. Whether any of these authors ever met each other is unclear, but they all described groups of witches supposedly active in a zone around the western Alps. </p>
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<p>The reason for this development may have been purely practical. Church inquisitors, active against religious heretics since the 13th century, and some secular courts were looking to expand their jurisdictions. Having a new and particularly horrible crime to prosecute might have struck them as useful.</p>
<p>I just translated a number of these early texts for a <a href="https://www.academia.edu/43358448/Origins_of_the_Witches_Sabbath">forthcoming book</a> and was struck by how worried the authors were about readers not believing them. One fretted that his accounts would be “disparaged” by those who “think themselves learned.” Another feared that “simple folk” would refuse to believe the “fragile sex” would engage in such terrible practices.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520320574/european-witch-trials">Trial records</a> show it was a hard sell. Most people remained concerned with harmful magic – witches causing illness or withering crops. They didn’t much care about secret satanic gatherings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=850&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344298/original/file-20200626-104499-4etmz6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1068&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The handbook for detecting and persecuting witches in the Middle Ages, ‘Malleus Maleficarum’ or ‘Hammer of Witches.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J._Sprenger_and_H._Institutoris,_Malleus_maleficarum._Wellcome_L0000980.jpg">Wellcome Images/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1486, clergyman Heinrich Kramer published the most widely circulated medieval text about organized witchcraft, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/literature/european-literature/hammer-witches-complete-translation-malleus-maleficarum?format=PB&isbn=9780521747875">Malleus Maleficarum</a> (Hammer of Witches). But many people didn’t believe him. When he tried to start a witch hunt in Innsbruck, Austria, he was kicked out by the local bishop, who accused him of <a href="https://www.dtv.de/buch/heinrich-kramer-guenter-jerouschek-wolfgang-behringer-der-hexenhammer-30780/">being senile</a>. </p>
<h2>Witch hunts</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the fear of satanic witchcraft grew. The 15th century seems to have provided ideal soil for this new idea to take root. </p>
<p>Europe was recovering from <a href="https://cornellup.degruyter.com/view/title/568227">several crises</a>: plague, wars and a split in the church between two, and then three, competing popes. Beginning in the 1450s, the printing press made it easier for new ideas to spread. Even prior to the Protestant Reformation, religious reform was in the air. As I explored in an <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-02225-3.html">earlier book</a>, reformers used the idea of a diabolical conspiracy bent on corrupting Christianity as a boogeyman in their call for spiritual renewal.</p>
<p>Over time, more people came to accept this new idea. Church and state authorities kept telling them it was real. Still, many also kept relying on local “witches” for magical healing and protection.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344300/original/file-20200626-104484-6oipp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The execution of alleged witches in Central Europe, 1587.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Wickiana3.jpg">Zurich Central Library/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The history of witchcraft can be quite grim. From the 1400s through the 1700s, authorities in Western Europe <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Witch-Hunt-in-Early-Modern-Europe-4th-Edition/Levack/p/book/9781138808102?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9s_H7OuV6gIVi8DACh3paAtCEAAYASAAEgLcLvD_BwE">executed around 50,000 people, mostly women,</a> for witchcraft. The worst witch hunts could claim hundreds of victims at a time. With 20 dead, colonial America’s largest hunt at Salem was moderate by comparison. </p>
<p>Salem, in 1692, marked the end of witch hunts in New England. In Europe, too, skepticism would eventually prevail. It’s worth remembering, though, that at the beginning, authorities had to work hard to convince others such malevolence was real.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140809/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael D. Bailey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea of organized satanic witchcraft was invented in 15th-century Europe by church and state authorities, who at first had a hard time convincing regular folks it was real.Michael D. Bailey, Professor of History, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1327302020-04-29T18:29:11Z2020-04-29T18:29:11ZBrazilian mystics say they’re sent by aliens to ‘jump-start human evolution’ – but their vision for a more just society is not totally crazy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330819/original/file-20200427-145536-1namrs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=95%2C6%2C4077%2C2669&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Valley of the Dawn members celebrate 'Day of the Indoctrinator' at their temple complex in Brazil on May 1. This year's event is postponed due to coronavirus.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Márcia Alves</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every May 1, before sunrise, several thousand members of the religion known as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/may/03/the-vale-do-amanhecer-religious-community-in-brazil-in-pictures">Valley of the Dawn</a> gather in silence at a temple outside the Brazilian capital of Brasília. They come from around the world to “synchronize their spiritual energies.”</p>
<p>As the Sun’s first rays appear over the horizon, the members, in fairy-tale-like <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/e2r3nwe6evirgjl/ElaborateRitualAttire_PhotoCredit_M%C3%A1rciaAlves.JPG?dl=0">garments</a>, chant their personal “emissions” – a ritual invocation of cosmic forces that fills the air with a collective drone. </p>
<p>Valley of the Dawn adherents “manipulate” cosmic energies to heal themselves and others. They describe themselves as members of a spiritual tribe called the Jaguars, who are the reincarnated descendants of highly advanced extraterrestrials sent by God some 32,000 years ago to jump-start human evolution.</p>
<p>Normally, the May 1 <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/05/photos-worshipers-valley-of-the-dawn/588475/">Day of the Indoctrinator</a> ceremony attracts Jaguars from across the globe, as well as spectators and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/may/03/the-vale-do-amanhecer-religious-community-in-brazil-in-pictures">journalists</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330817/original/file-20200427-145525-1rgw7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3543%2C2354&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330817/original/file-20200427-145525-1rgw7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330817/original/file-20200427-145525-1rgw7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330817/original/file-20200427-145525-1rgw7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330817/original/file-20200427-145525-1rgw7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330817/original/file-20200427-145525-1rgw7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330817/original/file-20200427-145525-1rgw7ce.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Day of the Indoctrinator, 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Márcia Alves</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2020, the ceremony was postponed because of the coronavirus – dismaying Valley of the Dawn members, who believe their spiritual force field could really help in this global crisis.</p>
<p>The Valley of the Dawn’s beliefs are <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/brazils-sunrise-valley-honors-mediums-labor-day-170448626--spt.html">fantastical</a>, but their practices may be less otherworldly <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2018/09/religion-psychic-medium-extraterrestrial-sunrise-dawn-valley-brasilia-brazil/">than bemused journalists have often suggested</a>. My <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=z1eWiyoAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F5SXVosCqNZCg1L7c89uUF1gz96jLMiJbO_QEvNqTs_VWbYXm2nXRtb1cko2iUVzEJv7ByI6GjeLp9JJooKJmYh6mhAe-nSndcCor_UuPHzXxAJHPc">scholarship on Brazilian religions and research at the Valley of the Dawn</a> finds that some of the group’s rituals speak directly to the harsh realities of the modern world. </p>
<h2>Jaguars past and present</h2>
<p>Valley of the Dawn, called Vale do Amanhecer in Portuguese, is a <a href="https://www.agenciabrasilia.df.gov.br/2013/12/06/vale-do-amanhecer-simbolo-do-sincretismo-religioso-atrai-milhares-de-visitantes/">recognized religion in Brazil</a>. It has over 700 affiliated temples worldwide and nearly <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PieriniJaguars">139,000 registered members</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=885&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328787/original/file-20200417-152607-49v3rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1112&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Aunt Neiva.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Vale Do Amanhecer Archive</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to Valley of the Dawn <a href="https://nr.ucpress.edu/content/16/4/63">doctrine</a>, the Jaguars inspired some of humanity’s greatest achievements, including the great pyramids of ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica, before eventually straying from their mission. </p>
<p>Their spiritual tribe was reunited in Brazil in 1964 by a woman called Aunt Neiva, who foresaw the world as we know it ending within decades. </p>
<p>My research indicates that Valley of the Dawn members are mostly middle- and working-class Brazilians, of all races. Many live in the town that has grown up around the Mother Temple; others travel there for ceremonies. </p>
<p>To redeem the bad karma they believe they have accrued over the millennia, Valley of the Dawn members perform spirit-healing rituals called “trabalhos,” or works. These are offered to the public at the Mother Temple nearly <a href="https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/valley-of-the-dawn/">24 hours a day, 365 days a year</a>.</p>
<p>In Brazil, which has hundreds of spirit-based religions, such <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315419855">healing is widely accepted</a>. </p>
<p>According to anthropologist Emily Pierini, who has studied <a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PieriniJaguars">spirit healing at the Valley of the Dawn</a>, thousands of Brazilians suffering from health problems, mental illness, grief or addiction visit the Valley of the Dawn each month to <a href="https://wrldrels.org/2016/10/08/valley-of-the-dawn/">remove negative spiritual influences and channel healing forces</a>. Most patients have had unsuccessful experiences with both Western medicine and other religions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330795/original/file-20200427-145513-iib51e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A healing ritual at the Valley of the Dawn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Márcia Alves</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Meaningful work and education</h2>
<p>The Valley of the Dawn has grown steadily since the founder’s death in 1985, spreading from Brazil to Portugal, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004246034_014">United States</a> and England. </p>
<p>Outsiders often dismiss the Valley as a cult. A BBC journalist who visited the community in 2012 called it a “<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/fast_track/9762166.stm">refuge for lost souls</a>.”</p>
<p>But <a href="https://iupui.academia.edu/kellyhayes">my research</a> offers an alternative explanation of why some people might find the Valley of the Dawn appealing: It offers a more progressive, egalitarian version of modernity. </p>
<p>Brazil, with its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35810578">corruption scandals</a> and savage <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35810578">social inequalities</a>, has not always lived up to the motto “order and progress” as inscribed on its national flag. It is not alone. Across much of the West, the promise that modernity would bring <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/modernity-understanding-the-present/oclc/754168298">higher living standards, greater personal freedoms and a more just society</a> remains largely unfulfilled. </p>
<p>Instead, the 21st century has created <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/almost-half-of-americans-work-in-low-wage-jobs/ar-BBXF7sF">low-wage</a> jobs with little security and <a href="https://espas.secure.europarl.europa.eu/orbis/sites/default/files/generated/document/en/0115391e.pdf">government institutions</a> that too frequently benefit the richest and most powerful. Individualism has supplanted community, leaving people increasingly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/materialism-system-eats-us-from-inside-out">isolated and lonely</a> – and that was before coronavirus and social distancing. </p>
<p>The Valley of the Dawn, in contrast, offers a collective life that members find gratifying.</p>
<p>“By living out the doctrine, you see what you can improve in your life and how you can repair the errors of the past,” a member named Ilza told me. “You see the results of your dedication.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330815/original/file-20200427-145499-1u7t5va.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Prayer at Mother Temple.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Márcia Alves</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rejecting capitalist values, Valley of the Dawn members refuse to work for money. Healing “trabalhos” are offered freely as an expression of unconditional love. </p>
<p>In Brazil, where <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/503611468769540767/Higher-education-in-Brazil-challenges-and-options">poverty prevents many from completing their education</a>, the Valley of the Dawn has its own education system premised on merit, not privilege. </p>
<p>It offers free “courses” on personal development, moral conduct and mediumship taught by trained instructors. Educational advancement earns members a title, like “Master” or “Commander,” and the right to wear specific clothing, participate in new rituals and take on leadership duties. </p>
<h2>Restorative justice</h2>
<p>Justice in the Valley of the Dawn likewise offers a progressive alternative to contemporary <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-war-on-drugs-fuels-deadly-prison-riots-in-brazil-67337">criminal justice systems</a> that emphasize <a href="https://theconversation.com/americas-mass-incarceration-problem-in-5-charts-or-why-sessions-shouldnt-bring-back-mandatory-minimums-78019">punishment and incarceration</a>. In the Valley of the Dawn, justice means reconciliation for past harms – not retribution.</p>
<p>According to Valley of the Dawn doctrine, much human suffering and wrongdoing is the work of spirits called “cobradores,” or debt collectors. A cobrador is the spirit of a person – usually a family member or friend – who was harmed by a Jaguar in a past life. </p>
<p>When the spirit attaches itself to its living “debtor” – causing depression, for example, or aggression – the afflicted Jaguar spend a week gathering signatures from fellow Valley members who wish them positive energy to pay off their spiritual debt. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330812/original/file-20200427-145536-1ud1a4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A prisoner collecting signatures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Márcia Alves</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The week-long prison ritual – conducted in a colorful dress or, for men, black shirt with a leather sash – culminates in a courtroom “trial.” There the cobrador, channeled by a fellow Jaguar, explains the wrongdoing that caused the karmic debt. After the prisoner expresses regret, balance is restored.</p>
<p>“He forgives me, I forgive him, he leaves and I am released,” as a Jaguar named Master Itamir explained. </p>
<h2>Fantastical solutions to real problems</h2>
<p>I find no evidence, by the way, that this New Age group has an unsavory underbelly, or that its leaders are exploiting members. People are free to join or leave the Valley of the Dawn at any time. For Jaguars who cannot afford training, the community provides food and housing. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/328788/original/file-20200417-152602-7ik2bq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jaguars celebrate the Day of the Indoctrinator, May 1, 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcia Alves</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research indicates members find real meaning in the Valley of the Dawn’s egalitarian work, education and legal systems, all structured on the principles of equality and justice. </p>
<p>In that sense, despite their mystical nature, the social practices of the Valley of the Dawn aren’t alien at all: They are a reaction to the very real deficiencies of modern secular society – with some flamboyant costuming on the side. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly E Hayes received funding from the Fulbright U.S. Scholars Program in 2012. </span></em></p>Brazil’s Valley of the Dawn faith is often dismissed as a cult. But many of the group’s fantastical rituals are a recognizable reaction to this harsh world of inequality, loneliness and pandemics.Kelly E. Hayes, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325652020-02-28T12:22:18Z2020-02-28T12:22:18ZMubarak: a man who built on his talent for self-promotion while stifling opposition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317765/original/file-20200228-24668-5mn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hosni Mubarak, the late former President of Egypt.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Amel Pain</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 21-gun salute fired in eastern Cairo during <a href="http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/364225/Egypt/Politics-/Egypts-Sisi-attends-military-funeral-ceremony-for-.aspx">the burial</a> of the late president <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/hosni-mubarak-president-egypt-born">Hosni Mubarak</a> was an elegant end to the life of a man preoccupied with building his image and personality cult.</p>
<p>In my book, <a href="https://library.soas.ac.uk/Record/10043339">The Arab Split</a>, I emphasised how Mubarak was keen to build his reputation as a gentleman president, beloved by his people and respected by leaders the world over.</p>
<p>His desire to be smart, well-presented and always liked was an impediment, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0mfCAcCKx4">according to</a> his Egyptian-British wife Suzanne. This desire for perfection led the modern <a href="https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/israel-mourns-death-of-a-modern-pharaoh/">pharaoh</a> to become head of the military aviation academy when he was still in his 30s. A few years later he became the commander of the air force. </p>
<p>The role Mubarak played in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Yom-Kippur-War">the 1973 war with Israel</a> led president <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1978/al-sadat/facts/">Anwar el Sadat </a>to choose him as his vice-president. Mubarak was inches away from Sadat when the president was shot dead by army officers during a parade in 1981. At the time many analysts thought he would lead the country for an <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/a90e590240d1c3734e1dc131b43d74b5/1?cbl=31168&pq-origsite=gscholar">interim period</a> before a stronger leader could take over.</p>
<p>Instead, Mubarak became the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/egypt-president-hosni-mubarak-dies-91-200225105344417.html">longest-serving president of Egypt</a>, staying almost 30 years in power. He survived by building on his talents for self-promotion while controlling or stifling political opposition. Even his strongest critics have noted that it took some skill to die a “normal, natural death” while all the other presidents; <a href="https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2019/7/3/egypts-history-of-erasing-presidents-from-naguib-to-morsi">Mohamed Naguib</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/sep/29/egypt-president-nasser-dies-archive-1970">Gamal Abdel Nasser</a>, <a href="https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/the-assassination-of-anwar-sadat-1981/">Sadat</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-next-for-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-after-death-of-mohamed-morsi-119134">Mohamed Morsi</a> died in controversial circumstances. </p>
<p>My research on Mubarak’s personality in 2015 found that his long stay in power was founded upon building a personality cult. Professor of politics at the University of East Anglia <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-856X.2004.00149.x">John Street</a> has argued that politicians and celebrities share a common identity. To succeed in the new globalised celebrity culture, politicians – much like celebrities – have to rely on self-promotion, advertising, targeting and branding. </p>
<p>According to Street, modern politics has become more a matter of marketing than of science – challenging the concepts of traditional marketing and classical political leadership. Mubarak managed to do that very well. </p>
<h2>Image-making</h2>
<p>Mubarak hired a top journalist, Makram Mohamed Ahmed, to write his speeches. He was very keen to have extensive coverage in the media for all his activities. He also sponsored annual extravagant musicals to commemorate the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/yom-kippur-war">6 October 1973 war</a>, pouring praise on the many singers who performed for him and who sang songs in his name. </p>
<p>Propaganda was one of his main tools in building his image, and the widespread brainwashing of the masses reverberates back to French psychologist Gustave le Bon’s notion of the <a href="https://exploringyourmind.com/gustave-le-bon-psychology-of-the-masses/">psychology of the masses</a>.</p>
<p>When he came into office Mubarak promised to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ihcpCSjpzzIC&oi=fnd&pg=PP11&dq=Sullivan+egypt&ots=86cbnXDcR8&sig=g5V3sc4h-k3YyDcNwa48sBjQDw0&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mubarak&f=false">defend democracy</a> in Egypt. Nevertheless, the political system he adopted in practice was authoritarian and very restrictive. Universal rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly were trampled upon. </p>
<p>An authoritarian system is the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hamdy_Hassan/publication/228628363_State_versus_society_in_Egypt_Consolidating_democracy_or_upgrading_autocracy/links/00b7d52626d844c1f2000000/State-versus-society-in-Egypt-Consolidating-democracy-or-upgrading-autocracy.pdf">basis</a> of a strong personality cult. </p>
<p>His international image was particularly important to Mubarak. </p>
<p>He became a leading voice in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, promoting aggressively the idea of a <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Mubarak-Determine-Palestines-borders">two-state solution</a>. In 1989, Mubarak’s image was given a major boost when he raised the Egyptian flag on Taba, the resort that Israel kept under its authority even after Camp David. When Israel withdrew from Sinai it insisted that Taba, which borders the Israeli port of Eilat, was not part of Egypt and keeping it under the Israeli authority did not contradict the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/03/on-this-day-36-years-ago-the-signing-of-the-egyptisrael-peace-treaty/388781/">Camp David Egypt-Israeli peace treaty</a>. <a href="https://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_xx/1-118.pdf">The arbitration</a> ruling on September 1988 proved that Israel was wrong.</p>
<p>Another moment of international limelight for Mubarak was Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Egyptians fought alongside the Americans to facilitate the Kuwait “liberation” and subsequent invasion of Iraq. On the back of this, Mubarak managed to return the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/12/world/arab-league-headquarters-to-return-to-cairo.html">Arab League headquarters</a> to Cairo after 10 years of boycott following the Camp David peace agreement with Israel in 1978. </p>
<p>Back at home, Mubarak did less well. His relationship with the opposition grew steadily worse, reaching its all-time low in 2010 when he decided to exclude all opposition from the parliament. The emergency laws were in effect for the almost three decades of his rule. Last but not least, Mubarak was grooming his son <a href="https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/egypts-mubarak-grooming-son-presidency">Gamal to succeed him as a president</a>. These efforts were silently opposed by the army but they had the chance to have their say during the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2016/01/egypt-revolution-160124191716737.html">January 2011 uprising</a>, when they refused to support Mubarak over the demonstrators. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317767/original/file-20200228-24690-1q4st8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317767/original/file-20200228-24690-1q4st8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317767/original/file-20200228-24690-1q4st8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317767/original/file-20200228-24690-1q4st8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317767/original/file-20200228-24690-1q4st8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317767/original/file-20200228-24690-1q4st8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317767/original/file-20200228-24690-1q4st8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Officers escort the flag-draped coffin former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Khaled Elfiqi</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When it came to the Muslim Brotherhood, Mubarak <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjbpC5nqNlk">allowed</a> the organisation a level of freedom for activism. He allowed it to grow and control student unions and most of the professional organisations – such as those for doctors, engineers and teachers – and to build its wealth. But his regime made sure it was always under control. </p>
<h2>The military</h2>
<p>The fact that Mubarak’s military funeral with full honours was attended by the Egyptian president and former <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/07/201373112752442652.html">Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el Sisi</a> will keep future Egyptian generations in utter confusion for years to come. Was this the president who drove millions of Egyptians onto the streets for 18 days in January and February 2011, begging him to stand down, face justice and even face execution?</p>
<p>What were the feelings of thousands of Egyptian families who lost a loved one, or have a family member living with an injury or who were tortured during that “revolution”? Many have not yet heard an answer about who killed or injured their loved ones. </p>
<p>The highly formal full military funeral held one solid truth; those military men in Egypt, no matter what they do, are held in awe. The military is still in charge as it has been for the last 70 years. The image of the funeral was the image of the military and both the dead body of Mubarak in his coffin and the live body of Abdel Fattah el Sisi who was following the coffin grew from the same root: the “military institution” which has been ruling Egypt for decades. </p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/where-next-for-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-after-death-of-mohamed-morsi-119134">Where next for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood after death of Mohamed Morsi</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohamed Taha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mubarak held power for three decades, on the foundation of a personality cult.Mohamed Taha, PhD Candidate, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1306792020-02-18T13:55:29Z2020-02-18T13:55:29ZFringe religious party gains power in crisis-stricken Peru<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314863/original/file-20200211-146720-u2r8br.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3734%2C2239&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 'Christ of the Pacific' statue in Lima has caused controversy in Peru because of its financing by a graft-tainted Brazilian construction company. Both religion and corruption loomed large in Peru's 2020 legislative elections.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-the-christ-of-the-pacific-statue-atop-a-hill-in-news-photo/1156191297?adppopup=true"> CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Peru’s Jan. 26 <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/content/five-things-know-about-peru-election">special election was exceptional</a>. </p>
<p>Not only did voters elected 130 new legislators, replacing their entire Congress; they also brought into the fold a messianic <a href="https://www.elvirrey.com/libro/el-tahuantinsuyo-biblico-ezequiel-ataucusi-gamonal-y-el-mesianismo-de-los-israelitas-del-nuevo-c_70097079">religious group</a> called the Israelites of the New Universal Pact. </p>
<p>After 40 years of failing to qualify for a national election, the political party of the Israelites – called the Agricultural People’s Front of Peru, or Frepap – won 15 congressional seats. In a fragmented Congress with nine parties, that makes the Israelites the <a href="https://especiales.elcomercio.pe/?q=especiales/congresistas-electos-2020-2021-ecvisual-ecpm/index.html">third-largest legislative bloc</a>.</p>
<p>The line between religion and politics <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/religion-y-revolucion-en-el-peru-1824-1976/oclc/7063926">has long been blurry</a> in Peru. Both its mainstream parties – Acción Popular, the first-place vote-winners; and Alianza para el Progreso, with the second-most seats– have historical ties to <a href="https://nuso.org/media/articles/downloads/1380_1.pdf">Christian Democracy</a>, a Catholic movement that gained popularity in 1950s Latin America with its centrist approach to economic development and conservative social values at a time of divisive Cold War rhetoric.</p>
<p>Frepap’s sudden popularity is likely a response to a challenging political moment.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.telesurtv.net/news/caso-lava-jato-peru-odebrecht-20190103-0002.html">corruption scandal</a> involving vote-buying and illegal infrastructure contracts has rocked Peru for years. It embroiled <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-43492421">four past presidents</a> and landed the daughter of jailed former dictator Alberto Fujimori <a href="https://elcomercio.pe/politica/justicia/keiko-fujimori-juez-dicta-15-meses-de-prision-preventiva-para-lideresa-de-fuerza-popular-fuerza-popular-jose-domingo-perez-noticia/">in prison</a>. </p>
<p>The recent election was called after President Martin Vizcarra dissolved Congress in September 2019. Peru’s 130 new legislators will serve out the final 18 months of the congressional term. </p>
<p>While short-lived, the incoming Congress appears to usher in a new political era in Peru – one in which voters find strict adherence to religious beliefs, no matter how fringe, an appealing alternative to systemic corruption. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314859/original/file-20200211-146704-1kp53bd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Israelites of the New Universal Pact at a religious ceremony in Cieneguilla, Peru, in 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/followers-of-the-evangelist-israelite-association-of-the-news-photo/51422193?adppopup=true">MARIE HIPPENMEYER/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Church and state</h2>
<p>From the outset of the Spanish conquest in 1532, Catholicism has been the official religion of Peru. Indigenous Andean faiths, Judaism and Protestantism were all repressed, first under the <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/Modern-Inquisitions">Spanish Inquisition</a> and later by the <a href="http://www.librosperuanos.com/libros/detalle/6457/Iglesia-y-Estado.-180-anos-de-discriminacion-religiosa-en-el-Peru">government</a>. </p>
<p>Over the past century, however, Peru has become a more broadly Christian society. About <a href="https://peru21.pe/peru/papa-francisco-peru-76-peruanos-catolico-10-fiel-iglesia-391759-noticia/">13% of Peruvians belong to Protestant denominations</a> like the mainline United Methodist Church and the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. </p>
<p>Protestant groups have held significant political sway since at least <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004131777">the 1990 election</a> when Alberto Fujimori, a Catholic, courted the evangelical vote and chose a Baptist minister as second vice president. This political alliance between conservative Catholics and evangelicals outlasted <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/world/peru-alberto-fujimori.html">Fujimori’s dictatorship</a>, which ended in 2001 with the restoration of democracy.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://search.proquest.com/pqdtglobal/docview/2095885697/E2585DB6539F44EDPQ/1?accountid=4485">my historical research</a> shows, religious Peruvians with strong faith-based opinions about society but no political outlet have often turned their religious organizations – from Catholic women’s societies to rural Bible study groups – into vehicles of social change. Several evangelical churches have produced their own formidable <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331452827_Evangelicos_y_Elecciones_en_el_Peru_1979-2006">grassroots political movements</a>.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, popular movements have mobilized to block the legalization of <a href="https://peru.com/actualidad/mi-ciudad/union-civil-iglesia-peruana-se-pronuncio-sobre-dicho-proyecto-ley-noticia-241988">same-sex civil unions</a> and to protest <a href="https://larepublica.pe/sociedad/853601-con-mis-hijos-no-te-metas-manifestantes-se-reunen-para-marchar-contra-la-ideologia-de-genero/">gender-inclusive sex ed in schools</a>. </p>
<p>This success has emboldened the religious right. </p>
<p>In Peru’s Jan. 26 special election, every mainstream party on the right had an <a href="http://utero.pe/2020/01/25/estos-son-los-candidatos-de-accion-popular-alianza-para-el-progreso-y-somos-peru-que-firmaron-un-pacto-con-el-diablo/">openly religious platform</a>. The centrist Congressman-elect <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/24/peru-elections-gender-equality-women-lgbt">Alberto de Belaunde</a> told the Guardian this campaign had “the most candidates linked to evangelist churches with an anti-rights discourse” he had ever seen. </p>
<h2>From fringe to the mainstream</h2>
<p>It’s not immediately clear where the Israelites of the New Universal Pact fit into this scene. </p>
<p>Its 15 congresspeople-elect have held very few public media appearances. Frepap was the only political party to <a href="https://canaln.pe/actualidad/frepap-no-asistira-reunion-martin-vizcarra-palacio-gobierno-n404477">refuse to meet with President Vizcarra</a> after the election.</p>
<p>Founded in 1968 by a Quechua-speaking laborer from the Andean region of Arequipa who called himself the “Christ of the West,” this nationalist religious movement blends Andean folklore and Hebrew Bible teachings. They simultaneously promote the communal agricultural practices of the Inca empire and venerate the Ten Commandments. </p>
<p>According to Israelite beliefs, the Promised Land is in the Peruvian Amazon, and their founder received direct revelations from God at Machu Picchu.</p>
<p>Peru’s roughly 150,000 Israelites maintain a rigorous lifestyle based on an interpretation of the Old Testament. Men wear long hair and beards; women use headscarves and robes. Lying and stealing are strictly prohibited. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314862/original/file-20200211-146720-1tylxn6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israelita named David Chauca Quispe poses with fans in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ministeriodedefensaperu/">Ministry of Defense of Peru/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many live together in agricultural cooperatives, where they <a href="https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.257478">prepare for the immanent apocalypse</a> that, they believe, will restore the communal agrarian society of the Inca empire. Their worship services, which are divided by gender, include ritual <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSG0HSvUPTA">animal sacrifices</a>. </p>
<p>While the group considers itself the culmination of biblical prophecies, many Peruvians see the Israelitas as <a href="https://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/54123/cat/1112/la-mision-israelita-del-nuevo-pacto-universal-una-iglesia-evangelica.html">pagan</a>. General mistrust of the group doomed founder Ezequiel Ataucusi Gamonal’s two presidential campaigns in <a href="https://caretas.pe/politica/quien-fue-ezequiel-ataucusi-gamonal-fundador-del-frepap/">1990 and again 2000</a>. </p>
<p>Atacusi died in 2000. In the 2020 elections, his Frepap party received over 1 million votes from across Peru. Once discredited as a <a href="https://www.puroperiodismo.com/2020/01/28/partido-de-secta-fundamentalista-logra-16-curules-en-un-fragmentado-congreso-de-peru/">fundamentalist sect</a>, the Israelites have entered the mainstream – in politics, if not in religion.</p>
<h2>A new force on the religious right</h2>
<p>The foremost scholar of the Israelitas, <a href="https://ojo-publico.com/24/ezequiel-ataucusi-el-profeta-que-contuvo-sendero-luminoso">Juan Ossio</a>, does not see this as an aberration in Peruvian history. He <a href="https://www.elvirrey.com/libro/el-tahuantinsuyo-biblico-ezequiel-ataucusi-gamonal-y-el-mesianismo-de-los-israelitas-del-nuevo-c_70097079">has argued</a> that the Israelitas are the latest in a centuries-old line of Andean politico-religious movements that arise in response to crisis – in this case, political corruption.</p>
<p>“We will bring transparency to the government,” said one <a href="https://rpp.pe/politica/elecciones/elecciones-2020-frepap-llevaremos-la-transparencia-al-congreso-habla-un-candidato-tras-conocer-resultados-de-conteo-rapido-noticia-1241927">Frepap member</a> after the election, promising to shake up Peru’s scandal-ridden politics.</p>
<p>Voters want to believe.</p>
<p>“Their ideas seem interesting to me and I think it is a good option for the great changes that we want,” wrote Tito Mauri, a musician from Lima, on Frepap’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pg/frepapalcongreso/reviews/?post_id=10220987972237328&referrer=page_recommendations_home_card">Facebook page</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314861/original/file-20200211-146720-1y3haoz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/314861/original/file-20200211-146720-1y3haoz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314861/original/file-20200211-146720-1y3haoz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314861/original/file-20200211-146720-1y3haoz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=241&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314861/original/file-20200211-146720-1y3haoz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314861/original/file-20200211-146720-1y3haoz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/314861/original/file-20200211-146720-1y3haoz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frepap’s 2020 campaign logo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Logo_FREPAP.png">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The new Congress takes office on <a href="https://larepublica.pe/politica/2020/02/07/congreso-2020-cuando-ingresan-los-nuevos-congresistas-electos-y-fecha-de-inicio-de-funciones-frepap-accion-popular-fuerza-popular/">March 15</a>. How the Israelitas will actually translate their ideas into policy is unknown. But the group’s adherence to Old Testament law suggests its representatives will be socially ultra-conservative. </p>
<p>When asked about <a href="https://larepublica.pe/politica/2020/01/27/frepap-en-desacuerdo-con-union-civil-tienen-enquistado-el-mal-en-su-sangre-elecciones-2020-congreso/">LGBTQ rights by the Peruvian newspaper La República</a>, Congressman-elect Wilmer Cayllahua on Jan. 27 said, “We are all Peruvians, but I don’t agree with their way of living.” </p>
<p>He added that queer and trans people “have evil in their blood.” </p>
<p>Historically, Frepap has <a href="https://elcomercio.pe/politica/congreso/la-agenda-moralizadora-del-frepap-en-el-congreso-noticia/?ref=ecr">not been active in Peru’s strong anti-LGBTQ movement</a>, which is led by evangelicals and Catholics. But once in Congress, it may well align with other conservative parties on issues like gay marriage, abortion and sex education. </p>
<p>The next test of the Israelites’ momentum will be Peru’s 2021 elections.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Casey-Pariseault does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After a bribery scandal that took down four presidents and led Congress to dissolve, some Peruvians are putting their faith in an austere religion called the Israelites of the New Universal Pact.Matthew Casey-Pariseault, Clinical Assistant Professor of History, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1281032020-01-09T20:50:40Z2020-01-09T20:50:40ZWhy it’s wrong to refer to the ‘cult of Trump’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309311/original/file-20200109-80169-1glfa00.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5472%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump is seen in the Oval Office in early January 2020. Viewing him as a cult leader and his supporters as cult followers doesn't help us understand why he appeals to some voters.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent events in Iran have led many to rail against a supposed “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/03/what-trump-accomplished-by-killing-soleimani/">Trump cult</a>.” </p>
<p>But suggestions that supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump are <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/13/20992370/trump-republican-party-cult-steven-hassan">exhibiting cult-like behaviour</a> isn’t helpful in an era of significant political polarization.</p>
<p>As those of us who study new religious movements often say, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/may/29/cults-new-religious-movements">a cult is just a religion that you don’t like</a> — and that pertains to political parties too. </p>
<p>Since Benjamin Zeller, an American scholar of new religious movements, published “<a href="https://religionandpolitics.org/2019/10/29/the-cult-of-trump-what-cult-rhetoric-actually-reveals/">The Cult of Trump? What ‘Cult Rhetoric’ Actually Reveals</a>” last fall, allegations that Trump has spawned a cult are appearing more frequently in the media. </p>
<p>One journalist called upon his peers to “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/30/cult-that-defines-trumps-power-is-just-a-few-scratches-away-from-the-surface-in-australia">to realize that when political parties and leaders begin behaving like a cult, we should think about reporting on them as such</a>.”</p>
<p>There’s a #TrumpCult hashtag on social media platforms. </p>
<p>And Steven Hassan, a former member of Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church who is now a self-described cult deprogrammer, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-republican-party-is-in-thrall-to-trump-does-that-make-him-a-cult-leader/2019/10/03/63855136-d592-11e9-9343-40db57cf6abd_story.html">argues in a new book</a> that Trump is a cult leader.</p>
<p>What does it accomplish to allege a Trump cult? </p>
<p>Generally, it substitutes a value judgment in place of a sorely needed argumentative analysis of how voters generate their own political feelings, fantasies and attachments. And this feeds the cycle of polarizing political identities and political institutions.</p>
<h2>‘Brainwashed’</h2>
<p>Examples from Twitter, the media and in Hassan’s <em>The Cult of Trump</em> highlight instructive differences in how the cult concept is being used — and its impact.</p>
<p>Hassan argues that Trump supporters have been “brainwashed” by a charismatic leader. He sees them as deluded zealots who need his help to “wake up from the Cult of Trump.”</p>
<p>Hassan’s approach ignores their agency as well as decades of public education from organizations like <a href="https://inform.ac/about-us">INFORM</a>, an independent educational charity that provides information about minority religions and has done important work on discrediting concepts of “brainwashing,” “deprogramming” and “cults.” </p>
<p>It’s worth remembering that the suggestion that Republican leaders were “chosen by God,” as former energy secretary Rick Perry recently described Trump, is nothing new. It was <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2004/09/does-god-endorse-bush.html">all the rage under George W. Bush</a> and other Republican politicians who have catered to evangelicals.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rick-perrys-belief-that-trump-was-chosen-by-god-is-shared-by-many-in-a-fast-growing-christian-movement-127781">Rick Perry's belief that Trump was chosen by God is shared by many in a fast-growing Christian movement</a>
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<p>Without question, Trump’s insistence that “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/03/trump-florida-evangelical-rally-king-jesus">we have God on our side</a>” in the upcoming 2020 presidential election poses a problem for journalists and for public life.</p>
<p>But to describe the entire party as a cult lead by Trump is problematic. If journalists are going to heed calls to refer to the party as a cult and its supporters as cultists, they must define what <em>cult</em> means. Otherwise, they are assuming that a cult is some obvious phenomenon and everyone knows what the word means.</p>
<p>The term cult is used frequently by Trump critics on social media. As he criticized former United Nations ambassador <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/07/us/Nikki-Haley-confederate-flag.html">Nikki Haley’s defence of the Confederate flag</a>, one commentator tweeted:</p>
<p>“Pretty telling that it’s a rite of passage into the Cult of Trump and the modern Republican Party that you have to publicly legitimize the Confederacy, a racist, treasonous, nightmarish dystopia founded on white supremacy and stark economic hierarchies.”</p>
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<p>In this example, the cult comparison is incidental to the commentator’s argument about Republican ideology and partisanship. He isn’t arguing that Trumpism is a cult in any serious sense. <em>Cult</em> serves as shorthand for Trump’s base that simply adds a rhetorical flourish to a condemnation of Trump supporters on the grounds of their political beliefs.</p>
<h2>Moral denunciation</h2>
<p>But whether literal or figurative, cult discourse hurts critics’ ability to understand Trump’s appeal. The cult diagnosis isn’t a reasoned argument, or even an objective description: it’s moral denunciation. </p>
<p>There’s no question Trump policies that hurt people and endanger the world should be denounced. But the cult epithet doesn’t speak to those policies; it draws a line between Trump opponents and Trump supporters. And it oversimplifies the way people think and feel about their own beliefs and those on the other side of that line.</p>
<p>So why is it used so often?</p>
<p>It turns out that avoiding the temptation to make in-groups and out-groups — <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201012/in-groups-out-groups-and-the-psychology-crowds">meaning dividing social groups into those who believe what we believe and those who don’t</a> — is very difficult. </p>
<p>U.S. politics professor and <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/U/bo27527354.html">author Lilliana Mason</a> recently argued that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/5/2/17304836/ezra-klein-show-book-recommendations-lilliana-mason-identity-politics">it takes very little to activate a sense of group identity</a> in people, and lead them to become hostile towards the out-group.</p>
<p>Indeed, the fact that we’re all susceptible to this kind of in-group/out-group thinking shows that politics is not just about reason, it is also about emotion. Political emotions are often layered with religion for Trump-supporting evangelicals who believe in a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/christian-right-worships-donald-trump-915381/">tough love that will lead to salvation</a> for America.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309312/original/file-20200109-80169-16acbbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/309312/original/file-20200109-80169-16acbbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309312/original/file-20200109-80169-16acbbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309312/original/file-20200109-80169-16acbbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309312/original/file-20200109-80169-16acbbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309312/original/file-20200109-80169-16acbbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/309312/original/file-20200109-80169-16acbbu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Faith leaders pray with Trump during an ‘Evangelicals for Trump Coalition Launch’ in Miami on Jan. 3, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To dismiss such people as being under the sway of a cult misses what Trumpism offers them. It therefore makes it harder to understand Trump’s power. It also makes it more difficult to understand the circumstances of Trump supporters’ lives. It makes other people’s feelings seem foreign, when they may be fundamentally common. </p>
<p>In conclusion, while there are many legitimate ways to critique Trump, demonizing his voters doesn’t help us understand why they are attracted to him, how their worldview has developed and how to do something about it.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128103/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharday Mosurinjohn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are many legitimate ways to critique Donald Trump, but demonizing his voters as cult followers doesn’t help us understand why they are attracted to him and how their world view has developed.Sharday Mosurinjohn, Assistant Professor, Cultural and Religious Studies, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1288132019-12-12T22:44:56Z2019-12-12T22:44:56ZThe dangers of depicting Greta Thunberg as a prophet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/306688/original/file-20191212-85371-1sp38o9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Climate activist Greta Thunberg listens during a meeting with climate scientists at the COP25 summit in Madrid, Spain.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Spain-Climate-Talks/4a630b84e9f243e0b5ef67b606bbb1c5/15/0">AP Photo/Paul White</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>She came from obscurity and ignited a global movement. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/2-photos-show-how-greta-thunbergs-climate-strike-inspired-millions-2019-9">Beginning with a small but persistent act of protest outside the Swedish parliament</a>, she inspired millions to join her. Her fiery speech to the United Nations in September 2019 <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit">warned of the end of the world</a>. Her unfailing determination and passion makes her appear otherworldly, even uncanny, an affect <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/02/greta-thunberg-responds-to-aspergers-critics-its-a-superpower">largely attributed to her diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome</a>.</p>
<p>So it’s no surprise that many people – along with media outlets like <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-greta-thunberg-is-a-prophet-preacher-rulebreaker-avenging-angel-1.4030064">The Irish Times</a>, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/28/greta-thunberg-first-saint-cruel-new-environmental-religion/">The Telegraph</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/aug/29/greta-thunberg-teen-climate-activist-sails-us-igni/">The Washington Times</a> – have cast Greta Thunberg as a prophet. </p>
<p>When Time announced her as “<a href="https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2019-greta-thunberg/">Person of the Year</a>,” it continued the trope, using an evocative photograph of Thunberg standing on a rocky shoreline, staring at the heavens, for the cover. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1204743717132914688"}"></div></p>
<p>As a researcher on the history of childhood, I’ve been disturbed to see Thunberg described and depicted as a prophet. To me, it risks distorting her message. And it can easily be exploited by climate deniers seeking to counter the appeal of her activism. </p>
<h2>Is a climate messiah even necessary?</h2>
<p>To some, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/margaret-atwood-greta-thunberg-joan-of-arc-environmentalism-climate-change-a9188841.html">Thunberg resembles Joan of Arc</a>, the teenage visionary who led the French army into battle in the 15th century and was later canonized as a saint.</p>
<p>To others, Thunberg exemplifies the Judeo-Christian tradition of prophets who speak truth to power; according to one Christian blogger, she offers “<a href="https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Why-Greta-Thunberg-is-a-prophetic-voice-for-our-time">a prophetic voice to shake us out of our complacency</a>.”</p>
<p>Yet presenting Thunberg as a prophet is deeply misleading. Classically, <a href="https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-109?rskey=qRMIyZ&result=1">prophets are messengers</a> who communicate the voice of God. They convey divine revelation that was previously unknown or misunderstood. <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people-in-the-bible/ezekiel-prophet-israel-old-testament/#close">Ezekiel</a> predicted the destruction and restoration of Jerusalem. Moses received the Ten Commandments. Muhammad revealed the Quran. Prophets, in other words, see truths that others cannot. They bring us messages that often defy human comprehension. </p>
<p>Thunberg, on the other hand, is simply telling us what we already know. Within the scientific community, <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/">there is an overwhelming consensus</a> – going back decades – that humans are causing global warming.</p>
<p>Framing her as a prophet has opened the floodgates to all sorts of messianic theories. This recently took a bizarre turn when a 120-year-old photo with a girl resembling Thunberg surfaced. Now conspiracy theorists are calling Thunberg “<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/greta-thunberg-time-travel-alien-photo-yukon-climate-change-a9212101.html">a time traveler sent to save us</a>.”</p>
<p>Depictions like this are fodder for her opponents who dismiss what they call her “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/28/greta-thunberg-first-saint-cruel-new-environmental-religion/">doomsday activism</a>.” To them, she is a false prophet, and they can portray the people inspired by her as <a href="https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/04/22/the-cult-of-greta-thunberg/">brainwashed cult followers</a>. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/waco/davidkoresh.html">David Koresh</a>, the leader of the Branch Davidians who died alongside his followers in Waco, Texas in 1993, after all, called himself a prophet. So did <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/17/an-apocalyptic-cult-900-dead-remembering-the-jonestown-massacre-40-years-on">Jim Jones</a>, the founder of the Peoples Temple and orchestrator of the 1978 Jonestown Massacre. </p>
<p>To Thurnberg’s credit, even she recoils at the idea that she should be viewed as some sort of savior.</p>
<p>“I don’t want you to listen to me,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/18/greta-thunberg-testimony-congress-climate-change-action">she told Congress</a> in September. “I want you to listen to the scientists.”</p>
<h2>Being a kid carries enough weight</h2>
<p>I would argue that the best way to think of Thunberg is to simply think of her as a child. </p>
<p>This is not demeaning. Far from it. In recent years, young people have offered numerous examples of their ability to exercise independent thought, visionary thinking and leadership. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/16/asia/melati-isabel-wijsen-bali/index.html">Melati and Isabel Wijsen</a> were 10 and 12 when they began a successful campaign to ban single-use plastics in their native Bali. <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/yousafzai/biographical/">Malala Yousafzai</a> was 11 when she began to advocate against the Taliban for girls’ right to education. The list goes on: <a href="https://time.com/4350574/jazz-jennings-transgender/">Jazz Jennings</a>, <a href="http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/xiuhtezcatl_martinez/">Xiuhtezcatl Martinez</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/11/parkland-student-activists-march-for-our-lives-year-later-2019">the Parkland activists</a>. Like Thunberg, they challenge our culture’s view of children as powerless and dependent.</p>
<p>Thunberg memorably began her September 2019 <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/23/763452863/transcript-greta-thunbergs-speech-at-the-u-n-climate-action-summit">UN speech</a> with the words, “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean.” As Thunberg well knows, the fact that a child needs to scold grown-ups to act on an issue that threatens all of humanity is a powerful example of a political system gone horribly wrong.</p>
<p>Even more critically, focusing on Thunberg’s youth highlights a central tenet of her message: fairness. As any parent can tell you, children tend to view the world in terms of moral absolutes – good and bad, right and wrong, fair and unfair. Indeed, <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/do-kids-have-a-fundamental-sense-of-fairness/">researchers have recently shown</a> that expectations of fairness are deeply ingrained in children, appearing in infants as young as 12 months old.</p>
<p>Ideas of fairness underlie many aspects of Thunberg’s message, from her emphasis on how climate change will affect the poor and marginalized, to her comments about how unjust it is to expect young people to fix a catastrophe caused by generations of political inertia. Her forceful call – “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVlRompc1yE">How dare you!</a>” – is not the enraged cry of a petulant child. It is the determined statement of a girl who has not yet developed the moral flexibility that is so often the refuge of adult inaction.</p>
<p>Thunberg is not unraveling the mysteries of our era, or a time traveler sent to stop climate change. Rather, she is a child admonishing selfishness and pleading for fairness.</p>
<p>That’s not prophetic. It’s common sense.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128813/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ellen Boucher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some have started to frame Thunberg’s activism in messianistic terms – and this can serve as fodder for climate deniers.Ellen Boucher, Associate Professor of History, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1118382019-02-21T14:17:34Z2019-02-21T14:17:34ZWhy ‘money’ gospel followers aren’t simply credulous dupes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260181/original/file-20190221-195870-1spls5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Not many knew Prophet Shepherd Bushiri until three people died in a stampede at his Enlightened Christian Gathering Church in Pretoria.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/shepherdbushiriministries/photos/a.632213716790917/2710347992310802/?type=3&theater">Facebook</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The prosperity gospel is back in the news in South Africa, this time over the <a href="https://ewn.co.za/Topic/Prophet-Shepherd-Bushiri">misdeeds</a> of one of its prophets. The prosperity gospel is a religious movement that has exploded in popularity and prominence in South Africa over the last two decades but has stirred up controversy globally for more than 40 years.</p>
<p>The gospel first reached South Africa in the late 1970s through churches such as televangelist Ray McCauley’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/inside-the-most-powerful-church-in-south-africa-2006129.html">Rhema Bible Church</a>. Due to apartheid restrictions on the movements of black people, the prosperity gospel’s reach was limited. But since the start of democracy in 1994, <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/jra/35/1/article-p66_4.xml">preachers</a> from across the continent have streamed into the country’s townships, converting large numbers to this new gospel. </p>
<p>Today it’s the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328070728_Pentecostalism_Politics_and_Prosperity_in_South_Africa">fastest growing</a> religious movement in South Africa. While precise statistics are lacking, scholars <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289353390_An_introduction_to_Pentecostalism_Global_charismatic_Christianity">agree</a> that prosperity gospel followers rival, if not exceed, the <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/2006/10/05/historical-overview-of-pentecostalism-in-south-africa/">numbers</a> of so-called mainline churches. </p>
<p>Not many South Africans had paid much attention to Prophet Shepherd Bushiri until the end of last year. But when three people died in a <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-01-06-69-year-old-among-trio-killed-in-bushiri-church-stampede/">stampede</a> at his Enlightened Christian Gathering Church in Pretoria, the “self-proclaimed prophet” received wide media coverage.</p>
<p>In February 2019, he was again in the news when the police’s special crime investigative unit <a href="https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-02-01-controversial-church-leader-shepherd-bushiri-arrested/">arrested</a> him and his wife on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and for exchange control irregularities amounting to over US$ 1 million. His R20-million private Gulfstream jet was also attached.</p>
<p>Bushiri’s followers also <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2019-02-05-from-major-1-to-daddy-the-craze-of-bushiri-supporters/">attracted media attention</a> when they gathered in great numbers waving placards outside court to pray for his release. Many prostrated themselves on the tarmac, tears streaming down their faces as they spoke in tongues or as they cried for their “daddy”, “Papa” or “Major One”. </p>
<p>Paseka Motsoeneng, better known as <a href="https://informationcradle.com/safrica/prophet-mboro/">Prophet Mboro</a>, who is a preacher from a similar church, lent emotional and spiritual <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/beware-of-scams-to-bankroll-legal-battle-of-bushiri-19172963">support</a> to Bushiri’s “children”, traumatised by the loss of their “spiritual mother and father”. </p>
<p>These scenes led many South Africans to ask questions about Bushiri’s supporters. Were they part of a cult? Or were they merely instruments in the hands of a man who manipulated their vulnerability for his own financial ends? </p>
<p>Christian commentators <a href="https://city-press.news24.com/Voices/prophets-of-doom-a-sordid-tale-of-manipulation-and-money-20190211">called</a> for urgent government intervention to protect poor people duped by the improbable promises made by what they <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1855569/christians-march-against-false-prophets-bushiri-fights-back-in-court/">termed</a> as “scam” churches and “fake prophets”. </p>
<p>As an anthropologist, I have been <a href="http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/a-church-of-strangers/;">studying</a> prosperity gospel churches in South Africa for nearly a decade. I have attended hundreds of daily services, watched scores of televised ones, analysed websites and chat forums and interviewed hundreds of prosperity gospel believers. And unlike theologians who argue about the legitimacy of Biblical interpretations and questions of doctrine, I have been interested in the kinds of people who swear undying support for men like Bushiri. </p>
<h2>Tenets of the prosperity gospel</h2>
<p>The prosperity gospel explains poverty and illness in terms of sins against God, specifically the withholding of tithes. It also ascribes such “bad luck” to the work of demons engaged in a spiritual war against God’s kingdom. Converts typically renounce their past lives and their old churches.</p>
<p>They embrace spiritual “technologies” – these include offerings in church, paying tithes, praying strongly and exorcising demons – that promise to secure miraculous health and wealth directly from God. They also follow preacher-prophets who they believe have special powers to fight against the “spirit of poverty”. </p>
<p>Many believers are strengthened in this faith through the persistent testimonies of those who had been “blessed” with jobs, houses, cars and healing in church. These testimonies are delivered from church pulpits and in person, and are endlessly repeated in church publications and on radio, television and the internet. </p>
<h2>What I found</h2>
<p>My research showed that prosperity gospel churches attract people from all walks of life and a variety of educational backgrounds. While the majority of congregants, like the majority of South Africans, are typically poor and dependent on social grants, these churches also count significant numbers of professionals, business people and increasingly, politicians, in their ranks. </p>
<p>I also found that Prosperity gospel believers are not captive victims of so-called cult leaders. In fact, they move constantly between churches as they search for more efficacious “technologies” and “stronger prophets”.
Chances are that as Bushiri faces more legal troubles, more of his followers will desert him for prophets like Mboro. </p>
<p>I often struggle to convince people that those who subscribe to this gospel are not simply credulous dupes. Detractors often refer to the figure of the improbably rich prophet, men like Bushiri, as proof that the prosperity gospel is illegitimate and that its believers are fools. </p>
<h2>God and money</h2>
<p>There’s a long Western Christian <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270900267_Introduction_money_and_the_morality_of_exchange">belief</a> that money is a force that corrupts proper spiritual intentions and corrodes sacred social bonds. Stemming from the 16th century Reformation, this tradition has been very suspicious of any coupling of God and money, holding that the material world poses dangerous distractions from proper spiritual belief. </p>
<p>But there are other Christian traditions such as the prosperity gospel that are much more materialist in their concerns. In these traditions, money does very different kinds of work. It is the proper medium through which their God “blesses” people, through which people petition God and through which believers come into social being and connect to others through their generosity. </p>
<p>Some of these traditions have a long history in South Africa, going back to the 1800s. The mission record for instance shows that scores of early converts- and missionaries- demanded material proof of their new God’s power. Various Revivalists used Christianity to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248962308_The_Millennium_Comes_to_Mapumulo_Popular_Christianity_in_Rural_Natal_1866-1906">inform</a> more aggressive forms of millenarianism such as the “gospel of self-help” during the 1940s and the tent campaigns of the 1960s. The prosperity gospel is a continuation of this materialist Christian tradition. For its followers, it is not a con, just a different approach to their God.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ilana van Wyk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prosperity gospel in South Africa is in the news for all the wrong reasons. But for its followers, it’s not a con, just a different approach to God.Ilana van Wyk, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/979802018-09-21T11:25:03Z2018-09-21T11:25:03ZGurus, gas attacks and pubic hair: the strange history of Japan’s new religions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233280/original/file-20180823-149475-hsts93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"Stop the hair nudes!" A protest by Kofuku-no-Kagaku members against the showing of pubic hair in photographs displaying nudity.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Tennant</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This summer, Japan <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/06/japan-executes-sarin-gas-attack-cult-leader-shoko-asahara-and-six-members-reports">finally executed</a> six long-imprisoned former members of the now-banned radical religious group Aum Shinrikyo. All of them had taken part in the group’s notorious 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway which killed 13 people and injured thousands more. Also executed was the group’s founder, Shoko Asahara.</p>
<p>Founded as a new religion in 1987, Aum Shinrikyo propagated teachings based on Asahara’s interpretation of Buddhism, Hinduism and the practice of esoteric yoga and meditation. At its height, it claimed a membership of 10,000 in and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645835">tens of thousands more abroad</a>. But while the sarin attacks were unprecedented and won the group global notoriety, Aum Shinrikyo itself was far from unique.</p>
<p>In the years leading up to the attacks, Japan’s religious landscape produced a wide range of groups pursuing radical social change. Although they presented themselves in very different ways, they all attracted followers seeking a more global awareness, and <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m1CFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=tennant+E+far+eastern+economic+review&source=bl&ots=cY0N6t2Hua&sig=xVsPdYoWIrOFMEbagcVUz1g91Vg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO_onZ1u_bAhVsDcAKHSghA-AQ6AEIXzAM#v=onepage&q=tennant%20E%20far%20eastern%20economic%20review&f=false">offered a sense of identity</a> to people feeling disorientated in a rapidly changing society. At the time, I was conducting research and fieldwork in Tokyo, which put me in a position to observe and document not just the gas attacks but the social context in which they occurred.</p>
<p>One group that appeared at around the same time as Aum Shinrikyo was Kofuku-no-Kagaku, which began life as a publishing company that churned out books supposedly penned by its founder, <a href="https://okawabooks.com/">Ryuho Okawa</a>. In 1990, Okawa declared himself first the reincarnation of Buddha, then a supreme divinity by the name of El Cantare. By the mid 1990s, the group was legally a religion in Japan and claimed a membership of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30234459?refreqid=robotstxt-sitemaps:dbdb03fb661598c4bd3b773897e223e2&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">8.25m people</a>,rapidly increasing with overseas proselytisation.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224787/original/file-20180625-19385-vc6slx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224787/original/file-20180625-19385-vc6slx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224787/original/file-20180625-19385-vc6slx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224787/original/file-20180625-19385-vc6slx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224787/original/file-20180625-19385-vc6slx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224787/original/file-20180625-19385-vc6slx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224787/original/file-20180625-19385-vc6slx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Media Ethics’ representatives of Kofuku-no-Kagaku: actress Tomoko Ogawa, writer Tamio Kageyama, publicist Kujo Ogawa and journalist Junko Tanaka, November 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Tennant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kofuku-no-Kagaku presented itself as an “innovative” religion, with a fresh and dynamic public image. With a constantly changing cosmology based on social Darwinism and hints of Japanese nationalism, its message and approach matched the ebullient, competitive mood of the bubble economy. Whereas Aum Shinrikyo seemed to appeal to graduates from top universities, Kofuku-no-Kagaku attracted successful writers, journalists, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2017/04/06/films/talent-gets-religious/">actors</a>, and “professionals” who had returned from overseas and experienced a form of cultural malaise.</p>
<p>It staged media campaigns and spectacular events to attract new members and retain those already “committed” within a tight <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/12389/the-sacred-canopy-by-peter-l-berger/9780385073059/">plausibility structure</a>. In other words, by repeatedly exposing its members to social events, reading materials, meetings and other activities, it constantly reinforced the credibility of its teachings. Fully dedicated members were often rewarded with a job in the corporation’s plush offices in central Tokyo.</p>
<h2>Protecting society</h2>
<p>Kofuku-no-Kagaku’s moment in the international spotlight came when it <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18561825">block-booked a Ugandan stadium</a> for a religious rally, which meant local athletes had nowhere to practice to qualify for the Olympics. But in Japan itself, its large-scale protests attracted <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Religious-Violence-Contemporary-Japan-Monographs/dp/0700711090">only limited media coverage</a>. That can partly be attributed to its “abrasive attitude” to criticism and its five-year court battle against Kodansha, a major Japanese publishing company that had dared to publish an article in one of its magazines which was seen as insulting to Okawa.</p>
<p>The group’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=m1CFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=prophet+motive+ella+tennant&source=bl&ots=cY0N6uWNwb&sig=nvZG2AKaAva9wFqKMPAEplQBYpM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwic8Ny64O_bAhXHA8AKHdKTB1MQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=prophet%20motive%20ella%20tennant&f=false">most eye-catching demonstration at home</a> came in 1994, when a horde of protesters walked from Shibuya to Yoyogi Park in central Tokyo on a November day displaying placards and shouting “stop the hair nudes!”</p>
<p>At the time, pornographic magazines were on sale in many Japanese corner shops, and people would openly read them on crowded trains; some regular newspapers also had a column dedicated to an erotic model or activity. Most of these publications covered up pubic hair with a black square, but more and more magazines were flouting this convention. “Stop the Hair Nudes” was staged to draw the public’s attention to this supposed indecency, and to win Kofuku-no-Kagaku credit for taking a moral stand.</p>
<p>For some protesters, the fact that a number of publishing companies were no longer covering up pubic hair seemed to cause more outrage than the pornography itself. As one protester explained to me: “I wanted to join in the demo to protect Japanese society from being corrupted … as a parent I don’t like society to be corrupted for children.”</p>
<p>Starting in March 1995, Kofuku-no-Kagaku began openly criticising Aum Shinrikyo, stating that as “representatives of religiosity in Japan”, members had a duty to speak out. The group took to the streets of central Tokyo, cruising around in vans with loudspeakers blasting criticism of Aum Shinrikyo and demanding the police investigate its activities. In a lecture I attended in 1994, Okawa himself claimed to know the whereabouts of the Sakamotos, a missing family allegedly abducted by Aum Shinrikyo in 1989. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224788/original/file-20180625-19399-mpas7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kofuku-no-Kagaku members on their way to protest outside Aum Shinrikyo’s Tokyo headquarters, two days before the sarin attack.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ella Tennant</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And just two days before the sarin attack in 1995, I witnessed a demonstration by Kofuku-no-Kagaku members outside Aum Shinrikyo’s Tokyo headquarters. While hardly reported in the press, the protest was seen by some observers as open provocation. An anonymous report in the Japan Times the day after the attack even suggested that the incident may have been orchestrated by one “rival” religious group in an attempt to discredit the other – but with little concrete evidence to support this claim, there was no follow-up.</p>
<h2>New life</h2>
<p>Times have changed since those strange days. While Aum Shinrikyo disbanded after the sarin attack, many of its members quickly reformed under a new name, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35975069">Aleph</a>. Even after <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43395483">this summer’s executions</a>, more evidence is emerging of the group’s links to the use of the gas and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35975069">other suspicious activities</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Kofuku-no-Kagaku – which now operates under the snappy new English name Happy Science – appears to have assimilated into the mainstream. It now operates “temples”, retreats, overseas branches, and schools. It even boasts a political party, the <a href="http://happy-science.org/">Happiness Realisation Party</a>, founded in 2009. Its platform promises to “offer concrete and proactive solutions to the current issues such as military threats from North Korea and China, and the long term economic recession”. It has yet to be voted into parliament.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the events of 1995, the government was forced to reexamine and tighten up <a href="https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human/civil_rep4/article15_18.html#a18">existing</a> <a href="https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human/civil_rep4/article20_22.html#a20">legislation</a>, which until then meant that virtually any group with a leader, a doctrine and a membership could claim to be a religion. As a result, such groups benefited from tax breaks, and were essentially left to their own devices.</p>
<p>Founding a religion in Japan is far more difficult now than it was before 1995. But as in the case of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-should-indonesia-deal-with-emerging-religious-cults-54464">Branch Davidian sect led by David Koresh</a> in Waco, Texas, full immersion in a particular vision of society still works. It impels followers to set about making their particular vision a reality – and helps them justify the unjustifiable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ella Tennant received funding from the University of Hong Kong to conduct the research referred to in this article. </span></em></p>From a sarin attack on a city subway to the rebirth of Buddha to protest marches against indecent magazines, Japan’s religious movements have covered a lot of ground.Ella Tennant, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/970432018-07-02T11:24:55Z2018-07-02T11:24:55ZThe science of superstition – and why people believe in the unbelievable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225667/original/file-20180702-116143-4f9d6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>The number 13, black cats, breaking mirrors, or walking under ladders, may all be things you actively avoid – if you’re anything like the <a href="http://news.gallup.com/poll/2440/One-Four-Americans-Superstitious.aspx">25% of people in the US</a> who consider themselves superstitious. </p>
<p>Even if you don’t consider yourself a particularly superstitious person, you probably say “bless you” when someone sneezes, just in case the devil should decide to steal their soul – as our <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/1158748/this-is-the-real-reason-we-say-bless-you-when-someone-sneezes-and-its-not-because-of-the-plague/">ancestors thought possible during a sneeze</a>.</p>
<p>Superstition also explains why many buildings do not have a 13th floor – preferring to label it 14, 14A 12B or M (the 13th letter of the alphabet) on elevator button panels because of concerns about superstitious tenants. Indeed, 13% of people in one survey indicated that staying on the 13th floor of a hotel would bother them – and 9% said they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1977/06/05/archives/13th-floor-anyone-13th-floor-anyone.html">would ask for a different room</a>.</p>
<p>On top of this, some airlines such as Air France and Lufthansa, <a href="https://www.aol.com/2011/04/15/why-dont-all-airlines-have-a-13th-row/">do not have a 13th row</a>. Lufthansa also has no 17th row – because in some countries – such as Italy and Brazil – the typical unlucky number is 17 and not 13.</p>
<h2>What is superstition?</h2>
<p>Although there is <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-superstition-3298230">no single definition of superstition</a>, it generally means a belief in supernatural forces – such as fate – the desire to influence unpredictable factors and a need to resolve uncertainty. In this way then, individual beliefs and experiences drive superstitions, which explains why they are generally irrational and often defy current scientific wisdom.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newswise.com/articles/psychology-professor-says-superstitions-all-about-trying-to-control-fate">Psychologists who have investigated</a> what role superstitions play, have found that they derive from the assumption that a connection exists between co-occurring, non-related events. For instance, the notion that charms promote good luck, or protect you from bad luck. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225674/original/file-20180702-116147-1jfrg7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225674/original/file-20180702-116147-1jfrg7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225674/original/file-20180702-116147-1jfrg7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225674/original/file-20180702-116147-1jfrg7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225674/original/file-20180702-116147-1jfrg7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225674/original/file-20180702-116147-1jfrg7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225674/original/file-20180702-116147-1jfrg7s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=627&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black cats are less likely to be adopted. Does superstition play a part?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For many people, engaging with superstitious behaviours provides a sense of control and reduces anxiety – which is why levels of superstition increase at times of stress and angst. This is particularly the case <a href="https://greatwarcentre.com/2016/05/13/a-soldiers-luck-superstition-in-the-first-world-war/">during times of economic crisis and social uncertainty</a> – notably wars and conflicts. Indeed, <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0146167282084021">Researchers</a> have observed how in Germany between 1918 and 1940 measures of economic threat correlated directly with measures of superstition.</p>
<h2>Touch wood</h2>
<p>Superstitious beliefs have been shown to help promote a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jul/25/psychology-donald-trump-win-luck-superstition">positive mental attitude</a>. Although they can lead to irrational decisions, such as trusting in the merits of good luck and destiny rather than sound decision making. </p>
<p>Carrying charms, wearing certain clothes, visiting places associated with good fortune, preferring specific colours and using particular numbers are all elements of superstition. And although these behaviours and actions can appear trivial, for some people, they can often affect choices made in the real world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225687/original/file-20180702-116126-pl8uhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225687/original/file-20180702-116126-pl8uhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225687/original/file-20180702-116126-pl8uhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225687/original/file-20180702-116126-pl8uhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225687/original/file-20180702-116126-pl8uhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225687/original/file-20180702-116126-pl8uhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225687/original/file-20180702-116126-pl8uhz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lucky horseshoes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Superstitions can also give rise to the notion that objects and places are cursed. Such as <a href="http://www.warrens.net/annabelle/">the Annabelle the Doll</a> – who featured in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1457767/">The Conjuring</a> and two other movies – and is said to be inhabited by the spirit of a dead girl. A more traditional illustration is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_pharaohs">Curse of the Pharaohs</a>, which is said to be cast upon any person who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian person – especially a pharaoh.</p>
<p>Numbers themselves can also often be associated with curses. For example, the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1174958/The-devils-work-Supercar-registration-plate-666-destroyed-mysteriously-bursts-flames.html">figure 666 in a licence plate</a> is often featured in stories of misfortune. The most famous case was the numberplate “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI5IfygkIyw">ARK 666Y</a>”, which is believed to have caused mysterious vehicle fires and “bad vibes” for passengers. </p>
<h2>Sporting superstitions</h2>
<p>Superstition is also highly prevalent within sport – especially in highly competitive situations. Four out of five professional athletes report <a href="https://believeperform.com/performance/the-power-of-superstitions-and-rituals-in-sport/">engaging with at least one superstitious</a> behaviour prior to performance. Within sport, superstitions have been shown to <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2015/06/why-superstitions-help-athletes-perform-better.html">reduce tension</a> and provide a sense of control over unpredictable, chance factors.</p>
<p>Superstitions practices tend to vary across sports, but there are similarities. Within football, gymnastics and athletics, for example, competitors reported praying for success, checking appearance in mirror and dressing well to feel better prepared. Players and athletes also engage with personalised actions and behaviours – such as wearing lucky clothes, kit and charms.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225675/original/file-20180702-116129-15qmt7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225675/original/file-20180702-116129-15qmt7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225675/original/file-20180702-116129-15qmt7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225675/original/file-20180702-116129-15qmt7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225675/original/file-20180702-116129-15qmt7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225675/original/file-20180702-116129-15qmt7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225675/original/file-20180702-116129-15qmt7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dayton baseball players try to bring good luck by twirling their fingers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Famous sportspeople often display superstitious behaviours. Notably, basketball legend Michael Jordan concealed his lucky North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls team kit. Similarly, the tennis legend Björn Bork, reportedly wore the same brand of shirt when preparing for Wimbledon. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/8703175/Rafael-Nadal-my-pre-game-rituals-sharpen-my-senses-before-I-go-into-battle.html">Rafael Nadal has an array of rituals</a> that he performs each time he plays. These include the manner in which he places his water bottles and taking freezing cold showers. Nadal believes these rituals help him to find focus, flow and perform well.</p>
<h2>Walking under ladders</h2>
<p>What all this shows is that superstitions can provide reassurance and can help to reduce anxiety in some people. But while this may well be true, research has shown that actions associated with superstitions can also become self-reinforcing – in that the behaviour develops into a habit and failure to perform the ritual <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/there-is-always-another-part/201712/superstition-quirky-beliefs-or-psychopathology">can actually result in anxiety</a>. </p>
<p>This is even though the actual outcome of an event or situation is still dependent on known factors – rather than unknown supernatural forces. A notion consistent with the <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/07/14/luck/">often quoted maxim</a>, “the harder you work (practice) the luckier you get”. </p>
<p>So the next time you break a mirror, see a black cat or encounter the number 13 – don’t worry too much about “bad luck”, as it’s <a href="https://www.skeptical-science.com/people/skeptics/darren-brown-experiments-secret-luck">most likely just a trick of the mind</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97043/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This is the real reason you believe in superstitions.Neil Dagnall, Reader in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityKen Drinkwater, Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Cognitive and Parapsychology, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/951442018-05-10T04:08:11Z2018-05-10T04:08:11ZWhy consumers need better protection from dodgy health care: the case of ‘Universal Medicine’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216982/original/file-20180501-135830-4s5fss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ovarian massage where the practitioner claims to 'read' a woman's ovaries clearly lacks evidence. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1999, a <a href="http://www.universalmedicine.net/serge-benhayon.html">tennis coach</a> from Maroubra, Serge Benhayon, supposedly experienced a <a href="http://www.universalmedicine.net/serge-benhayon.html">series of awakenings</a> that imparted to him detailed understanding of how the body works, the real cause of disease and the methods needed for healing. This was the beginning of the “health care” group known as Universal Medicine.</p>
<p>The group preaches a religion known as “The way of the livingness”, which contends disease is caused by <a href="https://www.universalmedicine.com.au/questions/what-prana-it-negative-energy-what-does-it-mean-if-something-considered-%E2%80%98pranic%E2%80%99">energetic disharmony</a> from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdgBw_0qGBk">poor choices made</a> in this and previous lives.</p>
<p>This destructive (or what the group has labelled “pranic”) energy can supposedly be released using a number of “<a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/DBAssets/InquiryReport/ReportAcrobat/5470/Final%20Report%20-%20The%20Promotion%20of%20False%20and%20Misleadi.pdf">esoteric</a>” techniques including “<a href="https://www.universalmedicine.com.au/services/healing-therapies/connective-tissue-therapy">connective tissue therapy</a>”, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110201124734/http://www.esoteric-breast-massage.com/">breast massage</a>, “<a href="https://www.universalmedicine.co.uk/services/healing-therapies/esoteric-chakra-puncture">Chakra puncture</a>” using acupuncture, and <a href="http://www.esotericwomenshealth.com/esoteric-ovary-massage.html">ovarian massage</a> in which the practitioner claims to “read” women’s ovaries.</p>
<p>Universal Medicine suggests physical disabilities result from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdgBw_0qGBk">sins in previous lives</a> and the <a href="https://www.universalmedicine.com.au/about/shop/books/living-sutras-hierarchy">intrusion of evil spirits</a> causes mental illness.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-kind-of-person-joins-a-cult-or-joins-a-terror-group-62969">What kind of person joins a cult or joins a terror group?</a>
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</em>
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<p>The group is active in Australia and the UK, and reportedly <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/universal-medicines-serge-benhayon-to-inherit-bulk-of-devotees-milliondollar-estate-20151228-glvl7u.html">receives large amounts of money</a> from bequests, and <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/jane-hansen-how-universal-medicine-bullied-me/news-story/7b7d0bf1e9e27e9078f72d00059ead02">has</a> a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-16/uq-researchers-accused-of-promoting-dangerous-cult/9636836">steady income</a> from treatments and the teaching of healing techniques to would-be esoteric practitioners.</p>
<h2>Is Universal Medicine causing harm?</h2>
<p>This group first came to my attention when a network I’m part of, <a href="http://www.scienceinmedicine.org.au/">Friends of Science in Medicine</a>, was approached by one of its former patients. This patient saw a respiratory medicine specialist in Northern NSW for treatment of a severe, persistent cough. This doctor referred the patient to his wife, an “esoteric therapist” (the name given to Universal Medicine practitioners) who works in his clinic. His wife provided the patient with “esoteric lung massage therapy” (a back massage) at the cost of A$70.</p>
<p>When this didn’t help, the patient was told she might need chemotherapy or a lung transplant. This alarming diagnosis led to her spend <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/doctor-sent-woman-for-two-years-of-new-age-healing-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away-for-a-cough-costing-her-35000/news-story/1be290c03d2f44cdf8d87e42c0d8a62b">more than A$30,000</a> on treatments by the Universal Medicine group. </p>
<p>With still no improvement, she withdrew treatment and sought advice from another respiratory physician who diagnosed interstitial pneumonitis (inflammation of the lungs) which disappeared with appropriate treatment.</p>
<p>The patient attempted to have the doctor disciplined by the NSW Medical Council. Eventually the professional standards committee did reprimand him and <a href="http://www.hccc.nsw.gov.au/Publications/Media-releases/2017/Dr-Samuel-Tae-Kyu-Kim---Unsatisfactory-professional-conduct">restrict his ability to refer patients</a> to complementary therapy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218539/original/file-20180511-185500-1wdc7ou.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=320&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This lucrative group has been described by some as a cult.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Screenshot, Universal Medicine website</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the <a href="https://www.pulmonarycare.org/">doctor’s website</a> still tells prospective patients his clinic offers both conventional and complementary medicine from him and his wife. The doctor has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-02/doctor-gave-patient-medical-history-to-universal-medicine/9710412">now stood down as council member of the Australian Medical Association’s Queensland branch</a> for passing medical information to the group.</p>
<p>The most distressing aspect of this story is the lack of any significant protection of consumers from these so-called health practices, not supported by any credible evidence and administered by practitioners with no medical qualifications. The Conversation sought response from Universal Medicine before publication of this story and Benhayon denied this woman was ever a patient of the group.</p>
<p>In 2014, a <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/DBAssets/InquiryReport/ReportAcrobat/5470/Final%20Report%20-%20The%20Promotion%20of%20False%20and%20Misleadi.pdf">parliamentary inquiry</a> into the protection of consumers looked at Universal Medicine in some detail. At issue was the ability of the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) to adequately protect consumers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/DBAssets/InquiryReport/ReportAcrobat/5470/Final%20Report%20-%20The%20Promotion%20of%20False%20and%20Misleadi.pdf">The report stated</a> while there was little anecdotal evidence to suggest actual harm caused by the treatments themselves, patients may forego seeking proper medical advice and care:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Two patients who were undergoing therapies at Universal Medicine were independently diagnosed with cancer and bronchiectasis respectively, and required proper medical intervention in order to be properly treated”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, Benhayon denied this claim to The Conversation, stating anecdotal evidence that patients often seek medical treatment in conjunction with Universal Medicine’s methods.</p>
<h2>A lack of evidence</h2>
<p>Most recently, Universal Medicine has been <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/international/uq-researchers-accused-of-promoting-dangerous-cult/9663184">in the news</a> as three followers of the group conducted research from the School of Public Health at The University of Queensland.</p>
<p>They published <a href="https://publichealth.jmir.org/2018/1/e6/">two</a> <a href="https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-017-2055-8">papers</a> in peer reviewed online journals. </p>
<p>One, in the <a href="https://publichealth.jmir.org/2018/1/e6/">Journal of Medical Internet Research</a>, suggested women following Universal Medicine strategies for health may have better outcomes than women in the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health. They also published in the Journal <a href="https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13063-017-2055-8">“Trials” their proposal</a> to study Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy for the treatment of low back pain. There are no data presented in the papers.</p>
<p>An ex-client of Universal Medicine, Esther Rockett, was so disturbed by the treatment provided to her by the group she established a <a href="https://estherrockett.com/">blog</a> monitoring the activities of the group in great detail (for which she is <a href="https://estherrockett.com/">currently being sued</a> by Benhayon for defamation). </p>
<p>After publication of these studies, she wrote to the University of Queensland and the journals, notifying them the studies lacked conflict of interest statements from the authors declaring their affiliation with the group. </p>
<p>Both were concerned by the affiliation and lack of disclosure. The Universal Medicine authors claim they did submit a <a href="http://www.research4humanity.com/media-releases">conflict of interest statement</a>, but the journal editor has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/international/uq-researchers-accused-of-promoting-dangerous-cult/9663184">refuted this</a>.</p>
<p>No other research has been conducted on the group’s methods.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-short-history-of-vaccine-objection-vaccine-cults-and-conspiracy-theories-78842">A short history of vaccine objection, vaccine cults and conspiracy theories</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What needs to happen to protect consumers?</h2>
<p>Unless a patient comes forward and can prove they’ve suffered physical harm from treatment at a Universal Medicine clinic, the NSW <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/committees/DBAssets/InquiryReport/ReportAcrobat/5470/Final%20Report%20-%20The%20Promotion%20of%20False%20and%20Misleadi.pdf">HCCC</a> will not issue an order for the group to stop its program. Since 2013, the HCCC has been authorised to initiate enquiries without a patient complaint and does have the power to stop fraudulent practices but it does not use this power.</p>
<p>Herein lies the great weakness of our regulators’ approaches to consumer protection from health care fraud. </p>
<p>Protection should be about <em>stopping harm from occurring</em> by due vigilance of what is being offered to patients, rather than chasing culprits <em>after</em> harm has been done.</p>
<p>And the mandate of responding to serious physical harm should be extended to include the harm associated with a delay in accurate diagnosis and timely effective treatment, the psychological damage from false hope, and robbing patients of funds when there is no evidence for treatment programs.</p>
<p>Improving health literacy would protect many, but not all, from being duped by supposed health care that lacks a basis in evidence. But the immediate challenge for all interested in better protecting consumers is to have the regulatory agencies charged with doing just that be far more proactive and tougher on miscreants. </p>
<p>As for those of us advocating much better consumer protection from groups such as this and seeing so little action: a little more outrage would not be misplaced.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Dwyer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The case of this cult-like group shows health consumers need better protection.John Dwyer, Founder of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance & Emeritus Professor, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/898462018-04-30T10:38:10Z2018-04-30T10:38:10ZI did research at Rajneeshpuram, and here is what I learned<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216701/original/file-20180427-135830-gtnqvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh embrace during a meditation session at Rajneeshpuram.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Bill Miller</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Netflix recently launched a six-part docuseries, <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80145240">“Wild Wild Country,”</a> about the controversial Rajneesh Movement that created a spiritual community on 64,000 acres of the former Big Muddy Ranch in Oregon. Back in the 1980s, as now, media focused on the group’s outrageous acts, legal confrontations and alleged crimes. </p>
<p>The revelations that the community’s guru, Rajneesh, made in 1985 were shocking. His personal secretary, Ma Anand Sheela, he said, <a href="http://admin.cambridge.org/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/charisma-and-control-rajneeshpuram-community-without-shared-values">had conspired</a> with a small circle of about 24 people to kill state and federal officials, attempted to control a county election by busing in homeless people to vote and poisoning salad bars in the county seat, and deliberately escalated tensions with outsiders. Sheela and some of her cadre were later charged and sentenced for state and federal crimes. But many devotees told me and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3712176?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">other researchers</a> that they were unaware of the extent of her crimes and misdeeds until she left Rajneeshpuram. Neither was I.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journeys">scholar of gender and alternative spiritual movements</a>, I visited Rajneeshpuram 10 times before it closed down completely early in 1986 and talked with almost 100 men and women who lived there. Although I was sometimes monitored, no one interfered with my research.</p>
<p>Away from the Netflix series’ dramatic story, what devotees told me and what I observed adds another dimension to popular conceptions of the short-lived communal city. </p>
<h2>Rajneeshpuram, Oregon</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216703/original/file-20180427-135851-343fmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216703/original/file-20180427-135851-343fmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216703/original/file-20180427-135851-343fmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216703/original/file-20180427-135851-343fmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216703/original/file-20180427-135851-343fmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216703/original/file-20180427-135851-343fmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216703/original/file-20180427-135851-343fmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rajneesh inducts two disciples, an American and a West German woman in Pune, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1981, after <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8289-0630-2">running into problems</a> with the Indian government, Rajneesh closed his ashram in the city of Pune in central India and invited devotees from all over the world to join him to create an extraordinary community in central Oregon. Some Rajneeshees bought houses in the closest town, Antelope. Most, however, journeyed for another 19 miles on the winding mountain roads that led to the the plateau where Rajneeshpuram rested. At its peak, the communal city <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/CITIES-ON-A-HILL/Frances-FitzGerald/9780671645618">housed about 2,000 devotees</a>.</p>
<p>Women and men labored together around the clock, constructing a huge meditation hall and an open-air mall with restaurants, clothing boutiques and a shop that sold hundreds of books and videotapes by and about Rajneesh. They also created a private airport, a hotel, living quarters and a sparkling artificial lake.</p>
<p>The devotees belied popular stereotypes of passive, easily manipulated spiritual seekers. Two-thirds of Rajneeshpuram’s residents had four-year <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3711684?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">college degrees</a> and/or had previously pursued lucrative career paths. </p>
<p>These women and men talked with me about their experiences and life histories. Most men, for example, felt that they had personal relationships with their guru, even when they had never met him. They also <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journey">emphasized</a> how Rajneesh helped them access their hidden intellectual and emotional strengths. </p>
<p>This was interesting, but with each visit, my attention increasingly turned to <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journeys">women in their 30’s and 40’s</a> whose incomes and educational attainments far exceeded the national average. </p>
<h2>Accomplished women</h2>
<p>Fifty-four percent of Rajneesh’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3711684?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">devotees were women</a>. Many had abandoned relationships, successful careers and occasionally young children in order to create a utopia around their spiritual leader. In our conversations, they disclosed that they followed Rajneesh to Oregon because they felt that he had transformed their lives, and they wanted to continue to experience the love and affirmation that they received from their powerful protector. </p>
<p>Every woman that I interviewed at length had been influenced by the feminist movement of the 1970s and hoped for full economic, sexual and social equality. They wanted to live very differently from their housewife mothers. However, they were deeply disappointed when they <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journey">still felt anxious and lonely</a> despite the money and recognition that they received from their careers. They told me that they had felt forced to choose between successful careers and fulfilling marriages. They lost with either choice.</p>
<p>One devotee, who later made a fortune in currency trading, told me that she had to drop out of the university and her premedical studies when she married. <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journey">She said</a>, “It was sort of a Jewish ethic. Women were wives and mothers, they weren’t doctors.”</p>
<p>But <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137386434_4">Rajneesh asserted</a> that women could succeed in every endeavor as well as or better than men. He applauded high levels of achievement and also emphasized the importance of traditionally feminine traits like intuition and emotional sensitivity for both women and men. He told women that they could and should integrate their personal and professional lives. He said, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It is for the betterment of both man and woman that the woman should be given every freedom and equal opportunity for her individuality.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At Rajneeshpuram, accomplished women were almost always assigned to jobs similar to their old ones. For example, psychologists led personal growth groups, attorneys staffed the legal department, city planners and architects designed roads and buildings, and writers and professors worked at the Rajneeshpuram newspaper, “Rajneesh Times.” Devotees described laboring alongside people who shared their ideals and cared about feelings along with productivity. </p>
<p>An attorney with a degree from an elite university discussed the joy of working with supportive friends and playing together at the end of long shifts. <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journeys">She said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We all say around here that work is our meditation. I feel really good…..We’re sort of in this together.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Why women stayed</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216702/original/file-20180427-135825-mgyrum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216702/original/file-20180427-135825-mgyrum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216702/original/file-20180427-135825-mgyrum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216702/original/file-20180427-135825-mgyrum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216702/original/file-20180427-135825-mgyrum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216702/original/file-20180427-135825-mgyrum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216702/original/file-20180427-135825-mgyrum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rajneesh is greeted by thousands of his followers during his afternoon drive-by as flowers are placed on the hood of his Rolls-Royce.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Bill Miller</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The guru himself may have retreated into private meditation, delegating all organizational decisions to Sheela, but devotees still believed that he watched over them. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1475-682X.1980.tb00828.x">Every woman and man wore a locket</a> with Rajneesh’s picture and used the new Indian name that he had bestowed on them. They broke into joyful tears when they lined Rajneeshpuram’s main road to bow and place roses on the guru’s Rolls Royce as he drove by each afternoon.</p>
<p>In September of 1985, <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/rajneesh/index.ssf/2011/04/part_one_it_was_worse_than_we.html">according to media reports</a>, the guru privately confronted Sheela about some of her crimes. She decamped to Germany, and Rajneesh once again started his lectures. He informed devotees that his physician had told him about her autocratic leadership and the <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/CITIES-ON-A-HILL/Frances-FitzGerald/978067164561">movement’s mounting debts</a>. He publicly condemned Sheela for masterminding scores of crimes and cooperated with state and federal authorities who wanted to apprehend Sheela and her cadre. </p>
<p>Devotees seemed to be thrilled to hear him speak once more, although most told me that they wondered about Rajneesh’s claims of total ignorance about Sheela’s activities. I saw people protest against Sheela and cheer when her official robes were tossed into a fire. They celebrated when new movement leaders <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/01/us/guru-s-book-is-burned-at-oregon-commune.html">burned thousands of copies of “The Book of Rajneeshism”</a> that Sheela designed. However, for months after the stunning disclosures, devotees that I interviewed still believed in their guru.</p>
<p>For a time, almost all of the women who responded to my mailed questionnaires in 1985 and 1997 or whom I kept in touch with informally tried to sustain their faith.</p>
<p>Former fashion model Veena, for example, was victimized by Sheela because of her role as Rajneesh’s personal seamstress and her room in his compound. Nevertheless, Veena <a href="https://oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/belong-summer-2011/second-chance-family">continued to trust the guru throughout her ordeals.</a> In 2008, when I talked with her at length in England, she was as enamored with Rajneesh and her old Oregon comrades as she had been in 1981, when <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/CITIES-ON-A-HILL/Frances-FitzGerald/978067164561">she guided well-known journalist Frances FitzGerald</a> around Rajneeshpuram. </p>
<p>No matter how shocked or damaged they were, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3712176?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">devotees did not quickly abandon</a> the close friends or spiritual practices that had transformed their lives. However, in response to the 1997 follow-up survey, very few said <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journeys">that they still believed in Rajneesh, or Osho,</a> as he later came to be known. Nevertheless, they looked back on their Oregon experience fondly.</p>
<p>One woman left the movement after a year because she grew increasingly disgusted by Rajneesh’s revelations, but in 1997, she still remembered central Oregon fondly. <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/16808/passionate_journeys">She said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“No regrets. Some understanding of the human condition.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of the accomplished women returned to their old professions or transitioned to new ones. Their years at Rajneeshpuram had affirmed the importance of both work and love, and they had learned that it was possible to enjoy both. As their survey responses showed, they were certain that they left the communal city with new abilities to function anywhere in the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marion Goldman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar visited Rajneeshpuram and met the many highly accomplished men and women who became devotees of the controversial guru. What brought them to the spiritual community, and what made them stay?Marion Goldman, Professor Emeritus, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/950002018-04-13T12:07:29Z2018-04-13T12:07:29ZFar Cry 5: cults, radicalism and why this video game speaks to today’s divided America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214716/original/file-20180413-577-1god2nb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ubisoft</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You are a rookie law enforcement officer, onboard a helicopter heading into the main compound of Project at Eden’s Gate, a religious cult operating across a huge stretch of Montana. A towering statue of the militia’s leader, Joseph Seed, rises into the sky. With a warrant for the arrest of Seed, you navigate a warren of buildings patrolled by aggressive white men and their snapping dogs, before entering a white-boarded church. A haunting rendition of Amazing Grace plays in the background as you meet Seed for the first time, in an almost dream-like sequence. From there, you are transported to an intense face-off between militia extremists and federal officials.</p>
<p>This is what you would experience on playing the new Ubisoft video game <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/far-cry-5-review/">Far Cry 5</a> (2018). Its story speaks to what seems a powerful political moment, of an American nation literally at war with itself.</p>
<p>While already a huge financial success (with <a href="https://www.vg247.com/2018/04/06/far-cry-5-week-one-sales-5-million-estimated/">reports</a> of nearly five million copies sold in its first week of release), Ubisoft’s title has been <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/6/17202546/ubisoft-far-cry-5-politics-social-commentary-irrelevance">widely criticised</a> for its overt lack of political message. The Montreal-based company may have promoted its game as a serious take on religious and political radicalism, but so far journalists have labelled Far Cry 5 a title unwilling to squarely take aim at <a href="https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxbeb/far-cry-5-review">Trump’s America</a>, or speak directly to matters of <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/03/far-cry-5.html">contemporary racism</a>, endemic <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/far-cry-5-release-gun-debate-march-for-our-lives-american-culture-2018-3">gun culture</a>, or <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/far-cry-5-review-a-game-about-extremism-in-america-that-says-nothing-about-extremism-huffpost-verdict_uk_5aba92c9e4b03e2a5c76e887">right-wing extremism</a>. Instead, reviewers have called it “totally unconvincing” (<a href="https://www.pcgamer.com/far-cry-5-is-fun-but-its-tone-is-all-over-the-place/">PC Gamer</a>), “a missed opportunity” (<a href="https://theoutline.com/post/4042/far-cry-5-review-trump?zd=1&zi=24hlokfa">The Outline</a>), and a game that ultimately “says pretty much nothing about” modern America (<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/mar/26/far-cry-5-review-playstation-4-xbox-one-pc-ubisoft">The Guardian</a>).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kdaoe4hbMso?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Are we being too harsh on the game? After all, most entertainment companies hype their products. Equally, would a film or novel tackling religious cults be criticised for not engaging with the wider problems of Trump’s America? In my view, video games do not need to make blatant political statements to be considered art or satire, nor do they need strong messages to have impact. Ultimately, gamers make their own readings and experiences, without the need to be constantly “billboarded”.</p>
<h2>The Last Supper</h2>
<p>Far Cry 5 also still has a message; just more subtle, and yes, peripheral, than first imagined. The core image of the game is a digital recreation of the Last Supper, reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s mural of the late 15th century. Ubisoft depicts Seed as a preacher at the centre of a long table, with open hands gesturing to his gathered disciples – all white, hardy and unkempt survivalists. The table features a mass of armaments from hunters knifes to bazookas. Seed uses the Stars and Stripes as his tablecloth.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgoroozn_ZH/?taken-by=ubisoft","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>It is a great picture: subversive and satirical, intriguing and ambiguous. It is true that the game play rarely reaches such iconographic heights, but it asserts the same sense of destabilisation and decay. The game has something to say if you listen.</p>
<p>While Far Cry 5 is set in contemporary Montana (and speaks to a <a href="http://www.mhrn.org/publications/fact%20sheets%20and%20adivsories/20%20Montana%20extremist%20Groups%20Identified%20by%20National%20Monitoring%20Organization;%20State%20Experts%20Echo%20Concerns.pdf">recent rise</a> in home bred extremism), its sense of conflict evokes an earlier period, specifically the mid-1990s, when militia groups resembling Seed’s seemed on the verge of having real impact on American society. Specifically, the game character of Seed closely resembles David Koresh, leader of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Branch-Davidian">Branch Davidians</a>, a religious cult whose members committed mass suicide during a federal-led siege at Waco, Texas, in 1993. Beginning with the Ruby Ridge siege of 1992, events climaxed in 1995, when Timothy McVeigh planted a bomb at the Alfred P Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City that ripped the structure apart, and killed 168 people. </p>
<p>Seeking to understand the ascendency of such radicalism, <a href="https://news.wsu.edu/1999/05/06/new-book-examines-northwest-militia-movements/">scholars discovered</a> issues of rural impoverishment (linked with Reaganomics), isolation, and disenfranchisement. Transposing the mid-1990s to 2018, Far Cry 5 suggests we have something to learn from that difficult moment. It leaves questions for the player to ponder, such as at what point does disillusionment turn into rebellion, as well as highlighting the paradoxes of religious groups who worship their weaponry. As one rescued civilian puzzles: “For holy folks, they sure put a lot of faith in their guns.” The game leaves the player to decide the bigger lessons.</p>
<h2>Doomsday</h2>
<p>The image of Joseph Seed itself smacks of prophecy. Lead writer Drew Holmes <a href="http://business.financialpost.com/technology/gaming/why-sales-wont-be-the-only-measure-of-success-for-ubisoft-montreals-far-cry-5">explains</a>: “We wanted to tell a story about a man who believes the end of the world is coming.” </p>
<p>Far Cry 5 is about one American who invites doomsday. Like most post-9/11 video games, Ubisoft’s title explores the dystopian theme of a nation falling apart, with the player, as hero, sent in as a loyal serviceman (in this case, a sheriff’s deputy) to raise the flag. Like many games, it is a decidedly cathartic, adrenaline-fuelled and redemptive campaign. The player actively saves small-town America from a lurking threat, and while action dominates the narrative, there is always a sense of righteousness and patriotic duty on display.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg1adC9nTBp/?taken-by=ubisoft","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The game is also about hope. Far Cry 5 counterposes the natural beauty of Montana (introduced as “America the beautiful” – a land of grain silos, pick-up trucks, and the Jeffersonian agrarian idyll) against scenes of darkness, such as a dank bar where locals talk of unwelcome and ugly thugs taking over. The fight for Hope County, the fictional territory where the game takes place, is actually a fight over hope itself: the hope offered by a misled leader with vague talk of saving people, especially the disenchanted white, versus the truer hope offered by traditional American values and governance. Illusions to false messiahs and even a mission “Make Hope Great Again” to some degree satire Trump’s America. </p>
<p>But the real danger of Joseph Seed lies in the mystery of where he’s planning on taking his Americans. As heard on a radio at one survivalist’s bunker: “You are my children, and together, we will march to …” Then the transmission fails. </p>
<p>It is important that as players we interpret the clues, think for ourselves, and co-create the stories. Far Cry 5 offers an immersive and atmospheric digital America for us to explore. It’s a good game precisely because it shies from outright criticism of Trump’s America. After all, we already have that in spades in the real world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95000/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Wills will be exhibiting his latest research on videogame representations of the United States at the British Academy Summer Showcase on 22-23 June 2018.
</span></em></p>The story of this video game speaks to what seems a powerful political moment, of an American nation literally at war with itself.John Wills, Reader in American History and Culture, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/943862018-04-10T10:38:01Z2018-04-10T10:38:01ZWhy the label ‘cult’ gets in the way of understanding new religions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213939/original/file-20180409-114098-ep4agc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 1979 image that shows disciples of Rajneesh lying on the ground, in meditation at the mystic's headquarters in Poona, India.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Eddie Adams</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Cults” are back in the news. </p>
<p>The Netflix documentary <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80145240">“Wild Wild Country”</a> has revived interest in the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/apr/07/cult-oregon-1980s-terror-netflix-documentary-wild-country">free-love</a> <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/wild-wild-country-the-most-shocking-reveals-from-the-sex-cults-fbi-informant">cult</a>” founded by Indian guru Rajneesh, or “<a href="http://www.osho.com/osho-search">Osho</a>,” that in 1984 launched a “<a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/01/09/the_largest_bioterror_attack_in_us_history_began_at_taco_time_in_the_dalles.html">bioterror attack</a>,” spreading <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/index.html">salmonella</a> in restaurants near the group’s Oregon headquarters.</p>
<p>Then there’s NXIVM, a “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-hollywood-followers-of-nxivm-a-women-branding-sex-cult">sex cult</a>” based in Albany, New York. Media reports state that NXIVM’s female members recruited “slaves,” who were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html">branded</a> with the initials of the group’s leader, <a href="http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/the-dark-cult-with-billionaires-stars-and-sex-slavery-allegations/news-story/0c72130a835a6d708b7f0b98cf1f310e">Keith Raniere</a>. Raniere, also called the “Vanguard,” has been arrested for sex trafficking. </p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article-abstract/39/3/228/1618594?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Scholars</a> sometimes use the term “cult” to describe groups that have distinctive beliefs and strong levels of commitment. The problem comes with the popular use of the word “cult,” often used to describe authoritarian groups that induce beliefs or actions through “mind control” or “brainwashing.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mathew-schmalz">As an academic</a>, who teaches and writes about religion, I believe that the label “cult” gets in the way of understanding new or alternative religions.</p>
<h2>Here’s why</h2>
<p>First, “cult” is a vague category. </p>
<p>Authoritarian leaders and structures can easily be found in groups that have clear missions. From the Catholic Church to the U.S. Marine Corps, many organizations rely on strict discipline and obedience. Using the word “cult” is an easy way to criticize a group, but a poor way to describe one.</p>
<p>Second, “mind control” or “brainwashing” theories have problems. </p>
<p>In popular understanding, the leaders of cults use mind control or brainwashing to permanently remake the personalities of recruits by forcing them to do and believe things that they normally wouldn’t accept. If that’s true, as some scholars have pointed out, there would be measurable impacts at “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.216.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A3a430daf80f56b10ac3136a57e6b32e9">the biochemical level of the brain</a>.” For now, there’s no <a href="http://nr.ucpress.edu/content/3/2/241">proof</a> that brain cells can be automatically changed by religious means.</p>
<p>“Brainwashing” was associated with the <a href="https://familyfed.org/">Unification Church,</a> or “<a href="http://www.signaturebooks.com/product/unification-church/">The Moonies</a>,” founded by South Korean <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/world/asia/rev-sun-myung-moon-founder-of-unification-church-dies-at-92.html">Rev. Sun Myung Moon</a>. The Moonies would isolate new recruits and shower them with attention, a process called “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/02/20/moon-church-love-bomb-fall-out/7c3b0eba-5e59-45e6-a5f8-812a2a5d1894/?utm_term=.850248272e01">love bombing</a>.” </p>
<p>But, as sociologist <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/people/eileen-barker">Eileen Barker</a> showed in <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/50886/">her research</a> on <a href="https://familyfed.org/">the Unification Church</a>, recruitment rates were still very low. Whether it’s “love bombing,” “mind control” or “brainwashing,” the results aren’t very impressive.</p>
<p>Third, the label “cult” is negative. </p>
<p>As British sociologist <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/research/wreru/aboutus/staff/jb/">James Beckford</a> has observed, “cults” are usually associated with <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcs/article-abstract/29/3/576/884746?redirectedFrom=PDF">beliefs and practices considered to be “unhealthy.”</a> But what is seen as healthy in one culture may be seen as unhealthy in another. </p>
<p>In fact, early Christianity could be called a “cult” because Christian beliefs and practices – such as not publicly worshipping the emperor – were considered strange and dangerous in ancient Rome.</p>
<p>Fourth, the term “cult” does not engage with key parts of a group’s belief system. </p>
<p>For example, religion scholars <a href="https://jamestabor.com/">James Tabor</a> and <a href="https://www.conncoll.edu/directories/emeritus-faculty/eugene-gallagher/">Eugene Gallagher</a> <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520208995">argue</a> that the 1993 “<a href="https://www.history.com/topics/waco-siege">Waco siege</a>” ended in tragedy, in part, because the FBI ignored the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/04/20/178063471/two-decades-later-some-branch-davidians-still-believe">Bible-based beliefs of the Branch Davidians</a>, a <a href="http://www.sociologyguide.com/anthropology/millenarian-movements.php">millenarian</a> Christian sect. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.atf.gov/our-history/fallen-agents">Four agents</a> of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms were killed trying to arrest “cult leader” <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/david-koresh-followers-describe-life-inside-apocalyptic-religious/story?id=52033937">David Koresh</a>. After a 51-day standoff, the FBI injected tear gas into the group’s compound. Seventy-five people, including children, lost their lives when the compound burned to the ground. If the FBI had dialogued with Branch Davidians by taking their beliefs seriously – instead of seeing members as brainwashed followers of a mad cult leader – deaths could perhaps have been avoided.</p>
<p>Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the <a href="https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm#amdt_1_(1791)">First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States</a>. It takes careful study to understand whether a religious group is simply “strange” or dangerous. </p>
<p>But the term “cult” lumps together all new or alternative religions. And when people hear the word “cult,” discussions end before any study has even begun.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar explains the popular use of the label ‘cult,’ and what makes it problematic.Mathew Schmalz, Associate Professor of Religion, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/908902018-03-22T14:07:05Z2018-03-22T14:07:05ZAum Shinrikyo subway sarin attack: Japanese cult members await execution two decades on<p>I was at a school camp when the now-defunct doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Tokyo-subway-attack-of-1995">attacked morning commuters on Tokyo subway lines</a> with sarin gas. It was the spring of 1995 and 13 people were killed and more than 6,000 injured. I remember being asked by my teacher to ring my parents in case they were caught up in the attack. Luckily, my father escaped, but only by ten minutes or so. The thought that he could have been a victim left a lasting impression on me. </p>
<p>I remember watching hours of television reports about the attack. The whole nation was glued to the story, and to revelations that the attack was carried out by a cult. Founded by Shoko Asahara – real name: Chizuo Matsumoto – Aum Shinrikyo <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/03/14/national/history/cult-attraction-aum-shinrikyos-power-persuasion/">believed</a> that the world would come to an end in 1997. It was soon established that its members had murdered an anti-Aum lawyer and his family back in 1989, and had carried out other sarin attacks, including a <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/06/21/national/history/matsumoto-aums-sarin-guinea-pig/#.WrOcAJO5thE">1994 attack in Matsumoto</a> that killed eight people and injured more than 500.</p>
<p>Now, nearly two decades later, Aum Shinrikyo is back in the news again. In January 2018, Japan’s supreme court <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/01/21/national/crime-legal/aum-trials-asahara-accomplices-can-finally-hanged/">upheld the life sentence</a> of an Aum member Katsuya Takahashi, the last Aum member to be tried for the attack. The same month, Japan’s Ministry of Justice also transferred some cult members who’ve been sentenced to death to various detention centres where executions can be carried out. The executions could come at any time, and won’t be announced until they’re concluded. The prisoners themselves will only be notified of their executions on the day.</p>
<p>One might wonder why it took so long to conclude the Aum trials. But the cult’s founder was just one of 190 people who were prosecuted for various crimes committed by the cult, and three members who were on the run, including Takahashi, were only arrested in 2011. The Japanese Ministry of Justice does not normally execute prisoners on death row if an accomplice’s case is still pending. With the last Aum member’s trial completed, the slated executions can now take place.</p>
<p>Almost all of the 13 death row inmates awaiting execution are requesting retrials, but their chances don’t look good. Two unrelated <a href="https://www.news24.com/World/News/japan-executes-two-murderers-including-teenage-killer-20171219">executions</a> were carried out in December 2017 even though the prisoners concerned had retrial requests still pending. </p>
<h2>In the waiting line</h2>
<p>It’s not unusual for Japanese death row inmates to spend decades awaiting execution; Asahara himself has been on death row for 14 years. Some die in solitary confinement, where death row prisoners are kept, without formally being executed. As I have written elsewhere, long years spent on death row – referred to as the <a href="http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/killing-time-a-comment-on-the-case-of-brandon-astor/">death row phenomenon</a> – are also a feature of the US criminal justice system. The trials and appeals meant to minimise the possibility of wrongful execution often result in prisoners being on death row for a extended time.</p>
<p>But in Japan, this isn’t the only reason executions are delayed. The decision of whom to execute next is not made public. International and domestic law prohibit the execution of such people.</p>
<p>Yet while Asahara’s mental health is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1440-1819.2006.01454.x">reported</a> to be extremely poor, the Ministry of Justice has maintained that he is fit enough to be put to death. The ministry seems downright determined to see him executed. As one senior justice official was <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/01/21/national/crime-legal/aum-trials-asahara-accomplices-can-finally-hanged/#.WmsL1iOcbUJ">quoted</a>: “We cannot leave someone who committed such heinous crimes to die from disease.”</p>
<p>What will the executions tell us about Japan’s attitude to justice today?</p>
<h2>Turning harsh</h2>
<p>Since the Tokyo attack, Japan’s punitive criminal justice system has increasingly revolved around fear and retribution. While Japan’s annual murder rate has steadily decreased since the attack, dropping below 1,000 in 2013, people’s fear of crime has increased, and victims’ rights groups have gained enormous power. The public has duly become <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/12057523/Japan-hangs-first-man-convicted-by-jury-as-Tokyo-claims-death-penalty-is-popular.html">ever more involved in the criminal justice process</a>. Judges started to sentence more prisoners to death after the attack; justice for the victims, it seemed, demanded nothing less than a capital sentence.</p>
<p>These trends are not unique to Japan. The UK also went through a period of being “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/governing-through-crime-9780195181081?cc=gb&lang=en&">governed through crime</a>” where politicians take advantage of the pubic’s fear of crime and promote punitive policies which often result in increased imprisonment rates. The 1993 murder of toddler <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-james-bulger-case-should-not-set-the-age-of-criminal-responsibility-91342">James Bulger</a> by two ten-year-olds spurred a similar “punitive turn”. As the public expected the justice system to punish the 10-year-old defendants, sentencing generally became harsher, and the prison population expanded. </p>
<p>But unlike the UK, when the punitive culture emerged in Japan, the country was still an executing state. With limited financial support provided for them by the criminal justice system, a death sentence functions as a symbol of justice for victims’ families in Japan. </p>
<p>But it’s a signal to the rest of the world as well. Executing Aum members would prove that Japan still accepts not just symbolic death sentences, but the death penalty in practice. With the UN’s <a href="http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/m_hisho10_00002.html">14th Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice</a> to be held in Tokyo in 2020, the international community will be keeping a close eye on how the Japanese government deals with the 13 Aum death row inmates and their sentences. Bearing in mind that more than <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/04/death-penalty-2016-facts-and-figures/">two-thirds of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty in law or practice</a>, these 13 executions would further alienate it from the worldwide trend against the death penalty.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mai Sato receives funding from European Commission and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. </span></em></p>The 1995 Tokyo sarin attack helped make Japanese criminal justice dramatically more punitive.Mai Sato, Lecturer in Criminal Law and Criminology, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/709612017-11-20T17:04:43Z2017-11-20T17:04:43ZHow cult leader Charles Manson was able to manipulate his ‘family’ to commit murder<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151986/original/image-20170106-18647-1rpkwes.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C8%2C958%2C977&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charles Manson: cult leader extraordinaire.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/billstrain/5391890373/sizes/l">mrbill78636/flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Charles Manson, who <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-42016704">died</a> on November 19 aged 83, was a cult leader par excellence. Back in his heyday, he recruited a devoted set of followers to his “family”, some of whom went on to murder people for him and whose tragic story has inspired numerous books, films and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2071645/">TV programmes</a>. But what did people see in Manson and how did he manage to manipulate and control people so successfully and with such terrible consequences?</p>
<p>It is said that “love is in the eye of the beholder” and there’s no better example of this than the love and devotion that intelligent and well-educated people have for cult leaders who portray themselves as the next messiah but who look to the rest of the world like deceitful and abusive sociopaths. </p>
<p>Of course people do not see an advert for an “abusive and murderous cult” or “how to end your life in trafficked drudgery” but instead are told about an inspired and charismatic leader whose vision and purpose can transform their lives for the better and the whole of humanity with it. So people go along to meet this extraordinary person full of hope and optimism – after all their friend or the persuasive man or woman who told them you all those great things about the guy can’t be totally wrong, surely? </p>
<p>This is what psychologists call <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Optimism_Bias.html?id=5o2SzNJOW-MC&redir_esc=y">optimism bias</a> which indicates that we are wired to “look on the bright side” and in the case of people recruited into cults this is also because of what they have been promised and what they then hope and expect to find. </p>
<p>So Manson may have looked sinister to you or I – but we were not expecting a visionary messiah with a promised, powerful message and followers who look just like us. For those who were and choose to believe in this wonderful, life-affirming opportunity, the search for salvation in bondage to the cult leader had begun.</p>
<h2>A messiah figure</h2>
<p>The key to Manson’s control, as with all cult leaders, was to ensure that followers not only saw him as an all-powerful, messiah-like figure, but that followers see themselves as members of a superior elite that has the answer to the world’s problems – even if that means killing the rest of the world along the way. Manson persuaded his followers to commit murders to trigger <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ln-manson-california-20500123-story.html">“Helter Skelter”</a> where there would be a “race war” which would elevate him to world leadership. He espoused a rambling, incoherent apocalyptic world view that was nevertheless completing captivating for his followers.</p>
<p>Over time the Manson-type cult leader becomes a dominant part of the follower’s identity and their self-esteem. The whole reason for their existence and survival is completely tied up with the leader and the cult. Manson became the core and central part of his followers’ lives – he provided a “family” and fulflled their basic needs. His “family members” acted to further that critical part of themselves that was bound up with him – and with terrible results.</p>
<p>Normal critical thinking and morals go out of the window. This explains why cult followers themselves can do terrible things or witness barbaric acts and do nothing to stop them. If you act against Manson you are acting against yourself and all that you’ve invested in him. After all there’s no going back, is there? This means there is no limit in practice – even if that means murder as in the case of some of the Manson cult members. </p>
<p>These terrible crimes were the ultimate act of loyalty and reinforcement of the cult identity for the followers – like suicide bombers this probably felt like the best thing they could have possibly done at the time. But the Manson followers were living in an altered state of consciousness and existence – aided also by drugs – and where the normal rules of society just didn’t apply in the cosy “family” that Manson had constructed.</p>
<h2>The lesson of the Manson ‘family’</h2>
<p>Many of the Manson followers went to prison for their crimes, and some felt <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-charles-manson-murders-where-they-are-now-snap-htmlstory.html">tremendous guilt</a> later about their actions. But what is really frightening is how it is all too easy to be duped and sucked into believing that your life is dependent on an amazing leader with such wonderful insights who in reality is a murderous psychopath. Followers forget who they really are, their other interests, family and friends and do terrible things for the cause and leader they love. </p>
<p>The lessons from the Manson “family” are a warning to us all: question everything, think critically and don’t believe that any single person has all the answers. Be wary of charisma and charm and people who are devoted to a messiah-like leader because while it is great to believe in big beautiful ideas it can also be the road to cult slavery and servitude. </p>
<p>Manson’s lasting legacy is hopefully that people will increasingly see through such cult leaders quicker and avoid them more easily than the followers who devoted their lives and murdered others to prove themselves as true devotees.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70961/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Linda Dubrow-Marshall is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Cultic Studies Association and co-founded the Re-Entry Therapy, Information and Referral Network (RETIRN) UK which offers advice and counselling to individuals and families affected by harmful groups or relationships (<a href="http://www.retirn.com">www.retirn.com</a>). Linda is a registered accredited counsellor/psychotherapist with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy and a registered counselling and clinical psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rod Dubrow-Marshall received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for the recent Social Science Festival event "Coercive Persuasion in the Era of Fake News". He is Visiting Fellow in the Criminal Justice Hub in the Directorate of Social Sciences. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Cultic Studies Association and is co-editor of the International Journal of Cultic Studies (<a href="http://www.icsahome.com">www.icsahome.com</a>). Rod also co-founded the Re-Entry Therapy, Information and Referral Network (RETIRN) UK which offers advice and counselling to individuals and families affected by harmful groups or relationships (<a href="http://www.retirn.com">www.retirn.com</a>).</span></em></p>Charles Manson, who has died aged 83, was a cult leader par excellence.Linda Dubrow-Marshall, Lecturer in Applied Psychology, University of SalfordRod Dubrow-Marshall, Professor of Social Psychology and Visiting Fellow, Criminal Justice Hub, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/831522017-08-31T01:19:09Z2017-08-31T01:19:09ZSpirituality gone awry in India: what is Dera Sacha Sauda, and who is its jailed leader?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/183923/original/file-20170830-19762-zxdl4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, a self-styled Indian guru, was convicted and sentenced for the rape of two of his female followers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world watched with horror this week as the rape <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-25/more-than-29-dead-in-india-after-godman-conviction-protests/8844388">conviction</a> and <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-28/indian-godman-sentenced-to-10-years-in-prison/8850314">sentencing</a> to 20 years’ jail of “godman” <a href="https://www.saintdrmsginsan.me/">Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh</a> led to massive protests in northern parts of India.</p>
<p>The protests by Ram Rahim’s followers resulted in the deaths of at least 38 people in Haryana, where the court held its proceedings. Many more were injured, and widescale damage to public property has been reported.</p>
<p>This defence of a rapist spiritual guru is quite unexpected in a country that’s been home to <a href="http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/blog/anti-rape-culture-activism-takes-to-the-streets-and-online/">intense gender activism</a> and public outrage on the issue of violence against women in recent years.</p>
<p>So, who is this “godman”? And what is Dera Sacha Sauda, the religious cult he heads in northern India, which has drawn into its fold thousands of followers ready to sacrifice their lives for their guru?</p>
<h2>Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the ‘guru of bling’</h2>
<p>Ram Rahim <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41070764">is known as</a> a “baba” or “guru of bling”. <a href="https://www.vagabomb.com/Pitaji-Gurmeet-Ram-Rahim-Singh-Would-Rape-His-Female-Followers-and-Call-It-Maafi/">Referred to</a> as <em>pitaji</em> or revered father, he has lived in a sprawling compound, <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/dera-sacha-sauda-chief-gurmeet-ram-rahim-singh-convicted-in-rape-case-panchkula-cbi-court-haryana-punjab-4812999/">enjoying highest-level security</a> provided by the government to very high profile people.</p>
<p>Ram Rahim has had an extraordinary life filled with many idiosyncrasies. He is definitely not the average guru: he <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/25/546044174/guru-of-bling-rape-conviction-sparks-protests-at-least-17-reported-dead">rode expensive motorbikes</a> with his gang of followers; produced, directed and acted in his own movies; and performed in his own rock concerts wearing bizarre costumes. He also has an honorary doctorate from the University of World Records, London.</p>
<p>Unlike his contemporary gurus who are seen as spiritual guiding lights, Ram Rahim is treated as an avatar of the almighty himself. He considers himself as the “Messenger of God”, and not just a person of higher consciousness who shows other people the righteous path. </p>
<p>The film he made and acted in, Messenger of God, was released in 2015. In the past, he also dressed up as a Hindu god and a Sikh guru, <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/messenger-of-god-controversy-tension-in-pockets-of-sirsa-section-144-imposed-at-places/">angering</a> the followers of both religions.</p>
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<p>His following includes many women who believe in his miraculous powers and all-embracing godly spirit.</p>
<p>The rape of two female followers was not the only accusation against Ram Rahim. He has <a href="https://www.thequint.com/news/india/gurmeet-ram-rahim-cbi-murder-case-for-27-years">been charged with murder</a> and the <a href="http://www.storypick.com/qurbani-dal-for-godman/">castration of at least 400 men</a> to “bring them closer to God”. </p>
<h2>What is Dera Sacha Sauda?</h2>
<p>Ram Rahim is the congregation leader of Dera Sacha Sauda (meaning “abode of fair deal”), a religious cult established in 1948. Its main centre is situated in the city of Sirsa in the state of Haryana, northern India. </p>
<p>The cult has 50 ashrams across India and branches in countries such as the US, Canada, UAE, Australia and the UK. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.derasachasauda.org/">Its website</a> declares it is a confluence of all religions advocating a complete ban on the consumption of meat, egg or gelatin in food and intoxicants such as alcohol, drugs and tobacco, and “no adultery or illicit sex”.</p>
<p>The group has had two leaders before Ram Rahim, each of whom chose their own successors, declared as their self-avatars. </p>
<p>With Ram Rahim jailed and no anointed heir, combined with the hefty fines imposed on Dera Sacha Sauda for the destruction of public property and arson, the cult’s future looks bleak.</p>
<h2>The free market of spirituality</h2>
<p>This episode has several important questions, mostly related to the crisis of spirituality and modernity in India today.</p>
<p>Religious and cult gurus in India are celebrities who have a tremendous impact on spiritual matters and on the lives of their followers. Their close association with politicians allows them access to political power and wealth. They can belong to any religion or sect.</p>
<p>The liberalisation of the 1990s in particular made spirituality a market enterprise: the gurus’ services could be purchased, and gurus indulged in profit-making activities. </p>
<p>That supposedly religious gurus could be involved in fraud, political manipulation, and sexual assault is not new in India. And yet the <em>baba</em> business flourishes. </p>
<p>For the poor, spiritual pathways and cult membership empowers them as they look for hope and miracles to survive the onslaught of neoliberalism. These spiritual pathways promise equality to the millions who feel discriminated, oppressed and marginalised. </p>
<p>The middle classes, however, can experience an existential crisis – and belonging to a religious or spiritual cult gives them purpose and meaning in life. The gurus have instant answers to all their problems. </p>
<p>The rich and powerful are also part of these cults, and they hobnob with the gurus. They have a lot to gain by following those who society follows – not just to tackle their insecurities but to cultivate a network of supporters who will always remain loyal to them. </p>
<p>The gurus can sway elections, generate funding for welfare projects, and provide hundreds of volunteers at a short notice. </p>
<p>The crisis of spirituality and the everyday dependence on miracles is only part of the problem. India’s political economy remains conducive for spiritual gurus to thrive and cultivate their loyal fan followings. </p>
<p>The recent episode has exposed the authorities’ vulnerabilities in dealing with unruly spiritual-seekers who have no qualms in defending their rapist gurus. After all, the guru is God – and God does no wrong.</p>
<p>The fates of other gurus with court cases against them, <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-asaram-bapu-rape-case-gujarat-government-pulled-up-by-supreme-court-for-slow-trial-1742850">like Asaram Bapu</a>, will be something to watch out for in the near future. Meanwhile, the unholy nexus between politicians and spiritual gurus will have to be broken to end the illegal wealth and patronage that gurus enjoy. This week’s tragic events will hopefully be a catalyst for this to happen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Swati Parashar has received funding from DFAT in the past, when based at Monash University in Australia. </span></em></p>The Dera Sacha Sauda episode has several important questions, mostly related to the crisis of spirituality and modernity in India today.Swati Parashar, Senior Lecturer, School of Global Studies, University of GothenburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788422017-07-10T01:10:45Z2017-07-10T01:10:45ZA short history of vaccine objection, vaccine cults and conspiracy theories<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176359/original/file-20170630-11661-1db8jxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Edward Jenner, who pioneered vaccination, and two colleagues (right) seeing off three anti-vaccination opponents, with the dead lying at their feet (1808).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jenner_and_his_two_colleagues_seeing_off_three_anti-vaccinat_Wellcome_M0005397.jpg">I Cruikshank/Wellcome Images/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we hear phrases like <a href="https://theconversation.com/vaccination-objection-rates-arent-skyrocketing-57820">vaccine objection</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/stories-of-vaccine-related-harms-are-influential-even-when-people-dont-believe-them-58314">vaccine refusal</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-cut-through-when-talking-to-anti-vaxxers-and-anti-fluoriders-72504">anti-vaxxers</a>, it’s easy to assume these are new labels used in today’s childhood vaccination debates.</p>
<p>But there’s a <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-shows-mandatory-vaccines-arent-the-answer-for-reluctant-parents-14833?sr=4">long history</a> of opposition to childhood vaccination, from when it was introduced in England in 1796 to protect against <a href="http://www.who.int/csr/disease/smallpox/vaccines/en/">smallpox</a>. And many of the themes played out more than 200 years ago still resonate today.</p>
<p>For instance, whether childhood vaccination should be compulsory, or whether there should be penalties for not vaccinating, was debated then as it is now.</p>
<p>Throughout the 19th century, anti-vaxxers <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/bodily-matters">widely opposed</a> Britain’s compulsory vaccination laws, leading to their effective end in 1907, when it became much easier to be a conscientious objector. Today, the focus in Australia has turned to ‘<a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-no-jab-no-pay-schemes-there-are-better-ways-to-boost-vaccination-37921?sr=2">no jab, no pay</a>’ or ’<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-vaccination-rates-stable-no-jab-no-play-rules-are-beside-the-point-14522?sr=1">no jab, no play</a>’, policies linking childhood vaccination to welfare payments or childcare attendance.</p>
<p>Of course, the methods vaccine objectors use to discuss their position has changed. Today, people share their views on <a href="https://theconversation.com/dumb-or-dumber-jim-carreys-anti-vax-antics-expose-the-tactics-of-internet-cranks-44236?sr=2">social media</a>, blogs and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X09019264?via%3Dihub">websites</a>; then, they wrote letters to newspapers for publication, the focus of my research.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.medicinae.org/e17">Many studies</a> have looked at the role of organised <a href="https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/13/1/45/1628528/They-Might-As-Well-Brand-Us-Working-Class">anti-vaccination societies</a> in shaping the vaccination debate. However, “letters to the editor” let us look beyond the inner workings of these societies to show what ordinary people thought about vaccination.</p>
<p>Many of the UK’s larger metropolitan newspapers were wary of publishing letters opposing vaccination, especially those criticising the laws. However, regional newspapers would often publish them.</p>
<p>As part of my research, I looked at more than 1,100 letters to the editor, published in 30 newspapers from south-west England. Here are some of the recurring themes.</p>
<h2>Smallpox vaccination a gruesome affair</h2>
<p>In 19th century Britain, the only vaccine widely available to the public was against smallpox. Vaccination <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1069029/">involved</a> making a series of deep cuts to the arm of the child into which the doctor would insert matter from the wound of a previously vaccinated child. </p>
<p>These open wounds left many children vulnerable to infections, blood poisoning and gangrene. Parents and anti-vaccination campaigners alike described the gruesome scenes that often accompanied the procedure, like this example from the Royal Cornwall Gazette from December 1886:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some of these poor infants have been borne of pillows for weeks, decaying alive before death ended their sufferings.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Conspiracy theories and vaccine cults</h2>
<p>Side-effects were so widespread many parents refused to vaccinate their children. And letters to the editor show they became convinced the medical establishment and the government were aware of the dangers of vaccination.</p>
<p>If this was the case, why was vaccination compulsory? The answer, for many, could be found in a conspiracy theory. </p>
<p>Their letters argued doctors had conned the government into enforcing compulsory vaccination so they could reap the financial benefits. After all, public vaccinators were paid a fee for each child they vaccinated. So people believed compulsory vaccination must have been introduced to maximise doctors’ profits, as this example from the Wiltshire Times in February 1894 shows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What are the benefits of vaccination? Salaries and bonuses to public vaccinators; these are the benefits; while the individuals who have to endure the operation also have to endure the evils which result from it. Health shattered, lives crippled or destroyed - are these benefits? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Conspiracy theories went further. If doctors knew vaccination could result in infections, then they knew children died from the procedure. As a result, some conspiracy theorists began to argue there was something inherently evil about vaccination. Some saw vaccination as “the mark of the beast”, a ritual perpetuated by a “vaccine cult”. Writing in the Salisbury Times, in December 1903, one critic said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This is but the prototype of that modern species of doctorcraft, which would have us believe that their highly remunerative invocations of the vaccine god alone avert the utter extermination of the human race by small-pox.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course, this is an extreme view. But issues of <a href="https://theconversation.com/vaccinations-are-a-vital-part-of-ethical-alternative-lifestyles-22385">morality</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5141457/">religion</a> still permeate the anti-vaccination movement today.</p>
<h2>Individual rights</h2>
<p>For many, the issue of compulsory vaccination was directly related to the rights of the individual. Just like <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X09019264?via%3Dihub">modern anti-vaccination arguments</a>, many people in the 19th century believed compulsory vaccination laws were an incursion into the rights enjoyed by free citizens. </p>
<p>By submitting to the compulsory vaccination laws, a parent was allowing the government to insert itself into the individual home, and take control of a child’s body, something traditionally protected by the parent. Here’s an example from the Royal Cornwall Gazette in April 1899:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] civil and religious liberty must of necessity include the right to protect healthy children from calf-lymph defilement […] trust […] cannot be handed over at the demand of a medical tradesunion, or tamely relinquished at the cool request of some reverend rural justice of the peace.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What can we learn by looking at the past?</h2>
<p>If anti-vaccination arguments from the past significantly overlap with those presented by their counterparts today, then we can learn about how to deal with anti-vaccination movements in the future. </p>
<p>Not only can we see compulsory vaccination laws in Australia could, as some researchers say, <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-boost-vaccination-dont-punish-parents-build-their-trust-40094">be problematic</a>, we can use the history of vaccine opposition to better understand why vaccination remains so controversial for some people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ella Stewart-Peters receives funding from an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Kevin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some people have objected to childhood vaccination since it was introduced in the late 1700s. And their reasons sound remarkably familiar to those of anti-vaxxers today.Ella Stewart-Peters, PhD Candidate in History, Flinders UniversityCatherine Kevin, Senior Lecturer in Australian History, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.