Four Members of Online Neo-Nazi Group that Exploited Minors Charged with Producing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Department of Justice

Updated January 30, 2025

"Two men were arrested today on charges of participating in a neo-Nazi child exploitation enterprise that groomed and then coerced minors to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and images of self-harm. The group allegedly victimized at least 16 minors around the world, including two in Southern California.

Colin John Thomas Walker, 23, of Bridgeton, New Jersey, and Clint Jordan Lopaka Nahooikaika Borge, 41, of Pahoa, Hawaii, were arrested this morning pursuant to a grand jury indictment that charges them with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise. They are expected to make their initial appearances in court later today in New Jersey and Hawaii.

The indictment also charges two other defendants who are already in custody: Rohan Sandeep Rane, 28, of Antibes, France, and Kaleb Christopher Merritt, 24, of Spring, Texas. The indictment returned by a grand jury on Jan. 17 and unsealed today, also charges Rane and Walker with one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise.

According to the indictment, from at least 2019 to 2022, Rane, Walker, Merritt, and Borge were members of CVLT (pronounced “cult”), an online group that espoused neo-Nazism, nihilism, and pedophilia as its core principles. Members of the international enterprise engaged in online child sexual exploitation offenses and trafficked CSAM. Rane, Walker, and Merritt acted as leaders and administrators in the CVLT enterprise, hosting and running CVLT online servers and controlling membership for the group.

CVLT members worked collectively to entice and coerce children to self-produce CSAM on a platform run by CVLT members where they groomed children for the eventual production of CSAM through various means of degradation, including exposing the victims to extremist and violent content. CVLT specifically targeted vulnerable victims, including ones suffering from mental health challenges or a history of sexual abuse.

Victims were encouraged to engage in increasingly dehumanizing acts, including cutting and eating their own hair, drinking their urine, punching themselves, calling themselves racial slurs, and using razor blades to carve CVLT members’ names into their skin. CVLT members’ coercion escalated to pressuring victims to kill themselves on a video livestream.
When victims hesitated, resisted, or threatened to tell parents or authorities, CVLT members would threaten to distribute already-obtained compromising photos and videos of the victims to their family and friends. For victims who stopped participating in the CSAM, CVLT would sometimes carry through on their threats.
Rane previously was charged with several child exploitation and related offenses in France and has been in French custody since 2022. Merritt is currently in Virginia state custody, serving a 50-year sentence for child sex abuse crimes committed in 2020 and 2021.

If convicted, the defendants would face a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison and a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Los Angeles Police Department, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office, Henry County Sheriff’s Office (Virginia), Iowa State University Police, Police Nationale (France), the National Crime Agency (United Kingdom), the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, and EUROPOL are investigating this matter.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Catharine A. Richmond for the Central District of California and Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and James Donnelly of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting this case.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law."
Updated January 30, 2025

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-members-online-neo-nazi-group-exploited-minors-charged-producing-child-sexual-abuse

Two by Twos: Kiwis who left sect being probed by FBI form support group

Amy Williams 

RNS

January 31, 2025 

New Zealand leavers of a secretive sect the FBI is investigating for historical child sexual abuse have formed the first support network for former members in this country.

They said recent publicity has helped lift the lid on the high-control religious group that has no official name or church buildings - weekly meetings are held in members' homes.

The group has many markers of a cult and is known to those who leave as the Two by Twos or The Truth.

Tristan Phipps grew up in the sect and left as a young adult more than a decade ago because he didn't believe in its teaching - including that people outside the group go to hell.

"Things just don't start to match up, you feel very lost and you get to a point where it sounds like a load of rubbish. It's very complex but also very simple at the same time."

It was a lonely time because so few people knew about the group or understood his experience.

He has helped establish the support network for leavers and says there are already 100 people connected online.

"We've all been affected in some way and scarred in some way. It's more powerful when more of you recognise it together," he said.

"There's people out there that have been floundering for a long time which is really sad."

Phipps said until now, former members of the cult here have joined online groups based overseas.

Last year police separately arrested two men who were members of the sect, for historical child sexual abuse - one pleaded guilty and was sentenced, the other denied the charges and next appears in court in a fortnight.

Phipps said many former members of the sect have experienced religious, physical or sexual abuse and the focus of the leavers group is friendship and support.

"It's quite a specific area in that it's very hard to understand unless you've been part of it," he said.

"For those of us who've left we're our best resource. We might not think we know much but we actually know a lot and we can help each other."

Decades on support still effective

Academic and GP Kyle Eggleton is a member of the support group.

He was born into the Two by Twos but left in his mid-20s when he decided the teaching and rules didn't stack up - that was 26 years ago.

"I didn't have any support so it was a bit of a lonely journey. I spent quite some time trying to figure out who I was and what my belief systems were and trying to navigate that all by myself."

Eggleton still has family in the group and when he left he felt supported, not shunned or ostracised.

He said even decades on, he is benefiting from being part of a community of people who understand his upbringing in the cult.

"I think it's really important to help people make sense of their experience and realise they're not alone, that they have commonality with others who have left."

Eggleton said it was only recently he found out a friend of his family in the Two by Twos, who had died, had been an abuser.

"That's something that makes me angry and upset, knowing that that experience is prevalent in our survivor community."

He wants to formally research the mental health and wellbeing effects of being part of the cult, and what helps people thrive when they leave.

"A lot of people have a trauma experience being part of this group.

"Trying to articulate to someone that you were brought up in this group that has no name and you can't really identify the group and there's no literature around them...makes it difficult trying to explain that to other people."

Peer support crucial

Author, reporter and cult researcher Anke Richter was convenor, director and organiser of Australasia's first cult awareness conference, Decult, held in Christchurch last year.

She said it became clear at the conference that peer support for those leaving cults was crucial because it was such a unique experience.

"People need to connect and be with each other and share their stories. You can do that online of course but there's something about being in the same room together, maybe handing someone tissues when they cry, being with others who understand."

Richter said Decult was in the early stages of setting up groups where people leaving any cult could meet for support and friendship.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/540353/two-by-twos-kiwis-who-left-sect-being-probed-by-fbi-form-support-group

Radicalization: A comprehensive approach to countering extremism

To understand radicalization one first needs to understand the recruitment process called SLICE, an acronym for Select, Love bomb, Isolate, Control and Exploit. It's one of the common denominators for all fundamentalistic movements, religious as well as political. The book goes into detail on the mechanics of this process and also how language plays a vital role in this.

If you think you are immune to this kind of influence then you definitely need to read this book.

Håkan Järvå is a licensed psychologist from Sweden. He has been working on the issues of radicalization and cults since 2005, mainly on a practical level in both deradicalization work and preventive work. He authored three books in Swedish on the subject of cults and radicalization, meant for teachers, social workers and other professionals who handle cases of radicalized individuals. In Sweden he led several projects for the local NGO Hjälpkällan to help victims of cults and other extremist movements. Håkan frequently collaborates with local municipalities, the police, social services and schools both in Sweden and internationally. He held several lectures for the Swedish Center for Preventing Violent Extremism. Currently, he is working for the municipality of Gothenburg on countering violent extremism activities and on supervising social workers handling cases of violent extremists and returning foreign fighters. He is a member of the International Cultic Studies Associations advisory board (ICSA) and was a member of the now decommissioned Radicalization Awareness Network expert pool (RAN). As a consultant for Hedayah, he has supported training programs on rehabilitation & reintegration in Tunisia and Indonesia.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DM9S8QKQ?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_mwn_dp_BC99SV5GAN5KD17199NP&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_mwn_dp_BC99SV5GAN5KD17199NP&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_mwn_dp_BC99SV5GAN5KD17199NP&language=en-US&skipTwisterOG=1&bestFormat=true&newOGT=1

The Alchymical Mormonism Of The Widow's Son

​Shawn F. Higgins

Patheos

January 25, 2025

"In the publisher’s office in the town of Batavia, New York, there were fresh proofs of the most recent printing, an exposé on the secret rites and oaths of Freemasonry by William Morgan. The gang of masked men felt vindicated for the severe beating they delivered to the owner of the printing press, and the destruction of his equipment. It was a warning to all. Nine days later the author of the exposé, William Morgan, was himself abducted. Secretly transported to the town of Canandaigua, he was found guilty in a mock trial by members of the Batavian Masonic Lodge. Morgan never returned home. It was alleged that three fanatical Freemasons tossed the weighted body of Morgan over Niagara Falls on the evening of September 11, 1826, but this was never proven. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that Morgan was murdered by a nefarious network of Freemasons. His mysterious disappearance caused a great deal of public protest. Anti-Masonry became a political crusade that swept Western New York and New England. Opponents of Masonry claimed that the Fraternity was a threat to free government; they portrayed Masons as a dangerous cabal intent on infiltrating the inner machinations of the Republic (with aims exerting a secret agenda.) President Andrew Jackson, a high-ranking Mason, added validity to their concerns. Critics of Jackson leaped at this opportunity and created America’s earliest third party, the “Anti-Masonic Party.” By 1830 there were thirty-three Anti-Masons in the New York Assembly and eight in State Senate. In popularity, it was second only to Martin Van Buren’s political machine, 'The Albany Regency.'"


" ... The people of America were already somewhat familiar with the ideas of Masonry. Among the Masonic works circulating in the new Republic was Thomas Smith Webb’s Freemason’s Monitor. This work had a significant impact on the shaping of the Masonic Ritual in North America, specifically the high degree Masonry of the York Rite. His literature about these Lodges earned him the moniker “Founding Father of the York Rite.” His description of the degree of the “Knights Of The Ninth Arch” even explained the Enochian myth to the rural peoples of the land.


Enoch, the son of Jared, was the sixth son in descent from Adam, and lived in the fear and love of his Maker. Enoch, being inspired by the Most High, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision, built a temple underground, and dedicated the same to God. Methuselah, the son of Enoch, constructed the building, without being acquainted with his father’s motives. This happened in the part of the world, which was afterwards called the land of Canaan, and since known by the name of the Holy Land. Enoch caused a triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; he enriched it with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate, of the same form. He then engraved upon it the ineffable characters, and placed it on a triangular pedestal of white marble which he deposited in the deepest arch. When Enoch’s temple was completed, he made a door of stone, and put a ring of iron therein, by which it might be occasionally raised; and placed it over the opening of the arch, that the matters enclosed therein might be preserved from the universal destruction impending. And none but Enoch knew of the treasure which the arches contained. And, behold, the wickedness of mankind increased more, and became grievous in the sight of the Lord, and God threatened to destroy the whole world. Enoch, perceiving that the knowledge of the arts was likely to be lost in the general destruction, and being desirous of preserving the principles of sciences, for the posterity of those whom God should be pleased to spare, built two great pillars on the top of the highest mountain, the one of brass to withstand water, the other of marble, to withstand fire; and he engraved on the pillar of brass the principles of the liberal arts, particularly of masonry.

According to this tradition, after the burial of the plates, many centuries pass until they are re-discovered by Solomon’s Masons while work is being excavated for his Temple to God. Webb states:

The same divine history particularly informs us of the different movements of the Israelites, until they became possessed of the land of promise, and of the succeeding events until the Divine Providence was pleased to give the scepter to David; who, though fully determined to build a temple to the Most High, could never begin it; that honor being reserved for his son. Solomon, being the wisest of princes, had fully in remembrance of his promises of God to Moses, that some of his successors, in fullness of time, should discover his holy name; and his wisdom inspired him to believe, that this could not be accomplished until he erected and consecrated a temple to the living God, in which he might deposit the precious treasures. Accordingly, Solomon began to build, in the fourth year of his reign, agreeably a plan given to him by David his father, upon the ark of alliance. He chose a spot for this purpose, the most beautiful and healthy in all of Jerusalem. The number of the grand and sublime elected , were at first three, and now consisted of five; and continued so until the temple was completed and dedicated; when king Solomon, as a reward for their faithful services, admitted to this degree the twelve grandmasters, who had faithfully presided over the twelve tribes; also one other grand master architect. Nine ancient grand masters, eminent for their virtue, were chosen knights of the royal arch, and shortly afterwards were admitted to the sublime degree of perfection. You have been informed in what manner the number of the grand elect was augmented to twenty-seven, which is the cube of three: they consisted of two kings, three knights of the royal arch, twelve commanders of the twelve tribes, nine elected grandmasters, and one grand master architect. This lodge is closed by the mysterious number.


It was during this public conversation on Masonry that a young man in his early twenties, Joseph Smith, was composing The Book Of Mormon in Western New York. Though born in Vermont, Smith and his family moved to Palmyra, New York, in 1816. At the time there were “wise men” and “cunning persons” engaged in the “supernatural economy” that was popular in that region during this time. Men and women who used divination and occult practices to find lost and stolen objects. The use of seer-stones, scrying for buried treasure, and belief in spirits were commonplace. Among the religious artifacts in the possession of the Smith family were tools to be used in ritual magic acts, like lamens (small, folded parchments used for magical rituals,) a Jupiter talisman, and a dagger ornamented in planetary sigils. The young Joseph Smith was among these practitioners (and something of a treasure seeker.) Smith was reportedly visited by God and Jesus in 1820 and an angel named Moroni in 1823. The latter was a prophet-warrior from an ancient people called the Nephites, a nation that once peopled the Americas according to Moroni. The full history of the Nephites, and other lost stories, were written down on buried Golden Plates. Smith, under the direction of Moroni, retrieved these Golden Plates and, using his seer stones, was able to translate the text into English which he published in 1830 under the title, The Book Of Mormon. The contents of this lost Scripture, if true, revealed (among other things) a history of Jesus in America, and the existence of people known as Nephites and Lamanites (connected to the Lost Tribes of Israel.) This was of particular interest to Americans at the time. As the contemporary chronicler John L. Stephens noted, questions were being asked about the “first peopling of America.” Some said the Native Americans were a separate race, “not descended from the same common father with the rest of mankind.” Others ascribed their origin to “some remnant of the antediluvian inhabitants of the earth who survived the deluge which swept away the greatest part of the human species in the days of Noah.” (In 1807 Alexander Von Humboldt published his theory that South America and Africa were once connected.) Stephens, alluding to Smith, adds: “An enterprising American has turned the tables on the Old World and planted the ark itself within the State of New York.”
​Continue Reading...

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/marginalia/2025/01/the-alchymical-mormonism-of-the-widows-son/ 

Sentencing of Jeremy Goodale upheld in appellate court

Fairfield teen was one of two who murdered FHS Spanish teacher in 2021

Andy Hallman

Southeast Iowa Union

Jan. 27, 2025

FAIRFIELD – An Iowa Appellate Court upheld the sentencing of a Fairfield teen who pleaded guilty to murdering a teacher in 2021.

Jeremy Goodale and Chaiden Miller were both 16 at the time they murdered Fairfield High School Spanish teacher Nohema Graber on Nov. 2, 2021. Both Goodale and Miller later pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison.

On Thursday, Jan. 23, an appeals court issued a ruling on a motion by Goodale’s attorney to reduce the sentence, which allowed for parole only after 25 years. The judges, listed as Schumacher, P.J., and Badding and Chicchelly, JJ, affirmed District Court Judge Shawn Shower’s sentencing. The opinion, drafted by Chicchelly, stated that Showers did not abuse his discretion, and did consider the relevant factors before handing down his sentence.

Before diving into the legal reasons for rejecting Goodale’s appeal, Judge Chicchelly provided a summary of the facts that came out during sentencing, such as Goodale being asked by his friend Chaiden Miller if he would help murder Graber after Miller received a failing grade in her class, and Goodale agreed.

“The two surveilled the teacher over the next two weeks to learn her routine, discovering that she regularly took walks in a nearby park,” Judge Chicchelly wrote. “ Goodale and his co-defendant planned to attack her during her walk. On the afternoon of November 2, Goodale and his co-defendant followed the teacher as she walked along the trail. When they came upon her, Goodale and his co-defendant took turns beating her with a baseball bat. Goodale later confessed that he ‘caved her skull in with the bat and dragged her [corpse] off the trail.’”

Regarding the decision to reject the appeal, Judge Chicchelly wrote, “Goodale also claims that the sentencing court did not exercise any discretion at all and simply imposed a mandatory minimum sentence. But we do not find that this is supported by the record. The court conducted a painstaking, careful review of the case before imposing a minimum sentence and noted its requirement to consider the factors specified for juvenile offenders when exercising its discretion. We therefore find this argument without merit.”

Judge Chicchelly wrote that the court must consider mitigating factors of youth in determining sentences, the judge also noted specific facts about Goodale and about this murder that argued in favor of a mandatory minimum sentence. Judge Chicchelly wrote that the district court found this “as heinous of a murder as can be imagined,” and that brutality was “a significant aggravating factor.”

https://www.southeastiowaunion.com/news/sentencing-of-jeremy-goodale-upheld-in-appellate-court/

Physically In, Mentally Out: Navigating Your Exit From Watchtower

Bethany Leger

Physically In, Mentally Out: Navigating Your Exit From Watchtower

Many Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide are desperate to leave the Watchtower organization. If they leave, however, their devout Jehovah’s Witness family will be required to sever ties. Physically In, Mentally Out: Navigating Your Exit from Watchtower explores the dilemma of the PIMO, an acronym for the secret non-believer who is physically in the organization, but has mentally checked out. These individuals have formed an underground community that is unprecedented in the age of social media, and are growing in their resistance to Watchtower tyranny. Written by a former Jehovah's Witness of 30 years and now certified life coach, Physically In, Mentally Out is a practical, no-nonsense guide filled with questions and exercises to help the reader gain clarity and increase their confidence amid the pain of leaving Watchtower.

https://www.amazon.com/Physically-Mentally-Out-Navigating-Watchtower/dp/B088BDKF91/

Disappointment of William Miller

Patheos: Disappointment of William Miller

"The Great Disappointment is the name given to a time when the world as we know it didn’t end. Tens of thousands of people fervently believed the date the world would change was October 22, 1844. They sincerely thought on that day Jesus would come in glory to gather the faithful to heaven before cleansing the world of sin. Many of them even gave away all their wordly possessions, donned white robes, and waited on hilltops — or in trees — for the great event. And it didn’t happen. Hence, there was great disappointment.

End-of-the-world predictions are fairly common, and occasionally some catch on with enough people that the eventual non-event becomes an event in itself. This particular non-event was one of the most famous in modern times. It’s been studied by historians, theologians, and social psychologists for clues to why this particular prediction was so compelling. Answers vary. How the non-event came to be rationalized by the disappointed has also been a focus of study.

It’s also the case that 19th century America, and to some extent Europe, was something like the Golden Age of Religious Free Spirits and Eccentrics. See, for example,  “Talking With The Dead In 19th Century America” and “The Oneida Community: An Experiment In Perfectionism.” It was a time when the grip of many old orthodoxies was broken. And many otherwise psychologically normal people seemed willing to believe just about anything where spirituality was concerned. So maybe if you wanted to understand it, you had to be there.

The Great Disappointment: Origins

William Miller (1784-1849) thought a lot about religion. As a young man he rejected his Baptist upbringing and embraced Deism instead. Service in the War of 1812 left him with questions about death and an afterlife. His questions eventually took him back to the Baptists. When his Deist friends challenged his changed beliefs, he began a close reading of the Bible to look for support. And that close reading persuaded him the world was about to end."

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thereligioushistorynerd/2024/04/the-great-disappointment-of-willliam-miller/

Traumatic Narcissism Theory and Its Clinical Utility

Daniel Shaw's paper on Traumatic Narcissism Theory and Its Clinical Utility was just published in the International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation

Link:

https://danielshawlcsw.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/TN-Clinical-Utility.pdf

Shattered: One Woman’s True Story of Trauma, Coercive Control and Survival

Shattered: One Woman’s True Story of

Trauma, Coercive Control and Survival

By Ginger Zyskowski

Amazon

The life of a 32-year-old professional musician, university instructor, and mother of 3, is thrown into chaos when her young children are abducted and she is viciously kidnapped. Being held against her will, she is forced to live under the coercive control of the cult deprogrammer known as “Black Lightning.” Confined by her captors, she vows to do whatever it will take to reconnect with her children and reclaim her life. She gets caught in a web of conflicts and complications caused by lies spoken by her family, her kidnappers, and the FBI. Eventually, with determination, resilience, and courage, she reunites with her three sons and, together, they begin the difficult, yet rewarding journey of recovery after trauma. The author shares her harrowing true story here for the first time.

Description

 

STANDING OVATIONS

Kick off your shoes and find a good reading spot. Shattered, One Woman’s True Story of Trauma, Coercive Control and Survival will give you reason to pause. Every one of us can relate to some of the experiences told in this memoir, but the depth and breadth of Ginger Zyskowski’s life journey is astounding. Growing up with a domineering mother, visits to a “cult” with a friend, and then her horrific experiences being deprogrammed by the infamous Ted Patrick, who truly became her cult leader, are at once fascinating and rattling to read. The emotional trauma pops off the pages, and we cry for her pain and cheer for her victories. The author concludes with a thorough compilation of research that is enlightening to all readers. This compelling and inspiring true story of one woman’s journey is a tribute to the human spirit. Parents, sociologists, psychologists, educators, and general readers will find this book difficult to set aside.

~ Debby Schriver, President, International Cultic Studies Association ~

The so-called cult wars that emerged in America during the early 1970s produced a controversial and sometimes illegal industry called deprogramming. This intimate memoir by Ginger Zyskowski describes her traumatic kidnapping in 1978 by her parents and a deprogramming team that operated under crude basic assumptions about cultic brainwashing and how to cure it. In the author’s case, the cure was worse than the purported disease as she came under the well-meaning though abusive influence of deprogrammer Ted Patrick and her parents for many months after the intervention. We learn that Zyskowski’s meaningful dalliance with the controversial Divine Light Mission group hardly met Patrick’s definitions of hypnotic mind control. Moreover, her parents held rigid views of cults that amounted to a stereotype that they would not reject over time. This book is an absorbing complex trauma as well as a revealing perspective on a problematic new religious movement in America.

~Joseph Szimhart, a cult information specialist who wrote Santa Fe, Bill Tate, and me: How an artist became a cult interventionist ~

This book cautions the reader about the consequences of an unrestrained power. Presenting a riveting story of resilience, Ginger takes the reader on her journey of love, belief, family betrayal, and abuse at the hands of Ted Patrick – the so-called deprogrammer – and his minions. Against all odds, Ginger reclaims her life, her children, the love of writing, and the joy of music. I couldn’t put it down! Bravo!

~ Patrick Ryan, Cult Inverventionist ~

There have been scores of books testifying how victims had been lured into cults where, having apparently been subjected to mind control and unable to leave of their own accord, have been rescued and returned to their ‘normal’ selves by deprogrammers. But this is a story with a twist. Ginger Zyskowski tells us how her overbearing mother, a leading light in the now-defunct Cult Awareness Network (CAN), concluded that her daughter, having shown a mild interest in the Divine Light Mission (DLM) had been brainwashed, despite the fact that Ginger was leading what might seem like a pretty normal life, looking after her three sons whilst engaged in fulltime work – quite independently of the DLM. Imperiously, her mother arranged that Ginger should be kidnapped and deprogrammed by Ted Patrick, widely referred to as ‘Black Lightening’. We read how, under Patrick’s influence, Ginger became actively involved in the ‘anti-cult’ movement, but then having learned from Patrick and CAN about ‘cults,’ brainwashing and deprogramming, she came to recognize that she had indeed been victimized and coerced – by Patrick – and was able to deprogram herself out of his deprogramming cult and piece together her shattered self. A fascinating, page-turning story – with a twist.

~Eileen Barker, Professor Emeritus of Sociology with Special Reference to the Study of Religion, London School of Economics ~

“In her compelling memoir of abduction and survival, Ginger’s honesty offers a captivating glimpse into the resilience and hope that sustained her through unimaginable challenges.

~ Kaitlin Nachtigal, Editor ~

I Have Been…

I have been victimized

But I am not a victim. I have been shamed

But I am not ashamed. I have been guilted

But I am not guilty. I have been used and abused…

But I am not used up!

gz, 6/24/22

Mike Rinder, Scientology spokesperson turned whistleblower, dies in Pinellas

Mike Rinder, left, and Leah Remini co-hosted the Emmy-winning television series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.” (Courtesy of Claire Headley)

Mike Rinder, Scientology spokesperson turned whistleblower, dies in Pinellas

Groomed to become a high-ranking member of Scientology, he later exposed abuse in an Emmy-winning television series.

BY GABRIELLE CALISE
Times Staff Writer

Mike Rinder, a former top Scientology spokesperson who later broke away and became one of the church’s most outspoken critics, died Jan. 5 in Palm Harbor due to esophageal cancer. He was 69.

Rinder, who once worked closely with church leader David Miscavige, was a crucial source in the St. Petersburg Times’ 2009 multipart investigation into Scientology, The Truth Rundown. Later, he went on to win two Emmys for his work on the docuseries “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.”

Rinder was born in Australia and raised as a Scientologist. His parents learned about the church from a neighbor who had gone to a talk by Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Rinder wrote that he started regularly attending a local Scientology center as a young child.

Though Rinder earned a scholarship to attend the University of Adelaide, his parents instead pushed him to join the Sea Organization, an elite group that lived and traveled with Hubbard aboard his ship.

“Really, my life was preordained into Scientology,” he wrote in his 2022 book, “A Billion Years.”

Life in the Sea Org

While part of the church, Rinder married a fellow Sea Org member and had two children, though he recalled in his book that he had little time to see them. His focus was working his way up to the top ranks of Scientology. Leading the Office of Special Affairs, he became one of the group’s most prominent spokespeople.

He later would write about how the job required him to smear critics of the church and work with high-profile members, including actor Tom Cruise. Rinder followed the Scientology tradition of “fair game,” attacking anyone who spoke out.

“My days were endless, crammed with keeping track of Scientology’s enemies, conducting programs to neutralize them, putting out fires on the internet, and dealing with the constant celebrity issues,” Rinder wrote.

Former Scientologist Karen de la Carriere said Rinder was a handsome man, with an Australian accent that charmed people.

“Even if a reporter was aggressive, they would kind of be a little bit seduced,” said de la Carriere, who became friends with Rinder in the 1970s. “Reporters can be very hard-nosed, but they’d start off aggressive and be more gentle with Mike Rinder.”

De la Carriere said Rinder suffered for Scientology, enduring beatings and verbal lashings from the group’s leader.

“Whenever you were close with David Miscavige, sooner or later you’re going to fall in extreme punishment,” she said. “There’s no such thing as making a mistake. You are deemed a criminal if error is made.”

Rinder would later go public with how he endured years of living in “The Hole,” a detention center in California where high-ranking members of Scientology slept under desks, ate scraps of leftover food and tortured each other. Rinder wrote about occasionally being removed by Miscavige to speak with reporters.

Mark Bunker, a former Clearwater City Council member and longtime critic of Scientology, remembers seeing Rinder in Clearwater after his time in the Hole.

“He had become so pale and gaunt and thin,” Bunker said. “Your reasoning has to be reshaped so much to have to put up with being in the Hole for two years before you finally break.”

Rinder’s escape

In June 2007, at age 52, Rinder left the church. He wrote about fleeing during a trip to London with “only a briefcase containing my passport, a few papers, a thumb drive and two cell phones.” He snuck away to Central Florida, then Virginia and then Colorado. Fellow defectors helped him find housing and work.

While he hoped his wife and children would come with him, they instead cut Rinder off, a practice known in the church as “disconnecting.”

Tampa Bay Times reporters Joe Childs and Tom Tobin found Rinder while he was living in Colorado. Initially, he declined to be interviewed about his experiences. Then Scientology tracked down Rinder, too.

Rinder wrote that the organization sent lawyers to threaten him and private investigators to keep track of his movements.

“They rented an apartment across from mine, in Westminster, Colorado, to watch me 24/7 through the windows with high-powered cameras and night-vision scopes,” Rinder wrote in his book. “They also took my trash and followed me around for $10,000 per week.”

After this, Rinder reported a determination to share his experiences in what would become The Truth Rundown series. He recounted physical and mental abuse he experienced, including the torture he suffered in the Hole.

Rinder later moved to Florida, where he continued to speak out against the church, from interviews with the media to assisting the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The attacks on him also continued.

Private investigators installed GPS trackers in his cars. Members of the church “instructed my family members to send nasty letters to me … implying I should kill myself.” The church drew out his divorce to his first wife, Rinder explained, “as long as the case was not resolved ... lawyers overseeing it could demand continuously updated financial info from me to see who was supporting me.”

“I knew every move in the Hubbard Fair Game playbook,” he wrote. “It’s a mind game. If they didn’t succeed in getting into my head, I would win.”

Spreading the word

When the HBO documentary “Going Clear” premiered in 2015, Rinder’s profile increased even more. He heard from former Scientologists, elected officials and celebrity defectors like Lisa Marie Presley and Leah Remini.

Remini asked him to help her with a show exposing the abuse she’d witnessed in the church. Rinder became her co-host.

“Families torn apart. Children victimized. Women forced to have abortions. People defrauded. A literal trial of death and destruction,” Rinder wrote. “Many told us for the first time, we had personalized the abuses and given them real, believable faces.”

Despite legal threats and harassment, “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” ran for three seasons and won two Emmys.

“It really changed the way Scientology was perceived by the public, and it really helped to educate the press on how to talk about Scientology,” said Tony Ortega, a journalist who runs the Scientology blog The Underground Bunker. “I think it surprised everyone how much Mike Rinder became a star as well.”

Bunker said Rinder seemed much happier after he recovered from Scientology and dedicated himself to helping other “people who had been abused.”

“I think that was the healthiest thing he could have done,” he said. “Coming back to the real world was a really important thing for him to do and I think he got a lot of peace.”

Bunker recalled how Rinder helped members of local government understand the tactics used by Scientology.

“To have someone with inside knowledge on how David Miscavige operates and why they would do that was very important for our city manager and city attorney to understand,” Bunker said.

And after years of attacking journalists, Rinder became an ally to them.

“They spy on my wife. They spy on my mother. They’ve sent a private investigator to intimidate my mother. And one of the things was they tried to get my wife in trouble,” Ortega said. “When I told Mike, he was good enough to write a letter, saying ‘look, this is the kind of operation they do,’ and I was able to send that to my wife’s employer.”

The importance of family

After leaving Scientology, Rinder married Christie Collbran. A fellow former Sea Org member, she understood what he’d been through. They lived in Palm Harbor — raising her son, Shane, and a child they had together, Jack.

Before he died, Rinder wrote a statement for his family to share after his passing.

“I have been lucky — living two lives in one lifetime,” he said in his final blog post. “The second one the most wonderful years anyone could wish for with all of you and my new family!”

When he wasn’t working to expose abuse, Rinder sought comfort among others who had been through the same pain. Fellow defector and whistleblower Claire Headley, who has been friends with Rinder since 1991, was one of them.

Like Rinder, she had been cut off by family members who stayed behind in Scientology. Rinder and Christie became her new siblings.

“He had this vision that our kids would grow up in a family of choice as cousins, and that is what we’ve done. We’ve vacationed almost yearly with them,” Headley said. “Our kids are all the best of friends, and it’s a beautiful thing just to be able to have each other and to create this community.”

Rinder co-founded the Aftermath Foundation in 2018 as a way to support people trying to leave Scientology.

“He was a board member, participating in grant review, helping people with attorney connections, helping people get their money back from Scientology,” said Headley, who now serves as the foundation’s president. “It was a long list of advocacy work to help people getting out of Scientology get on their feet, who often have been so isolated from the outside world.”

Rinder never stopped thinking about the people he left behind.

He began his book with a letter written to his children Taryn and Benjamin, who are still involved in the church.

“Since I escaped I have been shouting back over the wall, throwing notes tied around stones, and skywriting to anyone who may look up — attempting to get the message through that there is a big, wide world out there. I hope you can discover the real world for yourselves, too,” he wrote. “No matter what you may think, it is never too late to start over.”

Contact Gabrielle Calise at gcalise@tampabay.com or 813-591-0548. Follow @gabriellecalise.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

"Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds is an early study of crowd psychology by Scottish journalist Charles Mackay, first published in 1841 under Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions."

" ... The subjects of Mackay's debunking include alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling, haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetizers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through poisoning, prophecies, widespread admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and relics. Present-day writers on economics, such as Michael Lewis and Andrew Tobias, laud the three chapters on economic bubbles.

In later editions, Mackay added a footnote referencing the Railway Mania of the 1840s as another "popular delusion" that was at least as important as the South Sea Bubble. In the 21st century, the mathematician Andrew Odlyzko pointed out, in a published lecture, that Mackay himself played a role in this economic bubble; as a leader writer in The Glasgow Argus, Mackay wrote on 2 October 1845: "There is no reason whatever to fear a crash."

Volume I: National Delusions

"The first volume ... includes] ... a discussion of Dutch tulip mania of the early seventeenth century. According to Mackay, speculators from all walks of life bought and sold tulip bulbs and even declared futures contracts during this bubble. Allegedly, some tulip bulb varieties briefly became the most expensive objects in the world during 1637."

Volume II: Peculiar Follies

"Mackay describes the history of the Crusades as a kind of mania of the Middle Ages, precipitated by the pilgrimages of Europeans to the Holy Land. Mackay is generally unsympathetic to the Crusaders, whom he compares unfavorably to the superior civilization of Asia: "Mackay describes the history of the Crusades as a kind of mania of the Middle Ages, precipitated by the pilgrimages of Europeans to the Holy Land. Mackay is generally unsympathetic to the Crusaders, whom he compares unfavorably to the superior civilization of Asia: 'Europe expended millions of her treasures, and the blood of two millions of her children; and a handful of quarrelsome knights retained possession of the Kingdom of Jerusalem for about one hundred years!"Europe expended millions of her treasures and the blood of two million of her children; a handful of quarrelsome knights retained possession of the Kingdom of Jerusalem for about one hundred years!'"

Witch mania

" ... Witch trials in the early modern period

Witch trials in 16th- and 17th-century Western Europe are the primary focus of the "Witch Mania" section, which asserts that this was a time when ill fortune was likely to be attributed to supernatural causes. Mackay notes that many of these cases were initiated to settle scores among neighbors or associates and that extremely low standards of evidence were applied to most of these trials. Mackay claims that "thousands upon thousands" of people were executed as witches over two and a half centuries, with the most significant numbers killed in Germany."

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-Madness-Crowds/dp/149036188X