Oct 21, 2024
55 Years Ago: A Self-Titled LP Signals Beginning of Beatles' End
Oct 19, 2024
Hundreds turn out to better understand cult behaviour
Oct 18, 2024
'Let The Children Die First': African Cult Leader 'Convinced' Over 400 People To Starve Themselves To Death For End Of The World
Oct 17, 2024
Philip Zimbardo Obituary
Oct 15, 2024
DECULT 2024
DAY ONE – 19 October 2024
08:00 – 09:00: ARRIVAL & REGISTRATIONTūranga – Christchurch Central Library, Cathedral Square (Gloucester St entry)
09:00 – 09:35:
WELCOME CEREMONY – WITH HON DR DUNCAN WEBB
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
KEYNOTE: DR JANJA LALICH
Cults 101: Influence and harm of high control groups
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
10:50 – 12:00
Kids in Cults: From damage and silence to justice and repair
Adam Dudding, Dr Janja Lalich, Maria Esguerra, Luke Hollis, Dr Caroline Ansley
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
10:50 – 11:25
Bible study with a hook: Shincheonji’s recruitment
Laura Muir
Spark Room (ground floor)
11:25 – 12:00
Toxic tantra: Surviving and suing MISA’s yoga guru
Bec Sonkkila
Spark Room (ground floor)
13:00 – 14:10
Rabbit Hole Resistance: Cults, disinformation, and online radicalization
Stephen Judd, Prof Ekant Veer, Ulrike Schiesser, Adam Elmasri, Dr Nicole Matejic
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
13:00 – 13:30
The Truth about The Truth: Secrets and cover-ups of the 2x2s
Laura McConnell Conti
Spark Room (ground floor)
13:35 – 14:05
Groomed by Bill Gothard: Taking IBLP’s leader to court
Rachel Lees
Spark Room (ground floor)
14:10 – 14:15: 5 MIN TRANSITION
14:15 – 15:25
Rock the Watchtower: Former Jehovah’s Witnesses speak up
Anusha Bradley, Lara Kaput, Scott Homan, Shayne Mechen, Micki McAllen (Apostate Barbie)
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
Intrusive Brethren: Intergenerational harm within the PBCC
Craig Hoyle (“Excommunicated”)
with Lindy Jacomb
Spark Room (ground floor)
15:25 – 15:50: AFTERNOON TEA & BOOK SIGNING
15:50 – 16:30
Insights from a federal cult information agency
Ulrike Schiesser
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
16:30 – 17:10
Cult Survivor Story Jam
Lindy Jacomb and others
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
17:10 – 18:00: GUEST DEPARTURE Library closes at 18.00
18:00 – 21:00: CONFERENCE DINNER Ticketed event
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DAY TWO – 20 October 2024
Tūranga – Christchurch Central Library, Cathedral Square (Gloucester St entry)
09:00 – 09:10
WELCOME – WITH DAME SUE BAGSHAW
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
09:10 – 10:00
KEYNOTE: DR GILLIE JENKINSON
Walking Free from trauma and abuse: A model for cult recovery
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
10:00 – 10:05: 5 MIN TRANSITION
10:05 – 11:15
Liz Gregory, Virginia Courage, Pearl Valor, Dennis Gates
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
Issues with ISTA, high on Highden: From LGAT to mystery school
Bronwyn Rideout + Dave Booda
Shany Kedar + Mordechai Braunstein (virtual)
Spark Room (ground floor)
11:15 – 11:40: MORNING TEA & BOOK SIGNING
11:40 – 12:50
A new media narrative: Survivor-focussed cult reporting
Sarah Steel, Prof Ursula Cheer, Bec Sonkkila, Natalie Malcon, Anusha Bradley, Dhyana Levey
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
11:40 – 12:00
Human experiment: The lasting shadow of Centrepoint
Adam Dudding
Spark Room (ground floor)
12:00 – 12:50
Health neglect in cults: Medical needs of survivors
Dr Caroline Ansley
Spark Room (ground floor)
12:50 – 14:00: LUNCH
14:00 – 15:00
Invisible rainbow youth: Purity, conversion and coming out in cults
Andre Afamasaga, Craig Hoyle, Luke Hollis, Dr Janja Lalich
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
Reflection & connection 1: Debriefing for all attendees
Jim Goodwin
Activities Room (next to Main Room – TSB)
Reflection & connection 2: Debriefing for former cult members
Dr. Gillie Jenkinson
Spark Room (ground floor)
15:00 – 15:10: 10 MIN TRANSITION
15:10 – 16:00
Care and Collaboration: Cult victim support organizations
Lindy Jacomb & Tore Klevjer
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
16:00 – 16:10
Where to from here? Our Vision for Decult 2025
Anke Richter & Dennis Parker
Main Room – TSB, live-streamed (NZDT)
16:10 – 16:20
Closing and waiata with Lisa Tui Aroha
Oct 9, 2024
Children of the Cult
Oct 2, 2024
JMS Cult Leader, Who Sexually Assaulted Three Women, Gets Sentence Reduced to 17 Years
Oct 1, 2024
Scott Homan's film "Witness Underground"
Seagrams Heirs Unable to Shake All Claims Linked to Sex Cult
Sep 30, 2024
Dhyana Levey is the next speaker we're pleased to announce in the lead-up to Decult 2024!
Rachel Lees, an IBLP survivor
sic Life Principles (IBLP). As one of the whistle-blowers which led to the downfall of the Christofascist organisation and resignation of the leader, and then filing a lawsuit against Gothard in 2015, Rachel withstood many personal attacks against her. She is finally pursuing her academic education in the Social Sciences to write and speak more on predatory grooming and the healing that comes from the pursuit of justice.
Sep 29, 2024
The Children of the Cult
Sep 26, 2024
Apostasy Conference 2024 – The Systemic Nature of Religious Abuse | Faith to Faithless
An online conference for academics and practitioners who care about the needs of apostates. The theme of the Apostasy Conference 2024 is 'The Systemic Nature of Religious Abuse.'
The conference will have two halves. The first half will have the theme of how some religions create rape culture and how this impacts apostates. And the second half will talk about how some UK state policies facilitate or obscure religious abuses (all forms of religious abuse, not just sexual) and how this impacts apostates.
Keynote speaker
Pragna Patel, Co-founder and co-director of Project Resist
Religious abuse in South Asian contexts
Dr Kristin Aune, Professor of Sociology of Religion at Coventry University
Christianity and Domestic Abuse
Dr James Murphy, The Open University
Leaving a High-Control Religion: Legacies of Trauma
Alexander Barnes-Ross
From Apostate to Activist: How Scientology gets away with abuse in the UK
Rachael Reign
Abuses within the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG)
Zara Kay
Addressing Religious Trauma and Apostasy Laws Impacting ex-Muslims
Yehudis Fletcher
Replicating and Reiterating Harm: how UK state policies enable abuse within high-control religions.
We will be announcing more names very shortly.