Mar 29, 2020

Coronavirus Cases Spike in Israeli ultra-Orthodox Neighborhoods


In Bnei Brak, an eightfold increase in coronavirus cases reported in three days

Aaron Rabinowitz
Haaretz
March 29, 2020

Hundreds of new cases of the coronavirus appeared in ultra-Orthodox enclaves in Israel over a short period of time, internal Health Ministry figures obtained by Haaretz show, revealing a growth rate that far exceeds the national average.

These official Health Ministry figures, which are kept confidential, are given to the Interior Ministry which passes them on to the local authorities every morning.

The number of infected people in Bnei Brak increased eightfold between Monday and Thursday last week. On Monday evening there were 30 confirmed cases, and on Thursday the number was 244. In Jerusalem’s Haredi community there were 78 confirmed cases on Monday, and on Thursday – 314, a fourfold spike. In the Haredi town of Betar Ilit the number of people with the virus went from two on Monday to 24 on Thursday, and in Beit Shemesh, the number jumped from four to 34 in that period.

The virus is spreading faster in ultra-Orthodox communities than in the main secular cities. In Tel Aviv, the number of patients doubled in the same three-day period last week (85 on Monday and 191 on Thursday), as it did in Herzliya (from 18 to 39), Ramat Gan (20 to 42), Netanya (20 to 53) and Ashdod (24 to 51).

Bnei Brak Mayor Abraham Rubinstein released an urgent statement to residents on Friday: “There are moments when one must stop and simply cry out a warning. In Bnei Brak, unfortunately, there are 300 corona patients. This is a high rate of infection; it is the most dangerous anywhere in Israel, and the forecast is even more terrifying. This is the time to wake up! The rabbis of the city and its great teachers are crying out: Stop your know-it-all minyans of more than ten men,” he said, referring to the quorum required by Orthodox law to hold public prayers. “Keep your distance and stop storming the supermarkets. Just stay home and be careful. This is dangerous, it’s terrifying and you need to understand: It’s a matter of life and death,” Rubinstein said.

Sources in some ultra-Orthodox towns say the Health Ministry does not inform people that they need to go into isolation due to contact with someone who has the virus. Some also say that the Health Ministry is not cooperating with the local authorities that want to act independently to prevent the spread of the virus in Haredi neighborhoods, which are densely populated and hence a major potential source of infection.

The greatest obstacle is that many ultra-Orthodox people are not connected to mass media. About half of ultra-Orthodox people don’t have smart phones, but rather only phones that have been approved by their rabbis, which can’t receive a message instructing the user to go into isolation.

“Everything here is by word-of-mouth rumor,” a senior official in the ultra-Orthodox town of Modi’in Illit told Haaretz. “There’s no oversight. People decide for themselves whether to go into isolation or not… We have no direct connection to the Health Ministry. The little that we know comes from people we know and unofficial conversations.”

The official said the Health Ministry doesn’t have the manpower or “a way into the Haredi public.” Thus, information about confirmed patients reaches the community very late.

A senior official in a Haredi municipality said that his municipality asked the Health Ministry for information to start dealing with the matter on a city-wide basis, but the request was turned down. “At first we sat quietly because we were sure the Health Ministry was dealing with it. The messages we got from them were – it’s a medical event, don’t interfere, we’re handling it,” the official said. It was only three weeks ago, he added, that “we realized that in fact we were lagging two weeks or more behind the rest of the country. I don’t want to think what will happen here soon.”

Due to the lack of communication with the Health Ministry, the municipality of Modi’in Ilit has begun to take independent action. With the help of figures gathered from the media and from the Health Ministry’s website, they are providing information to residents. “Two weeks ago we started handing out flyers to people’s homes, an official said. “It was a page with an explanation about the coronavirus, letters from rabbis calling for people to follow the directives. They broadcast by loudspeakers in the streets. The problem is, there’s no organized information from the Health Ministry,” the man said.

The mayor of Beit Shemesh, Aliza Bloch, said her municipality is also acting independently. “We have to make sure that there is no one who doesn’t understand the seriousness. We’ve asked the Health Ministry for precise information in real time, so we can prevent infection,” she said.

Bloch has also spoken with rabbis in the city to ask them to close the synagogues. “On Friday there was somebody wandering around the streets with corona and thanks to the residents who informed us, the police tracked him down. It’s not only against the law, it’s mortal danger and I have zero tolerance in this matter,” Bloch said.

The Haredi community seems to have begun about a week ago to realize the seriousness of the epidemic. Most synagogues in ultra-Orthodox communities are closed and rabbis are asking their followers to obey all Health Ministry instructions. “Obedience in Bnei Brak is greater than any other city. The rabbis have issued clear directives and there is close cooperation with the authorities,” a person with knowledge of the situation in Bnei Brak said.

However, extreme sects in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea She’arim and in Beit Shemesh are adamant in their refusal to cooperate. This week members of the extreme sect Peleg Yerushalmi (“Jerusalem Faction”) held a large wedding in Modi’in Ilit in which many dozens of revelers were dancing hand in hand. In another incident, when three men in Modi’in Ilit were arrested for keeping their synagogue open, they cursed and threw objects at the police. The police also found two apartments in Beit Shemesh where children were attending classes. The owner was fined 5,000 shekels ($1,402) and the children were sent home.

At a recent meeting between the deputy director of the Health Ministry, Prof. Itamar Grotto, and the chairman of the Federation of Local Authorities in Israel, Haim Bibas, Grotto reportedly pledged greater cooperation between the ministry and local authorities and that starting today the ministry will keep municipalities better informed. The Health Ministry did not comment for this report.

https://www.haaretz.com/amp/israel-news/.premium-sharp-spike-in-coronavirus-cases-found-in-israeli-ultra-orthodox-neighborhoods-1.8719637


Mar 27, 2020

The Challenge of Cult Recovery During a Time of Crisis

How former cult members and the families of current and former cult members can address the needs they have along with the additional stress and worry brought on by global unpredictability.


Rachel Bernstein LMFT offers:

  • FORMER CULT MEMBER SUPPORT GROUP - Every other Wednesday night in Los Angeles
  • Office line - 818-907-0036
  • Bernsteinlmft@gmail.com
  • www.rachelbernsteintherapy.com
  • Facebook- Rachel Bernstein LMFT
  • Host of the weekly podcast "IndoctriNation"
  • Check out IndoctriNation on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/indoctrination...
  • Advisory Board Member - ICSA


Mar 24, 2020

Ex-cult member breaks down 11 cults in movies and TV

Ju Shardlow and David Ibekwe
Insider
March 24, 2020

Ian Haworth is head of the Cult Information Centre in the UK. Ian escaped from a Toronto cult in 1978.

The Cult Information Centre is a charity providing advice for victims of cults, their families and the media.

He assesses scenes in movies and TV shows inspired by true stories, such as "Waco" based on the Branch Davidians, the Manson Family in "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood," and "The Sacrament," about the events of the Jonestown Massacre.

Ian also myth busted some misconceptions about life inside a cult, looking at the movies "Ticket To Heaven," "Martha Marcy May Marlene" and "The Master."

He discusses the influence of pagan and Christian practices in modern cults, such as in "The Wicker Man" and "Midsommar."

Following is a transcript of the video.

Haworth: My name is Ian Haworth. I'm an ex-cult member. I escaped from a cult in 1978, and today I'm going to be looking at some clips from films all about cults.

PSI Mind Development Institute Ltd. I actually really wanted to quit smoking because I'm an asthmatic, my doctor had said I should quit, and I found there was a course in Toronto, so I went to the course in September of 1978, and it was Thursday night, Friday night, all day Saturday, all day Sunday, in a little motel, and we went home each evening after each session. And by the end of the course, I'd given them all the money I had, dedicated my life to it, and resigned from my job. I left the group in October of '78. So, after just two and a half weeks of involvement, I went through 11 months of withdrawal. The symptoms of withdrawal are today equated quite often with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Sacrament (2013)

It's depicting Jim Jones before he orders people to die in Jonestown, Guyana, in November of 1978. And I saw these bodies on the front page of Time magazine and elsewhere, and I thought, you know, I could have been one of those people. I think, for someone viewing it without knowing what's gone on prior, it will be difficult for them to understand. "Why would you listen to someone saying these things? They're idiotic!" Yeah, because you're using logic. But the people listening to that, in Jonestown, Guyana, were no longer able to use logic.

They had been programmed to understand that he had a special pipeline to God, if he wasn't already God himself. And so when he said drink the liquid that was laced with poison, they did it. Interestingly enough, some people did try and run away, and were shot to death. And if you've got a large population of people, such as they had about 1,000 people, you give an instruction that they are to die, in any population of cult members, some people are gonna be just a little bit closer to reality than others. We had such a good example of this, where some people thought, "Oh, hang on a minute, what's going on?"

And they headed for the jungle, and a lot of them were shot dead. But some made it into the jungle and eventually back to Georgetown, only a handful. What I don't like in this little clip is that you see very few people, because there were approximately 1,000 people there when all of this happened. He was wearing dark glasses because, the critics would say, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was covering that up. But what he told everyone else was the light of God in his eyes would knock people over unless he wore dark glasses.

Rating: 8/10

Midsommar (2019)

This is a good clip, in my opinion. It's a form of love bombing, not to recruit someone but to try and keep someone in the group at a point where their critical faculties have come back to the fore. So you bomb that person with love. You surround them with a lot of hugs and kisses. It's as phony as a three-dollar bill. It's conditional love, conditional on towing the party line. Everybody in a cult watches everyone else. And if anyone is weakening, or slipping, or whatever the terminology might be, then they'll pounce on that person psychologically and work on them.

A lot of cults used to be visually identifiable because of their clothing, but after the 1970s, most groups were much more difficult to visually identify. Very useful clip.

Rating: 8/10

Martha Marcy Mae Marlene (2011)

This is such a useful clip, as far as I'm concerned. When someone becomes a victim of mind control, there's pressure put on the human mind and a change occurs. You go through a change of personality. If this is the real you, it's pushed out of action, and a new you is created. This is such a concern for most cults that they'll have a person shadowing you so that if you were to make a phone call home, if the group knows about that ahead of time, they'll make sure that there's somebody with you, making sure that you say certain things that might even be scripted. So that's great.

Rating: 9/10

Holy Smoke (1999)

Overall, I was very, very concerned about and critical of the film because it depicted a deprograming that was so far from reality, it was just nonsense, but that clip is a good one. The issue of deprograming has always been very controversial, and what we're talking about when we talk about deprograming is a family hiring the services of somebody who would be involved in, shall we say, a form of counseling, where the person needs to be detained. And that's it. You've got to really detain the person. And so it's always very controversial, because families would grab the loved one, and the loved one would be taken away to what they would normally describe as a safe house, and the deprogrammer would start to talk to this person, and the person wouldn't be allowed to leave, and the average deprograming might take two, three, four days, something like that.

In those cases where deprogramings did occur, and they only accounted for a very small minority of cases, that was, indeed, exactly the sort of thing that would happen.

Rating: 9/10

Split Image (1982)

I think this is a great clip. I know when I was in a cult myself and I had to go out and meet people, I was given two instructions. One was, go for people you're attracted to. And two, stay away from space cadets. The lady that was talking to me to try and get me to go that meeting, she was very, very complimentary. You know, you can tend to read a little bit more into that than is actually there. They'll say anything to get you to go to that first meeting. Very, very good, that particular clip. There's a look that some people have called the thousand-mile stare, originally. We don't use it very often in the field now, but back in the 1970s, that's what it was called. It was usually associated with someone that had been put into a deep trance state and was sort of looking straight through anybody in front of them. Because they had been put into that state of mind by a cult recruiter standing about this far and locking eyes on them.

Rating: 9/10

The Master (2012)

If it's trying to show that they can dig out all kinds of things from your past that can be used against you, then that's good as well. Normally when one thinks of a cult environment, one thinks of a group of people, and the whole group is usually working on the individual. But in the group that that's portraying, there are certainly one-on-one sessions that aren't terribly dissimilar to what was shown there.

This is, presumably, trying to show the early days of what led to a situation where people are holding a couple of tin cans that are attached to wires and run to a meter that is supposed to measure one's stress level. We talk about techniques of psychological coercion being used against the individual, and the average, normal, healthy person is broken down and completely controlled in a matter of three or four days. That's all it takes.

Rating: 5/10

The Wicker Man (2006)

If we look at this clip in terms of is it possible for a cult to harm someone who comes in to investigate, no question about it. Cults will do terrible things to their own members as well, in terms of beatings. Would it be done in front of the others? Possibly. Needn't be, it could be done quietly elsewhere, so the rest of the members aren't aware. I remember, I gave evidence in a court case once in Canada and afterwards the judge said: "Should I be concerned about this particular cult that's on trial here? Is it possible that the cult leader will order something to happen to me?" And I said, "Well, Your Honor, if you say, 'Is it possible?' the answer is yes."

If the cult leaders control the minds of the members and then fill their heads with something of a pagan-related nature, then that would make sense. The key issue, rather than it being pagan or something else, is the mind control first. That's what comes first in every situation. And then you can get the members to do anything for you.

Rating: 6/10

Waco (2018)

In a typical cult, the leader will be charismatic, and so that's a good depiction of a charismatic leader there. What I also like is that he's singling out individual people in the group and talking about their academic or professional backgrounds, and that is so typical as well. You find in cults, they've recruited students, doctors, lawyers, businesspeople, you name it. Cults recruit people, and a lot of them are professional people.

What we saw in that clip was David Koresh, he was being depicted by the actor there, talking to the members of the group, and they were based in Waco, Texas, and they'd managed to amass quite a lot of weaponry over the years, and they weren't keen on visitors. At one point in time, in the 1990s, the authorities laid siege, basically, to the place. Shots were fired from both sides. A lot of officers, with the authorities, were shot and killed; others were injured. A part of the building was seen to be on fire. And I remember doing a commentary at the time, as it was happening, for one of the television stations. And only one guy jumped out of a window.

And the rest stayed inside and... and died. And that is so typical of what you would do in a cult, because if the leader says, "Stay in and we'll die and then go to heaven," or whatever he's saying, then that's what you do. Yeah, as far as the setting goes, that seemed to be accurate. They had a building very much like what we saw in the clip there. He doesn't look terribly different from the man in real life, David Koresh, so, yeah, useful clip.

Rating: 7/10

Ticket to Heaven (1981)

I love this clip. One group calls it heavenly deception. Another group calls it transcendental trickery. And the whole film is based on a true story. So, what do they sell at the doors? It can be anything. Cacti, flowers, it can be little painted something or others. One group is known for selling paintings, just absolutely anything, and that can change from week to week as the leader would want it.

Rating: 10/10

The Wicker Man (1973)

Yeah. Some cults do have schools. The standard of education they get is another matter altogether. Normally in a cult, children are a problem. Children are often treated very, very harshly to keep them quiet. And if you keep them away from their parents, then the parents aren't gonna be distracted at all if you're programming them or doing whatever you're doing with the parents.

It helps to break down the bonds as well, because the last thing a cult leader wants is for a cult member having a loving relationship with someone else and for that loving relationship to start to interfere with the control that he or she, the cult leader, has.

Rating: 7/10

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Charles Manson ran a group called the family, the Manson family. When they see a tragedy in terms of people being murdered, as was the case with the Manson family, and they can relate to that as a problem, and rightly, I think some people think, "Oh, well, that's just an extreme example of what we're talking about in the world of cults." For me, it's not. Going around murdering people usually gets the police involved, and quite rightly. So, most cult leaders don't get you to do that sort of thing. They get you to go and lie to people about fundraising activities, and so you bring in a lot of money, and you bring in a lot of people.

Rating: 7/10

https://www.insider.com/ex-cult-member-breaks-down-11-cults-in-movies-and-tv-2020

Mar 21, 2020

The Beatles Ashram in India is popular but might be scamming vulnerable tourists


Visitors are flocking to northern India to seek spiritual enlightenment but they may be being tricked by unscrupulous gurus

Luke Taylor
INews
March 2020

In North India, The Beatles’ quest for enlightenment lives on. But in the midst of the chanting, barter and guitar strumming, does something darker lurk?

When local authorities decided to open “The Beatles Ashram” to tourists back in 2015, the spiritual hermitage had become so abandoned the grass and weeds grew taller than the park rangers.

Then part of a tiger reserve, yoga aficionados and Beatles fanatics would break in at night seeking the same tranquillity and spiritual connection that brought the world’s biggest pop group all the way from Liverpool to Rishikesh, North India, back in 1968.

The forest department realised the potential revenue it might accrue by converting the ashram into a tourist attraction. And so it set about chopping back the undergrowth, setting up a café and photo exhibition and printing flyers.

Here comes the scam
The ashram first caught the world’s attention when The Beatles accepted an invitation from the charismatic guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to join him at his transcendental meditation training camp.

Film crews from across the world scrambled to the town of Rishikesh to get a glimpse of the Fab Four embracing spirituality in the Himalayan foothills.

Ringo Starr departed after only 10 days complaining about the spicy food and abundance of flies. McCartney left after four weeks. When the more committed Harrison and Lennon left, the trip was marred by allegations that the guru made sexual advances towards Mia Farrow and was exploiting the group for self-promotion.

The ashram was abandoned in the 70s and the Maharishi left India for Holland in 1990 for tax reasons. Many of the concrete buildings – the rooms where the band slept and the canteen in which they ate – are now in decay, crumbling from the damp as carpets of moss sprout from the walls.

“Of course the place is historically important,” says Nicolas Alba, a musician from Chile who fronts a funk group in the capital, Santiago. “But it’s something more than that. It has a particular energy you can feel.”

Beatles experts say the visit held great significance for the band but also for global culture, precipitating a surge in interest in eastern spirituality which continues to fascinate the West today and which has remoulded Rishikesh.

“The Beatles created curiosity among foreigners about the Himalayas,” says Raju Gusain, a Beatles in India expert based in the nearby city of Dehradun.

“10,000 people lived here in 1968; now 50,000 tourists – five times that population – come each year to visit.”

Most come to the “world capital of yoga” seeking a spiritual journey. Its vegan cafés and bakeries are filled with Westerners wearing baggy cotton yoga pants and thick woolly scarves and discussing the search for meaning.

Tourists pay as little as $1,000 (£775) per month for classes, food and accommodation and most talk highly of their ashrams. But economic opportunity has also bred charlatans and frauds.

Some beggars have realised they can get more rupees if they masquerade as monks in orange robes and tourists complain of beguiling characters relying on their charm and wit more than their expertise to fool students.

“We were hanging on his every word but I realised after half an hour that he was talking absolute nonsense,” a Spanish yoga student says of a teacher at a school she had attended and then quickly abandoned, chuckling.

“It’s hard to guarantee that every person is a real teacher – all you need is a bit of paper,” admits a teacher in a school close to the town centre. “It’s not easy to control.”

Other allegations are more sinister.

Local residents talk of consistent allegations of sexual impropriety from yoga teachers who use their position as wise gurus to take advantage of female students.

Others allegedly trick pupils into believing they are in a transcendental state of meditation by slipping hallucinogens into their tea.

Travel forums warn visitors to avoid particular teachers whom they accuse of a long list of sexually inappropriate behaviour.

In February 2018 a teacher in Rishikesh was charged with sexual harassment following accusations from a Japanese pupil. The teacher was later acquitted, however, and claimed it was “a planned conspiracy… by some foreigners who wanted to tarnish the image of the holy city.”

Unsavoury secrets
Rishikesh would not be the only retreat stalked by predators.

In 2018 Thailand’s Agama Yoga School was closed after instructor Swami Vivekandanda Saraswat – whose first school was established in Rishikesh – was accused by 14 women and two men of sexual assault, rape, and “allegedly ‘brainwashing’ hundreds of women into having sex with the Swami”.

Murray Jenkinson, 33, from Queensland, Australia, is completing his course to become a yoga instructor before heading to Thailand to teach English as a foreign language.

He says that where open-mindedness is seen as key to success, being sceptical can appear counterproductive.

“It’s hard to get into all this while being a sceptic and questioning everything – but then it’s pretty foolish not to,” he warns.

After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a commune in the middle of nowhere was hiding some unsavoury secrets.

https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/beatles-ashram-india-popular-scamming-vulnerable-tourists-2504384

Two-Week Webinar for Families and Former Members Free!

ICSA: Two-Week Webinar for Families and Former Members Free!
During this difficult time, ICSA is continuing to offer services for former cult members and resources designed to help thoughtful families and friends understand and respond to the complexity of a loved one’s cult involvement.

We understand that recovery for former cult members is ongoing, and the stress of a global pandemic may be contributing to very high levels of anxiety right now.

We are providing a free two week virtual events series that provides a selection of services/topics that ICSA has in an effort to help. This series will be streamed over Zoom. Many sessions will even have an expert available for Q&A at the end.

All talks listed are in US Eastern Time.

Monday 3/23/2020
8:00 PM - 8:30 PM
8:30 PM - 9:00 PM (Talk-back)
Introduction to Series "Cult Recovery and Family Support NOT Cancelled!"
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT, Ashlen Hilliard

Tuesday 3/24/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: A Webinar for Families and Former Members
Introduction and Overview of a Cult Model
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan

Wednesday 3/25/2020
Noon - 1:00 PM
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Talk-back)
Former Jehovah’s Witness Recovery Series: Interview with Gillie Jenkinson on the cult pseudo-identity and post-cult recovery.
Ashlen Hilliard, Gillie Jenkinson, PhD

Thursday 3/26/2020
8:00 PM - 9:25 PM
9:25 PM - 9:45 PM (Talk-back)
Former Jehovah’s Witness Recovery Series: Interview with Michael Shemwell on shunning.
Ashlen Hilliard, Michael Shemwell
Link to join: https://zoom.us/j/493693433 

Friday 3/27/2020
8:00 PM - 8:40 PM
ICSA History Collection Interview with Steve Eichel (Current President of ICSA)

Robert E. Schecter, PhD, interviewed Steve K. D. Eichel, PhD, on July 7, 2018 as part of a series of interviews designed to illuminate ICSA’s history. Dr. Eichel, who has served as ICSA’s president, discusses his early work in this field, including co-founding the counseling organization RETIRN. He also discusses changes he has observed in the field and his views on ICSA and its future.​

Saturday 3/28/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: A Webinar for Families and Former Members
Why people join groups, leave groups and stay? 
Why people join groups?
Why people stay in groups?
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan

Sunday 3/29/2020
Noon - 1:30 PM
1:30 PM - 1:45 PM (Talk-back)
Panel - Inside the Therapeutic Space w/ Ashley Allen and Doni Whitsett, PhD

Ashley Allen; Doni Whitsett In the Mental Health Cult field little, if anything, has been written about the therapeutic process from both the perspective of the therapist and the client. In contrast, much has been written by therapists and clients individually about the symptomology of former members, application of theoretical frameworks, case examples, and personal accounts. However, to our knowledge there has not been anything written or presented on the simultaneous experience of both the therapist and the client. This presentation is a unique opportunity to hear perspectives from “both sides of the couch.” It will open the door and give participants a chance to explore the therapeutic space from the point of view of a therapist, Dr. Doni Whitsett, and an SGA, Ashley Allen, MSW. We will share pertinent themes in the recovery process from our respective positions, highlight what worked and what didn’t, and explore the rationale behind those interventions. While each therapeutic experience is different and “one size doesn’t fit all,” this presentation will provide a fuller picture of the therapeutic process and jump start this important conversation.
 Ashley Allen and Doni Whitsett, PhD

Monday 3/30/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: A Webinar for Families and Former Members
Why do families become concerned?
a. Notice disturbing behavioral changes. 
b. Lack of contact. 
c. Major changes of goals. 
d. Disapprove of the group’s beliefs or practices. 
e. Don’t know anything about the group, so fear it. 
f. React against terms: “cult” “brainwashing”. 
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan

Tuesday 3/31/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM (with talkback)
A Prison of Shame and Fear: Understanding the Role of Shame in Cult Indoctrination and Recovery - Dan Shaw

Fear and shame are what bedevil all traumatized people, as they struggle to feel safe in a world where they have felt the trapped, helpless, powerlessness of traumatic experience. I explore in this talk how shame plays a part in successful cult recruitment; the role of shame in the cult leader’s psychology; the use of shame in cults as a means of control and domination; and the ways that shame haunts those who leave cults.
Dan Shaw

Wednesday 4/1/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: A Webinar for Families and Former Members
What approaches have families used to address their concerns? What has worked? 
a. What has not worked? 
b. Sharing Ideas About What Works Best? 
c. What can families do when these approaches are not feasible or appropriate. 
d. Why many groups don't fit the “cult” stereotype? 
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan 

Thursday 4/2/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: A Webinar for Families and Former Members
Intervention101 (an alternative) Approach, and how to assess your unique situation.
a. Do no harm. 
b. Who wins? The group, family or Member? 
c. How to Assess your unique situation? 
d. Ethical issues. 
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan

Friday 4/3/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: A Webinar for Families and Former Members
World views: 
a. How do people adopt a worldview? How can families  effectively communicate across worldviews? 
b. In our next session we will discuss why relationships are so important, and how to communicate with your loved one. 
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan

Saturday 4/4/2020
8:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Building Bridges; Leaving and Recovering from Cultic Groups and Relationships: A Webinar for Families and Former Members
Why are Relationships so important? How to improve communication? 
a. Developing problem-solving skills. 
b. Formulating a helping strategy. 
Rachel Bernstein, MS, LMFT Joseph Kelly, Patrick Ryan

Sunday 4/5/2020
8 PM - 8:30 PM
Therapy and Recovery
Rachel Bernstein

**To view the full schedule: http://ow.ly/2bGB50yRuCs