Denver Post: How did Love Has Won cult leader die? Coroner hopes to learn by testing body for heavy metals
"Autopsy report delayed as Saguache County coroner tries to find lab to test Amy Carlson's body.The Saguache County coroner has identified a woman found dead inside a home used by the Love Has Won cult as Amy Carlson, the group's leader, but he's not yet been able to determine her cause of death because of the need for complicated lab testing.Carlson's identity recently was confirmed through a DNA test, Coroner Tom Perrin said. However, he does not know when the autopsy report will be finished because he cannot find a laboratory to test her body for heavy metals.The cult used electrolysis to break down metals into various solutions that its members sold online as health aids, he said. Authorities want to know if Carlson had been ingesting those substances."
"Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was defrocked by The Vatican in 2019 over sex abuse allegations, is now facing criminal charges in Massachusetts for alleged sex abuse of a minor nearly 50 years ago, according to a court filing.According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday, McCarrick is charged with three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. The complaint was filed by Wellesley Police in Dedham District Court."
" ... Dissociation is a normal mental response to anxiety. A momentary anxiety arises when internal or external cues (triggers) set off a memory, a related idea, or a state of feeling that has anxiety attached to it."Dr. Singer emphasizes the primary need for education, specifically psycho education. She advises ex-members to learn about trance states, how they are induced, the results of trance states and, specifically how your group used them. Also, learn the vocabulary used to identify and label the normal human processes that describe triggers:
- Dissociation – a sudden, temporary alteration m the normally integrative functions of consciousness, identity or motor behavior
- Depersonalization – one's sense of one's own identity and reality is temporarily lost — "who am l?"
- Derealization – a sense of the reality of the external world is lost–"where am I?" "Is this real?"
Secondly, learn how to protect yourself. After leaving a highly controlled environment, you need your own space and personal time. Learning to establish healthy personal boundaries after a cult experience takes time and patience. You may want to purchase an answering machine and even monitor your calls. Remember, you don't have to answer all calls, especially calls from the group.
Ex-members benefit tremendously from ex-member support groups. However, not all of us are fortunate enough to live in a location where a support group meets. So you need to establish your own support system. Even one person you can talk to who understands can be very helpful. Some ex-members have set up a support system over the telephone or the internet.
For your own protection, resist the urge to rescue people you left behind in the cult. Remember, they know the guilt buttons to push and all the phobia indoctrination to use. These could cause triggers for you, even as well prepared as you think you are.
Third, Dr. Singer recommends that you get exit counseling. This is part of the psycho educational process. This does not have to be a formal exit counseling.
Fourth, Dr. Singer warns ex-members about going to a "normal" therapist, meaning one not knowledgeable about the effects of a thought reform environment. Therapists tend to blame
it on the ex-member, on their masochism, their dependency issues, or their parents . . ."blame the victim."And let's take the negative connotation out of the word "victim." Yes, we were the victims of a very sophisticated system of thought reform, of deception, of guilt and fear manipulation. Perhaps we were in a transitional stage where we were looking for more answers for our life than usual, or were looking for new friends, looking for spirituality, looking for somewhere to belong. A group took our best qualities and used them for their own benefit while taking our vulnerabilities and using them to exploit and manipulate us. The other side of it is that we survived! It took a lot of courage to leave the group and it takes a lot of courage to get our lives back together."
"Our guest this week is Olga Yurkova from Ukraine. Olga edits the Context and Opinions sections of StopFake.org. She teaches different audiences how propaganda works and how to identify fake news, consulting with a range of organizations and collaborating with mainstream media as a journalist.Yurkova explores propaganda methods and finds out new ways to overcome these challenges. In June 2017, she and her colleagues Maarten Schenk and Jordy Nijenhuis launched a project called Forbidden Facts, which explains how fake news spreads online through clickbait headlines on Facebook that reach out to skeptical audiences.Yurkova has 15 years of experience in journalism. She headed the local multimedia newsroom in Ternopil city for six years. She then ran the Donbas and Crimea department at the national multimedia newsroom Nova Informacia for three years. She has been working as a new media trainer since 2012, and for fighting propaganda, Yurkova was included in the list of New Europe 100 and was named a TED Fellow in 2018.Olga describes the disinformation campaign launched by Russia to influence Ukrainian popular opinion and the blatant and shocking false narratives that she set out to expose with her projects Forbidden Facts and StopFake.org .Throughout the conversation, Olga shares with Rachel her perspective on disinformation in the media landscape and talks about her work combating propaganda.Before You Go: Rachel expands on the importance of Olga's ideas around building information resilience and media literacy, explaining the manipulation of emotion that mass media often utilizes to influence large populations into believing certain narratives."
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