This year, we will remember the victims of the Jonestown tragedy…
We want to honor the lives that have been taken.
Jonestown survivor, John Cobb, has created a memorial site, and with assistance from the San Francisco Historical Society, provided photographs that show the faces of massacre victims. The victims ranged from children to seniors and the vast majority of them were African Americans.
As stated on the memorial site, family members and friends of victims will be gathered at the annual Jonestown Memorial Gathering which will be held at the Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California at 2:00 pm on Friday, November 18th, 2022.
The memorial will also be live-streamed on the Jonestown Memorial Facebook site.
Spreading awareness of those harmed by cults…
Cults became front-page news after the catastrophe of Johnstown in 1978, which was the launchpad for discussions and debates in which academics, family members, activists, and others yielded different perspectives on how to approach those in cultic environments as well as concepts that existed in those settings such as "brainwashing" (Langone, 2015).
Defining “cult”
The term ‘cult’ historically has definitional ambiguity amongst professionals in the field.
Due to this challenge, an alternative approach has been to identify the effects of destructive group settings, which can lie on a continuum, which can encapsulate many different types of destructive groups, from extreme exploitative groups to those who lie in the "gray zone" (Aronoff, Lynn, & Malinoski, 2000, p. 94). It is important to note that the Jonestown massacre was on the extreme end of the continuum of harm that can occur in cults, and such extremes are in the minority.
Because cults can encompass a broad range of psychologically abusive environments, they can also be referred to as totalist systems, destructive group settings, abusive group settings and defined as:
“A group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g., isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it…), designed to advance the goals of the group’s leaders, to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community” (West & Langone, 1986, pp. 119–120).
Prevalence
How many are involved in cults? The numbers vary.
In 1982, Margaret Singer, a professor of psychology, suggested that "300,000 to three million" individuals nationally were cult-involved.
More recent reports from Researchers Saldaña, Rodríguez-Carballeira, Almendros, and Escartín (2017) suggest that there are approximately 2,500,000 people involved in cults and over 5,000 destructive groups throughout North America.
Awareness of harms
Survivors of these groups who encounter cult recovery professionals are typically those who have been harmed in a destructive group environment and are seeking resources. However, it is important to recognize that an individual's experience in groups is unique, and can range from benign to extremely harmful.
Unfortunately, those who have experienced destructive group settings are often stigmatized for their associations due to a lack of understanding of undue influence and coercive control. It is essential to be aware of why individuals join cults as provided by Cult Recovery 101:
“When ex-members had been polled (at ICSA Recovery Workshops) they consistently gave these reasons for joining their groups: Idealism, Friendship, Love, Freedom, Community, Mission, Sincerity, Salvation, Enlightenment, Spiritual high. People don’t join cults. They get involved in groups they are led to believe represent these high ideals.”
— Rosanne Henry, MA, LPC
Resources for those who have been harmed in cults…
As we look ahead into the new year, in conjunction with International Cult Awareness Day, we wanted to mark May 18th 2024 as International Cult Recovery Day.
Cult recovery resources will be added to Cult Recovery Day’s social media handles including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages leading up to February 1st. Please follow, like, and share content recovery resources that will be added between now and February 1st by our sponsors and co-sponsors.
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