CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/20/2025

MLM, FLDS, Conspiracies, Geelong Revival Centre, Australia

The Guru: A Crypto MLM Scam is Taking Over a Mormon Town—It May Be Run by the Chinese Mafia

A crypto scam has inundated the once polygamous town of Short Creek. A man named Harvey Dockstader has roped hundreds of people into it, including one local who invested $200,000. A man in Sebastopol who invested 1 million dollars was found dead last December

CBC: Young people more prone to believe in conspiracies, research shows

" ... [P]eople younger than 35 are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories than other age groups, according to a recent study by Stockemer and co-author Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau that surveyed more than 380,000 people internationally.

The research was recently published in the journal Political Psychology.

"Conspiracy theories are now for everyone," Stockemer told CBC Radio's All In A Day, noting that between 20 and 25 per cent of the population believes in one.

"But the young are slightly more likely to believe in them."

For example, their research suggests a slight year-over-year drop in conspiracies to the point where an 80-year-old is about 10 per cent less likely to believe one than an 18-year-old."

The Age: I escaped a cult - for years I didn't even realise I was in one

"A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across the livestream for the Victorian parliament's inquiry into the recruitment methods and impacts of cults and organised fringe groups. It was launched after recent claims by former cult members, including from the Geelong Revival Centre, and as I looked at the inquiry's terms of reference I felt an unexpected fear escaping. I read about the coercive practices organised religious groups can use, their methods to recruit and retain members, and the significant psychological harm they can cause and found myself nodding along in recognition.

The next day these feelings came flooding back when I read a news story about a child in Queensland who died within a secretive cult, and the efforts of churches to expose coercion with their ranks.

"Good," I thought, surprised but pleased at this attention being drawn to a reality that has thus far remained largely hidden.

For five years, from late adolescence into my early 20s, I was in a cult. And for decades, I have carried and hidden this early part of my life, feeling great shame that I was gullible enough to be lured into such a group, and even more ashamed of the grievous mental health struggles I experienced upon leaving, as I tried to rebuild my life from scratch.

There is a perception that someone who finds themselves in a cult is different to the rest of us – perhaps more naive or vulnerable. While to some extent this is true, as it was my own early trauma history and psychological vulnerability that made me responsive to the recruitment tactics used, I have also spoken to numerous people who had healthy and safe lives, but still found themselves in these groups.

Many highly intelligent professionals have spoken to me of their time in organised high-control religious groups, and I have come to realise how common some of these groups are. But broadly, societal awareness of their existence is sorely lacking, perhaps led by misconceptions that cults demonstrate their strangest behaviours and beliefs openly for all to see.

In reality, most such groups will have a seemingly normal front, with stranger beliefs and coercion only appearing once you are embedded within the structure of the organisation and have bought in to some of their beliefs. That's when they warn you that changing your mind now would cause distress.

The word cult is often used unthinkingly. Cults are social groups that have extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Devotion to a particular person is another characteristic, and they are set apart from religious groups by the coercion and secrecy which characterises their actions. However, normal religious groups too can have these elements of coercion. Due to their secretive nature, it's difficult to determine how many cults operate in Australia, though estimates suggest approximately 3000, including some well-known ones such as The Family.

The hardest part of leaving a cult is the recognition that you are in a cult, and for me, this early stage took the longest. I was only able to make my way to this conclusion through anti-cult education resources, which allowed me to see the common patterns across high-control groups."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/14/2025

Mr Brain, Lycra Nuns, Abuse of Women, Trafficking, Australia, Book, Jonestown, Australia, The Saints

Telegraph: 'Abuse cult' priest received sexual massages 'to relieve tension headaches

"A former priest accused of running an abusive cult received sexual massages to relieve "terrible tension headaches", a court has heard.

Chris Brain, 68, led a group in the 1980s and 1990s in Sheffield called the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), and was viewed by his alleged victims as a God-like "prophet" whom they "worshipped".

The evangelical church movement drew crowds of hundreds of young people enticed by its "visually stunning" multimedia services featuring acid house rave music every Sunday at 9pm.

Mr Brain, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, is standing trial accused of committing sexual offences against 13 women. He denies one count of rape and 36 counts of indecent assault between 1981 and 1995.

At the opening of the trial in July, Tim Clark KC, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Brain ran "a cult", surrounded by beautiful, lingerie-wearing women known as the "Lycra Nuns", or "Lycra Lovelies".

He said that Mr Brain used his position to abuse a "staggering number of women".

Many of his victims were part of a "homebase team" tasked with cooking and cleaning for Mr Brain, as well as "putting him to bed" and giving him massages, which the court heard would often end in unsolicited groping."

Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown Paperback by Annie Dawid

"Imagine a community full of rainbow families where everyone comes together in the spirit of equality and fraternal love.

Shy pastor's daughter Marceline and her new husband Jim Jones found Peoples Temple in the face of rampant hostility and aggression in 1950s segregated AmeriKKKa.

They give hope to the poor, the miserable, the alienated and disenfranchised of all colors, and build a commune in the jungle of British Guyana.

But this Eden too has its serpent. One who is also jealous of God, and where he goes, everyone must follow, even to the grave."

Sydney Morning Herald: 'They're so fired up': The flagship ABC show taking on a deadly cult

"Six-time Walkley award-winning ABC journalist Suzanne Smith – author of The Altar Boys, about child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Newcastle – is no stranger to crimes against children.

Her investigations helped instigate the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Yet, she approached with trepidation a brief from Compass to follow up on the Toowoomba sect known as the Saints, of which 14 members were sentenced in February for the 2022 death of eight-year-old diabetic Elizabeth Struhs, whose insulin was substituted for prayer. This time, Smith wanted to achieve the seemingly impossible: offer a glimmer of hope amid the inconceivable cruelty.

"If I was just doing another, 'Isn't this shocking?' story, I think it might have broken me," Smith says. "But because there's such a groundswell of action going on [within the wider church community in the south-east Queensland city], and they're determined to expose coercive control in all their churches, it gave me a bit of hope … I think having that positive angle is really important."

Interviewed about this push for change in the Compass report are three local pastors of varying denominations: Wesleyan counsellor Cecilia Anderson, psychologist and survivor of the US Children of God cult Maria Esguerra, and Paul Reid, a former friend of the Saints' leader, Brendan Stevens. None of the jailed cult members agreed to speak.

Most confronting are the responses of Cameron Schoenfisch, whose son Lachlan is serving time in jail for manslaughter.

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/5/2025 (Jehovah's Witnesses, Book, LGBT, Geelong Revival Centre, Australia, Gloriavale, Child Abuse, New Zealand, Legal)

Jehovah's Witnesses, Book,  LGBT, Geelong Revival Centre, Australia,  Gloriavale, Child Abuse, New Zealand, Legal

Eric Schaeffer: A Lie Told Often Enough Becomes the Truth, Exposing How the Watchtower Deceives Jehovah's Witnesses

"In the late 1800s, a religious organization known as the Watchtower was born. This group places much emphasis on Christ's return and Armageddon, aggressively seeking to spread their doctrine to all who will listen. These efforts were successful, for their influence can be seen in countries and languages throughout the world. Many of the Watchtower's deceptions were easy to spot in the early days, but with almost 150 years of practice, they have found ways to fine-tune their inconsistencies. Millions have been misled by the Watchtower and have become personal carriers of their fraudulent message. These carriers are known as the Jehovah's Witnesses. After having hundreds of conversations with Jehovah's Witnesses, I began to understand that most are sincere people who generally want to please God, but fail to recognize that they have been duped by doctrinal deception. This book examines the variety of ways these deceptions take place by comparing the Bible, the original languages, church history, and the Watchtower's own material. After exploring this information, the reader will be able to see how the Watchtower has been deceiving Jehovah's Witnesses with false prophecies, misquoted scholars, historical untruths, and even purposeful changes to the Bible. This writing is respectful but does not pull any punches. It is straightforward truth that exposes the Watchtower's manipulation of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

AvoidJW: Jehovah's Witnesses Create Three New Businesses in Ireland to handle financial assets

Independent: The Jehovah's Witnesses who left the faith and never looked back: 'I was 37 and had only ever held a boy's hand

" ... McAllen, 39, who lives in Greenwich, south-east London, is today active in support groups that help people who leave high-control religious groups. She has also created a safe space online through her TikTok channel, Apostate Barbie, where she educates others about the realities of life as a Witness. A series of videos on "Random Things You Can't Do as a Jehovah's Witness" has amassed hundreds of thousands of views. "I try to keep things very factual and light," she says of her content. "I don't want it to be heavy or [involve] calling people names. I try to show that there is life after religion. That it's not all doom and gloom, that we're all happy and fine, and in fact life is better."

Like a lot of ex-Witnesses, McAllen describes leaving the religion as "waking up". She had devoted her entire life to the faith, attending regular meetings at kingdom hall and spending dozens of hours a week knocking on doors and handing out pamphlets.

Jehovah's Witnesses are prohibited from socialising with nonbelievers, higher education is often discouraged to prioritise witnessing, and dating is strictly reserved for those seeking marriage. Former members say they were warned that questioning or leaving the faith could lead to "removal from the congregation", a formal practice of excommunication that was, until recently, known as disfellowship.

A person who is disfellowshipped stands to lose everything. They are effectively shunned by the community and end up "grieving the living" after losing contact with family and friends. Nicolas Spooner, a counsellor who specialises in working with Jehovah's Witnesses who leave the organisation, says exclusion from the faith can have a lasting negative impact on mental health, career prospects and quality of life, but it can also present an opportunity for self-discovery and new experiences that would change their lives completely.

"Looking at the sorts of things they're finding out about themselves, I think mostly they're starting to realise how many life skills they lack," Spooner says. "This is what I hear more than anything else. It's quite common for [former members] to find that they shy away from social situations, because they lack certain life skills that everybody else takes for granted – like how to make friends, how to treat friends, how to be a friend. These are things that we learn as we're growing up. If you're growing up as a Witness, it's not the same."

But it's never too late to learn, he adds, as he points to his wife, Heather, who left the Jehovah's Witnesses at the age of 48. Since then, she has completed a PhD in psychology researching the effects of religious ostracism, authored a number of academic articles on the subject and is a lecturer in psychology at Manchester University."

Canberra Times: 'You could hit kids': ex-members in 'cult' abuse claims

"Former members of a fundamentalist church have lifted the lid on abuse of kids and slammed working with children checks as a sham.

Ryan Carey was born into the Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal doomsday church run by pastor Noel Hollins for more than six decades until his death in April 2024.

Mr Carey, whose father was second-in-command to Hollins, said the damage from his and others' time in the church lingers.

"I might have lived in the state of Victoria but I answered to the cult and the cult leader," he told a state parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday.

The inquiry into recruitment and retention methods of cults and organised fringe groups was green lit in April following claims of coercive practices within the church.

Mr Carey and his wife Catherine, who joined the church at age 19, were the first witnesses to give evidence at the public hearing."

AP: Leader of secretive New Zealand commune admits abusing young female church members

"The leader of an isolated and conservative Christian commune in New Zealand pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a dozen indecency and assault charges against women and girls who were members of the religious group.

The admission of guilt from Howard Temple came three days into a trial at which he was accused of abusing members of the Gloriavale commune, aged between 9 and 20 over a period of two decades.

Complainants who appeared in the opening days of Temple's trial at the Greymouth District Court said he had touched or groped them while they were performing domestic duties, including in front of other Gloriavale members during mealtimes, Radio New Zealand reported.

They told the court they were too scared to challenge the leader and feared being told the abuse was their fault.

Temple, who is 85 and known as the Overseeing Shepherd of Gloriavale, earlier denied the two dozen charges, and was scheduled to face a three-week trial. But on [July 30th], his lawyer said the leader would admit to an amended list of 12 crimes."

RNS: Gloriavale leader assault trial enters third day

"Three former Gloriavale members have told a court they were touched, grabbed and groped by the Overseeing Shepherd Howard Temple, on the second day of his trial in Greymouth. Mr Temple has pleaded not guilty to 24 charges of sexual assault and doing an indecent act."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/31/2025 (Geelong Revival Centre, Australia, Legal, Paranormal Phenomena, Mormonism)

Geelong Revival Centre, Australia, Legal, Paranormal Phenomena, Mormonism

The Guardian: Sunday school teacher jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by church leader, Victorian cult inquiry hears

"A Sunday school teacher who was jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by the leader of his fundamentalist church, after parents reported the abuse to him instead of police, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Catherine and Ryan Carey, former members of the Geelong Revival Centre (GRC), gave evidence at the first hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into the practices of cults and organised fringe groups on Wednesday.

The inquiry was established in April, after allegations of coercive practices at the GRC, as detailed in LiSTNR's investigative podcast series Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder. The church has not publicly commented on the allegations contained in the podcast.

Led by the legislative assembly's legal and social issues committee, the inquiry is not examining specific religious groups or their beliefs but rather the methods they use to attract and retain members – and whether those practices amount to coercion that should be criminalised.

Ryan told the inquiry the man had a valid working with children check at the time of the offending and described the government's screening process as a "Band-Aid on an amputee".

"He was convicted last year of molesting nine kids in the Geelong community and the parents that found out reported it to the cult leader – and this was in the judgment – instead of going [to] police," he said."

Gallup: Paranormal Phenomena Met With Skepticism in U.S.

Two-thirds of Americans are skeptical of paranormal beliefs; none of eight concepts are believed by a majority.

"Americans are broadly skeptical about each of eight paranormal phenomena tested in a recent Gallup poll. Nearly half of U.S. adults, 48%, believe in psychic or spiritual healing. Slightly fewer, 39%, express a belief in ghosts, while between 24% and 29% say they believe in six other supernatural phenomena, including telepathy, communication with the dead, clairvoyance, astrology, reincarnation and witches.

For each of these paranormal phenomena, respondents were asked whether or not they believe in it or are unsure. Roughly one in five Americans are unsure about each of them, while at least half say they don't believe in clairvoyance (50%), reincarnation (50%), astrology (55%) or witches (60%)."

" ... These findings are based on a Gallup poll conducted May 1-18, 2025.

Americans' levels of belief in five of the eight paranormal phenomena are statistically similar to Gallup's 2001 readings. Gallup has previously asked about various paranormal phenomena in 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2001 and 2005 surveys. Comparisons to some of these past data are complicated by whether the paranormal questions were preceded by questions about religion, which appear to influence the way people think about communicating with the dead and ghosts or spirits.

The 1994, 2001 and 2025 surveys included religion questions. A comparison of the 2025 results with those from 2001 shows that Americans' beliefs in paranormal phenomena are largely unchanged. The exceptions are six-percentage-point declines in belief in psychic or spiritual healing and clairvoyance, and a seven-point drop in belief in telepathy."

RNS: She survived abuse and left her faith. Now, she gives religious trauma survivors a voice on YouTube.

"Shelise Ann Sola grew up in a devout Mormon family in Tremonton, Utah. At 19, after being berated by her local bishop for being sexually active with her boyfriend, she began to question her faith, she told RNS.

Then, when she was 27, after leaving the church and moving to Las Vegas, memories of suffering sexual abuse as a child at the hands of her father resurfaced.

"I would wake up screaming and hyperventilating until I figured out what it was," Sola said.

Sola confronted her father soon after the memories began. He eventually admitted to the abuse when she was 32 — two weeks before her wedding, she said.

"It took five years for him to admit to everything," Sola, now 34, said. "But those are experiences that I can hold compassion for and have a better understanding of how to talk to survivors because of them."

Today, Sola is the host of Cults to Consciousness, a YouTube channel with 326,000 subscribers she runs with her husband and co-producer, Jonathan Rosales. Since the channel's launch in 2022, Sola has interviewed hundreds of survivors who escaped what she often described as "high-control" religious and/or spiritual groups, or more plainly, cults. Guests recount harrowing journeys through systems of manipulation, abuse and control by fear and exclusion in long-form interviews."

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/30/2025 (Aum Shinrikyo, Japan, Aleph, Podcast, Geelong Revival Centre, Australia)

Aum Shinrikyo, Japan,  Aleph, Podcast,  Geelong Revival Centre, Australia

The Asahi Shimbun: Son of executed Aum founder acknowledged as new cult leader Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult

"The second son of executed Aum Shinrikyo leader Chizuo Matsumoto has emerged as the "second-generation guru" and de facto leader of the doomsday cult's successor group, Aleph, according to the Public Security Intelligence Agency.

The confirmation by the PSIA underscores the government's continued scrutiny of individuals linked to Matsumoto, who also went by the name of Shoko Asahara.

Matsumoto was executed in 2018. He masterminded the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system that killed 14 people and sickened thousands.

The agency announced on July 22 that his second son has been steering Aleph's operations for nearly a decade.

It also determined that Matsumoto's widow plays a key supporting role in aiding her son's leadership."

History: America's Book of Secrets: What Draws People Into A Cult?

"What draws people into a cult and why can't they leave? Explore the psychology, power, and danger of cults, including a survivor's account of Jonestown and the government's response or lack of it. See more in Season 2, Episode 6, 'Deadly Cults.'"

The Canberra Times: 'You could hit kids': ex-members in 'cult' abuse claims

"Former members of a fundamentalist church have lifted the lid on abuse of kids and slammed working with children checks as a sham.

Ryan Carey was born into the Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal doomsday church run by pastor Noel Hollins for more than six decades until his death in April 2024.

Mr Carey, whose father was second-in-command to Hollins, said the damage from his and others' time in the church lingers.

"I might have lived in the state of Victoria but I answered to the cult and the cult leader," he told a state parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday.

The inquiry into recruitment and retention methods of cults and organised fringe groups was green lit in April following claims of coercive practices within the church.

Mr Carey and his wife Catherine, who joined the church at age 19, were the first witnesses to give evidence at the public hearing.

He left the group in 2020, with Ms Carey following 18 months later with their two children.

The pair have since formed Stop Religious Coercion Australia and are pushing for more regulation and oversight of such groups.

"They use friends, family and fear to control their members," Mr Carey said.

The environments were the "most unsafe" for children, he added, pointing to the highly publicised case of a revival member being convicted of child sex abuse."

'You could hit kids': ex-members in 'cult' abuse claims

Callum Godde

Canberra Times

July 23, 2025

Former members of a fundamentalist church have lifted the lid on abuse of kids and slammed working with children checks as a sham.

Ryan Carey was born into the Geelong Revival Centre, a Pentecostal doomsday church run by pastor Noel Hollins for more than six decades until his death in April 2024.

Mr Carey, whose father was second-in-command to Hollins, said the damage from his and others' time in the church lingers.

"I might have lived in the state of Victoria but I answered to the cult and the cult leader," he told a state parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday. 

The inquiry into recruitment and retention methods of cults and organised fringe groups was green lit in April following claims of coercive practices within the church.

Mr Carey and his wife Catherine, who joined the church at age 19, were the first witnesses to give evidence at the public hearing.

He left the group in 2020, with Ms Carey following 18 months later with their two children.

The pair have since formed Stop Religious Coercion Australia and are pushing for more regulation and oversight of such groups.

"They use friends, family and fear to control their members," Mr Carey said.

The environments were the "most unsafe" for children, he added, pointing to the highly publicised case of a revival member being convicted of child sex abuse.

Todd Hubers van Assenraad was jailed for 22 years in 2025 after pleading guilty to abusing nine children aged six to 12 in his care from 2016.

Mr Carey said the East Geelong man worked most of his life as a Sunday school teacher and held approval to work with children.

Parents found out about the abuse and reported it to the leader but a two-and-a-half-day lag allowed Hubers van Assenraad to destroy evidence, Mr Carey said.

The working with children regime has come under intense national scrutiny in recent weeks after Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown was charged with abusing eight kids in his care.

Children were still commonly being left alone with elders in one-on-one situations, where "anything could happen" because they believed themselves the "Oracle of God", the inquiry heard.

"(The) working with children check is ... like a BandAid on an amputee," Mr Carey said.

Elders were "regularly" instructed to mete out physical punishment to kids, especially if they belonged to a single mother.

"If you were in Sunday school or child minding, you coulhit kids and it was absolutely disastrous," Mr Carey said.

"I speak to adults now that are still traumatised."

Mr Carey said Hollins would preach to "spare the rod, spoil the child", with parents encouraged to break their children in like a horse.

"I was told I had to crush my kids' will by the time they were three to make them compliant," he said.

Journalist Richard Baker, who investigated the church in podcast series Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder, said the use of coercive methods such as shunning were not unique to the revival system.

"The issues you're looking at are really national," he told the lower house committee.

The inquiry will deliver a final report to parliament by September 30, 2026.

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

Australian Associated Press

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9023697/you-could-hit-kids-ex-members-in-cult-abuse-claims/

Sunday school teacher jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by church leader, Victorian cult inquiry hears

Former Geelong Revival Centre members tell inquiry abuse went unreported because group believed its authority was ‘higher than the law of the land’

Benita Kolovos Victorian state correspondent

The Guardian 

July 23, 2025

A Sunday school teacher who was jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by the leader of his fundamentalist church, after parents reported the abuse to him instead of police, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Catherine and Ryan Carey, former members of the Geelong Revival Centre (GRC), gave evidence at the first hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into the practices of cults and organised fringe groups on Wednesday.

The inquiry was established in April, after allegations of coercive practices at the GRC, as detailed in LiSTNR’s investigative podcast series Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder. The church has not publicly commented on the allegations contained in the podcast.

Led by the legislative assembly’s legal and social issues committee, the inquiry is not examining specific religious groups or their beliefs but rather the methods they use to attract and retain members – and whether those practices amount to coercion that should be criminalised.

Ryan told the inquiry the man had a valid working with children check at the time of the offending and described the government’s screening process as a “Band-Aid on an amputee”.

“He was convicted last year of molesting nine kids in the Geelong community and the parents that found out reported it to the cult leader – and this was in the judgment – instead of going [to] police,” he said.

“There was a two-and-a-half day lag where this guy was able to destroy evidence – I think [there] was 12 terabytes of child pornography – because the parents didn’t do the right thing and go report this [to] police.”

Catherine said that during this time a child was also left in the care of the man. She said GRC’s leader only contacted police after learning the man had already turned himself in.

Ryan said the abuse went unreported because the GRC acted like a “state within a state” and believed its authority was “higher than the law of the land”.

He said when sexual abuse occurred within families, it was also “covered up” by the GRC and victims “blamed” by their offenders.

“The girls were always seen as the flirts and the ones that were leading the men astray, like it was never the male’s fault, which is, it’s just horrible,” Ryan said.

The podcast’s creator, journalist Richard Baker, also told the inquiry he was aware of another GRC member in Newcastle who is facing “serious child sexual abuse charges” but the centre allowed “to attend a summer camp with hundreds of families”.

“We have ... presumption of innocence and all of that. But also … wouldn’t you have an abundance of caution to say, maybe this isn’t the right environment while someone is facing such serious charges, to be in a campsite with dozens, if not hundreds of children?” Baker said.

“I find that troubling.”

Ryan also told the inquiry the environment within the GRC was “unsafe for kids”, saying it was common for young people to be left alone with elders.

Elders, meanwhile, were regularly instructed to physically punish children – especially those with single mothers.

“If you were in Sunday school or child minding, you could hit kids,” Ryan said. “It was absolutely disastrous. I speak to adults now that are still traumatised.”

Families were also instructed to discipline their children harshly. Ryan told the inquiry he was told to “crush my kids’ will by the time they are three to make them compliant” while Catherine said comparisons were made to “breaking in a horse”.

The couple have since left the GRC and founded the group Stop Religious Coercion Australia. They maintain the centre is a cult, as it uses “friends, family and fear” to control its members and isolate those who leave.

Ryan said his father was “second in charge of the cult” in Geelong and, from the moment he was born, he “answered to the cult and the cult leader”, living in a “constant state of fear” that the “world was going to end”.

Catherine, meanwhile, joined at age 19, during a period when she had experienced trauma and felt isolated and vulnerable, or “ripe to be sucked into a cult”, as she put it.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/23/sunday-school-teacher-jailed-for-sexually-abusing-nine-children-protected-by-church-leader-victorian-cult-inquiry-hears-ntwnfb

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/22/2025

Conspiracies, Science, Victoria's Inquiry Into Cults

Cornell Chronicle: Conspiracy theorists unaware their beliefs are on the fringe

"Overconfidence is a hallmark trait of people who believe in conspiracies, and they also significantly overestimate how much others agree with them, Cornell psychology researchers have found. The study indicates that belief in conspiracies may be less about a person's needs and motivations and more about their failure to recognize that they might be wrong.

Conspiracy believers not only consistently overestimates their performance on numeracy and perception tests, revealing they tend to be less analytic in the way they think. They also are genuinely unaware that their beliefs are on the fringe, thinking themselves to be in the majority 93% of the time, according to the research. The work counters previous theories that people believe conspiracies essentially because they want to, out of narcissism or to appear unique.

"This group of people are really miscalibrated from reality," said Gordon Pennycook, associate professor of psychology and the Himan Brown Faculty Fellow in the College of Arts and Sciences. "In many cases, they believe something that very few people agree with. Not only is it something that doesn't make a lot of sense, based on what we know about the world, but they also have no idea how far out in the fringe they are. They think they are in the majority in most cases, even if they're in a tiny minority."

Pennycook is the corresponding author of "Overconfidently Conspiratorial: Conspiracy Believers are Dispositionally Overconfident and Massively Overestimate How Much Others Agree with Them," which was published May 24 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Jabin Binnendyk, a doctoral student in psychology, and David G. Rand of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are co-authors.

Rand and Pennycook started this research in 2018, observing that people who believe conspiracies seem to have a real faith in their own cognitive abilities, "which is paradoxical," Pennycook said, "because prior work has shown that people who believe in conspiracies tend to be more intuitive."

The researchers conducted eight studies with 4,181 U.S. adults. Four studies assessed participants' levels of overconfidence using tests of perception, numeracy and cognitive reflection. Because overconfidence is difficult to measure – those who are the most incompetent are the least able to recognize their own incompetence, Pennycook said – the researchers used a new measurement approach to account for this effect. Rather than completing specific tests with measurable outcomes, participants were given tasks where actual performance and their perceived performances were unrelated, such as quickly discerning an image so obscured, they essentially have to guess what it is."

The Conversation: Articles on Doing science

Research replication can determine how well science is working – but how do scientists replicate studies?

Amanda Kay Montoya, University of California, Los Angeles

What is peer review? The role anonymous experts play in scrutinizing research before it gets published

Joshua Winowiecki, Michigan State University

Scientific norms shape the behavior of researchers working for the greater good

Jeffrey A. Lee, Texas Tech University

While rarely explicitly taught to scientists in training, a set of common values guides science in the quest to advance knowledge while being ethical and trustworthy.

Lifecycle of a research grant – behind the scenes of the system that funds science

Kelly S. Mix, University of Maryland

A scholar reveals the ins and outs of how research gets funded, including the checks and balances that ensure high scientific standards and financial integrity at every stage of a grant's life cycle.

The Guardian: Victorian government opposes Moira Deeming-backed push to include 'transgender ideology' in cults inquiry

"Liberal MP urges people to make submissions to inquiry as Labor insists it will look into harmful and coercive groups, not target trans communities"

"Victoria's equality minister says the government will oppose a push to examine "transgender ideology" as part of an upcoming inquiry into cults.

Earlier this month, anti-trans lobby group Binary published a blog post saying the Liberal party MP Moira Deeming was "urging people to make submissions" to the parliamentary inquiry into cults and organised fringe groups and had "shared a helpful document with suggested answers".

Deeming has told Guardian Australia she distributed the document that claims transgender ideology "operates like a cult and harms people in the same way".

The six-page document offers "tips" for people who believe "transgender ideology is harmful and cult-like" and stresses submissions highlighting three key elements – manipulation, domination and psychological harm."

" ... [T]he minister for equality, Vicki Ward, said the inquiry would not cover gender identity or healthcare, as the issues were outside its scope.

"This inquiry has been established to examine harmful and coercive groups, not target trans and gender diverse communities," Ward said.

"In Victoria, equality is not negotiable. We will continue to fight discrimination and ensure all Victorians can live safely, wholly and freely as their authentic selves.'"

Victoria is looking into religious cults - here’s what it should examine

Jaime Simpson, Kathleen McPhillips, University of Newcastle

The Conversation

June 18, 2925

"The Victorian parliament has launched a long-overdue inquiry into abuse and coercive control within cults and religious fringe groups.

It is a welcome acknowledgement of the damage that can flourish under the guise of faith, and the unquestioning obedience to authoritarian leaders in religious groups.

The inquiry will hear victim-survivors can suffer a diverse range of harms, including sexual, financial and labour exploitation, spiritual manipulation, and institutional betrayal.

The inquiry is the first of its kind in Australia.

Prompted by recent events, including reports of coercive behaviour at the Geelong Revival Centre, the inquiry will examine “the methods used to recruit and control their members, and the impacts of coercive control”.

According to the committee’s guidance note, the focus will be on techniques that can damage individuals emotionally, psychologically, financially and even physically.

Importantly, the inquiry will interrogate “abusive practices”, not the beliefs behind them:
There is a distinction between genuine religious practice and harmful behaviour. “Freedom of religion” is not freedom, for example, to defraud, nor is it freedom to cause significant psychological harm to any person.

Consideration will be given to whether the law adequately protects people when cults and fringe groups cause the types of harm that should be criminalised.

Sexual control
My research examined the sexual exploitation of congregation members perpetrated by pastors within evangelical, Pentecostal faith communities in Australia.

Respondents described feeling broken, shattered, and spiritually battered. The harms were similar to those experienced by survivors of incest, child sexual abuse and domestic violence.

For example:
• 72% of respondents were diagnosed with an anxiety disorder
• 52% suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• 48% were diagnosed with depression
• 48% experienced suicidal ideation.

As American sociologist and cult expert Janja Lalich explains:

Sexual control is seen as the final step in the objectification of the cult member by the authoritarian leader, who is able to satisfy his needs through psychological manipulation leading to sexual exploitation."

[Continue reading]
https://theconversation.com/victoria-is-looking-into-religious-cults-heres-what-it-should-examine-259152

The Bizarre + Disturbing “Universal Medicine” Cult

 Noor Jasmine

Melbourne doctor formed cult before using god-like status to rape members’ children

Pradeep Dissanayake forced members to give him money and send hourly messages of praise before he sexually abused two girls, court of appeal says

Christopher Knaus

Guardian 

December 30, 2024

A Melbourne skin doctor established a Buddhist-Christian cult and used his “godlike status” to rape his followers’ children while forcing them to give him money and send hourly text messages of praise.

Pradeep Dissanayake, the founder of the Windsor-based Melbourne Medical Skin Clinic, returned from a trip to Sri Lanka in 2016 and began to preach, eventually establishing a sect that blended Buddhism and Christianity, according to a Victorian court of appeal decision published earlier this month.

As the leader of the sect, Dissanayake exerted significant control over his followers.

He told them where they should live, how they should raise their children, and demanded hourly text messages praising him, according to the court’s judgment.

His followers were forced to seek permission for everything they did, including showering and leaving the home, and were made to kneel when he entered their homes.

Men were instructed to stay together at one house and women at another. Parents had to “relinquish the parenting of their own biological children and parent their co-habitants’ children instead”.

The doctor assumed a “godlike status”, the court decision said, which gave him access to and control over two 12-year-old girls, who were daughters of his followers.

He was found to have sexually abused both repeatedly over a period of months, including during a December 2021 trip to Bunnings to purchase supplies to help members of the sect paint a Melton home. On other occasions, the abuse occurred in hotel rooms and at a car park.

He later told psychologists that he raped the girls to teach them how to “respect the lord” and said his desire was to “fix” his victims by showing them love, the court judgment said.

Dissanayake said he did not derive any sexual satisfaction from the abuse, a claim the court of appeal described as both “delusional and chilling”.

“The complainants were vulnerable young girls whose families were in the thrall of the respondent,” the court of appeal said. “He used his position and influence to facilitate access to the complainants and exert influence over them to commit the crimes. The offending was predatory offending of a disgusting and shameless kind.”

Dissanayake was initially sentenced in the Victorian county court to eight years’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of five years.

Prosecutors appealed against the sentence, saying it was manifestly inadequate. They told the court of appeal that the offending was serious because of the 37-year age gap between the offender and his victims, the vulnerability of the girls, and the use of Dissanayake’s position as leader of the sect to facilitate access and exert influence over the girls.

The court of appeal agreed, increasing the sentence to 10 years and 10 months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of eight years.

“In this case, the respondent’s conduct has harmed two complainants and was particularly egregious given his role, not as a doctor, but as the leader of the sect to which the complainants’ parents belonged and over whom he exercised significant authority and control,” the court found.

“Furthermore, the offending was planned and then concealed from other adults with lies. The respondent continued to be indifferent to the harm inflicted on the complainants until well after he was charged and, until at least April 2023, he was peddling the explanation that he had been doing the complainants some kind of favour.

“He left his substantial expression of remorse to the day of sentencing.”

The court rejected the notion that Dissanayake had been blinded by some kind of “religious ‘fog’” that clouded his ability to recognise the illegality of his actions.

Dissanayake, the court said, was a “medical practitioner and an obviously intelligent and well educated man” who “well knew” he was engaging in criminal conduct.

He initially migrated to Australia with his wife and two sons in 2006. He was an accredited doctor and only stopped working in April 2022 when he told the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency of the charges against him, prompting a suspension of his licence.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/31/melbourne-doctor-pradeep-dissanayake-formed-cult-members-children-ntwnfb

CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/17/2024 (Samuel Bateman, Legal, Australia, Coercive Control, Jim Jones)

Samuel Bateman, Legal, Australia, Coercive Control, Jim Jones

Salt Lake Tribune: Samuel Bateman gets 50 years in prison after admitting he sexually abused his child 'wives' in FLDS offshoot

The 48-year-old man rose to power among several polygamous families in 2019 after claiming that he was a new prophet.

She was 14 years old in 2021 when Samuel Bateman decided he wanted her as a wife — and the self-proclaimed prophet took her as one of 20 women and girls he "spiritually married."

Bateman was leading a sect that broke off from the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Being a Bateman "wife," the girl said in a victim impact statement, harmed every part of her life.

He stripped her of her personality, her dreams and her ambitions, she wrote. She lost her chance for an education and self-confidence. He sexually abused her and he harmed her family relationships.

This girl and the nine other children that Bateman married will "live with the memories and the trauma" for the rest of their lives, federal prosecutors argued in court papers prior to Bateman's Monday sentencing in an Arizona courtroom. For that, the government attorneys urged, Bateman deserved to spend 50 years in federal prison — essentially a life sentence for the 48-year-old."

Sydney Morning Herald: Call to outlaw 'coercive' cults, stop financial secrecy for extreme churches

"A widening of coercive control laws to cover groups such as cults and changes to the tax breaks afforded to religious organisations are among reforms proposed after the exposure of extreme teachings at a secretive Australian church.

Former members of the hardline Geelong Revival Centre want criminal coercive control laws, which predominantly target domestic violence, expanded to include extreme religious sects and high-demand groups."

CNN: It was a cult compound where more than 900 people died. Now it might become a tourist attraction

"Guyana is revisiting a dark history nearly half a century after U.S. Rev. Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers died in the rural interior of the South American country.

It was the largest suicide-murder in recent history, and a government-backed tour operator wants to open the former commune now shrouded by lush vegetation to visitors, a proposal that is reopening old wounds, with critics saying it would disrespect victims and dig up a sordid past.

Jordan Vilchez, who grew up in California and was moved into the Peoples Temple commune at age 14, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the U.S. that she has mixed feelings about the tour.

She was in Guyana's capital the day Jones ordered hundreds of his followers to drink a poisoned grape-flavored drink that was given to children first. Her two sisters and two nephews were among the victims.

"I just missed dying by one day," she recalled.

Vilchez, 67, said Guyana has every right to profit from any plans related to Jonestown.

"Then on the other hand, I just feel like any situation where people were manipulated into their deaths should be treated with respect," she said.

Vilchez added that she hopes the tour operator would provide context and explain why so many people went to Guyana trusting they would find a better life."

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