CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/10/2025 (Snap Evaluations, Book Review, Repressed Memory, Recovery Workshop)

Snap Evaluations, Book Review, Repressed Memory, Recovery Workshop

The Conversation: Stop the 'good' vs 'bad' snap judgments and watch your world become more interesting

'The Art of the Interesting' explores " ... the ways the evaluative perspective squashes your ability to experience psychological richness and other positive dimensions of life. The more you instinctively react with a "good" or a "bad," the less of the world you take in. You'll be less likely to engage your mind, exercise curiosity and have interesting experiences."

" ... Evaluation narrows your mind

When you instinctively label something as good or bad, you focus only on the features that make that thing good or bad."

" ... When snap evaluations reign, you effectively shut yourself off from a wide range of possible experiences. When everything around you is just good or bad, nothing can be perplexing, mysterious or intriguing. Nothing can be simply new, or simply challenging, or simply stimulating. Nothing is interesting, for your mind has filtered out these possible sources of cognitive engagement. It sees what it expects, and nothing else.

Open your mind for more psychological richness

Snap evaluations narrow your perspective and limit your mind's potential to connect and engage with other aspects of your experiences. But you can unlock this potential simply by resisting any instinct to judge and instead viewing the world without trying to evaluate what you see."

ICSA Reviews: "Memory Warp: How the Myth of Repressed Memory Arose and Refuses to Die", reviewed by Joe Szimhart

" ... Memory Warp is structured in a way that guides readers through the history, development, and impact of the recovered memory movement. Pendergrast begins by revisiting cases from the 1980s and 1990s, a period when the belief in repressed and recovered memories gained significant traction. He provides detailed accounts of individuals and families affected by these memories, highlighting the often-devastating consequences.

The book also explores the role of therapists and the methods they use to uncover supposedly repressed memories. Pendergrast critically examines techniques such as hypnosis, guided imagery, and other suggestive practices, questioning their validity and the scientific basis behind them. He presents compelling evidence that these methods can create false memories, leading to a phenomenon known as False Memory Syndrome (FMS)."

HEART (healing from emotional, anger, and relational trauma)

HEART (healing from emotional, anger, and relational trauma) is an educational support group that offers a safe place tpo focus on healing with positive strategies to deal more effectively with anger and other emotions, coercive control, traumatic narcissism & gaslighting as part of an ongoing discussion.  The next series continues Monday, July 14 at 12:30 pm and Wednesday, July 16 at 7:30 pm for 4 sessions each. For more information, schedule, and registration, call or text 516-547-4318 or email paul.engel@flushingjcc.net or email paul.engel@flushingjcc.net.

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources about: cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations, and related topics.

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The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not imply that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly endorse the content. We provide information from multiple perspectives to foster dialogue.

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CultNEWS101 Articles: 1/11/2022 (White Supremacists, Legal, Zendik Farm, Polygamist, False Memories)

White Supremacists, Legal, Zendik Farm, Polygamist, False Memories

RNS: California man gets second life term for synagogue attack

A 22-year-old white supremacist was sentenced Tuesday to life in federal prison for killing a woman and injuring three others in a shooting at a Southern California synagogue in 2019, adding to the life term he received three months earlier in state court.

John T. Earnest declined to speak in a courtroom full of victims, families and congregants. In state court, his attorney said he wanted to speak but a judge refused, saying he didn't want to give a platform for his hate-filled speech.

Earnest's attorney, Ellis Johnston III, said his client acknowledged his actions were "inappropriate," a statement that was greeted with skepticism by prosecutors. Peter Ko, a federal prosecutor, said Earnest's show of contrition came shortly after the shooting in a recorded phone call to someone else.

Denver Gazette: Killer was a member of a polygamous cult, friend says

"Helen Zuman and Lyndon McLeod had an unusual connection: they were indoctrinated into the same polygamist cult, and they both escaped, but not at the same time.

In fact, they just missed each other back then. McCleod left the Zendik Farm cult in North Carolina in the spring of 1999 and she joined that fall.  Zuman's book "Mating in Captivity" is a memoir about her experience with Zendik, a group which controlled sex between its members. Zendik philosophy banned monogamy because, as cult founder Wulf Zendik wrote,  "possessive attitudes about sex lead to jealousy, hate, violence, murder."

Some of McLeod's writings echoed these thoughts. He believed that society should revert back to tribal masculine-led society. "I want a return to Alpha Kings and their harems," he wrote in his blog. "We are sexually dimorphic and that means the alpha - the badass – gets all the women and the other 90% don't get any at all."

Zuman, a Harvard-graduate, first met McLeod when he contacted her in 2008 after reading Mating in Captivity. The two had spotty communication until 2018, when he published the first of three volumes of his book, Sanction, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Roman McClay."  

For months, Zuman and McLeod's friendship blossomed as they shared experiences, philosophies and jokes over long phone calls, texts and emails.

"I knew him as Lyndon," said Zuman, who explained there was a mystical reason behind the chosen pen name. "Roman came from a play on words for 'roman a clef', a kind of novel that's based on real life. In his book, he used his own real name and he used the real names of characters he knew from Zyndek."  

Zuman said that McLeod's character kills 46 people, one of whom is named "Michael Swinyard" -- whom he actually did shoot and kill Monday evening. "In the book there's at least one scene where Lyndon murders people in a tattoo parlor," said Zoman. Why did the character kill people? "As far as I know he did it because he wanted revenge. He wanted to avenge Lyndon," Zuman said.

Wednesday, McLeod's family announced in a statement that they had been estranged for a number of years, explaining, "We lost our son and brother years ago." But according to Zuman, the feeling was mutual, "He had beefs with his father, how he treated him and how he was raised," she said. "He looked down on his family as being normal, pedestrian and sort of sold out and mainstream."

Neuroscience News: False Memories Can Be Reversed

Summary: Researchers have developed new techniques that can correct false memory recollections without damaging true autobiographical memories.

"The study highlights – for the first time – techniques that can correct false recollections without damaging true memories. It is published by researchers from the University of Portsmouth, UK, and the Universities of Hagen and Mainz, Germany.

There is plenty of psychological research which shows that memories are often reconstructed and therefore fallible and malleable. However, this is the first time research has shown that false memories of autobiographical events can be undone.

Studying how memories are created, identified and reversed could be a game changer in police and legal settings, where false memories given as evidence in a courtroom can lead to wrongful convictions.

According to Dr Hartmut Blank, co-author of the research from the University of Portsmouth's Department of Psychology, "believing, or even remembering something that never happened may have severe consequences. In police interrogations or legal proceedings, for instance, it may lead to false confessions or false allegations, and it would be highly desirable, therefore, to reduce the risk of false memories in such settings."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

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Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.

False Memories Can Be Planted and Then Reversed, Researchers Find

German study points to possible techniques for recognizing and correcting erroneous recollections

The new study confirms previous research on the malleability of memory. Some earlier findings suggest true memories tend to be stronger than false ones.

The new study confirms previous research on the malleability of memory. Some earlier findings suggest true memories tend to be stronger than false ones.

Brianna Abbott

WSJ

March 22, 2021

Researchers in Germany and the U.K. said they were able to plant false memories and then help study volunteers root them out, work that suggests potential remedies to ease the problem of erroneous recollections.

The scientists used interviews to convince some study subjects they had undergone childhood events that didn’t happen to them, such as getting lost or being in a car accident, according to a report published Monday in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Then the researchers said they used other interview techniques that prompted the volunteers to reassess the memories and help realize they might be false or misremembered.

The work confirms previous research on the malleability of memories while pointing to potential techniques for recognizing and rooting them out.

“What we can show in principle is that it’s possible to empower people to really identify what might be a false memory,” said Aileen Oeberst, the study’s lead author who now heads the Department of Media Psychology at the University of Hagen in Germany.

Scientists have long studied the fallibility of human memory. The findings confirm previous research, psychologists and cognitive scientists said, though they cautioned about its real-world potential since the study was conducted among a relatively small number of subjects in a lab over a few weeks, and its findings might be hard to apply to an individual person.

Some research suggests that true memories tend to be stronger for people than false ones, Nancy Dennis, a memory researcher and an associate professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University. Yet people can also have vivid false memories or weaker true memories, making them difficult to tease apart on an individual basis.

“The hard part is when you want to take someone on that witness stand or therapists’ office and want to figure out if that particular memory is true or false,” said Dr. Dennis, who wasn’t involved in the study.

False-memory research has been controversial. Cognitive scientists and psychologists often disagree on how easy it is to develop false memories and how often that occurs. It has also been controversial partly because police investigations and court proceedings rely on the quality of memories.

Some psychologists express concerns that people can be cajoled into confessing crimes they didn’t commit or into making incorrect accusations. Meantime, others say the bigger problem is that defendants often point to false memory research to discredit testimony from real victims or eyewitnesses and get allegations dismissed.

In the new study, researchers sought to prove what they said was a relatively unexplored area of research: how to undo false memories.

The study involved 52 people, averaging 22 years of age, at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, who were told they were enrolling in research on childhood memories, as well as their parents. Researchers asked both the subjects and their parents not to talk with each other about the study.

The study had two parts. In the first part, the researchers sought to plant false memories in the subjects. First, researchers sent a questionnaire to the parents of volunteers, asking them whether their child had undergone negative experiences like getting stung by a wasp or running away from home.

The investigators also asked the parents to suggest two events that definitely didn’t happen but could have taken place, as research suggests that false memories are more likely to be picked up if they are plausible to that person.

Interviewers spoke with study subjects over the course of three interviews to plant false memories. The interviewers didn’t know whether or not a recollection was real, and they weren’t aware they were being used to plant false memories.

In their conversations, the interviewers told the subjects that their parents had provided details about events in their childhoods. Then the interviewers introduced four “memories” that the interviewers said the parents had told them about—two real and two fabricated.

The interviewers pushed the participants to recall the events to varying degrees. For one true and one false event, the interviewers only lightly suggested that the event occurred over the course of three interviews. For the other two incidents, the interviewers pushed the subjects to recall the events and encouraged the subjects to think about the incidents between interviews.

Volunteers faced both more aggressive and less aggressive interview styles. At the end of the three interviews, volunteers said that they had some level of memory about the fake events 27% of the time after the interviewers mildly suggested an event. When interviewers were more aggressive, participants subscribed to the made-up events 56% of the time, the study said.

Volunteers described full or robust memories for 20% of the minimally suggested events and just under 45% of those aggressively suggested. Some people still outright rejected the fake events or said they had no memory of them.

In the second part of the study, researchers tried to see whether they could reverse the false memories over two additional interviews.

First, one interviewer told the volunteers that memories might not be based on their own experiences but rather on sources such as family stories or photographs, and they asked for the origin of each recollection. Then during a second session, a new interviewer said that repeatedly being asked to remember events could lead to the creation of false memories and asked the volunteers to think back and reflect on whether that applied to any of the incidents.

After those interviews, fewer study subjects subscribed to the fake memories, though a few people still described the false memories in detail, the study found.

Overall, volunteers had more confidence in their true memories and described them in fuller detail than the memories that were false, the study found. And while belief in the fake incidents decreased after the final two interviews, faith in the real memories remained relatively intact.

Write to Brianna Abbott at brianna.abbott@wsj.com

https://www.wsj.com/articles/false-memories-can-be-planted-and-then-reduced-researchers-find-11616440361

CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/29 -3/1/2020

Jehovah's Witnesses, Netherlands, Sexual Abuse, Religious Freedom, China, Scientology, Russia, Nithyananda, Troubled Teen Industry, Straight Inc., Polygamy, Art, Joseph Szimhart, Elizabeth Loftus, Memory, Conspiracy, Events

Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC): Sexual Abuse and Willingness to Report Sexual Abuse Within the Jehovah's Witness Community

"This study focuses on the influence that patterns, rules, customs and structures within the Jehovah's Witness community in the Netherlands have on the manner in which sexual abuse or alleged sexual abuse are dealt with as well as the willingness to report sexual abuse or alleged sexual abuse. One important conclusion of the study is that the manner in which the abuse is handled within the Jehovah's Witness community leaves victims or alleged victims of sexual abuse feeling insufficiently recognised and supported."

Daily Beast: These Chinese Christians Were Branded A Criminal 'Cult.' Now They Have to Flee.

"Caught in political limbo as rejected asylum-seekers, about 1,000 Chinese exist furtively in South Korea dreading torture and imprisonment if they are forced to return to China.

They're all members of the Church of Almighty God, a uniquely Chinese off-shoot of Christianity denounced as an "illegal cult" by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which sees its success winning adherents as a dangerous challenge to a regime that represses all forms of worship, whether Christian, Muslim or Buddhist."

Radio Free Europe: Russian Court Accepts Case To Try Scientologists In St. Petersburg

"A court in the Russian city of St. Petersburg has accepted a case to try a group of people who follow the Church of Scientology on charges of illegal entrepreneurship, extremism, money laundering, and incitement of hatred."

Videos

TRT World: Scandal Guru starting a new country?

"Nithyananda, India's 'scandal-guru,' has fled overseas to avoid arrest. He claims to have established his own island nation for 'dispossessed Hindus'. What and where is Kailaasa?"

Surviving Straight Inc.: Troubled Teen Industry Survivors Expose Institutional Child Abuse & Red Flags

"Liz, Jodi, Cyndy and Lynn bring to light questionable practices and child abuse at some institutions designed to "help" troubled teens. Is there any scientific backing that tough love programs work in changing teens' behaviors?

Lynn shares her experience sending her teen son that lacked confidence to a wilderness camp designed for troubled kids. Six days in, she received a call no mother should get.

There are more than 17,000 residential treatment centers across the country. How do you find a reputable center? Liz shares what to look for when selecting a program for a troubled teen that might need help outside the home."

 Straight, inc - The Truth About Straight from a Survivor

"Some truth about Straight, Inc. - 2221 Austell Road, Marietta, GA, from a survivor of the notorious cult-like mind control program."

Sound Choices Coalition: Angela Kelley Senate Testimony against Utah Senate Bill: 102

BCTV: Painter Joe Szimhart discusses and showcases his art with host Ron Schira.

Podcasts

Tales From The Rabbit Hole: Professor Elizabeth Loftus – Memory and Conspiracy

"Elizabeth Loftus is an expert on memory. A Distinguished Professor in several fields*, her work focusses on false memories, how they can be accidentally created and how they can be deliberately manipulated. We discuss many aspects of memory and how it sometimes relates to the world of conspiracy theories.  We touch on UFOs, Chemtrails, 9/11, Jeffery Epstein, and the moral panics of the 1980s."

Events

ICSA Event: Surviving and Moving On After a High-Demand Group Experience: A Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups or Relationships

Straight, inc - The Truth About Straight from a Survivor

"Some truth about Straight, Inc. -  2221 Austell Road, Marietta, GA, from a survivor of the notorious cult-like mind control program."

Sound Choices Coalition: Angela Kelley Senate Testimony against Utah Senate Bill: 102

BCTV: Painter Joe Szimhart discusses and showcases his art with host Ron Schira.

Podcasts

Tales From The Rabbit Hole: Professor Elizabeth Loftus – Memory and Conspiracy

"Elizabeth Loftus is an expert on memory. A Distinguished Professor in several fields*, her work focusses on false memories, how they can be accidentally created and how they can be deliberately manipulated. We discuss many aspects of memory and how it sometimes relates to the world of conspiracy theories.  We touch on UFOs, Chemtrails, 9/11, Jeffery Epstein, and the moral panics of the 1980s."

Events

ICSA Event: Surviving and Moving On After a High-Demand Group Experience: A Workshop for Those Born or Raised in Cultic Groups or Relationships

When: Friday 4:00 pm April 24, 2020 to Sunday 2:00 pm April 26, 2020 (Check-in time is 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm.)

Where: Guest House Retreat & Conference Center, 318 West Main Street, Chester, CT 06412 (860–322–5770).

As increasing numbers of people born or raised in cultic groups or relationships have reached adulthood, the International Cultic Studies Association has developed a program that addresses their special needs.

People born or raised in cultic environments cannot look back to a "pre-cult" identity. Raised in fringe subcultures, they often have educational and other skill deficits that interfere with adjustment to mainstream culture. Having grown up under the influence of irrational belief systems, they struggle with issues of dependency, self-esteem, and social conflict, and often have to deal with the trauma of physical and/or sexual abuse. They have difficulty getting help because they tend to lack finances and be wary of other people, including helpers.

Event: Cults and Coercive Control ~ Raising Awareness, Seeking Justice

You are invited by The Family Survival Trust to attend a panel presentation.A panel of speakers will be followed by Questions & Answers. The speakers will each present on their lived experiences of coercively controlling groups in modern Britain as well as their activities and concerns in raising awareness and seeking justice.There will be opportunity for networking among attendees and to meet the speakers.The University Women's Club, 2 South Audley Street, London, W1K 1HFMarch 10, 2020, 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM GMT
Doors open at 6.00 PM for refreshments and networking. Talk starts at 7:00 PM.

Event: Spiritual and Religious Abuse: Preventing, Recognizing and Healing

April 4, 2020. 8:30 - 4:30

SMU Perkins School of Theology, Simmons School of Education & Human Development

Harold Simmons Hall, Room 101A

SMU, Dallas, TX

Breakout Session 1:

• Ashlen Hilliard: Fundamentals and Recovery from Controlling Theology
• Dr. Kathryn Keller: Boundaries and Triggers and Trust, Oh My!
• Mark WIngfield: Creating a Welcoming Church for all

Breakout Session 2:

• Julienna Viegas: Finding Spirituality and Healing After Coming out of a Spiritually Abusive Religion (Gender and Ethnicity)
• Dr. Cyndi Matthews & Stevie Powers: Lived Experiences of LGBTQ+ Individuals Coming out of High Demand Religious Organizations - Healing from the Shame and Pain
• Wendy and Doug Duncan: Creating Safe Haven Churches

Breakout Session 3

• Dr. Colleen Logan: Repairing the Damage From Reparative Therapy
• Natalie Anderson: Power and Control Dynamics in Spiritual Abuse: Noticing the Red Flags
• Dr. Susanne Scholz and Dr. Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner: Recognizing how Individuals use the Old and New Testament to Spiritually Abuse Others

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.

Facebook

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Twitter

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Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

Junk science leads to father's wrongful arrest, false accusation of raping his son

Radley Balko
Washington Post
March 8, 2018

During the ritual-sex-abuse panic of the 1980s and 1990s, children undergoing recovered memory therapy and other dubious psychological treatment recounted crimes so horrific and depraved, they’re hard to even think about. They described bizarre satanic-themed sex abuse where children were penetrated with knives. They described orgies with adults and children who could barely walk. They described animal and human sacrifice. A big reason why these kids were believed despite the complete lack of physical evidence — if children were murdered, there should have been children in the area who were missing (there were no such missing children); the children who described being raped should have showed signs of sexual abuse (they didn’t); there should have been bloody knives, animal carcasses and other evidence of these rituals (there weren’t) — is that the gruesome details seemed too macabre and perverse to have come from the imagination of kids.

They didn’t, of course. And this is where the whole scandal gets truly horrifying: The gory details came not from the kids, but from the imaginations of the police officers, prosecutors and psychiatrists. They came from the very people who were supposed to protect the kids. Theywere the ones conjuring images of the kids involved in orgies, sacrifice and murder.

I was reminded of all of that when I read this crushing story out of Florida:

After he was accused of molesting his young special needs son, Jose Cordero spent 35 days in a Miami jail and was barred from seeing his family for months.

The allegations did not come directly from the 7-year-old boy, who has autism, speaks little and cannot write on his own. Instead, they came from the child’s elementary school teacher who claimed he relied on a technique called “hand over hand,” guiding the boy’s hands with his own to write down the disturbing details of sexual abuse.

This form of “facilitated” communication is a science that has been largely debunked in the wake of high-profile scandals involving wrongfully accused parents over the past couple decades.

That didn’t stop Hialeah police from arresting Cordero in October. But Miami-Dade prosecutors soon grew suspicious of the teacher’s story.

The boy, working through the teacher with the same technique, later made even more outlandish claims, using words and phrases familiar to adults but not to young children. And when paired with another teacher and specialists, the boy could no longer write a single word, let alone repeat detailed accusations about molestation.

Weeks after the initial arrest in October, prosecutors rushed to get Cordero out of jail while they awaited results of DNA testing. On Wednesday, after those tests came back negative, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office officially dropped the sexual battery case against Cordero.

“Due to significant inconsistencies within the victim’s disclosures coupled with controversial means by which the disclosure was obtained, and a lack of corroborating witnesses, the state would be unable to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt at this time,” according to a final State Attorney’s report released Wednesday.

The conclusion of the case now raises questions whether the Hialeah elementary special-education teacher, Saul Fumero, made up the allegations — and whether the Miami-Dade school district knew he was using a largely discredited method of communication with the autistic child.

And not just discredited. There was never any reason to think this was legitimate in the first place.

James Todd, a psychology professor at Eastern Michigan University who has studied facilitated communication, reviewed the State Attorney’s final report and said the school district still bears responsibility.

“The bottom line is that that school let a teacher use a technique that was never credible and was already scientifically discredited in the early 1990s,” said Todd, who has worked as an expert for people falsely accused in similar cases. …

Researchers and critics deemed facilitated communication nothing more than junk science preying on the hopes of parents who long to communicate with their non-verbal children. Even the American Psychological Association, in 1994, declared there was “no scientifically demonstrated support for its efficacy.”

“There’s not one study in 25 years that holds up to scientific scrutiny that shows that this is a viable means of communication,” said Dr. Howard Shane, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School …

The Miami Herald did find at least one researcher who stands by the method, but this isn’t the first example of a parent being wrongfully accused because of it.

Here’s the part that reminded me of those old ritual-sex-abuse cases:

“Essentially, we and experts in the field believe that the facilitator is ‘writing’ the message and not the student/user,” Kevin McCormick, director of the Palm Beach County school district’s special education department, said in an email.

The teacher also claimed that the boy told him that his mother was involved, and that his sister had “been conditioned to be a sex slave.”

Here again, in the name of protecting children, someone entrusted to take care of a kid has caused irreparable harm by concocting images of sexual abuse that came not from the kid, but from the caretaker. The teacher admitted that he had no training in “facilitated communication,” though if he he did, I’m not sure it would matter — he would have received training in a bogus technique. The article does not say whether the teacher is still working at the school.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2018/03/08/junk-science-leads-to-fathers-wrongful-arrest-false-accusation-of-raping-his-son/?utm_term=.c09dc7201615