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

Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown

Paradise Undone: A Novel of Jonestown Paperback – November 18, 2023
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.

About Annie Dawid 

Annie's 6th book, PARADISE UNDONE: A NOVEL OF JONESTOWN, arrived in the world on the 45th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre after a 20-year journey from germination of idea to paperback in hand. Hundreds of publishers rejected it, 17 contest judges placed it as a finalist, and a chance encounter with a new British publisher led to this happy occasion.

Annie makes rugs, plays tennis and Scrabble competitively, and cuddles with her favorite mutt, Dennis, in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of South-Central Colorado. Using the principles of assemblage, she makes custom journals, suitcases and sculptures. Think of Eliot's "These fragments I have shored against my ruins." In her art, she melds fragments together into new wholes.

In the year since the book launch at Owl Books in London, Paradise Undone has received the Colorado Authors League award in Literary Fiction, the Firebird prize for multicultural fiction, and the Literary Titan award for Historical Fiction. Now she's researching her next book, a collection of linking short stories, about other Jonestown characters who deserve to have their stories told, tentatively titled FATHOM THESE EVENTS.

https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Undone-Jonestown-Annie-Dawid/dp/1916708021

CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/18/2025

Jimmy Swaggart, Obituary, Jonestown, Jehovah's Witnesses, Video, LGB, Grace Community Church, Public Shaming

The Conversation: Jimmy Swaggart's rise and fall shaped the landscape of American televangelism

"Jimmy Swaggart, one of the most popular and enduring of the 1980s televangelists, died on July 1, 2025, but his legacy lives.

Along with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he drew an audience in the millions, amassed a personal fortune and introduced a new generation of Americans to a potent mix of religion and politics.

Swaggart was an old-time evangelist whose focus was "saving souls." But he also preached on conservative social issues, warning followers about the evils of abortion, homosexuality and godless communism.

Swaggart also denounced what he called "false cults," including Catholicism, Judaism and Mormonism. In fact, his denunciations of other religions, as well as his attacks on rival preachers, made him a more polarizing figure than his politicized brethren."

NY Post: Jonestown mass death survivors who didn't 'drink the Kool-Aid' weigh in on the site becoming a tourist attraction

"Jonestown is seared into the American psyche as one the darkest tragedies of the modern era, where 918 people "drank the Kool Aid" and ended their lives under the command of cult leader Jim Jones.

Located in the remote Guyanese jungle, the site where the army first discovered the mass of dead bodies of People's Temple members in 1978 is now opening as a somewhat morbid tourist attraction. It is designed to pay somber tribute in the manner of Auschwitz and the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

The curious can pay $750 to visit the clearing where Jones' religious cult, mostly US citizens who had traveled with him to Guyana, unraveled in the most gruesome way imaginable."

ICSA International Conference 2024, Barcelona, Spain: Waking Up: What the Narratives of Former Jehovah's Witnesses Bethelites Reveal About Their Experience of Realizing They Were in a Cult - Andre Jackson

RNS: Former member sues John MacArthur's megachurch for public shaming

"A former member has sued Grace Community Church, led by prominent evangelical pastor John MacArthur, saying church leaders disclosed confidential information about her during a church service.

In a complaint filed Thursday (July 3) in Los Angeles County Superior Court, lawyers for Lorraine Zielinski said she went to leaders at the megachurch in LA's Sun Valley neighborhood, where MacArthur is the longtime pastor, seeking counseling for her troubled marriage and was told her conversations would be kept confidential.

According to the complaint, she told counselors she was afraid for her safety and the safety of her daughter, alleging that her then-husband was physically abusive. Her lawyers said church leaders pressured Zielinski to drop her request for a legal separation.

When Zielinski tried to resign as a church member, pastors put her under church discipline for failing to follow their counsel, according to the complaint. They also allegedly told her to either come to a meeting with church pastors or details of her counseling would be made public to the congregation.

'When Plaintiff did not attend the meeting, GCC made good on its threat and shared information gained through confidential communications relating to her marriage with GCC membership,' according to the complaint."

CultNEWS101 Articles: 11/18/2024 (November 18th is International Cult Awareness Day)

November 18th is International Cult Awareness Day

Video: International Cult Awareness Day: Reflections From Cult Intervention Specialist Pat Ryan

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).

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

46h Anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre (1978)

On November 18th, 46 years ago, over 900 individuals were victims of a mass-murder suicide who were members of the Peoples Temple cult. This event is most commonly known as the "Jonestown Massacre" which has been described as, "one of the largest mass deaths in American history".

Jonestown Collection

1978 - FBI Documents: The Leo Ryan Murder/Jonestown Investigation (RYMUR)

On November 18, 1978, while investigating human rights abuses by a large cult led by James Warren "Jim" Jones (1931-1978), Congressman Leo Ryan (1925-1978) and several companions were murdered by Jones' followers.

Ryan had traveled to "Jonestown," the cult's compound in the South American country of Guyana, at the behest of his constituents, some of whom had family members in the cult. Following Ryan's murder, Jones ordered his followers to commit mass suicide; more than 900 bodies were later found, most having died by taking poison.

The FBI, charged with investigating violence against public officials, opened a probe into the murder of Ryan (hence the case name RYMUR) and provided other support and investigative assistance in relation to the mass casualties.

This release consists of material released previously and ranges from 1978 To 1979.

Synanon (1991)

1991 - Wikipedia: Synanon

Synanon is a US-founded social organization created by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich Sr. in 1958 in Santa Monica, California, United States. It is currently active in Germany.

Originally established as a drug rehabilitation program, by the early 1960s, Synanon became an alternative community centered on group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game," a form of attack therapy.  The group ultimately became a cult called the Church of Synanon in the 1970s.

Synanon disbanded in 1991 due to members being convicted of criminal activities (including attempted murder) and retroactive loss of its tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) due to financial misdeeds, destruction of evidence, and terrorism  It has been called one of the "most dangerous and violent cults America had ever seen.

Shakahola Massacre (2023)

In April 2023, 110 dead bodies were found in the Shakahola forest, near Malindi, Kenya. Rescued survivors stated that they had been ordered to starve themselves to death by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, leader of the Malindi cult. As of July 2023, the death toll has risen to over 400.

Timeline of Mass Suicides

Mass suicide is a form of suicide, occurring when a group of people simultaneously kill themselves.

Cultic Studies Review: Using the Bounded Choice Model as an Analytical Tool: A Case Study of Heaven's Gate (2004) (Janja Lalich, Ph.D.)

The purpose of this paper is to describe the "bounded choice" theoretical model and to illustrate how this new model can be used as a tool for examining and analyzing high-demand groups or situations, sometimes called cults. This new approach uses a conceptual framework of four interlocking dimensions that I submit are integral to the social dynamic found in cults. The four dimensions are charismatic authority, transcendent belief system, systems of control, and systems of influence. The dimensions involve both structure and process. That is, they make up the framework of the social system, and they include social processes that uphold and reinforce that social structure. The four dimensions are defined briefly as:

Charismatic authority: This is the emotional bond between leader and followers. It lends legitimacy to the leader and grants authority to his or her actions while at the same time justifying and reinforcing followers' responses to the leader and/or the leader's ideas and goals. The relational aspect of charisma is the hook that links a devotee to a leader and/or his or her ideas.

Transcendent belief system: This is the overarching ideology that binds adherents to the group and keeps them behaving according to the group's rules and norms. It is transcendent because it offers a total explanation of past, present, and future, including a path to salvation. Most important, the leader/group also specifies the exact methodology (or recipe) for the personal transformation necessary to qualify one to travel on that path.

Systems of control: This is the network of acknowledged, or visible, regulatory mechanisms that guide the operation of the group. It includes the overt rules, regulations, and procedures that guide and control members' behavior.

Systems of influence: This is the network of interactions and social influence residing in the group's social relations. This is the human interaction and group culture from which members learn to adapt their thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors in relation to their new beliefs.

The interrelated and interlocking nature of the four dimensions form a "self-sealing system," a social system closed in on itself and closed to the outside world. It is characterized by ideological totalism and processes of influence and control that may lead adherents to a high degree of commitment that I have identified as "charismatic commitment." Now the dedicated adherent becomes a "true believer" in the sense of being a deployable agent for the group or leader. Living within the bounded reality of the cultic social system, the cult member encounters no meaningful reality checks and becomes more and more enmeshed with and invested in the closed world of the group. For some, this may lead to a state of "personal closure," or the individualized version of the self-sealing system. The member's life and choices are constrained not only by the system but also, and perhaps even more powerfully, by the close-mindedness of the individual him- or herself who is functioning in alliance with that system. Now the dedicated adherent has entered a social-psychological state of being that I am calling bounded choice: in essence, life outside the cult has become impossible to imagine.

The exemplar group studied here is the Heaven's Gate cult, which came to prominence when the members committed collective suicide. On March 27, 1997, thirty-nine dead bodies were found in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The deceased were followers of Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite (known to their devotees as Ti and Do).2 In addition to the male leader, Applewhite, among the dead were twenty-one women and seventeen men. According to announcements by the local coroner's office, the deaths had been caused by ingestion of a mixture of drugs and alcohol, and suffocation by plastic bag over the head. Because the group's Web site (www.heavensgate [dot] com) garnered so much attention after the suicides, this group, previously known as the Bo Peep cult by those who had some familiarity with the group, came to be called Heaven's Gate.

The data for this study include interviews with former group members, sympathetic followers and believers, and families of members and other associates. Additional data were drawn from my content analysis of archival material including the group's written documents, Internet postings, and audio and video recordings. Also I relied on the work of Robert Balch and David Taylor, who have been studying and writing about the group since the mid-1970s, as well as reviewing other scholarly and popular articles and media reports."

Join us in making a difference this International Cult Awareness Day! Your support can help us raise awareness and promote understanding. Consider donating to further the International Cultic Studies Association mission and empower individuals to navigate these critical issues. Together, we can create a brighter future!

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Thanks

International Cult Awareness Day

 

1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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.

International Cult Awareness Day

International Cult Awareness Day

On November 18th, 45 years ago, over 900 individuals were victims of a mass-murder suicide who were members of the Peoples Temple cult. This event is most commonly known as the “Jonestown Massacre” which has been described as, “one of the largest mass deaths in American history”.

https://www.cultawarenessday.com/