WELLSPRING WEEKEND RECOVERY PACKAGE: AUGUST 26, 27, 28, 2016
An Introduction to Recovery
Wellspring is offering a weekend introduction to recovery for survivors of cultic abuse. Generous donors have provided 90% of the funding for this program.
Cost
*3 day package = $350
Fees cover materials and Administration Cost.
Meals and lodging are not included in this package.
Package includes:
Educational Workshops.
DVD’s and Books to take home (educational tools to use in your continued recovery) Handouts for all workshops.
A total of six group sessions with a Cult Recovery Specialist.
Weekend Itinerary:
Friday
10:00 am-12:00pm: Orientation and Opening Session
12:00pm-1:30 pm: Lunch on your own.
1:30pm-3:00 pm: Workshop “The Wave”
3:00 pm-3:30pm: Break
3:30 pm-5:00pm: Workshop Continued
5:00 pm: Free Time Evening Homework
Saturday
10:00am: - 12:00pm: Consultation Group
12:00 pm- 2:00pm: Lunch on your own
2:00pm - 4:00pm: Consultation Group
Evening Homework
Sunday
10:00pm – 12:00pm: A Class Divided
12:00pm-1:00pm: Lunch on your own
1:00pm: – 3:00pm: Consultation Group – Closing Thoughts on the Road to Recovery
Additional counseling time and workshops are available upon request (additional fees apply). Extra sessions will need to be scheduled and paid for prior to arrival. Additional workshops and counseling sessions may be scheduled for future weekends.
Groups for the recovery weekend will be kept small. No more than 10 client’s per weekend. Book early to reserve your spot!
*$350 fee is required to reserve your spot for the weekend.*
Deposit must be made no later than August 20, 2016.
For more information, please visit their website.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Monday, May 23, 2016
FROM NPR- RUSSIA TO POSSIBLY BAN JEHOVAH WITNESSES
FROM NPR: Russia's Jehovah's Witnesses Fight 'Extremist' Label, Possible Ban
Russia's top prosecutor is threatening to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses for alleged "extremism."
The religious denomination has faced growing pressure in Russia over the past several years, with church members arrested and confiscations of church property.
Russia is the only country that bans the Jehovah's Witnesses website, according to the church. The ban is based on allegedly extremist content. Regional courts in Russia have also banned more than 30 pieces of the church's literature for the same reason.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Russia's top prosecutor is threatening to ban the Jehovah's Witnesses for alleged "extremism."
The religious denomination has faced growing pressure in Russia over the past several years, with church members arrested and confiscations of church property.
Russia is the only country that bans the Jehovah's Witnesses website, according to the church. The ban is based on allegedly extremist content. Regional courts in Russia have also banned more than 30 pieces of the church's literature for the same reason.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Friday, May 13, 2016
FACT HAS BEEN AWARDED THE PLATINUM LEVEL FROM GUIDESTAR
Guidestar, the first company ever to provide a central source of information on U.S. nonprofits, has recently added a new rating level called 'Platinum'. This is now their highest level possible, and we at FACT are very happy to announce that we've just been awarded it!
From Guidestar to FACT: “Congratulations on achieving a Platinum level with GuideStar. This is a testament to your organization’s commitment to data transparency and integrity within the non-profit sector.” GuideStar also serves to verify that a recipient organization is established and that donated funds go where the donor intended. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GuideStar)
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our great Board of Directors, committed hard-working staff members and of course our wonderful supporters, without which we would not be here today to fulfill our important mission.
From Guidestar to FACT: “Congratulations on achieving a Platinum level with GuideStar. This is a testament to your organization’s commitment to data transparency and integrity within the non-profit sector.” GuideStar also serves to verify that a recipient organization is established and that donated funds go where the donor intended. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GuideStar)
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our great Board of Directors, committed hard-working staff members and of course our wonderful supporters, without which we would not be here today to fulfill our important mission.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
GET A FREE COPY OF ETHICS and the MODERN GURU with your DONATION
SPRING 2016 FUNDRAISING DRIVE UPDATE:
Our good friends, Steven and Debbie Van Neste, have created a special commemorative edition of their e-magazine called "Ethics and the Modern Guru", in memory of Sharon Stern for our fundraising drive.
It tells the tragic story of what happened to Sharon from the corrupting influence of cult leader Katsura Kan, in addition to other very interesting articles about cults.
If you would like to receive a copy of this enlightening e-magazine, please make a minimum donation of $10, and where it says, "I want my donation to be dedicated:" please type the name "Sharon Stern".
Click here to donate: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/fact
Thank you Steven and Debbie for all of your generous hard work to make Sharon's special edition possible.
Our good friends, Steven and Debbie Van Neste, have created a special commemorative edition of their e-magazine called "Ethics and the Modern Guru", in memory of Sharon Stern for our fundraising drive.
It tells the tragic story of what happened to Sharon from the corrupting influence of cult leader Katsura Kan, in addition to other very interesting articles about cults.
If you would like to receive a copy of this enlightening e-magazine, please make a minimum donation of $10, and where it says, "I want my donation to be dedicated:" please type the name "Sharon Stern".
Click here to donate: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/fact
Thank you Steven and Debbie for all of your generous hard work to make Sharon's special edition possible.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Mind control: psychological reality or mindless rhetoric?
By Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo
November 2002, Vol 33, No. 10
Print version: page 5
http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov02/pc.aspx
One of the most fascinating sessions at APA's Annual Convention featured presentations by former cult members. (See "Cults of hatred"). Several participants challenged our profession to form a task force on extreme forms of influence, asserting that the underlying issues inform discourses on terrorist recruiting, on destructive cults versus new religious movements, on social-political-"therapy" cults and on human malleability or resiliency when confronted by authority power.
That proposal is intriguing. At one level of concern are academic questions of the validity of the conceptual framework for a psychology of mind control. However, at broader levels, we discover a network of vital questions:
Does exposing the destructive impact of cults challenge the principle of religious freedom of citizens to mindfully join nontraditional religious groups?
When some organizations that promote religious or self-growth agendas become rich enough to wield power to suppress media exposés, influence legal judgments or publicly defame psychology, how can they be challenged?
What is APA's role in establishing principles for treating those who claim to have suffered abuse by cults, for training therapists to do so and for establishing guidelines for expert testimony?
Personal freedoms
A basic value of the profession of psychology is promoting human freedom of responsible action, based on awareness of available behavioral options, and supporting an individual's rights to exercise them. Whatever we mean by "mind control" stands in opposition to this positive value orientation.
Mind control is the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition and/or behavioral outcomes. It is neither magical nor mystical, but a process that involves a set of basic social psychological principles.
Conformity, compliance, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, guilt and fear arousal, modeling and identification are some of the staple social influence ingredients well studied in psychological experiments and field studies. In some combinations, they create a powerful crucible of extreme mental and behavioral manipulation when synthesized with several other real-world factors, such as charismatic, authoritarian leaders, dominant ideologies, social isolation, physical debilitation, induced phobias, and extreme threats or promised rewards that are typically deceptively orchestrated, over an extended time period in settings where they are applied intensively.
A body of social science evidence shows that when systematically practiced by state-sanctioned police, military or destructive cults, mind control can induce false confessions, create converts who willingly torture or kill "invented enemies," engage indoctrinated members to work tirelessly, give up their money--and even their lives--for "the cause."
Power struggles
It seems to me that at the heart of the controversy over the existence of mind control is a bias toward believing in the power of people to resist the power of situational forces, a belief in individual will power and faith to overcome all evil adversity. It is Jesus modeling resistance against the temptations of Satan, and not the vulnerability of Adam and Eve to deception. More recently, examples abound that challenge this person-power misattribution.
From the 1930s on, there are many historical instances of state power dominating individual beliefs and values. In Stalin's Moscow show trials, his adversaries publicly confessed to their treasons. Catholic Cardinal Mindzenty similarly gave false confessions favoring his communist captors. During the Korean War, American airmen confessed to engaging in germ warfare after intense indoctrination sessions. The Chinese Thought Reform Program achieved massive societal conversions to new beliefs. It has also been reported that the CIA put into practice nearly 150 projects--collectively termed MKULTRA--to develop various forms of exotic mind control, including the use of LSD and hypnosis. More than 900 U.S. citizens committed suicide or murdered friends and family at the persuasive bidding of their Peoples Temple cult leader, Jim Jones.
The power of social situations to induce "ego alien" behavior over even the best and brightest of people has been demonstrated in a variety of controlled experiments, among them, Stanley Milgram's obedience to authority studies, Albert Bandura's research on dehumanization, my Stanford Prison Experiment and others on deinviduation.
Understanding the dynamics and pervasiveness of situational power is essential to learning how to resist it and to weaken the dominance of the many agents of mind control who ply their trade daily on all of us behind many faces and fronts.
November 2002, Vol 33, No. 10
Print version: page 5
http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov02/pc.aspx
One of the most fascinating sessions at APA's Annual Convention featured presentations by former cult members. (See "Cults of hatred"). Several participants challenged our profession to form a task force on extreme forms of influence, asserting that the underlying issues inform discourses on terrorist recruiting, on destructive cults versus new religious movements, on social-political-"therapy" cults and on human malleability or resiliency when confronted by authority power.
That proposal is intriguing. At one level of concern are academic questions of the validity of the conceptual framework for a psychology of mind control. However, at broader levels, we discover a network of vital questions:
Does exposing the destructive impact of cults challenge the principle of religious freedom of citizens to mindfully join nontraditional religious groups?
When some organizations that promote religious or self-growth agendas become rich enough to wield power to suppress media exposés, influence legal judgments or publicly defame psychology, how can they be challenged?
What is APA's role in establishing principles for treating those who claim to have suffered abuse by cults, for training therapists to do so and for establishing guidelines for expert testimony?
Personal freedoms
A basic value of the profession of psychology is promoting human freedom of responsible action, based on awareness of available behavioral options, and supporting an individual's rights to exercise them. Whatever we mean by "mind control" stands in opposition to this positive value orientation.
Mind control is the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition and/or behavioral outcomes. It is neither magical nor mystical, but a process that involves a set of basic social psychological principles.
Conformity, compliance, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, guilt and fear arousal, modeling and identification are some of the staple social influence ingredients well studied in psychological experiments and field studies. In some combinations, they create a powerful crucible of extreme mental and behavioral manipulation when synthesized with several other real-world factors, such as charismatic, authoritarian leaders, dominant ideologies, social isolation, physical debilitation, induced phobias, and extreme threats or promised rewards that are typically deceptively orchestrated, over an extended time period in settings where they are applied intensively.
A body of social science evidence shows that when systematically practiced by state-sanctioned police, military or destructive cults, mind control can induce false confessions, create converts who willingly torture or kill "invented enemies," engage indoctrinated members to work tirelessly, give up their money--and even their lives--for "the cause."
Power struggles
It seems to me that at the heart of the controversy over the existence of mind control is a bias toward believing in the power of people to resist the power of situational forces, a belief in individual will power and faith to overcome all evil adversity. It is Jesus modeling resistance against the temptations of Satan, and not the vulnerability of Adam and Eve to deception. More recently, examples abound that challenge this person-power misattribution.
From the 1930s on, there are many historical instances of state power dominating individual beliefs and values. In Stalin's Moscow show trials, his adversaries publicly confessed to their treasons. Catholic Cardinal Mindzenty similarly gave false confessions favoring his communist captors. During the Korean War, American airmen confessed to engaging in germ warfare after intense indoctrination sessions. The Chinese Thought Reform Program achieved massive societal conversions to new beliefs. It has also been reported that the CIA put into practice nearly 150 projects--collectively termed MKULTRA--to develop various forms of exotic mind control, including the use of LSD and hypnosis. More than 900 U.S. citizens committed suicide or murdered friends and family at the persuasive bidding of their Peoples Temple cult leader, Jim Jones.
The power of social situations to induce "ego alien" behavior over even the best and brightest of people has been demonstrated in a variety of controlled experiments, among them, Stanley Milgram's obedience to authority studies, Albert Bandura's research on dehumanization, my Stanford Prison Experiment and others on deinviduation.
Understanding the dynamics and pervasiveness of situational power is essential to learning how to resist it and to weaken the dominance of the many agents of mind control who ply their trade daily on all of us behind many faces and fronts.
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