We Need Your Help!

This year has been a successful one for us in the fight against cults, in many areas like cult victim outreach, family and student cult education and prevention, victim interventions, and we have even helped to successfully bring the leaders of a destructive U.S. based cult to justice (the details of which will be shared with you soon once the legalities are finalized). 

We are currently gearing up for next year and need your support now in order to continue on with our important mission. We know you are receiving a great deal of emails asking for donations this time of year, and we ask you to please consider the significance of our mission, which is overlooked by most people who don't understand this very real and pressing social threat.

Please click below to make a year end donation now.

DONATE

To read the complete newsletter:
http://conta.cc/1Do7jHV

Welcome To Our New Home!

Our new office building is finally completed and we have officially moved in, along with the Hollywood Healing Center managed by the very experienced Deborah Grossman. We are also fortunate to have Mrs. Shelly Strauss on board as head of our support group for victims of all cult related abuses.

If you would like to contact Deborah Grossman at the Hollywood Healing Center, please call her directly at 561-504-5834. Shelly Strauss can be reached directly at 305-773-0899.

Cult Abuse Investigations

Many of our cases require the help of numerous law enforcement agencies and other legal entities, as well as the media, which we have already and will continue to mobilize on a case by case basis. Their help is absolutely vital in most cases to achieve a successful outcome.

If you know any legal or media professionals who would like to help us in our mission, please ask them to contact us directly at 1-877-360-FACT.

Cult Intervention Success!

We are currently conducting many difficult intervention cases all over the U.S., and would like to report that some have been concluded with a successful outcome!  We would like to deeply thank everyone who is supporting us in our mission to help cult victims escape their perilous situations.

If you know anyone who needs help, please contact us immediately via our support form.

Cults on Campus

Cult leaders and groups love to recruit at colleges and universities do to unchallenged access to campuses and daily exposure to a large number of students, who are typically young, single impressionable, and unsettled in life- the ideal combination in their eyes for easy manipulation. Moreover, recruiters are also known to infiltrate the faculty at schools in order to take advantage of the teacher student relationship dynamic (students usually trust their professors wholeheartedly). One such example is Naropa University in Boulder, CO, a private liberal arts college that is notorious for such teacher / student abuses.

Read this informative article about Naropa to educate yourself and your loved ones about this very real "underground" threat on our campuses.

Monthly Cults Expose

Dear FACT supporters,

The destructive result of cult activities on our families and society is profound, widespread and endless. We will now be posting monthly to expose on different cults specifically, targeting the ones we believe are the most dangerous. The exposes will be informative and educational and we believe they will prevent a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering, so please share them with your friends and loved ones as much as possible.

We will post every last week of the month, starting this month. Our first expose will be about the dark "dance form" called Butoh. We believe it is nothing more than a destruction that controls, brainwashes, causes pain, suffering and sometimes results in death, unfortunately as it happened to my daughter Sharoni Stern. We will walk you through our tragedy as it evolved from day one with my beloved daughter.

Below you will find quick links to our social media pages. Please follow our exposes and like and share our content with everyone you know and as much as you can, so it reaches as many people as possible. Thank you so much for caring enough to share. You never know whose life or family you might save because of it.


Sincerely,

Tibor Stern
President of F.A.C.T.

NOW HIRING - Intervention Specialist

We are in the final stages in our selection of who will be our primary intervention specialist for all new cases. The expert of our choosing will be highly qualified and will be very much open to also help those desperate families who can't afford to cover the potentially huge financial burden of an intervention. 
 
When possible, an intervention is the greatest strategy a person has to recover a loved one from a destructive cult, and F.A.C.T. is adamant on selecting the very best cult interventionist possible to help any and all families in need, regardless of their current financial situation.

Helping Families Reunite

We are currently involved with five different intervention cases to help rescue children from destructive cults and reunite them with their families.

Please note: cases we receive involving minors are reported immediately to the proper authorities, to whom we offer our support.

If you know anyone who needs help, please contact us via our victim support form.

MEET OUR NEW VOLUNTEERS

We would like to welcome three new volunteers to our organization: Dorine Russo, Alysia Press, and Orly Bar Moshe. We feel so privileged to have them on board donating a great deal of their time and effort in many different ways: researching, social media, blog writing, and much more, and we cannot thank them enough for their extremely generous help, which is beyond measure. 
 
If you would like to be a part of our volunteer team to help current cult victims and prevent new ones from occurring, please contact us via our volunteer form.
 
"Unselfish and noble actions are the most radiant pages in the biography of souls." -David Thomas

Who is most Vulnerable to Cults?

Who is most Vulnerable to Cults?

In truth, absolutely anyone can become a victim but they are often those individuals who are young, intelligent, and idealistic. They are most likely to be 'recruited' during a transition period in their life- when they are more vulnerable to outside coercion and manipulation.

Think you are immune? Think again. Victims of cults are lawyers, doctors, stay at home moms, celebrities, CEO's, charity workers, the homeless to millionaires and everything in between. How much money you have, how smart you are, who your parents are, what town or school you went to…none of these things matter.

The leaders of these cults are people who are "sociopaths". They are not like you and me, these are people who have no conscious, no real emotion, and no regard for others. They are driven by their need to exert power and control, and will stop at nothing in their quest to do so.

They recruit their victims slowly, using subtle techniques of psychological manipulation to win your trust and friendship. It is FACT, psychological manipulation slowly and methodically wears down your sense of self-worth, self-confidence, self-concept and trust in your own perceptions. Just like how a frog will immediately jump out of a pot of boiling water-but it will boil and die if placed in a pot of cool water that slowly heats to a boil. They are experts at analyzing you, and providing you with exactly the things you are unconsciously seeking.

Learning to recognize the personality style of manipulators is the only way to protect yourself from further abuse. Expert Philip Zimbardo says that mind control is a "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" and he suggests that everyone is susceptible to such manipulation.

According to Wikipedia: Philip George Zimbardo is a psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment and has since authored various introductory psychology books, textbooks for college students, and other notable works, including The Lucifer Effect, The Time Paradox and the The Time Cure. He is also the founder and president of the Heroic Imagination Project.

Next week we will discuss the various techniques these manipulators deploy on their victims.

The Sharon Stern Story printed in the Miami Herald!

Our long-awaited article in the Miami Herald has finally come out, written by the talented Julie Brown.

It tells the tragic story Sharon Stern in a succinct yet powerful way.

If you have a minute to read it, this link will take you to the Miami Herald article.

Cult Leader Katsura Kan has been served!

While in Thailand for a performance, Katsura Kan was legally served on behalf of the Sharon Stern estate, for the wrongful death of Sharon Stern. This was a monumental step towards getting justice for Sharon and her family. Here are the details of what happened:

At 8:10, the investigator saw a red Mini Cooper car, red plate number: ย 0922, Bangkok pull over in the front of Democrazy Theatre Studio. The driver of the car was a man called Mr. Num (Mr. Kritsana), the passenger who sat next to Mr. Num was Mr. Katsura Kan and a lady was seen sitting in the back. All three people got out of the car and went into Democrazy Theatre Studio. The investigator went to the entrance of Democrazy Theatre Studio and asked to meet Mr. Katsura Kan. When the investigator met Mr. Katsura Kan, the investigator said “Are you Katsura Kan”. He confirmed that he was. The investigator said “This is a complaint against you pending in the Broward County Circuit Court and you have 20 days to respond”. Mr. Katsura Kan smiled and took the document. The investigator asked Mr. Katsura Kan to sign the receipt document. Mr. Katsura Kan signed the receipt document for the investigator.

View the Katsura Kan Service Of Process Report.

View the Katsura Kan Service Verification.

Stay tuned for updates...

The Sharon Stern Story printed in 'Mail Online'

Mail Online recently printed a well written article by the talented Donna Anderson, about how cult leader Katsura Kan controlled, manipulated and drove Sharon Stern to suicide.

Here is an excerpt:

'He made her forget everything that was happy about life, and told her she needed to experience pain and suffering, until he had full control over her. She called him god.'

The lawsuit, which Kan has not responded to, alleges that Kan 'systematically stripped away Stern's human dignity, free will and self-respect by subjugating Stern to Kan's total control.'
It reads: 'Kan seduced Stern to engage in a sexual relationship with him, abused, publicly humiliated, criticized, insulted and derogated Stern, induced Stern to ingest narcotic drugs.'

Click to read how the cult of Katsura Kan destroyed Sharon Stern.

NEW EVENT: Town Hall Meeting with the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF)

The citizens of Rutherford Country, NC are holding a town-hall meeting on MAY 24th, 2014, in order to get answers to many questions regarding the Word of Faith Fellowship's cult like characteristics and activities. There are many victims from this church who have found the courage to speak out against them: many of whom will be attending and telling their stories. For more information, please visit their Facebook page, Citizens Against Corruption and Abuse.

NEW EVENT: FLAG DOWN - Anti-Scientology Conference in Clearwater, FL

MAY 5th-10th, 2014

The conference will reveal the abusive conditions, financial exploitation, coerced abortions and broken families that lie behind the Scientology organization’s veneer of religiosity.

Hosting an event of this size has never been done in Clearwater before. The fact that the cult consider it their mecca, despite the majority of citizens being somewhat less than supportive of it, makes it the ideal location for this event.

This will show the cult that ex-Scientologists, critics, anons, SPs and others are no longer afraid of them and their bully-boy tactics.

It is an opportunity to help people who want to leave the cult, by showing them how things are on the outside, and that life is actually far better without threats to your ‘eternity’.

For more information: http://www.flagdown.org

True Story of Being Disfellowshipped by the Jehovah's Witnesses

I grew-up in McDonough, GA, a family of four boys and my parents. Growing-up, I never saw myself as different from anyone else, but in all reality I was quite different. My family were Jehovah’s Witnesses, which determined how we lived our lives.

As a young man, I was known as the stalwart one. Everyone in the congregation would tell their children, “Look at Clint, he’s a great example for you.” I was an obedient kid. I studied hard looking for truth and lived a good life. I stayed away from drugs, alcohol, smoking, girls, etc. – keeping in line with my faith. I was an early morning witness, doing fieldwork, and even speaking to thousands of people about the church. During my adolescent years I volunteered close to seventy hours a month.

While serving on a mission in North Dakota, I learned of the tragedy that struck the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. I think a lot of people, including myself, started to re-examine their faith after 9-11. The effects of 9-11 were felt everywhere in the country, but I believe they had a strong impact on my life and the lives of other Jehovah Witnesses. As members, we saw the tragedy of 9-11 as a sign of the coming Armageddon, where there would be a final collapse of the "system" after a time of upheaval called the great tribulation.

Overwhelmed with guilt after being intimate with a girl I liked, I called my brother Ashley who came to North Dakota to get me, and together we returned home to GA. It's considered a sin to have sex out of marriage. After returning home to Georgia, I met another girl who I really liked and wanted a relationship with, we were intimate and again the guilt overtook me, so I confessed to the elders at my congregation. After confessing to the elders, they had a two-week deliberation period to decide my standing in the church and they decided to Disfellowship me.

Telling my parents that I had been disfellowshipped was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life. I think I can say I was more sad than I was nervous, knowing that I had disappointed my parents and my family. It’s important for non-Jehovah Witnesses to understand that once you are disfellowshipped, you can no longer spend quality time with family or friends who are Jehovah's Witnesses. There are no dinners together, no family outings, etc.; I would forever be shunned by them.

Thinking back on the experience, I remember feeling numb as my mom cried and called me selfish. There wasn’t anything I could say or do to help the situation. You have to remember that I had been the “good kid.” I was the one they were so proud of, and now I had disappointed them beyond even what I could conceive. Adding to their shame, when someone is disfellowshipped, it is announced to the entire congregation during the service.

After I was disfellowshipped, I somewhat spiraled out of control. I was so confused that I didn’t know what to believe anymore. I started researching not only my own religion, but other religions as well, learning as much as I could about life and spirituality. As I studied, I came to realize that all doctrines aren’t black and white, which is what I had been told my whole life. I began to see that there are many gray areas and many churches see doctrines differently. I started a Youtube channel where I discuss various Jehovah's Witness doctrine and other topics. This is one way that I try to cope and heal from my experience and the loss of my family and lifelong friends

- Clint Bussey

True Story of a Polygamous Church Wife

I was born in Englehart, Ontario Canada, but raised in Owen Sound, a small city on Georgian Bay, about 250 miles south.

In my mid-teens, I was forced into the Church of Jesus Christ (Restored) by my manipulative and domineering mother. My mother, an unstable religious fanatic, drugged and manipulated me into “marrying” a charismatic preacher more than twice my age. His name was Stan King.

In the early seventies Stan broke from The Reorganised Church of Latter Day Saints, which broke away from mainstream Mormonism in the mid 1960's – he then established his own fundamentalist Mormon sect. His followers called him The Prophet.

One of the basic doctrines which the new group re-embraced was the belief in polygamy.
One of his entitlements as “Prophet” was the privilege of having plural wives:

When I moved in with King at his farmhouse I joined his legal wife, and two other “church wives”, one of whom was only 14 years old. Stan had a fondness for group sex, and as time passed he bedded three more “wives” ranging in age from 10 to 17.

I spent over forty years in the Cult and endured physical, mental and emotional abuse throughout those years. I provided two sons to the original Prophet and was eventually “transferred” against my will to the second Prophet and because of my resistance I was placed under house arrest and confinement for nearly eight years.

Fearing for my life after yet another savage beating, I finally and quickly escaped the Cult in March, 2008 and managed to convince my oldest son to escape with me. I stepped out into a new and foreign world, one which I had been brainwashed into believing was a dark and evil place which would destroy me. I have found the opposite, and many times the kindness of strangers has amazed me.

Having secured two jobs and settling into a happier life, I met John Christie six months after my escape. We have been married since October 2009, we live in Owen Sound, Ontario Canada. and now spend our time trying to make a difference on the issue of polygamy in society.

Our book, “Property, The True Story of a Polygamous Church Wife” is intended to bring increased awareness of polygamy as the global seeping scourge they believe it to be.

- Carol Christie

Handle or Disconnect - A personal story about Scientology's take on shunning

I became interested in Scientology in 1987. I moved to a new city and was employed by a Scientologist who insisted I take Scientology courses, which I did and continued to do so for many years. After over 20 years as a dedicated Scientologist, a volunteer and major fundraising for the Church of Scientology I was expelled.

The reason? I dared to read the 2009 St.Petersburg Times Special Reports where former top members had left the church and spoke out about the abuses happening within the upper echelons of management. I also met with several of these former top members in person.

During this time my daughter Kara and step daughter Cara, both Scientologists, were told they could no longer speak to me ever again because of my actions or they too would be expelled. Both my daughters, out of fear of losing their "spiritual eternity" decided to disconnect from me.

The Church of Scientology has a policy called "Handle or Disconnect" – which means if you can't "handle" the person who is in disagreement with the church or it's policies to a point where they are happy with things again or at least are no longer antagonistic towards the church, then the only other solution is to disconnect from that person. Cut them out of your life for good.

I can never explain in words how painful this has been, as I love my daughters very much. But they both have their “eternity” at stake and that is more important to them than anything else. They both believe that they are in the only church that can save the planet and mankind. In their hearts they believe they are doing the most valuable thing to help this world, which I too believed for 20 years.

I have tried to contact both my daughters on many occasions and have only been met with silence.

Disconnection is an insidious and painful practice that must be stopped. Scientology holds this fear over the heads of any member that asks questions or wants to leave. There are tens of thousands of people in the world that have been affected by disconnection.

As an activist I try to tell my story so that others can understand the manipulation that takes place inside Scientology. I was interviewed by the St.Petersburg Times where I explain how in depth my fundraising efforts were for the Church of Scientology. I raised millions of dollars for them.

My dear friend Claire and I have put together a website called Stop Disconnection.

I hope this site helps with any questions you may have about some of Scientology's destructive policies that literally destroy families.

- Cindy Plahuta

TAKE THE CULT SUSCEPTIBILITY QUIZ

THE CULT SUSCEPTIBILITY QUIZ
by Paul R. Martin, Ph.D.

ANSWER TRUE OR FALSE:

• 1. I am lonely a good part of the time.
• 2. I tend to be a follower more than a leader.
• 3. I am not very satisfied with my church.
• 4. Somehow, I feel my idealism and purpose in life hasn’t been properly tapped or challenged.
• 5. I’ve been having some personal problems I can’t seem to solve.
• 6. The cult issue is not much of a problem in this society.
• 7. There are about 10-20 cults in the U.S.
• 8. I could spot a cult with little effort.
• 9. Most cultists wear unusual clothing or uniforms.

10. Most cults recruit on the street by selling flowers, books or requesting a donation.
11. There are very few cultic problems within evangelical Christianity.
12. All cults teach non-Christian or heretical doctrine.
13. I’m not the type of person who joins a cult.
14. Most people who join cults are weird. They have “problems.”
15. Truly dedicated, Spirit-led Christians would never join a cult.
16. People are in cults because of spiritual problems.
17. Those who are “saved” don’t join cults.
18. Cultism has little to do with totalitarianism, or problems of addiction.
19. People who join cults know what they are doing.
20. Groups that preach the gospel and are winning many to Christ cannot be cultic.

CULT QUIZ ANSWERS

Word of Faith Fellowship - Waiver and Release Form

Before becoming an official member of the WOFF family, you need to sign a legal contract that renders the church completely blameless for anything that may happen to you during the course of your involvement with them.

There is even a statement that says, "I understand that in some spiritual atmospheres there may be some mind control involved…"

Quite incredible.

WOFF - Waiver and Release form

Word of Faith Fellowship - New Member Handout Do's and Don'ts

If you want to become a member of the 'Word of Faith Fellowship' church in Spindale, NC, first you need to be "checked out" and approved by their leader Jane Whaley. Once accepted, you are given the rules. Some of our "favorites" include:

#3 You will be required to smile on command.
#19 Don’t read books that are not approved by leadership.
#50 Don’t complain when the offering plates are passed more than once.
#78 Don’t interview for a job unless it is “under authority”.
#80 Don’t make plans for college unless you have Jane check it out.
#118 Don’t let WOFF children play with children outside of WOFF.
#133 Don’t start a relationship without checking it out with Jane.
#134 Don’t decide who you will marry without checking it out with Jane.
#137 Don’t complain about the list of “dont's”.
#144 Don’t attack those in authority.
#145 Don’t question Jane’s authority to run WOFF.

Lastly, we hope you will be with us for many years to come. Don’t worry about memorizing this list. When you violate a “don’t”, you will be told-“We don’t do that”.

For the complete list of Do's and Dont's, download it here.
(created by an ex-member of the church based on personal experience)

Educational Pamphlet Design

We have just finished printing a run of our first cult awareness pamphlets, to be passed around at high-schools, colleges, and youth social events. It breaks down in simple terms: cult recruiting methods, indoctrination methods, and ways kids can protect themselves form this potential threat.

To view it, click here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to our donors and supporters!

We would like to thank our beloved donors and supporters for all that they have done for us in 2013, and wish them all the best in 2014. Let's make it a great year!