Booklist on Cult Mind Control etc

Cover page	1984
	By George Orwell Publ.: Signet Classic Year: 1901 ISBN: 0451524934
	COMMENTS: "Newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime--in 1984, George Orwell created a whole vocabulary of words concerning totalitarian control that have since passed into our common vocabulary. More importantly, he has portrayed a chillingly credible dystopia. In our deeply anxious world, the seeds of unthinking conformity are everywhere in evidence; and Big Brother is always looking for his chance." [Daniel Hintzsche]
	LINKS: Scientology vs. Orwell's 1984 Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Animal Farm
	By George Orwell Publ.: Signet Classic Year: 1946 ISBN: 0451526341
	COMMENTS: "Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has rivaled Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as the Shortest Serious Novel It's OK to Write a Book Report About. (The latter is three pages longer and less fun to read.) Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm. Satire Animal Farm may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy." [Joyce Thompson, Amazon.com]
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Battle for the Mind A Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing
	By William Sargant Publ.: Malor Books Year: ISBN: 1883536065
	BOOK DESCRITION: How can an evangelist convert a hardboiled sophisticate? Why does a POW sign a "confession" that he knows is false? How is a criminal pressured into admitting his guilt? Do the evangelist, the POW's captor, and the policeman use similar methods to gain their ends? These and other compelling questions are discussed in the definitive work by William Sargant, who for many years until his death in 1988 was a leading physician in psychological medicine. Sargant spells out and illustrates the basic techniques used by evangelists, psychiatrists, and brain-washers to disperse the patterns of belief and behavior already established in the minds of their hearers, and to substitute new patterns for them.
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Captive Hearts, Captive Minds Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Relationships
	By Madeleine Landau Tobias Publ.: Hunter House Year: 1994 ISBN: 0897931440
	REVIEW: "Tobias and Lalich spent a combined total of 24 years in "restrictive groups" (i.e., cults), and both are currently involved in providing post-cult counseling and therapy. Their first collaboration, this book succeeds as an ambitious, comprehensive explanation of the cult experience and works well on several levels. Its stated focal intent is to encourage and assist those former cultists struggling to readjust to the "real world." Powered by the authors' experience, compassion, and intellect, it capably provides such support. In addition, however, Tobias and Lalich's systematic analysis of the shared characteristics of cults and cult leaders, along with extensive first-person accounts by former cultists, will educate those readers with a purely intellectual interest in the allure, power, and structure of cults. Recommended for public and religious libraries." [Library Journal]
	LINKS: Excerpt from book Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Combatting Cult Mind Control The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults
	By Steven Hassan Publ.: Inner Traditions Intl Ltd Year: 1990 ISBN: 0892813113
	REVIEW: "...remarkably useful and important. I heartly recommend this book to anyone affected by the cult experience. Hassan's work will be valuable to health professionals, clergy, attorneys, and all those involved with cults, their members, and the families whose lives they touch." [Louis Jolyon West, M.D., Chairman, Department of Phychiatry UCLA School of Medicine]
	LINKS: Official page Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Crazy Therapies What Are They? Do They Work?
	By Margaret Thaler Singer, Janja Lalich Publ.: Jossey-Bass Year: 1996 ISBN: 0787902780
	COMMENTS: "An exposé of alternative psychotherapeutic philosophies and practices, revealing the sometimes harmful effects of methods such as past-life therapy, alien-abduction therapy, rebirthing, and skull adjustment. Outlines guidelines for distinguishing legitimate therapeutic approaches from those that are irrational or unethical, and offers advice on avoiding the risks of entanglement." [Book News, Inc., Portland]
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Cults A Practical Guide
	By Ian Haworth Publ.: Cult Information Centre Year: 2002 ISBN: 1873166842
	Synopsis: This British handbook is designed for both prevention and cure. It is aimed at helping a wide range of readers from 14 to 94. The booklet is a concise guide to assist families and friends of cult members. It will also benefit ex-cult members in their recovery. Furthermore, it will be an educational tool for teachers, researchers, personnel managers, counsellors and others in the caring professions.
	LINKS: Official page Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Cults Faith, Healing, and Coercion
	By Marc Galanter Publ.: Oxford University Press Year: 1999 ISBN: 0195123700
	REVIEW: "From the mass weddings of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church to the ritual suicides at Heaven's Gate, charismatic cults and their devotees have become facts of American life. Using material gleaned from twenty-five years of direct encounters with cults and their detractors, as well as extensive research, Marc Galanter offers the most extensive psychological analysis of these organizations available. Cults explores not only how members feel and think at all stages of their involvement, but also how larger social and psychological forces reinforce individual commitment within the cults. For this revised and newly-illustrated second edition, Galanter has added three new chapters on cult development in the 1990s, spiritual recovery movements, and alternative medicine." [Book Description]
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Cults in Our Midst The Hidden Menace in our Everyday Lives
	By Margaret Thaler Singer Publ.: Jossey-Bass Year: 1996 ISBN: 0787902667
	REVIEW: "Though the title may seem sensational, the book is a well-researched, enlightening introduction to a serious subject. Singer is a clinical psychologist and emeritus adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley who has interviewed several thousand former cult members and testified about cults and their "thought reform" tactics; Lalich is a professional writer and former cult member. The strength of Cults in Our Midst is its clear explanation of the nature of cults, how they operate, the threat they pose to individuals, families, and society, and how others can help cult survivors escape and recover. Many types of cultic relationships are considered, from tiny religious or occult groups to the "large group awareness training" programs that have infiltrated workplaces. The book makes key distinctions between New Age ideas and the cults that use these concepts and between types of persuasion, from education to propaganda to cults' manipulative "thought reform." Most Americans, Cults in Our Midst stresses, will be vulnerable to cults at some point in their lives. Includes resource and suggested reading lists." [Booklist]
	LINKS: Author profile Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Fads and Fallacies In The Name of Science
	By Martin Gardner Publ.: Dover Pubns Year: 1952 ISBN: 0-486-20394-8
	COMMENTS: The curious theories of modern pseudoscientists and the strange, amusing and alarming cults that surround them. A study in human gullibility. With one chapter on L. Ron Hubbard and Dianetics.
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Influence The Psychology of Persuasion
	By Robert B. Cialdini Publ.: Quill Year: 1993 ISBN: 0688128165
	COMMENTS: "Arguably the best book ever on what is increasingly becoming the science of persuasion. Whether you're a mere consumer or someone weaving the web of persuasion to urge others to buy or vote for your product, this is an essential book for understanding the psychological foundations of marketing. Recommended." [Amazon.com]
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Larson's New Book of Cults
	By Bob Larson Publ.: Tyndale House Publishers Year: 1989 ISBN: 0842328602
	COMMENTS:
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Obedience to Authority
	By Stanley Milgram Publ.: Harpercollins Year: 1983 ISBN: 006131983X
	COMMENTS: From Milgram's reply to Baumrind's ethical critique of the obedience experiments (1964): "I started with the belief that every person who came to the laboratory was free to accept or to reject the dictates of authority. This view sustains a conception of human dignity insofar as it sees in each man a capacity for choosing his own behavior. And as it turned out, many subjects did, indeed, choose to reject the experimenter's commands, providing a powerful affirmation of human ideals."
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Recovery from Abusive Groups
	By Wendy Ford, Wendy Wolfberg Publ.: Amer Family Foundation Year: 1993 ISBN: 0931337046
	FROM INSIDE FLAP: "Wendy Ford has written an honest, revealing, highly comprehensive and practical guide for former cultists and their families. Through this sensible, instructive book, a wider circle of people will now have the opportunity to benefit from her wise and practical step-by-step approach. This book is the first of its kind, and it will be difficult to surpass." -Lorna Goldberg, MSW, ACSW and William Goldberg, MSW, ACSW
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Recovery from Cults Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse
	By Michael D. Langone (Editor) Publ.: W.W. Norton & Company Year: 1995 ISBN: 0393313212
	REVIEW: "This was one of the first books I read after 9 years in a cult, too bad I read it more than a year and a half after I quit (I wish I would`ve found this earlier, right after I left the group I was in). I recommend this to all ex-members of cults, as well as anyone interested in or affected by them; and ESPECIALLY anyone in any group (religious or otherwise) who questions the nature of your group, and has thoughts of leaving. This book is informative, affirmative, and great support for ex-members and their families when you feel like no one else understands what you`ve been through." [Phillip Tomas, Tokyo, Japan]
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Releasing The Bonds Empowering People to Think for Themselves
	By Steven Hassan Publ.: Freedom of Mind Press Year: 2000 ISBN: 0-9670688-0-0
	REVIEW: "As a former cult member who walked away from that group some years ago, I've found Steve Hassan to be a great resource to help me through all kinds of emotional struggles, both his online resources and his first book. Now, with the release of 'Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves', Steve provides even more resources not just to aid people affected by cults, but to help people truly empower themselves to think clearly and critically, and help them make the best decisions for their lives. Steve is a great resource, someone we need in the face of all sorts of false gurus, get-rich-quick multilevel marketing schemes, etc. His writing is crisp and easy to understand, and really creates a bond with the reader. I highly recommend reading 'Releasing the Bonds'; it's a great book to help you discover how to empower yourself." [Reviewer: Nicolas P. DiCiaccio, Massachusetts]
	LINKS: Freedom of Mind Bookstore Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Seductive Poison A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple
	By Deborah Layton Publ.: Anchor Books Year: 1999 ISBN: 0385489846
	COMMENTS: "In reading this chilling memoir, some may desire ultimate answers to the most obvious question, namely, why any sane person would join such a group. Layton doesn't cheapen her ordeal, or the lives of those lost, with throwaway analysis. Perhaps the only answer lies in the basic human need for fulfillment, sanctuary, and belonging." [The Boston Globe, Renée Graham]
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

Cover page	Snapping America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
	By Flo Conway Publ.: Stillpoint Pr Inc Year: 1995 ISBN: 0964765004
	REVIEW: "Explores the way cults and other factors are causing people to give themselves over to those like David Koresh of Waco infamy, or becoming walking time bombs like Timothy McVeigh, the alleged perpetrator of the Oklahoma bombing...a powerful look at a social phenomenon that is making headlines." [Bookviews]
	LINKS: Find out more at Amazon.com

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