I have found two basic types of people that join cults (aside from those born into one – a story for another time). The first is the one that falls in love with the cult; it’s organization, personality of the leaders, charisma, energy, collective power, the supposedly miraculous, the supposed accurate foretelling of the future, the seeming clarity of life. While espousing ethereal beliefs and claiming fervently to “now having the only true religion,” their real interest lies, not in doctrine, but in the group itself. The victim perceives consciously or subconsciously that the group just happens to fulfill their own physical and psychological needs. Being a working part of the organization is the key to their mental health.  Their seeming interest in God is really taking a back seat to their own animal needs. These are the ones that will hang on to the cult for dear life. They can get out, but it will only be if they are disillusioned and lose the personal benefits (common scenario), or if they actually find another group or form of therapy that gives even greater personal returns (rare).

On the other hand, some individuals really are searching for God and are willing to listen to anything that sounds logical and meaningful, but are also willing to grow and change once given wiser, more accurate information. Often they have been loosely involved with other religious organizations in the past. They may be attracted to cults out of curiosity and the desire to learn what they are all about. Yet it is usually only a matter of time before the lying and obfuscation of the cult leadership shows through, and the spiritual adventurer will look for something better. Since they are really searching for ethereal truths, a controlling organization will stifle their spiritual growth and feel stale in time, offering diminishing returns. Cult mind control has much less effect on them, as they have less to lose in exiting the group than the first type mentioned above.

Either way, an intervention works basically the same way.

The first thing that happens is the exit counselor is contacted by family or loved ones and say, "I need to get somebody out of a cult!"

The exit counselor will then prep them with a reading assignment of one or more books on the subject of a cult, such as Releasing the Bonds by Steven Hassan. It is important that everyone should be familiar with the process of interventions and what to do and what not to do, and what is the purpose of the intervention. Moving ahead without professional help is not a good idea, as  there are many things you can do to really muck up the situation if you're not careful. You probably won’t get a second chance. But cooperation with the rest of the group is extremely important, so all involved need to be as well-read and coached as possible.

The Goal

The goal of cult intervention is empowering people to think for themselves.

Even as a Christian exit counselor, your goal is not to convert the person from Jehovah's Witnesses or some other cult to your church or your brand of philosophy. It is ethically dishonest to “deprogram” them from one belief system and reprogram them with another, without giving them the tools to make their own decisions based on facts rather than coercion. You have not taught them to make and trust their own decisions. The cult has repeatedly told them they cannot make such decisions!  THAT is the real problem – they are like helpless babies that are tainted by sin and can’t be trusted... or the devil will control their mind.

It is better to take the person back to the point in their life where they made a hasty or wrong decision, and they can realize that it was a bad decision and that he/she could have made a better one. I get great satisfaction in helping such ones to learn to apply certain logical guides to life. How much better to actually take them back to that place where they took a wrong fork in the road and let them see how they could have made a more intelligent decision, and help them work towards that now. Spirituality will develop on its own in time. You can work on that with them later if mutually desirable.

Assessing the Situation

The questionnaire is the second part and is designed to educate the exit counselor as to who are the people closest to the cult victim, with whom they have had the greatest rapport together in the past, and also to determine who in the set of family or friends chosen might be better left out of the picture. The EC (exit-counselor) wants to find out who is the most approachable and non-judgmental person in the family to the cult member, in order to use them to initiate memories of better times when the victim was not under strong persuasion. In addition, the small nuances of their inter-relationships can be tentatively perceived.  The EC wants to know who his team is going to be, as he will educate each one with a view to performing a specific role in the intervention.

Then the EC will attempt to get his team together in one room and get to know each other better. This is where the EC really figures out who the team will be, since he can now read all the non-verbal cues going back and forth between friends and family members of the cult victim. Body language!  This is where the professionalism in an EC shines, in his/her ability to make quick decisions about the usefulness of each one and the likelihood of their inter-cooperation. Those that may not be the right ones to help directly can be prepped for a secondary role later during the victim’s recovery.

I personally feel it is a mistake for Christians bent on evangelizing to attempt exit-counseling themselves, unless they have done a great deal of study on psychological issues, and more importantly have had experience in the field with a professional exit-counselor on several occasions. Additionally, attending a few professional cult awareness-type meetings, where you rub shoulders with people from all kinds of cults, will round all of that out. It is very similar to going to AA or Al-Anon meetings to understand how to help alcoholics in your own family.

You are not going to find a class in a college on how to learn exit-counseling. A study of psychology would be very helpful if you wish to be better equipped. But interventions are almost all a process of cold reading, education in a non-threatening environment, and experience in the field. Let some movies and slide presentations do the teaching; let them see the viewpoints of a WIDE range of people. The EC does not want to be seen as the know-it-all, and he/she has teaching aids that will do that part of the work. But being an EC requires special skills, not unlike those of salesmen and experienced parents. Find one with a good track record.

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written by Becky Richardson , November 05, 2009

You sound so intelligent. Are you recently out of the truth?

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written by Victor E Benitez , November 10, 2009

Dear Randy,

As a side note, there is a program on PBS called History Detectives. Have a link on your Website, called, be a "History Detective," no Watchtower secret is safe.

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written by Odin , November 17, 2009

Interesting! Sounds like the religious clergy in Jesus days. They claimed that Jesus is a danger to Caesar and God, by blinding poeple about the truth. If anyone wants to become a JW TODAY, one can't. The process takes at least 6 month. Everything is on the table. Homosexual practices are wrong. Sex outside of marriage is wrong. To steal is wrong incl. and foremost tax fraud. We stay away from Blood. Love your neighbour. Love your enemy. All that has to be acknowleded by the "student" in order to qualify for baptism. i was raised in this "cult". If half of the accussation on this very blog here were true, i'd leave the religion TODAY!. Especially one gentlemen, saying he served as an elder. PPl. like him have battered congregations with doctrines and falsehood. When they get disfellowshiped they criticise the Wittnesses and the slave-class of the very wrongdoing they got disfellowshiped for.
We have a local ex-Wittness who was disfellowshiped for abusing children. as long as he was a Jehovah's Wittness, critics claimed, that he is a pedophile because he IS a Jehovas wittness. After he refused help from the elders he was disfellowshiped. Now the Critics say:"He is a pedophile because he WAS a Jehovah's Wittness!". Not even all of Jesus disciples stayed the course. When the Catholic Church as an Institution burns people for reading the bible, and than (500 years later) declare them Saints, than everbody applaudes and welcome the change. When jehovah's wittnesses as Individuals do wrong, than its the cult. LOL, your guys are funny!

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