Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 72
thugs who will kidnap the boy and deprogram him with forceful, violent methods.‖20 After
Lou Grant realizes that his house was chosen for a ―violent‖ intervention, he throws the
deprogrammers out. He convinces his colleague that deprogramming is wrong and that the
son should be allowed to choose for himself. Father and son then take a walk in the rain to
talk it over.
A Saturday Night Live television comedy skit about a deprogramming repeated sometime in
1987.21 The skit begins with a haggard young woman tied to a chair where she is subjected
to taunts and arguments from two male deprogrammers. The woman wears a plain dress
and has dark circles around her eyes, thus enhancing a zombie-like trance. While the
agitated deprogrammers work, a number of cult members crash into the place through
windows and doors. John Belushi plays the cult leader. The cultists walk slowly, imitating
characters from the old horror film, The Body Snatchers, hollow-eyed with arms
outstretched while handing out brochures. As one deprogrammer looks at a brochure, the
other one yells, ―Don‘t read it, man!‖ or something to that effect--too late. The
deprogrammer suddenly transforms into a cult member, his eyes turn dark and he behaves
in a robotic way. While the remaining deprogrammer struggles to avoid the cultists, the
police led by comedian Bill Murray, storm onto the scene and proceed to shoot everyone in
sight. After the mayhem the camera focuses on the deprogramee as she rises slowly from
the floor to crawl eerily toward the audience. Even bullets cannot stop the brainwashed. In
any case, back to the movies.…
A Mother’s Deception
An NBC special, aired initially on October 17, 1994, is titled Moment of Truth: A Mother’s
Deception. It depicts Nora, a middle-aged woman who got caught up in a psychotherapy
cult that convinced her to leave her family. The group leader, a psychiatrist played by
Daniel Hugh Kelly, convinces Nora under hypnosis that her husband had abused her.
Starring Joan Van Ark as Nora and Tom Kurlander as reluctant deprogrammer Ben Jacoby,
the story composites two similar cases from information I provided to the production staff
while working with the writer. Although the events and characters in the story were
fictionalized, most were derived from actual interventions I helped to conduct in 1988. My
efforts to persuade the writer to design the story around a non-coercive intervention worked
temporarily until the producers demanded that the writer insert some kind of abduction and
confinement.
Based on events I provided that actually occurred in other cases, the writer described an
initial attempt at a non-coercive meeting that failed. After first agreeing to the meeting with
Ben, Nora declined to meet with him after her cult leader shows her news clippings from
Jacoby‘s past as a busted deprogrammer. A non-violent ―abduction‖ scene ensues as the
daughter and husband convince Ben to do just one more. The writer invents an off-duty
policeman, whose son Ben had helped out of a cult in years gone by, who tricks Nora to go
with him to the intervention site. In collusion with the daughter who is driving, the
uniformed officer pulls them over. He informs them that the car is ―reported as stolen.‖ The
officer then escorts them to the safe house.
A twist in the image of a deprogrammer shows Ben Jacoby as a youthful but respected
history professor who had retired from deprogramming. Nora‘s husband and daughter
convince Ben to help them despite his promise to the college that he would do no more
deprogramming work. Jacoby comes across as an intelligent, sensitive man, but one who is
deeply scarred by his own cult experience in his youth. Toward the end of the intervention
he uses the scars on his wrists from a suicide attempt to impress Nora about the dangers of
The Path. The story ends after a dramatic scene that pits the group leader against the
deprogrammer and the family. Nora has to decide what the truth really is. She realizes that
her ―memory‖ of abuse from her husband is false. She goes back to her family. The story,
thugs who will kidnap the boy and deprogram him with forceful, violent methods.‖20 After
Lou Grant realizes that his house was chosen for a ―violent‖ intervention, he throws the
deprogrammers out. He convinces his colleague that deprogramming is wrong and that the
son should be allowed to choose for himself. Father and son then take a walk in the rain to
talk it over.
A Saturday Night Live television comedy skit about a deprogramming repeated sometime in
1987.21 The skit begins with a haggard young woman tied to a chair where she is subjected
to taunts and arguments from two male deprogrammers. The woman wears a plain dress
and has dark circles around her eyes, thus enhancing a zombie-like trance. While the
agitated deprogrammers work, a number of cult members crash into the place through
windows and doors. John Belushi plays the cult leader. The cultists walk slowly, imitating
characters from the old horror film, The Body Snatchers, hollow-eyed with arms
outstretched while handing out brochures. As one deprogrammer looks at a brochure, the
other one yells, ―Don‘t read it, man!‖ or something to that effect--too late. The
deprogrammer suddenly transforms into a cult member, his eyes turn dark and he behaves
in a robotic way. While the remaining deprogrammer struggles to avoid the cultists, the
police led by comedian Bill Murray, storm onto the scene and proceed to shoot everyone in
sight. After the mayhem the camera focuses on the deprogramee as she rises slowly from
the floor to crawl eerily toward the audience. Even bullets cannot stop the brainwashed. In
any case, back to the movies.…
A Mother’s Deception
An NBC special, aired initially on October 17, 1994, is titled Moment of Truth: A Mother’s
Deception. It depicts Nora, a middle-aged woman who got caught up in a psychotherapy
cult that convinced her to leave her family. The group leader, a psychiatrist played by
Daniel Hugh Kelly, convinces Nora under hypnosis that her husband had abused her.
Starring Joan Van Ark as Nora and Tom Kurlander as reluctant deprogrammer Ben Jacoby,
the story composites two similar cases from information I provided to the production staff
while working with the writer. Although the events and characters in the story were
fictionalized, most were derived from actual interventions I helped to conduct in 1988. My
efforts to persuade the writer to design the story around a non-coercive intervention worked
temporarily until the producers demanded that the writer insert some kind of abduction and
confinement.
Based on events I provided that actually occurred in other cases, the writer described an
initial attempt at a non-coercive meeting that failed. After first agreeing to the meeting with
Ben, Nora declined to meet with him after her cult leader shows her news clippings from
Jacoby‘s past as a busted deprogrammer. A non-violent ―abduction‖ scene ensues as the
daughter and husband convince Ben to do just one more. The writer invents an off-duty
policeman, whose son Ben had helped out of a cult in years gone by, who tricks Nora to go
with him to the intervention site. In collusion with the daughter who is driving, the
uniformed officer pulls them over. He informs them that the car is ―reported as stolen.‖ The
officer then escorts them to the safe house.
A twist in the image of a deprogrammer shows Ben Jacoby as a youthful but respected
history professor who had retired from deprogramming. Nora‘s husband and daughter
convince Ben to help them despite his promise to the college that he would do no more
deprogramming work. Jacoby comes across as an intelligent, sensitive man, but one who is
deeply scarred by his own cult experience in his youth. Toward the end of the intervention
he uses the scars on his wrists from a suicide attempt to impress Nora about the dangers of
The Path. The story ends after a dramatic scene that pits the group leader against the
deprogrammer and the family. Nora has to decide what the truth really is. She realizes that
her ―memory‖ of abuse from her husband is false. She goes back to her family. The story,
