Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 73
narrated by the daughter, mentions that Nora went to a clinic to recover and was still in
therapy after several months, but things were ―getting better.‖
Signs and Wonders
The next significant movie we will consider is Signs and Wonders, a British Broadcasting
Company production from 1994. It aired in America in 1995 and several times thereafter.
This long movie portrays a dysfunctional British family with a daughter who joins a
communal, American sect headed by an Asian man. The father is a struggling Anglican
minister with a drinking problem and doubts about his faith. The older son is a skeptical
philosopher caught up in the fringe ―deconstructionist‖ world-views of a charismatic German
scholar. The mother, Elizabeth, convincingly played by Prunella Scales, is characteristic of
strong, dedicated mothers like the one in Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck—an unselfish
person who loves and helps everyone in her distressed family. Her primary concern is to
help rescue from the cult her daughter, Claire, played by Jodhi May in a solid performance.
In this endeavor, Elizabeth is essentially alone as her son and husband are not so
concerned. She contacts an ―exit counselor‖ called Diamond, a role rigorously interpreted by
James Earl Jones. Elizabeth engages him to monitor and hopefully to exit her daughter out
of the group. While Elizabeth prepares to travel to America, Diamond orders one of his crew
to infiltrate the group. Group life appears similar to that in Split Image and Ticket to
Heaven: Every one is kept busy either praying, tending to chores, going to meetings,
recruiting new members, or fundraising. Diamond‘s edgy crewmember must escape from
the commune and from the psychological pressure he feels to stay and join. He reports that
the daughter is in deeper than they thought, and that she is being prepared for a special
―task‖ for the leader.
In a crucial scene on a beach Diamond and his two-man, one-woman crew, discuss the
possibilities of contact with Claire. The crew wants to kidnap her. Diamond argues against
their radical suggestion. He says it violates his non-coercive way of intervention. But, true
to the film industry‘s need to dramatize these encounters, Diamond breaks his code and
agrees to abduct the young lady. Now we are back to the familiar coercive deprogram style
again. The crew manages to abduct the daughter while she is fund-raising on the street by
dragging her into a black van. They do all of this rather professionally for a team that
supposedly works only non-coercively, and they work, uncharacteristically for
deprogrammers, without a family member present.
The mother arrives after the team has the daughter in a hotel. In a bizarre series of scenes,
Diamond, dressed as a blind person to avoid the police, secretly meets the confused mother
in a public square. They get in his car where he explains what they had to do to get Claire.
On their way to the hotel Diamond educates Elizabeth about ―mind control‖ and cults while
interviewing her about her knowledge of brainwashing. He gets very upset with her when
she states that she feels responsible for her daughter‘s joining the group, and that she
expects him to deprogram Claire out of it. Diamond suddenly stops the car and commands
Elizabeth to get out! As they stand on a sidewalk, he emphatically lectures that he ―does not
unbrainwash the brainwashed‖, that he is an ―exit counselor‖ not a deprogrammer--―Never
use that term with me‖-- who educates his clients and does not coerce them. Diamond also
convinces the mother that anyone joins cults, that there is no family profile of cult recruits.
To my knowledge this was the first introduction of the term ―exit counselor‖ in a film of this
genre. Unfortunately, little of an exit counselor‘s educational style makes it into the
dramatic intervention scenes. The story reverts to the old deprogramming stereotype in
every way, just as it portrays the now classic version of a ―Moonie‖ cult household.
narrated by the daughter, mentions that Nora went to a clinic to recover and was still in
therapy after several months, but things were ―getting better.‖
Signs and Wonders
The next significant movie we will consider is Signs and Wonders, a British Broadcasting
Company production from 1994. It aired in America in 1995 and several times thereafter.
This long movie portrays a dysfunctional British family with a daughter who joins a
communal, American sect headed by an Asian man. The father is a struggling Anglican
minister with a drinking problem and doubts about his faith. The older son is a skeptical
philosopher caught up in the fringe ―deconstructionist‖ world-views of a charismatic German
scholar. The mother, Elizabeth, convincingly played by Prunella Scales, is characteristic of
strong, dedicated mothers like the one in Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck—an unselfish
person who loves and helps everyone in her distressed family. Her primary concern is to
help rescue from the cult her daughter, Claire, played by Jodhi May in a solid performance.
In this endeavor, Elizabeth is essentially alone as her son and husband are not so
concerned. She contacts an ―exit counselor‖ called Diamond, a role rigorously interpreted by
James Earl Jones. Elizabeth engages him to monitor and hopefully to exit her daughter out
of the group. While Elizabeth prepares to travel to America, Diamond orders one of his crew
to infiltrate the group. Group life appears similar to that in Split Image and Ticket to
Heaven: Every one is kept busy either praying, tending to chores, going to meetings,
recruiting new members, or fundraising. Diamond‘s edgy crewmember must escape from
the commune and from the psychological pressure he feels to stay and join. He reports that
the daughter is in deeper than they thought, and that she is being prepared for a special
―task‖ for the leader.
In a crucial scene on a beach Diamond and his two-man, one-woman crew, discuss the
possibilities of contact with Claire. The crew wants to kidnap her. Diamond argues against
their radical suggestion. He says it violates his non-coercive way of intervention. But, true
to the film industry‘s need to dramatize these encounters, Diamond breaks his code and
agrees to abduct the young lady. Now we are back to the familiar coercive deprogram style
again. The crew manages to abduct the daughter while she is fund-raising on the street by
dragging her into a black van. They do all of this rather professionally for a team that
supposedly works only non-coercively, and they work, uncharacteristically for
deprogrammers, without a family member present.
The mother arrives after the team has the daughter in a hotel. In a bizarre series of scenes,
Diamond, dressed as a blind person to avoid the police, secretly meets the confused mother
in a public square. They get in his car where he explains what they had to do to get Claire.
On their way to the hotel Diamond educates Elizabeth about ―mind control‖ and cults while
interviewing her about her knowledge of brainwashing. He gets very upset with her when
she states that she feels responsible for her daughter‘s joining the group, and that she
expects him to deprogram Claire out of it. Diamond suddenly stops the car and commands
Elizabeth to get out! As they stand on a sidewalk, he emphatically lectures that he ―does not
unbrainwash the brainwashed‖, that he is an ―exit counselor‖ not a deprogrammer--―Never
use that term with me‖-- who educates his clients and does not coerce them. Diamond also
convinces the mother that anyone joins cults, that there is no family profile of cult recruits.
To my knowledge this was the first introduction of the term ―exit counselor‖ in a film of this
genre. Unfortunately, little of an exit counselor‘s educational style makes it into the
dramatic intervention scenes. The story reverts to the old deprogramming stereotype in
every way, just as it portrays the now classic version of a ―Moonie‖ cult household.
