Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, Page 40
The prophet/leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, convicted last year of being an
accomplice to rape for performing a wedding between a young man and a 14-year-
old girl, and facing more charges in Arizona32
The wildly creative Anonymous protests around the world
The incessant flow of vulnerable individuals into terrorist organizations
And there are plenty of other incidents:
Three large ―dream homes‖ set afire by eco-terrorists, the Earth Liberation Front, a
group that, along with the Animal Liberation Front, has committed and claimed
responsibility for hundreds of criminal attacks in the past decade. This one did
seven million dollars in damage33
A group of followers (including at least four children) of a Russian cult leader who
barricaded themselves in a cave about 400 miles southeast of Moscow for more
than seven months waiting for doomsday34
A media interview with an egocentric cult leader claiming to be the Messiah, who
admitted on tape to ―lying naked‖ with three underage girls (one as young as 12
years old), and got busted and charged with criminal sexual contact with a minor
about a week after the program aired on the National Geographic channel35
All of this and more tells us that ideological extremism is alive and well. Cults thrive on
ideological extremism. Through well-known mechanisms of influence and control—patterns
we‘ve seen time and again in these groups—individual lives become more and more
constrained, sometimes gradually, sometimes rather quickly. Minds are shaped to respond
in cult-approved ways. In the case of those who are born or raised in a cult, these
controlling influences are everywhere around them, from birth, from childhood on. Growing
up in such an environment may leave an imprint far beyond what many of us can begin to
comprehend.
I‘m currently engaged in a research project interviewing people who were born or raised in
a cult. What‘s unique about the population I‘m interviewing is that all of these people left
the cult on their own, either in adolescence or early adulthood. I am so humbled and awed
by the life stories that these brave people are sharing with me. And the good news is, they
survive. They build lives, they have relationships, they go to school, they establish careers,
they figure out their emotions and what they believe in, they valiantly struggle with identity
issues and with practical life matters, often without a helping hand.
It‘s been clear for some time now that this is the new population that demands our
attention. Their experiences, their insights are adding a whole new dimension to our
knowledge base. Because of them, I would submit that the scientific understanding of
―resilience‖ will be greatly expanded. They, too, are our heroes.
I read something on the Internet the other day: A Ph.D. professor wrote, ―Suicide bombers
are hardwired to become killers,‖ meaning they were born that way. Personally and
professionally, I don‘t believe that for a minute.
In fact, new brain research is showing us that the years of the ―hard-wired‖ traditionalists
are over. This new area of study, called neuroplasticity, is about whether or not the brain is
fixed or flexible in its structure and capabilities.36 And, from this research, we are learning
that the adult brain can change, that ―the human brain is almost infinitely malleable….
People used to think that our mental meshwork … was largely fixed by the time we reached
adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that‘s not the case.‖37 Even the adult
mind is very plastic, they tell us. And these adaptations occur also at a biological level. If
the brain has the ability to reprogram itself ―on the fly,‖ as one neuroscientist put it,38 then
The prophet/leader of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, convicted last year of being an
accomplice to rape for performing a wedding between a young man and a 14-year-
old girl, and facing more charges in Arizona32
The wildly creative Anonymous protests around the world
The incessant flow of vulnerable individuals into terrorist organizations
And there are plenty of other incidents:
Three large ―dream homes‖ set afire by eco-terrorists, the Earth Liberation Front, a
group that, along with the Animal Liberation Front, has committed and claimed
responsibility for hundreds of criminal attacks in the past decade. This one did
seven million dollars in damage33
A group of followers (including at least four children) of a Russian cult leader who
barricaded themselves in a cave about 400 miles southeast of Moscow for more
than seven months waiting for doomsday34
A media interview with an egocentric cult leader claiming to be the Messiah, who
admitted on tape to ―lying naked‖ with three underage girls (one as young as 12
years old), and got busted and charged with criminal sexual contact with a minor
about a week after the program aired on the National Geographic channel35
All of this and more tells us that ideological extremism is alive and well. Cults thrive on
ideological extremism. Through well-known mechanisms of influence and control—patterns
we‘ve seen time and again in these groups—individual lives become more and more
constrained, sometimes gradually, sometimes rather quickly. Minds are shaped to respond
in cult-approved ways. In the case of those who are born or raised in a cult, these
controlling influences are everywhere around them, from birth, from childhood on. Growing
up in such an environment may leave an imprint far beyond what many of us can begin to
comprehend.
I‘m currently engaged in a research project interviewing people who were born or raised in
a cult. What‘s unique about the population I‘m interviewing is that all of these people left
the cult on their own, either in adolescence or early adulthood. I am so humbled and awed
by the life stories that these brave people are sharing with me. And the good news is, they
survive. They build lives, they have relationships, they go to school, they establish careers,
they figure out their emotions and what they believe in, they valiantly struggle with identity
issues and with practical life matters, often without a helping hand.
It‘s been clear for some time now that this is the new population that demands our
attention. Their experiences, their insights are adding a whole new dimension to our
knowledge base. Because of them, I would submit that the scientific understanding of
―resilience‖ will be greatly expanded. They, too, are our heroes.
I read something on the Internet the other day: A Ph.D. professor wrote, ―Suicide bombers
are hardwired to become killers,‖ meaning they were born that way. Personally and
professionally, I don‘t believe that for a minute.
In fact, new brain research is showing us that the years of the ―hard-wired‖ traditionalists
are over. This new area of study, called neuroplasticity, is about whether or not the brain is
fixed or flexible in its structure and capabilities.36 And, from this research, we are learning
that the adult brain can change, that ―the human brain is almost infinitely malleable….
People used to think that our mental meshwork … was largely fixed by the time we reached
adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that‘s not the case.‖37 Even the adult
mind is very plastic, they tell us. And these adaptations occur also at a biological level. If
the brain has the ability to reprogram itself ―on the fly,‖ as one neuroscientist put it,38 then
