Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1989, Page 67
number of them were in reality emotionally damaged by this experience. The final scene
took place at a large school rally in which the teacher revealed to hundreds of eagerly
waiting, impassioned teenagers the identity, on newsreel, of the Wave's “national leader:
Adolf Hitler. Ken was moved by this documentary, much as he was by the earlier tape on
the Texas guru kulas. “The Wave” was followed almost immediately at around midnight by a
documentary on the rise of the Nazi SS. It seemed that the deprogrammers were trying to
draw parallels between ISKCON and fascism. The point: violence is the inevitable outcome
of totalitarianism. Following the SS film Sandy and Curt played a documentary entitled
“Armies of the Right,” which chronicled the growth of paramilitary far-right organizations
(e.g., the Minutemen) in Bible-belt America. Ken lustily devoured granola as he watched,
apparently fascinated. Finally, shortly after 1:45 am., Sandy and Curt announced that
everyone ought to get some sleep. This time even Ken was exhausted. Just before 2:00
a.m. Ken went upstairs to bed. Sandy and Curt discussed briefly which bars might be open,
and they left shortly thereafter. I was asleep, on the couch in the den (along with Brian), by
the time they returned.
The Fourth Day: Morning
I awoke at around 9:30 a.m. It was Friday, and the sun blazed in through the large glass
windows. The Epsteins had already left for work. Raymond Epstein was in the kitchen with
Sandy, talking. The smell of fresh coffee permeated the air. Brian was also awake, in a
chair not far from the couch that served as my bed. A Ph.D. candidate in Communications,
Brian was the most academically-oriented deprogrammer on Curt's team and because I was
genuinely interested in his familiarity with the philosophy of science and formal logic, I
served as a welcome audience for his lengthy discourses. During lulls in the
deprogramming, he often talked to me about books and articles he found illuminating and
especially relevant to deprogramming. When I appeared to be fully awake that morning,
Brian immediately began talking to me about a book he had recently read, People in
Quandaries, by Wendell Johnson.
At about 10:45 a.m., Ken came downstairs. He asked if there were any videotapes that
were funny or at least lighter than the three emotionally draining ones we viewed last night.
Sandy pulled out one of Jerry Lewis' later movies, “Cracking Up.” Shortly before noon, Greg
Stern arrived. He sat down to watch the end of “Cracking Up.” Following the movie, Ken told
Greg he was still interested in seeing the Maury Povich show in which Greg and I were
interviewed. Forty-five minutes later, Brian's wife Stephanie, pregnant with their first child,
came in to visit. Stephanie, who was a former Moonist, became interested in my own
experiences and activities, including my doctoral thesis. We talked for almost an hour.
Another video tape was put on, and as Ken watched “The Moore Report” I reflected in my
notebook. The amount of information being fed to Ken seemed overwhelming to me. I
wondered to myself about the similarities between this process and the “information
overload” used by cults to manipulate attitude change. But the purpose seemed to be to
give reference points and information in response to Ken's constant questioning, and his
ongoing success at putting new information together and relating it to his personal
experiences. The deprogrammers were feeding Ken information as quickly as he could take
it in. As for information overload, the only difference between this process and cult
“brainwashing” seemed to be content rather than process: First, Ken seemed to possess a
ravenous “information hunger.” Secondly, cults employ misinformation whereas the
deprogrammers seemed to be using “truth.” Ken seemed to need a constant sounding board
for his ideas and an ongoing source of validation as he made more and more connections.
Fourth Day: Afternoon
The discussion sparked by “The Moore Report‟s” investigations of various cults lasted for
almost two hours. Ken, who despite the deprogrammers' best efforts had not as yet gotten
number of them were in reality emotionally damaged by this experience. The final scene
took place at a large school rally in which the teacher revealed to hundreds of eagerly
waiting, impassioned teenagers the identity, on newsreel, of the Wave's “national leader:
Adolf Hitler. Ken was moved by this documentary, much as he was by the earlier tape on
the Texas guru kulas. “The Wave” was followed almost immediately at around midnight by a
documentary on the rise of the Nazi SS. It seemed that the deprogrammers were trying to
draw parallels between ISKCON and fascism. The point: violence is the inevitable outcome
of totalitarianism. Following the SS film Sandy and Curt played a documentary entitled
“Armies of the Right,” which chronicled the growth of paramilitary far-right organizations
(e.g., the Minutemen) in Bible-belt America. Ken lustily devoured granola as he watched,
apparently fascinated. Finally, shortly after 1:45 am., Sandy and Curt announced that
everyone ought to get some sleep. This time even Ken was exhausted. Just before 2:00
a.m. Ken went upstairs to bed. Sandy and Curt discussed briefly which bars might be open,
and they left shortly thereafter. I was asleep, on the couch in the den (along with Brian), by
the time they returned.
The Fourth Day: Morning
I awoke at around 9:30 a.m. It was Friday, and the sun blazed in through the large glass
windows. The Epsteins had already left for work. Raymond Epstein was in the kitchen with
Sandy, talking. The smell of fresh coffee permeated the air. Brian was also awake, in a
chair not far from the couch that served as my bed. A Ph.D. candidate in Communications,
Brian was the most academically-oriented deprogrammer on Curt's team and because I was
genuinely interested in his familiarity with the philosophy of science and formal logic, I
served as a welcome audience for his lengthy discourses. During lulls in the
deprogramming, he often talked to me about books and articles he found illuminating and
especially relevant to deprogramming. When I appeared to be fully awake that morning,
Brian immediately began talking to me about a book he had recently read, People in
Quandaries, by Wendell Johnson.
At about 10:45 a.m., Ken came downstairs. He asked if there were any videotapes that
were funny or at least lighter than the three emotionally draining ones we viewed last night.
Sandy pulled out one of Jerry Lewis' later movies, “Cracking Up.” Shortly before noon, Greg
Stern arrived. He sat down to watch the end of “Cracking Up.” Following the movie, Ken told
Greg he was still interested in seeing the Maury Povich show in which Greg and I were
interviewed. Forty-five minutes later, Brian's wife Stephanie, pregnant with their first child,
came in to visit. Stephanie, who was a former Moonist, became interested in my own
experiences and activities, including my doctoral thesis. We talked for almost an hour.
Another video tape was put on, and as Ken watched “The Moore Report” I reflected in my
notebook. The amount of information being fed to Ken seemed overwhelming to me. I
wondered to myself about the similarities between this process and the “information
overload” used by cults to manipulate attitude change. But the purpose seemed to be to
give reference points and information in response to Ken's constant questioning, and his
ongoing success at putting new information together and relating it to his personal
experiences. The deprogrammers were feeding Ken information as quickly as he could take
it in. As for information overload, the only difference between this process and cult
“brainwashing” seemed to be content rather than process: First, Ken seemed to possess a
ravenous “information hunger.” Secondly, cults employ misinformation whereas the
deprogrammers seemed to be using “truth.” Ken seemed to need a constant sounding board
for his ideas and an ongoing source of validation as he made more and more connections.
Fourth Day: Afternoon
The discussion sparked by “The Moore Report‟s” investigations of various cults lasted for
almost two hours. Ken, who despite the deprogrammers' best efforts had not as yet gotten
