Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1994, Page 16
Table 4. Beneficial and Harmful Practices Involving a Child, Teenager, or Youth
Rated by Critics Versus Experts: Means, Standard Deviations, and Percentages
Critics (n=58) Experts (n=85)
X SD %X SD %
Practice Rated Beneficial by Critics
High school group stages a peace
rally on athletic field.
4.00 0.9 07 3.98 1.05 09
Practice Rated Beneficial by Experts
A coed with PMS and frequent
digestive upsets has bought a book
and is following its program which
claims that AMany of the common
ailments of modern life ...can
often be dramatically improved or
completely corrected without drugs
or invasive medical procedures.”
2.56 0.96 51** 4.00 0.96 08
Practices Rated Very Harmful by Critics
Woman operated daycare center
that participates in ritual sexual
abuse.
1.02 0.13 100 1.07 0.34 98
Teenagers join Satanic group and
make a
murder-suicide pact.
1.09 0.34 98 1.08 0.3 99
Army draftee is ordered to take a
personal improvement course of-
fered by the Church of Scientology.
1.09 0.29 100** 2.07 1.02 67
Minister persuades children to have
sex Ato remain in God‟s grace and
build your demon fighting powers.”
1.12 0.47 98 1.26 0.66 94
After a period of prayer,
meditation, and fasting, a high
school freshman sacrifices a goat
at the command of his Satanic
group.
1.12 0.38 98 1.26 0.62 97
Satanists stage an aggressive
recruitment drive in area schools.
1.16 0.41 98 1.29 0.61 94
Woman claims her son joined
Temple of Brotherhood of the Ram
and threatened to kill her.
1.16 0.50 95 1.27 0.67 88
Teenager sacrifices rats during a
mystic ceremony led by a witch.
1.16 0.37 100 1.31 0.56 95
Sally, age 6, is denied medical
treatment by her parents because
Aher spirit ancestor advised us not
to go to the hospital.”
1.19 0.50 98** 1.73 0.84 80
A teenager is brainwashed by the
Creative Community Project.
1.20 0.65 90** 1.98 0.91 24
A college sophomore drops out to
live near a 40-year-old woman who
1.28 0.45 100** 2.31 0.82 55

Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1994, Page 17
Critics (n=58) Experts (n=85)
X SD %X SD %
claims contact with a 35,000-year-
old wise man.
Practices Rated Harmful by Critics
Transcendental Meditation offers a
noncredit course that includes
chanting, meditation, and levitation
Ato improve your grades.”
1.51 0.71 95** 3.21 1.09 24
A community college student
regularly consults a psychic, Jean,
whose fee is $20. She guides and
advises him through past-life
regression, hypnosis, predictions,
and warnings.
1.51 0.57 97** 2.78 0.99 33
Woman invites college students to
attend her group where she
promises to channel ascended
masters.
1.60 0.78 84** 2.92 0.93 24
Jehovah‟s Witnesses stage an
aggressive recruitment drive in
area schools.
1.60 0.62 93 1.92 0.91 72
A high school group watches a
rented videotape about a South
American entity, Mafu. Mafu sends
messages through his channeler
(Mrs. R) such as “Love yourself.
You are God.”
1.70 0.78 84** 2.99 1.09 29
Social worker used Tarot reading to
reach 15-year-old truants as part
of an accredited high school
dropout program.
1.84 0.86 89** 3.21 1.10 20
Parents find Dungeons &Dragons,
occult manuals, and an occult curio
catalogue in room of sons, ages 12
and 16.
1.86 9.77 77** 2.39 0.34 52
High school studies teacher offers
course in “Global Mind Change.” He
asserts, “Leading scientific thought
now recognizes that along with
objective data, our subjective
religious and spiritual insights are
also a valid description of reality.”
1.89 0.85 86** 3.16 1.16 15
Teachers and parents assist
children in using extrasensory
perception creatively.
1.91 0.89 84** 3.76 1.07 13
Foster son, 16, spends 3 hours
every day playing Dungeons &
Dragons.
1.91 0.71 79** 2.28 0.80 58
High school English teacher
introduces self-hypnotic procedures
in her classes to increase pupils‟
1.93 0.84 79** 3.47 1.03 15