Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1995, page 49
workplace and the development of New Age training programs provides the caution that
“certain training programs use the same types of intense influence techniques that are
identified with cults.” An employee in just about any corporation might be aware of the
potential for getting involved (or being urged to get involved) in some well-organized
systems of indoctrination. At the same time, many readers--young and old alike--will
benefit from Singer‟s observation that “Lack of informed consent, the use of hidden
agendas, and the use of various forms of coercion characterize the criticisms of both cults
and modern-day training programs among those who have experienced them.”
The book‟s final section addresses the question, “How can we help survivors to escape and
recover?” It offers prudent advice made possible by the authors‟ years of experience with
the cruel effects of thought reform. The reader is reminded, among other things, of the
incalculable damage to the personalities of children raised under the control of such groups.
At the conclusion of a recent conference this reviewer was approached by a twenty-year-old
who quietly said, “Until I was eighteen I grew up in a cult.” The resulting struggle out of
confusion for such a person must be beyond our imaginations. Perhaps the liberation of the
mind will prove to be a lifelong project for many. And how malicious must be the hearts of
those who sow such confusion!
Cults in Our Midst is up-to-date with its concluding note on the Order of the Solar Temple, a
European-based group notable for the shocking deaths of 53 of its members in Canada and
Switzerland: “We hope that such occurrences do not happen, but if they do, let us not call
these deaths „suicides.‟ Let‟s view them for what they are: the sad, lonely, dreadful ending
of life for people who trusted too much, followed too long, and could not get away from a
self-serving and murderous leader.”
This book is to be recommended to professionals and laypeople alike. It is an excellent
contribution to the growing literature concerned with the “cult problem.” In reviewing it
there is a natural tendency to emphasize the work of the primary author, Margaret Thaler
Singer. That emphasis may be accounted for partly by the fact that she is very well known
and partly by the fact that it is impossible to tell where her contribution leaves off and that
of her coauthor Janja Lalich begins. But, however self-effacing Ms. Lalich may be, one can
be sure that with her experience and editorial skills, she deserves much of the credit for this
so well-organized material. The book is a credit to them both, and a boon for the rest of us.
Rev. Walter Debold
Religious Studies Department
Seton Hall University
South Orange, New Jersey
Spying in Guruland: Inside Britain’s Cults. William Shaw. Fourth Estate,
London, England (distributed by Trafalgar Square, N. Pomfret, VT 05053), 1994,
317 pages.
Shortly after the Branch Davidian sect suffered a catastrophe in Waco, Texas, in 1993,
William Shaw set out to participate in a few cults in Britain. He did this as a curious
journalist after inadvertently coming across an obscure, nearly defunct cult led by a
character named Holy John. Holy John taught that a “great earth goddess called the Lady,
and her consort Pan, were to return to rule Britain and save us from ecological disaster.”
Holy John‟s small commune thrived briefly in the 1980s, only to falter after predictions
failed and devotees defected as a result of the leadership‟s strict authoritarianism. Shaw
wondered what cult life was really like after noticing that cults can die out peacefully, almost
wholly unnoticed or, as in the Waco incident, violently before the eyes of the world.
workplace and the development of New Age training programs provides the caution that
“certain training programs use the same types of intense influence techniques that are
identified with cults.” An employee in just about any corporation might be aware of the
potential for getting involved (or being urged to get involved) in some well-organized
systems of indoctrination. At the same time, many readers--young and old alike--will
benefit from Singer‟s observation that “Lack of informed consent, the use of hidden
agendas, and the use of various forms of coercion characterize the criticisms of both cults
and modern-day training programs among those who have experienced them.”
The book‟s final section addresses the question, “How can we help survivors to escape and
recover?” It offers prudent advice made possible by the authors‟ years of experience with
the cruel effects of thought reform. The reader is reminded, among other things, of the
incalculable damage to the personalities of children raised under the control of such groups.
At the conclusion of a recent conference this reviewer was approached by a twenty-year-old
who quietly said, “Until I was eighteen I grew up in a cult.” The resulting struggle out of
confusion for such a person must be beyond our imaginations. Perhaps the liberation of the
mind will prove to be a lifelong project for many. And how malicious must be the hearts of
those who sow such confusion!
Cults in Our Midst is up-to-date with its concluding note on the Order of the Solar Temple, a
European-based group notable for the shocking deaths of 53 of its members in Canada and
Switzerland: “We hope that such occurrences do not happen, but if they do, let us not call
these deaths „suicides.‟ Let‟s view them for what they are: the sad, lonely, dreadful ending
of life for people who trusted too much, followed too long, and could not get away from a
self-serving and murderous leader.”
This book is to be recommended to professionals and laypeople alike. It is an excellent
contribution to the growing literature concerned with the “cult problem.” In reviewing it
there is a natural tendency to emphasize the work of the primary author, Margaret Thaler
Singer. That emphasis may be accounted for partly by the fact that she is very well known
and partly by the fact that it is impossible to tell where her contribution leaves off and that
of her coauthor Janja Lalich begins. But, however self-effacing Ms. Lalich may be, one can
be sure that with her experience and editorial skills, she deserves much of the credit for this
so well-organized material. The book is a credit to them both, and a boon for the rest of us.
Rev. Walter Debold
Religious Studies Department
Seton Hall University
South Orange, New Jersey
Spying in Guruland: Inside Britain’s Cults. William Shaw. Fourth Estate,
London, England (distributed by Trafalgar Square, N. Pomfret, VT 05053), 1994,
317 pages.
Shortly after the Branch Davidian sect suffered a catastrophe in Waco, Texas, in 1993,
William Shaw set out to participate in a few cults in Britain. He did this as a curious
journalist after inadvertently coming across an obscure, nearly defunct cult led by a
character named Holy John. Holy John taught that a “great earth goddess called the Lady,
and her consort Pan, were to return to rule Britain and save us from ecological disaster.”
Holy John‟s small commune thrived briefly in the 1980s, only to falter after predictions
failed and devotees defected as a result of the leadership‟s strict authoritarianism. Shaw
wondered what cult life was really like after noticing that cults can die out peacefully, almost
wholly unnoticed or, as in the Waco incident, violently before the eyes of the world.
