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Conferences

June 11-12, 2004,
 Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)

Conference: Understanding Cults and Other Charismatic Groups -- Perspectives of Researchers, Professionals, Former Members, and Families

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Listed below are the presenters and their affiliations,  with biographical sketches, when available.

Carmen Almendros is a doctoral student in the Clinical and Health Psychology Program at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. She has received a public research grant and teaches a postgraduate course in clinical psychology at the same university.

Dr. Lourdes Arguelles, Ph.D. (New York University) is Professor of Women Studies and Education and Chair of the Faculty at Claremont Graduate University, California. A leading voice in human rights for Latino immigrants in the United States, she currently focuses on the fields of interdisciplinary studies, communities and the impact of religious globalization.  She holds a post-graduate certification in clinical psychology from the University of York, Canada, and has worked extensively as a psychotherapist for political refugees from around the world who have been victims of torture and terrorism.

Robert Balch, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at The University of Montana.  His research includes field studies of Heaven's Gate, the Love Family, Aryan Nations, the Church Universal and Triumphant, and other unconventional religious movements.  His work has appeared in various sociological journals and scholarly books about religious cults.

Livia Bardin, M.S.W., Therapist, Clinical Social Worker. Ms. Bardin specializes in cult-related cases. A member of the Family Therapy Practice Academy of the Clinical Social Work Federation, she chairs AFF's Family Workshop Advisory Board and has presented AFF-sponsored workshops for family and friends of cult members. Ms. Bardin has provided trainings on cult-related issues for mental health professionals in the Washington area and is the author of Coping with Cult Involvement, a handbook for families and friends of cult members. (liviabardin@aol.com)

Eileen Barker, Ph.D., OBE, FBA is Professor of Sociology with Special Reference to the Study of Religion at the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.  A former President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Dr. Barker has written or edited ten books and written over 200 articles and book chapters.  Her books include New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction, and The Making of a Moonie: Brainwashing or Choice?  She is the Founder and Chair of INFORM, a charity supported by the British Government and Mainline Churches which helps enquirers with information about new religions that is as objective and up-to-date as possible.

Renee Brodie, a graduate student at the University of Queensland, Australia, is a Ph.D. student who is currently researching New Religious Movements.  She has published an article in the Journal of American Culture dealing with apocalypticism and white supremacy and plans to continue researching these areas.

José Antonio Carrobles, Ph.D., is Full Professor of Personality, Assessment and Treatment and Director of the Biological and Health Psychology Department of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. His work focuses in the areas of Psychopathology and Clinical and Health Psychology. He is President of the European Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Therapies (EABCT). He has directed numerous Doctoral Theses and is author of an important number and variety of articles and books in his areas of specialization. He has organized and participated in numerous national and international psychology congresses, among which stands out his participation as President of the Scientific Committee at the "23rd International Congress of Applied Psychology" held in Madrid in 1994. He is member of the Editorial Boards of several national and international journals.

David Clark, Thought Reform Consultant, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Mr. Clark has been active in this field for more than 20 years and is the chair of AFF’s Video Education Committee.  Mr. Clark is on the board of reFOCUS.  He was a contributing author for the exit counseling chapter in the W.W. Norton book, Recovery from Cults. In 1985 he received the Hall of Fame Award from the "original" Cult Awareness Network.  He was a founding member of the "original" Focus and reFOCUS, a national support network for former cult members.  He has been a national and international conference speaker on the topic of cults and has been interviewed by newspapers, radio, and TV stations on the topic of mind control and cults for over two decades. (cultspecs2@comcast.net)

Donna Collins was the first "Blessed Child" of the Unification Church in the west. Her parents founded the UC in England. Her story is told in detail in the AFF video, "Blessed Child." Currently, she is a writer who lives with her family in Sarasota, Florida.

Wesley Delano is a senior in Sociology and Criminology at The University of Montana.  His primary interest is radical right-wing social movements, and his research includes participant-observer studies of Aryan Nations in Idaho and Elohim City, a white separatist community in Oklahoma.  The latter study was published in the journal Nova Religio.

Louis Desloge is a former member of the Unification Church, now working as a writer and businessman in St. Louis, MO.  He has four second-generation children born from a Moon marriage in 1982.

Lorraine Derocher is a graduate student in Social Sciences of Religions at Sherbrooke University. As part of her research work, she is interested in the impact of religious education on children born or raised in cults.

Gordon Drever is a sociology tutor at Athabasca University and an instructor at Northern Lakes College in Alberta.  He received a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Alberta and an M.A. in Anthropology from Brandeis University.  He had an early specialization in ethnohistory and material culture and has been researching fringe religious and political movements since 1980. He has a large collection of printed ephemera.

Jorge Erdely, Ph.D. is editor of Revista Académica para el Estudio de las Religiones,  a pluralistic, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed periodical that focuses on religious globalization and human rights in the Hispanic world. He is the author of several published scientific papers and eleven books on extreme religious groups, theology, and human rights. Among them, the international best-seller: Pastores que Abusan, Suicidios Colectivos Rituales and his latest, The New Jihad: Myths and States of Denial. Dr. Erdely is an Oxford Theological Foundation Fellow. He is currently Director of el Centro de Investigaciones del Instituto Cristiano de México and a member of the Asociación Latinoamericana para el Estudio de las Religiones, the regional affiliate of the International Association for the History of Religion (IAHR).

Kevin B. Fagan, Ph.D., is Lecturer in Spanish, Philosophy and Religious Studies, at California State University, San Luis Obispo. With studies in Dublin, Salamanca, Rome, and Texas, his educational dossier includes being teacher, student advisor, academic dean, and school principal. His witness of cult-like control tactics inspired his philosophical dissertation, “A Toast to Conscience: Freedom of Conscience in John H. Newman,” and a later thesis in Spanish, “Venceréis, pero no convenceréis: Freedom of Conscience in Miguel de Unamuno.” 

Dan Fefferman is a current member of the Unification Church and the director of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom. Having joined the church in 1968, he later graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and the Unification Theological Seminary. He is a former national president of the UC's youth arm, CARP, and also formerly headed the church's efforts in support of then-president Richard Nixon. He was the chief editor of the first edition of the Divine Principle in English and several other UC movement publications. Dan lives in the Washington DC area with his wife and two daughters.

Leona Furnari, MSW is a licensed clinical social worker in Boulder Colorado. She is a psychotherapist specializing in recovery from trauma, including recovery from abusive groups and relationships. Ms. Furnari is a former member of an Eastern/New Age group, and it was that experience that led to her commitment to help others recover from abusive groups. She has been a regular facilitator/presenter at AFF's Recovery Workshops in Estes Park, CO for the last four years. She also works as a school social worker at the middle school level, and facilitates support groups for adolescents dealing with grief, family change and peer relationships.

Steven Gelberg, M.A., while a member from 1970-1987, served as the Krishna Movement's principal liaison to the international academic community (e.g., edited Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna: Five Distinguished Scholars on the Krishna Movement in the West, Grove Press, 1983), and its Director for Interreligious Affairs.  He is author of a number of scholarly articles on ISKCON (and related historical, social-scientific, and cultic issues) published in various academic books and journals.  He subsequently earned a Masters degree (comparative religion) from Harvard Divinity School in 1990.  He currently lives with his wife and cat near San Francisco, where he is an accomplished fine art photographer, working on a book, Photography and Imagination. His essay, "On Leaving ISKCON," to be published in revised form in a forthcoming volume from Columbia University Press, is available online at http://surrealist.org/betrayalofthespirit/gelberg.html.

Carol Giambalvo is an ex-cult member who has been a Thought Reform Consultant since 1984 and a cofounder of reFOCUS, a national support network for former cult members.  She is on AFF’s Board of Directors, Director of AFF’s Recovery Programs, and is responsible for its Project Outreach.  Author of Exit Counseling: A Family Intervention, co-editor of The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ, and co-author of “Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants,” Ms. Giambalvo has written and lectured extensively on cult-related topics.  (affcarol@worldnet.att.net)

Lorna Goldberg, M.S.W., L. C. S. W., a therapist in private practice, has co-led a support group for ex-cult members with her husband, William, for over 25 years.  She is on the faculty of the New Jersey Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis, where she also is the Director of the Child and Adolescent Program.  Mrs. Goldberg has written extensively for social work and AFF publications.  (blgoldberg@aol.com)

Maureen Griffo, an ex-member of The Church of Bible Understanding as well as several fringe churches, is a board member of reFOCUS and also was one of four collaborators who established the Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation.  For the past 5 years, Ms. Griffo has moderated an online chat/support group for former members.  She is a graduate student in sociology at Brooklyn College with the goal of becoming a licensed counselor.  (mgriffo@aol.com)

Steven Hassan, M.Ed, LMHC, NCC, has been involved in educating the public about mind control and destructive cults since 1976. He actively counsels mind control victims and their families and is a licensed Mental Health Counselor, holding a Master’s degree in counseling psychology from Cambridge College. He is the author of Releasing the Bonds:  Empowering People to Think for Themselves (Freedom of Mind Press, 2000). In 1988, he authored the critically acclaimed book Combating Cult Mind Control: The #1 Best-selling Guide to Protection, Rescue and Recovery from Destructive Cults (Park Street Press). He is Director of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center at www.freedomofmind.com. (center@freedomofmind.com)

Rosanne Henry, M.A., L.P.C. is a psychotherapist practicing in the Denver area.  For the last fifteen years she has been helping those harmed by cults through the original CAN  and AFF.  Her private practice specializes in the treatment of cult survivors and their families.  She is a former member of Kashi Ranch.

Irving Hexham, Ph.D., is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His professional interests include new religions, world religions, world Christianity, religion and society in Southern Africa, and religion and the rebirth of fascism. He has published twenty-one books including The Irony of Apartheid (1981), A Concise Dictionary of Religion (1993), and New Religions as Global Cultures, with Karla Poewe (1997), Zulu Religion: Texts and Interpretations. Vol. I: Traditional Zulu Ideas About God (1987), Afro-Christian Religion & Healing in Southern Africa, with G.C. Oosthuizen (1989) and The Scriptures of the amaNazaretha of Ekuphakameni and has written over sixty academic articles.

Hiroshi Hirata, Esq., is a founding partner of Heiwa-no Mori Law Office in Fukuoka, Japan.  He has been at the forefront of the fight against Aum Shinrikyo and the Moonies for 15 years in Southern Japan, as a lawyer for victims of crimes and illegal activities committed by such cultic organization.

Joseph F. Kelly, a thought reform consultant since 1988, spent 14 years in two different eastern meditation groups. He has lectured extensively on cult-related topics, and is a co-author of “Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants,” published in AFF’s Cultic Studies Journal.  (freecognition@mindspring.com)

Lois Kendall is a psychology lecturer at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in High Wycombe, England. She is also a PhD student, researching the psychological effects of cult membership. Her research involves comparisons between cultic and non-cultic groups in Britain, and between first and second generation former cult members. Lois Kendall was born and raised in a small English cultic group which she left when she was 17.

Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, University of Alberta, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the sociology of religion and the sociology of sectarian groups. He has published articles in numerous sociology and religious study journals. His 2001 book, From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era, was selected by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries as an "Outstanding Academic Title for 2002."

Masaki Kito, Esq., is a founding partner of Link Sougou Law Office in Tokyo, established in 2001. He is, one of the leading public commentators on cults in Japan, making frequent appearances in the various media, including TV.  He has been an advocate for the victims of various cultic groups for over 10 years in Tokyo.

Michael Kropveld - Executive Director and Founder of Info-Cult - the largest resource centre of its kind in Canada.  Since 1980 Mike has worked with more than 2,000 former members of cults/new religious movements and their families.  He has spoken, in Canada and internationally, to hundreds of professional and community groups on the cult phenomenon.  He is also involved in counselling and consulting and as an expert witness on cult related issues.  He has been featured on hundreds of radio and television programs locally, nationally and internationally. In 1992 he was awarded the 125 Commemorative Medal "in recognition of significant contribution to compatriots, community and to Canada" by the Government of Canada. He recently co-authored a book Le phénomène des sectes: L’étude du fonctionnement des groupes, that is also available, for free, on Info-Cult’s  website (www.infocult.org).

Janja Lalich, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, Chico. Her research and writing has focused on cults and controversial groups, with a specialization in charismatic authority, power relations, ideology, and social control, and issues related to gender and sexuality. Her forthcoming book, Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults, (University of California Press) presents a new approach to understanding cult commitments, and is based on her comparative study of Heaven’s Gate, which committed collective suicide in 1997, and the Democratic Workers Party, a radical left-wing political cult. Other works include being guest editor of Women Under the Influence: A Study of Women’s Lives in Totalist Groups (a special issue of Cultic Studies Journal 14,1, 1997); and coauthor of “Crazy” Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work? (Jossey-Bass, 1996); Cults in Our Midst (Jossey-Bass, 1995); and Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships (Hunter House, 1994).  (JLalich@csuchico.edu)

Michael D. Langone, Ph.D., a counseling psychologist, is AFF’s Executive Director.  He was the founder editor of Cultic Studies Journal (CSJ), the editor of CSJ’s successor, Cultic Studies Review, and editor of Recovery From Cults.  He is co-author of Cults: What Parents Should Know and Satanism and Occult-Related Violence: What You Should Know.  Dr. Langone has spoken and written widely about cults.  In 1995, he received the Leo J. Ryan Award from the "original" Cult Awareness network and was honored as the Albert V. Danielsen visiting Scholar at Boston University.  (aff@affcultinfoserve.com)

F. G. Vaughn Marshall, Attorney at Law, Calgary, Alberta, has been a trial lawyer for 25 years and handles class actions and complex civil litigation. He has acted for Canadian and international corporations, the provincial and federal governments, and a host of national and foreign banks. He has conducted hundreds of trials, hearings, and appeals at all levels of court in Canada and after two decades defending large corporations, Mr. Marshall changed the focus of his practice and now only takes cases for individuals and small businesses damaged by oppressive and unjust treatment by powerful institutions. He has a particular interest in finding legal remedies for people damaged by the coercive conduct of corporations and institutions, especially religious bodies.  Mr. Marshall has been involved in cases in Canada and the United States and has spoken on legal matters in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and the Banff Centre.

Michael Martella was raised in a Bible-based cult for 20 years, leaving in 1980. He is a licensed counselor and an expert in domestic violence treatment in San Diego, California. Over the last three years, he has conducted seven “Cult Survivor Workshops” for ex-cult members, and he is currently writing his doctoral dissertation on “Cult Wounds and Cult Healing.”

Katherine Marxer is a senior in Sociology at The University of Montana.  Her primary interests are new religious movements and social psychology.  Since 2001 she has studied the Love Family in Washington State as a participant-observer, and currently she is working with Professor Paul Miller on a study of faith-based initiatives and church involvement in social services.  Ms. Marxer is also a Research Assistant in the University's Social Science Computing Laboratory.

Cesar Mascarenas, M.D., is Director of Medical Research, Research Center of the Mexican Christian Institute, and Dean and Professor, Post-graduate Studies and Research Department, School of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. (cesar.mascarenas@aventis.com)

Jessie Meikle has a B.A. in Anthropology.  Her application for the M.A. program in Sociology at the University of Alberta is pending. Her research interests are sects and diet.

Andrea Moore Emmett is a journalist and researcher. She was the researcher for the two hour A&E documentary, Inside Polygamy, and has provided research for ABC's 20/20.  Ms. Moore Emmett is the recipient of five Headliners Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism Awards and a Utah Professional Chapter of Women in Communications Leading Changes Award. Ms. Moore Emmett, who is the Utah National Organization for Women president, has spoken across the country concerning abuses against women and children within polygamy and has details the lives of women who have left the religious groups who practice this lifestyle.

Nori J. Muster is the author of Betrayal of the Spirit: My Life Behind the Headlines of the Hare Krishna Movement (University of Illinois Press, 1997) and Cult Survivor's Handbook: How to Live in the Material World Again (Surrealist.org, 2000), and a contributor to Hare Krishna: The Post-Charismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant (Columbia University Press, 2004).  She was an ISKCON member for ten years (1978 – 1988) and associate editor of ISKCON World Review: Newspaper of the Hare Krishna Movement.  She has a master's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from Western Oregon University (1992), using art therapy to treat juvenile sex offenders.  She is currently an advocate and media spokesperson for the plaintiffs in Children of ISKCON vs. ISKCON.

Stephen Mutch, L.L.B., M.A., Grad. Dip. Arts (University of New South Wales) is a solicitor and barrister in New South Wales.  He is a former member of the New South Wales Legislative Council (State Senate) and of the Australian House of Representatives, having served in parliament from 1988 to 1998.  Before that he was in practice as a solicitor and then parliamentary policy adviser.  He has just completed writing his doctoral candidature dissertation entitled, "Cults, Religion and Public Policy," which deals with the fiscal privileging of "religious" entities.  The idea for the thesis arose from Mr. Mutch's pursuit in parliament of representations concerning groups commonly characterized as cults, sects, and/or new religious movements and his concern about the inadequate knowledge about and political response to such concerns.  His first refereed publication is "Public Policy Revolt: Saving the 2001 Australian Census" in Archives and Manuscripts, Vol. 30, No. 2, Nov. 2002.  Mr. Mutch lives in Sydney with his wife and two children.

Shuuji Nakamura, Esq., is a partner at Niigata Goudou Law Office.  He has been involved in legal cases against Moonies for over 15 years in Northern Japan.  He is also a well recognized authority on the legal aspects of mind control on people by cultic organizations in Japan.

K. Gordon Neufeld, M.F.A., graduated from the University of British Columbia with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 1997 and a B.A. in English in 1976. A freelance writer, he is the author of Heartbreak and Rage: Ten Years Under Sun Myung Moon (College Station, TX: VirtualBookworm.com, Inc., 2002). He is a regular contributor of book reviews to the Calgary Herald, and has published articles and stories in the Vancouver Sun, the Edmonton Journal and the Baltimore City Paper. His opinion piece about the Reverend Sun Myung Moon’s mass marriages appeared in First Things magazine in January, 2003.  He is working on a novel and a collection of short stories.

Debbie Palmer.  Consultant regarding history, all aspects of abuses and negative cult mind control in Polygamous Cults, and as a Survivor with personal and real experience on the inside as a child, an assigned "sister wife" — one of many — and finally an activist, researcher, writer, and Mother who managed to escape with all 8 of her children.

Robert Pardon, M.Div., Th.M., is the Executive Director of the New England Institute of Religious Research and MeadowHaven. During the past five years he has specialized in Bible-based communal groups. Much of his work involves counseling, support groups, working with those born and/or raised in groups, and helping former members rebuild their lives. To facilitate the recovery process MeadowHaven, a long term rehabilitation facility was opened in 2002. It can accommodate individuals or families who require long term (up to a year) care to recover from trauma and cult abuse. (www.MeadowHaven.org and www.neirr.org)

Marie-Andrée Pelland is a Candidate in the doctoral program of the School of Criminology of the Université de Montréal. Currently completing her dissertation, “Presumed Violent Cultic Groups: Analysis of Allegations of Violence According to the Representations and Social Identity of Members.”

Miguel Perlado, Psychologist, Psychotherapist.  A graduate of the University of Barcelona (psychology), Mr. Perlado received psychotherapy training from Vidal Barraquer Foundation (Barcelona) and iPsi (Barcelona). He currently works with Attention and Research on Social Addictions (AIS) and also with iPsi as an exit counselor and psychotherapist. (mperlado@copc.es)

Karla Poewe, Ph.D., is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Her profession interests include the history of anthropology, History of Christian missions, new religions, anthropology of Southern Africa and anthropology of religion. She is currently working on a project on the relationship between new religions and National Socialism in Germany prior to 1945. She has written numerous academic articles and is the author of eight books including New Religions as Global Cultures, with her husband Irving Hexham, and Reflections of a Woman Anthropologist, and is the editor of Charismatic Christianity as a Global Culture.

Susan Raine has a B.A. in Psychology and is currently a graduate student in the M.A. (Sociology) program at the University of Alberta.  Her research interests are sects and the body.

Maryam Razavy is an M.A. student in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Alberta. Most of her research is on mainstream religions with a particular emphasis on issues of fundamentalism and religious violence.

Anne M. Rivero received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology and her Master's degree in Social Work at the University of California in Los Angeles, where she also worked as a social worker in the Neuro-psychiatric Institute. Ms. Rivero also worked as a psychiatric social worker with Latino immigrants suffering from severe psychopathology at the Los Angeles County Hospital, which at that time was affiliated with the School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. For the last ten years, Ms. Rivero has been a psychiatric social worker at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. Ms. Rivero has published articles in several edited books and in the Journal of Urban Anthropology dealing with transnational migration and mental health. She is a licensed psychiatric social worker in the State of California.

Álvaro Rodríguez-Carballeira, Ph.D. is professor of Social Psychology, Social Movements, and Legal Psychology at the University of Barcelona (Spain).  Since 1999 he has been Director of the Social Psychology Department. During the 1980s, before and after a 1985 internship at AFF, he worked with families and victims affected by cult membership. He then worked as a professor at the University of Barcelona, where he completed a doctoral dissertation in 1991 on psychology of coercive persuasion. During recent years he has extended this line of research, linking it to other contexts (e.g., domestic, work, school) where manipulation and psychological violence may occur. His publications include the book, El Lavado de Cerebro: Psicología de la Persuasión Coercitiva. (Brainwashing: Psychology of Coercive Persuasion).

Patrick Ryan, a former member of Transcendental Meditation, has been a thought reform consultant since 1984. He designs and implements AFF's Internet Web site.  Mr. Ryan is the founder and former head of TM-ex, the organization of ex-members of TM.  He has contributed to AFF’s book, Recovery From Cults, is co-author of "Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants," and has presented programs about hypnosis and trance-induction techniques at several AFF workshops and conferences.  (Patrick.ryan@affcultinfoserve.com)

Marina Sarran was born and raised in Italy and currently speaks four languages. As a comparative sociologist, she has been working with Dr. Dane Archer on several cross-cultural research projects at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research interests include sexuality, verbal and nonverbal communication, violence, social control, power and policies in total institutions.

Alan W. Scheflin, J.D., LL.M. is President of AFF and Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law in California.  Among his several dozen publications is Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law (co-authored with Daniel Brown and D. Corydon Hammond), for which he received the 1999 Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association, one of 11 awards he has received.  Professor Scheflin is also the 1991 recipient of the Guttmacher Award for Trance on Trial (with Jerrold Shapiro).  A member of the Editorial Advisory Board of AFF’s Cultic Studies Review, Professor Scheflin received the 2001 American Psychological Association, Division 30 (Hypnosis), Distinguished Contribution to Professional Hypnosis Award. This is the "highest award that Division 30 can bestow." He was also awarded in 2001 The American Board of Psychological Hypnosis, Professional Recognition Award. This Award was created to honor his achievements in promoting the legal and ethical use of hypnosis.  Professor Scheflin has delivered over 100 invited addresses at professional conferences.

Amy Siskind, Ph.D., received her Ph.D. in sociology from the New School for Social Research in 1995. She has written extensively about The Sullivan Institute/Fourth Wall community—a group she belonged to for twenty-two years.  In June of 2003 her book, The Sullivan Institute/Fourth Wall Community: From Radical Individualism to Authoritarianism was published by Praeger Publishers. She has also written about the effects of totalistic groups on children and the conditions within these groups that can result in child abuse and neglect. Currently she teaches in the Children’s Studies program at Brooklyn College and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter.

Juan J. Vaca, MS.Ed., M.Th., M.Ph., Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Sociology, Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY. He was a member of the Legion of Christ from May 1947 to April 1976, in Mexico, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and USA. His last position in the Legion was president and religious superior of the Legion of Christ, Inc. in USA, Orange, CT. He was a diocesan priest in Rockville Centre Diocese, Long Island, NY. He has been a College counselor and lecturer for CUNY (City University of New York) in different campuses. He left the priesthood in April 1989, married in 1993, and has a nine-year-old daughter.

John Wick is the Chief Operating Officer at Wellspring Retreat & Resource Center, a residential mental health facility specializing in the treatment of cult abuse victims. For more than 15 years, he served on the Cult Information Service of Central Ohio board and, for about 10 years, facilitated a support group for cult abuse victims. He has also worked with other organizations that reach out to those who have been hurt by the cults. He has spoken out about the cult problem in various media outlets, including the Columbus TV Affiliates of ABC, CBS & NBC, AP, and the Columbus Dispatch Newspaper. Additionally, Wick has made presentations throughout the country. Wick’s interest in the cult problem stems from his experience in an abusive a Bible based group in the early 1980s. (www.wellspringretreat.org)

Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Esq., is a founding partner of Tokyo Kyodo Law Office, a 13-lawyer practice, in Tokyo, Japan.  He is the General Secretary of the National Network of Lawyers against the illegal activities of Moonies, a network with over 300 lawyers.  He is a well-known published author regarding cult and mind control in Japan.

Takashi Yamaguchi, Esq., was born in Japan and raised in the U.S. until the seventh grade.  He is a lawyer at Link Sougou Law Office in Tokyo.  Wwith his colleague Masaki Kito, he is handling a case involving children abused in a small Japanese cultic group

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