Who are Ripe for Cult Interventions?
(and who should be left in cults)

Intervention vs. Exit-Counseling

An intervention is more recognized as a one-time event, whereas exit-counseling may include ongoing counseling with the person even long after the cult experience. Yet they really describe one and the same type of therapy - a professional who is extracting a victim from potential danger, and thereafter working to minimize the damage done by the cult experience. I prefer to use the phrase exit- counselor, which I will shorten to EC for brevity.

Steven Hassan, one of the world's foremost exit counselors, does not recommend that we go out and try to get family members or friends out of a cult without professional help, and I agree with that. A botched effort means you probably won't get a second chance. More than likely, you will make the situation worse and forever alienate the person you are trying to reach. So if at all possible, find someone with a lot of experience and a good track record.

If for reasons of lack of funds, location or availability that a professional intervention may be impossible, then a good education into the process will equip you to do the most effective thing you can on your own. In my opinion, the very least you need to be equipped is a good read of Hassan's Releasing the Bonds (you will probably only find it in the Free Minds Store due to being out of circulation).  Also most necessary if you will be without professional help is our class, "Learning the Techniques of Exit-Counseling" with Steven Hassan.  Steven can be reached from his website at freedomofmind.com. Other sources for intervention therapists/ exit-counselors are listed at: http://knappfamilycounseling.com/links.html#cult or call ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) at: 239.514.3081.

There are those who are  ready to get out of a high control group. They have had enough of the abuse, but fear of retaliation, loneliness or death paralyzes them.  Then there are those who might be ready after some preparatory work. A few others are just better off left alone. 

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Why Some People Are Better Off in Cults

Families

The family unit has always been the core of mankind's strength to survive sometimes insurmountable odds against nature, other men and the arbitrariness of life. When you stand alone, you have no one there to hold you up, defend you or take care of you.

If, on the other hand, you are part of a nurturing family, you have access to the helps of others, and in turn are obligated to be there when another in the family suddenly needs you. Families create stability.

The need for family is so ingrained in us, that in the absence of a traditional family, most of us will seek out alternate "family" to meet this need. A missing father or mother, an abusive family member, a lack of friends to share with, or our own physical or emotional inability to take care of ourselves, are all extremely powerful primal reasons to find replacements who will more or less fill this need for family.

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Preparing for an Intervention
 
I have found two basic types of people that join cults (aside from those born into one - a story for another time). The first is the one that falls in love with the cult; it's organization, personality of the leaders, charisma, energy, collective power, the supposedly miraculous, the accurate foretelling of the future, the seeming clarity of life. While espousing ethereal beliefs and claiming fervently to "now having the only true religion," their real interest lies, not in doctrine, but in the group itself. The victim perceives consciously or subconsciously that the group just happens to fulfill their own physical and psychological needs. Being a working part of the organization is the key to their mental health.  Their seeming interest in God is really taking a back seat to their own animal needs. These are the ones that will hang on to the cult for dear life. They can get out, but it will only be if they are disillusioned and lose the personal benefits (common scenario), or if they actually find another group or form of therapy that gives even greater personal returns (rare).
 
On the other hand, some individuals really are searching for God and are willing to listen to anything that sounds logical and meaningful, but are also willing to grow and change once given wiser, more accurate information. Often they have been loosely involved with other religious organizations in the past. They may be attracted to cults out of curiosity and the desire to learn what they are all about. Yet it is usually only a matter of time before the lying and obfuscation of the cult leadership shows through, and the spiritual adventurer will look for something better. Since they are really searching for ethereal truths, a controlling organization will stifle their spiritual growth and feel stale in time, offering diminishing returns. Cult mind control has much less effect on them, as they have less to lose in exiting the group than the first type mentioned above.
 
Either way, an intervention works basically the same way.
 
The first thing that happens is the exit counselor is contacted by family or loved ones and say, "I need to get somebody out of a cult!"
 
The exit counselor will then prep them with a reading assignment of one or more books on the subject of a cult, such as Releasing the Bonds by Steven Hassan. It is important that everyone should be familiar with the process of interventions and what to do and what not to do, and what is the purpose of the intervention. Moving ahead without professional help is not a good idea, as  there are many things you can do to really muck up the situation if you're not careful. You probably won't get a second chance. But cooperation with the rest of the group is extremely important, so all involved need to be as well-read and coached as possible.
 
The Goal
 
The goal of cult intervention is empowering people to think for themselves.
 
Even as a Christian exit counselor, your goal is not to convert the person from Jehovah's Witnesses or some other cult to your church or your brand of philosophy. It is ethically dishonest to "deprogram" them from one belief system and reprogram them with another, without giving them the tools to make their own decisions based on facts rather than coercion. You have not taught them to make and trust their own decisions. The cult has repeatedly told them they cannot make such decisions!  THAT is the real problem - they are like helpless babies that are tainted by sin and can't be trusted. Or the devil will control their mind.
 
It is better to take the person back to the point in their life where they made a hasty or wrong decision, and they can realize that it was a bad decision and that he/she could have made a better one. I get great satisfaction in helping such ones to learn to apply certain logical guides to life. How much better to actually take them back to that place where they took a wrong fork in the road and let them see how they could have made a more intelligent decision, and help them work towards that now. Spirituality will develop on its own in time. You can work on that with them later if mutually desirable.

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