Cults, Culture & Coercion with Dr. Steve Hassan

Daniel Shaw is a psychotherapist in New York City, and author of 2 books on the subject of traumatic narcissism. He left the Siddha Yoga cult in 1994, after more than a decade of living and working for it. In this interview we discuss his concept of the relational system of the traumatizing narcissist, that explains the psychology of cult leaders and abusers and helps survivors of narcissistic abuse in their recovery. There are many “experts” on narcissist abuse but this framework is uniquely helpful.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Media shaming has been around for decades. Now, we live with the Internet and 24/7 information cycles. Sensationalism and misinformation can create harmful media which is accessible forever. The adverse effects on everyday people’s lives are monumental and sometimes deadly. Dr. Christine Marie specializes in media psychology, a field that is becoming more important than ever, given the proliferation of media sources. Media influence can lead to shame, humiliation, and complex PTSD. Join us in this important interview. Then we turn to her work with the nonprofit Voices For Dignity. A survivor and an academic, she and her husband live in Colorado City, Arizona, and help members of the FLDS cult.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rewired is one of the most important new books I have read that has yet to get significant media attention. Dr. Marci is a Harvard psychiatrist and social neuroscientist who uses incontrovertible scientific evidence in this remarkable and sobering book. He has a chapter titled ‘The Power of the Prefrontal Cortex’ that describes it as the ‘most highly evolved part of the modern human brain.’ It performs executive functions and is an ‘orchestral conductor of neuronal symphonies’ in our brain. One of the central premises of this book is that our obsession with social media and cell phones is rewiring our brains and causing irreversible damage. Specific advice on what we can do to have a healthy tech-life balance is given and discussed. Please listen to this fascinating and essential conversation at this pivotal time in human history. We need to control our technology and not allow our technology to control or unduly influence us.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please listen to this interview with two-time Emmy award-winning filmmaker Melissa Jo Peltier about this documentary. Former tea party congressman Joe Walsh, David Weissman, Batya Goldberg, and other former voters for Trump share their realizations about how destructive Trump has been for America. Several experts were interviewed for this project, including myself, talking about my book, The Cult of Trump. Let’s amplify the voices of former believers in Trump! Let’s expand the exit ramp to using conscience and employing American values. Let’s not shame or denigrate folks for being sucked into the Republican machine. Help us end the polarization, and let’s make a large exit ramp for folks to be able to reevaluate their involvement. Let’s begin a more informed conversation about our future. This essential documentary movie is now widely available on Amazon, Google Play, and other venues. Please see https://thegameisupmovie.com/ for more information.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please join me in a profound but disturbingly honest conversation with one of the world’s true experts in Artificial Intelligence. The Information Professionals Association (IPA) co-founder, Dr. Rand Waltzman, has over 40 years of experience performing and managing research in AI applied to domains including social media and cognitive security in the information environment. His distinguished career includes being the former Deputy Chief Technology Officer and Senior Information Scientist at the Rand Corporation. His perspective is dire. He says that without dramatic intervention into data privacy and technology regulations worldwide, those with power will be able to conduct massive mind control at scale, as we see in current dictatorships. He agrees that the human mind is easily manipulated, provided a person doesn’t understand how social psychology principles and propaganda techniques are being used on them. There is no freedom without responsibility. Virtual Reality (VR) technology is able to obtain vast amounts of information about a user’s mind that can be used to manipulate and control them.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Rinder escaped his 46 years of Scientology, having achieved the #3 spot of power and head of their intelligence unit OSA. His new book helps pull back the curtain on many aspects of this notorious authoritarian cult. He starred with Leah Remini on Scientology and the Aftermath, and now their podcast Fair Game. In this special interview, I cover some essential details that folks (especially cult watchers) will wish to know. For example, he answers my specific questions that help connect the dots with the criminal activity and mind control that Hubbard enshrined into cult doctrine. In this age of mass radicalization, understanding Scientology cult mind control offers a window to understand how intelligent and educated people can fall prey to malignant narcissists. It also proves that people (including top leaders) can exit and become contributing members of society.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join me in a thoroughly uplifting episode with author Kristi Nelson. Kristi is a very special person, bright, educated, accomplished in the world of non-profit leadership. She is a wounded healer, having survived a terminal diagnosis of stage 4 cancer and lived. I rarely encounter a book where I agree with everything in it. I feel energized by practicing this simple but difficult practice. I tend to think and worry too much in a way that is draining. By reminding yourself to put your attention on all the good things, all the body parts that you still have and are in working order, the beauty of nature, the awesomeness of being alive empowers and enlivens me. Please join me in listening to this episode and I highly recommend listening to her read this wonderful book afterward.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rabbi Natan Margalit, the author of the newly released book, The Pearl and the Flame, has an answer. The problem, he believes, is not understanding the connectedness of all things—people, plants, animals, and the natural world. His solution is to integrate our vast and valuable scientific knowledge about complex systems with the ancient wisdom of the Torah (the Hebrew Bible). In this fascinating conversation, Natan shares his spiritual journey, which eventually led him to become a rabbi, educator, and environmental activist. We cover many topics, sharing hopeful ways to move forward in our highly fragmented and polarized times.  Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniella Mestyanek Young is a strong, courageous woman who has written the memoir, Uncultured. This fascinating interview will be of interest to anyone born into an authoritarian cult, to women everywhere, to anyone who served in the military as well as anyone who wants to read about the incredible journey. Daniella was trained to obey orders in a cult that regularly raped children, endured hours of corporal punishment, ran away at age 15, became valedictorian, became an Army intelligence captain, and is working towards a Masters degree in Organizational Development and Change at Harvard.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeffrey Augustine is an investigative journalist whose blog, The Scientology Money Project, covers Scientology's money, crimes, lies, and legal matters. Augustine covers Scientology in real time and offers in-depth analysis, legal and governmental documents, and court cases. Augustine reports on the pervasive culture of white-collar criminality and financial scams within Scientology perpetrated by its members, in addition to Scientology's cover-ups or rapes and child molestation. He is a former Pentecostal who has researched Massimo Introvigne, head of Cesnur.org, and outs him as a cult propagandist along with a host of other sociologists who say brainwashing does not exist and don't trust former members or critics. This interview is fascinating, especially for all interested in disinformation messaging, cults, and academics.Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices