John J. DiIulio Jr.
Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives
The White House
Washington, DC 20502
Dear Mr DiIulio,
I am deeply interested in the faith-based initiative
that your office is undertaking. One of your most serious challenges
will be to distinguish authentic faith-based organizations from
fraudulent and destructive ones. The task is serious because you
and your colleagues will be called upon to account for the spending
of tax-payers' money. Support of questionable groups could inspire
enormous controversy. Already my local paper the Boston Globe
has run several stories questioning the support of destructive groups
such as Scientology
and the Moonies.
Even more serious, a decision to fund a destructive group could
do enormous damage to those who seek the services of such organizations.
Faith is a powerful tool for behavioral change and
many of these organizations use this to their own advantage. Such
groups often recruit members through such "helping initiatives."
I know this first hand. I was recruited into the Moonies in 1974
through such a front group. During my two and half years of slavish
devotion to the "Messiah Moon" I personally recruited
many people through a variety of front groups promising to help
alleviate the suffering of humanity. I have a long list of Moonie
fronts on my web site. Since leaving the group in 1976, I have devoted
my life to fighting the threat of destructive groups as an author
and activist, as well as a mental health counselor. My mission has
been to help families get their loved ones out of destructive groups
and also to get the word out. I have appeared on hundreds of TV
and radio programs--Nightline, 60 Minutes etc.. My message?
Mind control and social influence techniques exist and can be used
unethically by totalitarian figures and institutions to undermine
free will. People who are in great need or are in transition are
the most vulnerable to destructive cult recruitment.
It is precisely those who seek help from faith-based
initiatives that are at greatest risk of being recruited into such
groups. Again, I speak as a former recruiter of such individuals.
The good news is that it is possible to identify a destructive group
based on its behaviors, and not beliefs. I have developed a model
of destructive mind control. It can be found online at my web site
by clicking here.
It is a practical model that can be applied to any relationship
or organization, not just one with a religious orientation. I would
like to emphasize that it is not a group's beliefs that are the
criteria for deciding whether or not a group is destructive but,
instead, its practices.
I am enclosing copies of my two books and a few related
materials. I would also like to request a meeting with you to more
fully express my concerns and to offer my expertise. I believe that
I have much to offer you and your colleagues.
In fact, I know many other respected academic and
clinical researchers who have been working on the subject of destructive
group practices. Among them are Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, Dr. Margaret
Singer, Dr. Louis Jolyon West and Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the President
Elect of the American Psychological Association. The military as
well as intelligence agencies are well aware of mind control techniques
and practices used by such groups. Your office should be able to
draw upon vast resources to protect and preserve religious freedom
as well as civil liberty for all citizens.
I look forward to the possibility of assisting you.
Freedomofmind.com fully supports religious
freedom and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The fact that a person’s name or group appears on our website
does not necessarily mean they are a destructive mind control cult.
They appear because we have received inquiries and have established
a file on the group.
The Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc. was established by cult expert Steve Hassan.
