Preface

This article offers some vital "consumer" guidelines and specific questions that should be asked when considering any involvement with a spiritual group. I asked my friend, lama Surya Das, the first officially ordained western Tibetan buddhist lama to give his perspective, and he graciously wrote an introduction for me from a Buddhist perspective. My intention was always to add perspectives from respected people from all the major world religions into the introduction, and hopefully this will be done in the coming months.

Unfortunately, some people looked at Surya's introduction and jumped to a false conclusion that I had abandoned my Judaism and become a buddhist. This was never the case, although in my spiritual journey I have tried to learn about other traditions. Also, in my role as a professional counselor, it is a necessity for me to understand a good deal about many religious traditions, in order to help my clients see how destructive cult leaders and their groups were deviating from core values, practices and religious traditions.

In a desire to be clear about my own spiritual orientation (with no interest in trying to convert anyone), I am a member of an independent Jewish congregation in Brookline, Massachusetts called Temple Beth Zion (www.tbzbrookline.org). The rabbi is Moshe Waldoks and the orientation is one of Jewish renewal. I have been a member there since 1999 and I can truly say that I have felt I have found my spiritual "home." At the congregation, we pray, meditate, chant, sing, dance, study, share and are very involved with doing service to the community. The focus in on encouraging each member to learn, grow and participate at their own speed. The rabbis are non-dogmatic and encourage questions and demonstrate responsibility and accountability. There is humor. There is joy. There is a sense of a vibrant spiritual community. We are interested in inclusivity and not being exclusive. For example, at the end of each Friday night Shabbat service, we recite a prayer of peace from one of the other world religious traditions before reciting the Jewish prayer for peace.

You might wonder what my orientation might be when I am counseling someone from a destructive religious cult? First and foremost, I always try my best to address my client's interests and needs, not my own. Secondly, my focus is on helping the person to think for themselves­to validate each person's right to be an individual, to get in touch with their own thoughts, feelings and freedom of choice.

I disclose my belief in God, and my belief that Judaism, Christianity and Islam (as well as other wisdom traditions) are all based on two fundamental commandments: Love God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. If asked, I tell my client that I believe we were intended to each be unique individuals, with talents and abilities intended to be used by us to help the greater community. I tell my client that I believe that God want us to have free will and to have the freedom to choose to follow God. It is my belief that if God wanted us to be mind-controlled slaves, (S)He would have made us incapable of disobedience.

My counseling approach is custom tailored to each client's background and current needs. However, I cannot be all things to all people. Sometimes, being an expert on cults, mind control as well as a licensed counselor is not enough. So, I usually ask former cult members to assist me as well as other experts. For example, whenever I am called on to counsel an individual from a Christian Bible cult like Kip McKean's International Churches of Christ (ICC)­not to be confused with the mainstream Church of Christ or the United Church of Christ, I ask an orthodox Christian (often my minister friend, Rev. Bob Pardon) to assist me in addressing theological and Biblical issues. The focus is on offering a grounded, orthodox theological perspective, not to proselytize. I have grave concerns about any cult counselors who use their own religious orientation to "save" cult members into their one "true" church or religious institution. This goes for Jewish cult ministries too. I think the focus must begin on dealing with the cult mind control issues, enabling the person to think for themselves. For this reason, I will only accept cases in which the families agrees that I am not being hired to "get the person back to their religion", but to do what they want to do. Again, the focus must be for the individual to reevaluate what the he or she has been indoctrinated to believe. To promote and encourage reality-testing. Likewise, after the counseling succeeds in achieving this purpose, the individual is encouraged to continue on (if they want to) their spiritual journey. For more information about my approach please read the Frequently Asked Questions about the Strategic Interaction Approach.

One of stated biases as a counselor is to encourage the individual to understand their own spiritual rootsas a necessary part of regaining a solid footing. For example, if a person was raised Catholic and was recruited into the ICC, with their heavy anti-Catholic bias, I think it is very important for the ex-member to speak with Catholic representatives to help neutralize the indoctrination. For many, it will take many weeks or months before they feel ready to investigate anything spiritual. For others, healthy recovery includes actively participating in a spiritual practice and community. For still others, the healthy choice is to not believeand choose humanism or agnosticism. To this end, I can call on my friend, Tom Ferrick, Humanist chaplain at Harvard.

The key is empowering people to think for themselves. I am very interested in receiving suggestions and feedback about this article and this website, in an effort to continue to make it improve, so that we may help as many people as possible.

Steven Hassan
January 29, 2002