Message of hope for attendees of Australasia’s first-ever cult conference

Published October 19, 2024 By admin with Comments 0

Decult has attracted people from all over the world intending to open more conversation and better support for those who escape coercive groups.

World-renowned expert Dr Janja Lalich, who has studied cults for 38 years and written several books on the topic, was the keynote speaker for the first day of the conference.

Lalich, who was a member of American cult the Democratic Workers Party in the 1970s, spoke to 1News prior to the conference about how she did “horrible things” as a leader.

“As an American standing here today, I can boldly say that ideological extremism is alive and well and it’s the stuff that cults are made of,” she said.

“Through well-known mechanisms of influence and control – patterns we’ve seen time and again in these groups – individual lives become more and more constrained, sometimes gradually, sometimes rather quickly.”

Lalich said sometimes cults get desperate and can act out under the threat of outside pressure or the perception that they are being persecuted.

“That doesn’t mean we should shut up and go away, that we should discontinue our study of them or cease holding them accountable to decent human behaviour and the laws of the land.

“Public scrutiny sometimes pays off, and I say that with the clarification that I’m not advocating unwarranted government intervention or the passage of laws that would restrict our freedoms.

“But freedom also comes with the obligation to act responsibly.”

Content retrieved from: https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/10/19/message-of-hope-for-attendees-of-australasias-first-ever-cult-conference/.