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Steven HassanSteven Alan Hassan is an anti cult activist and director of the Center for Freedom of Mind. He describes himself as a specialist on "cult". He served as an expert witness to the 1977-8 congressional inquiry that produced the United States Congressional Report on the Unification Church, and has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, Dateline, Larry King Live and The O'Reilly Factor. He has been involved in deprogramming activities but says that he has now replaced this with non-forcible faith breaking activites called "exit counseling". He holds a master's degree in counseling from Cambridge College, Cambridge, Massachusetts) and is a licensed mental health counselor (LMHC) in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as a nationally certified counselor (NCC). A former member of the Unification Church himself, following the Jonestown tragedy in 1979, he founded a non-profit organization called "Ex-Moon Inc.," whose membership consisted of over four hundred former members of the Unification Church. He says he spent only a year assisting with deprogrammings before turning to less controversial methods of helping people to leave "cult"s (see exit counseling). Lawyer Andy Bacus of the Unification Church says that Hassan continued his deprogramming activities: - Steve Hassan, for example, is an ex-member of the Unification Church who was involuntarily deprogrammed. He has spent the last 15 years deprogramming other persons. Mr. Hassan has been most active recently in providing "exit counseling" to members of the Boston Church of Christ. In fact Hassan, who charges $1,000 per day for his services, has received tens of thousands of dollars from the parents of members of the Boston Church of Christ and other groups to provide "exit counseling" services. Like other "exit counselors", Hassan relies on the mind control theories of Margaret Singer to justify his actions. http://www.tparents.org/UNews/unws9401/IL-SEN.htm
Hassan contends that cults recruit members through systematic deception, behavior modification, withholding of information, and emotionally intense persuasion techniques (such as the creation of phobias), which he collectively terms mind control. He calls such groups "destructive cults," a term that he defines by the methods used to recruit and retain members, not by the views the group espouses. He is opposed to the so-called deprogramming of cult members, and supports instead counseling them in order that they withdraw voluntarily from the organization. He calls his method the "strategic interaction approach". He was himself recruited into the Unification Church in the 1970s, at the age of nineteen, while a student at Queens College, and spent twenty-seven months recruiting and indoctrinating new members, as well as fundraising, campaigning, and personally meeting with Sun Myung Moon. http://freedomofmind.com/stevehassan/biography/ Hassan says that he "ultimately rose to the rank of Assistant Director of the Unification Church at National Headquarters". After his leg was broken in a car accident, he says, his parents contacted former members of the Unification Church, and Hassan agreed to get engaged in a deprogramming session with them and they convinced him to leave the organization. His first book, Combatting Cult Mind Control (1990), has been widely praised by counselors, psychologists involved in the field of cult research, as well as former cult members and their friends and relatives. Hassan writes: - "My mind control model outlines many key elements that need to be controlled: Behavior, Information, Thoughts and Emotions (BITE). If these four components can be controlled, then an individual's identity can be systematically manipulated and changed. Destructive mind control takes the 'locus of control' away from an individual. The person is systematically deceived about the beliefs and practices of the person (or group) and manipulated throughout the recruitment process — unable to make informed choices and exert independent judgment. The person's identity is profoundly influenced through a set of social influence techniques and a "new identity" is created — programmed to be dependent on the leader or group ideology. The person can't think for him or herself, but believes otherwise." http://freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/faq/#1
Criticism John Engler of the Barnabas Minstry says that "Hassan admits to many many things he claims that cults do in recruiting people": - Dispensing of existence (Referring to the son as a "cult member" or cultist, and thus justifying inhuman and dishonest treatment for a "higher purpose.")
- Love bombing (Making every effort to make him "feel loved.")
- Milieu control, indoctrination sessions (Using a benign event to get the son away from his normal environment for three consecutive days of marathon sessions, with no chance for rebuttal or defense on the part of those accused.)
- Emotional pressure to conform (family pressure, hustling and pressuring him to agree to a meeting without sufficient time for reflection. Sounds more like a health club sales pitch.)
- Mystical manipulation/planned spontaneity ("we've arranged for you to be able to speak with some people, and here they are ...." Hassan's "counseling" to the family included discussing ways to communicate "effectively" with the cultist.)
- Unethical use of confession (Seeking to manipulate any expressed concerns as reasons to terminate involvement.)
- Use of the "hot seat" (or "struggle" in Lifton's terms) to browbeat him into submission. (The son was ganged up on by two professionals, a former member, and his entire family.) http://www.barnabasministry.com/hassan5.htm
Books - Combatting Cult Mind Control, 1990. ISBN 0892813113.
- Releasing The Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, 2000. ISBN 0967068800.
External links Hassan, Steven
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