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wendeltreppen spiral staircase

‘Never believe a hypnotist’ – an investigation of L. Ron Hubbard’s statements about hypnosis and its relationship to his Dianetics.

2014 redraft of the original 1995 paper There have been many assertions that cult groups utilize hypnotic techniques. A good example is Persinger, Carrey & Suess in TM and Cult Mania, where the relatively straightforward techniques of Transcendental Meditation are analysed to show their hypnotic content. However, there has been little analysis of such groups’

‘Never believe a hypnotist’ – an investigation of L. Ron Hubbard’s statements about hypnosis and its relationship to his Dianetics. Read More »

Possible origins for Dianetics and Scientology

My starting point is the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary definition of plagiarism, viz “the taking and using as one’s own of the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another.” Hubbard’s plagiarism was extensive. He took ideas from earlier authors without proper acknowledgment; repudiated his initial, partial acknowledgment of other authors; and many times took ideas from

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Cult of Trump by Steve Hassan book cover

Response to Benjamin Zeller’s review: The Cult of Trump? What “Cult Rhetoric” Actually Reveals

Students are frequently disciplined these days for cut-and-pasting paragraphs from the Internet rather than properly responding to their tutors’ questions. A similar habit is found among academics who speak about “brainwashing” and “cults”. Rather than reading and reviewing Steven Hassan’s new book, Professor Zeller has cut-and-pasted ideas that have been floated repeatedly over the last several decades.

Response to Benjamin Zeller’s review: The Cult of Trump? What “Cult Rhetoric” Actually Reveals Read More »

Charles Manson

Did Jolly West program the Manson Family or was it Scientology?

Charles Manson and his ‘Family’ will always stir up fascination, because of the horrifying brutality of the slayings in Los Angeles in 1969, and the mythology that has been so dexterously spun around them. Manson was the pied piper who brainwashed runaway girls in his orgiastic, drug-crazed sex cult and then loosed them on a

Did Jolly West program the Manson Family or was it Scientology? Read More »