Why I am Dedicated to Prevention

For a number of years after I left the Moonies I was part of an underground railroad, of sorts, helping families attempt to free their loved ones from cults like the one I had been involved in.

One of the key reasons deprogramming – or exit counseling – works is that it takes the victim out of the milieu which constantly re-enforces this type of circular logic.

The need to remove the victim from their environment is also one of the main problems with the process. Families often felt their only option was an involuntary intervention. The legal issues involved with involuntary deprogramming led to my arrest for kidnapping. (It was the 80’s…excuse the mullet)

I applaud counselors who work with people leaving all forms of dangerous manipulation.   Ken Ballen’s book Terrorists in Love – The Real Lives of Islamic Radicals does an excellent job of taking the reader inside the lives of militant jihadis and helps bring understanding about the human beings involved in terrorism.  Vulnerability is universal and once enslaved by circular logic – cognitive freedom is a difficult path.

This is why I am working toward prevention.  The work of brilliant minds like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and others who are creating a scholarly framework for discussing irrational belief systems lay the foundation for prevention.  While they debate the issue of religion and God I am taking a bit of a different direction.

It is possible to understand more about vulnerability and it is also possible to build preventative memes.  I call them memetic condoms.  Watch for more about memetic condoms in future blog posts.