Steven Hassan

Steven Alan Hassan (born 1954) is an American licensed mental health counselor who has written extensively on the subject of cults.^[2] He is the author of three books on the subject of destructive cults, and what he describes as their use of mind control, thought reform, and the psychology of influence in order to recruit and retain members.

Hassan is a former member of the Unification Church. He founded Ex-Moon Inc. in 1979^[3] before assisting with involuntary deprogrammings in association with the Cult Awareness Network^[4] developing in 1999 what he describes as his own non-coercive methods for helping members of alleged cults to leave their groups.

Background

Hassan became a member of the Unification Church (aka Moonies) in the 1970s, at the age of 19, while studying at Queens College. He describes what he terms as his "recruitment" in his first book, Combatting Cult Mind Control, asserting that this recruitment was the result of the unethical use of powerful psychological influence techniques by members of the Church.^[5] He subsequently spent over two years recruiting and indoctrinating new members, as well as performing fundraising and campaigning duties, and ultimately rose to the rank of Assistant Director of the Unification Church at its National Headquarters. In that capacity he met personally with Sun Myung Moon.^[6]

Hassan has given an account of his leaving the Unification Church in his 1998 book Combatting Cult Mind Control and on his personal website.^[7]

Career

In 1979, following the Jonestown deaths, Hassan founded a non-profit organization called "Ex-Moon Inc.", whose membership consisted of over four hundred former members of the Unification Church.^[6]

According to his biography, "During the 1977-78 Congressional Subcommittee Investigation into South Korean CIA activities in the United States, he consulted as an expert on the Moon organization and provided information and internal documents regarding Moon's desire to influence politics in his bid to 'take over the world.'"^[6]

Around 1980, Hassan began investigating methods of persuasion, mind control and indoctrination. He first studied the thought reform theories of Robert Lifton, and was "able to see clearly that the Moon organization uses all eight" of the thought reform methods described by Lifton.^[7]

He later attended a seminar on hypnosis with Richard Bandler, which was based on the work that he and transformational grammarian John Grinder had done in developing Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). Hassan felt that this seminar gave him "a handle on techniques of mind control, and how to combat them." He spent "nearly two years studying NLP with everyone involved in its formulation and presentation." During this period, Hassan moved to Santa Cruz, California for an apprenticeship with Grinder. He became concerned about the marketing of NLP as a tool for "power enhancement", left his association with Grinder, and "began to study the works of Milton Erickson M.D., Virginia Satir, and Gregory Bateson, on which NLP is based." His studies gave him the basis for the development of his theories on mind control.^[8]

Hassan continued to study hypnosis and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis^[9] and the International Society of Hypnosis.^[10]

In 1999, Hassan founded the Freedom of Mind Resource Center.^[11] The centre is registered as a domestic profit corporation in the state of Massachusetts, and Hassan is president and treasurer.^[12]

In Combatting Cult Mind Control Hassan describes his personal experiences with the Unification Church, as well as his theory of the four components of mind control. The book has been reviewed in the American Journal of Psychiatry,^[13] and in the The Lancet.^[14]

In his third and most recent book, Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs (2012), Hassan demonstrates how his approach has evolved over the last 13 years and offers a more extensive bibliography. In addition, Hassan presents Lifton's and Singer's models alongside his own BITE model. The book has garnered a favorable review from Jerome Siegel, PHD^[15] who says: "Its weakness is repetitiveness, flatness, and some theorizing that might turn off professional readers. Nonetheless, I recommend it highly for its intended audience."

In a research paper presented at the 2000 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion conference, Anson Shupe, professor of Sociology at Indiana/Purdue University, and Susan E. Darnell state Hassan had participated two involuntary deprogrammings in 1976 and 1977.^[16] One involving Arthur Roselle who claims that Hassan kidnapped, hit, and forcibly detained him.^[17]

Hassan has spoken out against involuntary deprogramming since 1980.^[10][18] In Combatting Cult Mind Control, he stated that "the non-coercive approach will not work in every case, it has proved to be the option most families prefer. Forcible intervention can be kept as a last resort if all other attempts fail."^[19]

After the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, Steven was brought in by the media to explain the bombers' mind state and how mind control was involved.^[20][21][22]

See also

• Anti-cult movement

Books

• Combatting Cult Mind Control, 1988. ISBN 0-89281-243-5.
• Releasing the Bonds|Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, 2000. ISBN 0-9670688-0-0.
• Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults, and Beliefs, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9670688-1-7.

References