International Cult Awareness Day 18 November
Cults exist in every country and can be so well hidden that most don’t speak about it even in the trainings I did as a psychotherapist. I did do much more after I graduated, I was also in one when very young. Some cults are shown on places like Netflix but not so much of the harm is depicted which makes people think it probably wasn’t that bad or so rare they would spot it straight away. They can have their own name, be called an influential group or a terror group. They all function in a variety of ways so they aren’t always easy to recognise. Those that have left do need care and support as stepping back into normal life can be hard.
So why did this date get chosen?
On November 18th 1978 in Jonestown Guyana a visiting Politician Leo Ryan from California and others boarding the small aircraft while leaving were gunned down by armed members of the Jim Jones group. The politician had visited as concerning stories were out about the group and when it was previously based in San Francisco in 1971 after Indianapolis where it started in the 1950s.It moved each time because of abuse allegations. Jones was a leader that was very suspicious of outsiders and ruled his following with manipulation and control. Even a politician visiting was seen as a threat especially when some members wanted to escape.
What followed after the shooting was Jones making member feed their kids and babies a Kool Aid drink laced with cyanide which ends life, they had guns pointed at them so parents had to follow what Jones said, over 200 babes and kids were killed then 700+ of the adults. He named this a mass ‘revolutionary suicide’ which was spoken about in group. Prior to this event people were travelling to this so-called nonracist paradise which promised many wonderful things so they joined unaware of the truth. Once there it was so remote, they were not able to escape and didn’t because of intimidating control.
When investigations started, they found 909 bodies with a few who escaped what happened. It was a huge shock to America and even in the 1980s when I lived in their not accepting drinks from strangers was the rule around kids without them realising what had occurred. The next biggest manmade mass killing was 11 September 2001 when planes hit the World Trade Centre in New York City.
So why would International Cult Awareness Day on 18th November be relevant to the UK? These types of groups are here and can be social, spiritual, psychological, political, terrorist, racist, destructive, doomsday, anticult and others. They can have a variety of layers so the people encouraging others to join may have no awareness of abuses happening elsewhere within the same group. In some cults babies and kids do get trafficked for sex which seems too hard to understand, they rarely show that in the TV shows.
There are people working in mental health that assist those that have left cults; this type of work can cause vicarious trauma so clinicians are usually well trained, are supervised and do practice self-care. More can be found at https://www.icsahome.com/ which is The International Cultic Studies Association or http://www.cultnews101.com/ which gives updated information.
Olivia Djouadi UKCP NCS NCS-CYP ACTO
