Mockingbird's Nest: Which films or series accurately depict the way cults deal with their members?

This is one of the absolute best questions I've ever seen regarding cults. Many shows get them completely wrong and many people in media including podcasts, even sometimes podcasts on cults get the most basic facts about the subject wrong.

I have to say that the film The Master (2012 Joaquin Phoenix) portrays Scientology in a very, very accurate way. If you want to understand the early days of Scientology when Ronald Hubbard was starting out in the fifties and early sixties, particularly before Saint Hill and the Sea Org, this hits the flavor of Scientology quite well.

The top cult experts in my opinion are people who in some cases have their own podcasts or YouTube channels. Jon Atack (Jon Atack and Friends YouTube channel) is the top expert on Scientology in my opinion. Robert Jay Lifton is probably the top living expert on coercive control.

Others who I consider top cult experts include Steven Hassan (Freedom of Mind blog and YouTube channel), Rick Alan Ross, Alexandra Stein, Rachel Bernstein (Indoctrination Podcast and Rachel Bernstein YouTube channel), Janja Lalich, the late Margaret Singer (ICSA YouTube channel), Daniel Shaw.

The documentaries The Vow and Seduced describe the NXIVM cult quite well. The Path has many elements taken from numerous cults.

The ex Scientologist Chris Shelton has been quite active and has over eight hundred videos and/or podcasts available on YouTube and has interviewed experts on many cults and other topics.

To really understand cults in my opinion it is extremely likely that you would do best to read books. The best books by qualified experts can give you a deeper and often more accurate examination of cults than films and documentaries generally can.

I can recommend the books Freedom of Mind by Steven Hassan and Cults In Our Midst by Margaret Singer as great starts on the subject and useful for anyone who is interested in the subject. The eight criteria for thought reform was a chapter in the book Thought Reform and The Psychology of Totalism and is the best model in my opinion for examining the methods used by high control groups.

To examine Cultic relationships and understand the hold they have over members and how it is developed by the leader I recommend Terror, Love and Brainwashing by Alexandra Stein and Traumatic Narcissism by Daniel Shaw.

To understand Scientology the numerous articles and books by Jon Atack are essential. The serious student must include Cults Inside Out by Rick Alan Ross, this has the framework for a complete curriculum on cults and describes the history of research into the topic. I also highly recommend Take Back Your Life by Janja Lalich.

The following blog posts from Mockingbird's Nest blog on Scientology describe or use the books I referenced in this post.

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Which films or series accurately depict the way cults deal with their members?

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