Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

MeidasTouch Network

Steven Hassan, PhD, is one of the leading experts on cults and undue influence in the world. A former member of the right-wing Moonie cult, Hassan was deprogrammed 45 years ago and has dedicated his life to helping people out of cults and destructive situations. Dr. Hassan is a licensed mental health professional and has written four books, including The Cult of Trump and the seminal book Combating Cult Mind Control. On this podcast, Steve will explain HOW mind-control works, and how to protect yourself from its grips. He will also address ethical influence as the podcast will address the entire Influence Continuum. He’ll interview the biggest names in this field.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler with Anne Nelson

    Anne began our discussion by dispelling the myth that everyone in Nazi Germany simply went along with Hitler’s plans. She examined these resisters in her book Red Orchestra: The Story of the Berlin Underground and the Circle of Friends Who Resisted Hitler. When I read the book, it didn’t become clear to me how vitally important it was that there was a vast resistance movement. One I had never heard about. She hopes that the past might give us clues for potential future playbooks.“I think one thing they did well was create a broad coalition. So, what they did was find people who opposed the Nazi regime, and some of them were monarchists, some of them were communists. They had Lutherans, Catholics, Jews, Atheists, you name it. And they agreed to put their differences aside until the end of the regime, and then they could start infighting again. But, over that period, they worked together.” Anne said, “That’s why I’m so adamant about people getting involved now and getting involved in a practical sense, not just the, you know, the street demonstrations, which are fine, but studying what needs to be done in terms of our government.” She hopes that this would help us figure out how to save our democracy while we still may have time. If you wish to be part of the hope of defeating the authoritarian Cult of Trump, roll up your sleeves and be part of heroic resistance! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 6m

  2. 25 AUG

    The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion with Dr. Rebecca Lemov

    History provides a developmental framework for understanding the evolution of ideas, allowing us to trace their origins and track societal impact. Dr. Rebecca Lemov is a Professor of History of Science at Harvard University and a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Her timely 2025 book, The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion, offers valuable insights into how the past might influence our future surrounding the topic of Mind Control. The Cold War era saw these techniques in the CIA’s secret MK-Ultra program (1953-1973), which investigated potential offensive and defensive applications of mind control for military purposes. Lemov brought up Dr. Robert Jay Lifton’s work on treating PTSD and different types of “psychic numbing”. This might be the type of numbing one might experience in a holocaust type situation, or “ordinary numbing”. She said, “What you’re saying, a kind of dissociation or hypnotic, you know, out of body. In a sense, you’re literally out of your body, sometimes when you’re infinitely scrolling, or doomscrolling.” Her work delves into the hidden history of these influence methods while exploring their disturbing implications for our AI-driven future, particularly focusing on the emerging development of hyper-persuasion. These include advanced personalization, precise emotional targeting, and behavior prediction. We dissected the mixed blessings of social media and how it can provide some power to the individual voice, as long as the algorithm is designed ethically for pro democratic influence. This is a very important work which all citizens will find to be beneficial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    57 min

  3. 18 AUG

    "We Will Dance Again: Documenting the Nova Music Festival Terror Attack by Hamas Terrorists." with Yariv Mozer

    Watching the Emmy award-winning documentary We Will Dance Again was really really difficult. This 2024 documentary captures Hamas terrorists brutally attacking the Nova music festival attendees on October 7th, 2023, and shows the horrifying events that followed, including hostages taking. Documenting a Terrorist Attack by Hamas from Multiple Perspectives is not an easy task. “I think that this is a terror attack that you can see for the first time from both perspectives that captured the same moments at the same time and I think this is the power of this film,” Yariv said. Yariv implored listeners to please remember that most Israelis are for human rights, democratic rule of law, and policies to stop the war between Israel and Palestine. “I think at this point, this war should have ended, the hostages should have been released. I think it’s the responsibility of the state and government of Israel to focus on their release, not killing Hamas and Palestinians controlled by Hamas. Israel should have stopped the war. The casualties of war, the innocent casualties of war, are devastating. And there is a point at which a country needs to understand that war cannot solve everything, and violence cannot solve everything,” Yariv said. We discussed what psychological warfare is also at play in this attack and the events following. I noted that both the United States and Israel are under extreme right-wing leadership at this time, and this directly impacts ongoing conflicts and continuing harm. “Do not blame every Israeli for every type of policy that our government is conducting,” Yariv noted. I mirrored the same about the United States: “Don’t hate the American people. Most of us are good people, and we don’t like Trump, and we’re appalled by his destruction of the checks and balances of laws, the applications of all the rights that we fought for.” I also reminded listeners that not everything was black or white in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, and the history of harm in the region is extensive and complex. “I’m seeing entities of authoritarianism versus people who are pro-democracy and human rights and women’s rights and gay rights and indigenous rights and children’s rights,” I noted. Yariv and I both agreed that the pain being inflicted upon the Palestinian people was unacceptable and not helping any of these regions to heal. I added that I hoped we were able to find peace without further cooking our planet and destroying our environment, as wars are costly in so many ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    49 min

  4. 11 AUG

    Strategic Cultural Communications: Competent Messaging to Latino Communities With Evelyn Pérez-Verdia

    Words matter, and how words or phrases are used may present completely different meanings to diverse cultural demographics depending on topics like history and associated symbolic language. That’s why having a leading bilingual female strategist such as Evelyn Pérez-Verdia on the side of truth in messaging is vital to organizations seeking to break down barriers with Latino communities. She is the Founder and Chief of Strategy for We Are Más, an organization focused on advising about diversity and translating culture, focusing on research, strategy, and creative communications. As a Hispanic small business owner, Evelyn has two decades of experience as an advisor to elections offices, grassroots groups, advocacy campaigns, and governmental agencies on messaging, communications, image, digital content, and micro-engagement. Recognizing her advocacy in protecting democratic organizations, Pérez-Verdia received the Woman of Impact Award in 2022 in Civics from the non-profit organization Mujeres Latinas Impulsando a Mujeres Latinas. She is also part of the University of South Florida’s Dean’s Advisory Council and the Department of State’s U.S. Speaker’s Program, giving workshops to journalists and civil society leaders in Latin America. When speaking to culturally diverse communities, the selection of words used in messaging means a lot. We talked about words often used by large national organizations in Washington, D.C., such as “Latinx” or “Progressive”, and how they can have the unintentional side effect of alienating different sections of the Latino community. She explained, “Yes, we have the Latinx, which the younger generations use, right? Where only 1.8% of Hispanics and Latinos, no matter the age affiliation, are like, I don’t feel identified with that.” Similarly, she noted the word “progressive” may represent “progressista” as a term young Hispanics might find objectionable. “They manifested peacefully on the streets against the dictatorship of Hugo Chávez, of Nicolas Maduro, and they see this youth using exactly the symbolism, exactly the terms that the dictator in the country uses,” she said. This is hugely important for all activists to listen to this interview! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 5m

  5. 4 AUG

    Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity With Sander van der Linden Ph.D.

    “Misinformation spreads like a virus,” explained Sander van der Linden, Ph.D., a Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He asked the question, “Is there a way to inoculate or immunize people?” His award-winning book Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity explores this topic using decades of research and on-the-ground experience advising governments and tech companies. He wrote the book to devise a new paradigm to help readers understand and defend themselves against a worldwide information infodemic. Van der Linden’s biography describes his body of research as looking at “how people process (mis)information, how it spreads in online networks, and how we can most effectively prebunk and inoculate people against false information.” He served on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) infodemic working group. He has won numerous awards for his research on human judgment, communication, and decision-making, including the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS). He co-developed Bad News, an award-winning fake news game designed to improve people’s ability to spot manipulation techniques! This is an very important interview. Learn more about Steven Hassan and Freedom of Mind Resource Center. Visit freedomofmind.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 2m

  6. 28 JUL

    Ending Corporate Harm: Undue Influence Within Corporate Product Health and Safety with Dr. Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH

    Did you know that environmental factors, rather than hereditary factors, are taking the lead in driving illness and early mortality? That shift is primarily due to the harm caused by corporations and their products, says Dr. Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Services at the University of California, San Francisco, and Director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment and the new Center to End Corporate Harm. A world-recognized expert and scientist who studies how exposures to environmental chemicals affect children’s development and health and translates scientific findings to improve clinical care. Dr. Woodruff previously served as a scientist and policy advisor in the US EPA Office of Policy. During our discussion, we discussed how the current administration’s policy will make people sicker. She noted the potential benefit of the MAHA Commission Report, which brings attention to the health harms from chemicals. Still, at the same time, the administration is eliminating funding and rules that protect people from exposure to harmful chemicals in air, food, and water. Unlike RFK Jr., she is solidly pro-vaccine. Dr. Woodruff stated that a third of deaths globally were associated with five commercial products, according to data from WHO and other sources listed in the resources below: 1) Tobacco; 2) Alcohol; 3) Sugar and ultra-processed food; 4) Toxic Chemicals; 5) Fossil Fuels/ Air Pollution. Citizens and Private Foundations must step up since the Trump administration is intent on helping irresponsible corporations. We MUST look to healthcare experts like Dr. Woodruff who rely on sound science and solid research. This is a vitally important interview! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 4m

  7. 21 JUL

    How the International Church of Christ (ICOC) Preys on Hispanic Communities with Tania Díaz

    There has been a huge increase in Christian “Bible” Cults over the past 40 plus years- especially ones that do “Shepherding or Dicipling” in an authoritarian structure. The public doesnt understand how millions of people are deceptively recruited and indoctrinated into these groups and why they are called “cults.” One such cult network started in Massachusetts in 1979 as “the Boston Church of Christ” and are not to be confused with the mainline Church of Christ or the United Church of Christ. This group uses BITE Model methods to recruit and indoctrinate followers to follow the top leader as an “apostle or prophet” or “God’s chosen man to lead Christianity on earth. Unlike legitimate Christian churches this cult claims to be the “only” path to salvation and demands people subit and obey a discpling partner as if they were Jesus. Their lives and free will are taken over by involvement with this group. REcruiting other, giving money, abandoning education and careers, even family are part of the playbook. Tania Diaz was recruited as an 18 college student in Mexico and spent over 20 years. She and her husband were groomed to recruit countless Hispanics into this cult. She would rise through the church’s ranks, only escaping nearly thirty years later to become an anti-cult activist, self-compassion advocate, and host of a podcast dedicated to survivors of religious abuse, Voces: Espacio Sagrado para Sobrevivientes de Abuso Religioso (In English, Voices: A Sacred Space for Survivors of Religious Abuse) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 23m

  8. 14 JUL

    Without the Guru: How I Took My Life Back After Thirty Years with Mike Finch

    Mike Finch has a Doctorate in Math and Theoretical Physics. He is also a Fellow of the International Society for Philosophers. Like many people I know, he was on a meditation journey and ended up with an Indian guru, then called “Guru Maharaji,” then just “Maharaji,” and later only by his given name: Prem Rawat. Mike was able to leave Rawat in 2000. Since then, Mike’s interests have included the exploration of why he surrendered to the guru, how he stayed for 30 years, and now how to deal with the aftermath. Mike’s book, Without the Guru: How I took My Life Back after Thirty Years (published in 2009), explores Mike’s journey into this rigid belief system, how he realized he was trapped in a cult, and then how he broke away. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    56 min
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Steven Hassan, PhD, is one of the leading experts on cults and undue influence in the world. A former member of the right-wing Moonie cult, Hassan was deprogrammed 45 years ago and has dedicated his life to helping people out of cults and destructive situations. Dr. Hassan is a licensed mental health professional and has written four books, including The Cult of Trump and the seminal book Combating Cult Mind Control. On this podcast, Steve will explain HOW mind-control works, and how to protect yourself from its grips. He will also address ethical influence as the podcast will address the entire Influence Continuum. He’ll interview the biggest names in this field.

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