Cults, Culture & Coercion 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. قبل ساعتين

    UNRECONCILED: A SOLO PLAY That Empowers Survivors of Catholic Church Childhood Sexual Abuse With Jay Sefton, LMHC

    One of the most powerful tools in healing from childhood sexual abuse is for a survivor to have the opportunity to share their story and truly be heard. Many survivors of early trauma at the hands of Catholic Church Priests went unheard or unbelieved for decades. Several Pennsylvania Grand Jury investigations and media discussions surrounding the findings were one of the first opportunities for many local survivors to recognize the extent of their own abuse fully. It also served to help survivors realize that they were not alone. Jay Sefton was one of these individuals. He experienced childhood sexual abuse by his family’s parish priest, and he is now working to share his story while also empowering others to heal from theirs. Sefton is an actor, playwright, and Licensed Mental Health Counselor living in Easthampton, Massachusetts. He is the co-author and performer of UNRECONCILED, an autobiographical story of an adolescent actor cast as Jesus in a school play directed by a parish priest. I had the opportunity to see the play performed live. I listened to the discussion afterward, which included the former Boston Globe Editor Marty Baron, who empowered his Spotlight team to pursue the story of the church’s conspiracy to cover up the abuse. The play was amazing and there is a project to help bring it to a much bigger audience. Jay is a licensed mental health counselor and I believe his journey will be an inspiration for many. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    ٥٥ من الدقائق

  2. ٦ أكتوبر

    The Girl with the Duck Tattoo with Restaurateur Sarma Melngailis

    In her book, Sarma tells her story of how a successful businesswoman, co-founder and owner of the acclaimed NYC restaurant Pure Food and Wine and the brand One Lucky Duck, could fall for a con artist using a fictitious name, a covert backstory, and fantastical promises. Humans are social beings, and it’s that social aspect that manipulative and abusive characters can learn to exploit for their self-interest. With an increase in online dating and social media, individuals can be exploited relatively easily without knowing who they are really speaking to. Predators can create false identities. They can also buy profile data on a potential victim they wish to exploit. In addition, some unethical people earn money by teaching men how to manipulate women online using neurolinguistic programming (NLP) / hypnosis. With behind-the-times laws on recognizing and prosecuting coercive control in relationships, often victims like Sarma are blamed for criminal actions occurring as a result of abuse. Sarma Melngailis recounts her side of this traumatic story, ultimately culminating in her imprisonment on Rikers Island. She hopes that people who read her book will gain a better understanding of what happened to her and use it to warn others of their own vulnerability to online predators. She wanted to correct the story told in the Netflix documentary “Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives.” Exploitative documentaries are often inaccurate, leading to media distortion and public shaming of the survivor.Yes, folks- There ARE one on one cults! Fascinating story.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  3. ٢٩ سبتمبر

    Irene’s Entropy: Coffee as Courage and Ritual as Repair

    In this episode of Cults, Culture & Coercion, I had the pleasure of speaking with Irene of Irene’s Entropy. Irene is a mechanical engineer turned musician, storyteller, pilot, and entrepreneur. Raised in a strict Mormon household where she underwent the experience of a recruitment mission, she left in her early 20s. She began documenting the honest rebuild of her identity as Irene’s Entropy.Her work blends songs, narrative, and a recurring symbol, a red door, through which she “walks” whenever she’s ready to learn and change. She calls her audience Door Walkers, and even launched Door Walker Coffee, a liberating nod to the Mormons’ coffee prohibition. Her ongoing experience as an ex-Mormon informs her work today, and Irene’s most vivid description of undue influence comes from her time as a missionary. She explains that the Missionary Training Center (MTC) is where scripts are drilled and identity is re-molded. Irene felt a strong need to reinvent herself after feeling the Mormon church had superimposed an identity onto her. After an intense reevaluation period, Irene decided to walk through the red door. Challenging herself to a new field of study, she pursued an engineering degree and worked up to an aerospace career to prove she could. Other critical personal changes followed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  4. ٢٢ سبتمبر

    Compassion Over Conversion: Continuing Science-based Research for Queer and Trans Health with Matthew D. Skinta PhD ABPP

    Compassion, empathy, and science have all been under rapid-fire attack during the second Trump Administration. This is especially true towards Queer and Transgender communities, though other minority communities within the United States are also being targeted. Dr. Matthew D. Skinta, PhD, ABPP, is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Affiliated Faculty of Women and Gender Studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago. He helped us better understand what areas of the science community are being targeted, what research projects have been cancelled, and on what grounds. We also discussed the discrimination against individuals who identify with diversity, equity, and inclusion principles surrounding topics of gender and gender nonconformity. We talked about “conversion therapy” which attempts to brainwash folks to believe they are straight and how it doesn’t work. Matthew and I met at a Harvard conference for psychedelic assisted therapy. This was a fascinating interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    ١ من الساعات

  5. ١٥ سبتمبر

    Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR with John Andrew Collins

    Radicalization, and the Minnesota Murder Cases John Collins grew up inside William Branham’s “Message” world, left it, then spent years mapping how the theology and network morphed into today’s authoritarian ecosystems. I welcomed him back to The Influence Continuum to speak about the murders and share his knowledge surrounding the twisted networks of doctrine and influence that may have influenced them. Collins’ most recent book is Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR. Author and webmaster of William Branham: Historical Research, John was born and raised in William Branham’s “The Message” cult following and is the grandson of Willard Collins, former pastor of William Branham’s “Branham Tabernacle” in Jeffersonville, Indiana. When we did the recording and broke the story about Boelter’s link to the extremist group, we got a message on my YouTube from Boelter’s former baseball buddy and floormate at college, who witnessed his radicalization. Jeff Petricka consented to a recorded interview on my YouTube channel. John’s story hits an essential point about brainwashing while growing up. He was taught such an extremist form of obedience that he was told if Branham said the sky was pink, his eyes were wrong. He was corporally punished regularly. He told me leaving felt like being air-dropped from a North Korean camp into the United States, where nothing is familiar. His deconstruction took years. With human resilience and persistence, John worked to heal himself and help others. John was told stringed instruments were “of the devil.” Today, he keeps his drums in the frame and every video on purpose, and I can see at least 8 (if not more!) stringed instruments on his wall. A really important interview! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  6. ٨ سبتمبر

    The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump with Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div.

    The attack on experts and science itself is part of the mind control strategy to control citizens. Before Trump came to power, the media would regularly call on me and top experts like Dr. Lee to shed light on issues concerning mental health and public health. This authoritarian control of information forces citizens concerned with the public good to do what we can to message. I have interviewed Dr. Lee previously, but as the world is now seeing what she and other experts predicted, I thought it was time to assess the current moment. Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M.D., M.Div., is a forensic psychiatrist and internationally recognized expert on dangerousness. She is the editor of the New York Times bestseller The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President (2017). She followed up with The More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 40 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Warn Anew (2024) and The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 50 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Warn Anew (2025). She has consistently been vocal on her views that President Donald Trump presents a Mental Health Emergency, which threatens our nation and the world. As it appears Trump’s health is failing and the Epstein file coverup continues, it seems clear that Putin and other puppetmasters are beginning to make plans for Vance to become President. But will he command the allegiance of sworn Maga devotees? I think this moment is critical to reach out to form, or reconnect with family and friends and warmly ask them their thoughts on current policies. Listen to this interview for more insights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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  7. ١ سبتمبر

    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

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  8. ٢٥ أغسطس

    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

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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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