Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace - Paperback

by Margaret Thaler Singer (Author), Robert Jay Lifton (Foreword by)

Cults today are bigger than ever, with broad ramifications for national and international terrorism. In this newly revised edition of her definitive work on cults, Singer reveals what cults really are and how they work, focusing specifically on the coercive persuasion techniques of charismatic leaders seeking money and power. The book contains fascinating updates on Heaven's Gate, Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, Hare Krishna, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and the connection between cults and terrorism in Al Queda and the PLO.

Front Jacket

Cults today are bigger than ever, with broad ramifications for national and international terrorism. In this newly revised edition of her definitive work on cults, Singer reveals what cults really are and how they work, focusing specifically on the coercive persuasion techniques of charismatic leaders seeking money and power. The book contains fascinating updates on Heaven's Gate, Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, Hare Krishna, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and the connection between cults and terrorism in Al Queda and the PLO.

What makes Cults in Our Midst so absorbing is Singer's ability to show the extremely damaging effect of cults as well as the lure that cults may have for the 'average' people in 'normal' life. Cults often emerge cyclically-- but they never disappear. A 'good' time for cults is the end of the millennium, when people become obsessed with apocalyptic notions . . . [but] they never really disappear.
-- San Francisco Chronicle

The definitive A to Z work on cults. . . . It would have been a tremendous resource and comfort to me and my family through our ordeals.
-- Patricia Ryan, daughter of Congressman Leo Ryan, who was assassinated by members of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple

Back Jacket

Cults today are bigger than ever, with broad ramifications for national and international terrorism. In this newly revised edition of her definitive work on cults, Singer reveals what cults really are and how they work, focusing specifically on the coercive persuasion techniques of charismatic leaders seeking money and power. The book contains fascinating updates on Heaven's Gate, Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, Hare Krishna, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and the connection between cults and terrorism in Al Queda and the PLO.

"What makes Cults in Our Midst so absorbing is Singer's ability to show the extremely damaging effect of cults as well as the lure that cults may have for the 'average' people in 'normal' life. Cults often emerge cyclically-- but they never disappear. A 'good' time for cults is the end of the millennium, when people become obsessed with apocalyptic notions . . . [but] they never really disappear."
-- San Francisco Chronicle

"The definitive A to Z work on cults. . . . It would have been a tremendous resource and comfort to me and my family through our ordeals."
-- Patricia Ryan, daughter of Congressman Leo Ryan, who was assassinated by members of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple

Author Biography

Margaret Thaler Singer is a clinical psychologist and emeritus adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In her career she has counseled and interviewed more than 3,000 current and former cult members and their relatives and friends. An expert on post-traumatic stress as well as cults, she lectures widely in the United States and abroad. She is the coauthor of "Crazy" Therapies.