Anti-Cult Activism and Anti-Cult Leaders: A Warning

When I just began to communicate with people in the anti-cult community, I believed that all the anti-cult activists really want to help people. I was too naive. People who do anti-cult work may have various other intentions: to make money, to get leading positions (to become "anti-cult leaders"), and so on. Some of anti-cultists continue to behave as cult members. This phenomenon is known as "anti-cult cult."

There is a certain person who believes that only he knows what should be done in the anti-cult field and nobody else knows it. In principle, such statements already sound as a bad sign because there are so many people in the anti-cult field and it exists for so long time that it is hard to believe that one person can invent something really new. Of course, the statements that somebody knows something that nobody else knows are very usual for cults and cult leaders. This is why I consider this to be a warning sign.

This person who has the great and unique ideas about the anti-cult work tries to create a new anti-cult organization on the basis of his great and unique vision and condemns other anti-cult organizations. In principle, there is nothing wrong with creating a new anti-cult organization. I am definitely for plurality of opinions in the anti-cult community. However, there are some other warning signs with how this person is creating his new organization. I believe that when honest people invite others to join them in some projects, they first give the full information about their projects and then ask people if they want to join or not. The person I am writing about does not do that. Instead he tries to involve people into his organization without their informed agreement. He tried to involve me and, at least, one more person this way. He kept saying about his great ideas, but all his sayings were too vague. He asked me several times whether I would like to listen about his ideas and I always agreed. However, he never told me what his great plan was, just some vague words and "pieces" of the "full picture." Later, to my great surprise, I learned that he believed that I joined his project, although I never gave my agreement to join it. I just gave my agreement to learn what he could say about his project. There were some warning signs that he was using some manipulations in order to involve me and another person into his project and I did not feel good about it. Now I know that he did use manipulations.

Although he pretended to be a good person who cares for people, later, I learned many negative things about his behavior in the past and in the present. For many years, this person has been trying to gain a high position in the anti-cult community, to become "anti-cult leader." So, I believe that he attempts to create a new organization in order to be the leader and to have some special position, not in order to help people. In addition, this person has done many evil things such as violation of his professional ethics.

I no longer associate with him in any way and this is my final decision. His activity harms people and does not help them. I do not want to participate in it and I do not want to be exploited again.

However, I think that I need to warn people who want to participate in anti-cult activity. Not everyone in the anti-cult field has good intentions. Some people want to make more money (I know some of them), some people want to have authority and high position, some have other intentions. If somebody invites you to join an anti-cult organization or participate in anti-cult activity, do your best to find as much information about this person, organization, and project as possible before you make a decision to participate. Be careful if somebody does not want to provide you the information or claims to have a unique vision, unique ideas, or unique plan. Do not allow "anti-cult leaders" to exploit you and misuse your desire to help people.