Newsletter: Let’s Speak up and Empower Reality-Testing
Love is stronger than mind control
This week’s livestream will be tomorrow, Wednesday, September 17th, at 2-3 p.m. EDT. We plan to livestream on YouTube, Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and others! I welcome everyone to tune in with questions and comments! Last week’s livestream was a great success; you can see the recording here if you missed it. I also did a Substack livestream yesterday with Lev Parnas.
Like many of you, I condemned the shooting of Charlie Kirk; although he was a proponent of hateful and divisive rhetoric, the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, did no one any favors - as we have seen, the killing only fanned the flames of further violence and polarization. Such regrettable actions are never the answer, and we must choose compassion and love, reaching out to find common ground. My livestream yesterday with Lev Parnas discussed some strategies for dealing with the MAGA “Super Cult” that seems to be forming in reaction to the killing. I also did a solo livestream on the twelfth, further discussing the possible ramifications of the shooting and what we knew about the motives of the shooter at the time, including his cult upbringing.
On a happier note, we rebranded my podcast; the new title is Cults, Culture, and Coercion. As my followers know, while much of my content concerns cults and undue influence, I also love to cover health and positive-oriented cultural topics.
In this week’s episode of the podcast, “Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR,” I interview returning guest John Collins about Vance Boelter, the Minnesota assassin, and his connection to Branham and NAR. John is the author of the aforementioned book and webmaster of William Branham: Historical Research, who grew up in Branham’s “message” cult and has become one of the leading experts on the group. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Of course, the interview video is on our YouTube channel and embedded in the Substack post.
In next week’s episode, “Compassion Over Conversion: Continuing Science-based Research for Queer and Trans Health,” I interview Dr. Matthew Skinta, a peer-reviewed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy trainer and a certified Functional Analytic Psychotherapy trainer, who has been a writer and editor on many books surrounding topics of affirmative psychotherapy and mitigation of the effects of sexual and gender minority stress. The video of our talk is available in advance for our YouTube members, so now is an excellent time to become a YouTube channel member.
This month is traditionally Hispanic Heritage Month; due to the current political climate, several cities have scaled back, postponed, or even cancelled celebrations. I find this development disturbing; we must celebrate our diverse cultures and embrace our differences, which make us stronger as an overall community. This is only one of the many reasons that I have been translating my work into Spanish, including a downloadable Spanish language version of my Influence Continuum and BITE Model. My updated first book, Combating Cult Mind Control, has been recently published as Combatiendo el Control Mental de las Sectas.
Finally, if you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to take our newly expanded BITE Model Survey. Especially if you’ve done the study before, these are significantly shorter, and some wording has been altered for clarity. In addition, we now ask for feedback on your experience answering both the 20-question and the 40-question surveys. We aim to eventually collect enough data to create a scientifically robust model of manipulative control; we’d even like to hear from people in healthy groups. Please set aside a few minutes, visit bitemodel.com, and let us know your thoughts. And get a number on the Influence Continuum!
Radicalization, and the Minnesota Murder Cases John Collins grew up inside William Branham’s “Message” world, left it, then spent years mapping how that theology and network morphed into today’s authoritarian ecosystems. I welcomed him back to The Influence Continuum to speak about Vance Boelter’s murder of the Hortmans in Minnesota and share his knowledge surrounding the twisted networks of doctrine and influence that may have influenced them.
Read the blog post or listen to the podcast, below:
As always, please let us know what you think about these pieces or what you’d like to see us discuss in the future. Thanks so much!
Weaponized Religion, an excellent talk with John Collin’s
💙💙💙