Newsletter: Standing Up for Justice and Making Our Voices Heard
On Keeping Our Minds Healthy and Resilient
This week’s livestream will be tomorrow, Wednesday, May 28th, at 1-2 p.m. EDT. 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.
Today, I recorded a podcast with Monte Mader. She attended Falwell’s Liberty University and has been deconstructing the beliefs she was indoctrinated to accept for years. She is a talented singer/songwriter and social activist, and we had an excellent and thought-provoking discussion. She has agreed to be on my podcast in the near future! Today, I proposed that we record her role-playing as her younger “cult self,” and I could describe and possibly demonstrate some of the techniques I use to empower people to do reality tests.
Yesterday, I participated in a live Substack with Lev Parnas; His cousin, Oleksandr Bolbirer, the Voice From Ukraine, participated too. If you don’t know who Lev is, he was part of the Cult of Trump, and was sent to Ukraine with Rudy Guiliniani to find dirt on the Bidens. Rachel Maddow produced a documentary, “From Russia with Lev” which is worth watching. We discussed Memorial Day, the latest breaking news, including Russia’s escalating attacks on Ukraine. We also discussed Donald Trump’s mental capacity and his comments about Putin and Zelensky.
This past weekend, I was honored to be invited to participate in an online interview by artist Ian Bruce, and he painted pictures of Trump and Musk. It was called “We Need To Talk About Elon,” and it was a fundraiser for Free Our Feeds, a campaign to keep social media open, people-powered, and billionaire-proof. His team plans to make a podcast series to align with the exhibition of paintings done during these talks; I will keep you posted.
I was quoted in a recent article on AlterNet called ‘Peak narcissism’: Veterans blast Trump for ‘hijacking’ military holiday for his birthday, where I spoke about how Trump’s plans for a parade on the 250th anniversary of the United States Army is not about any purported respect for our brave soldiers, but instead to distract from harm, suppress dissent, and demand loyalty.
In this week’s episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum, “Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World,” I spoke with award-winning journalist and author Elle Hardy, whose book of the aforementioned title chronicles the fastest-growing religion in the world. You can listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
In next week’s episode, “The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains,” I will speak with Dr. Robert H. Lustig, whose book of that title explores the corporate structure propping up the toxic addictions sapping our public health and destroying our planet.
There’s been a lot of “buzz” about the latest Mission Impossible movie; I’ve just done a two-part Instagram Live explaining why I boycott Tom Cruise movies because he is Scientology’s most prominent recruiter. Scientology is an authoritarian cult. I wanted to explain how they attacked me, Paulette Cooper, and all critics to undermine our free speech. Their infamous “fair game” policy has been deployed against my friend Jon Atack and many other whistleblowers. Here are parts one and two.
My May blog post in Psychology Today, “Lessons in Heroic Resistance,” focuses on practicing independent thought to build the courage needed for significant acts of defiance. I look at the Asch Conformity Study and its broader implications for speaking up against injustice and authoritarianism. The Psychology Today team has just made it an “Essential Read,” so be sure to check it out!
My friend and colleague, Dr. Steven Moffic, attended the American Psychiatric Association conference and found out that the social psychiatry textbooks he has helped edit are selling very well. I did chapters on Islamophobia and Psychiatry with Ahmed Hankir MD, and chapters on Anti-Semitism and Psychiatry and Eastern Religious cults with Jon Atack.
We are moving closer to an exciting new development on my YouTube channel to offer premium, member-only content; we will announce that very soon, so watch this space!
In this episode of Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum, I discussed the steady rise of Pentecostal Christianity with award-winning journalist and author Elle Hardy. Her 2022 book, Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World, details how the charismatic movement has become a global phenomenon, with currently (2025) an estimated 900 million followers worldwide.
Read the blog post or listen to the podcast, below:
You’re in a room, participating in what you were told is a visual perception experiment, and everyone around you insists that two unequal lines are the same length. You feel confused, sick, and embarrassed. Everybody looks at you, the last person to give an answer, to see what you say. Would you go along with the group, or would you resist?
Most people caved to social pressure, agreeing with what they knew was wrong. But a remarkable few did not. These “heroic resistors” defied the pressure to conform. Their stories hold powerful lessons for us today, in an era when authoritarianism and undue influence are on the rise.
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!
