Why I
Wrote "Cult"
by Warren Adler
When John
Walker's mother was told of her son's involvement with Al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan, her first reaction was that he had been brainwashed. It is a
reaction typical of someone whose loved one has been captured by a cult. The
cult phenomenon and the concept of brainwashing usually go hand in hand. It is
difficult to understand one without the other. Indeed, how can one possibly
comprehend why a human being would be willing to deliberately kill himself and
innocent people for a cause based on hearsay and a dubious logic promoted by a
self-appointed guru whose only credibility lies in his unique powers of
persuasion? My novel "Cult"
comes out of long experience studying the cult phenomenon since the sixties
when the media first directed its attention to the subject. Stories of young
people captured by cult groups, rescue attempts by parents, lawsuits,
deprogramming, and investigative reports of cult manipulated businesses and
bizarre practices became daily fare in the media.
Like the
loving husband in my novel who attempts to rescue his wife from a cult, I have
known many a parent, a sibling, or spouse who have made similar attempts; some
successful, some not. Each attempt is a horror story in itself - painful,
agonizing and profoundly disturbing, largely because the laws are often more
protective of the cult leaders than they are of the rights of victims and the
families involved.
The
character of Naomi in my novel is, unfortunately, all too typical of many
people who are ill informed about cults and their methods. She doubts that
brainwashing actually exists and is a firm believer in free choice. She joins
her old lover on his rescue mission with a healthy dose of skepticism, but she
soon comes to see the truth about cults and their destructive power. Her
mental journey offers some telling insights into the ignorance most people
have about cults as she learns of their corrosive appeal to the unsuspecting
innocents who fall into their clutches. The searing memory of Jonestown, where
nearly a thousand people ingested poisonous Kool-Aid on the premise promoted
by their twisted leader Jim Jones that they would pass over into a better
world, offers a glaring example of what now seems a common and repetitive
occurrence. We have seen similar death cults like the one run by David Koresh
in Waco, the Hale-Bopp suicides, the cult inspired mass-suicides in France and
Africa and, of course, the Islamic terrorist cells, run by sinister fanatics
who cynically exploit a mainstream religion for their nefarious purposes.
Because
the media no longer focuses much attention on the horrors of domestic cults
they have seemed to disappear from the scene. Not so. There are actually more
than 3,000 groups that could be classified as cults in the United States
alone. And they all follow a similar pattern: they recruit and prey on young,
confused or otherwise alienated people, then through devious and calculated
methods of persuasion, brainwash them into doing the cult leader's bidding.
The goals of these evil manipulators are the acquisition of power and money,
sentencing their poor unsuspecting victims to a lifetime of mental slavery.
One only
has to browse the internet to find anti-cult websites by the thousands,
created by distraught people whose loved ones have disappeared into the
oblivion of the cult world, their lives wasted in the service of cynical
leaders. Unfortunately, many of these cults are able to hide behind the legal
veil of faux religions. Indeed, it is quite easy to create a religion in the
United States and apply to the IRS for tax avoidance.
For many
years, mainstream publishers, for whatever reason, have shied away from the
subject of cults. My new novel is not a polemic, but a suspenseful story of
characters that undergo the traumatic horrors entailed in trying to rescue a
loved one from a ruined life in an evil cult. I am hopeful that the novel will
give readers a better understanding into the twisted machinations of those who
gave up their own lives while murdering thousands of innocent people for the
dubious privilege of entering a fictional paradise studded with black-eyed
virgins, a grossly absurd premise, which would be laughable if it hadn't
destroyed so many lives.
Author of
"The War of the Roses" journeys into the dark heart of evil with...
