Oct. '03 - AFF Conference in Conn.

from GoldenMic - Thursday, October 30, 2003
accessed 1393 times

A review of the second 2003 conference of the American Family Foundation, held in October, 2003 near Hartford, Connecticut.

The second 2003 conference of the American Family Foundation was held in October, 2003 near Hartford, Connecticut. There was a very powerful and moving pre-conference session for exCultites, and many excellent presentations. I met up with a couple of exFamily members there, and we agreed that the information and discussions were helpful and informative. There were even some cult-apologists along for the ride, sociologists who tried to explain why cults are simply New Religions with unfortunate and mostly minor MISTAKES. I continue to be surprised and sickened by the way that apologists and the un-informed consistently tend to view the stories of exCultites with suspicion and skepticism. What's amazing is how the stories are always watered-down so they will be believable, since NOBODY who hasn't lived through it would believe the raw truth.

One interesting session was about a succsessful lawsuit against a self-help cult, and provided solid ideas about how to proceed in legal actions against cults. Steven Hassan also made a great presentation about the dynamics of cult mind-control, and discussed his BITE model. There were also many impromptu discussions among the participants, sharing our experiences and being amazed at how eerily similar each person's experiences were; the thought-stopping, the code words, the incredable abuse and neglect, the sense that - OUR group thought that only WE had the truth - , and the dictatorial control by exploitive leaders.

Anyway, this was a conference where one could feel validated and understood, and where valuable information was given regarding cults and cult-abuses. I STRONGLY recommend these conferences for all of us exCultites. The next one is in Edmonton, Canada, June 11-12, 2004, and you can get more information at aff@affcultinfoserve.com. Mike Martella.