Wellspring Helping Ex-Members
More than 600 former members of cultic
groups have gone through the Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center's
rehabilitation program since 1986, the year that psychologist Dr. Paul
Martin founded the institution in Albany, Ohio. Wellspring officials say
that fewer than one percent of those who have gone through the program,
which averages about two weeks, have rejoined a cult. Wellspring is not in
the business of liberating people from cults. They wait until prospective
clients call them.
To deal
with the claim that cultic groups are simply new religions that are
unjustly criticized, Wellspring counselors teach clients how to recognize
cult and the mind-controlling techniques used to lure new members and keep
them.
Priscilla
Coates, the director of the Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation, a national
group that studies cults, said that Wellspring is an important and unique
tool for helping cult members return to normal life. "A woman called me
not too long ago and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder
from a Florida cult she left three years ago. She could not get it out of
her head." I got in touch with Wellspring and she went there. She recently
called and said that she can cope after spending two weeks at Wellspring."
There were
three former members at Wellspring [when the reporter visited]: one, a
former member of the trendy Kabbalah Center, which combines new age
thought with ancient Hebrew Mysticism and includes high-profile members
like Madonna; the second was fresh from The Twelve Tribes; and the third
was from an undisclosed cult that employed mind control. The three were
learning about mind-control techniques and how their lives and freedoms
were co-opted in the name of religion. They spent two hours a day in
private therapy and met as a group in workshops and other therapy
sessions. Most importantly, they learned that they had something that was
in short supply in the cults—freedom.
At
Wellspring, the clients are in control, which is "a very important part of
people's lives," said Liz Shaw, the "cult survivor advocate" at
Wellspring. "We want the people who come here to know that they are in
control. They can do whatever they want, leave whenever they want. We
encourage them to go to town and see a movie, go shopping, walk through
the woods."
"We treat
people recovering from trauma inflicted by someone else's selfishness,"
said Wellspring counselor Ron Burks. "Yet they often blame themselves,
since no one physically forced them to join a cult. These are the kinds of
hurt that time alone will not heal." He said that it's hard for them to
accept that they were duped. They had lived a very structured life,
comforted by the belief that God himself was the architect. When they
realize it was all a sham, they are devastated. "We pick up the pieces,"
Burks said. "They've made the big choice to leave. We help them move on."
A basic
two-week Wellspring program costs $5,000, and one of the facility's
employees works full-time to help prospective clients pay for it. (Michael
Sangiacomo, Cleveland Plain Dealer,12/23/01, Internet)
News summaries