meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Within Reason

#112 Rick Alan Ross - Do Cult Leaders Believe Their Own Lies?

Within Reason

Alex O'Connor

Religion, Morality, Ethics, Society & Culture, Cosmicskeptic, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy

4.91.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2025

⏱️ 116 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Rick Alan Ross is an American deprogrammer, cult specialist, and founder and executive director of the non-profit Cult Education Institute. Frequently appearing in the news and other media, discussing groups some consider cults. Ross has intervened in more than 500 deprogramming cases in various countries. (Wikipedia) Get Rick's book, "Cults Inside Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out" here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I had the absolute pleasure of speaking to Pamela Anderson.

0:04.2

All thanks to the Dove Self-Eesteem Project.

0:07.1

We speak about the impact Y2K has had on women's body confidence and how Pamela has regained control.

0:12.9

The Dove Self-Esteen project is an amazing initiative supported by science-backed methodology

0:17.8

to help us improve our relationship with our bodies.

0:20.8

To find more

0:21.5

body confidence-building exercises, go to dove.com forward slash Y2K. That's Y2K-Selt W-H-Y-2K.

0:30.1

Is there any such thing as a cult that isn't bad? Oh, yeah, sure. There can be a group that has a charismatic leader

0:41.8

who has great power and authority,

0:44.5

but is relatively benign.

0:47.3

And there have been a number of groups like that.

0:49.7

The one that I would use as an example

0:52.9

would be Arcosante, the organization that followed and continues to follow the teachings of the architect Palosileri.

1:04.0

His philosophy was called archaeology.

1:07.3

They had an intentional community north of Phoenix in the desert where they were building Arcosante, this experimental city.

1:18.6

But Salary was a relatively benign leader.

1:23.6

There were later allegations regarding sexual abuse of his daughter, but that was within the

1:31.4

family. As far as getting complaints about members leaving the group, feeling they couldn't

1:37.5

leave the group, that they were being coerced to stay, that never appeared in my work.

1:45.0

So I think he was a fairly benign leader and it was a benign organization.

1:50.0

He's now dead and the foundation continues.

1:55.0

Yeah, I think people might be surprised to hear you say something like that because

...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 8 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Alex O'Connor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Alex O'Connor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.