Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of the influence continuum.

My guest today is connecting with me from Portugal, and I'm excited to do another podcast on the Jehovah's Witness group.

It's a group that I am embarrassed to say when I first wrote combating

called Mind Control in 1988, I didn't mention them at all,

which may have been a good thing in retrospect, but I didn't mention them. And I started

getting letters, way back when there was no internet, by the way. And I started getting letters

from former members, former elders of the Watchtower Society, Jehovah's Witnesses. We loved your book.

How come you didn't mention us?

And I said, why should I have mentioned the Jehovah's Witnesses?

And in particular, Randall Waters, who was Bethel Elder, head of publication, said,

are you kidding me?

I underlined the entire book. And I went, oh,

teach me. He said, come to Los Angeles. I'll bring you all of, you know, these ex-members and

will teach you, and you'll do a workshop with us. And I did. And it's, I've learned more and more and

more over the years about this group that was

started in the 1800s. We'll get into that, but let me introduce you and your book in Portuguese,

which is very exciting to me. So Antonio Madaleno was born in Lisbon in 1973 and was raised at JW, a Jehovah's Witness. After abandoning the

cult, he entered the psychology of the Autonomous University of Lisbon. As a student, he participated in

writing the article, the psychology of sects and groups that use destructive

social influence and its impact on its lives of its members, which was considered for publication

in the college magazine, Psyche. Over the years, he's written many online articles about the

doctrines and practices of the Jehovah's Witnesses,

...