Welcome to indoctrination, a weekly conversation series about protecting yourself from systems of control.

I'm your host, Rachel Bernstein.

Hi, everybody. As some of you may know, over the past couple of years, I've done several

webinars and video lectures on a variety of topics

that also come up on this podcast. There is unfortunately a lack of qualified therapists who

specialize in working with cult survivors and their concerned family members. And since I can only

see a finite number of clients myself, I wanted to share insights from my 30-plus years of doing

this work with as many people as possible. So, in pursuit of that goal, I've made all of my

recent video lectures available on my website, rachel Bernsteintherapy.com. You can find a link to the

page in the show notes of this episode.

There you'll find my lecture from the most recent conference of the International

Cultic Studies Association, my quote, living in freedom, unquote, series for survivors

and their family members, and my recent lecture entitled, Why Did I Stay?

Which examines the many reasons that people have

difficulty leaving high control groups. We plan on adding more video lectures in the near future,

so if you have topics you'd like to hear me cover, please feel free to reach out to us and make

suggestions.

Today on the show, it is my pleasure to introduce to you Dr. John Hunter.

He is a South African researcher and lecturer based in Johannesburg.

His interest in large group awareness trainings and their impact on mood and psychosis is grounded in his personal experience of bipolar disorder

and his participation in an Elgat, large group awareness training, in 2010. In 2017, he completed a PhD in psychology,

proposing a neurobiological explanation for the relationship between Elgat conditions and

...