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

And wow, am I excited about this guest, Dr. John DeLynn.

I'm going to tell you a little bit more about him and then we'll jump in.

But I want to say first, John, that you reached out to me to be a guest on your podcast, Mormon Stories podcast.

And at first, I was like, I had done a lot with fundamentalist Latter-day Saints.

And I was like, do I really want to be on the Mormon Stories podcast?

And you sent me a link to the New York Times front page story where you were excommunicated

from the LDS Church. And I, you know, you were thrown out because you spoke out as a mental

health professional for gay rights

and the suicide problem in the LDS church.

And they didn't like that you were raising these difficult questions.

In any case, I said, John, I'll do your thing, but would you mind reading combating cult mind

control first?

And you said, sure.

And I'll never forget it.

Two days later, you emailed me, Steve, your book's blowing my mind.

And then the next thing that happened was you had a color coded byte model analysis,

which I had never thought to ask people to color code. And I was like,

wow, what a great idea, John, thanks. So kudos to you. But I've been an admirer of your courage.

You're a whistleblower. You're an activist. You've helped countless people to realize there's a whole other side to this

organization. If I'm remembering correctly, John, your sixth generation. That's right.

Nice. Good memory. Good memory. Yep. Sixth generation. Okay, I'm going to read your bio and then we'll

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