On today's episode, I am joined by a world-renowned cult expert, Dr. Steven Hassan.

As a young college student in the 1970s, Dr. Hassan fell under the influence of the infamous

Moonies cult.

But after two years, he managed to escape and has dedicated the last 45 years developing

groundbreaking research on how to undo influence and combat cult indoctrination.

You're going to want to buckle up for this one, guys.

So without further ado, here is my conversation with Dr. Steven Hassan, and this is uncovering

the truth.

Dr. Steven Hassan, thank you so much, I'm very excited to have you on board today.

Yeah, thanks, Dash, for inviting me.

Absolutely.

Let's just get right into it.

One of the big things about your podcast, The Influence Continuum, that I took away a

greater theme that you want people to maybe perhaps stop labeling the victims of these

cult or these cult-like figures as no weak, dumb, and stupid, because that underestimates

the intentionality and the strategies and the talent of these cult leaders, whether it's

the Moonies, the Elron Hubbard, the Jim Joneses, or the far-right churches in America.

I was just curious, what are some of the perhaps most influential strategies that you see

across the board?

Well, let me take a moment, if I may, and just explain that our models that were taught

about the human mind and about influence are really out of date.

Social psychology has continued to develop science to understand unconscious biases, for

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