Cult Survivors Handbook:
How to Live in the Material World Again
by Nori Muster
Now available as a paperback through Blurb.com -
BOOK PREVIEW:
Cult Survivors Handbook:
How to Live in the
Material World Again
by Nori Muster
norimuster.com
Table of Contents
Preface to the Paperback Edition
I. Family Therapy
II. Abuse Recovery
III. Depth Psychology
IV: The Twelve Steps
V: Mind-Body Healing
VI: Art Therapy and Gestalt
VII: Post-Cult Spirituality
Bibliography
About the Author
Preface to the Paperback Edition
It is a welcome chore to prepare this book for the paperback edition by Blurb.com. The first publication of Cult Survivors Handbook: How to Live in the Material World Again was exactly ten years ago by Surrealist.org in 2000.
In 1997, I published my first book, Betrayal of the Spirit (University of Illinois Press, 1997). When it came out, my editor Elizabeth Dulany asked me to write a book about the children of cults. Soon after that I met literary agent Joel Gotler, who convinced me to write a recovery book for excult members. While the children of cults book has taken twelve years so far, I finished Cult Survivors Handbook in only a year with the help of my editorial team, and I would like to thank the editors once again:
Farra Swan, N.D., naturopathic physician in private practice in Tempe, Arizona, and adjunct professor at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and Health Sciences.
Linda B. Spencer, Ph.D., artist, and author of Heal Abuse and Trauma Through Art.
Margo Shapiro, a personal friend and M.F.C.C. counselor in Los Angeles.
Steven Hassan M.Ed., LMHC, freedomofmind.com, author of Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves and Combatting Cult Mind Control.
Jane Wingle, a family therapist and freelance travel writer in Colorado; a friend from the Society for American Travel Writers (SATW).
Alma Bella Maglaya, a personal friend, counselor, and acupuncturist in Los Angeles.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to my thesis committee at Western Oregon University: Dr. Victor Savicki, Dr. Merle Kelley, and Dr. Stephen Gibbons. Graduate school was the first phase of my recovery, where I learned about family therapy, and the other modalities I cover in this Handbook.
I learned about art therapy through the Marylhurst University extension workshops. Two of the instructors who made the greatest impression on me were gestalt art therapist Dr. Janie Rhyne and psychotherapist David L. Calof, D.A.P.A.
I also owe apologies to the staff at Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility, where I started out as an art therapy teacher. The staff did not want the children to draw pictures of guns, knives, or skulls, but I let them draw whatever they wanted. I was a rebel in the field, always ready to take the children's side. The students and I did a lot of artwork together. We also used to play chess, and I recall coming into the ward one day, and the boys told me that the Gulf War had started. We talked, played chess, and drew pictures with the news running in the background.
The staff wanted me to be more structured in the art classes, so I developed my four-phase treatment plan, and that became the basis of my thesis. Each of the four phases provided justification to continue to be unstructured.
At times in the last twenty years, graduate students have contacted me for permission to replicate my study. Finally last year, I unearthed the missing parts of my thesis, the pages with graphs that had been stored in an obsolete software format, and posted the whole thing on my website: norimuster.com/writing/ thesis.html
It still seems controversial, but I have met at least a few researchers who think like I do. We subscribe to humanist, nondirective creative art therapy, based on the writings of Virginia Mae Axline (1911-1988). Dr. Axline was ahead of her time and a genius. I discuss her work at more length in chapter VI of this book and in my thesis.
For those in need of healing, Cult Survivors Handbook describes seven relevant counseling modalities:
I. Family Therapy - systems theory as it applies to the cult family.
II. Abuse Recovery - read this chapter if you are a sexual abuse survivor.
III. Depth Psychology - Jungian therapy to heal spiritual abuse.
IV: The Twelve Steps - recovery from the shady side of cult membership.
V: Mind-Body Healing - overcome depression after the cult.
VI: Art Therapy and Gestalt - alternative therapies for cult survivors.
VII: Post-Cult Spirituality - my notes on keeping the good parts of an experience, while letting go of parts that didn't work.
Most of the supporting documents date back to the 1990's, and since these resources may seem obscure now, I have added notes to draw attention to books in the bibliography that I believe are worthwhile classics. The writings of Alice Miller in particular, for me, are still the final word on sexual abuse recovery. Since 2000, I have kept up on the literature and her books still rise above the rest.
Much has happened since this book was first published. The twentieth century seems like an innocent time compared to all that we have gone through in the 00's. The events of 9/11 and the echoes that followed have stripped away our innocence and left many people jaded and angry at life. Thousands of new cults have sprung up to harvest people's frustrations, but they remain as mysterious as ever. Thus, there is a continued urgent need to study cults and assist people who are ready to leave their cults.
I write this book partly from my own experience, because I was in a dangerous group for ten years (1978-1988). My group was ISKCON, which is an acronym for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Consciousness. After leaving, I published my memoir, Betrayal of the Spirit: My Life behind the Headlines of the Hare Krishna Movement (University of Illinois Press, 1997). My research began with that book and continues. A colleague and former member of ISKCON recently said of my book:
"Her Betrayal of the Spirit was accepted among many ex Hare Krishna devotees worldwide as a mind-opening narrative and has helped thousands of individuals regain their individuality, sobriety and strength."
I carry on with my life, writing books, but also as a real estate instructor and real estate agent in the State of Arizona. The people in ISKCON were not all fond of my book, but the ex-members, out-members, and under-represented members loved it, and it was a story that had to be told.
Times have changed since the first publication of this Handbook, but in preparing it for the paperback, I noticed that I had also changed. In 2008 I passed a significant landmark, in that I had joined my group in 1978, left in 1988, and then stopped being a fringie in 1998 (in ISKCON, fringie meant an exmember who hangs around). When I originally wrote this book in 2000, I had barely weaned myself off of the group, but now it is an object way back in the rearview mirror of my life. It is a somewhat nostalgic, somewhat regret-ridden part of my youth now.
Fortunately for me, I am blessed with dear friends I have met along the way, going back to some who are like brothers and sisters to me because we have known each other so long. Old friends reflecting back with me helped me untangle the webs that had formed over me in the group. Real friends see us go through the ups and downs of life, and we see them go through theirs. Therefore I would like to thank my old friends for sticking with me, even though I ran off and joined a crazy cult for ten years. Please forgive me. I love you. Your tolerance and love have helped me through the decades more than you know.
- Nori Muster
April 10, 2010
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