Cult Awareness Day

Ecstatic Integration: Cult mediation with Patrick Ryan and Joe Kelly
Can the field move beyond the 'cult wars' of the 1970s and 80s?
Jules Evans

"Patrick Ryan and Joe Kelly have worked on something called ‘cult mediation’ for the last 40 years, offering professional mediation services between families and loved ones who have joined groups or relationships which cause concern to the families. They have personal experience of such groups, having both been involved with Transcendental Meditation. I interviewed them to find out more about their work, how it’s different from cult de-programming, how groups or individuals can sometimes use psychedelics and other drugs to control members, and why and how such groups or individuals often target very wealthy people. What I learned from them is it’s useful to try and understand the attraction of such groups and what people get from them, to try and avoid the polarisation that affected the study of new religious groups / cults in the 1970s-1980s. I was also interested that they sometimes mediate with such groups, to suggest ways to reduce harm and avoid lawsuits. That is the sort of dialogue-based approach I would like to take with ‘somewhat-culty psychedelic groups’ as well. Thanks to Patrick and Joe for sharing their wisdom and experience for us."
https://www.ecstaticintegration.org/p/cult-mediation-with-patrick-ryan

How do the pros get someone to leave a cult?
Patrick Ryan and Joseph Kelly
Nic M Neves
The Guardian
November 19, 2025

When the phone rings at Patrick Ryan and Joseph Kelly’s home in Philadelphia, chances are the caller is desperate. One couple rang because their son was about to abandon his medical practice to follow a new-age guru in Spain. Another call came from a husband whose wife was emptying their life savings for a self-proclaimed prophet in Australia. Yet another family phoned about their niece, who was in a relationship with a man stealing from her, maybe drugging her, probably s*xually assaulting her.

These families had tried everything else. When nothing worked, they heard there were two men in Philadelphia who might still be able to bring their loved one home.

What Ryan and Kelly do is unusual: they help people leave cults. Over the past 40 years, they have handled hundreds of cases – some simple and local, others stretching across borders and decades. They have been hired by families of both modest and considerable means. They say they have even been hired by government agencies, and that some cults they have investigated have left them genuinely afraid for their lives.

The goal is to untangle the family dynamics that might have made someone vulnerable to a cult in the first place

Although many people are involved in cultic studies and education, fewer than 10 people in the US do anything like what Ryan and Kelly do.

How do the pros get someone to leave a cult? Manipulate them into thinking it was their idea Two of the world’s leading cult interventionists live (with their parrot) in Philadelphia. They explain the art of coaxing people out of the most pernicious groups in the world

International Cult Awareness Day
International Cult Awareness Day 2025








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November 18th is International Cult Awareness Day.

This page is run by born-in survivors of the Children of God (now known as The Family International), a notorious s*x cult wherein members of all ages were systematically and intensively abused.

As cult survivors, it is difficult to fully articulate the ongoing pain we face—often privately, often silently. Recovery is often a lonely struggle: reclaiming a life never known, unlearning, unearthing, unshackling again and again. Navigating the lasting and sometimes permanent impacts of neglect, exploitation, and abuse. This is the reality for many cult survivors, of all walks.

Yet not all groups are cults. In a time when the word "cult" is increasingly being reduced to a benign buzzword by misuse and misapplication, it is crucial to understand what cults truly are and their profound, life-altering harm. To listen to cult survivors asking you not to trivialize our pain and experiences, not to make it even harder for us to speak out. Mislabeling everything a cult harms both survivors and the public.

We stand with cult survivors everywhere. We hold space for the lives lost, for the souls scarred, for the manifold traumas. To fellow cult survivors, please know: You are not alone. You are worthy.