On Monday, August 21, 2006, a UK station aired the Cutting Edge: Cult Killer–a program exploring how one man’s abuse in a destructive cult culminated in a murder-suicide. That man was 29 year-old Richard Peter Rodriguez and the cult was the Children of God, founded by David Brandt Berg in 1968.
“Every era has its dangerous ideas. For millennia, the monotheistic religions have persecuted countless heresies, together with nuisances from science such as geocentrism, biblical archeology, and the theory of evolution. We can be thankful that the punishments have changed from torture and mutilation to the canceling of grants and the writing of vituperative reviews. But intellectual intimidation, whether by sword or by pen, inevitably shapes the ideas that are taken seriously in a given era, and the rear-view mirror of history presents us with a warning.” — Steven Pinker, 2007
If you were to walk up to any stranger and ask if they could detect a lie, there is a high probability that you would receive an affirmative answer. Research however indicates that our ability to detect a lie is no better than chance. Still, we persist and in a sense the criminal justice system reflects just how tenaciously we hold to this mythological belief.
The field of forensic psychology is generally about psychology and the legal system. There is however one area of which few may be aware. Forensic psychologist also consult in domains that have an international impact. Take the war on terrorism, for example.
The Finders is another one of those new age cults whose history dates back to the late-1960s. Yes, starting cults was quite the “thang” back then. The thing is, there are a ton of them out there–more than most of you might realize. Of course, not every self-proclaimed group is necessarily a cult.
While the United States was introduced to ritual murders via cult dabblers, and basically, rather psychotically sociopathic individuals, beginning in the 1960s, it was not until the early 1980s that allegations of ritual murder began to evolve, indicating that a far more sinister plot might be afoot.
Ruben Bolling may have been on to something…
In his book, “The Sacred Executioner,” Hyam Maccoby notes:
“A figure in mythology that has received little attention is that of the Sacred Executioner. […] By taking the blame for the slaying, he is performing a great service to society, for not only does he perform the deed, but he takes upon himself the blame for it, and thus absolves society as a whole completely from the guilt of a slaying for which they, in fact, are responsible and by which, in theory at least, they benefit.” (Maccoby, 1982, p 7-8)
On Wednesday, April 13, 2006, 10-year-old Jamie Rose Bolin was reported missing by her father. Investigators thought she may have been abducted by someone she met online. Oklahoma law enforcement suspected her abductor might be heading just across the border to Texas and requested Texas issue an Amber alert.
Childhood is deemed by our society to be the age of innocence–free from the adult burdens of working to meet physical and psychological needs. Optimistically, a child need not worry about whether they will have shelter, where their next meal will come from, whether or not they are loved. Or safe, for that matter.
While non-verbal cues can come into play when observing social interaction, words are the very essence of human communication. With words, we can paint pictures of our subjective experience, share intimate and not so intimate information with others, identify common interests, provide consolation, and even entertainment.
Instead of spending the weekend in my usual code warrior mode, I spent it discussing various obscurities with visitors. Among these was the subject of time. I had made an offhanded comment that time does not move, in fact, does not exist, to which my visitors proclaimed, “But of course it does!”
When the first murmurings of recovering memories of childhood sexual abuse appeared society was gripped in an almost religious fervor. Hardly a day went by when at least one talk show had a guest who claimed to have been sexually abused or yet another celebrity went public about their sexual abuse as a child.
In his book, “Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists,” Colin A. Ross, M.D., past President of the ISSD,[1] FMSF member,[2] and author of several books[3] and over 100 scientific papers, offers answers to what many have asserted for years.
