The Decult Conference was held in Otautahi / Christchurch New Zealand as a two-day symposium dedicated to addressing the pressing issues surrounding cults and coercive control. This unique gathering had 570 attendees and 40 speakers, featuring local and international experts, academics, authors, researchers, victim advocates, and mental health specialists. As organisers, we aimed to meet the acute and long-term needs of cult survivors by providing support, education, empowerment, and visibility.
Resources
- Media Advisory (Save the Date) release
- Conference programme
- Decult in the media
- Speakers
- Survivors
- Advocates
- FAQ
Key Messages
- An estimated 50,000 New Zealanders are or have been in high demand groups.
- Decult 2024 is the first New Zealand conference of its kind. The two-day symposium is dedicated to addressing pressing issues surrounding cults and coercive control.
- Decult’s mission is to highlight the long-term harm and exploitation caused by cults, which disproportionately affects vulnerable communities through emotional, sexual, and spiritual abuse.
- Decult gives cult survivors a voice and brings together experts to assist professionals across health, education, government, law, and first response agencies to offer better support and prevent cultic harm.
- Decult will create resources, campaigns and workshops to help connect marginalised community members safely with allies, victim advocates and counselling professionals.
- In contrast to other Western countries, New Zealand lacks a secular government funded agency dedicated to supporting individuals leaving cults and preventing cult recruitment. The Decult Conference aims to fill this gap by connecting professionals and advocacy groups who are committed to offering these crucial services.
Conference Topics
- Survivor-focused cult reporting
- Health neglect in cults
- LGBTQIA+ cult survivors
- Disinformation and online radicalisation
- Discussions and stories from survivors of cults such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gloriavale, The Children of God, Centrepoint, Exclusive Brethren (PBCC), The Truth/2x2s, ISTA (International School of Temple Arts), Shincheonji, and the IBLP (Bill Gothard)
International expert speakers:
- KEYNOTE Dr Janja Lalich: Professor Emerita of Sociology and international authority on cults
- KEYNOTE Dr Gillie Jenkinson: Award-winning psychotherapist and specialist in cult trauma recovery
- KEYNOTE Ulrike Schiesser: Psychologist and psychotherapist, head of the Federal Office for Cult Affairs in Vienna.
Survivors and participants on Decult
“This conference will bring to the surface what has been hidden from the general public about what a cult is, how to identify them and how to support survivors of them.”
-Luke Hollis (ex-Jehovah’s Witness) in Your Ex magazine
“I’m excited to meet people at Decult with similar yet different experiences to me. Gloriavale hides behind religion but has the same flavour as the next cult.”
-Pearl Valor (ex-Gloriavale) in Woman’s Day
“I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with other survivors. It’s all about reclaiming yourself.”
-Rachel Lees (ex-IBLP) on RNZ
“I couldn’t figure out how to leave. By then I had lost everybody on the outside. I had no friends, I had no money, I had nowhere to go, and I was brainwashed.”
-Dr Janja Lalich, US expert and Decult 2024 keynote speaker, on TVNZ
“It’s not safe to admit that you were in a cult. Once we stop being a caricature and become human, then people can start to feel compassion and understanding.”
-Dr Caroline Ansley (ex-Centrepoint) on RNZ
Helpful Guidelines for Cult Reporting
The experiences of cult survivors are nuanced and unique, and accurate and mindful cult reporting requires a level of sensitivity and understanding. Please consider the following when reporting on high-demand groups.
- There are different terms used for cults. While the term ‘new religious movement’ is used in some circles, this is not widely accepted as accurate or appropriate.
- Many cult survivors have lived isolated from the world outside their community, without an understanding of the media, which leaves them especially vulnerable to exploitation. Extra care and legal safety should be taken to keep this in consideration.
- Many cult survivors have suffered abuse, lost their sense of self and are still learning to assert themselves and trust others. Being in control of the narrative is essential to them.
- Abuses within cults are diverse and multi-layered depending on the particular cult. It is important to research the cult you are reporting on and to not assume that all cults are similar.
- Avoid making the strange rituals, beliefs or cult leaders the focus but instead the lived experience and psychological complexity shared by the survivors.
Definitions and Acronyms
Here are some words and abbreviations you might hear during the Decult 2024 conference.
- Coercive control: A pattern of controlling and manipulative behaviours
- Co-occurrence – when an individual is in two or more coercively controlling settings at one time. That could be a ‘one-on-one cult’ ie abusive relationship and a cultic group.
- Cult hopping: Ending up in another cult after leaving one (a common phenomenon) also known as recidivism.
- DARVO: An acronym describing how perpetrators may respond to being held accountable for their behaviour, standing for ‘Deny, Attack and Reverse Victim & Offender’, is also seen in other society groups – aside from high demand groups.
- High-demand group: Better terms for the word ‘cult’. High-control group and high-cost group are two others
- Mandated shunning: Isolating an individual through exclusion, specifically prescribed by the group as a required behaviour of its members
- MGA: Multi-Generation Adults (people born into cultic groups)
- NRM: New Religious Movements (a controversial term for cults used in cultic studies)
- PIMO: A person who is Physically In but Mentally Out (still being part of a group but not ideologically)
- POMI: A person who is Physically Out but Mentally In (having left a group but still in their ideology)
- SGA: Second Generation Adults (people born or raised by parents who joined cultic groups) also refers to families of second and third … generations.
- Spiritual abuse: Using spiritual or religious beliefs to hurt, scare or control someone
