as mental disorder, 151,182, 187
mental health profession, attitude to, 86-88
physical repercussions of, 23-24, 145
of psychiatrists, 93
in psychodrama, 168
in rituals, 138-39
sudden onset of, 13, 16, 197
susceptibility to, 17, 184, 217
television, contribution to, 190
transitory "highs," difference from, 134
solicitation, in street encounters, 29, 164
South Korean Central Intelligence Agency, 36
"speaking in tongues," 42-44, 48-49.
See also Evangelicalism
history of, 42
as silent chant, 179
as surrogate for thinking, 170, 179
"spread functions," 120, 122
Stevens, L. Clark, 25-26
Stoen, Grace, 231, 234, 236, 239-41, 244-45, 246
street encounters, cult solicitation in, 164
stresses, use of in conversions, 104.
See also food and sleep deprivation, effects of
Sufism, 37, 101
Sunday, Billy, 41
Sun Myung Moon, 29, 35, 50, 180, 218.
See also Unification Church
quoted on establishment of a world theocracy, 249
quoted on death of Church's opponents, 249
Susan Atkins: Child of Satan -- Child of God (Atkins), 198-99
Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), 12, 194, 206-11
Synanon, 228, 248
and rattlesnake attack on Los Angeles attorney, 228, 248
Tantra Yoga, 173
Tate, Sharon, 194, 199
Tate-LaBianca murders.
See Manson family murders
television, effects of, 190-91
T-groups.
See encounter groups
thinking
cult impairment of, 56, 65, 72, 154, 170-71,176-81
escapes from, 188, 190
Thom, René, 141,143,48
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism (Lifton), 100
TM.
See Transcendental Meditation
Toffler, Alvin, 184
Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation, 28, 247
Training Regimen Zero.
See Scientology
trance therapy, 144
Transcendental Meditation (TM), 171-76
costs of, 171,218-19
levitation courses, 218
mass marketing of, 56
prevalence of, 16
stress relieved by, 21, 171
and World Government of the Age of Enlightenment, 251
Unification Church, 28-36, 50, 84-85, 99, 158
and Catholicism, 31
"centering," 180
clandestine activities of, 35-36
exclusivity of, 180
founding of, 35
fund raising of, 34, 36, 181
mass marketing of, 56
potential for criminal and/or violent action, 247-48, 249
prevalence of, 16
and report of House Subcommittee on International Relations, 227-28
separation from parents, 32
and sexuality, 31
spouses, separation of, 33
Van Houten, Leslie, 196, 198-206, 209, 212, 214, 217
vision.
See also eyes
neurophysiology of, 113
peripheral, 101, 159
voice, changes in, 159
Vonnegut, Kurt, 122
Watts, Alan, 53
Way, the, 16, 28, 179, 248-49
Way of Zen, The (Watts); 53
Weaver, Dr. Warren, 110
Wiener, Norbert, 110-11,115, 152-54
"witnessing," 42.
See also Evangelicalism
Wolfe, Tom, 56
women, subservient role of
in Hare Krishna, 145, 157-58
in Love Family, 157-58
in Unification Church, 33
Zeeman, E. Christopher, 143-44, 148
Zen Buddhism, 25, 38, 53, 171
Zoroastrianism, 38
"Their book is judicious, sensible, well-researched and very frightening."
-- New York Times
"Hare Krishna chanters, est graduates, Moonies, Born Again converts
. . . Charles Colson, Eldridge Cleaver, Patty Hearst, "Son of Sam" --
What can they all have in common?
The answer is "snapping" -- the term Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman use to
describe the sudden, drastic alteration of personality that has become an
American phenomenon in the past decade and is spreading fast. Snapping is
visible among the religious-cult members, today's popular self-improvement
mass therapies, and even within the vast Evangelical movement. The authors
point out that mind-elterlnd techniques employed by these groups tamper
with the kind and quality of information fed to the brain -- through
isolation, repetition of chants, monotonous music, intimate touching,
lack of sleep, physical duress, and fatigue. All of these tactics
seriously affect the brain's ability to process information and may
result in impaired awareness, irrattonaltty, disorientation, delusion,
even violently destructive acts. The most horrifying example of this
potential -- the People's Temple massacre of November 1978 -- provides
the core of a special postscript to this edition that calls for ways to
control this very real and present threat to the future mental health
of our society.
"SNAPPING is by far the best and most scientific treatment of the
cult problem yet published. For the scientist, politician, clergy or
parent, it is valuable and wonderfully readable."
-- John G. Clark, M.D.
Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
"The authors have given their readers a most profound and important
book. . . . Superior!"
-- West Coast Review of Books
"SNAPPING is an exciting and responsible and original piece of
research which has taught this old poop amazing new ways to
think about the human mind."
-- Kurt Vonnegut
Flo Conway was graduated from the University of New Mexico and completed
her master's and doctoral work at the University of Oregon, where she
pioneered one of the first interdisciplinary programs in communication,
drawing on the social Sciences, cybernetics, system theory, end
theoretical biology.
Jim Siegelman was graduated from Harvard with honors and was awarded
the Fiske Feitowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. His articles have
appeared in New Times, Playboy, Harper's Weekly, and a national
newspaper syndicate.
Cover design copyright © 1979 by John Clarke
DELL PUBLISHING CO., INC.
0-440-57970-8 PRINTED IN U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Figure 1
Figure 2
Snapping Page 41