Joe Szimhart: consultant/artist

Cult activity and formation are complex social and relational phenomena with long and deep roots in human behavior and history.

Systems and rituals of devotion directed at gods, persons, ideas or objects have influenced families, tribes, religions, and political movements for fun, for good, and for ill.

On this site you will find definitions, opinion, research, links, essays, book reviews, information regarding intervention and help with recovery from abusive relationship and cultic activity.

quote from an essay:

"In a sense, cults create a transcendent experience that “stops time” for the follower who feels the aura of a final answer to life’s questions. Thereby, “the original exploratory impulse” that got them there freezes. All that remains is to deflect criticism and doubt and to stay in orbit around the perceived savior or guru."

The more constricted the orbit, the more potential for harm due to the absolute devotion invested in a controversial person, idea or object.

New on youtube: see Joe Szimhart interview with ex-member right after a successful 1990 intervention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJkCp6Iv92Y&context=C2b6f4ADOEgsToPDskJ17b7GTmI9-Mv2caj_e2pY

also at Services

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Recovery from Addictions Model Applied to Cult Intervention by Joseph Szimhart

in ICSA Today

www.icsahome.org

also:

go to ESSAY in menu above for:

"Of Urinals and Dark Forces: An essay about harmful cult influence on an artist" by Joseph Szimhart appears in Cultic Studies Review: The Last Draw: Cults and Creativity (Vol.9, No.1) 2010 www.culticstudiesreview.org

Career update:

As of 2011 Joseph Szimhart was accepted as a studio artist at Goggleworks in Reading PA.

Joe Szimhart, October 2011 (photo by Lani Szimhart)

Art work

http://www.goggleworks.org/For-About-Artists/Goggleworks-Artists/