Research indicates that although a large majority of cult members eventually leave their groups, many, perhaps most, experience high levels of psychological distress after leaving and frequently seek mental health counseling.
A factor analytic study of former cult members' experiences has led to the development of a "Group Psychological Abuse Scale," which in turn has found four factors which characterize cultic environments of all types compliance, expolitation, mind control, and anxious dependency which determine whether and to what extent an individual may be harmed by the experience.
Theories of Involvement
Why people join cults, why they leave, why they often experience distress upon leaving, how they can be helped are questions that have not been extensively researched, although three general models of cult conversion and departure can be identified, with the answers to these questions varying among the models.
First is the psychodynamic model, which presumes that cultic groups fulfill unconscious needs of its members. Second is the deliberative model (popular among theologians and sociologists), which presumes that people join and leave cultic groups because of their cognitive evaluations, however faulty, of the group. Third is the thought reform model, which presumes that cultic environments lure and hold on to members through high levels of psychological manipulation. An integrative model proposes that the degree of deliberation in a group involvement is a function of the psychological neediness of the individual and manipulativeness of the environment. When neediness and manipulativeness are low, deliberation will be highest. Those harmed by a cultic involvement are most likely to come from highly manipulative groups. About one-third appear to have had psychological disorders before joining the cult, but most appear to have been relatively normal psychologically.
"Cult-sensitive assessment"
Treatment of former cult members should include a cult-sensitive assessment. The clinician should appreciate the degree to which negative emotional reactions can be a function psychological trauma experienced in the cult, and should not rush to a psychodynamic interpretation that focuses on preexisting disorders. However, even though the cult environment is potent, the psychological, family, and social/vocational history of the individual should be investigated thoroughly. It is also important to assess the psycho-educational needs of patients, that is, the degree to which they understand cultic manipulations, as well as academic and vocational skills (cultic isolation can put many ex-members years behind their peers in educational and vocational development.)
Elements of treatment
Treatment should also include the following:(1) education about psychological manipulation and an application of this knowledge to the patient's cult experience; (2) active management of day-to-day crises, which are especially common in recently exited person; (3) a reconnecting to the pre-cult past; (4) support in the resolution of grief and guilt related to lost time, lost friendships, and lost innocence; (5) education and mobilization of the patient's social support network; and (6) ultimately, a cognitive integration of the positive and negative aspects of the cult experience into the patient's emerging post-cult identity. Pharmocotherapy can often help former cultists, especially those experiencing severe depression, but psychiatrists should be more cautious in making the decision to prescribe and more vigilant in follow-up when a cult involvement is evident. Former cult members' symptoms are often much more a function of psychological trauma than of long-standing psychopathology.
Family members
Family members who consult mental health professionals because of a loved one's cult involvement should not be dismissed as overprotective, enmeshed, or otherwise dysfunctional. Most family members seeking help are relatively normal, although many experience considerable anxiety and anguish in response to the cult involvement. Family members typically need information about cults, communication skills training, add assistance in dividing a strategy to help their loved one make an informed reevaluation of the cult involvement. Such persons should be referred to cult experts.
To make matters more difficult for the ashram administration, Bhati and an ayurvedic physician, Dr Govind Sharma, formerly employed at the ashram, charged that some of the boys were also subjected to sexual abuse by the teachers. They produced a boy by the name of Bhagat Singh, a former ashram inmate, who now works at an electrician's shop in Dadri, to give testimony in this regard. The boy, who hails from Nayagaon. near Secunderabad tehsil, while recounting his stay at the Veda Vigyan Vidya Peeth, confirms that the reports of sexual abuse are indeed true. Homosexuality, in any case, is a common boarding school phenomenon. But he denies that the children were ever subjected to research of any kind. In his version of events, a boy by the name of Kush Kumar Chaubey had died after falling ill. There is some confusion over whether his name was Kush or Lav, as there were two brothers at the ashram by these two names, of whom one had died. He also says that living conditions in the ashram were poor.
Ashram officials in turn dismiss the reports as a fabrication of "anti-social" elements and union members with "vested interests". In their account of things, the ashram was closed simply because that particular academic session had ended and not in order to hush up a scandal.
"There are 1500 boys here right now. And 2500 are coming from Orissa on January 7," says Mahapatra, repudiating the report that as many as 10,000 boys have been recruited to date, of which 8000 have fled. He also denied that the teachers had been forced to recruit a fixed quota of students each as these reports alleged, adding that this was entirely voluntary and not compulsive. He himself takes care of the recruitment to a large extent. "I'm directly involved. I travelled about 6000 km in the last one or two months in Orissa and about 2000 boys are ready to come now." The villages are notified about the programme and the boys join voluntarily on the promise of free education, food and lodging, which is more than they can hope to get at home.
And the boys are indeed there, in large numbers, contradicting the reports of mass evacuation. To be allowed entry in to the ashram is a privilege. Photographing the interior more so, as this is never permitted. The four gates are guarded. The ashram administrators are keen to counter these reports. It is probably the excessive security and secrecy that has conjured up images of a concentration camp inside for the outsider.
The truth seems very different. The boys, clad in simple but clean clothes, are immersed in their evening prayers or sandhya, as it is called. Once this is over, they move in file, chanting Sanskrit hymns, to the prayer hall for meditation. Their age, on an average, is reported to be between 10 and 16 years. Three of the four boys interviewed are old students, Gitaram Satpaty, 16, from Orissa, has been there for six years, Chandrakant Chaubey, 16, from MP, for five years and Kartik Chandrapaty, also from Orissa, for four years. Arun Karnvedi, 12, from UP, has spent a year at the vidya peeth. They will claim that life in the ashram is fairly blissful, with ample and good food. It is certainly preferable to confronting an uncertain future at home, even though they have to follow a somewhat rigorous daily routine.
They wake op at 5 am. and after their morning ablutions and prayers, meditate for a while. Breakfast. is followed by classes. Between 11.30 and noon, they do sandhya and then break for lunch. Classes are resumed, from 1 to 4 pm. followed by an hour of games. Till dinner time, they resume sandhya and meditation. After dinner, there is a reading from the Puranas and by 9.30 pm, they retire for the night. Says Mahapatra, who is directly in charge of the boys. "We want them to be pandits and not trade unionists or politicians."
Queried about the reports of the deaths, one of the students, Kartik Chandrapaty, admits that a boy had died after falling ill. He had been sent to Delhi for treatment, but that could not save him. Again, there is some confusion over whether his name was Lav or Kush.
Mahapatra points out that more deaths occur in a hospital every day. He finds the allegations of homosexuality equally preposterous and motivated. "We want the boys to grow up in a satvic (holy) atmosphere," he says. According to him, Rs 3 lakhs [$26,000 US] is spent every month on the boys' upkeep, and as a doctor he ensures that they get a nutritious, balanced diet. The boys, on the completion of the full 12-year course, will become qualified pandits who can choose either to remain at the ashram or leave.
If the boys are indeed as comfortably placed as they appear to be and spontaneous in their testimony, to whom would he attribute the reports in circulation? "Vested interests" and "trade unionism", says Mahapatra. Brahmachari Nandkishore is of the oinion that some multinational pharmaceutical firms that fear the potential popularity of ayurveda, have been circulating these reports of deaths under research, in order to discredit the traditional system of medicine.
Such speculation aside, the fact remains that the Maharishi's activities in India have increasingly become suspect. It is the element of subterfuge in the functioning of his world government that has made him an easy target for his detractors. With his vast undisclosed assets and growing area of influence, he is bound to come under surveillance. Whether he will manage to surmount his difficulties and stay on as the self-proclaimed messiah of `world peace and the age of enlightenment', now in its fourteenth year, is debatable.
But the yogi is a survivor.