Most of us have at least a basic understanding of religion and may call ourselves Christians, perhaps even attending Church. Many will regard the values taught by Christian Churches as being of benefit to all, especially the youth in our community. What happens though when a religion goes wrong and becomes a destructive cult? How much damage can it do to believers? How are the lives of innocent people wrecked? Why do people become entrapped by cults in the first place? What nightmarish things sometimes go on behind the closed doors of a religious cult? Would you even recognize a cult if you found one? All these vitally important questions are answered in From Fear to Freedom and many typical characteristics of destructive religious cults are explained in clear yet simple detail. If you are trying to put your life back together after getting out of a cult, then this self-help book for religious cult survivors can help - how? Because it's written by a cult survivor who spent 31 years in Herbert Armstrong's powerful, destructive and so called Christian cult, The Worldwide Church of God. This easy to read title will also help if you are assisting a friend or family member to put a wrecked life back together after they have left a cult. It points the way forward for cult survivors and leaves the reader with a strong belief in hope, recovery and above all, freedom.

A major, perhaps the major, focus of early research on New Religious Movements (NRMs) was on the people who joined. Most of the field's pioneer researchers were sociologists. However, the profile of NRM members had changed substantially by the twenty-first century - changes largely missed because the great majority of current NRM specialists are not quantitatively oriented. Sects & Stats aims to overturn the conventional wisdom by drawing on current quantitative data from two sources: questionnaire research on select NRMs and relevant national census data collected by Anglophone countries. Sects & Stats also makes a strong argument for the use of longitudinal methods in studying alternative religions. Additionally, through case studies drawn from the author's own research projects over the years, readers will be brought into a conversation about some of the issues involved in how to conduct such research.

During Thanksgiving vacation of her freshman year at Swarthmore College (1977), Elizabeth, at her mother's insistence, attended a "stress-reduction" session with a biofeedback technician on staff at a Manhattan psychologist's office. During that first visit, this man filled her ears with prophetic visions of a glorious future--the inheritance of those fortunate few who might choose to accompany him. His confidence and charisma entranced her, and she soon recruited two of her college roommates. When the psychologist fired his assistant two years later, Elizabeth and her mother followed. Over the next decade, this man, a malevolent genius and master of manipulating metaphysical concepts to benefit a self-serving agenda, organized a small, dedicated band of followers. "The Group" evolved into an incestuous family--a cult. Their brainwashed minds became fused with a distinctive, New Age doctrine. A coterie of spiritual "Navy Seals," they scrambled in terror, training to survive the inevitable cataclysm--one man's divine vision of Armageddon. Subsequent to a momentous event in August 1994, with the guru as high priest, "The Black Dog Religion" was born. Elizabeth sank into a pit of despair, darker than she ever could have imagined was possible. From the adolescent gullibility which seduced her astray, to the enlightenment which led her to freedom, you will travel an incredible journey. For anyone who has ever been trapped by a person who would not let them go, within this book lies a message of hope.