Cults, education and training

Report about the conference

Cults, education and training

organized by the

Gesellschaft gegen Sekten- und Kultgefahren (GSK)

and by the

European Federation of Centers for Research and Information about Sectarianism

( FECRIS )

on 21 Mai 2005 in the Palais Niederösterreich, Herrengasse 13, 1010 Wien

Purpose of the conference

Influence on education and training grants influence on the future. Therefore the cults attempt to act in this area: on one hand they establish internal education systems for their own children and adolescents, which – often after own admission – should prepare them exclusively for the life inside the cult, on the other hand they offer training to enterprises where their ideology is hidden and thus should be spread. As a counter action, after having studied the interest, knowledge and experience of young people in this field, concepts to strengthen the power to resistance against manipulation are presented and the impact on interprises is investigated.

Acknowledgements

Our first acknowledgement has to be given to the French government under Prime Minister Raffarin who by subsidies enabled us to organize this conference at all. Further, we will thank the speakers who were ready to pass us their newest results of research without expecting to be paid for that. Thanks should also be given to the interpreter team under the command of Mrs. Ursula Riezinger who dared to translate those difficult matters into four languages, and the organizers of the Palais Niederoesterreich who flexibly responded to our requirements. Finally we thank the 80 participants at the conference, more than half of them coming from abroad and thus contributing to a successful encounter of 19 nations.

FECRIS has obtained the agreement of the various speakers before diffusing the texts of their intervention. The lectures are included in this work in their original language or have been translated.

Friedrich Griess, President of FECRIS

1 March, 2006

FECRIS

Headquarter : 26 A, rue Espérandieu, F 13001 Marseille, France

Présidence : Doppelngasse 117, A 3412 Kierling, Austria

E-mail: presidence@griess.st1.at

Association loi 1901

Compte Crédit du Nord 2210143. 290 002 50 Bd de Longchamp 13001 Marseille

Conferences:

• Brigitte Rollett, phd, professor em. of development psychology at the University of Vienna, president of the FECRIS-member association “Gesellschaft gegen Sekten- und Kultgefahren”, and Martin Felinger , mpsych, manager of this association::

  “Danger of Sects and Cults for Children and Youngsters”. (PDF 1,7 MB)

• Elena Merzlyakova, psychologist and researcher at the Pedagogical Academy of the Ukraine at Kiew:

  “Making a Case for the Prevention of Cult Influence in the National Education System”

• Josep M. Jansà, md, medical researcher and coordinator at the FECRIS member association “Atención e Investigación de Socioadicciones” (AIS, Attention and Research on Social Addictions) at Barcelona, Spain:

  “School program for adolescents to prevent cult manipulation; psychosocial determinants” (PDF 0,9 MB)

• Stephen A. Kent, phd, professor of sociology at the University of Alberta at Edmonton, Canada:

  “Education and re-education in ideologial organizations”.

• Thomas Lardeur, historian, journalist and author, France :

  “Education and training [in enterprises]”.

Participants at the conference