Interview Episode: LGATs with John Hunter, Ph.D.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

For his 2017 PhD, John Hunter put forward a hypothesis that offers insights into both the “transformational” experiences associated with large group awareness training (LGAT) participation and the common claims of psychological harm and problematic behaviour associated with participation. In 2023, Dr Hunter presented this work at the annual International Cultic Studies Association conference in Louisville, Kentucky, and for this episode he breaks down some of his findings – including where LGATs may or may not intersect with cults and cult-like behaviour.

EPISODE LINKS

• John Hunter PhD website

• Stress-induced hypomania in healthy participants: the allostatic “manic-defence hypothesis” — Dr John Hunter’s 2017 PhD Dissertation

• Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (Dr Albert Ellis)

• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (Dr Aaron T. Beck)

• Robert J. Lifton’s Eight Criteria for Thought Reform

• The Book of est — Kirkus Reviews

• 'We're Gonna Tear You Down and Put You Back Together" — by Mark Brewer, Psychology Today, August 1975

• Mindbreakers — by Roland Howard, The Daily Mail, 23 July 2001

• Cults in Our Midst — by Margaret Singer, 1995

• Psychiatric disturbances associated with Erhard Seminars Training — by L. L. Glass, M. A. Kirsch & F. N. Parris, American Journal of Psychiatry, 1977

• Psychological effects of participation in a large group awareness training — by Fisher, J. D., Silver, R. C., Chinsky, J. M., Goff, B., Klar, Y., & Zagieboylo, C., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1989

• The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion — by Richard E. Petty & John T. Cacioppo, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology Vol 19, 1986

• Thinking, Fast and Slow — by Daniel Kahneman, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011

• The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping — Fishbowl Films, 2024