If I Could Turn Back Time

If I Could Turn Back Time is a compilation of courageous reflections from former cult members. It should be both celebrated and distributed widely: to schools, churches, temples, community centers—wherever well-meaning people who want to protect others and care about community gather. Our world desperately needs the wisdom gleaned from those who have lived through the bizarre experience of cultic recruitment, indoctrination, deployment, and the exit. We need former cult members to warn and educate us.

If I Could Turn Back Time has been in the making for a few years, waiting to be presented to a diverse audience who would benefit from hearing heartfelt reflections from individuals who look back on their lives as cult members. What we know from research is that there is no "typical" person who is susceptible to being drawn into a cult. While there may be factors that attract individuals to certain belief systems and social networks, the truth of the matter is that cult leaders and cult recruitment efforts are saturated with targeted manipulation, exploitation, and tactics to entice people to get involved. These psychological tactics are so strong that individuals find themselves conditioned and indoctrinated without knowing it. The stakes are high, generally leading to isolation from long-loved friends and family and abandonment of self. The reality is, however, that people can exit cults and rebuild their lives. The process takes time, including learning about coercive control, processing traumatic experiences, and building self-identity. We at the International Cultic Studies Association are proud to have a mission that focuses on providing preventive education to the public and resources to former cult members and their families. We certainly hope that this book—one of our most powerful works of preventive education—will help you pause and reflect on the seriousness of maintaining a life free of coercive control. We urge you to learn all you can.

If I Could Turn Back Time, Reflections of Former Cult Members is a production of the International Cultic Studies Association. The book was edited by Jacqueline Johnson, DSW, MS, LCSW. The International Cultic Studies Association is an international leader in the field of coercive studies and cult recovery.