Here's a little different subtext in the Y2K story--cult dropouts.
03:46 AM ET 12/28/99
Cult Center Braces Itself for Y2K
Cult Center Braces Itself for Y2K
By LIZ SIDOTI=
Associated Press Writer=
ALBANY, Ohio (AP) _ After quietly existing deep in southeast
Ohio's Appalachian foothills for 14 years, a treatment center for
former cult members anticipates that the year 2000 could be a busy
one.
The Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, which bills itself
as the nation's only live onsite counseling center for recovering
cult victims, expects cultists disillusioned by unfulfilled
millennial prophecies to soon dot its client list.
``It could be an interesting year,' said founder Paul Martin, a
psychologist and former cult member. ``There won't be some quantum
shift in the need for our services, but there could be a lot of
failed prophecy after this event.'
And that, he said, ``could lead to cult members questioning
their leaders and possibly leaving.'
Already, the staff _ composed mostly of former cult followers _
has lined up more than 75 clients to treat in 2000, compared with
about 50 seen in 1999, said Liz Shaw, an outreach coordinator.
Many cult leaders have predicted the return of Jesus Christ, the
apocalypse and mass deaths with the turn of the century.
Members of Concerned Christians, a Denver-based group, were
expelled from Athens, Greece, earlier this month and went missing
amid fears the group was planning to mark 2000 with a mass suicide.
The group's leader, Monte Kim Miller, has said he would die in the
streets of Jerusalem this month and be resurrected three days
later.
Relatives of Miller's followers fear that when the apocalypse
doesn't arrive, he will create the scenario for his own martyrdom
and take his flock _ which includes infants, his 10-year-old son
and a 69-year-old woman _ with him.
In October, Israel expelled more than a dozen Americans believed
to be part of doomsday cults. The Americans are suspected of
planning events they maintain would bring about the second coming
of Christ at the Mount of Olives, where Christians believe Jesus
will return.
``I will be dumbfounded if there isn't some sort of millennial
cult-related tragedy,' said Larry Pile, a Wellspring counselor and
cult researcher.
Wellspring counselors recall that the center's admissions went
up slightly after 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult committed
suicide in conjunction with the passing of the Hale-Bopp comet in
1997.
Said to be the worst mass suicide on U.S. soil, the cult members
were found in a Southern California home dressed in black with
``Away Team' patches, Nike tennis shoes, purple shrouds and
plastic bags over their heads. They left behind a video saying they
were shedding their ``earthly containers' to join a spaceship
trailing the comet.
Wellspring is the only counseling facility recommended by the
Christian Research Institute, a cult education group based in
Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., said Sam Wall, a researcher there.
``They're the only organization that has met what we believe to
be the right approaches in therapy,' he said. ``And we'll still
send people there, even if they do have more clients.'
Eric Falstrom said he sought treatment at the center, about 65
miles southeast of Columbus, after spending 1{ years in a nomadic
cult called The Brethren, and 6{ more trying to rebuild his life.
Falstrom stayed at Wellspring in March 1998 for two weeks,
attending the center's private counseling sessions and workshops to
learn why and how he became part of a mind-controlling group.
``That experience enabled me to see through the brothers'
twisted beliefs and understand what happened to me,' said
Falstrom, 29, from his Cincinnati home. ``I felt for the first time
ever that someone really understood what I went through, what I was
going through.'
Before Wellspring, Falstrom was so depressed that he couldn't
leave his home, let alone hold a job or return to college. Now he
is finishing an art degree, has a part-time job and has joined a
traditional church vastly different from The Brethren.
Wellspring claims success with most of its more than 500 former
clients, and says only five have returned to cults.
``You just can't bat a thousand every time,' Martin said.
Nor, he said, can Wellspring affect more than a fraction of the
2{ million Americans he and the Christian Research Institute
estimate are part of cults.
``It's pathetic, so very pathetic,' Martin said. With a tight
budget and a small staff, ``we're a little outgunned and trying to
battle a major societal problem. All we can do is help one person
at a time.'
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