What Makes Us Vulnerable to Mind Control?

“The work that I do helping people exit these groups, it isn’t about persuading them to leave,” says mental health counselor Steven Hassan. “It’s teaching them how the mind works, teaching them about social psychology and hypnosis, which helps them see whether or not they have been co-opted.” Hassan is a leading expert on mind control and hypnosis and the author of The Cult of Trump. For the past forty years, he’s drawn on his own experience as a former Moonie to help people step out of controlling groups, relationships, and cults. Today, he explains how well-adjusted people get wrapped up in authoritarian cults, why we’re all subject to mind control every day, and how mind control has shaped the current state of politics in the US. And he shares his insights on what to do about it. Photo by John A. Sutton.