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APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control

Cults and large group awareness trainings have generated considerable controversy because of their widespread use of deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control.

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In 1990 District Court Judge Lowell Jensen excluded Singer's testimony in United States v. Fishman, because the Court remained unconvinced that the medical community widely accepted the application of coercive persuasion theory to religious cults and because the Court did not accept the theory of coercive persuasion in the context of cults.

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In 1991, in the Patrick Ryan v. Maharishi Yogi case filed in the US District Court in Washington, DC, Judge Oliver Gasch refused to allow Singer to testify, based on the premises that Singer and Ofshe's theory did not enjoy substantial scientific approval and was therefore not admissible as the basis of expert opinion.

see also