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Is it possible, then, that the community will be
assaulted by groups, operating beyond the pale of legislative restraint,
and expanding their ranks in an orgy of brainwashing and hypnosis? Not
likely. If, in fact, any of the movements do practise mind control, the
evidence suggests that they are not effective at it. Research in many
centres by investigators in a variety of disciplines has indicated that
membership in a group is usually of brief duration -- usually no more than
a year and frequently much shorter. Although the study's own sampling was
small and not formally constituted for such purposes, the experience of
former group members, who were interviewed, was in line with the research
findings. Of 28 former members interviewed, eight had stayed in their
movements less than six months, 10 for six months to a year, and only four
for more than three years.
Although new legislative remedies may not seem likely in the foreseeable future, perhaps the courts can still be a recourse for those who feel they have suffered a loss of freedom through mind control. As professor Dave Weisstub explains in detail in the paper he prepared for the study, existing common law remedies might be adapted for the purpose. He notes, for example:
At the same time, the current state of knowledge -- and, hence, legislation -- need not be accepted as an unchangeable status quo. It is clear that, in several of the movements, as well as many other areas of society, something is happening. Efforts must be made, with government assistance, by universities, individual scholars and others to demonstrate the legitimacy or emptiness of the brainwashing metaphor and to develop functional definitions of mind-manipulative practices. |
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