Cults today are bigger than ever, with broad ramifications for national and international terrorism. In this newly revised edition of her definitive work on cults, Singer reveals what cults really are and how they work, focusing specifically on the coercive persuasion techniques of charismatic leaders seeking money and power. The book contains fascinating updates on Heaven's Gate, Falun Gong, Aum Shinrikyo, Hare Krishna, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and the connection between cults and terrorism in Al Queda and the PLO. "What makes Cults in Our Midst so absorbing is Singer's ability to show the extremely damaging effect of cults as well as the lure that cults may have for the 'average' people in 'normal' life. Cults often emerge cyclically-- but they never disappear. A 'good' time for cults is the end of the millennium, when people become obsessed with apocalyptic notions . . . [but] they never really disappear."
-- San Francisco Chronicle
"The definitive A to Z work on cults. . . . It would have been a tremendous resource and comfort to me and my family through our ordeals."
-- Patricia Ryan, daughter of Congressman Leo Ryan, who was assassinated by members of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple