Rick Ross is the founder and Executive Director of The Cult Education Institute. He is an internationally known expert on destructive cults, controversial groups and movements. Rick helps us understand if there is a particular profile of people that are more susceptible to cults. How does a cult leader disable our ability to think independently and rationally? What are the exit costs of leaving a cult group? How is Catholicism or Mormonism different from Scientology? And what about ISIS and Al Qaeda?

Resources -

• Cult Education Institute
• Boiling Frog Analogy
• Cults Inside and Out by Rick Ross
• Thought Reform & The Psychology of Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton
• The 6 Principles of Influence by Robert Cialdini – YouTube Video
• Influence at Work - Robert Cialdini
• Coercive Persuasion - Edgar Schein
• Cults in our midst by Margaret Singer
• The Wave – movie based on real life experience of a high school in CA. History teacher, Ron Jones, creates a group called “The Third Wave.” It was an experimental recreation of Nazi Germany which he conducted with unsuspecting high school students. It’s the best illustration to understand how one can become involved with a cult