World-renowned expert in cultic studies Dr Janja Lalich has written several books on the topic, but her deepest understanding of cults no doubt stems from her own disturbing experience after she joined the so-called Democratic Workers Party in the 1970s. Ahead of her appearance at the Decult Conference in Christchurch next month, Lalich tells Ryan Boswell how, brainwashed by the group’s doctrine, she rose through the ranks and “did horrible things as a leader”.
San Francisco in the 1970s was exploding with liberation. From black rights to the first feminist advocacy group for sex workers, the Californian city was charged with an atmosphere of political change.
So when the Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, some left-leaning activists were pondering what cause to tackle next.
A Fulbright scholar, Janja Lalich had just returned from four years in Spain. She had come out as a lesbian and her friend asked her to attend a “study group” to read “radical literature” and tackle social justice.
“Other people I knew at the time were also joining,” the now 79-year-old recalls, speaking on a Zoom call from Walnut Creek, California. “So I thought, well if she’s joining, I’ll join.”
The social justice angle appealed to Lalich, who’d grown up in an immigrant family that faced discrimination, especially because “my mother was divorced and poor”. And it also just seemed like a social opportunity. “I thought, well, that would be cool because I’ll meet other people… I didn’t know that the study group was the front for an organisation.
“I had these affinities for the working class and… we were going to make a revolution and we were going to bring social justice and get rid of sexism and racism and all that. It all sounded wonderful.”
The Democratic Workers Party was led by former professor Marlene Dixon, who was promoting a communist ideology and attracting large numbers to join. Her hero was Mao Tse-tung, and the University of Chicago refused to rehire her, describing her teaching as “dangerously persuasive”.
Initially wooed by Dixon, Lalich said she quickly rose through the ranks and into Dixon’s inner circle where she would work 20 hour days, seven days a week.
There were different membership levels, and those in the “outer rings” had no clue what went on at the top level.
“I really thought what we were doing was the right thing, but as I was more exposed, especially to her and her arbitrary decisions and her drunkenness and waving guns around, I thought, this isn’t good, but I couldn’t figure out how to leave. By then I had lost everybody on the outside. I had no friends, I had no money, I had nowhere to go, and I was brainwashed.”
‘You were supposed to get rid of your bourgeois background’
The group did political work, ran street meetings, and put candidates up to run in elections.
But with limited food, the membership was exhausted and “terrified” as they spent most of their time sitting in circles, “criticising each other ’cause you were supposed to get rid of your bourgeois background.'”
Those who didn’t conform were swiftly rejected. “There were always like trumped up charges … people were put on trial like the fake Russia trials and expelled and, you know, I mean, it was very, very harsh.
“People were just beaten down.”
‘I did horrible things’
Reflecting on her time inside, Janja said she felt horrible for buying into the narrative, and bullying people.
“I expelled people, I told women to get abortions, I broke up families. I did horrible things as a leader.”
When Janja’s mother was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, she asked for three months leave to be with her in Milwaukee. The leadership said no, and said her mother could stay with her.
“So this poor Serbian woman, I bring her back to San Francisco and she lives in my house with other members, and I never saw her ’cause I was working all the time.
“I came home one night and she was lying dead on the floor. It just broke me. I’m sorry, I can’t tell this story without crying.”
Lalich broke the news to the leadership and told them that she would fly her mother’s body home to Milwaukee.
“And she said to me, well, you’re not going to the funeral, are you? And I looked at the phone and I thought, wait a minute, I’m killing myself to build a better world, and if this is the better world I’m building where I’m being told I can’t go to my mother’s funeral who just died in my house, this is f***ed.”
‘I could not walk out the door’
Lalich was broke, so borrowed money and left to plan her mother’s funeral, which she has “no memory of whatsoever”.
After she returned to the Democratic Workers Party, where she was put on trial for “putting my mother ahead of the revolution”.
Miserable, Lalich did not know how to leave and would often wish she’d be killed in a car accident just to get out. “I lived like that for like four years, just like a dead person. If anything it shows the power of brainwashing. I’m a perfect example of that ’cause I could not walk out the door.”
Members were told that if they left, they would die in the street as a dirty communist – “America hates communists, and so you have this fear”.
“Ultimately, what happened is that those of us who joined early and had been in it the whole time, everybody was just getting incredibly burned out. And then, finally, the whole thing blew up.”
How did I become that person?
Leader Marlene Dixon went to Bulgaria, and members started talking to each other about the nightmare they were in. A vote was held to expel Dixon and to dissolve the group.
Lalich then moved to New York, and found a “fabulous therapist” who she credits with saving her life. “I mean, I was deeply suicidal. Once I got out I was like, ‘How did I become that person?”
Now focusing on research and writing, it took her about five years until she fully rediscovered herself.
Lalich became a professor emerita of sociology at California State University, Chico, where in 2007 she was awarded the Professional Achievement Honor.
Now the founder and director of the nonprofit Lalich Center on Cults and Coercion, she received a B.A. with Honors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has a Master’s in Human Development and a Ph.D. in Human and Organisational Systems from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California.
She’s written several books about the cult experience, explaining how people get indoctrinated through the various controls and influences put in place by different groups.
“This doesn’t happen to everyone, but anyone who becomes a true believer is where indoctrination really takes hold. You internalise everything about the cult, and you become in a sense a little like a microcosm of the cult. So you might have little bitty choices that don’t matter, but any major choice like should I leave or should I criticise the leader – you can’t do that because you will lose everything. You’ll lose your whatever the promise of salvation was, you’ll lose your family, you’ll lose all your friends.
“You don’t know what’s out there in the world because in most cases they filled you with fear of the outside world.”
Dr Janja Lalich is the keynote speaker for the Decult Conference, October 19-20, Tūranga Central Library, Christchurch.
Originally posted on 1News- Read the full article here.
