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Resources · Recommended reading
THE CULT VAULT
READING LIST
The books Kacey Baker, MSc, recommends most on cults, coercion, and recovery, alongside the survivor memoirs and expert work featured on The Cult Vault.
Books marked this way have an interview with the author on The Cult Vault
01 START HERE: CULT EDUCATION MUST-READS
The foundational texts on how high-control groups recruit, control and keep their members
THOUGHT REFORM AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALISM
Robert Jay Lifton 1961
The origin of the eight criteria for thought reform, still the benchmark for identifying coercive environments.
CULTS IN OUR MIDST
Margaret Thaler Singer 1995
A clinical psychologist's classic account of how cults recruit and influence.
TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE
Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias 1994, 2006, 2023
A clinical psychologist's classic account of how cults recruit and influence.
OPENING OUR MINDS
Jon Atack 2016
An accessible guide to the techniques of influence and manipulation.
COERCIVE PERSUASION
Edgar H. Schein 1961
Research on prisoner indoctrination that shaped later understand of thought reform.
CULTISH: THE LANGUAGE OF FANATICISM
Amanda Montell 2021
How language creates belonging, loyalty, and control.
COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL
Steven Hassan 1988, rev. 2015
Introduces the BITE model of Behaviour, Information, Thought, and Emotional Control.
BOUNDED CHOICE
Janja Lalich 2004
A sociological framework for why intelligent people stay committed to harmful groups.
TERROR, LOVE AND BRAINWASHING
Alexandra Stein 2017
Applies attachment theory to explain how totalist groups bind members.
LOSING REALITY
Robert Jay Lifton 2019
Lifton revisits cultism and extends it to political and apocalyptic movements.
INFLUENCE: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PERSUASION
Robert Cialdini 1984
The everyday principles of persuasion that high-control groups exploit.
TRAUMATIC NARCISSISM
Daniel Shaw 2014
A psychoanalytic look at the leaders who subjugate others.
02 COERCIVE CONTROL
COERCIVE CONTROL: HOW MEN ENTRAP WOMEN IN PERSONAL LIFE
Evan Stark 2007
The book that define coercive control and shaped UK legislation.
SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO
Jess Hill 2019
Award-winning investigation into domestic abuse and coercive control
IN CONTROL: DANGEROUS RELATIONSHIPS AND HOW THEY END IN MURDER
Jane Monckton Smith 2021
A UK criminologist's eight-stage homicide timeline
INVISIBLE CHAINS
Lisa Aronson Fontes 2015
A clear guide to recognising and overcoming coercive control.
COERCIVE CONTROL AND THE CRIMINAL LAW
Cassandra Wiener 2022
A legal analysis of how the offence works in England and Wales
WHY DOES HE DO THAT?
Lundy Bancroft 2002
Inside the mindset of controlling and abusive partners
TRAUMA AND RECOVERY
Judith Herman
The foundational text on complex trauma and captivity.
The core reading on coercive control in relationships, families and the law, including the UK perspective.
03 SURVIVOR MEMOIRS FROM THE PODCAST
First-hand accounts from survivors who have shared their stories on The Cult Vault. Every author here has been interviewed on the show.
Title | Author | Group or subject |
|---|---|---|
From Shit to Sunshine | Raylynn Van Oort | Charismatic preacher |
Chasing Nirvana | Priya Hutner | Kashi ashram |
Deliver Us From Mother | Stella McCormick | Single-family cult |
In the Shadow of Enlightenment | Sarito Carroll | Osho / Rajneesh |
My Name Was Mushroom | Wendy | The Source Family |
Born and Razed | Beth Granger | Born into a cult |
The Reluctant Apostate | Lloyd Evans | Jehovah's Witnesses |
Duck Duck Groom | Anna Sonoda | Grooming |
Rift | Cait West | Christian patriarchy |
A Well-Trained Wife | Tia Levings | Christian patriarchy |
We Were Smiths | Lyn Smith-Gregory | Mormonism |
Gaytheist | Lonnie | Orthodox Judaism |
A Fire Is Coming | Emma Stevens | Abusive therapy |
The Bad Cadet | Katherine Spallino | Scientology |
When the World Didn't End | Guinevere Turner | The Lyman Family |
Cult Following | Bexy Cameron | Children of God |
Sex Cult Nun | Faith Jones | Children of God |
Cult Trip | Anke Richter | Cults and communes |
Stop the Tall Man, Save the Tiger | Peter Young | Family cult |
The Serpent Rising | Mary Garden | Ashrams, India |
Mentally Diseased | Micah Losh | Jehovah's Witnesses |
Cult Girls | Natalie Grand | Jehovah's Witnesses |
Slonim Woods 9 | Daniel Barban Levin | Larry Ray |
Leaving Christian Science | Lauren Hunter | Christian Science |
The Community | N. Jamiyla Chisholm | Nuwaubian Nation |
Fifty Years in Polygamy | Kristyn Decker | Apostolic United Brethren |
Stolen | Elizabeth Gilpin | Troubled teen industry |
An Everyday Cult | Gerette Buglion | High-demand group |
Uncultured | Daniella Mestyanek Young | Children of God |
Mission of Malice | Erika Bornman | KwaSizabantu |
Lovingly Abused | Heather Grace Heath | IBLP / ATI |
The Gentle Souls Revolution | Esther Friedman | Odyssey Study Group |
Abnormal Normal | Mary Mahoney | Children of God |
Dead, Insane or in Jail | Zack Bonnie | Troubled teen industry |
Manhattan Cult Story | Spencer Schneider | Odyssey Study Group |
A Slice of Orange | Nicola Ranson | Rajneesh |
When She Comes Back | Ronit Plank | Rajneesh |
A Voice From Inside | Geoffrey Wallis | Jehovah's Witnesses |
Tabernacle of Hate | Kerry Noble | CSA |
To the Moon and Back | Lisa Kohn | Unification Church |
Cult Child | Vennie Kocsis | The Move |
Mating in Captivity | Helen Zuman | Zendik Farm |
A Walk Through the Wilderness | Dan Conger | Memoir |
A Break in the Fog | Molly Salans | Memoir |
04 RECOVERY & SPIRITUAL ABUSE
GASLIGHTING FOR GOD
Becky Garrison
WHEN FAMILY HURTS
Rebekah Drumsta
IN THE HOUSE OF FRIENDS
Kenneth J. Garrett
DIVORCING RELIGION
Janice Selbie
05 INVESTIGATIONS & JOURNALISM
EMPIRE OF ORGASM
Ellen Huet
THE STORM IS UPON US
Mike Rothschild
THE ORACLE'S DAUGHTER
Harrison Hill
ON THE WRONG SIDE
Dr Nicole Bedera
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