Cults Reported 'Growing by the Day'
ROBERT WELKOS
Los Angeles Times (1886-Current File); Dec 30, 1978; ProQuest Historical Newspapers Los Angeles Times (1881 - 1986)  pg. OC_A5

tedpatrick (19K) Cults Reported 'Growing by the Day'
Peoples Temple just One Of Many, Deprogrammer Says

"I don't care if a man goes out and worships a cabbage head as long as he does it of his own. free will."

- Ted Patrick

Barbara Fabe Joining the battle BY ROBERT WELKOS
Times Staff Writer

The murders and mass suicide at the Peoples Temple compound in the steamy Guyanese jungle alarmed Americans but San Diego religious "deprogrammer" Ted Patrick be- lieves the rush of converts to off-beat cults will continue.

"They are growing by the day," said Patrick. 48, who has served nine months in California and Colorado jails for trying W "rescue" young people from cults.

"When I started (deprogramming) eight years ago I knew of only a few cults. Now there are over 5,000 cults in the United States."

Patrick said he had been asked to go to Guyana and deprogram one of his cousin's in-laws, but the cousin did not have the money to pay for the trip and the Peoples Temple member was among more than 900 persons who died there.

"Jim Jones is no more dangerous than the Church of Scientology, Hare Krishna or any other cult in the nation." Patrick said.

"In fact, he wasn't dangerous as they are. He only had about 2,000 people. These other cults have hundreds of thousands. They are well organized and are very well financed. Millions and billions of dollars are tied up in these cults." Patrick, who charges up to $6,000 to deprogram a cult member, claims to have weaned 1,600 persons away from various cults since he launched his unusual crusade. He added that only 30 of those he has deprogrammed have returned to the cults.

A Methodist and father of six, Patrick began his war on cults after his then 14-year-old son, Michael, briefly embraced the Children of God sect. "For two weeks he was just a mindless robot," Patrick recalled. "His eyes were dilated. He kept his head in the Bible. He wouldn't leave his room," Today, Patrick conduces deprogramming sessions nationwide, with the help of 15 to 30 trained assistants. Usually, the sessions are paid for by distraught parents who have seen their children "drop out" and reemerge in a cult.

"You can accept death … and you can kind of go along with a kid who is on drugs, but when this happens to them, where they turn into mindless robots, or when they hate their parents, hate churches, hate education, hate everything and everybody but their leader … you can't accept this."

Patrick said parents who seek him out often have no other choice. "When a person comes to me, I'm the bottom of the barrel. They've been to their legal adviser, spiritual leader, their congressman or senator, the FBI, the police. They've been everywhere. They've tried everything."

Abduction is often the only means of getting a cult member to undergo deprogramming, Patrick sated.

"We call it rescuing. There's no other way. If you can't get them to come home or go out for dinner, there is no other way other than to snatch them off the street or snatch them wherever you can find them."

Patrick said the persons he has deprogrammed have been members of Krishna Consciousness, Divine Light Mission, the Children of God, Church of Scientology and ether groups. He said his goal is to raise $200,000 which he will use to film 10 documentaries on U.S. cults.

"We've got to educate people about these cults," Patrick said. "We've got to prevent this from happening to people."

Patrick said he also plans to train 100 deprogrammers in the near future.

Barbara Fabe, a 24-year-old Cincinnati secretary, underwent deprograming last month and now works for Patrick deprogramming other cult members.

For two years, Miss Fabe was a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji, the young leader of the Divine Light Mission.

"They got me to believe that Guru Maharaj Ji was the lord. I would have killed for him," she said.

The young woman said she gave the sect her $2,000 savings and a portion of each paycheck.

On Nov. 16, Miss Fabe and her younger sister, who also was a cult member, went to their parents' house and six young people entered the room. They were Patrick's deprogrammers.

"The kids started talking to me at 7 o'clock on a Thursday night and by the next night I knew I wasn't going back. They showed me that any rational thinking human being would not completely serve another human being.

"I don't even know Guru Maharaj Ji. The closest I ever got to him was kissing his feet. And that's the highest thing in the cult."

Miss Fabe said that twice daily she would drink "holy water" in which the guru had washed his feet

"I was told it would purify me."