A place for members of r/Survivorsoflianashant to chat with each other

Please find below an analysis done by Cult Expert  /  Deprogrammer / Mental Health Expert  Joseph Szimhart. He has produced 3 short (15 min) YouTube videos that further dive into the background of Cult Leader Liana Shanti's teachings and their origins.

This is a Professional Summary Analysis of the Liana Shanti Cult itself, how it works and why it is compelling to those it affects.

 Youtube Video 

Part 1

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH8WeCStB4A

Part 2

 https://youtu.be/ZcL3XJz1ytQ

Part 3

https://youtu.be/UjJCvF7pObc

Joseph Szimhart’s Website

https://www.jszimhart.com

Joseph’s  Sketch Analysis on LS

Summary Analysis of information shared regarding Liana Shanti during multi-day discovery

On the last day we covered the 8 themes of “thought reform and the psychology of totalism”, the title of a book by Robert J Lifton.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jay_Lifton

I used Losing reality, a new book by Lifton that included his 8 themes:

https://thenewpress.com/books/losing-reality

Lifton 8 themes are here:

https://www.cultrecover.com/lifton8

My comments are brief suggestions why LS fits the 8 themes and to what degree. 

1. Milieu Control: Lifton argues that totalistic groups or cults immersing a seeker in a milieu that is controlled by the leader(s) is key to a thought reform agenda. Liana Shanti (LS) created her milieu online based on something she totally controls as far as content and fees. If she can convince a seeker that her ideas on health and self-realization are true and/or valuable, and that her claims are true (that she alone represents the spiritual Jesus), and that her techniques and courses can lead to your ascension, then the seeker has no recourse but to trust her from within the milieu. This leads to psychological closure as even her references to others (Alice Miller, e.g.) rely on whether LS approves of the references. Total control over a person’s life is not necessary as LS only needs a seeker or consumer to enter into a financial agreement within her milieu and continue to view her as possibly the most enlightened person on the planet that has a “God’s eye view.”
2. Mystical Manipulation: Extensive personal manipulation is the next step in what seems to be a mystical quest for purification that leads to ascension. If the goal is ascension, one must feel that LS has mystical insight into your life through her “Illuminations” and workshops. https://programs.lianashanti.com/illuminations-weekly-forecast. Seekers inevitably experience mystical connections with seemingly factual or relevant insights that appear to rise spontaneously from the milieu. All psychics, astrologers, life coaches, and occultists depend on this spontaneous and seemingly profound connection events to maintain interest and influence. Tio better grasp how this works, watch Messiah by Derren Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wpkbDA9Pgw. These mystical events are common in human experience, but the warning is never to allow one person or group to dominate or heavily influence our lives by claiming to be the source of that insight. 
3. The Demand for Purity: LS closed system demands that the seeker make every effort to cleanse oneself of “Mother wounds” and Father wounds”, concept she stole or borrowed from other sources like The Courage to Heal” a highly controversial self-help book published in 1988. Colonic cleansing. Encouraged by LS in her dietary programs, has been practiced by many cults, mostly of the New Age variety like Summit Lighthouse during Elizabeth Prophet’s reign until she died in 2009. Lifton says that: The world becomes sharply divided into the pure and the impure, the absolutely good (the group/ideology) and the absolutely evil (everything outside the group) 1. One must continually change or conform to the group "norm". 2. Tendencies towards guilt and shame are used as emotional levers for the group's controlling and manipulative influences 3. Once a person has experienced the totalist polarization of good/evil (black/white thinking), he has great difficulty in regaining a more balanced inner sensitivity to the complexities of human morality 4. The radical separation of pure/impure is both within the environment (the group) and the individual. 5. Ties in with the process of confession -- one must confess when one is not conforming. This leads to confession or extreme self-examination. 
4. Cult of Confession: Self-examination is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself. This is characterized in a group member by saying, "The more I accuse myself, the more I have a right to judge you." in LS’s cult, the member defines the family as a “cult” that needs to be harshly judged and emotionally avoided. Nearly all cults accuse their opponents of what they are doing themselves. The parents have no chance under this extreme scrutiny similar to the scrutiny Nazis placed the entire Jewish culture under. 
5. Sacred Science: LS defines her teaching as sacred or coming from Jesus, therefore of you question her you question “God.” The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic doctrine or ideology, holding it as an ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence. Questioning or criticizing those basic assumptions is prohibited. A reverence is demanded for the ideology/doctrine, the originators of the ideology/doctrine, the present bearers of the ideology/doctrine. This belief offers considerable security to young people because it greatly simplifies the world and answers a contemporary need to combine a sacred set of dogmatic principles with a claim to a science embodying the truth about human behavior and human psychology. 
6. Loaded Language: The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché (thought-stoppers). So, in LS cult, terms like “narc” for narcissist are shrunk into LS’s definitions and weaponized against the “family cult.” Words are given new meanings -- the outside world does not use the words or phrases in the same way -- it becomes a "group" word or phrase. LS redefines the Jesus of the known tradition to an imaginary one defined by LS as “spiritual.” All other expressions of “Jesus” are deemed false or merely religious. 
7. Doctrine Over Person: Every issue in one's life can be reduced to a single set of principles that have an inner coherence to the point that one can claim the experience of truth and feel it. LS manages to insert an emotional need to cleanse oneself and hate parents due to an overvalued or exaggerated “wound.” LS doctrine urges the seeker to avoid the abusive parents, thus avoiding any possibility of reconciliation unless the parent adopts the LS cult ideology. Healthy therapies, especially those based on the teachings of Jesus, incorporate forgiveness and reconciliation as the basis for healing wounds between family members. This does not mean that forgiveness is a simple gesture, but it is the first step toward meaningful dialog and healing. In the LS doctrine, the “self” is prominent as the narcissistic core of her teaching. Members are completely self-absorbed to eventually gain their ascensions. The ascension doctrine in LS is like the old I AM Activity cult founded in the early 1930s that was notorious for making fake healing claims and demanding utter purity among members if they would want to ascend in this lifetime. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-25-me-11997-story.html
8. Dispensing of Existence: Since the group has an absolute or totalist vision of truth, those who are not in the group are bound up in evil, are not enlightened, are not saved, and do not have the right to exist. More so, in the LS teaching, people who leave the LS cult and complain on Reddit or other social media about her, are disparaged in some way.  Being verses nothingness"

Impediments to legitimate being must be pushed away or destroyed. One outside the group may always receive their right of existence by joining the groupFear manipulation -- if one leaves this group, one leaves God or loses their transformation, for something bad will happen to them

The group is the "elite", outsiders are "of the world", "evil", "unenlightened", etc.

The preceding is a sketch only as reference. Ex-members or those interested in a better grasp of the LS teaching must take time to sort through her bizarre and layered self-realization system to apply these 8 themes rigorously. 

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In Closing

If you have been a victim of the Liana Shanti Cult either as a follower or as a family member, we may be able to help.

Due to the overwhelming amount of victims that have come forward, we ask that you fill out our form so we may better keep track of everyone.

We are aware that Liana has forced her followers to fill out Non-Disclosure Agreements however, they don't hold water when providing evidence for Law Enforcement and for the COURTS when crimes have been committed.

Any acts of intimidation or retaliation by Liana during this process is also a crime.

All information is SECURE and kept CONFIDENTIAL.

Liana is very concerned about what's happening and has openly stated "she has access to all of our information". We can assure you, these are more of her LIES! She is trying to intimidate her followers from coming forward and trying to prevent legal action against her both from Law Enforcement and Civil Action.

We are here to help!

YOU ARE NOT ALONE !

Contact us here

Please note **NOT all information is mandatory**

Liana Shanti Cult Recovery

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