Michael D. Langone, PhD

Welcome

I received my PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979.  In 1980 I began working with International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA - then called the American Family Foundation), which I served as executive director for many years until my retirement in January 2023. Over the years I have counseled or consulted with more than a thousand individuals affected by cultic involvements and/or spiritually abusive relationships.  See Background and Publications for details.

My three intellectual interests converged in my cultic studies work: psychology, religion, and philosophy.

Since my retirement, I have pursued writing projects to give form to religious, philosophical,  psychological, and political  ideas that I had thought about for many years. These projects are featured on this site.

1. A science fiction novel, Called by Name: Birth of a New Christendom.

2. Written in tandem with the novel is a collection of  philosophical essays, purportedly written by one of the characters in the novel: Death, Consciousness, God, Time, Afterlife, and This Life: The 2073 Essays of Maria Lisowski.

3. Columns - short essays that I will post from time to time

   • Where has all my Learning Gone?

4. Other essays

   • New Christendom and the Concept of Hell

   • "He is Risen!": A Cultic Sales Pitch?

   • Truth, Religion, and Faith

   • The Varieties of Religious Experience

I am working on other projects, which, when completed, I will post on this site.

The following articles from my cultic studies research put forth some of the ideas that I have been exploring in more depth since my retirement:

• Cultism and American Culture

• Cults, Conversion, Science, and Harm

• Cults, Evangelicals, and the Ethics of Social Influence

• Inner Experience and Conversion

• Responding to Jihadism: A Cultic Studies Perspective

• Zealotry and the American Identity

If you wish to ask questions about or comment on any of my writings or my cult work, please contact me.  And please consider joining my mailing list. Or sign up to receive my free Substack emails: https://substack.com/@sciencenirvanachrist?utm_source=global-search 

Thank you.